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10 AND the arts 5 20 20 From the Director

This has been our twentieth anniversary year, a year for We have seen the departure of two key people from the celebration. We are secure in our endowments and this Institute this year. Mary Price, the Institute’s assistant year we have grown stronger through the generosity director, retired in October 2007. Mary has been of our many friends and Fellows. We are known as a crucial player in our development, and has served innovative by our peer institutions, and have a lively the Institute with dedication, vision, and Yankee profile within the University. Our Fellows are as good sense. Mary is identified with our many years wonderful as ever. There has been much to celebrate. of fine public outreach and with the burgeoning of It has also been a year for scrutiny of purpose, the the Institute into a larger circle of friends and “family.” taking of stock, a year for rumination on where we are Also, Cody Engle completed his term as chair of and where we are going. our Board of Visitors. Cody orchestrated our partnership with I have also this past year started the Chicago Humanities Festival, my second term as director, and helped us think about how we thought hard about where I for might grow in a way that expands one would like the Institute to be our fellowships and programs, in five years. I want our graduate while also taking care of our funding to be complete so that the staffing needs, and departed with fifty Michigan graduate students the gesture of seed funding who apply every year for five or a new project: the Emerging six places will have eight precious Scholars Prize in the Humanities fellowships available. I want the dedicated to the generation that Institute to be living a second will carry forward the humanities life on the web that is as robust into new times. He is replaced as its current life on dry land. I by Jim Foster, who has already want our museum-quality gallery taught us the direct art of public 1 to be a component of every major communication and is taking our 27 project we do. And I want our Board in new directions. dialogues with the arts, medicine, law, public policy, and the social The report that follows will sciences to be more sustained, and be a little unusual, bespeaking of greater international scope. To this our twenty year mark. this end I engaged Chinese colleagues in the second of We will narrate the events of the year: endeavors, what will be three workshops, all published, around celebrations, successes. But I will also return later in the question of the state of the humanities in China the report, in the voice of a ruminator, to review the (see p. 16). And I furthered connections with African Institute’s twenty-year history with an eye to drawing colleagues in my role as part of Mary Sue Coleman’s the kind of lessons that might be learned about our presidential trip to Africa in February. original—and ongoing—purpose (see p. 23). I welcome your thoughts on any or all of these things. Do please write.

Daniel Herwitz Director and Mary Fair Croushore Professor of Humanities TWENTY/TWENTY

This year the Institute celebrated its twentieth anniversary. It was a year for looking back to where we were twenty years ago, where we are now, and where we might be twenty years hence. We called it Twenty/Twenty because it was bi-focal: focused close up and far away (towards the past and future). If there was one theme of the year it was the young: raising graduate fellowships, celebrating the new generation of emerging scholars with a prize, bringing back our Graduate Fellows to speak of where they are headed, taking stock of our past so that we may reinvent (in the manner of young people) the terms of the Institute for present and future.

Twenty/Twenty had NINE components: The events

First, we hosted a full day Our academic symposium (Octo- symposium featuring almost ber 5) had three panels. The first 1entirely our current and former kicked off our year-long series Faculty Fellows. “What Happened to…?” with Michael Steinberg (Director, Second, the symposium Cogut Center for the Humani- kicked off our year-long Brown ties, Brown University) speaking 2Bag Lecture Series called “What about historical studies over a Happened to….?,” the most twenty year period, Tobin successful we ever had. Siebers (Chair, Comparative Literature) to disability studies, Third, we put on a public and Michael Schoenfeldt (Asso- outreach event called “Intellect in ciate Dean for the Humanities) 3Motion,” focused on our current to literary studies. Second, and former Graduate and younger we wished to underscore our Faculty Fellows. commitment to arts and letters 2 in the broadest sense and hosted 27 Fourth, we hosted an exhi- a panel on creative fiction and bition of work by our current and non-fiction, with poet Linda 4former Art & Design Fellows. Gregerson, translator and writer of creative non-fiction Christi Fifth, we commissioned an left to right: Michael Steinberg, Michael Schoenfeldt, Tobin Siebers, Linda Merrill, and Eileen Pollack exhibition of ceramic work by a Gregerson, Eileen Pollack, and (Director, MFA in Creative 5noted French artist who Christi Merrill Writing) reading from a short transposed the poetry of our piece of non-fiction (she is most former and current poetry Fellows into designs on well known for her short stories). The day ended with a large ceramic plates. panel about the future of the humanities. Valerie Traub (Director, Women’s Studies) addressed institutional Sixth, a former dance Fellow curated a selection changes over a twenty-year period in the study of of dance works at the Chicago Humanities Festival women and gender, the field’s interconnections to the 6(with which we are partnered). humanities, and the trend toward the social sciences in gender studies. Elaine Gazda (Classical Art and Seventh, so that our twentieth year would have Archaeology/History of Art) highlighted new forms an international component we hosted a workshop of representation for ancient things, featuring her 7(the second of three) with Chinese colleagues, the work on the ancient city of Antioch of Pisidia and the topic being the humanities in China and the state of way she has utilized new technologies to render and Chinese scholarship in the U.S. interpret that city. Thomas Finholt, Dean for Research and Innovation in the School of Information and a Eighth, we inaugurated a new kind of award in lively partner in digital/collaborative adventures in recognition of our anniversary year, generously seeded the humanities, explored the way new possibilities for 8by Cody Engle: the Emerging Scholars Prize (see the representation and circulation of information are page 4). bringing about new work in the humanities.

Ninth, we turned to building our graduate endow- 9ment in a big fund-raising effort. TWENTY/TWENTY

Two weeks later we hosted mural up the wall next to our “Intellect in Motion” for a gallery dedicated to having public outreach audience. This nothing to say (the work’s featured emerging ideas in the title); Tirtza Even having a great humanities: an exhibition, perfor- deal to say or otherwise show in mances, scholarship, and literary her video work Once a Wall, or readings from current and Ripple Remains, about the wall former Graduate Fellows and erected by Israel to separate it from young faculty. The weekend the West Bank and Gaza; Edward (October 19–20) brought back West returning with photos from Erica Lehrer from Concordia his project on persons of color; University, where she is Research and others (see Exhibitions, Professor in History, to speak p. 17). Twenty Years, Twelve Poets: about her anthropological work Ceramics by Rachid Koraïchi on new tourism in Poland for brought the internationally Jews wishing to explore “the old known ceramist and sculptor country” and get a taste of what as our Jill S. Harris Memorial life might have been like before Fellow to work with the School those communities were wiped of Art and Design in transposing out during the Second World poetry to ceramic plate (again see War. Lehrer is a public intellectual Exhibitions, p. 17). whose research has led to her own activist involvement in such Next we sponsored an inter- heritage site creation and tourism. national conference, The New Yofi Tirosh, currently a law fellow Humanities in China, on the at New York University, spoke to occasion of the LSA China problems with how law (in Israel Theme Year in addition to our 3 and the United States) addres- twentieth anniversary (see p. 16). 27 left to right: Dean Terry McDonald; Valerie ses “identities.” Anne Fisher Traub, Thomas Finholt; Jim Cogswell, Developed with the critical (Williams College) described her Diane Kirkpatrick; Tobin Siebers, assistance of Haiping Yan, in work on Russian/Soviet writers Nicholas Delbanco, and Tom Trautmann residence as the distinguished Il’f and Petrov. Ronit Ricci (Asian Norman Freehling Visiting Studies Institute, University of Professor in the Institute (and Singapore) discussed the career Professor at UCLA and the of an Islamic text staging a debate East China Normal University between Jews and Muslims in Shanghai), the conference as it migrated through South convened major scholars from Indian languages and down China and the United States to into Indonesia. Uwem Akpan consider the new humanities in (Careers-in-the-Making Fellow) China at a moment of China’s read one of his short stories (Say dramatic educational, economic, You’re One of Them, his book and political expansion. Topics of stories, appeared in June, included the legacy of Confucius, 2008) and Evan Chambers literary education and its intel- (University of Michigan faculty left to right: Eilleen Pollack, Jill Siebers, lectual styles, the encounter of Music Composition) perfor- Edward West, and Marvin Parnes between the new media and the med selections from his song cycle new humanities, and the role of TheO ld Burying Ground, with texts memory for university and state. taken from the plinths of early Publication in Chinese has fol- New England graveyards. lowed, and a third workshop (of which this was the second, the Eight Fellows: Art & Design at first being hosted by East China the Institute had Jim Cogswell Normal University in Shanghai) erecting a magnificent two-story is in the planning process.

