IPRH Newsletter 2007

Fall 2006

Annual Theme 2006-07: Beauty IPRH Annual Conference: March 29-30, 2007

Letter from the Director Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Folk wis-

regarded certain forms of beauty with political and aesthetic

dom or postmodern insight?

suspicion. Feminist and anti-colonial thinkers expanded on

The question of beauty has been with us for a long time. It has been a mainstay of humanistic thought for centuries,

this critique of kitsch, identifying ideologies of beauty as central sites of systemic oppression.

from Plato’s theory of mimesis to Confucius’s teachings on

But while the pursuit of beauty was antithetical to serious

enjoyment in moral and political education. It became sys-

creative work for much of the 20th century, it seems to be

tematized in western thought with the formal development

making something of a comeback in the 21st. In a postmod-

of aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste.

ern world where composers return to tonality and artists re-

To this tradition, we owe an ongoing preoccupation with

discover painting, the distinction between high and popular

judgment and criticism, the sublime and the ugly, imagi-

culture has effectively evaporated. Whether the attendant

nation and pleasure. While thinkers like Kant and Schiller

retreat into aesthetics should be critiqued as a reactionary

emphasized the unencumbered play of the imagination,

move or celebrated as a strategic response to the geopolit-

a contrasting tradition, reaching from Hegel to Bourdieu,

ical transformations of the post-9/11 order is just one of the

stressed historical and cultural specificity.

many questions beauty continues to pose today.

Such tensions between universalism and particularism

During the 2006–07 academic year, the IPRH will shine

complicate any inquiry into the basic epistemological ques-

the spotlight on beauty. In a series of events, including art

tion: how can we know that something is beautiful? With

exhibits, panels, and our annual conference, we will probe

modernism, moreover, the very ideal of beauty came under

the status of aesthetics and the politics of beauty today. The

attack. Much 20th century art, music, and literature actively

art program will include shows by Andy Ducett, Melissa

defied the beautiful. In theoretical terms, this position was

Pokorny, and Brian Ulrich. Up first, however, will be New

codified by Marxist critics like Benjamin and Adorno, who

Catalogue, the collaboration between Luke Batten and Jon-

athan Sadler, whose exhibit, to open on September 14, will

our close working relationships with the Krannert Center

invite us to “Forget What You Thought Was Beautiful.”

for the Performing Arts and the Krannert Art Museum. Our

In addition to our reflections on beauty, this year will be

film series, by now in its seventh successful year, will be another pillar of programming.

marked by two major initiatives.

In September, the IPRH will start the Odyssey Project, a free yearlong college-level course in the humanities open to people below or slightly above the poverty level. The program, pioneered in New York and sponsored locally by the Chancellor’s Office and the Illinois Humanities Council, will bring UIUC faculty directly into the community. We

We are also thrilled to continue our sponsorship of IPRH Reading Groups. As a central site of intellectual engagement on campus, they continue to embody the spirit of humanistic inquiry the IPRH seeks to foster. We are very pleased to see the additional growth in the number of groups to 48.

will introduce the program to the campus at a big event

As always, let me close by reiterating our commitment

on September 13. It will feature Danielle Allen, Dean of

to serve UIUC’s faculty and graduate students. The IPRH

the Humanities at the University of Chicago and a strong

continues to be a site for interchange and discussion. Asso-

champion of the Odyssey Project in Chicago.

ciate Director Christine Catanzarite, Assistant Director John

We are also embarking on a collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago. We are partnering with the Institute for the Humanities, our counterpart at UIC. Together, we are organizing a series of two day-long conferences under the title “The Humanities and the Public University: The View from Illinois.” The events will bring together leading

Marsh, and I are committed to maintaining the program as an open forum. We always welcome ideas and suggestions as we continue to forge a path of engaged humanistic scholarship.

Sincerely,

humanists from both campuses to address such issues as the future of humanistic labor and the status of the humanities in an age of fundamentalism. The first conference will

Matti Bunzl

take place at UIUC on October 20; the second is scheduled for March 9 and will be held on the UIC campus.

Beyond these new initiatives, we are delighted to continue

Annual Theme 2007–08: Rupture The question of rupture is central to any humanistic

organizing inquiry are similarly self-evident. Scholars of

inquiry. Particularly in the wake of the historicist turn, it is

the contemporary world are likewise quick to pronounce

foundational to the very formation of the object of study;

that we live in an age of distinct and unprecedented phe-

to understand any product of the human intellect presup-

nomena—postmodernity, globalization, and empire.

poses fixing it in a temporal order. Periodicity, depending as it does on the concept of rupture, organizes contemporary scholarship in the humanities.

As much as we rely on such categories, they are also intensely problematic. The medieval/modern split reinscribes a Eurocentric vision of the world; American modernism is

But how do we know when one era ends and another

bounded, quite arbitrarily some might argue, by the two

begins? How do certain events and developments come

world wars; and the supposed novelty of contemporary

to mark the boundaries between eras? And what is the

social and political formations remains up for debate.

relationship of these events and developments to the sensibilities that come to characterize these periods? For example, the transition from the medieval to the (early) modern depends on a set of routinized historical markers: the “discovery” of the New World, the invention of printing, the Protestant Reformation. In a field like American literary and cultural history, wars and century markers

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The theme of “Rupture” invites critical reflection on such dynamics—not only the question of periodization across disciplines and eras, but also how we define the eras that bound our own work in the humanities. The IPRH encourages applications from all sectors of the university with an interest in interdisciplinary and humanities-inflected research.

IPRH Faculty Fellows 2006–07 IPRH Faculty Fellows are asked to teach a course—during the fellowship year or the year immediately following—on a subject related to the fellowship project. Through these courses, the Fellows illustrate the connection between exceptional research and exceptional teaching, and continue the dialogue on the fellowship topic long after the year has ended. Descriptions of the courses proposed by the following IPRH Faculty Fellows can be found on the IPRH website.

BRETT KAPLAN Comparative and World Literature Landscape and Holocaust Postmemory Landscape and Holocaust Postmemory investigates the relationships among beautiful landscapes and memories of the Holocaust’s perpetrators and its victims. The project moves through diverse situations, writers, and artists from the recent rise of a sleek hotel on Hitler’s former holiday compound, to Susan Silas’s re-creation of a death march, to Collier Schorr’s posing of young German men in SS uniform framed by a German landscape, to W.G. Sebald’s literature of loss. In all these cases landscapes are invested with deep, often traumatic, meaning. By addressing the concatenation of memory, beauty and landscape, this book will contribute to debates beyond Holocaust studies about how the land figures in other enduring problems over memorialization, space allocation, and turf wars.

RICHARD D. MOHR Philosophy Beauty, Goodness, Love, and Sexuality in Plato’s Symposium and Phaedrus This literary, cultural, and philosophic project explores Western Civilization’s two foundational texts on the nature of beauty—Plato’s Symposium and Phaedrus. Against received opinion, the project argues that Plato’s views on beauty are not a form of otherworldly escapism. Rather, for Plato, beauty engages its pursuer in moral, social, and political values. Indeed, of all things, beauty provides the easiest access to these normative notions. The project stresses the aspirational and redemptive dimensions of beauty, even erotic beauty.

ISABEL MOLINA Institute of Communications Research Consuming Latina Bodies and the Racialized Politics of Beauty The project maps the cultural mechanisms that inform how post-colonial Latina bodies are represented within contemporary U.S.-produced but globally consumed media texts. Among the media cases examined are news coverage of women’s immigration; audience reception of Hollywood films; and representations of ethnically ambiguous bodies within television and magazine texts. By analyzing how Latina women are depicted in texts that circulate domestically and internationally, the project explores the mainstream US media construction of gendered ethnic and racial identity and how these constructions reify and rupture contemporary categories of beauty.

NED O’GORMAN Speech Communication Catastrophic Vistas: Discourse about Disaster in Cold War America and the American Sublime This project explores ways non-natural disasters during the Cold War took shape (1) rhetorically as disaster became the object of strategic communication, (2) ideologically as they inflected and negotiated dominant idioms and ideas, and (3) aesthetically via notions of the beautiful and the American sublime. Specifically, I will use the fellowship to write a chapter on discourse surrounding the Three Mile Island accident and to explore the intersections between politics and beauty.

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DEKE WEAVER School of Art + Design The Palimpsest Project Palimpsest has two meanings: a manuscript on which more than one text has been written with the earlier writings incompletely erased and still visible; and a place whose older layers or aspects are apparent beneath its surface. Beauty can be realized with unexpected sources. The Palimpsest Project will create a beautiful, digital, illuminated manuscript using the journals of the dead and a shifting population database. This “manuscript”—an interactive video installation— will breathe life into East-Central Illinois’ history, bridging past and future with an anthology of interconnected stories stretching back beyond memory, just below the surface, incompletely erased.

YUTIAN WONG Asian American Studies Program and Department of Dance Choreographing Asian America: Club O’ Noodles and Other Mis-Acts This project examines how notions of “beauty,” aesthetics of ideal dancing bodies, and artistic revitalization of U.S. modern dance are rooted in Orientalist discourse. Since the early twentieth century, white U.S.-based choreographers have capitalized on Orientalist appropriations of spirituality to physically re-shape notions of beautiful dancing bodies which pose a conundrum for Asian American choreographers and dancers. I analyze how contemporary Asian American artists engage with Orientalism aesthetically and politically to understand the contradiction between fetishization of the dancing Asian body in the U.S. as evidence of multicultural inclusion while fearing the Asian body as a racialized and potential military threat.

IPRH Gradate Student Fellows 2006–07 SARAH DENNIS English Prose for Art’s Sake: Creating and Documenting an American Aesthetic, 1820–1900 The category “American art” has never been self-evident. From the earliest contentious formulations of American art identity in the late 18th and early 19th century periodicals to the conflicting pasts that popular 19th century art history volumes create, “American art” was more argument than category from its inception. My dissertation identifies the 19th century project of defining American aesthetics as a textual one and argues that this developing discourse on aesthetics, which major American literary figures participated in as writers of art criticism, has a significant impact on the development of American literature.

