Marianne Ruel Robins

Marianne Ruel Robins Sabbatical Report (Fall 2002)

I had three stated goals, as well as eighteen unstated goals for my sabbatical. The stated goals appeared in my proposal in the following manner:

0. Write an article, based on my dissertation, that places primary emphasis on the question of the body (article already promised to the Bulletin de la Société d’Histoire du Protestantisme Français)1 1. Complete a historiographical study of the history of the body. 2. Write and submit an conference paper and an article for publication on the topic 3. Design a research project in the field and assemble the sources for this project

A- WHAT WAS THE PROPOSAL ABOUT?

Please, take the time to notice the numbers. Zero: Interestingly, I felt that the sabbatical had already somewhat of a late start (zero standing for what should already have been done). Two ones: the footnote is more telling the the description under number 1. In fact, the book was accepted for publication, but under such conditions that I withdrew the manuscript and have since then resubmitted it –a year later- to another publisher. The note, in itself, might have been enough of a sabbatical proposal. Missing numbers: my eighteen other goals are missing. Jonathan Wilson best summarized what these might have been when he dropped some leftover catlitter – leftover from their late cat- by my house and simply said that the personel committee did think that I shoud use this sabbatical to put my life back together –I just wish they had told me a bit early about this.

So what happened to this proposal? Goals 0 and 2 ended up blending into one project, albeit considerably modified; I abandoned goal 1 after realizing that much of this had already been done –and well done- in 199 by Roy Porter, in a seminal paper on the historiography of the body; and I simply failed to design a research project along the lines drawn in the proposal.

B- SO WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

I. I wrote and presented two papers during my sabbatical: - 1. In honor of Bernard Roussel’s retirement from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, was presented in october at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference held in Austin. it was well received, and I was encouraged to submit it for the Meyer Prize. The jury

1 By that time, the book manuscript based on the dissertation will have been submitted to Droz for review. I am currently about 6 weeks away from finishing the revisions for this manuscript. Professor Roussel suggested that the publication of such an article would be good publicity for the book, which he is confident will be accepted for publication. ranked it second –an honorable mention of sorts, but not one to be publicized. One of the members of the jury felt strongly enough to remind me to submit it for publication. -2. I wrote a lenghthy paper on the repression of gestures for presentation at the University of Paris I, to be part of a year-long study of the history of gestures. I presented this in November.

II. I met and reconnected with a number of scholars in my field, and this led to further thoughts on the feasibility of my researching in France in the near future –you might want to call this a reality check-, or on the wisdom of my choice of topic (the body)

III. I read copiously –at least copiously enough for my own taste- in the field of the history of the body, and decided to approach the readings from the standpoint of designing a class in this area. This in itself did let me know that my initial project was either too broad (the historiographical study of the body could keep me going for years, without yealding the kind of answers I was after), or too narrow given my circumstances (Calvinism and the body –there is literature on this, but the data necessary to answer the questions I was asking is not readily available), or simply porrly conceived given my methodological preferences (moving from the theoretical- that is, in this case, how historians have argued about the topic- to the evidence).

C- WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

I. I am still working on footnote 1. I resubmitted my dissertation manuscript for publication just last week –and I am waiting.

II. I have a topic, and a topic better designed to suit my inclinations as a historian. While the topic did not directly come out of the sabbatical research –it sort of came, as a result of encounters between the body and conversations with Betsy Morgan, my daughter Emma, and Michael Milway. I am now working on hair: Haircovering, hairsplitting, shaving, trimming, grabbing, this might sound sightly childish, but so did dancing, didn’t it?

III. I really should resubmit this paper delivered at the SCSC. I really should, since it sounds like some people liked it.

IV. My life is as back-together as it is likely to get –and I am thankful for this sabbatical in allowing me to get on my way to this point.