Ronit Ricci and George Hoffman TWENTY/TWENTY

To celebrate young scholars, departing Chair of the and highlights the Institute’s broad notions of Board of Visitors Cody Engle seeded the first three the humanities. years of a new prize, the Emerging Scholars Prize in the Humanities. This prize carries the generous stipend The first honorable mention has been awarded to of $25,000, no strings attached apart from a one- to Erica Lehrer, Assistant Professor of History and two-day seminar on the recipient’s work in progress. Sociology/Anthropology and Canada Research Chair The prize will be offered in alternate years within the in Post-Conflict Studies, Concordia University, PhD Michigan community, and nationally. In this first year Anthropology, University of Michigan, Institute for we offered it internally: to a young scholar who has the Humanities Graduate Fellow, 2001–02. Lehrer is received their PhD as of the due date for applications well known to our friends of the Institute for her work (January 15, 2008), and no more in the Spring Seminar on heritage. than five years earlier, and who Her work is about the heritage/ either earned that PhD at the tourist sites that have recently University of Michigan, or is emerged in Poland for Jews who employed on the faculty or in a wish to find their identities and related capacity (e.g., publishing pasts through heritage tours of curator). that part of the world, of the shtetls and cities where their The recipient of this year’s ancestors were wiped out during Emerging Scholars Prize is Boris the Second World War. Kment, Assistant Professor, Philo- sophy, University of Michigan, The second recipient of honorable PhD from Princeton University. mention is Susana Draper, Professor Kment was the unani- Assistant Professor, Comparative 4 mous choice of the committee. Literature, Princeton University, 27 His work is in logic, but, rare for PhD Romance Languages and philosophy, derives directly from Literatures, University of Michi- questions of ordinary life and gan. Professor Draper’s research is rational decision making. Chair of the Board of Visitors, Cody Engle inspired by a specific and unusual place in Montevideo—a prison The committee also awarded two honorable mentions, that was transformed into a very elitist shopping center both with a cash value of $1,000. This widens the during the transition from the military dictatorship to sphere of younger scholars funded by the Institute, the neoliberal democracy.

MARY PRICE

Mary Price joined the Institute the year after its and beneficent love of people proved crucial to formation, in 1988, as Program the success of our public Coordinator, becoming Ad- outreach, and made our ministrative Manager and development the success it has Assistant Director in 1991. been. Daniel Herwitz, current She worked with five directors Director, described her as “my and hundreds of Michigan eyes and ears, the person from Faculty and Graduate Fellows, whom I learned more about was instrumental in developing the Institute, the University the Institute’s Humanities of Michigan, and the nature Camps (Fall and Spring of public outreach than any Seminars), brought about our other.” Her good humor, fine gallery program, coordinated intelligence, dedication to two moves to new facilities, the humanities, and Yankee wrote sixteen impressive annual reports, and many good sense will be missed. We wish her well in a grant proposal. Her passion for the humanities her retirement. FELLOWS

FACULTY FELLOWS I was privileged to spend the 2007–08 year in the company of an extraordinary group of colleagues. Paul Anderson The bulk of my time was spent working on a (still!) Associate Professor, American Culture, untitled family memoir. I’ve been trying to tell the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies story of my grandfather, grandmother, and great aunt Hunting Family Professor and the personal consequences of my grandparents’ cross-racial marriage. Hearing Loss: The Dreamlife of Modern Jazz I came into the year with three additional outstanding writing I worked on my book about the obligations, however, and I used cultural life of modern jazz (ca. bits and pieces of my time at the 1955–65) and presented portions Institute to fulfill them. I comple- of this project at the Fellows’ ted a short essay on the legal case Seminar during the year. I also Cherokee Nation v. Georgia for the drafted an extended book proposal Harvard Companion to American and submitted it to a major press Literature, I completed the final for consideration. The editor draft of a substantial essay, “From made recommendations and I am Nation to Neighborhood: Land, currently revising the proposal as a Policy, Culture, Colonialism, and draft introduction. I also worked Empire in U.S. Indian Relations,” on researching and writing drafts and I completed editorial work on of two additional chapters of C.G. Jung and the Sioux Traditions the book. The progress is slow by Vine Deloria, Jr. This book was and steady. my father’s last, with the unsigned contract and reader report on I am also working on a separate his desk when he died in 2005. 5 project, a series of interdisciplinary My seminar presentation on my 27 essays on literature, film, and philosophy related to the family memoir marked an important turning point work of the American philosopher Stanley Cavell. I in that project. Specifically, my colleagues pushed published one such essay several years ago in Critical me to think harder about my own place in the story, Inquiry. I am presenting a new paper on Cavell and about the difference between a family history and a James Agee’s literature and film criticism at a major family memoir, and about the different, sometimes conference on Cavell in May and conflicting, voices I have brought intend to revise that work for to the narrative: historian, literary essay publication. writer, keeper of family memory, grandson. During the course of During this year, I also worked the year, I have drafted and as an unpaid scholar-practitioner polished ten chapters (out of a of music and an unpaid creative projected twenty-two) and fine- and historical consultant on a tuned the structure and outline documentary on contemporary for the remainder of the book. art and culture. To this end, I composed and recorded a Following my seminar presen- soundtrack for an HBO docu- tation, I restructured, rewrote, mentary by Divided Eye Enter- and added substantial new tainment, The Art of Failure, material to the memoir. And on contemporary artist Chuck as the weekly meetings of the Connelly. It aired in July, 2008, seminar opened up new ideas for and will be shown internationally. me, I slowed my pace as I pursued those ideas through additional reading and, frankly, additional Philip Deloria thinking. The ability to do so has Professor, History and American Culture been invaluable. Indeed, the chance to slow down and John Rich Professor think has been the highlight of my year and I have no doubt that the final book will be significantly stronger Crossing the (Indian) Color Line: A Family History because of it. FELLOWS

Tirtza Even Andrew Herscher Assistant Professor, School of Art and Design Assistant Professor, Architecture and Urban Planning, Helmut F. Stern Professor Slavic Languages and Literatures Hunting Family Professor Once a Wall, or Ripple Remains [This is a multimedia documentary project that questions the stability of Violence Taking Place: The Architecture of the any perception, record or rendering of videotaped Kosovo Conflict encounters from the summer and fall of 1998 in the Occupied Territory of Palestine.] My year as a Fellow at the Institute was one of the high points of my The experience at the Institute career in academia. was enriching, layered, and complex. The conversation with I used it to complete a book that I other Fellows was wonderful, had been imagining, researching, stimulating, and probing. My mulling over and working on in own work and methodology were fits and starts for almost eight challenged in ways that were years, years when my attention not always simple to address, had been focused primarily on which made at times for a more finishing my dissertation, getting staggered, uneven, and uneasy a teaching job, and then teaching. process than I had predicted and I surely could not have finished perhaps a less prolific but more this book without a year like the in-depth engagement. one the Institute made available to me, a year when there was both I suppose the very meaning of ample time to read and write and being productive was re-examined, regular and convivial intellectual 6 and some previous short cuts (in exchange in the weekly seminars. 27 concept, narrative strategy, or in technique) exposed and tackled. The experience at the Institute I found the seminars to be a All in all this made for a very was enriching, layered, and particularly important part of crucial, rich experience, even if at complex. the year. Though there were no times a difficult one. formal relationships between my work and that of my colleagues, I I found the extended and thorough frequently encountered ideas and dialogue over each of our projects became involved in conversations rare and utterly gratifying. I think that gave me new perspectives the group of Fellows this year was on the topics on which I was incredibly cohesive and at the same working. Through the seminar, time varied, and the exchange I also met some people who will between us both generous and become valued members of my deeply insightful and stimulating. intellectual community at the My only regret is that there is no University, a community that has formal venue for continuing this significantly expanded as a result conversation beyond the limits of my year at the Institute. of our fellowship, now that the terms, the roles we undertake, This was the third humanities the work itself, are so much more institute that I’ve participated in, familiar and formulated. and by far the one I’ve gotten the most out of. Strikingly, though I feel incredibly fortunate and the other two were focused on grateful for having had the oppor- particular topics shared between tunity to be part of this group, participants, only at this one was and for having been given this vast there a sustained and evolving space for personal and professional questioning conversation between disciplines, conversations that and growth. could take place perhaps nowhere else than at an institute dedicated to fostering the humanities as conceived in a broad and encompassing frame. FELLOWS

Katherine Ibbett Marcia C. Inhorn Assistant Professor, Romance Languages Professor, School of Public Health and Literatures Helmut F. Stern Professor A. Bartlett Giamatti Fellow Reproducing Masculinities: Islam, IVF-ICSI, and Compassion and Commonality: Forms of Fellow-Feeling Middle Eastern Manhood in Seventeenth-Century France I am very privileged to be the first This year has been the most intel- Fellow to represent the School of lectually stimulating year I can Public Health at the Institute for remember. I’ve just been drafting the Humanities. my tenure statements and feel very happy about the ways I can now I have been working on a book describe my second book project, based on my multi-sited ethno- which in the course of this year graphic research in the Middle has really taken shape. In the East (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, fall I wrote an essay on dramatic United Arab Emirates, Iran), as theory that will be the basis of one well as Arab America (Dearborn, chapter, and I have also drafted Michigan), undertaken over the a whole other chapter on the past decade. I hope to complete historical novel. That chapter was the manuscript by the end of a surprise for me, in that its form 2008 or early 2009. changed radically throughout the year as my interests developed, Through the lens of male and the conversations I had here infertility and the methods of were crucial in redirecting my life history and narrative analysis, attention to different aspects of Thanks so much for restoring me I have been able to examine 7 the project. to intellectual joy: when can I numerous dimensions of men’s 27 come back? lives in the Middle East, including I also began research on an changing notions of masculinity, entirely new section of the book fatherhood and parenting, family on colonial charity and religious life, adoption, love and marriage, orders. The shape of that research sexuality and Islamic morality. was prompted by an early question In addition, I have been able to from another Fellow, Marcia probe the difficult material and Inhorn, about public health and political realities facing many compassion. Middle Eastern men, including the hardships of war, exile In addition to all that work on and refugeeism. the new book, I was able this year to take time with the revisions of My project Reconceiving Middle my first book, to work on several Eastern Manhood attempts to essays, and to give a number of overcome some of the most conference papers and invited potent negative stereotypes about lectures. Middle Eastern men, whose lives and masculine identities are We liked the field trips (to the in a current state of flux Detroit Institute of Arts) so much and hybridity. that I wish we could have started them earlier: it was a very bonding At the end of the year, I am very sort of affair. I blame you all for grateful for this rare opportunity to write a book in a giving me a sweet tooth: I ate my supportive and collegial environment on campus. It first Oreo this year and never looked back. This is has been a productive and gratifying year for me at the an extraordinary place. Thanks so much for restoring Institute for the Humanities. me to intellectual joy: when can I come back? FELLOWS