AISHA DURHAM Institute of Communications Research Beauty as the Beast: Un/Desirable Iconic Black Female Bodies in Popular Culture Black women’s containment is linked historically to Eurocentric discourses of beauty, which framed black female bodies as “freaks” to legitimate exploitive sex(ual) labor under colonialism. In the contemporary, her body—hypervisible in hip-hop—represents the freak because her physicality deviates from ideal beauty and her supposed hypersexuality falls outside white heteronormativity. Sarah Bartmann-like bodies simultaneously are repulsive and attractive to audiences consumed with commodifying subalterneity. My dissertation examines beauty discourses mapped onto three hip-hop icons. By exploring spectacular bodies, I call attention to the ways un/desirable beauty is deployed in the popular to mark otherness and police ordinary black women.

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DANIELLE KINSEY History Modern Imperial Beauty: Diamonds and the Production of Taste in 19th Century Britain This project argues that the global appreciation of diamonds, hardly an automatic or timeless phenomenon in the Western world, was constructed within the context of British imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. It examines several areas of diamond discourses—from the conditions of production in India, Brazil, and South Africa, to the transnational market tempered by scientists, merchants, and technicians, to the relationship between fashion, jewelers, and their customers, to monarchical spectacles and the British “Crown Jewels”—to reveal how ideas of diamond beauty in Victorian Britain bolstered imperial authority in terms of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

ANTHONY W. PERMAN Musicology Hearing an Ndau Past: The Semiotics of Music, History, and Affect in Ndau Drumming Styles in Zimbabwe This research explores the complex aesthetic and ethical relationships between performance, response, and history in Ndau drumming in southeastern Zimbabwe. I examine how the aesthetics of performance in two distinct contexts elicit profound experiences for participants based on their historical legacy and semiotic frames, both temporal and spatial. Mashave spirit possession ceremonies and muchongoyo competitions provide sacred and secular settings for elucidating how history via performance affects contemporary Ndau and shapes experience. In particular, I emphasize the unique relationship between musical performance and emotion.

JULIA A. SIENKEWICZ Program in Art History Planting Ancient Mores on an “Untouched” Land: Charles Willson Peale’s Citizen-building Project at Belfield This study of the theoretical concepts driving Charles Willson Peale’s diverse creative practices forms one part of an interdisciplinary project that considers four artists and architects active in the United States during the first half of the 19th century. These men were convinced that beautiful objects and environments imparted moral values and could produce enlightened citizens through visual perception. By crafting beautiful objects, they thus attempted to achieve civic action through artistic creation, hoping to intervene in the citizen-building process of the new nation. This study probes the motivations and methods for creating objects and shaping citizens in the Early Republic.

POLYXENI STROLONGA Classics The Perils of Beauty and the Aesthetics of Exchange in Greek Poetry As is true for many societies, in the ancient Greek world beauty played an important role in the social perception of individuals, especially in determining divisions between various social ranks and accession to status. This project seeks to study a portion of this phenomenon by investigating cases of extreme and godlike beauty in the Greek corpus known as the Homeric Hymns. By focusing on the role of the godlike (Greek: theoeikeloi) mortals, I approach beauty as the key element in exchanges that threaten to disrupt social and cosmic order by transgressing the limits of mortality.

Deadline for application for 2007–08 fellowship awards: November 29, 2006

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Illinois Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow 2006–07 The IPRH is pleased to welcome the recipient of the Illinois Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellowship award, Elizabeth B. Boyd, who will spend the year at UIUC engaged in research and writing, and will teach a course on cultural memory in American culture, which will be offered by the History Department during the spring semester.

ELIZABETH B. BOYD American and Southern Studies Southern Beauty: Region, Remembrance, and the Feminine Ideal Southern Beauty explains a curiosity: why a regional gender ideal rooted in the 19th century continues to enjoy currency. This project considers how three contemporary feminine rituals—sorority rush, the beauty pageant, and the Confederate Pageant at Natchez, Mississippi (a tourist production associated with the city’s antebellum home tour)—interact with nostalgia to construct an imagined community of privilege and whiteness. In this interdisciplinary study, femininity is a powerful representational vehicle within the South’s racially charged visual culture.

Re-inscribing quite serious regional values in a festive, seemingly frivolous mode, gender performance is necessary to the culture—to the white South’s continued understanding of it as set apart. If the romantic South is a fantasy, it is nevertheless one with a considerable hold on the American imagination and on the region’s actors in particular.

Southern Beauty explores how nostalgic notions of race and region—of whiteness as southern-ness—are performed on and by the contemporary feminine body. By examining the public performances of an elite subculture—those white, middle- to upper-class young southern women whose bodily practices are crucial to maintaining regional hierarchies of race and class—I reveal a choreography of femininity central to reproducing southern distinctiveness.

My method is ethnographic, drawing on taped interviews with participants in each of the three rituals, and on my own observation of the rituals. I frame my informants’ testimony with the growing body of literature on collective memory and identity, nostalgia, and commemoration, on the one hand, and the diverse scholarship on gender in southern society, on the other. Feminist theory, performance and tourist studies, works on collegiate culture and emerging scholarship on whiteness and on gendered space further inform the analysis.

UIUC at the Chicago Humanities Festival The IPRH is delighted to partner with the Chicago Humanities Festival to showcase the works of UIUC faculty members as a part of the annual festival. This year’s festival runs from October 28 to November 12 and its activities will consider the theme “Peace and War: Facing Human Conflict.”

Tickets for all events are $5 and will be available to the general public beginning Monday, September 18 through the CHF ticket office at (312) 494-9509 or online at www.chfestival.org. Free tickets are available to students and teachers (with valid ID); reservations are required and must be made in-person or via phone.

Panelist: Christian Sandvig Speech Communication Discussion: Wi-Fi or I Spy? Saturday, November 4, 2:00–3:00 p.m.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Theater Panelist: Stephen Hartnett Speech Communication David Blight—The Civil War in American Memory and Panel: Race and Revolt Saturday, November 11, 12:00–2:00 p.m.

Victory Gardens Theater at the Biograph speaker: Robin McFarquhar Theatre Stage Combat, Text to Fight Saturday, November 11, 12:30–1:30 p.m.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Auditorium speaker: May Berenbaum Entomology Six-Legged Chemists Saturday, November 11, 2:00–3:00 p.m.

Loyola University, Rubloff Auditorium

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IPRH Reading Groups The IPRH awards financial support to interdisciplinary faculty and graduate student Reading Groups, which meet regularly throughout the year and frequently organize public events on topics of interest to a broad range of disciplines.

Reading Groups may be formed around any topic or theme whatsoever; they need not be coordinated with the IPRH theme for this or any other year. Reading Groups should aim to foster collaborative study in the humanities, and to investigate questions of sufficient breadth to draw scholars from a diverse array of intellectual traditions. The IPRH will consider proposals for Reading Groups for the 2007–08 academic year in early spring 2007; full application guidelines can be found on the IPRH website, and the proposal deadline will be April 2, 2007.

The following groups have been awarded support by the IPRH for 2006–07. Please contact the Reading Group organizers (listed below) directly for more information about the groups and their activities.

20th Century U.S. Radical Traditions in Education

Asian American Feminisms

The bi-weekly reading group brings together a community of scholars,

This reading group seeks to (a) engage with hi/stories and experiences of

educators, and activists to engage in conversations about critical issues

Asian American women that center women; (b) explore Asian American

in education. Our readings and discussions for the year 2006–07 will

feminisms and ask questions such as, “What are Asian American femi-

focus on tracing the educational history of radical traditions in the

nisms?” and (c) practice Asian American feminist pedagogy, which has

U.S. throughout the 20th century. Close attention will be given to the

been defined as applying knowledge to serve the community through

intellectual development of radical educational thought through careful

collective processes. The reading group is open to anyone interested in

examination of seminal texts by influential thinkers. These include the-

learning more about any or all of these topics; furthermore, the group will

orists such as Antonio Gramsci, Karl Marx, John Dewey, Myles Horton,

provide a space to discuss how we are affected by these issues in our

Ivan Illich, Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren.

lived realities in gendered, racialized, and classed spaces.

Contact: Laura Galicia galicia@uiuc.edu or Shivali Tukdeo tukdeo@uiuc.edu

Contact: Diana Cheng dcheng2@uiuc.edu or Jennifer Chung jychung@uiuc.edu

The African Diaspora

Asian American/Latino Migration

The African Diaspora reading group is composed of interdisciplinary

The Asian American and Latino populations in the U.S., and in particular,

faculty who wish to further the intellectual dialogue on, and body of works

California are extremely diverse economically, spatially, culturally, and his-

written about, the African Diaspora from an African-American perspective.

torically. We wish to focus on these two populations as a way to critically

Our goals are to facilitate collaborative scholarship and create a synergy of

engage social and political discourses comparatively. Specifically, we want

ideas and information. At our meetings, which are held about eight times

to interrogate the dialectical relationship between migration and class. We

a year, we read and analyze works in progress written by our members as

will engage in dialogue over critical issues on culture, identity, diaspora,

well as the published works of other scholars; share relevant resources;

transnationalism, racialization, and the impact of capital on working-class

and discuss emerging issues related to the African Diaspora. Guest lectur-

immigrant communities. We hope to offer intellectual and political spaces

ers are invited to meetings.

for students and faculty to discuss policy, ideological, and material implica-

Contact: Teresa Savage tdsavage@uiuc.edu or Violet Harris vjharris@uiuc.edu

tions that affect Asians and Latinos in the contemporary U.S. Contact: Kevin Lam kevinlam@uiuc.edu or Gerardo Diaz gdiaz4@uiuc.edu

Anthropology and Psychology of the Asian Self This reading group brings together an interdisciplinary group of

Beyond America

faculty and graduate students from across the social sciences and

This reading group will study literature across the Americanist fields,

humanities (including foremost anthropology, psychology, East Asian

seeking to understand the various definitions of Americanists. Readings

languages and cultures, and education) around the theme of “the

will draw from a range of literature across humanities disciplines. We

Asian Self.” The group will read together and meet around texts from

will explore the methodologies available for those wishing to study the

anthropology and psychology that represent the best contemporary

Americas in an expansive manner. Our focus will be to consider the

scholarship in culture, cognition, and self in Asia. Each meeting will

implicit claims of what “America” is and to deconstruct the idea that the

focus on a discussion of a book or articles, and some of the meetings

term refers solely to the United States. We will reflect upon the multiplic-

will feature guest scholars who will be invited to the campus to partic-

ity of identities within the sphere of “American studies” and the erasure

ipate in our discussion.

of such identities once the term “America” is used.

