THE SEMIANNUAL NEWSLETTER OF THE ROBERT PENN WARREN CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES VOL. 18, NO. 2 • SPRING 2010 • VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

Racial Americanization: Conceptualizing African Immigrants in the U.S. Jemima Pierre

n October 2008, while in Washington, loyalty is to domestic over foreign policy, D.C., I attended a networking event spon - insisting, as one woman did, that “a lot of us Isored by the group, African Diaspora for are African, but a lot of us are also Ameri - Obama (ADO). Billed as a “happy hour cock - cans.” The duality of the “African” and tail” party, it was a place for young African “American” identities clearly emerges in the immigrants and “Diaspora Africans,” and pre - group’s recognition of its positioning along - sumably supporters of Barrack Obama’s can - side, and its overlapping experiences with, didacy for president of the United States, to members of the broader U.S. Black commu - come together to meet, mingle, and learn nity. For example, within its corpus of politi - more about the organization’s cultural and cal activities are also cultural events dedicated political goals. When I arrived at the venue— to understanding the Black experience in the a restaurant-bar in the Northwest, D. C. U.S., including celebrations of Black History area—I quickly found myself surrounded by a Month, town hall conversations about lively group of young professionals with cul - African-African diaspora relations, and pro - turally diverse backgrounds spanning histories grams to address stereotypes about Africa and from North America, the Caribbean, and people of African descent in the U.S. In my Africa. This was modern-day African Amer - research, I am interested in the implications of ica: a group of Black people who self-identi - ADO’s activities for understanding the poli - fied simultaneously as native to the U.S., as tics and dynamics of both African immigrant second- and third- and first- generation immi - identity formations, and U.S. social, cultural, grants, and as recent migrants. Yet, the diver - and political structures of incorporation. Jemima Pierre sity found in this type of gathering—a social While political organizing among immi - issues that emerge are not only on what it means networking event among young Black profes - grants is not new, ADO’s activities provide to be simultaneously African, American, and sionals in a large U.S. city—is not altogether scholars with insights into a distinct, if immigrant in a race-conscious society, but also remarkable, even while it is rarely acknowl - unknown, world of postcolonial African immi - how young Black immigrants are deliberately edged. Its recognition is crucial, I argue, when grant communities in the U.S. To be sure, a look constructing community and identity and, in considering African immigrant community around U.S. public life and culture reveals the and identity formation in the U.S. Neverthe - very bold if commonplace (albeit unacknowl - less, ADO’s self-conscious deployment of a edged) presence of Black immigrants in U.S. particular African immigrant and diasporic society—from popular culture figures such as Inside condition in the U.S. as both identity and rap artists Akon, Chamillionaire, and Wale, to Racial Americanization: Conceptualizing constituency for domestic political organizing the growing number of prominent NCAA col - African Immigrants in the U.S...... 1-4 is a significant development. lege athletes who are first generation immi - Warren Center Graduate Student Fellows According to its website, ADO organizers grants, to well-known movie stars such as Idris Program Expands to Include Visiting considered African (immigrant) communities Elba and Chiwetel Ejiofor, to politicians and Student from Belfast ...... 4 in the U.S. as a “unique and an important even academics. Yet, I am suggesting that the voting block,” and sought to tap its human experiences and activities of ADO and other Representing the United States: resources through a series of programs and organizations of young first- and second- gen - A Transatlantic Journey ...... 5-9 events that ranged from voter registration dri - eration African immigrants may offer a qualita - What We Are Writing ...... 9 ves and community forums to campaign tive shift in the ways that scholars have External Grants and Fellowships ...... 10 fundraisers. As citizens and residents, these understood the complex process of (Black) young people made clear that their primary immigrant incorporation. Specifically, the key

Letters • Spring 2010 • 1 Letters • Spring 2010 • 2 Letters • Spring 2010 • 3

turn, inevitably forcing the reshaping of the experience. I am spending my residence year immigrants. This Act also numerically miti - structural and historical differences between tendency to compare Black immigrant groups questions that aim to explore the issues of national and international terrain. For me, the at the Robert Penn Warren Center engaging gated the flow of immigrants from North and subordinated racial groups and Euro-Ameri - solely to native Blacks, o ften with the sugge - immigrant incorporation vivid in the migra - starting point of any analysis of postcolonial directly with these ongoing discussions of South America and the Caribbean. In turn, cans. What was lost in the fray was the reality stion that it is immigrants’ cultural distinctive - tion scholarship: How and when do African African immigrants in the U.S. should begin race, migration, (U.S.) national identity for - preference was given to highly-skilled profes - that European migration in the early 1900s ness—particularly their choice not to immigrants become aware of the assimilation with the following baseline understanding of: mation, and diasporic belonging. sionals primarily to Asia, but also to Africa. could not compare to the forced migration assimilate into African American culture— or incorporation “options” available to them? (1) the inextricable relationship between racial - This project provides an important response This change in U.S. immigration policy dras - through military conquest, violent enslavement, that determines economic success (Kasinitz Do African immigrants have differing concep - ization and “Americanization”; and (2) the to the dearth of critical investigation into the tically shifted the racial and cultural composi - and the combined subjugation of people of 1992; Stafford 1987; Vickerman 1999; Waters tions of race and identity? How do Black recognition that U.S. Black populations have experiences of postcolonial Africans in the U.S. tion of immigrants. African immigrants color. The celebration of ethnicity blurred these 1994; 1999). A prominent feature of this immigrant experiences with race interact with always been ethnically and culturally diverse. who, along with Caribbean immigrants, cur - indeed benefited from this liberalization of crucial differences and entailed blindness to scholarship is the comparison of Black immi - other identities such as nation, gender, class, My book project, which is tentatively rently constitutes the largest flow of foreign- U.S. immigration policy, although those from both structural racism and the reality that “eth - grants and Black Americans often with the and sexuality? How do we compare the titled, “Racial Americanization: Conceptualiz - born Blacks to the U.S. (Dodoo 1997; Dodoo the Caribbean saw the largest increase in nic” identity is circumscribed within processes assumption that the relative educational and migration experiences of continental Africans ing African Immigrants in the U.S.,” is an and Takyi 2002). Although there has been vol - numbers beginning in the late 1970s because of racial