Scott Spector Johannes Associate Professor, Germanic Languages von Moltke and Literatures, History Associate Professor, Germanic Languages John Rich Professor and Literatures, Screen Arts and Cultures Steelcase Research Professor Violent Sensations: Sexuality, Crime, and Utopia in Berlin and Moving Pictures: Film, History, Vienna, 1860–1914 and the Politics of Emotion

My year at the Humanities The past year has been invaluable Institute has been nothing less for me. In retrospect, it has allowed than splendid. The conditions me to concentrate and advance to facilitate research and writing, my work on the monograph I the intellectual feedback of the am writing, and also to wander, seminar, and above all the time to branch out and explore areas write offered by the Institute are on the margins of my previous all generous and deeply helpful. or ongoing work. Both of these Looking back on the past year, I forms of intellectual activity—I see that it has not only brought think of them as centripetal me all of the key chapters of my and centrifugal—are virtually book, but it has also changed the precluded by the routine activity way I understand the project. of daily life in the ordinary academic year, and in this sense Crucial here have been the other my time at the Institute was Fellows of the class of ’08. The literally extra-ordinary. participants represented a wide array of different 8 species of work that houses itself under the rubric of I began the year with good momentum, writing my 27 the humanities. The tremendous value of dialogue way into the project on film and the emotions with a with a video artist; performance studies scholars, conference paper that I discussed at Indiana University one herself a playwright; historians and critics early in the fall; this formed the basis for further of music, architecture, economics, literature, and research and writing on the book over the course of culture; anthropologists and an archaeologist; political the following months, culminating in my “turn” at the theorists, and film scholars, Fellows’ Seminar. among other fields, cannot be overstated. I expect to continue I had come to enjoy these the exchange with these excep- Wednesday meetings with their tional people in the years ahead. intense but wide-ranging dialogs across disciplines and ranks. But I have found the availability of it was only when my turn came a workspace separate from my that I realized what far-reaching department as well as from my relevance these discussions can home to have been particularly have, how they can impact the constructive. The programs that trajectory of one’s writing. Some the Institute ran parallel with suggestions I received in response our residency were universally to my paper have become integral provocative and interesting. The to my thinking about the project exhibitions were stimulating, and itself, and I will remain indebted I personally found the presence to my colleagues for key references of the curator, Elisabeth Paymal, that would never have made it and the steady influx of creative onto my radar screen in the fields work to be an asset that is rare in of German and/or film studies in scholarly residency programs. The which I otherwise move. Institute itself has made such positive relationships and productivity possible through its organization. The “centrifugal” aspects of my year at the Institute Danny’s leadership of the Institute has been a have been similarly invigorating, even rejuvenating. windfall for Michigan and I consider my productivity In addition to the ongoing film/emotion project, I’ve this year to have been directly attributable to the presented or published work on popular cinema in the conception of the Institute developed by its German Democratic Republic, Nazi propaganda film, current director. FELLOWS

and film culture around 1968; each of these areas is visiting speakers just outside my office door was a really an incremental addition to my “repertoire,” and wonderful part of the enriching experience of being I leave the Institute with the feeling that I’m a better a Fellow. grounded, more broadly qualified scholar than I was coming into it.

Yolanda Covington-Ward GRADUATE STUDENT Anthropology FELLOWS Embodied Histories, Danced Elizabeth Ben-Ishai Religions, and Performed Politics: Political Science Changing Conceptions of Kongo Sylvia “Duffy” Engle Graduate Cultural Performance Student Fellow The year has been immensely The Autonomy-Fostering State: rewarding for advancing my Citizenship and Social Service dissertation. I started the fellow- Delivery ship early, in July, with drafts of two chapters, and I now have a My time at the Institute provided full draft of my entire six chapters. me with a wealth of intellectual I cannot overemphasize how community as well as the space, important it was to have office time, and support to complete space dedicated specifically to my dissertation. I benefited not writing, especially since I tend to only from the direct feedback find it very hard to write at home. on a chapter of my dissertation The research fund was definitely in the Fellows’ Seminar, but a plus as I was able to use it to 9 methodologically, conceptually, I came away from this year with get important documents and 27 and analytically, I learned from a strong sense of how and where parts of certain texts translated a wide range of approaches taken my own work fits in the broad (from KiKongo and Italian) into by both the established scholars entity that is the humanities, English so that I may incorporate and fellow graduate students in them into my dissertation. the seminar. I came away from and of the breadth of possibilities this year with a strong sense of that fall under this umbrella. Participating in the seminar how and where my own work and reading the writing of other fits in the broad entity that is the Fellows provided a stimulating humanities, and of the breadth of environment that aided the possibilities that fall under this development of my own thinking umbrella. and writing. The feedback on my own writing was invaluable for I was also lucky to have several the insight it provided on not only Fellows assist me in polishing points of clarification that would the “job talk” I delivered while help my work to speak to a larger interviewing for academic pos- audience, but also in helping me itions; their feedback much to see the place of my work in an improved my brief lecture. I am interdisciplinary context. pleased to have accepted a tenure- track position at Albion College My dissertation defense is in Albion, Michigan. scheduled for September, 2008, and I have accepted a tenure track Although my time was limited by position in the Department of the demands of my dissertation Africana Studies at the University and job search, I was able to of Pittsburgh. Overall, I am very attend a number of Institute’s pleased (and grateful) to have had events, including speakers in the the opportunity to be a Fellow at “What Happened to…” series. the Institute for the Humanities. Having access to the fascinating FELLOWS

Jonah Johnson to the table from day one and how, two decades later, Comparative Literature, Germanic Languages they keep leaving the table with more. I was humbled. and Literatures James A. Winn Graduate Student Fellow

Seasick yet Still Docked: Casting Kant’s Shadow in Min Li Post-Enlightenment German Drama Anthropology Mary Ives Hunting and David D. Hunting, Sr., This has without question been Graduate Student Fellow the most productive year of my graduate studies, both in terms Conquest, Concord, and of solidifying my line of research Consumption: Becoming Shang as well as clarifying my self- in Eastern China presentation as a scholar. The year spent at the Institute for My interest in the relation between the Humanities was one of the post-Enlightenment philosophy most rewarding of my student and drama is, on the one hand, career. Intellectually, I benefited neither novel nor unique; on the enormously from weekly seminars other hand, pursuing this interest and informal interactions with from a perspective that is both other Fellows at the Institute. literary and philosophical forces one to draw on a number of As a graduate student about to resources, not the least of which is embark on a teaching career, this time. This year has given me not was truly an exceptional learning only the time and space to achieve a opportunity in all aspects of 10 degree of interdisciplinarity, which academic life. The Fellows and the 27 is more than the sum of its philo- Institute were extremely helpful, sophical and literary parts, it has spared me the often from the theoretical to the practical level of my research. necessary false dilemma of narrow disciplinarity within the humanities. I successfully completed and defended my dissertation on archaeology of early China, During the fall semester I was able more than three quarters of to write two complete chapters which was written during the of my dissertation. The first of year at the Institute. The help and these is an effort to reconstitute resourcefulness of staff and work- the historical/intellectual context study students was critical for the within which the so-called completion of my dissertation “tragic turn” emerged in F.W.J. and I am deeply grateful to them. Schelling’s Letters on Criticism and Dogmatism (1795); the second The Institute and its advisory evaluates the contentious dis- committee made an excellent course that has, since the early- decision to invite Professor nineteenth century, surrounded Haiping Yan to be the Norman the relationship between the Freehling Visiting Professor in writer Heinrich von Kleist and the the Institute this year. I was truly philosophy of Immanuel Kant. inspired by the incredible depth and critical insight she brought Last fall, during the Twenty/ to the seminars and private Twenty celebration, a chart listing discussions. Finally, the impressive all of the previous Fellows at the leadership of director Daniel Institute was handed out. I Herwitz was central for this remember scanning page after page, looking to see successful program. With extraordinary intellectual where the Graduate Fellows had ended up. I was breadth and philosophical reflections on the issues of overwhelmed by the consistency with which they had our research, Danny’s contribution provides a catalyst gone on to plum jobs in the academy, and it made me for ideas in this successful program. understand how much the Fellows have been bringing FELLOWS