Contact: Nancy Abelmann nabelman@uiuc.edu or Sumie Okazaki okazaki@uiuc.edu

Contact: María del Mar González-González gonzale2@uiuc.edu or

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Julia Sienkewicz jsienkew@uiuc.edu

British Modernities

the restorer and institution through the restoration process. Particular

From “alternative modernities” to “a singular modernity,” concepts of

attention will be paid to the preservation and restoration of post-1800

modernity have acquired crucial relevance in recent scholarship. This

objects and buildings in the US and Britain.

reading group explores the fierce debates surrounding “competing mo-

Contact: Thomas C. Cornillie tcornil2@uiuc.edu

dernities” in British studies from the Enlightenment to global post-modernity. With careful attention to temporal and geopolitical contingen-

Critical Aesthetics

cies—perhaps even complicating conventional periodization—we hope

Our group will focus on the history of critical aesthetics. We will survey

to investigate how each era articulates its own relation to the concept

key moments in the Western aesthetic tradition, ranging from German

of modernity and registers its own specific claim or resistance to being

and British Idealism (Burke, Kant, Hegel, Schiller, Schelling), through

“modern.”

Western Marxism (Lukács, Benjamin, Adorno), and into such contemporary debates as the role of aesthetics in conjunction with politics,

Contact: Brandon Jernigan jernigan@uiuc.edu or Ted Underwood tunder@uiuc.edu

economics, subjectivity/identity formation, ethnicity, psychoanalysis,

Communications History

and theories of the state. We welcome graduate students and faculty

The group will bring into dialogue the many different research tradi-

who are interested in these issues and their intersection with a variety

tions around historical studies of communication, including but not

of disciplinary and methodological concerns.

limited to media history, journalism history, the history of advertising

Contact: Shawn Gilmore sgilmore@uiuc.edu or Bart Brinkman babrinkm@uiuc.edu

and consumer culture, film history, the history of popular culture, the history of print culture, the history of technology, and the history of the

Critical Discourse Analysis

public sphere. In order to explore the convergence of these different

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a growing field which attempts to

fields, we intend to read recently published research, especially work

look at the social, political, and economic contexts that structure the

with a programmatic bent, to consider the intersections of these

production of discourse. Drawing upon social theorists such as Haber-

various histories, and to discuss the possibility of identifying a canon

mas, Foucault, Bourdieu, and Gramsci, critical discourse analysts have

that can bring the various histories associated with communication

examined how popular, political, and media discourses reveal implicit

into conversation.

ideologies. Our group will first examine historical and theoretical foundational texts to understand how CDA is positioned, what it is reacting

Contact: James Hay jameshay@uiuc.edu or John Nerone jnerone@uiuc.edu

to, and why. Later we will focus more particularly on the interests of

Comparative Post-Socialist Studies

group members to examine how CDA intersects with such concepts

Post-/late-socialist studies constitute one of the most rapidly growing

as nationhood, globalization, race, technology, identity, and language.

areas of research and scholarly interest throughout the social sciences.

Contact: Linda Vigdor vigdor@uiuc.edu or Adrienne Lo adrienlo@uiuc.edu

Our reading group seeks to further expand the conceptual framework of post-socialist studies and move toward a more comparative and

Critical Spatial Practice

integrated approach to this field. By challenging conventional area

We will investigate critical theories of space and place and what the

and thematic splits, and by making rigorous comparisons between

architectural historian Jane Rendell has termed “critical spatial prac-

geographically disparate regions, we endeavor to achieve a broader

tice,” the relationship between spatial theory and critical practice. Our

understanding not only of states and societies experiencing varying

focus will shift accordingly between consideration of key theoretical

post-socialist repercussions, but also of processes such as globaliza-

texts from a range of disciplines and in-depth research and discussion

tion, ethnicity, nationalism, language, religion, consumerism, popular

about contemporary practices, as well as their historical antecedents.

culture, gender, and sexuality.

Building on previous conceptual work, we plan both to research practice and practice research. This would entail developing a theoretical

Contact: Andrew Asher aasher@uiuc.edu or Junjie Chen jchen1@uiuc.edu

framework, and then using these various methodologies rather than

Conservation, Interpretation, Restoration

simply analyzing them from afar.

This reading group proposes to examine an emerging issue within his-

Contact: Nicholas Brown nbrown2@uiuc.edu or Ryan Griffis rgriffis@uiuc.edu

toric preservation—how to gather knowledge through the restoration process and employ it to both inform the restoration and interpreta-

Critical Sports Studies

tion process and strengthen connections with academic researchers.

The Critical Sports Studies reading group offers an opportunity for in-

The group will examine this by considering how information from the

terdisciplinary investigations of the myriad sporting experiences across

knowledge gathering process may be used, exploring knowledge

the local, national, and transnational spheres. This reading group builds

gathering strategies and best practices, and what ethics should guide

on the existing interests in critical studies of sport among faculty and graduate students across the UIUC campus. Its goal is to cultivate an

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important intellectual base to further develop this interdisciplinary field

The Early Modern Interdisciplinary

by engaging in the close study of recent publications, works viewed as

This reading group provides an intellectual forum for early modernists on

canonical, and works in progress.

campus. For this purpose, we define early modern studies as a field of

Contact: Adrian Burgos burgosjr@uiuc.edu or Jennifer Guiliano guiliano@uiuc.edu

inquiry encompassing the literature, culture, history, arts, and sciences from 1450 to 1800 in any area of the globe. We will discuss the latest,

Democratic Communications

overarching developments in scholarship on this period, as well as current

The study of democratic communications is a neglected tradition that in-

research interests. Participants are encouraged to make suggestions.

tersects multiple fields and contains rich opportunities for multidisciplinary

Meetings are structured around broadly conceived themes, e.g., early

research. Our reading group will draw from political theory, policy studies,

modern subjectivities, conceptualizations of space and territoriality, and

sociology, communications, history, and other areas to focus on the de-

global approaches to early modern culture.

bates involving the role and function of media in a democratic society. We

Contact: Heather Hyde Minor hhminor@uiuc.edu or Marcus Keller mkeller@uiuc.edu

will select readings that probe the normative democratic theories, critical historical junctures, and innovative policy paradigms girding democratic

Eastern European Reading Group

communications in their existing or ideal forms, from colonial newspapers

The Eastern European Reading Group is an interdisciplinary forum for

to the Internet. In an attempt to map the full trajectory of policy debates

the discussion of topics and issues related to the region of Eastern

from their genesis to current iterations, we will read seminal texts, ex-

Europe. During their monthly meetings, the group’s members discuss

plore recently published scholarship, and discuss reading group members’

new works of scholarship on the region and debate a number of

research in this area.

important historical themes related to the region. The interdisciplinary

Contact: Victor Pickard vpickard@uiuc.edu or John Anderson jander26@uiuc.edu

character of the group is an important stimulant to vibrant discussions that take place at these meetings. The group also schedules movie

The Drug War

viewing nights followed by discussions of the themes highlighted in

This reading group seeks to foster discussions of how individuals’ use

the movie. Finally, in the past, the group has invited visiting scholars

of certain psychoactive chemicals became conceptualized as a social

and writers to the gatherings at which these scholars could answer

problem of crime and deviance among targeted communities that is best

questions and participate in discussions of their works.

controlled through a “war” mentality. Readings will engage particular

Contact: Fedja Buric buric@uiuc.edu or Keith Hitchins khitchin@uiuc.edu

dominant and subaltern narratives that have emerged during the last 150 years, which taken collectively answer the question: how did we come to

Environmental History

wage a war on drugs? While answering this question, we intend to work

Environmental history is an area of historical research that focuses on

towards investigating alternative narratives that can be used to construct a

integrating the natural world into studies of the human past. It is also

different approach to public policy regarding drug use.

highly interdisciplinary in character, often soliciting scholarly contri-

Contact: Andrea Brandon sbrandon@uiuc.edu or Daniel Larson dmlarson@uiuc.edu

butions from geographers, historians, ecologists, and other natural and social scientists. This reading group hopes to promote interest in

Early America and the Atlantic World

environmental history at UIUC by providing a forum for community

Our group provides an interdisciplinary forum that focuses on the history

members to discuss theoretical, methodological, and particular issues

and culture of North America and the Caribbean, c.1500-1815. The idea

in the field and to present their own work to the group for feedback.

of an early modern Atlantic world shapes our intellectual approach to

Contact: Sarah Frohardt-Lane sfrohar2@uiuc.edu or Andy Bruno arbruno2@uiuc.edu

varied studies of colonization and its discontents. The expansion of Europe into the western hemisphere in 1492 initiated a dynamic exchange of

Family and Nation in Latina and Iberian Cultures

people, goods, and ideas that connected even the most peripheral places

This reading group aims to create a dialogue between two historically

to expansive networks. We meet to critique works-in-progress, discuss

converging and simultaneously diverging cultural and geographical

provocative new scholarship, and host visiting scholars. Research in com-

spaces such as Spain and the U.S. Hispanic Caribbean. In wanting to

parative empires, old world source cultures, and other themes that bear

re-establish a link across the Atlantic, we will study the connections

on Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans in conflict and encounter

and discontinuities among several literary and cinematic productions

throughout the broader Atlantic world fit within the purview of our group.

from the Iberian and the Latina/o Caribbean contexts since the 1990s.