formation. Also missing in the expla - economic “success” of Black immigrants can and other Blacks from the Caribbean? How ethnographic examination of how postcolonial untary migration of Black people to the U.S. of natural growth and family reunification nations of immigrant incorporation was the be used to measure the significance of race in do the children of these migrants negotiate life Africans, as Black immigrants, are negotiating since the end of the slave trade, Black immi - laws. In the past two decades, however, the recognition that the ability of European immi - the U.S. In other words, if race is considered as both “Black American” and second- and the dynamics of life in a society structured by grants have only recently begun to receive schol - number of postcolonial African immigrants grants to become incorporated into United to be the great impediment to the full incor - third- generation Black immigrant? Given the changing processes of racialization. By racial - arly attention. I believe that this relative lack of has outpaced those from the Caribbean, grow - States society was directly linked to the group’s poration of native Blacks into the U.S. nation, racial categorization of Africans as “Black,” ization I mean the historical processes that attention has two sources. First, more than any ing exponentially with estimates in population ability to “become white” (or assert whiteness) then how do we explain the relative success of how do we analyze the ways this categoriza - give race its social, cultural, and political other factor , there are the political and cultural now in the range of more than 1.4 million in a white supremacist society (Allen 1994; racialized Black immigrant? Following the tion come s into dialogue with the national meaning and that determine how such mean - contours of U.S. racial formations that prevent (Terrazas 2009). Significantly, African immi - Ignatiev 1995; Lipsitz 1998; Roediger 1991; logic of earlier scholarship on European and cultural diversity of such immigrants? ing is deployed ideologically and through vari - recognition of ethno-cultural diversity among grants continue to make up the lowest num - Brodkin 1999). migrants, success is often linked to the pre - What impact does African immigrant experi - ous practices and institutions. It is the the Black population. U.S. Blacks were (and are) ber of immigrants allowed in the U.S. (3.7% By the mid-twentieth century, the Euro - sumed social capital of the immigrant, the ence have on U.S. processes of racialization? ongoing (re)creation of new meanings, group - primarily identified by their racial identity, an of all immigrant groups in the country). At pean immigrant experience soon came to serve Black immigrant’s ability to maintain his/her How would such analysis help us better ings and associations between a racial hierar - identity that is framed by the historical “one- the same time, postcolonial African immi - as the controlling model for understanding cultural distinction against the homogenizing understand U.S. racial processes, as well as the chy and the categories it comprises, and an drop rule” and maintained through various grants have been said to be distinct from all the incorporation of all groups into U.S. soci - force of assimilation into Black America. ways those categorized as “Black” respond to undeniable dimension of new immigrant institutions and practices, including knowledge other immigrant groups—they are the most ety, particularly non-white native-born Here, immigrant ethno-cultural identity—the such processes? These set of questions rests on experiences in the U.S. While it is true that production. It is through this “racial knowledge highly-educated group of immigrants, with groups. In this context, U.S.-born Blacks were cultural attributes brought to bear upon U.S. the well-known reality that post-1965 African racialization, though global, pervades U.S. production” (Goldberg 1994) that we find the two of every five adults with a bachelor’s often taken to be the limit of “Americaniza - society—is praised because it prevents assimi - immigrants are the most highly educated society and shapes identities, contemporary second source of the difficulty is exploring Black degree or higher; yet, they have not generally tion”; as natives, their inability to be fully inte - lation (since assimilation for a group racialized group in the U.S. (they are more educated research both on Sub-Saharan Africa and on immigrant experiences in the U.S.: the theoret - followed the trajectory of “assimilation” as grated into the nation was consistently linked as Black, would have to mean assimilation than both White and non-White U.S.-born Black immigrants suggests that racial identity ical and epistemological framing of “immigra - other (most notably early twentieth-century to their perceived inability to absorb, as white into native Black America. My research pro - groups and other immigrant groups) and yet is often tied, or subordinated to, other identi - tion” studies where “Blackness” is taken as the European) immigrants. immigrants did, “American culture.” Here ject, however, begins with another question as have not received the comparable level of fications such as nation, culture, and religion. particular (and peculiar) test case for new (pri - From the early 1980s, Black immigration Black Americans could hardly compete. They a point of departure: In a context where to income, nor the social or political capital that How does migration to the U.S., then, impact marily non-Black) immigrant incorporation. research focused on the Caribbean population were considered not to possess the necessary become “American” generally means to would ensure the similar trajectories of “assi - postcolonial African identity formation? And, In strategies implicit and explicit, new residing in major cities in the U.S. such as New cultural capital (ethnicity) for incorporation. become “white”—and where Black immigrant milation” as other (most notably early twenti - given the unrelenting diametric positioning of immigrants in the U.S. are invariably com - York, Miami, and Boston. With Black immi - What was often not considered, however, was experiences are positioned at the center of eth- century European) immigrants (Cross “whiteness” and “blackness” in the U.S.— pared to native Blacks—presented as the ever grants, migration scholars had to contend the broader context of U.S. racial formations (white and non-white) immigrant assimilation 1994; Dodoo and Takyi 2002; Pierre 2004; manifest particularly through the unresolved inassimilable Other—to determine capacity directly with the significance of an explicit where racialization always already shape and Black American exclusion—what options Speer 1995; Takougang 2002). and incomplete incorporation of formerly for “assimilation.” Under such circumstances, racialization (“Blackness”) for these groups. Ear - (indeed, flatten) immigrants’ sociopolitical are available for racially Black immigrants for I hope to provide a critical detailed analy - enslaved Africans against the consolidation of it becomes epistemologically and methodolog - lier migration scholarship emphasized the reality. In other words, it is because options incorporation into U.S. society? sis of the lived experiences of postcolonial whiteness through absorption of early twenti - ically difficult to address both intra-racial assimilation options for new European immi - for assimilation are racially structured that dif - “Racial Americanization” is based on ongo - Africans that explores quotidian social eth-century European migration—how does Black diversity and explore Blacks as immi - grants in the U.S. For these early twentieth-cen - ferent