Jennifer Palmer Stefan Stantchev History and Women’s Studies History

Slavery, Race and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Embargo: The Origins of an Idea and Effects La Rochelle of a Policy

My fellowship provided me with I feel greatly indebted for the the time, space, resources, and amazing opportunity to be a intellectual stimulation to com- Fellow this year. It allowed me plete my dissertation and to run to concentrate entirely on my a successful job search. dissertation, which was indis- pensable for achieving good During my tenure, I completed the progress. It provided me with final chapters of my dissertation, excellent office space, a huge one of which I presented at the benefit for a graduate student with Institute; I wrote the introduction a toddler at home. The results of and the conclusion; and I success- my year at the Institute practically fully defended. I also presented a guarantee that I will be able to paper at the Western Society of complete a well-researched and French History, and this summer well-written dissertation within I will present a paper at the annual six years of inception of my conference of the French Colonial doctoral studies. I will also have Historical Society. the priceless benefit of being certain that my dissertation is able This year was also my first year on to speak to a broader audience the job market, and I benefited .... having the chance to connect within the humanities. greatly from the support offered with scholars at all stages of 11 27 by the Institute. Knowing that their careers proved incredibly The Institute’s unique inter- I could print and send my disciplinary setting provided me applications from the Institute valuable to me. with a tremendous opportunity to was quite important and saved me present my work before a varied, a considerable amount of time. very competent, and highly demanding, yet friendly, audience. Most important, having the The desire and ability of Fellows chance to connect with scholars at to offer extensive and thoughtful all stages of their careers proved feedback while approaching each incredibly valuable to me. No- work on its own terms made the where was this so evident as discussions extremely helpful. The the Fellows’ Seminar at which weekly Fellows’ Seminar made for I presented an excerpt from a a glimpse into some cutting-edge dissertation chapter. I received work from a variety of disciplines excellent input and suggestions across the humanities and from on how to clarify my meaning. scholars at different stages in Finally, I would like to mention their careers. It thus provided a how much I appreciate the way great opportunity for intellectual the office space, kitchen, and enrichment. Danny did a great meeting room made the Institute job leading the discussions, and a place where Fellows could inter- his framing of each work’s place act formally and informally. The within the humanities was an dinners, weekly lunches, outing especially useful way to start. to Detroit and art openings provided Fellows other informal forums for interaction, which I think is particularly important for graduate students. My experiences at the Institute have helped prepare me to succeed in my new position as a Harper-Schmidt Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago, and will continue to serve me well throughout my academic career. FELLOWS

VISITING FELLOWS Derek Bermel

Nasr Abu-Zayd Derek Bermel was the Paula and Edwin Sidman Fellow in the Arts during a multifaceted visit cosponsored Nasr Abu-Zayd came from the Universiteit voor by the University Musical Society (UMS). After an Humanistiek in Utrecht, Netherlands, where he holds inauspicious beginning (he arrived on crutches, a day the Ibn Rushd Chair of Humanism and Islam, to take late because a blizzard diverted his plane to Cleveland up a four-week residency, cosponsored by the Center for the night, too late to give his planned talk) for Middle Eastern and North everything was copacetic. African Studies (CMENAS). In Ann Arbor he taught a course on Bermel earned his DMA from the UM School of The Modern Islamic Reforma- Music in 1997, where he studied with Pulitzer-Prize tion, took part in a discussion winning composer William Bolcom. New works by on “The Future of Islam” with both Bermel and Bolcom were part of a concert fellow panelists Sherman Jackson featuring the Guarneri and the Johannes String and Gottfried Hagen (Near Eastern Quartets. Both agreed to share the podium, and it Studies) and Ralph Williams became a unique opportunity to (English), participated in the hear the former student and weekly Fellows’ Seminar, and master converse about the past, delivered a lecture that probed about their approaches to, the rhetorical question, “Is the in Bermel’s words, “making Humanist Hermeneutic Approach strings talk.” to the Qur’an Possible?” Bermel’s other activities, orches- As a resident of the Netherlands trated by the UMS, included visits and one deeply involved in to local high schools and lunch with 12 the Dutch debate about Islam students in the Honors Program; 27 and Muslims, he was especially a post-performance Q&A with interested in the CMENAS workshop, “The Shia Guarneri and Johannes String Modernity and the Legacy of Musa As-Sadr.” Dutch Quartets, a clarinet performance author Ian Buruma’s lecture, “Sticks and Stones: for UM Hospital staff, patients The Limits of Verbal Violence,” coincided with his and families; and a visit to visit, and Abu-Zayd was invited by the Eisenberg The Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor’s Institute to participate in an ensuing roundtable teen center. response. Students in the Honors Program and journalism fellows in the Knight-Wallace Program also welcomed him. He also accepted an invitation Rachid Koraïchi top left to bottom from the UM Flint’s Middle East Study Program to right: Nasr Abu- give a lecture on “Ethics of Interpretation: A Literary Zayd, William French artist Rachid Koraïchi, our Approach to the Qur’an.” Bolcom, Derek Jill S. Harris Memorial Fellow, was Bermel, and Rachid Koraïchi with us for a four-week residency. This humble, learned, courageous scholar, who gave Koraïchi’s work has been exhibited so generously of his expertise, emphasized how much far and wide, including at the Venice he gained from this mutually rewarding sojourn: “The Biennale (2001) and New York Museum of Modern diverse audiences on all these occasions, Muslim and Art (2006). non-Muslim, instigated some new insights for me. Informal discussions always bring about issues to be Our exhibition catalog notes that “Koraïchi was investigated in the future, thus providing stimulus born in the Aurès Mountains of French Algeria into for the guest. I should make special mention of the a Sufi family. This religious affiliation guides much kindness and generosity I enjoyed from almost every of Koraïchi’s artistic production. From traditional colleague in the University—all these lunches and Sufi signs and symbols, he has developed his own dinner invitations, at homes sometimes, gave me a ‘alphabet,’ which also incorporates elements of very strong feeling of intimate personal belonging.” Arabic calligraphy.”

His visit was divided into two parts. For three weeks in June he was in workshop mode, toiling alongside John Leyland at the School of Art and Design on the FELLOWS

series of ceramic plates the Institute commissioned Here are her reflections on her year in Ann Arbor: to honor the inspiring poet-Fellows who have been “My 2007–08 Norman Freehling residency at the part of the Institute’s community over the past Institute has been one of the most productive and twenty years (see p. 17). Such creative collaboration is perhaps the most special year in my professional life. normal for Koraïchi, who has worked with artists and artisans in many parts of the world, and in media as “With the support of the Institute and its staff, I various as ceramics, textiles, installation art, painting, organized a fall 2007 international symposium titled and printmaking. ‘The New Humanities in China.’ Five leading scholars from prominent universities in His return visit in November China made special trips for coincided with the opening this occasion to present their celebration of the beautiful new work, two leading US scholars work in the exhibit 20 Years, 12 specializing in China served Poets: Ceramics by Rachid Koraïchi. as presenters, while five UM His gallery talk, delivered in faculty from disciplines ranging French, was ably translated by from philosophy to women’s Steve Rosoff. Steve also translated studies joined as commentators. for him in several sessions with Publications will follow. undergraduate students. Students from the Lloyd Scholars Program, “I deeply appreciate the intellectual a learning/living community, ethos at the Institute created and enjoyed a private visit to the sustained throughout the year exhibition with the value-added by and at the Fellows’ Seminar, of being able to engage with series of talks, various exhibits in the artist. In addition, Koraïchi the visual arts, social events, and visited with students in the Fellows’ informal exchanges and classrooms of Hannah Smotrich gatherings. For the first time in 13 and Jim Cogswell at the School of my academic life, I worked in a 27 Art and Design. bilingual way on a daily basis. While I have completed my book manuscript in Chinese, titled Presence of the Many are owed thanks for making this ambitious Spectator: The Global Logic of the Image Industry and project a success: John Leyland, who made all of the Its Local Doubles, which is to be published in the fall plates in the ceramics studio; the School of Art and of 2008 by the East China Normal University Press Design, our sine-qua-non co-sponsor; Steve Rosoff, in Shanghai, I have completed the remaining research translator; and Carol Bardenstein of Near Eastern and the drafts of final chapters for my book manuscript Studies, who translated poems into Arabic. in English, titled Figures of Vagrancy: A Genealogy of Transnational Performance, under contract with the University of Michigan Press. In addition, I completed Haiping Yan approximately one-third of my memoirs, Class of 77: The Making of Global China, also Haiping Yan came to us from under contract with the University UCLA, where she taught theatre, of Michigan Press. performance studies, and critical theory. She also holds the Zijiang “Meanwhile, I taught a graduate Chair Professorship in the Arts seminar, Identities on Trial: and Humanistic Studies at East Trans-Nation in Theory and China Normal University. Among Practice, which afforded me the her accolades are China’s 1980–81 opportunity to meet and know First Prize for Excellence in Drama a different generation of inter- (the equivalent of the Pulitzer national and/or internationally Prize in the U.S.) for her ten-act minded young scholars.” historical play titled Li Shimin, Prince of Qin, and CNN’s 1999 selection as one of the “six most influential Chinese cultural figures for her scholarly and creative works both in English and Chinese.” FELLOWS