Contact: S. Max Edelson edelson@uiuc.edu or Richard Ross rjross@law.uiuc.edu

We intend to focus on the construction of womanhood in relation to family, late capitalism, and national (re)configurations exploring how the protagonists of these cultural productions deconstruct tradition through corporeal mobility and desire.

Contact: Irune del Rio Gabiola idelrio@uiuc.edu or

9

María del Mar Soria López lsoria@uiuc.edu

German Colloquium

Jewish Studies Workshop

The German Colloquium has met regularly since 1989, bringing

The Jewish Studies Workshop provides an interdisciplinary forum

together UIUC scholars in German history, German literature, and

through which to explore emerging issues in Jewish Studies. Reading

allied fields along with their students. We discuss on-going research

materials, usually works-in-progress, are circulated prior to meetings,

projects, dissertation proposals, dissertation chapters, and other

with the actual event serving as a forum for discussion. In addition to

works in progress; host off-campus visitors who share their current

inviting UIUC faculty and graduate students, each semester we invite a

research; and read and discuss new and important studies in the

number of guests, ranging from key figures in Jewish Studies to excit-

field. The itinerary for the year is in part a function of the interests and

ing junior scholars. This “Renegade Jewish Studies” group reaches out

inclinations of the participants.

to other departments and units and seeks to open Jewish Studies to

Contact: Peter Fritzsche pfritzsc@uiuc.edu

scholars across a broad range of interests.

Contact: Brett Kaplan bakaplan@uiuc.edu

Health Disparities in Latina/o Populations in Illinois

The Korea Workshop

This interdisciplinary group will address the health disparities present

During this sixth year of the Korea Workshop we will focus on technologi-

in the Latina/o population, particularly in Central Illinois. Through discus-

cal and media transformations in South Korea. We will meet twelve times

sions of the scholarly literature, we will strive to increase awareness of

throughout the year on Fridays from 12:30 to 3:00 p.m. (lunch is available

the pan-ethnic nature of Latina/o ethnicity, and of institutional, social,

to those who RSVP). Sessions will cover: film, medicine, science, and on-

and individual factors that influence the health disparities observed.

line political and cultural communities. There will also be an East Asia and

Discussions of health disparities will include an examination of health

Pacific Studies-sponsored Korean Film Festival on September 29 and 30.

literacy, and of barriers and facilitative conditions to obtaining adequate

The group will function as a workshop in which the paper to be discussed

healthcare in this population. The group will work to create a model to

will be distributed prior to the meeting and a graduate student will then

provide health education and services more effectively to the Latina/o

have the opportunity to comment on the work. We welcome new organiz-

population.

ers and participants.

Contact: Susan Farner sfarner@uiuc.edu or Lydia Buki buki@uiuc.edu

Contact: Nancy Abelmann nabelman@uiuc.edu

Irishness and the Irish Diaspora

Language and Social Interaction

This reading group will interrogate several important themes that have

This group holds weekly data sessions on topics including repair,

shaped historic, global diasporas of Irish peoples, including colonialism,

turn-taking, sequence organization, learner and teacher talk, and grammar

immigration, emigration, nationalism, and exile. With diasporas and

and interaction. For each meeting, one group member provides the data,

identities as central themes, this group aims to echo Stuart Hall’s call

i.e., an audio/video recording and transcript. This format provides us with

for defining the diaspora experience as heterogeneous and diverse,

an opportunity a) to analyze data from various languages, b) to share in

and it intends to explore the numerous identities that have been pro-

each other’s research, c) to present difficult data samples to a friendly

duced and reproduced through difference.

audience for feedback, and d) to hone our analytical skills. We also plan

Contact: Dennis McNulty mcnulty2@uiuc.edu or James R. Barrett jrbarret@uiuc.edu

to organize two large scale data sessions with leading researchers from neighboring institutions.

Japanese Article Reading Group

Contact: Andrea Golato golato@uiuc.edu

This reading group will provide an opportunity to enlarge understanding of Japanese history and culture for graduate students who are

Language in the Asian Diaspora

interested in Japan. We offer the following two programs: classical

This reading group takes a transnational perspective on issues of language

Japanese reading and contemporary Japanese article reading. The

in the Asian diaspora. We incorporate a wide comparative perspective on

former course focuses on learning how to decipher Japanese classical

Asian immigration, both within Asia and from Asia to the U.S. Our topics

manuscripts, and the latter course pursues interdisciplinary learning of

include bilingual literacy development, heritage language education, the

Japanese study. A participant can choose a proper course according to

language socialization of immigrants, language attitudes towards English

his or her purpose and level of Japanese language skill.

in Asia, and the private English language education market. We seek to

Contact: Doyoung Park dpark8@uiuc.edu

understand the different ways in which race, class, gender, and ethnicity intersect with issues of language in immigrants’ lives, as well as to investigate the different kinds of methodologies which scholars use to understand language issues.

Contact: Adrienne Lo adrienlo@uiuc.edu or Tomomi Kumai kumai@uiuc.edu

10

Mass Cultures in America

Museums Writ Large

In the later 19th century, America underwent tremendous growth in

This reading group considers museums as sites where identities are

cultural consumption. The cultural forms that arose in the late 19th

asserted, contested, and negotiated within dynamic social, political,

century have been credited (or blamed) for giving traction to our contem-

and/or religious contexts including under contemporary conditions

porary ideas about “high” and “low” art, the production, consumption,

of globalization. We interrogate the social, historical, and economic

and proliferation of taste, and national publications such as magazines,

conditions that generate the collections housed in museums as well

newspapers, and popular literature. Our reading group will interrogate

as the architectural frameworks and academic and historical practices

the processes by which these mass cultures—and by extension, their

deployed in displaying objects and “Others.” We take a broad view

participants—were formed. We also will work to develop new frameworks

of museums to include site museums, open-air museums, themed

for interrogating the ways by which people negotiate these homogenized

environments, gardens, etc. In the fall we will be visiting three major

cultures, drawing from readings across a range of theoretical and cultural

midwest museums: the Lincoln Museum (Springfield), the King Tut

perspectives.

exhibit at the Field Museum (Chicago) and the Indianapolis Museum of

Contact: Scott Campbell scampbll@uiuc.edu or Andrew Moss apmoss@uiuc.edu

Art. In the spring we return to the usual reading group format, and we will sponsor two guest speakers during the year.

Medicine/Science

Contact: Helaine Silverman helaine@uiuc.edu or Boyd Rayward wrayward@uiuc.edu

This interdisciplinary reading group focuses on the historical and cultural analysis of human health, medicine, and science. We read history, cultural

New Ontologies

studies, sociology, and anthropology and, from time to time, view videos

In this so-called moment “after theory,” critical theory has seen a growing

as well. Topics have included AIDS, the worldwide thalidomide disaster,

interest in ontological questions concerning temporality, corporeality,

condoms, and end-of-life care. Faculty and graduate student members

alterity, technology, and “new materialisms.” Witness Agamben’s return

come from a variety of disciplines, perspectives, and regions of the world.

to Arendt’s concept of “bare life” as the basis of modern sovereignty;

The core group comes from History, the Institute of Communications

affect theory’s complex reworking of ideology and intersubjectivity via

Research, and the Medical Scholars Program. We welcome those with

the body; Derrida’s poetic exegesis of a Levinasian ethics grounded in

related interests in other disciplines.

the “face of the other”; queer theory’s relentless “queering” of everyday

Contact: Matt Gambino mgambino@uiuc.edu

understandings of queerness; and historcism’s privileging of the “archive” as the ultimate referent of the human in its historical existence. Focused

Migration Studies

on bringing together the “then” and the “now” of ontology, our group will

The Migration Studies Group consists of faculty and graduate students

pair up contemporary texts with those from the ontological tradition.

in the humanities and social sciences who work on aspects of human

Contact: John Claborn claborn@uiuc.edu

migration. The group meets eight to ten times a year to read and discuss work in progress by the presenters. The group also invites guest speakers

Performance Studies Working Group

from other campuses on occasion, sometimes in cooperation with other

The Performance Studies Working Group (PSWG) seeks to facilitate con-

reading groups or programs at the university. The Migration Studies group

versations among scholars divided by disciplinary training and/or period

welcomes new members.

of specialization but united by a common interest in the emergent field

Contact: Alicia P. Rodriguez aprodrig@uiuc.edu or Gillian Stevens gstevens@uiuc.edu

of performance studies. Encompassing everything from theatre studies, to music and dance, to art history, to sociology, to anthropology, to the

Modern Art Colloquium

philosophy of language, and beyond, the field of performance studies

The Modern Art Colloquium, founded as a forum for discussing presenta-

remains vast and, at times, intimidating in its scope, requiring a master

tions by faculty and graduate students related to modern art, focuses on

key to all the various models and methodologies developed in its name.

20th century and contemporary art. We meet from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on

PSWG thus seeks to provide a forum for exchanging knowledge about

the last Monday of the month during the semester in room 133 of the Art

performance from across the various disciplines, while tracing the con-

and Design Building and welcome both occasional and regular partici-

tinuing emergence of this field.

pants. The participants have been from across campus, with papers or

Contact: Melissa Tombro tombro@uiuc.edu

informal works in progress presented by graduate students and faculty in such fields as communications, comparative literature, history, landscape architecture, romance languages, urban planning, and other areas in addition to art history and art studio practice.