immigrant groups have different incor - ing ethnographic research and data collected processes while keeping front and center the the racial structuring of these contemporary grants. This was exactly Roy Bryce-Laporte’s tury white European immigrants, this meant a poration experiences. over five years among multi-generational structures of racial Americanization. A most Black immigrants affect individual and collec - (1972) concern when he referred to Black spotlight on notions of “ethnicity,” where the Contemporary research and writing on African immigrant groups in Washington, D. important aspect of the project is the attempt tive ideas about citizenship and identity in this immigrants as virtually “invisible” in U.S. concern with absorbing such immigrants into Black immigrants has followed a similar tra - C. and Houston, Texas. In addition to partici - to develop analysis of African immigrant expe - country? Moreover, how does the voluntary society as well as in the migration and socio - the “American” nation assumed the rearticula - jectory to earlier migration scholarship with a pant observation in various community orga - rience in the U.S. that both shifts the discus - migration of Africans impact theorization of logical scholarship. Thus, while the presence tion of distinct immigrant cultures into a puta - focus on “assimilation” and incorporation that nizations, my research also covers a range of sion from the assimilation logic of earlier the African diaspora that place the Transat - of Black immigrants has been well-known tively integrated “American” society. This reflect the theoretical conclusions of that era. institutional activities—from the Smithsonian migration research and moves beyond cultural lantic Slave Trade at the center of Black dias - among U.S. Black communities over the past direction in research was buttressed by the Because Black immigrants are “Black” in race- Institution’s Folklife Festival on African immi - comparisons of this group solely with Black poric identity? I contend that a century, and even documented within early broader social science deployment of “ethnicity” conscious U.S. society, most of the scholarly grants and its “Africa Hall,” to local city poli - American identities. This has entailed a differ - multi-dimensional study of contemporary twentieth-century African American fictional which emerged at the turn of the century to work on this population has focused on the tics that incorporate immigrants into ent scholarly perspective, one that forces con - African immigrants provides an important and non-fiction texts (see Reid 1939; McKay replace biological notions of race in the age of formation and negotiation of immigrant discussions of such issues as urban racial and crete engagement with U.S. racial formations, case study for exploring both U.S. racial and 1928; Cox 1948), this historical and sociolog - the scientific positivism and the eugenics move - racial, ethnic, and national identities in the economic segregation. I use a multi-method particularly exploring the contours of “Ameri - cultural dynamics and the transnational poli - ical fact remained unacknowledged within ment. Ethnicity appealed to cultural and new place of settlement, particularly stressing approach to data collecting—including partic - canization” for non-white immigrants. My tics of the African diaspora. Indeed, postcolo - broader academic discussions. national differences among European immi - racial discrimination as a key aspect of life in ipant observation, open-ended and semi-struc - research so far has demonstrated that scholars nial African immigration into a society Most of the social science interest on Black grants, stressing the expressive, subjective, and the U.S. (Foner 1987; Halter 1993; Kasinitz tured interviews, and archival research—and have to pay detailed attention to the often structured through the complex histories of immigration came after the passage of the internal cultural processes of group formation. 1992; Vickerman 1999; Waters 1999). Signi - my research questions incorporated both unequal ways that immigrants, who are seen race- and diaspora-formation presents new Hart-Cellar Immigration Reform Act of 1965, Notably, the focus of ethnicity was to make ficantly, scholars who focus on Black immig - intra-racial comparisons and immigrant nego - as “Black” (and non-white, more generally) are theoretical propositions for the ways we which partially abolished the quota system everyone “ethnic” of some sort, homogenizing rants do so in ways that generate a particular tiations with broader social and political struc - inser ted into the U.S. racial system. As well, I approach immigration and the American that gave preferences to northern European the ethnic identity processes and erasing the set of theoretical conclusions. First, there is a tures. I structure the research around a set of contend that we need to have a more in-depth Letters • Spring 2010 • 4 Letters • Spring 2010 • 5 Representing the United States: A Transatlantic Journey Edward H. Friedman exploration of how differences in “racial” and other immigrant and native communities, and race relations in general, and U.S. (and global) f all goes according to schedule, I will spend bonds. Ironically, perhaps, a predecessor to all hypocrisy—is a historical figure, the lawyer Roy “ethnic” identity interact to impact the experi - most importantly within the community Black populations in particular. U.S. Black the spring semester of 2010 in Madrid, these plays—and, arguably, the American play Cohn, associate of Senator Joseph McCarthy in ences of immigrants who are seen—and often itself. Overall, this kind of focus on Black populations have never been homogeneous Iwhere I will conduct research and teach in most read in U.S. schools—is Thornton the hearings of the House Un-American Activi - treated—as racially similar to African Ameri - immigrants s hould allow us to bring together and the rise in the number of Black immi - the department of English Philology at the Uni - Wilder’s Our Town , first produced in 1938, ties Committee and a prosecutor of Julius and cans, but are culturally (ethnically) distinct discussions on racial formation, the special grants should no doubt affect the nature of versity of Madrid. My focus will be on twenti - which takes place in the wholesome, if not exces - Ethel Rosenberg for treason. (Ethel Rosenberg (Pierre 2004). Because African immigrants are positions of Blackness (in relation to whiteness research, particularly as race remains one of eth-century American literature and culture. sively idealized, setting of middle America. The appears in Part II: Perestroika .) At the other end assigned a racial identity as “Black,” which pla - and Americanization), and immigration. the most (if not the most) important aspect of Planning the course and some lectures in con - close-knit and stable Webb and Gibbs families are a caring and confused mother from the state ces them in direct relation—and sometimes in social relations in this country—relations that junction with my stay, I have had to consider a live, die, and teach the audience lessons about of Utah and an angel who juxtaposes the events competition—with U.S.