Careers-in-the-Making Fellow they relate to historiography. These works combine classical references with postmodern irony and a Our Careers-in-the-Making fellowship offers a term of highly idiomatic sense of figuration and wit. support to a recent recipient of a master’s degree in a creative field, time in which to complete work that will Byrnes told us: “I will always view the Careers-in- serve as a bridge along the path to a fulfilling profes- the-Making fellowship from the Institute for the sional career. Humanities as crucial to my making the transition from ‘art student’ to ‘artist.’ Whenever someone, Alison Byrnes such as myself, dedicates oneself completely to one thing, self- Just after completing her MFA doubt crops up at regular intervals. at the School of Art and Design, These intervals increase in Alison Byrnes took up a spring/ frequency during the thesis year, summer 2007 residency as the when one has to examine oneself Careers-in-the-Making Fellow. deeply, and every assumption She worked on a series of paint- is challenged by colleagues and ings called TheH istory of the World faculty. Then, suddenly it’s over, (according to Alison Byrnes), and and the shaky former art ‘student’ the Institute was pleased to offer must pack up, leave the space and her our gallery for a July exhibition equipment which makes one’s of her work during the Ann Arbor practice possible, and start earning Art Fairs. Visitors to our gallery one’s keep somehow with the could observe her at work at her first job opportunity that comes easel and chat with her about up. The Careers-in-the-Making the project. fellowship importantly allowed me to continue with the momentum I had built up over an intense final 14 Byrnes investigates historical themes that peoples year in school.” 27 and cultures have in common across time and space, probing the dueling notions that history is either Following her residency, she moved to Los Angeles to cyclic or telic. Byrnes creates funny paintings about complete her practicum for a Certificate in Museum history that present both its repetitive and its linear Studies at the J. Paul Getty Museums, but returned in nature, a starting point that allows her to address February to present an illustrated talk titled “Telic or complex issues related to perception and memory as Cyclic: Visualizing Patterns in History.”

MARC AND CONSTANCE JACOBSON LECTURE Empire, Ethics, and the Calling of History

Dipesh Chakrabarty Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations and the College, University of Chicago

Dipesh Chakrabarty is a historian of modern Indian social and political history, modern Bengal, labor history, Asian studies, and philosophical discourses of modernity. His contributions to postcolonial theory and subaltern studies—he is a founding member of the editorial collective of subaltern studies—have been profound.

In his lecture, he called for a new kind of historical study, one that would discuss the relationship between the history of the natural environment and social formations. In particular, Chakrabarty noted, such history would be required for the study of global ecology and global warming.

Discussants: Geoff Eley, History and German; Will Glover, Architecture and Urban Planning, Center for South Asian Studies PROGRAMS

Brown Bag LECTURES

Artists at Work What Happened to …? “New Adventures in Videodance” “What Happened to Black Studies?” Peter Sparling, Department of Music, Theatre Kevin Gaines, History, Center for Afroamerican and and Dance African Studies

“Poetry Reading: Stone Milk” “What Happened to ‘The Gaze’?” Anne Stevenson, poet, England Roundtable: Lucia Saks, Sheila Murphy, and Bambi

Haggins, Screen Arts and Cultures; Gaylyn Studlar, “Thoughts on NOTHING TO SAY” English and Screen Arts and Cultures Jim Cogswell, School of Art and Design

“What Happened to American Studies?” “A Double Quartet and Making Strings Talk: Composing Philip Deloria, History and American Culture for the Guarneri and the Johannes String Quartets” William Bolcom, composer, School of Music, Theatre “What Happened to Disability Studies?” and Dance, and Derek Bermel, composer, NYC Petra Kuppers, English

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Featuring our Fellows “What Happened to the Intellectual Left?” “Is The Humanist Hermeneutic Approach to the Geoff Eley, History and German

Qur’an Possible?” “What Happened to the New Historicism?” Nasr Abu-Zayd, Universiteit voor Humanistiek, Steven Mullaney, English Utrecht

“What Happened to Theory?” “Musical Responses to Disaster: The Rushford Flood Vassilios Lambropoulos, Classics and of 2007” Comparative Literature David Schober, Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, CUNY “What Happened to Feminism?”

Sidonie Smith, English and Women’s Studies “Telic or Cyclic: Visualizing Patterns in History” Alison Byrnes, Careers-in-the-Making Fellow “What Happened to Humor? Its History and Future”

Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor, The New Yorker “Thinking about Hospitality with Derrida, Kant, and the Balqa Bedouin” “What Happened to Music History?” Andrew Shryock, Anthropology Louise Stein, School of Music, Theatre and Dance

“Trashing: Don DeLillo, Jeff Wall, and the Dream of “What Happened to Queer Theory?” King Kong” Roundtable with David Halperin, English, Patricia Yaeger, English and Women’s Studies Comparative Literature, and Women’s Studies;

Nadine Hubbs, Music and Women’s Studies; Helmut “Tropes of ‘Home’: The Gender of Globalizing Markets Puff, German and History; Pat Simons, History of in Chinese Urban Culture” Art and Women’s Studies; Valerie Traub, English and Haiping Yan, Theater, UCLA Women’s Studies

“Beyond Category: Monsters, Non-Monsters, American Romanian Festival and the Sacred in Ancient Mesopotamia” “The Gold of the Dacians and Two Wars that Built the Piotr Michalowski, Near Eastern Studies Forum Traiani in Rome” Maria Hunciag, art specialist, Troy Public Library PROGRAMS

T H E N E W H U M A N I T I E S Service to Undergraduates IN CHINA The Institute is dedicated to serving its undergraduates INTRODUCTION in a number of ways. This year saw a return visit by “The State and Stakes of Humanistic Studies last year’s Sidman Fellow in the Arts, Bob Mankoff, in China” The New Yorker, Haiping Yan, The School of Theatre, Film and cartoon editor of who, by popular Television, University of California, Los Angeles demand, taught another five-week course on The Art and Science of Humor. This time the course was taught THE UNIVERSITY AND in the Honors Program, with

THE PUBLIC SPHERE The University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities presents administrative assistance by the “Academic Discourse on T NOVEMBER 14 AND 15, 2007 Institute. The Institute continues Religion, the State, and the H ROOM 2022, 202 S THAYER ST ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN to support undergraduate groups Making of a Harmonious E Wednesday, November 14 9:00 am, WELCOME Daniel Herwitz, Director, Institute for the Humanities, Society” University of Michigan in the human rights field. This 9:15 am, INTRODUCTION The State and Stakes of Humanistic Studies in China James Robson, Asian Haiping Yan, School of Theatre, Film and Television, N University of California, Los Angeles year our support went to the 10:15 am, UNIVERSITY, PUBLIC SPHERES Languages and Cultures, AND THE STATE E A University vs. a Country: The Story of Beijing (Peking) University Inter-Humanitarian Council, a University of Michigan Yuhai Han, Chinese Literature, Peking University The Use and Abuse of Academic Professionalism W Qing Liu, History, East China Normal University collaboration of seventeen huma- “The Use and Abuse of Commentator: Wang Zheng, Women’s Studies Program, University of Michigan 1:00 pm, LITERARY AND MEDIA STUDIES Academic Professionalism” IN THE CHINESE ACADEMY nitarian student organizations at Media Research in China Guo-liang Zhang, School of Media and Design, H Jiaotong University Qing Liu, History, East China Redefi ning General Education in the Humanities the University of Michigan, for in Contemporary China Cao Li, English, and Deputy Director, Centre for Normal University U Liberal Education, Tsinghua University Commentator: Luo Liang, Asian Languages and their Human Rights Awareness Cultures, University of Michigan Commentator: Wang Zheng, M 3:00 pm, CONFUCIAN INHERITANCES FOR CONTEMPORARY UNIVERSITY Month. Felix Lopez, a student AND SOCIETY Cosmopolitan Ethics, Aesthetics, and Confucianism: Women’s Studies Program, A I Kang Youwei’s Great Community Ban Wang, Chinese Literature, Stanford University in the Undergraduate Research On the Revival of Confucianism in the Age of University of Michigan Post-Enlightenment N N Ruiquan Gao, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, East China Normal University Opportunities Program, was an Commentator: Peter Railton, Philosophy, I University of Michigan

LITERARY AND MEDIA Thursday, November 15 intern in our gallery during the T C 9:00 am The Changing Stakes of Chinese Studies: STUDIES IN THE CHINESE Refl ections on the Place of Discourse about winter term. And three of our China in the American Public Sphere I H Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, History, University ACADEMY of California, Irvine Commentator: James Robson, Asian Languages visiting fellows, Derek Bermel, E I and Cultures, University of Michigan “Media Research in China” 9:45 am War, Historical Memory and the Future of the Asia Pacifi c Mark Selden, East Asia Program, Cornell University Nasr Abu-Zayd, and Rachid Guo-liang Zhang, School S N Commentator: Pär Cassel, History, University of Michigan 10:45 am 16 Concluding Thoughts and Questions of Media and Design, A Haiping Yan and Daniel Herwitz Koraïchi, were deeply engaged 27 Jiaotong University with undergraduates during their “Redefining General Education in the Humanities visits (see page 12). in Contemporary China” Cao Li, English, Tsinghua University Commentator: Liang Luo, Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan Human Rights Seminar