Contact: Jordana Mendelson jmendels@uiuc.edu or

Jonathan Fineberg fineberg@uiuc.edu

11

Plato’s Timaeus—Ancient and Modern

Southern History

This reading group will examine one of the most influential texts in West-

This group, which has met for more than a decade, brings together

ern thought, Plato’s Timaeus, by putting it into its ancient context as well

scholars across disciplines from various institutions to discuss the

as in the context of the modern cultural debates to which this book gave

American South. The group has discussed a wide assortment of topics

rise in recent years. We will examine Plato’s theory of time compared

and hosted many prominent guest speakers over the years, but it usu-

to prior accounts in ancient epic, lyric and historiography, and his theory

ally concentrates on emerging scholarship: presentations range from

of space—the first to be found in Western tradition—with regard to its

book chapters and article drafts to dissertation proposals. The group

adaptation into modern architectural thought. Other foci could be the phi-

fosters collaborative study and multi-disciplinary perspectives incorpo-

losophy of history (including the myth of Atlantis and the construction of a

rating recent scholarship; its discussions are lively and wide-ranging.

mythological past), the philosophical account of creation, the mathemati-

Visitors are always welcome.

cal construction of the universe and the cosmology in the Timaeus.

Contact: Vernon Burton ovburton@uiuc.edu

Contact: Barbara Sattler bsattler@uiuc.edu

Trans-East Asian Cinema

Qualitative Inquiry

This reading group focuses on the interactions among cinemas of

Our aim is to explore issues related to the use of qualitative methods

China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Hollywood. We will

for researching language and literacy, with specific attention to writing

screen films, and read about and discuss issues such as the popularity

practices both in and out of school settings. Scholarship in this area

of Korean cinema, trans-regional co-productions, and the impact of

represents a curious intersection of the humanities and social sci-

China’s marketization on East Asian national cinema. We seek answers

ences. Some readings will focus on the epistemological stances and

to the following questions: To what extent has the imagination of a

ethical consequences of engaging in activities like ethnography, case

unitary East Asian market influenced the style, aesthetics, and visual

study, discourse analysis, archival research, and more. We will also ex-

concepts of East Asian filmmakers? How is trans-East Asian cinema

amine and discuss in-progress research projects of group participants,

related to trans-Pacific and transnational cinema? What is the relation-

as well as published qualitative research.

ship between regionalism and transnationalism?

Contact: Kory Lawson Ching kching@uiuc.edu

Contact: Eric Dalle dalle@uiuc.edu or E.K. Tan engtan@uiuc.edu

Rhetorical Studies

Transnational Urbanism

A central mode of humanistic inquiry, rhetoric offers an historically rich,

Transnational urbanism, a term coined by Michael Peter Smith, stresses

theoretically robust, and politically salient approach to the study of dis-

the cultural, political, and economic processes that constitute transnation-

course. The Rhetorical Studies reading group seeks to increase the vis-

al urban processes. The vast movement and crisscrossing of populations

ibility of rhetorical studies on campus by helping faculty and students

in a fluid and evolving city form is the focus of a large body of research.

with interests in rhetoric find one another. Readings and activities will

Research on remittances has illustrated how immigrants’ earnings in one

take up the fragmented identity of rhetorical studies in the academy,

location lead to urban development in another location across the globe

the relationships between rhetoric and pedagogy, and the potential for

that come to define their new social, economic, and political spaces.

rhetorical studies to connect to scientific knowledge, the global public,

The extent of these intense and interconnected links has questioned the

and new archives.

national boundaries as a valid determinant of political citizenship as well as

Contact: Debra Hawhee hawhee@uiuc.edu

urban processes and access to urban resources and livelihood resources.

We will engage with literature that examines urban life and urban citizen-

Russian Studies Circle

ship in a transnational era.

The Russian Studies Circle (the “Kruzhok”) is a reading and discussion

Contact: Faranak Miraftab faranak@uiuc.edu or David Wilson dwilson2@uiuc.edu

group of faculty and graduate students interested in the interdisciplinary study of Russia and the Soviet Union, (including nations and

Towards an Understanding of Popular Culture

ethnicities within the Russian empire/USSR/Russian Federation). The

We have come of age in a world in which artifacts of popular culture are

Kruzhok seeks to stimulate engagement across disciplines by bringing

ubiquitous, and we have all therefore more or less assumed that we are

together students and faculty from different departments—history,

experts in popular culture. But academic and pedagogical methodologies

literature, political science, music, Russian and East European studies,

have developed over the past few decades to provide an architecture for

and others—and by exploring texts that allow us to engage theoretical

the study of popular culture. With a huge and varied field of inquiry, and

as well as interpretive questions in the disciplines and across them.

new entries being added all the time, popular culture offers a rich oppor-

Formats include reading critical new work, engaging in discussions

tunity for scholarly investigation and interdisciplinary exchange. Topics

with visiting scholars, examining the work of members of the group,

under discussion during the year will include theoretical models for the

and analyzing literature and film.

Contact: Mark Steinberg steinb@uiuc.edu or Lilya Kaganovsky lilya@uiuc.edu

12

examination of popular culture, reception and spectatorship, examinations

Women of Color Feminism

of specific examples of popular texts, and the history of popular culture

Recent discussions surrounding citizenship and social justice movements

from the ancient to the modern.

in the popular redefine the state, identity and culture in the contemporary.

Contact: Jon Solomon josolomo@uiuc.edu or Christine Catanzarite catanzar@uiuc.edu

At the same time hegemonic discourses attempt to close boundaries, they reveal the porosity of borders that seek to contain and police eth-

(Un)Popular Theories of the Popular

nicity, sexuality, class, and gender. Members of the reading group locate

This reading group will explore texts and sites of American society that

negotiated sites of rupture drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship to

force a reworking of current understandings and analysis of popular cul-

discuss distinct yet intersecting theorizations by, for, and about women

ture. The popular is the realm of all that is both naughty and knotty. These

of color to engender and reimagine a body of knowledge that calls for an

new conversations often represent, reproduce, and explore narratives

emancipatory democracy.

of identity and power based on indissoluble forms of difference such as

Contact: Carolyn A. Randolph crandol2@uiuc.edu or Aisha Durham adurham@uiuc.edu

gender, race, ethnicity, sex, class, nation, citizenship, and the body. Topics include: moral panics, the relationship of ‘post’ to popular, identity politics at the end of social movements, cultural citizenship, representation, con-

Youth Literature Interest Group

sumption, complicity, and self-narration.

The Youth Literature Interest Group (YLIG) is an interdisciplinary collaboration of faculty and doctoral students from UIUC, Illinois State University,

Contact: Sarah L. Rasmusson srasmus3@uiuc.edu or David Haskell haskell2@uiuc.edu

and Eastern Illinois University. We meet monthly to discuss texts and

Virtue and Character

issues relevant to literature for children and young adults. In addition, we

Virtue ethics focuses on the belief that character is fundamental to our

host the annual Gryphon lecture in the spring, an event that is open to stu-

flourishing as human beings and that the virtues play a prominent role in

dents and the public, and features a leading scholar in the field. In the fall

who we are, good or bad. Virtue theory, fundamentally an approach to

of 2006, YLIG will be hosting our first Allerton conference titled “Family,

ethics, should not be seen as important to philosophy alone, for it has

Youth, and Literature.”

begun to play significant roles in political science, critical theory, feminist

Contact: Betsy Hearne ehearne@uiuc.edu or Christine Jenkins cajenkin@uiuc.edu

studies, and other social sciences. We will begin with a historical study of the virtues and then continue by examining contemporary debates, including the comparative analysis of virtue theory in ethics, jurisprudence, epistemology, psychology, and education.

Contact: Steve Zusman zusman@uiuc.edu or Eric Schaaf eschaaf@uiuc.edu

IPRH on the Web www.iprh.uiuc.edu The IPRH website is updated throughout the year to include information about upcoming events and application deadlines, as well as additional information about the programs and activities described in Human Interest.

You will also find complete application forms and guidelines for the IPRH fellowship awards and information about submitting an application for IPRH Reading Group support for 2007–08.

The website includes more information about this year’s IPRH Fellows, including descriptions of the courses that will be taught by the Faculty Fellows and the Post-Doctoral Fellow in conjunction with their fellowship projects.

Finally, the IPRH website includes a page listing “External Opportunities” for grants, fellowships, calls for papers, and other humanities-related activities sponsored by humanities centers at other universities nationwide.

13

The Odyssey Project Beginning this fall, the IPRH will start its inaugural year of the Odyssey Project, a college-level course in the humanities offered at no cost to people in the Champaign-Urbana community living below or slightly above the federal poverty level. The purpose of the course is to help students reenter the world of higher education and develop the writing and critical thinking skills they need in order to become full and active members of their communities. Funding for the course has been provided by the Illinois Humanities Council and the UIUC Office of the Chancellor, and the course will be hosted by our community partner, the Douglass Branch Library in Champaign.

The program, which begins in September and runs through May, offers instruction in five discrete disciplines in the humanities: literature, art history, philosophy, U.S. history, and writing and critical thinking. The class enrolls 25 to 30 students, recruited from the Champaign-Urbana community and surrounding areas. Prospective students must meet the following criteria: they must live at 150% of the poverty level or lower, be 17 years of age or older, be able to read an English-language newspaper, and, in interviews with the project coordinator, demonstrate a desire to complete the course.

Faculty for the course are drawn from departments at UIUC, and receive release time from one course to allow their participation in the Odyssey Project. This fall, Dale Bauer (English) will teach literature, and Debra Hawhee (English and Speech Communication) will teach philosophy. In the spring, Rebecca Ginsburg (Landscape Architecture) will teach art history, and Mark Leff (History) will teach U.S. History. John Marsh (IPRH and English), who also serves as project coordinator for the initiative, will teach writing and critical thinking, which will extend through both the fall and spring semesters.