-born Blacks, research *** postcolonial African immigrants have no perspective that is somewhat new to me: describ - the beauty and the precariousness of existence. onstage with the beyond. Seemingly disparate on this group needs to move beyond the one- A young Ghanaian immigrant recently told choice but to confront. How they do so, and ing the United States to Spaniards. I have Their moderation is frequently “undone” by lives and circumstances intersect and produce way and narrow intra-racial comparisons to a reporter that Obama “is the bridge because the effects of such confrontation, are impor - decided to work with the concept of culture from their successors. change. The protagonist is Prior Walter, brought broader issues of immigrant challenge and [he] combines the immigrant experience—his tant issues for migration studies. As one of few the margins . What follows is part of one mani - One could trace, then, a history of dysfunc - down by AIDS and by the rejection of his part - negotiation of social and political constraints. father was Kenyan, part of the vanguard of a detailed ethnographic studies of postcolonial festation of this project, selections from a paper tional families at the core of American drama. ner Louis Ironson, who cannot deal with the I am arguing that contemporary African bourgeoning African immigration in the last African immigrants in the U.S., “Racial Amer - entitled “The Margin as Center in U.S. Theater: What I want to look at here is another phe - effects of the illness. It is Prior who sees the angel immigrants to the U.S. provide an important 30 years—and the American black experience” icanization: Conceptualizing African Immi - A View from Left Field,” for a Madrid audience. nomenon that affects the creation of theater in and who fights on. Angels in America has sub - case study for understanding how race—along (Braun 2009). How do migration scholars grants in the U.S.” aims to contribute to the If specialists in theater were requested to the United States: plays that move away from the stance in every facet. The panoramic vision with its relationship to gender, class, sexuality, engage such currently popular sentiment? And growing scholarship on immigrant confronta - name the masterworks produced in the United traditional family to reflect an alternate dynam - encompasses the temperament of the nation and nationality—remains one of the key what can we learn about exploring its histori - tion with national and global economic, cul - States in the twentieth century, it is highly likely ics, outside of marriage. One object of this trans - from the vantage point of the margins. The determinants of immigrant incorporation in cal and contemporary meanings? My personal tural, and social processes. that Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into fer is the gay community, wherein familial guiding sensibility is a conscious “deviation” this society. My book project explores various experiences as a Haitian immigrant, and my Night and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman relations are replaced by something like—yet from the mainstream, but as the title of Part I levels of African immigrant engagement with ongoing research, have thus far shown me that Jemima Pierre is the 2009-2010 William S. would be at the top of the list, along with—or unlike—the intimacies and the dissensions of suggests, the Millennium Approaches for all. U.S. society. This includes, but is not limited understanding Black immigrant identity for - Vaughn Visiting Fellow and is an assistant pro - followed closely by—Tennessee Williams’s A earlier plays. Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Kushner mixes the dire consequences of the epi - to, relationships with African Americans, with mation within larger contexts creates the space fessor of anthropology at the University of Texas Streetcar Named Desire and Edward Albee’s Who’s Band , of 1968, brings together—for a birthday demic with an emphasis on something more state and federal actors and institutions, with for a more dynamic discussion of both U.S. at Austin. Afraid of Virginia Woolf? These are particularly celebration—a representative group, or what than justice and something less than poetic jus - “American” plays, each offering a distinct view some might call a rogue’s gallery, of homosexual tice, and with humor as ingenious as it is dark. of family life and a unique and powerful dra - men. The work is daring in its content and in its In the plays—like Don Quixote , two texts often matic discourse. Their underlying themes are language, and it helps to open the space of U.S. thought of as one—the life force battles death Warren Center Graduate Student Fellows Program universal, but their idiom—in a multiple sense theater at a time in which the subject of alterity, and wins. of the term—has a national inflection. Theater in its countless manifestations, holds enormous The operating premise of looking at culture Expands to Include Visiting Student from Belfast depends on conflict , of course, and the default interest to scholars of culture. That momentous from the margins, borrowed from poststruc - position, as it were, of the great American plays shift is an offshoot of the repeal of laws in which turalism and appropriated by theory in the after - doctoral student in English literature; her disser - he Warren Center’s annual Graduate is the dysfunctional family, as the characters deal “sex perversion,” of which homosexuality was math of poststructuralism, is that (1) distance tation examines religion and theology in con - Student Fellows Program awards sup - with alcoholism, drug addiction, career failure, regarded to be a part, could not be portrayed on allows for an invigorated perspectivism and for temporary northern Irish poetry. McConnell is T port to seven Vanderbilt graduate stu - infidelity, and deception, to consider the stage. Sadly, one must distinguish between pre- the inclusion of those perspectives that have, very grateful for the receipt of the fellowship dents from various disciplines in the Tyrones and the Lomans alone. The blending of AIDS and post-AIDS drama, with plays such as whether consciously or unconsciously, been and for her time at the Warren Center. “You’re humanities and qualitative social sciences, Dubois and Kowalski blood in Streetcar pairs Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy and elided from the public record; (2) elaboration of exposed to interdisciplinary perspectives that enabling them to focus on completing their dis - Southern aristocracy with peasant stock, a William Finn and James Lapine’s musical Falset - the underlying rhetoric of any phenomenon dis - enrich the way you read and write,” she com - sertations during the year without the need for decaying feeling of entitlement with the tos in the first category, and William Hoffman’s plays its constructedness , its internal and mented. The Warren Center looks forward to a employment. One afternoon a week the Napoleonic code, the source of Stanley’s paean As Is and Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart at inevitable ideological base; and (3) analysis per - fruitful partnership with Queen’s University, nascent scholars—armed with dissertation to democracy. Albee names his characters the forefront of the second. If I were asked to mits one to note the dialectical exchange Belfast, and the trans-Atlantic collaboration that excerpts and a pot of coffee—meet at the War - George and Martha, evoking President and Mrs. name the single most outstanding play of the last between a stable text and shifting, or unstable, will ensue. ren Center both to critique and support each Washington. Analogously, the protagonists of forty years, my choice would be Tony Kushner’s interpretations. Texts such as Toni Morrison’s The Warren Center’s Graduate Student Fel - others’ research and writing. Sticks and Bones , David Rabe’s shattering drama two-part Angels in America , which, to my mind, The Bluest Eye and Angels in America —unequiv - lows Program, now in its fourth year, has been a The Warren Center has recently entered a about a blinded veteran of the Vietnam War, are captures the spirit of the United States as it ocally revisionist texts—present