CONFUCIAN INHERITANCES FOR CONTEMPORARY UNIVERSITY AND SOCIETY “Cosmopolitan Ethics, Aesthetics, and Confucianism: Kang Youwei’s Great Community” Ban Wang, Chinese Literature, Stanford University “On the Revival of Confucianism in the Age of Post-Enlightenment” Ruiquan Gao, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, East China Normal University Commentator: Peter Railton, Philosophy, University of Michigan

CLOSING REFLECTIONS “The Changing Stakes of Chinese Studies: Reflections on the Place of Discourse about Daniel Herwitz, Andrew Herscher, and China in the American Public Sphere” Wendy Hesford Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, History, University of California, Irvine The Human Rights Seminar continued into its Commentator: Christian de Pee, History, third year. Now run by our partner, the Center University of Michigan “War, Historical Memory and the Future of the for International and Comparative Studies, Asia Pacific” the seminar was organized by our Faculty Mark Selden, East Asia Program, Fellow Andrew Herscher. The theme this Cornell University year concerned evidence and human rights. Commentator: Pär Cassel, History, University A publication is planned. The Institute also of Michigan contributed graphic work. PROGRAMS

EXHIBITIONS

Our fall exhibitions celebrated the Institute’s twentieth 20 years, 12 poets: Ceramics anniversary with two exhibits representing the breadth of by Rachid Koraïchi art and writing created by twenty years of Fellows. November 7–December 14

20 Years, 8 Fellows: We invited French artist Rachid Koraïchi to be in Art AND Design at the Institute residence to create twenty-five ceramic plates September 10–October 19 inspired by the poetry of our former Fellows. The ensuing exhibit of the sublime words of poetry was Eight current and former Fellows a celebration of twenty years of from the School of Art and writing by all of our scholars. Design opened the exhibition season with work inspired by their research at the Institute. Koraïchi is known for combining Jim Cogswell created a unique script and design into symbolic mural titled Nothing to representations inspired by the Say that spanned the two floors Sufi tradition of Islam. His work of the building atrium. Each letter has been widely exhibited in the is scripted in bright vinyl shapes Middle East and in Europe. For that one can decipher in awe. Tirtza each poem, Koraïchi decorated Even extensively filmed in Israel- two large square plates (63x63x7 Palestine. She took this initial cm) with monochrome shades footage and digitally metamor- of cobalt blue. These plates were phosed it to render her own vision crafted and fired at the School altered by recollection processes. of Art and Design ceramics Sadashi Inuzuka mounted two studio by ceramist John Leyland. ceramic pieces that conversed Twelve poets were Fellows at with each other. Within one of the the Institute: Terry Blackhawk, 17 pieces, a small video showed lips Anne Carson, Linda Gregerson, 27 talking but with no sound while Roy Jacobstein, Lemuel Johnson, the other piece emitted a constant top left to bottom right: details from Khaled Mattawa, Carl Phillips, works by Jim Cogswell, Tirtza Even, hum. Andrew Kirshner showed Sadashi Inuzuka, Andrew Kirshner, Robert Pinsky, AK Ramanujan, a recording of his performance, Joanne Leonard, Patricia Olynyk, Denise Riley, Anne Stevenson, The Museum of Life and Death. Marianetta Porter, and Edward West and Arnold Weinstein. This futuristic performance com- bines science fiction and Greek tragedy while proposing philoso- phical reflections on the meaning Our winter exhibitions were inter- of life—and death—in 2006. departmental collaborations where Joanne Leonard presented photo- we reached out to our neighbors and graphs based on associations friends at 202 South Thayer. between newspaper events and images from books. The resulting Spirit into Script photomontages connect past January 14–February 22 and present through Leonard’s personal associations. Patricia Brown Bag Lecture by Piotr Olynyk’s macro views of micro Michalowski (Near Eastern body parts took us to Jules Verne’s Studies), January 29 world, challenging our perception and understanding of our This exhibition connected us surroundings. Marianetta Porter’s to our neighbors: the Frankel fans are inspired by southern 20 Years, 12 Poets: Ceramics by Center for Judaic Studies and church fans and combine her Rachid Koraïchi the departments of Near Eastern poetic texts with images carried Studies and Asian Languages over from her childhood. Edward West presented and Cultures. The core idea of this show was that in photographs from his transnational project in South all cultures and religions, certain words are charged Africa, large portraits addressing creolization. with spiritual powers. Be they received from God or PROGRAMS

used to communicate directly Curated by Deborah Dash Moore with spirits, these words can be and MacDonald Moore, both either protective and curative from the Frankel Center for Judaic or malevolent; their script can Studies, this selection of photo- be plain or lavish. This display graphs by Jewish photographers of artifacts bearing spiritual wri- is another collaboration between tings demonstrated how these the Institute for the Humanities practices exist across cultures, and the Frankel Center. Al- religions, places, and epochs. We though the exhibition presented received loans of artifacts from works spanning from ca. 1930 to private collectors as well as from 1997, most of these photographs the Detroit Institute of Arts, the were from the 1950s and the 1960s University of Chicago Oriental by members of the New York Photo Institute, Michigan State Uni- League. These photographers cap- versity, UM Museum of Anthro- tured streetscapes with people pology, and Yale University looking at each other as well Babylonian Collection. We thank Taishan Talisman, rubbing, date of the as at the camera, focusing on them for their participation. inscription is 1789; the date of the rubbing is not known, from Mount Tai, Shandong relationships—or the lack of— Province, China, courtesy Patrice Fava instead of shooting the perspec- On the afternoon of the opening tives of large avenues and high- reception, a symposium addressed rise buildings. This exhibition the anthropological and spiritual was featured in The Chronicle of issues derived from the exhibition. Higher Education, May 16, 2008. Participants were Webb Keane (Anthropology), James Robson In conjunction with the exhi- (Asian Languages and Cultures), bition, and to illustrate the 18 Ray Silverman (Center for Afro- influence of these photographers 27 american and African Studies on the film noir genre as well and Museum Studies Program), as on the French New Wave of and Michael Swartz (Ohio cinematography, we presented State University). three films: The Naked City (1948), considered a turning point in film noir and based on photographs by Weegee; The Little Fugitive (1953), written Looks Given/Looks and directed by Ray Ashley, Taken: Jewish Urban Ruth Orkin, and photographer Photographers Morris Engel, East Side Sweet Evelyn, Morris Engle; and the documen- March 10–May 16 New York City, 1938, 13 3/8 x 10 3/8”, gelatin silver print; courtesy Howard tary Thin (2006), directed by Greenberg Gallery and Mary Engel Lauren Greenfield. Photographs by Bruce Davidson, Morris Engel, Lauren Greenfield, Sid Grossman, William Klein, Rebecca Lepkoff, Leon The Institute thanks Levinstein, Richard Nagler, and Weegee the Efroymson Fund, a Central Presented with the UM Frankel Indiana Community Institute for Advanced Judaic Foundation Fund, for Studies its support of this year’s exhibitions program. Colloquium with Sara Blair (English, Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies Fellow), Thursday, March 13 left to right: David Chung, Dean Bryan Rogers, Tirtza Even, Sadashi Inuzuka, and Dan Price Development

The year has seen the departure of Mary Price, virtually Development can never be discussed without mention identified with our Spring and Fall Seminars, and of our Fall and Spring Seminars. Our Fall Seminar crucial to the history of the Institute’s development. was a central part of our Twenty/Twenty events and Cody Engle finished his term has been discussed earlier in this as Chair of the Board and has report (see p. 2). been replaced by Jim Foster. Jim has brought his consummate Our Spring Seminar, Remaking communication skills to help us Heritage, was, in the words of more effectively engage with our one of our board members, “One Board and friends, and, with our of the best ever.” The seminar new LSA Development liaison grew out of the director’s expe- David Cave, is already beginning rience in Africa as part of Mary to take the Board in exciting new Sue Coleman’s Presidential Dele- directions. gation. He is part of a small group of faculty spearheading a Cody articulated new paths of collaborative set of projects with connection for the Institute, most African universities on the topic notably our entry into the Chicago of heritage. Heritage seemed a Humanities Festival, with which fine topic for a Spring Seminar we have partnered for three years because the humanities are about now. He departed leaving two heritage: scholarship transmits art, left to right: Mary Price, Cody Engle, major gifts to the Institute. Jim Foster, and David Cave literature, and philosophy to the young. The humanities respect, First, he seeded the first three but also critique heritages: seeking years of a new prize in honor of our twentieth: the to re-establish legacies while also vesting present Emerging Scholars Prize which represents a major times with the liberty to say no to the past. Above endowment and naming opportunity for an individual all the humanities, like the arts, seek to find ways to 19 donor or group of donors (see page 4). reinvent tradition. 27