The introduction of the Odyssey Project at UIUC makes Champaign-Urbana the third city in Illinois to offer the course; classes are also taught in Chicago and Springfield, in programs that are also supported by the Illinois Humanities Council. The Illinois Humanities Council’s partner in the course is Bard College in New York, which launched the Clemente Course in the Humanities in the early 1990s; the Clemente Course led to the implementation of community-based humanities courses in more than fifty cities across the country.

The course is offered free of charge; there is no tuition fee, and books, transportation vouchers, and child care (at the Douglass Community Center, adjacent to the library) will be made available to all students. Students who complete the course will be eligible for six hours of college credit from Bard College; these general humanities credits are transferable to other two- or four-year colleges.

The IPRH will celebrate the start of the Odyssey Project with a public lecture and reception on Wednesday, September 13. The event will feature remarks about the initiative, the introduction of the faculty who will be teaching during the pilot year of the course, and a presentation by Danielle Allen, Dean of the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago and an enthusiastic proponent of the Odyssey Project in Chicago. The event begins at 4:00 p.m. at the Spurlock Museum Auditorium, and will be followed by a reception.

Inside the Odyssey Project A Presentation by Danielle Allen Dean, Division of the Humanities Professor, Department of Classical Languages and Literatures, Department of Politics, Committee on Social Thought University of Chicago Wednesday, September 13 4:00 p.m.

Spurlock Museum Auditorium Please join us for a reception following the presentation. This event is free and open to the public. More information can be found on the IPRH website.

14

The Odyssey Project Teaching the Odyssey Project The following UIUC faculty will provide instruction during 2006–07. Faculty who are interested in teaching in the Odyssey Project in future years are encouraged to contact Odyssey Project Coordinator John Marsh.

Dale Bauer English Department English Literature Professor Bauer earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of California-Irvine in 1985. She is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Writing and author of Edith Wharton’s Brave New Politics, among numerous other publications. Her research interests include 19th and 20th century American literature and gender studies. She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards and honors.

Rebecca Ginsburg Department of Landscape Architecture Art History Professor Ginsburg earned her Ph.D. in architectural history from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming book Slave Space: The Physical Environments of North American Slavery. Her research areas include domestic landscapes, public history, interior space, geographies and landscapes of the Atlantic slave trade, and material culture.

Debra Hawhee English Department and Department of Speech Communication Philosophy Professor Hawhee earned her Ph.D. in English at Penn State University in 2000. Her book, Bodily Arts: Rhetoric and Athletics in Ancient Greece, won an NEH Fellowship in 2002 and was published by the University of Texas Classics List. She is a historian and theorist of rhetoric whose work pays particular attention to how and when language and bodies come together.

Mark Leff Department of History U.S. History Professor Leff earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago in 1978. Selected publications include The Limits of Symbolic Reform: The New Deal and Taxation, 1933-1939 and “Revisioning U.S. Political History.” He specializes in 20th century U.S. history and public policy. He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, and was named “Illinois Teacher of the Year” in 1998 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

John Marsh IPRH and English Department Writing and Critical Thinking Dr. Marsh earned his Ph.D. in English from UIUC in 2004. He is the editor of You Work Tomorrow: An Anthology of American Labor Poetry, 1929-1941. His research interests consider how work, workers, and working-class political movements influenced a diverse set of modern American poets between the two world wars. Dr. Marsh is the coordinator of the Champaign-Urbana Odyssey Project.

NEH Summer Stipend Awards

The IPRH invites applications for the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend program for summer 2007. The program provides opportunities for individuals to pursue advanced work that will enhance their capacities as interpreters of the humanities and enable them to make significant contributions to thought and knowledge in the humanities. Awards are for $5,000 for two consecutive months of full-time research and writing.

Faculty applicants must be nominated to the NEH by their home institutions, with two nominations (one junior faculty, one senior faculty) allowed from each campus. Applicants from UIUC must submit their proposals to the IPRH no later than Monday, September 11 at 5:00 p.m. for consideration; the designated applicants will then submit their applications to the NEH. Complete eligibility and application information can be found on the IPRH website. UIUC faculty who are planning to submit an application are strongly encouraged to contact IPRH Associate Director Christine Catanzarite to discuss the details of the application process.

The IPRH is pleased to congratulate Alma Gottlieb (Anthropology Department) on the receipt of a 2006 NEH Summer Stipend award for her project, which is a locally embedded ethnography that explores how the shifting and complex interrelations of race, class, gender, and identity are negotiated among one racialized immigrant community in Lisbon.

15

Calendar of Events and Deadlines All IPRH events are free and open to the public. Please check the IPRH website for updates and additions to this schedule throughout the year.

September 11

September 25

Deadline for National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend applications

Deadline for IPRH co-sponsorship requests 5:00 p.m.

5:00 p.m.

Submission guidelines can be found on page 19.

More information about the awards can be found on page 15.

Contact Christine Catanzarite catanzar@uiuc.edu for details.

October 5

IPRH Film Series: To Die For

September 13

5:30 p.m.

Presentation: Inside the Odyssey Project by Danielle Allen (Dean, Humanities Division, University of Chicago)

Krannert Art Museum, Room 62

4:00 p.m.

October 7

Spurlock Museum

Curtain Call Discussion

Reception following presentation

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

More information about the Odyssey Project and this event can be found on pages 14–15.

Following the 7:30 performance of Super Vision by The Builders’ Association with dbox

September 14

October 20

IPRH Open House and Exhibit Opening: Forget What You Thought Was Beautiful

Conference: T eaching the Humanities at the Public University 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

New Catalogue (Luke Batten and Jonathan Sadler)

Levis Faculty Center

7:00–9:00 p.m.

This event is part of the initiative “The Humanities and the Public University: The View from Illinois,” sponsored by the IPRH and the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Humanities Lecture Hall The reception celebrates the new academic year and the opening of Forget What You Thought Was Beautiful, an exhibit by New Catalogue. The exhibit will be on view at the IPRH through October 27.

The complete conference program can be found on page 18.

October 21

Curtain Call Discussion

September 19

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Workshop: Crafting a Fellowship/Grant Proposal for the Humanities

Following the 7:30 p.m. performance of The Spirit of Fès

5:00 p.m.

October 31

Humanities Lecture Hall

Exhibit Opening: Conversations about Something

Participants: Matti Bunzl (IPRH/Anthropology), Christine Catanzarite (IPRH/Cinema Studies), and Deborah Richie (Graduate College)

Andy Ducett, MFA 2006, Art and Design, UIUC Conversations about Something will be on view at the IPRH through December 8.

Co-sponsored by the IPRH and the Graduate College; open to all UIUC graduate students

November 2

September 21

IPRH Film Series: Sunset Boulevard

IPRH Film Series and Panel Discussion: The Truth about Cats and Dogs

5:30 p.m.

5:30 p.m.

Krannert Art Museum, Room 62

Krannert Art Museum, Room 62

September 23

Panel discussion on women, beauty, and self-esteem immediately following the film

Curtain Call Discussion Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Following the 7:30 p.m. performance of Ferocious Beauty: Genome by Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

16

November 29

March 12

Deadline for IPRH Faculty and Graduate Student Fellowships for 2007–08

Deadline for IPRH co-sponsorship requests 5:00 p.m.

5:00 p.m.

Submission guidelines can be found on page 19.

Please submit applications and supporting materials to the IPRH.

March 13

Application guidelines and additional information can be found on pages 22–23.

Exhibit Opening and Reception: Symagery Melissa Pokorny, Assistant Professor, School of Art and Design, UIUC

November 30

IPRH Film Series: Beauty and the Beast

7:00–9:00 p.m.

5:30 p.m.

Humanities Lecture Hall

Krannert Art Museum, Room 62

Symagery will be on view at the IPRH through May 11

January 27

March 29–30

Curtain Call Discussion

IPRH Ninth Annual Conference: Beauty

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

March 29 Keynote Address 7:30 p.m.

Following the 7:30 p.m. performance of Blind Date by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

Exhibit Opening and Reception: Melodramas of Consumption

March 30 Panels featuring the IPRH Fellows for 2006–07 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Brian Ulrich, photographer, Chicago

All events will take place at Levis Faculty Center.

7:00–9:00 p.m.

A complete conference schedule will be available on the IPRH website in early February 2007.

January 30

Humanities Lecture Hall Additional events will be scheduled during Brian Ulrich’s visit; details will be available on the IPRH website in late fall.

Melodramas of Consumption will be on view at the IPRH through March 2.

April 2

Deadline for IPRH Reading Group proposals for 2007–08 5:00 p.m.

Application guidelines can be found on the IPRH website.

February 1

IPRH Faculty and Graduate Student Fellowship Awards for 2007–08 announced March 2

Curtain Call Discussion Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Human Interest

Following the 7:30 p.m. performance of Yiimimangaliso—The Mysteries by Dimpho di Kopane

The IPRH publishes Human Interest each year in the early fall. Additional information is available throughout the year online, and through the IPRH mailing list. Contact Christine Catanzarite to be added to the mailing list.

March 9

Conference: T he Politics and Culture of the Humanities University of Illinois at Chicago

Editor: Christine Catanzarite Project Manager: Royce Matson Design: Melissa Lynch

This event is part of the initiative “The Humanities and the Public University: The View from Illinois,” sponsored by the IPRH and the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Produced by Creative Services | Public Affairs for the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. Printed on recycled paper with soy ink. 07.032

10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

The complete conference program can be found on page 18.

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The View from Illinois This year, the IPRH is pleased to embark upon what we hope will be an ongoing collaboration with our counterpart unit at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Institute for the Humanities. We will inaugurate this exciting partnership in 2006–07 with a yearlong initiative, “The Humanities and the Public University:The View from Illinois.”