a whole through tremendous success and is one of the most new three-year agreement with Queen’s Univer - named Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Ricky, after approached the new millennium, in a way that a redistribution of the parts . They depict Amer - sought-after fellowships in the humanities and sity in Belfast to expand the seminar to include the Nelsons, one of the first families of television is remarkably comprehensive and idiosyncratic, ica. Discrimination, distorted judgments, and the qualitative social sciences in the College of one graduate student in the humanities or qual - situation comedy. A significant number of plays that both fits with a brand of poststructuralist disease may have been omitted from—or under - Arts and Science. “Dissertation writing can be a itative social sciences from Queen’s in the about strongly dysfunctional American families, decentering and recognizes old values with new, estimated in—a majority of historical and liter - very lonely process,” says Gesa Frömming, a annual program. The selection process for the Gail McConnell including, for example, Sam Shepard’s Buried as it posits the authority of government, religion, ary documents, but they are fundamental to a 2009-10 graduate student fellow and a doctoral visiting graduate student fellow includes a com - Child of 1978 and Tracy Letts’s August: Osage law, the medical establishment, and, last but complete history of the United States, and writ - candidate in German. “You are alone with your workshops with faculty members in multiple mittee from Queen’s University in addition to County of 2007, have won the Pulitzer Prize for hardly least, the family. ers such as Morrison and Kushner recognize the thoughts, with your adviser as your only reader. fields of study. The fellowship program con - the Warren Center’s Executive Committee. drama. Playwrights such as Lorraine Hansberry, Angels in America is a virtual roadmap of importance of the graft , the supplement . As a fellow, you have to be comfortable making cludes with a valuable professional experience as The participation of a student from Queen’s Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, Beth Henley, American society. Two key characters—one on The plays that I chose for my courses have your work clear to others, which is a huge help each Graduate Student Fellow presents a widely- will give the young scholars the opportunity to August Wilson, Donald Margulies, and David the far left and the other on the far right—suf - clearly American settings and focal points. To in clarifying what you are thinking.” advertised public lecture during the spring term. create scholarly global connections at an early Lindsay-Abaire, among many others and in rad - fer from AIDS. Protestants, including Mor - give several examples: Lorraine Hansberry’s A Immersion in the center’s larger interdiscipli - Currently, three of the Graduate Student Fel - point in their careers. ically different contexts, have shown families in mons, merge with Jews, closeted gays with those Raisin in the Sun revolves around an African- nary scholarly community is also an integral lowships are named: the Mary and Joe Harper Gail McConnell has joined the Graduate various degrees of crisis and essentially have who are “out” and proud. A major player—the American family’s version of an American part of the fellowship: graduate students may Fellow; the American Studies Fellow; and the Student Fellows Program this year as the first redefined or deconstructed the myth of familial clearest antagonist, and the embodiment of dream—to buy a home in the suburbs—when visitor from Queen’s University. McConnell is a co-direct or join seminars, study groups, and George J. Graham Jr. Fellow. Letters • Spring 2010 • 6 Letters • Spring 2010 • 7

the prospective neighbors fear that their prop - These plays are aesthetic objects, to be sure, and The Laramie Project is a drama based on a real course with a technique that accentuates process , of the student Jedadiah Schultz, a life-long resi - by Albert Von Tilzer. The title Take Me Out erty values and the “complexion” of the area will worthy of study as such, but in the age of Barack event, the slaying of Matthew Shepard, a the making of the play. The writers shape—or dent of Wyoming. Schultz wanted to study the - evokes the song, and out , as in “out of the closet,” suffer. Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy puts for - Obama, Sarah Palin, Sonia Sotomayor, eco - twenty-one-year-old gay student at the Univer - reshape—the story events, through a practice ater, but his parents could not afford to finance alludes to the decision to no longer hide one’s sex - ward another, more intimate portrait of race nomic woes, continued setbacks for minorities, sity of Wyoming in Laramie by two men who that the historian Hayden White designates as his college education without a scholarship. He ual orientation. That “contamination” is the relations between an elderly Southern Jewish the swine flu, etc., etc., they are, by all means, offered him a ride in their vehicle after meeting emplotment (83). The raw material (from over decided to enter a competition, and he needed starting point of Greenberg’s play, which places lady and her paid chauffeur, a black man of wis - relevant as cultural artifacts. him in a bar. They beat him, tied him to a fence, two-hundred interviews, journals, and other what he describes as a “killer scene.” He con - the sanctity of the American ideal against, dom and quiet dignity. The title character of I would like to focus on two plays that I believe and abandoned him. He was discovered the next sources) is converted into dramatic form, devel - sulted with a professor, who recommended a euphemistically stated, a major-league distrac - Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles is an are exceptional works for the stage, shining exam - day and rushed to a hospital, where he died a few oped into a plot that is simultaneously true and scene from Angels in America . When Jedadiah— tion. As its title implies, Take Me Out derives independent professional woman caught in the ples of U.S. culture “from the margins” (which, days later. Moisés Kaufman, who was born and fabricated, documentable and artistically pre - who is not gay—gave his parents the details of strength from mixed metaphors (or maybe glory, the anguish, and the skirmishes of the of course, must be deemed margins transformed raised in Caracas, Venezuela and has lived in the meditated, with a theater audience in mind. the competition, they refused to sanction his mixed metonyms). Like Angels in America and Women’s Liberation Movement. Rebecca into centers ), and, I would submit, fitting heirs to United States since 1987, traveled with mem - There is astonishing depth to the play, which choice, and stayed away. His performance The Laramie Project , Take Me Out scrutinizes the Gilman’s Spinning into Butter takes place on a Angels in America and to the playwrights who bers of the Tectonic Theater Project to takes into account a range of viewpoints and received a standing ovation, and he won the myths of America through a course of demysti - college campus and interrogates the program of influenced Tony Kushner. They are The Laramie Laramie—starting in November of 1998, one demonstrates that the periphery can contain scholarship. At the conclusion of the play, it is fication. To his credit, Greenberg—whose con - Affirmative Action. John Patrick Shanley’s Project , of 2001, credited to Moisés Kaufman and month after the incident—to interview people invaluable clues to the heart of America and that revealed that one of the interviewees, a drama cept may have been inspired, in part, by