Second, Cody offered a dramatic match to Board In the Spring Seminar virtuoso Chinese pipa player contributions towards its graduate endowment Yang Wei performed traditional Chinese music but campaign. This campaign to build our graduate also demonstrated how his instrument adapts to endowment has been the central development focus new music across the globe. Anthropologist Erica of the year. We were happily kick-started by President Lehrer (also recipient of Honorable Mention for the Mary Sue Coleman’s generous offer to the University Emerging Scholars Prize) discussed heritage tours of a fifty percent match on contributions towards of Eastern Europe by young Jews seeking to be graduate fellowships this year. reacquainted with their lost pasts But Cody came to the plate in an (see above for more detail on unexpected and energizing way. her project). Archaeologist Elaine He offered to our Board a second Gazda showed how new techno- match of seventy-five percent on logies can be used to provide new the dollar if every board member understandings of what it was like contributed to the campaign. We to live in cities long disappeared are thrilled that his terms were (of archaeological heritage). met: one-hundred percent of our Historian and former Institute Board has come through with director Tom Trautmann probed contributions to our graduate the dark side of heritage: the for- match campaign. In combination mation of racialist/racist “Aryan” with generous gifts from our concepts in India and the Euro- former Fellows and faculty friends, pean west (of an “Aryan” heritage). some of whom pledged $100 Sidonie Smith, professor of or $1,000 through monthly English and Women’s Studies, payroll deductions, we have spoke to the “culture wars” (during achieved the goal of one Yang Wei, pipa master which humanities institutes were Twentieth Anniversary Endowed formed, see director’s rumination, page 23), cross- Graduate Fellowship. Thank you cutting between her own experience as a young and to all for your generous support! feminist woman in the University thirty years back, and a larger historical lens. Development

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left to right: Robert Macek, Pearson Macek, Alice Hart; Carolyn Panzer, Erica Lehrer, Milton Panzer; Yang Wei, Eliza Woodford, John Woodford; Cody Engle, Marcella Trautmann, Tom Trautmann; Bill Sandy, Leslie Loomans, Susan Loomans Development

List of Donors

Our partnership with the Chicago Humanities Festival We are extremely thankful to the following people and (CHF) was also part of our Twenty/Twenty events, organizations who so generously gave to the Institute for insofar as we brought dancer and choreographer (and the Humanities in Fiscal Year 2008. former Institute Fellow) Peter Sparling for a return visit to CHF, where he curated a Akers Foundation set of chamber pieces for dance, Anonymous relying on current and former David C. Arch members of his company, and on John Baines colleagues. These chamber pieces Gina Bloom betray a prodigious imagination, Andreea D. Boboc one that refuses constraint by any Ronald L. Boorstein medium, while also being utterly Melanie A. Boyd and always dance. In a homage to William R. Brashear the painter of the triptych, Francis Carl A. Brauer, Jr. Bacon, Sparling tapes only his The Cairn Foundation face, which becomes a living William & Janet Cassebaum orchestra of motion and emotion. John D. Cave In another he is constrained to a Evan K. Chambers chair (something unthinkable Cora Chu Chin for a dancer!) and through the Helene G. Cohen power of constraint, the tape Roger & Ann Cole becomes a celebration of moving Natalie Zemon Davis portraiture. Here is an artist who, Nicholas & Elena Delbanco thirty years into the game, is still DTE Energy Foundation beginning, still as fresh as the The Efroymson Fund young while also someone whose Geoff H. Eley mastery of every detail of dance Catherine C. Engle 21 lends absolute clarity and force Revocable Trust 27 to every improvised thing. Again S. Cody Engle the audience went wild. Harriet B. Field Anne O. Fisher The theme of this past year’s Ellen Z. Fivenson CHF was “Climate of Concern,” James & Nancy Foster and so we also brought the dean Willard & Anne Fraumann Fund of the School of Architecture, Paul E. Freehling Doug Kelbaugh, who discussed Wood & Rosemary Geist the complex issue of sustainable Gail Gilliland cities: referring to issues of energy Kathleen L. Glezen consumption, land use, urban Elizabeth N. Graham design, and the global context Eugene & Emily Grant of energy crisis (not to mention Family Foundation global warming). He is among left to right: Sidonie Smith, Elaine Gazda; Timothy R. Green the top theorists of the “new Louise Holland; Mary Kidder; Virginia Roger & Meredith Harris urbanism” today. Nicklas, and Paul Freehling Jean Hébrard Marian E. Hobson Expansion of the Institute’s presence to new parts of the Louise A. Holland country is a central development goal. In this regard H.S. Foundation the director made trips to Atlanta, just as in years past Michael & Linda Hutcheon he has visited California, Florida, and Pittsburgh. Marc & Constance Jacobson Dale C. Jerome Suzanne M. Karpus Robert & Mary Kidder Diane Kirkpatrick John & Anne Knott Mika & Danielle Lavaque-Manty John K. Lawrence Richard D. Leppert Development

Carolyn S. Levin Myron & Barbara Levine Michael Lindahl Leslie & Susan Loomans Louise Anderson Low Kristina M. Luce Marti M. Lybeck Oscar G. & Elsa S. Mayer Family Foundation Mary Jo E. May-Levine Dady & Martha Mehta The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Margo M. Mensing Agnes M. Miner Steven & Lynn Moffic Robert & Melinda Morris Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Virginia Stewart Nicklas Patricia J. Olynyk Joseph & Marjorie G. Perloff Lawrence N. Powell Richard H. Price Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen John Rich Douglas Rogers 22 Bennett W. Root, Jr. 27 Sandy Family Foundation Ted & Mary Ann Simon Jerome Soble Louise K. Stein Mary Stephenson Robert E. Swaney, Jr. Timothy D. Taylor Norman & Marguerite Thal Jason D. Weems Sally M. Whiting left to right: David Arch, Rosemary Geist, Larry Power, Ed and Kathy Marcus, Eugénie and Jim Beal, Judith Adelman

www.lsa.umich.edu/humin

The Institute is in the process of redesigning its website to enhance public outreach and communication with our friends, donors and Board. We will be featuring our fellows online, highlighting our events, and offering a variety of public presentations. Please check us out in the coming months www.lsa.umich.edu/humin The Lessons of our History Twenty Years On

In this section of the report the director puts on his bifocals much income through teaching (unlike an English and looks to our history with an eye to understanding or psychology department). By setting us up as an things close up (now). endowment-generating organization, the University administration insured that money we raised would be The Institute came into being in 1987 as an endowment- ours. Equally important, we were therefore set up with generating organization, given the task of growing our the need for development boards and public outreach fellowships and programs through the raising of our (which brings in donor funds). And both turn out own funds. The goal was to raise an endowment of $20 to be good. Parenthetically, most other humanities