This initiative will treat the University of Illinois as a paradigmatic public university in the United States today.

Serving multicultural populations that are both urban and rural, the University of Illinois brings the local and global resources of a leading research university to the social and cultural communities that characterize the modern world. Bringing together humanists from both campuses, the initiative will take the form of a two daylong conference—one in October 2006 at UIUC, and one in March 2007 at UIC.The goal is to explore the ways in which the public university can maintain and embrace its critical role in modeling and disseminating humanistic knowledge in the 21st century.

Both conferences are free and open to the public.The UIUC conference will take place at Levis Faculty Center on October 20.The programs for both conferences can be found below; scheduling details and additional information can be found on the IPRH website.

Teaching the Humanities at the Public University

The Politics and Culture of the Humanities

October 20, 2006 March 9, 2007 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois at Chicago Levis Faculty Center Stevenson Hall 10:00 a.m.

Welcome and Opening Remarks Richard Herman Chancellor, UIUC

10:00 a.m.

Welcome and Opening Remarks Sylvia Manning Chancellor, UIC

10:15 a.m.

10:15 a.m.

Keynote Address: Demystifying Academia Keynote Address: The End of Education Gerald Graff English, UIC Cary Nelson English, UIUC

Cathy Birkenstein-Graff English, UIC

1:15 p.m.

1:15 p.m.

Panel: The Future of Humanistic Labor Chair: John D’Emilio History and Gender and Women’s Panel: Between Intellectual and Studies, UIC Multicultural Diversity Chair: Dale Bauer English, UIUC Panelists: Leon Fink History, UIC Panelists: James Anderson Educational Policy Studies, UIUC Barbara Ransby African American Studies and

History, UIC Madhu Dubey English and African American

Studies, UIC

Michael Rothberg English and Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, UIUC

Walter Benn Michaels English, UIC Arlene Torres Latina/Latino Studies and James Treat Native American House, UIUC

Anthropology, UIUC

3:30 p.m.

3:30 p.m.

Panel: The Humanities in an Age of Panel: Humanistic Literacy in an Fundamentalism Anti-Intellectual Culture Chair: Vernon Burton History, UIUC Chair: Astrida Tantillo Germanic Studies, UIC Panelists: Antoinette Burton History, UIUC Panelists: Lennard Davis English and Disability Studies, UIC Sundiata Cha-Jua African American Studies, UIUC

William Maxwell English, UIUC

Paul Griffiths Catholic Studies and

Classics and Mediterranean Studies, UIC Charles Mills Philosophy, UIC

Stephen Hartnett Speech Communication, UIUC Catherine Prendergast English, UIUC

Rachel Havrelock Jewish Studies and English, UIC

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Curtain Call The IPRH will continue its collaboration with the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts by holding informal discussions following select performances at KCPA. All discussions are free and open to the public. Please contact the KCPA Ticket Office at (217) 333-3280 for tickets to the performances.

There will be Curtain Call discussions after the following performances: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Ferocious Beauty: Genome Saturday, September 23 The Builders’ Association with dbox Super Vision Saturday, October 7 The Spirit of Fès Saturday, October 21 Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company Blind Date Saturday, January 27 Dimpho di Kopane Yiimimangaliso—The Mysteries Friday, March 2

Requesting IPRH Co-sponsorship Support The IPRH invites submissions requesting co-sponsorship support to meet one established deadline per semester (fall: September 25; spring: March 12). These deadlines will enable the IPRH to consider all requests for support on a competitive basis, and to determine how to most effectively allocate our co-sponsorship resources in a time of limited funding.

The average amount that the IPRH will contribute to an event is $100–200. In addition, we can support a limited number of conferences/symposia in amounts up to $500. Proposals for conference support must be submitted by the deadline dates in order to receive consideration. Proposals for non-conference events will be accepted outside of deadline periods under special circumstances, but funding will be contingent upon availability.

Requests for support should include the following: •

A brief but specific outline of the proposed event, including dates and one-paragraph speaker biographies where appropriate •

An outline of the proposed budget for the event, including any funding commitments that have already been secured The IPRH does NOT provide financial support for the following: •

Events sponsored by current IPRH Reading Groups

•

Events sponsored by registered student organizations

•

Events that take place less than three weeks from the date of application for support

Send all requests for support via e-mail to Matti Bunzl bunzl@uiuc.edu and Christine Catanzarite catanzar@uiuc. edu, or by campus mail to: IPRH, 805 West Pennsylvania Ave., MC-057. Notification of support will be sent to all applicants within one week of the deadline date.

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IPRH Film Series, Fall 2006 “Beauty” All screenings will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Auditorium (room 62) of Krannert Art Museum. The IPRH Film Series is free and open to the public.

The schedule for spring 2007 will be announced on the IPRH website in the late fall.

September 21 Sunset Boulevard 1950, dir. Billy Wilder; starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim (110 min.)

A luxurious mansion with a swimming pool, a wealthy film star, a promising screenwriter ... these are the ingredients of a classic love story. Add time and corrosion to the mix, and you have the recipe for Wilder’s classic film noir—one of the greatest films of all time. Norma Desmond (Swanson), a silent film star from the days when they “had faces,” meets Joe Gillis (Holden), a studio hack of limited means, and their sad, delusional relationship exposes the nightmare beneath the glamour and beauty of the Hollywood dream factory.

October 5 To Die For 1995, dir. Gus Van Sant; starring Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix (106 min.)

Suzanne Stone (Kidman) is a brittle, ambitious local weather reporter who uses the twin lures of beauty and celebrity to launch a scheme that will free her from her unglamorous husband (Dillon) and rocket her to celebrity. Van Sant, working from a script by Buck Henry (based on the novel by Joyce Maynard), constructs a satirical cautionary tale for an era in which fame and infamy are often uncomfortably, inextricably linked.

November 2 The Truth about Cats and Dogs 1996, dir. Michael Lehmann; starring Janeane Garofalo, Uma Thurman, Ben Chaplin (97 min.)

“You and I combined make the perfect woman,” the beautiful Nicole (Thurman) tells her intelligent but comparatively plain friend Abby (Garofalo). “No,” Abby corrects her, “you and I combined make the perfect political prisoner. What we really do well is act self-righteous and starve.” This mainstream, largely conventional romantic comedy plays on the familiar Cyrano de Bergerac story, but it also asks some provocative questions about the expectations that accompany beauty—and its absence—in contemporary American life. Immediately following the screening, there will be a panel discussion on women, beauty, and self-esteem.

November 30 Beauty and the Beast 1991, dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise; voices of Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Angela Lansbury (84 min.)

Disney’s 1991 take on the familiar tale involves a beast condemned by his inability to treat others kindly, a studious heroine dismayed by the anti-intellectual culture around her, and an assortment of singing and dancing household items. The film—a richly drawn, smartly written tale of beauty and redemption—remains the only animated film to be nominated for Best Picture. The songs (including the Oscar-winning title song), written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, are a particularly clever delight.

Art at IPRH The IPRH continues its initiative on the visual arts with a series of exhibitions and related programming during the coming year. All works will be on display in the Humanities Lecture Hall, which is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays.

New Catalogue Artists Luke Batten and Jonathan Sadler

Brian Ulrich Photographer, Chicago

Forget What You Thought Was Beautiful

Melodramas of Consumption

September 14–October 27 Opening Reception: September 14, 7:00–9:00 p.m.

January 30–March 2 Opening Reception: January 30, 7:00–9:00 p.m.

Andy Ducett MFA 2006, School of Art and Design, UIUC

Melissa Pokorny Assistant Professor, School of Art

Conversations about Something

and Design, UIUC

October 31–December 8

Symagery March 13–May 11 Opening Reception: March 13, 7:00–9:00 p.m.

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2005–06 in Review The following events were organized by the IPRH during the 2005– 06 academic year. We would like to thank all of the participants, collaborators, and co-sponsors who made these events possible.

From Tel Aviv to Ramallah This performance by actor and “human beatbox” Yuri Lane and video artist Sharif Ezzat, written and directed by Rachel Havrelock, was performed at Allen Hall as a part of the trio’s residency at Unit One. The performance was followed by a discussion that was moderated by David McDonald (Musicology, UIUC). The event was co-sponsored by the Program in Jewish

Dust Memories, Aaron Hughes

Culture and Society and the Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, with additional support from the Office of the Chancellor, Allen

Art at IPRH

Hall/Unit One, and University High School.

I lloutuve wyou too: paintings and drawings (S.J. Hart, artist and co-director, OPENSOURCE Art)

Rethinking Secularism in an Age of Belief This one-day conference, co-organized by the IPRH and the Unit for

Belief, Wonders, and the Open Secrets of Nature (Janie Paul, Art and Design, University of Michigan)

Criticism and Interpretive Theory, featured speakers Dwight McBride

Two Years in the Midwest (Kim Curtis, artist, Champaign-Urbana)

(African American Studies, Northwestern), Saba Mahmood (Anthropology,

Spectacles of the Real: Truth and Representation in Art and Literature (group exhibition co-organized by IPRH and OPENSOURCE Art)

University of California, Berkeley), Gauri Viswanathan (English, Columbia University), and Michael Warner (English, Rutgers).

Dust Memories (Aaron Hughes, Art and Design, UIUC)

Spectacles of the Real: Truth

and Representation in Art and Literature

IPRH Film Series The film series screened eight films during the year. Panel discussions followed the screenings of The Passion of the Christ and Paris Is Burning.

One initiative, two exhibits, three panels . . . This ambitious collaboration between the IPRH and OPENSOURCE Art produced two simultaneous

Curtain Call Discussions at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

group exhibits of art by campus, local, and international artists, as well as panel discussions on Politics of the Real, Aesthetics of the Real, and

Ethel Pacifica Quartet Kronos Quartet

Literatures of the Real. Panelists included UIUC faculty from the arts and humanities, as well as visiting speakers Lawrence R. Rinder (California College of the Arts/Whitney Museum of American Art) and Hamza Walker (Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago).