Finn’s Doubt examines the Catholic Church’s attitude the Members of Tectonic Theater Project, and and to attend the trial of the men accused of the very little in life is unpolemical. professor at the University of Wyoming, would Falsettos —does not pamper his audience, nor toward priests accused of child-molesting. Take Me Out , of 2002, by Richard Greenberg. kidnapping, the attack, and the death of the Built to coincide with railroad stops, the be producing Angels in America , and, in the epi - does he tender ready-made answers to the ques - young victim. They spent well over a year on the towns in Wyoming generally are far apart, so logue, that Jedadiah Schultz was cast in the role tions that he poses, questions that seem to strive task. The murder—obviously a hate crime— within a given locale there is a certain familiar - of Prior Walter. Some of the team members saw to keep one off-balance. received a tremendous amount of attention in ity. As the home of the University of Wyoming, the play on their last trip to Laramie. This con - The protagonist of Take Me Out is Darren “Between Word and Image” the national media. The situation placed the Laramie has a combination of ranchers, work - vergence of life and art becomes a microcosm of Lemming, a star center fielder for the fictional quiet and modestly populated city of Laramie ers, students, faculty, and staff. The population the play as a whole, as things come full circle but New York Empires. Not only does the position under scrutiny and led to self-examination and of the city is, at present, between 27,000 and do not end. relate him to stars such as Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, accusations. It must be noted that, despite a con - 28,000, and the university has about 12,000 Tony Kushner subtitles Angels in America “A Earle Combs, Joe DiMaggio, Duke Snider, siderable outcry against the perpetrators, public full-time and part-time students. Long-term Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” The Laramie Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays, but center sympathy was not exclusively on the side of residents cross with faculty who come from a Project and Take Me Out explore national themes, field is emblematic of Lemming’s heroic status, Matthew Shepard. There will always be those variety of backgrounds and with students who as well, but each is a different story altogether. the adoration that greets him, and the ease with who want to blame the queer, the “faggot” who are, by the nature of their stay, transient. Laramie Richard Greenberg sets Take Me Out in an all- which he achieves greatness. He has a white cannot keep his sexual preferences to himself, is, by no means, a hub of diversity, but it is not American territory, that of baseball, known as the father and a black mother, a middle-class back - who likely provoked two heterosexuals to do homogeneous, and the interviewees address the national pastime . Baseball players are national ground, and a résumé that does not include the violence to him. There is even a name for this: questions raised from liberal to reactionary heroes: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, suffering of African American players who pre - gay panic. Kaufman and his colleagues entered extremes, and from an array of points in- Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, ceded him. He is handsome, virile, triumphant, into this terrain, literally and figuratively speak - between. Some are clearly pro-gay, some are gays Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken, Jr., eminently confident, and, ultimately, over-con - ing, to cover the story from its diverse angles. and lesbians, others adhere to a policy of “live Derek Jeter, and on, and on. Football and bas - fident. The play is about the consequences of a Not only is this a crucial and intriguing and let live,” still others seem to prefer to be kept ketball have dimmed some of the special light of decentering statement, Darren Lemming’s com - story—a story of several margins, geographical in the dark about homosexuality, and there are baseball, but the sport still has its fans, its “fanat - ment to the press that he is gay, a comment that and political, and of margins within margins— those who argue that religious doctrine con - ics,” and much of its former luster. Baseball is a sets into motion a string of events that affect him but it unites dramatic invention with the gath - demns such sinful practices, an argument that at manly sport. Women and girls play softball; men and those around him. The manly sport is dis - ering of data, reporting, giving voice to times genuinely stems from theology and at play hardball. The playing field and the locker rupted by the intrusion of the unmanly; the individuals who are not usually newsmakers, times employs theology to condone hatred. The room are sites of exclusivity, of companionship, legacy of original sin enters the locker room, and and the mixing of residents of Laramie with— play underscores the motif—and the conven - of male bonding. Baseball is a favorite subject of the center fielder, to his surprise, finds himself and I use the term in a generic or metonymical tion—of associations , strongly felt in the United fiction and nonfiction. There are a good many in the margins. Lemming is so secure in his way—“New Yorkers,” with all the implications States. One can have a large set of affiliations, films about baseball, from biographies to dramas celebrity and in his fans’ devotion—his air of thereof. The interconnected narrators and nar - classified by ethnicity, religion, age, gender, and comedies. Kevin Costner alone stars in Bull invincibility—that he cannot fathom a decline ratives are highlighted and supporting actors, place of birth, region, sexual orientation, polit - Durham and Field of Dreams , Robert De Niro in in his popularity. He feels safe to say whatever The 2006/2007 Warren Center Fellows, who linked by and to Matthew Shepard the man, the ical party, and positions on social matters, as well Bang the Drum Slowly , and Robert Redford in he chooses. As the play opens, he has just com - examined the theme “Between Word and symbol, the absence, the presence. The speakers as by sports, hobbies, schools or colleges, or even The Natural , to name but a few. Baseball is far mitted the public relations error, and the three Image,” invited artist Erika Johnson to join are townspeople, students, teachers, members of tastes in music and the arts. The Laramie Project less prevalent in the theater. Perhaps the most acts treat reactions on all sides. them in their weekly seminar meetings. Based the clergy, medical personnel, officers of the law, is about identity, real and perceived, about the famous Broadway treatment of baseball in the A fellow ballplayer, Kippy Sunderstrom, a on her experiences with the interdisciplinary friends of Matthew Shepard and friends of his justice system, and about how people react when twentieth century is the musical comedy Damn Stanford graduate known as the smartest man in conversations, she created a piece of art that is attackers, gay, lesbian, straight, pro-gay, anti- pushed out their comfort zone. Some respond Yankees (by George Abbott and Douglass Wal - baseball, becomes a choral presence, delivering her visual representation of the group’s scholarly gay, open-minded, closed-minded, and actively, heroically; others, as cowards. Dennis lop, with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and exposition and commentary on what he repeat - work. Above are images from her Warren Cen - Matthew Shepard’s father Dennis, who in the Shepard proclaims his son to be a hero, a “win - Jerry Ross), from 1955, a retelling of the Faust edly calls “the mess,” and interacting with Lem - ter installation, which is entitled “Between play’s climax reads an eloquent statement at the ner,” and it is because of Matthew’s character legend set in the realm of major league baseball ming. Sunderstrom ponders the irony of the Image and Word.” Johnson described the piece sentencing against capital punishment for that he seeks mercy for the killer. Kaufman and and the World Series. Incredible, but true. You dilemma: Lemming was under no threat; he as “a visual engagement of texts and ideas circu - Aaron McKinney, who was found guilty of first- his team guide the spectator through the events, might be familiar with the most famous song “wasn’t on the verge of being outed” ( Take Me Out lated among scholars in the 2006/2007 Warren degree felony murder. The dramatis personae of as gentle and committed intruders in a city that from the show, “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola 20), but—ignoring the fundamental law of Center fellows’ seminar.” The Laramie Project also include Moisés Kauf - ceases to lie in the margins. Gets.” Greenberg has in mind another song, superstardom—he somehow feels that he should man and his collaborators, so that the finished One of the many extraordinarily striking “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” a classic from be able to keep his public and private lives sepa - product joins stark realism and unmediated dis - anecdotes of The Laramie Project is the account 1908, with lyrics by Jack Norworth and music rate, that he should be able to “just play ball” (9). Letters • Spring 2010 • 8 Letters • Spring 2010 • 9

What We Are Writing

That is not going to happen, however. Jealousy Darren Lemming has a close friend, Davey through his growing enthusiasm for the science, hat books are our colleagues in John Webster. The Duchess of Malfi , edited by Robert Talisse. Democracy and Moral Conflict . rears its ugly head. So does heterosexual anxiety. Battle, an African American player on another statistics, and suspense of baseball, which he the College of Arts and Science Leah Marcus . A&C Black Publishers. Cambridge University Press. Players are naked in the locker room, and they team, a married man with three children. One begins to think about on metaphysical, theo - W writing and editing? LETTERS now fear the predatory nature of the homosexual. week before Lemming’s announcement, Battle logical, and existential planes. Baseball becomes, has asked Vanderbilt University’s humanities Jeff Brown and Larry May, co-editors. Philos - Rachel Teukolsky . The Literate Eye: Victorian They are made vulnerable, their own sexuality tries to convince him to love, to go beyond his improbably, his obsession, his essence. He and social sciences departments to share their ophy of Law . Blackwell Publishers. Art Writing and Modernist Aesthetics . Oxford jeopardized. Although Lemming at first appears “charm” in order to know his “true nature.” The declares, “Baseball is … unre lent ingly mean ing - faculty members’ 2009 publications. Their University Press. to be unphased by the commotion, his miscalcu - dialogue is ambiguous, replete with sexual ten - ful” (68). The play opened on Broadway in Feb - answers give us a glimpse into an active and Zachary Hoskins and Larry May , co-editors. lation has a domino effect that begets tragedy. His sion, or perhaps not, but it seems to have an ruary of 2003 to critical acclaim. The actors were diverse scholarly community. International Criminal Law and Philosophy . Cecelia Tichi. Civic Passions: Seven Who hubris is evident from beginning to end. He sim - impact on Lemming. The first time Lemming praised, individually and collectively, but the Cambridge University Press. Launched Progressive America (And What They ply does not know when to shut up, and, yet, one and Battle speak after “the thing” is in the lion’s share of tributes (and a Tony Award for Jeremy Atack and Larry Neal, editors. The Teach Us) . University of North Carolina Press. may wonder, why should he have to remain silent? Empires’ locker room before a game—a viola - Best Featured Actor) went to Denis O’Hare in Origins and Development of Financial Markets (There are echoes of the U.S. military’s rule of tion of protocol—and they are seen by the other the role of Mason Marzac, who comes to fit and Institutions . Cambridge University Press. Daniel Usner . “Don’t ask, don’t tell” in the play.) players. This is the same day that Mungitt’s sus - indelibly into the fiber of the play. (Daniel Sun - Indian Work: Lan - Darren Lemming’s weapon of choice is a pension is over, and he will be pitching. Lem - jata, as Darren Lemming, was also nominated Beth Bachmann . Temper . University of Pitts - guage and Liveli - sharp tongue, and he is more than willing to ming gets Mungitt alone in the shower, baits for the featured actor award. Additionally, Take burgh Press. hood in Native annoy, provoke, and alienate his teammates. him, “embraces him from behind,” kisses him, Me Out won Tony Awards for Best Play and for American History . When the champions begin to lose games, the and calls the episode “our little secret” (78). The Best Director, Joe Mantello, who played Louis Susan Berk-Seligson . Coerced Confessions: Harvard University Empires call up a pitcher named Shane Mungitt first batter that Mungitt faces is Davey Battle. Ironson on Broadway and in the world pre - The Discourse of Bilingual Police Interrogations. Press. from the minor leagues. A highly gifted athlete, The first pitch hits Battle, who never gets up. mieres of the two parts of Angels in America .) Mouton de Gruyter. Mungitt is conspicuously inarticulate, but when Mungitt—banished forever from baseball— Take Me Out gained a bit of notoriety for the H.M.Cotton, R.G. a television reporter asks him about his fellow lands in jail for another offense, and the Empires male frontal nudity of its shower scenes. Green - Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller . Israeli-Palestin - Hoyland, J.J. Price, players, words do not fail him: “A pretty funny win the World Series for the third year in a row, berg and Mantello may have had “a gay fantasia ian Conflict in the Francophone World . Rout - and David Wasser - buncha guys. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t in what fans lovingly call a “three-peat.” on national themes” in the back of their minds. ledge. stein, editors. From mind the colored people—the gooks an’ the Greenberg introduces another prominent Still, it is the verbal rather than the visual aspect Moses Ochonu . Colonial Meltdown: Northern Hellenism to Islam: spics and’ the coons an’ like that. But every night character in Take Me Out , notable because he has of the play that stands out. The lead characters Lenn Goodman and Richard McGregor . Nigeria in the Great Depression . Ohio Univer - Cultural and Linguistic Change in the Roman to have to take a shower with a faggot ? Do ya no ties with baseball: the accountant Mason are accomplished and clever—often overly The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the sity Press. Near East . Cambridge University Press. know what I’m sayin’? Do ya get me?” (45). Marzac, who becomes Darren Lemming’s clever—wordsmiths. Words are, alternately, King of the Jinn . Oxford University Press. Everyone gets him, and the problem of damage money manager. Marzac—a gay man—initially signs of mental dexterity and defense mecha - Kelly Oliver . Animal Lessons: How They Teach Edward Wright-Rios . Revolutions in Mexican control intensifies to the maximum. Mungitt is has little knowledge of the sport, but he is nisms. Lemming resorts to irony, sarcasm, and Joel Harrington . The Unwanted Child: The Us to Be Human. Columbia University Press. Catholicism: Reform and Revelation in Oaxaca, suspended for a time, but when the team begins delighted to have a superstar as a client and, lit - verbal pyrotechnics to guard his true feelings, Fate of Foundlings, Orphans, and Juvenile 1887-1934 . Duke University Press. to lose again, he is reinstated. As we know, tle by little, he becomes a fan. Marzac allows the which he never quite discloses. Sonderstrom Criminals in Early Modern Germany. Alice Randall . Rebel Yell . Bloomsbury USA money speaks. Mungitt proffers a letter of apol - audience to see another side of Lemming, who fancies himself as the resident intellectual, Publishing. University of Chicago Press.   