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Rackham Building, the Institute’s first home (photo: Phil Datilo, 1994) million (in book value). The provost and the College institutes do not have development boards and do not supplied start-up funds provided annually on a sliding engage in significant public outreach. scale to bridge to the moment of self-sufficiency. Our endowment now stands at approximately $15.4 The Institute for the Humanities was established million (March 2008 book value). LSA contributes to around the same time as a number of other institutes our unit through donation of space, first by paying for from top universities. All came into being with two our space in Rackham and now, after certain peripatetic aims. First, their role was to offer internal grants for wanderings, by establishing us in our wonderful new faculty research at a time when national funding for the quarters in the Thayer Building (202 South Thayer). humanities was in decline relative to the social sciences This has proved critical, because many other centers and sciences. This role remains utterly necessary, since and institutes exist at the mercy of general funds national funding for the humanities is chronically supplied by deans, and those deans are at the mercy a problem. The key is now to invent new forms of of fluctuating financial times. A humanities institute faculty fellowships and research that respond flexibly tends to be among the first units to have its budget to new research patterns in the humanities, and indeed cut in bad times, because institutes don’t generate very help bring these about. Throughout our twenty-year history we have experimented with collaborative in the world.” That ideal was busy being exposed as a fellowships for group projects in the humanities, some last vestige of the British empire and its self-superiority to bridge the humanities with the arts, social sciences, disguised as universal uplift. Leftist scholars, new architecture, natural resources, public policy, and feminists, African-American thinkers, and many others other fields. We have funded archaeology projects that were inventing new styles of literary analysis, historical use new technologies to represent lost cities, archival study, philosophical ethics, sociological description, research taking place between partners in distant and visual study—very much under the influence of parts of the globe through the internet, and dance European philosophy—which understood the legacies and poetry collaborations using of the humanities as ideological, Merce Cunningham dancers patriarchal, racist, and otherwise and elaborate technological tainted. The reading style of soundscapes. We have commis- the older generation, “New sioned ceramic work transposing Criticism,” attended religiously to poetry onto plates; human rights the inner complexities of a poem projects between anthropologists or novel, believing it to be, like and members of Doctors without a church or beautiful European Borders; work in population relic found in a museum, free of studies, ancient history, and the dirt of ordinary life. The goal literary analysis on the Han of the culture wars was to show Dynasty that builds digital ar- that even the most lily-white texts chives, publishes single authored contained their share of human papers, and builds scholarly grime (bad politics, racism, connections between China and refusal to attend to human the US… the list goes on. This reality, whatever), thus returning while hosting a generation of representation to reality. After faculty and graduate students all, what doesn’t? Who doesn’t? 24 from the University who have The humanities were being, dare 27 gone on to write scores of one say it, humanized, returned scholarly books, publish hun- to what Nietzsche calls the “all dreds of articles, novels, poems, John Knott, Interim Director, 1987–88 too human” (cruelty, patriarchy, translations, creative non-fiction, (photo: UM Photo Services) humiliation, intimidation, blind- musical operas, and historical sightedness, crudeness, sexual memoirs, along with a library full rapaciousness, in short, the of dissertations, every one of which world of power). Humanities- showing the results of the intense wide conversations were needed, and eye-opening comments from since these results of the 1960s persons in history, philosophy, and its radicalism, its women’s literature, anthropology, musico- movement, its gay pride, its logy, painting, sculpture, and identity politics, rocked the architecture that our graduate humanities to its foundations. students are gifted as they pass Since departments were silos, through our quarters. humanities institutes would be the place where the humanities The second reason humanities would rock and roll. institutes were established was to serve as emporiums where the The metaphor of war, although debates of the time over canon and loudly proclaimed at the time, culture could take place. Think was inadequate in two ways to back twenty years ago to the time what was really going on. First, of the culture wars, the moment reflection on foundations is when the authority of the great always contentious, and usually books and their reputedly exclusive James A. Winn, Director, 1988–1996 a good thing. Challenges to role in setting the gold standard the foundations of our thought for civilization was being hotly contested. These were represent our way of resisting calcification, of breaking the days when all manner of assault was being hurled out of old molds (before they mould or molt). on Matthew Arnold’s ideal of a humanistic education Through such challenges we achieve new concepts as study of “the best which has been thought and said for humanistic understanding, and the 1980s gave us many which are by now well entrenched. Second, the it is to translate that grip into other terms. At the goal at that time was generous: to open a place for so moment when globalization was beginning to bring many of the world’s voices that had been shunted to cultures closer together, their depth of difference one side or approached with condescension. The goal became recognizable. was not simply destructive (although it was certainly that). It was also a goal of globalization, populism, Our Humanities Institute became the central place diversification in their best senses. on campus where scholars and artists, sociologists and legal theorists could debate such heady matters These things are now common- as these. Because there were so place, twenty years later, but a great many important thematic issues deal had to be unlearned at the pressing upon the humanities time about exclusivist literatures at that time, for the first decade and philosophies in order to allow the Institute for the Humanities for this process of globalization hosted “Theme Years.” A and diversity, since terms of publications series under the comparison required reframing. general title “Ratio” documented Once one accepts that Chinese the conversations, critiques, and opera is to be taken seriously, conferences that ensued. The how does one “compare” it in benefit of such themes was obvious: “quality,” voice, depth, purpose to they provided a common topic for Verdi, Noh drama, Henrik Ibsen? communication across disciplines Does this question even make in the Fellows’ Seminar and public sense? It is too simple, and indeed programs we then mounted, under closed minded, to say, well, the directorships of John Knott, nothing in Chinese music equals James Winn, Domna Stanton, and Mozart or Beethoven so consider Diane Kirkpatrick. it merely exotic or touristic. First: Domna Stanton, Acting Director, 25 1990–91 little does equal Mozart, but so Tom Trautmann, my predecessor 27 what? Mozart is by definition in the role of director, relinquished amazing under any category, theme years because by the late hardly comparable to anything nineties they were becoming more else. Second: the capacity of an confining than liberating. This art form (Chinese traditional signaled a change in the larger opera) to speak with power and climate of the humanities. The depth is a social property. Who culture wars were coming to an can say (without being part of end; their effects now permeated that traditional culture) what the humanities. Shakespeare, kind of power is gifted by such Dickens, Henry James, Thomas an art, and through what ritual or Jefferson, and Socrates remained practice? And when one is within intact if also brought down to the the grip of that culture, amenable level of the human, the rapacious, to its charms and powers, where ideological, patriarchal, blind- is the objective place into which sighted, and whatever else. Four one can step out so that it (as hundred students enrolled to a whole) can be compared to, hear Ralph Williams lecture on say, eighteenth-century western Shakespeare (as they did this past classical music (as a whole)? This year). The humanities became less question about the nature of driven by “agendas” and more by interpretation became seriously multiplicities of concern. And raised only in the past fifty years, they had become more firmly when colonial authority went Diane Kirkpatrick, Interim Director, globalized, humanized, inclusive away and we became able to grasp 1996–97 of women like Emily Dickinson, the power of other kinds of things Hannah Arendt, Gayatri Spivak, almost “for the first time.” At that moment the entire a city of houses including the house or apartment world became anthropological, about local practices of Kwame Anthony Appiah, Salman Rushdie, and and how much is at stake in understanding their Chinua Achebe. It is within this cosmopolitan city grip on local communities, and about how difficult that scholars and artists now live and work, a city challenged by abrupt differences and conducive of There is also a moral to be drawn. What justified equally strange affinities that arise in metro and across humanities institutes like ours was not simply our role boulevard. Tom Trautmann, anthropologist of India, in building funding opportunities for research, but opened the Michigan fellowships to this larger city also our ability to stand at the edge of the humanities of scholarship, without theme, and with whatever and take intellectual risks. Being a Socratic space fascinating cross-currents emerged between Fellows. outside received departmental limits, we were meant to carry forward what was most controversial. The question that should occupy any It has been obvious to me that director is: what, twenty years a twentieth anniversary cele- later, is the new edgy thing? How bration should be the occasion can we forward the humanities in to reflect on the results of new ways at the beginning of the all that. What is the state of twenty-first century? How can “women’s studies” today, given we do justice to humanistic the wide dissemination of femi- traditions while bringing about nism throughout the humanities these new things? And how and social sciences? Does it still (looking back to who was doing have an institutional role, an the fighting twenty years ago) can intellectual agenda? What hap- we learn from the young, from pened to the intellectual left after the new generation and its digital the collapse of communism? interests, its globalized lifestyles, Where is there still a role for the its new ways of thinking, taking poststructuralist theories which cue from their experiences and drove debate twenty years ago? interests as to where we might Are literary studies driven by a edge the humanities? We have “basic agenda” or by multiplicities Thomas Trautmann, Director, 1997–2002 looked to new digital questions, 26 of such today? In what way has collaborative research forms, 27 “gay shame” replaced “gay pride,” to “crossing the diag,” to the and how does this inflect the questions of contemporary life, understanding of prose? In one but also back to heritages and their of the most successful Brown Bag remaking, for answers. We call on Lecture Series the Institute has all of our readers to contribute to had, we asked our own faculty this search. to meditate on “What Happened to…?” The Humanities Institute became a packed occasion for reflection on intellectual legacies.

Rackham Building, detail (photo: UM News Services, Bob Kalmboch) Affiliates and Staff

Staff Institute for the Humanities’ Executive Committee Daniel Herwitz, Director Kathryn Babayan, Near Eastern Studies Doretha Coval, Events Coordinator Young-Shik David Chung, School of Art and Design, Terry Jansen, Department Manager Korean Studies Program Elisabeth Paymal, Curator and Graphic Designer Daniel A. Herwitz, ex officio Eliza Woodford, Fellows Coordinator Susan M. Juster, History Vassilis Lambropoulos, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature, Kelsey Museum Non-discrimination Policy Statement of Archaeology The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws Mika T. Lavaque-Manty, Political Science regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action, including Peggy S. McCracken, ex officio, Associate Dean, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 Rackham, Romance Languages and Literatures, of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is Women’s Studies committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, national Michael C. Schoenfeldt, ex officio,Associate Dean, origin or ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender LSA, English Language and Literature identity, gender expression, disability, or Vietnam-era veteran status Norman Yoffee, Near Eastern Studies, Anthropology in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity and Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Institute for the Humanities’ Emerging Scholars Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734 763-0235, TTY 734 647-1388. Prize Selection Committee For other University of Michigan information call 734 764-1817. Daniel A. Herwitz, ex officio Marjorie Perloff, Stanford University, English and Comparative Literature The Regents of the University of Michigan Peter Railton, UM Philosophy Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor Michael C. Schoenfeldt, UM Associate Dean, LSA, Laurence B. Deitch, Bingham Farms English Language and Literature Olivia P. Maynard, Goodrich Rebecca McGowan, Ann Arbor 27 Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor 27 Acknowledgements Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park Peter Smith, photography, unless otherwise noted S. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe Farms Stephanie Harrell, editor Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor PrintTech, Ann Arbor Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio

Institute for the Humanities’ Board of Visitors David Arch, Oak Brook, IL Jeremy Efroymson, Indianapolis, IN S. Cody Engle, Chicago, IL James Foster, chair, Pittsburgh, PA William Fraumann, Chicago, IL Paul E. Freehling, Chicago, IL Rosemary Geist, Washington, MI Eugene Grant, Mamaroneck, NY Louise Holland, Winnetka, IL Institute for the Humanities Marc Jacobson, Norfolk, VA University of Michigan Mary G. Kidder, New Albany, OH 202 South Thayer Street Leslie Loomans, Ann Arbor, MI Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1698 Susan Loomans, Ann Arbor, MI 734 936-3518 Richard Mayer, Winnetka, IL [email protected] Conti Canseco Meehan, Chappaqua, NY www.lsa.umich.edu/humin Virginia Nicklas, Pittsburgh, PA John Rich, Beverly Hills, CA Bennett Root, Jr., Pasadena, CA William Sandy, Longboat Key, FL Marjorie Sandy, Longboat Key, FL 20 20 Institute for the Humanities University of Michigan 202 South Thayer Street Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1698 734 936-3518 [email protected] www.lsa.umich.edu/humin