Gallery Conversations at Krannert Art Museum

Panel Discussions

Balance and Power: Performance and Surveillance in Video Art Exhibit curator Michael Rush (The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University)

Mass Culture and Modernist Studies

Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator Exhibit curator Judith Hoos Fox (visiting curator, Krannert Art Museum)

The Place of the Arts in the 21st Century Academy

Uninterrupted Flux: Hedda Sterne Lawrence R. Rinder (California College of the Arts/Whitney Museum of American Art)

The Local and the Global in Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaadé Is Paris Burning? Understanding the Unrest The Anxious Monograph: A Report on Book Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Belief IPRH Eighth Annual Conference

Labor and the Humanities

March 30–31, 2006

Does the Nation Still Matter? Writing Histories for the 21st Century

Keynote Address: Sovereignty and Faith: The Politics of Belief Susan Buck-Morss (Political Philosophy and Social Theory, Cornell University)

Globalization and Literature: A Conversation with Richard Powers and Bruce Robbins

Conference Panels: Performing Belief across Nations Jews and Muslims in Thought and Action American Beliefs

Globalizing Abu Ghraib Power and Solidarity: Women of Color and 20th Century Social Movements

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Application Guidelines—UIUC Faculty Fellowship Awards Applications are invited from UIUC faculty members for selection as IPRH Faculty Fellows for the 2007–08 academic year.

The fellowship will provide release time for one semester in residence to enable Fellows to develop projects related to the broad theme of “Rupture;” to teach one course, at the undergraduate or graduate level, that is related to the fellowship project; and to participate in the year’s activities, including the yearlong interdisciplinary Fellows’ Seminar and the IPRH annual conference in the spring. The IPRH is especially interested in fostering interdisciplinary work, and encourages the submission of joint applications from faculty members in different disciplines.

Each applicant should submit two (2) complete sets of the following materials, in this order: •

A completed IPRH application form, including 100-word abstract (the form can be downloaded from the IPRH website)

•

A current curriculum vitae

•

A statement of 2,000 words describing the faculty member’s research on the proposed project

•

A description of the proposed course, including a tentative syllabus

The applicant should arrange for the IPRH to receive two (2) letters in support of the application, and a letter of support from the executive officer of the applicant’s primary department, attesting to the department’s willingness to release the applicant from all regular teaching duties other than thesis direction for one semester in 2007–08. (Executive officers of campus units who submit an application to the IPRH must include a letter from the dean of their college, approving the application and any release time that would result from a successful proposal.) Applicants should make certain that their teaching and research obligations do not prevent them from participating fully in IPRH activities, and should identify in the narrative statement any other applications being made for either sabbatical leave or for other campus or external grants and fellowships.

In the narrative statement, the applicant should describe his/her research in reasonable detail, explaining its relevance to the IPRH theme for 2007–08 and its significance to the broader scholarly community at UIUC and elsewhere. The statement should be prefaced by a project title and brief abstract (no more than 100 words). The statement should also indicate the applicant’s willingness to participate in IPRH activities, especially the annual conference and Fellows’ Seminar.

Applications being made for joint projects should include all of the elements required of faculty applicants as described above, with the exception of the following: each applicant should complete a copy of the IPRH application form; the narrative statement should be 3,000 words and jointly authored to address both the collaborative nature of the project and the individual strengths brought to it by each applicant; and each applicant should arrange to have two support letters and the letters from their department’s executive officer sent to the IPRH. If the applicants intend to teach a joint course, then one course proposal and sample syllabus should be submitted. If each applicant plans to teach an individual course, then the applicants should submit two course proposals and syllabi.

All IPRH Fellows are expected to maintain residency on the UIUC campus during the award year. Faculty members who have previously held an IPRH fellowship may not reapply to the IPRH for five years following the award year. Faculty members are likewise prohibited from holding IPRH fellowships and Center for Advanced Study, Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society, or other campus release-time awards simultaneously. Only full-time tenured and tenure-track UIUC faculty are eligible to apply for the awards.

Completed applications must be submitted, and letters of support must arrive by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 29, 2006. Be sure that both sets of application materials are assembled and complete, and proofread all submissions carefully; changes or additions cannot be made after the application has been submitted to the IPRH. Send all materials to: Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities 805 West Pennsylvania Avenue, MC-057 Urbana, Illinois 61801 Letters of support should be mailed to this address; sent via fax to (217) 333-9617; or e-mailed to Christine Catanzarite at catanzar@uiuc.edu.

For more information about the IPRH fellowship program, please contact Christine Catanzarite at (217) 244-7913 or catanzar@uiuc.edu. Awards will be announced on or around February 1, 2007.

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Application Guidelines—UIUC Graduate Student Fellowship Awards Applications are invited from UIUC graduate students for selection as IPRH Graduate Student Fellows for the 2007–08 academic year. The fellowship will enable advanced graduate students to develop their dissertations or research projects related to the theme of “Rupture;” and to participate in the year’s activities, including the yearlong interdisciplinary Fellows’ Seminar and the IPRH annual conference in the spring. Graduate Student Fellows receive a $7,000 stipend and a tuition/fee waiver if one is not otherwise provided.

Each applicant should submit two (2) complete sets of the following materials, in this order: •

A completed IPRH application form, including a 100-word abstract (form can be downloaded from the IPRH website)

•

A current curriculum vitae, including a list of all graduate courses taken, papers published, presentations made, and

assistantships and fellowships held •

All graduate transcripts (official copies in the first set of materials, and duplicate copies in the remaining set)

•

A statement of 2,000 words describing the student’s research on the proposed project, including preparation to

undertake this research and all progress on the project to date The applicant should arrange for the IPRH to receive two (2) letters in support of the application; these letters should speak to the applicant’s abilities and achievements, to his/her progress on the project, and to the intellectual value of the project itself. One of these letters must come from the faculty member supervising the student’s dissertation or equivalent research. Applicants should make certain that their teaching and research obligations do not prevent them from participating fully in IPRH activities, and should identify in the narrative statement any other applications being made for other campus or external grants and fellowships.

In the narrative statement, the applicant should describe his/her research in reasonable detail, explaining its relevance to the IPRH theme for 2007–08 and its significance to the broader scholarly community at UIUC and elsewhere. The statement should be prefaced by a project title and a brief abstract (no more than 100 words). The statement should also indicate the applicant’s willingness to participate in IPRH activities, especially the annual conference and the Fellows’ Seminar.

All IPRH Fellows are expected to maintain residency on the UIUC campus during the award year. Graduate students who have previously held an IPRH fellowship may not reapply. Graduate Student Fellows may also hold appointments as teaching/research assistants during the award year, but these appointments may not exceed one-third time (33 percent).

Graduate students may not hold an IPRH fellowship and a Center on Democracy fellowship, or any other similar campus or off-campus award, simultaneously.

Completed applications must be submitted, and letters of support must arrive by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 29, 2006. Be sure that both sets of application materials are assembled and complete, and proofread all submissions carefully; changes or additions cannot be made after the application has been submitted to the IPRH. Send all materials to: Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities 805 West Pennsylvania Avenue, MC-057 Urbana, Illinois 61801 Letters of support should be mailed to this address; sent via fax to (217) 333-9617; or e-mailed to Christine Catanzarite at catanzar@uiuc.edu.

Please note: The IPRH will sponsor a fellowship-writing workshop for graduate students on Tuesday, September 19 at 5:00 p.m. at the IPRH. This workshop, which is co-sponsored by the Graduate College, will address the elements of a successful fellowship or grant proposal, with special emphasis placed on proposals submitted for on-campus awards for humanities graduate students. The workshop is free and open to all UIUC graduate students; no advance registration is required.

For more information about the IPRH fellowship program, please contact Christine Catanzarite at (217) 244-7913 or catanzar@uiuc.edu. Awards will be announced on or around February 1, 2007.

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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 805 West Pennsylvania Avenue Urbana, Illinois 61801 www.iprh.uiuc.edu Telephone (217) 244-3344 Fax (217) 333-9617

IPRH Staff The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was established in 1997 to promote interdisciplinary study in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. The IPRH grants fellowships to UIUC faculty and graduate students, and to external post-doctoral scholars, who work in yearlong symposia on thematic topics such as “Cities,” “The South,” “Violence,” “Difference,” “Belief,” and the theme for 2006–07, “Beauty.” The program coordinates and hosts an annual conference, typically during the spring, coordinated with the annual theme and featuring presentations by the IPRH Fellows and an invited keynote speaker. The IPRH also provides financial support to faculty and graduate student reading groups, coordinates numerous lectures and panel discussions, sponsors exhibitions by campus and visiting artists in its lecture hall, and hosts a yearlong film series coordinated with the annual theme. Beginning in 2006–07, the IPRH will offer a free yearlong humanities course for members of the Champaign-Urbana community who live at or near the poverty level; this course, which is supported by UIUC and a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, will be taught by UIUC faculty. In addition to its own programming, the IPRH shares its resources with other university departments and programs, serving as a major co-sponsor of lectures, programs, and conferences on campus throughout the year and

Matti Bunzl, Director bunzl@uiuc.edu Christine Catanzarite, Associate Director catanzar@uiuc.edu John Marsh, Assistant Director jemarsh@uiuc.edu Pam Hall, Staff Secretary phall1@uiuc.edu Stephanie Uebelhoer, Secretary suebelho@uiuc.edu

IPRH advisory Committee 2006–07 Dale Bauer, English Marilyn Booth, Comparative and World Literature Augusto Espiritu, History Karen Fresco, French Stephen Hartnett, Speech Communication Barbara Kendrick, Art and Design Alejandro Lugo, Anthropology

coordinating its activities with other units wherever possible.

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