ogy in which he accepts full responsibility, but is both at ease and ready with a quip as the two whose commentary can take detours in the fol -   REFORM AND REVELATION IN OAXACA, 1887–1934 it turns out that he has had a ghostwriter. enter into dialogue. Marzac himself entertains lowing mode: “So here we start the Kafkaesque Robin Jensen and Kimberley Vrudney, edi - Mark Schoenfield . British Periodicals and portion of the evening. Well, Kafka lite, anyway tors. Visual Theology . Liturgical Press. Romantic Identity . Palgrave Macmillan. … Dekaf-ka” (95). Marzac likewise relies on a protective shield to screen his innermost Jonathan Lamb . The Evolution of Sympathy in Matthias Schulz and Thomas Schwartz , edi - 2009 –2010 Harry C. Howard, Jr., Lecture thoughts. And, in his exploration of identity, the the Long Eighteenth Century . Pickering & tors. The Strained Alliance: U.S.-European playwright himself teases the audience, not only Chatto. Relations from Nixon to Carter . Cambridge with exposed body parts but with the calculated University Press. manipulation of time and with ambiguous and Lorraine Lopez . Homicide Survivors Picnic confusing statements. and Other Stories . BkMk Press. Christopher Connery and Hortense Spillers , Edward Baseball is more than a backdrop or motif in co-editors. The Sixties and the World Event . Wright-Rios Take Me Out . The team becomes a substitute for Duke University Press. the dysfunctional families of Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams: an all- male environment in which manhood itself is under investigation. In this setting, homosexual - wild pitch. The play may leave the audience with The United States is a “melting pot,” but all mas, but as society refashions the family, play - ity can signify the tarnishing of an American ideal some ambivalence, but life and baseball will move ingredients do not have equal weight, equal wrights regularly have turned to improvised, ad- or the disputation or deconstruction—be it pos - on. Baseball players and other professional ath - validity, in the scheme of things. The associa - hoc, or de facto “families,” such as enclaves of itive or negative—of that ideal. Can it be deter - letes have, in fact, come out, but more frequently tions by which people define and categorize friends, support groups, partnerships among mined, by fair criteria, that Darren Lemming is after retirement than during their active years, themselves, and others, are hierarchical in scope. gays and lesbians, sports teams, and other wrong to publicize his homosexuality? Is his flaw when fan bases, team owners, and lucrative The democratic spirit—which can never be sources of camaraderie. There is an expression the flaunting of his “queerness” to his colleagues endorsement deals must be factored into deci - absolute—has changed over time, as percep - “as American as motherhood and apple pie.” and the unwanted advances toward an acknowl - sions. In Take Me Out , Richard Greenberg throws tions and civil rights have changed. Women and Sometimes “baseball” is added to the list. And I edged bigot? One can imagine a defense lawyer a lot at the audience, and where the pieces fall minorities enjoy greater freedom now than in would like to think that a commitment to jus - From left: Mr. and Mrs. Harry C. Howard, Jr., and Professor Rosanna Warren after Warren’s poetry naming Shane Mungitt’s attitude toward Davey depends on directorial decisions, on the disposi - the past, but the struggle is and will be ongoing. tice and a conception of the arts as a forum for reading at the Howard Lecture on October 29, 2009. Warren is University Professor, Emma Ann Battle a transference of gay panic, but Mungitt is tion of the individual theatergoer, and on the The best plays of the American theater have his - debate always will be identified with what is MacLachlan Metcalf Professor of the Humanities at Boston University. banned from baseball, not from society, for his mutability wrought by time. torically tackled social issues through family dra - truly, and positively, American. Letters • Spring 2010 • 10 Letters • Spring 2010 • 11

External Grants and Fellowships 2009 –2010 Robert Penn Warren THE ROBERT PENN WARREN CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES We extend congratulations to our colleagues in the humanities and social sciences in the Graduate Student Fellows College of Arts and Science for receiving the following external grants and fellowships for Warren Center Staff their scholarly research as a result of applications submitted in the 2008 calendar year. Edward H. Friedman, Director We rely on departments to provide us with this information. Mona C. Frederick, Executive Director Polly Case, Activities Coordinator Katherine Newman , Administrative Assistant Celso Castilho Teresa Goddu Tracy Miller Justin Haynes, LETTERS editor American Historical Association/Conference Council for International Exchange of Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in for Latin American History Scholars the Fine Arts Travel Fellowship Letters is the semiannual newsletter of the Robert Lewis Hanke Research Award Senior Specialist Fulbright Award National Endowment for the Humanities Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Remaking Nation and Citizenship in North American Studies Program Fellowship Vanderbilt University, VU Station B #351534, Nashville, Tennessee 37235-1534. (615) 343-6060, Northeastern Brazil: The Politics of Antislavery University of Tampere, Finland Regional Style in China’s Monumental Timber Fax (615) 343-2248. in Pernambuco, 1866-1893 Architecture, 900-1200 Joel Harrington For a listing of Warren Center programs and Lauren Clay American Academy in Berlin Catherine Molineux activities, please contact the above address or Newberry Library/American Society for Residential Fellowship The Huntington Library visit our Web site at www.vanderbilt.edu/ Eighteenth-Century Studies God’s Executioner: Meister Frantz Schmidt of Residential Fellowship rpw_center . 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Spiro Arts Foundation David Petrain Kate Daniels Institute for Advanced Studies School of Members of the Vanderbilt community represent - Writing Residency ing a wide variety of specializations take part in the Lannan Foundation Historical Research Mellon Fellowship Warren Center’s programs, which are designed to Writing Residency at Marfa, TX Shaul Kelner National Endowment for the Humanities intensify and increase interdisciplinary discussion of AVI CHAI Foundation Fellowship academic, social, and cultural issues. Arthur Demarest Young Leadership Development Initiatives in The Tabulae Iliacae and the Development of National Geographic Society the Jewish Communal Sector Visual Storytelling in the Early Roman Empire If you would like to receive weekly emails listing Interregional Exchange and Hegemony in the Warren Center events, please email Katherine Development and Apogee of Ancient Maya Jinah Kim Nancy Reisman Newman at [email protected]. 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