NEWSLETTER Institute for Scholars Reid Hall - Paris No.7 2006-2007
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Columbia University NEWSLETTER Institute for Scholars Reid Hall - Paris No.7 2006-2007 INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1 FROM THE DIRECTOR 10 INTERVIEW WITH FMSH 13 INSTITUTE EVENTS 2 2006-2007 FELLOWS FELLOWS 14 REID HALL EVENTS 2 INTERVIEWS WITH FELLOWS 12 FMSH INTERNATIONAL 15 NEWS FROM THE FELLOWS 8 NOTES ON THE ARCHITECTURAL PROGRAM FOR AND STAFF HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTE ADVANCED STUDIES FROM THE DIRECTOR This year at the Institute, we provided access to new knowledge. Indeed, the again welcomed scholars Institute provides all the Fellows with opportunities for from many parts of the many such cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary world. The American exchanges. The convivial and relaxed atmosphere, as Fellows – from Columbia well as the many ways in which we provide scholarly University, Vassar College, assistance, are generally much appreciated. Several of University of California at our Fellows were guided toward archival sources, Santa Barbara, University of others were helped with translations of their papers, yet Hawaii, Skidmore College, others eagerly signed up for French language courses University of Georgia, taught in our undergraduate and graduate programs. Loyola College in Maryland, And the Fellows reciprocated by giving us the Harvard University, New opportunity to invite students to their talks and by York University, Temple meeting with interested students individually. Returning University and Stanford Fellows provide another kind of continuity and University – were joined by exchange. This year, the group of scholars who had others coming from Cambridge University, the National worked on “Partitions” at the Institute in 2002 came Research Center for Science and Technology for Develop- back to celebrate the publication of their book, ment (Beijing), the Chinese Social Science Academy Partitions. Reshaping of States and Minds , and we (Beijing), Jadavpur University (Calcutta), the London School organized a debate around the thematics they had of Economics, the Open University (Milton Keynes), and the developed. University of Campinas (Sao Paulo). It is thanks to our co- operative agreement with the Fondation Maison des In this newsletter, readers will find more information on Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH), that we are able to host the publications and other accomplishments of the many international scholars. One of the pleasures of our Fellows who have worked at the Institute since its weekly meetings around tea time is our team of Chinese, inception as well as interviews with some of the Indian and French economists working together on a book scholars in residence. I wish to close with special provisionally entitled: Opening Markets in Emerging mention of some archival work of our own: The Institute Countries and its impact on National Firms. The majority of is housed in one of the buildings of Reid Hall, built in the researchers in residence are immersed in the study of 1910 by the architect Charly Knight. The history of the history or literature and rarely have the chance to explore architectural plans and the devolution of the art studios other fields. Our introduction to the rather mysterious world into a military hospital during World War I is part of its (to us) of economists was made by the group’s brilliant story. You will find a description of the transformation of presentation. Their ability to speak to non-specialists the Institute building in this issue.■ Danielle Haase-Dubosc 2006-2007 FELLOWS IN RESIDENCE INTERVIEWS WITH FELLOWS Full Year Elizabeth Amann Elizabeth Amann , Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Columbia University, USA Laura Mason , Associate Professor, University of Georgia, Department of History, USA Jordana Dym , Associate Professor, Department of History, Skidmore College, USA Fall Bruce King , Blegen Professor of Classics, Center for Hellenic Studies, Vassar College, USA Kenneth Moure , Professor, Department of History, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA Graham Parkes , Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Hawaii, USA Christine van Ruymbeke , Soudavar Lecturer in The Politics of Pants: Dandyism in Persian, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge the Age of Revolution University, UK Who, or should I say, what is a Jordana Dym dandy? Spring The dandy is a late eighteenth- Maureen N. McLane , Lecturer in History and Literature, Harvard University, century incarnation of a type that has USA a long history in the West: the Laura M. Slatkin , Professor of Classical Studies, Gallatin School New York fastidiously dressed man obsessed University and Visiting Professor, Committee on Social Thought, University with his own appearance. His lineage of Chicago, USA may be traced back to Alcibiades or Katherine Stern Brennan , Professor, Department of History forward to the Fab Five. But what Loyola College in Maryland, USA interests me in this project is a shift Todd Shepard , Assistant Professor, Department of History, Temple that occurred at the end of the University, USA eighteenth century in the definition, representation and even the name of Joint Projects co-sponsored with the Fondation Maison des the figure. During these years, the Sciences de l'Homme - IPAS man once called a fop, coxcomb, Spring beau, popinjay or macaroni in England, a précieux or petit-maître in Project I France and a lindo or petimetre in Opening Markets in Emerging Countries and its Impact on National Firms: A Spain became the swell or the Comparative Study between China and India exquisite, the incroyable or Joël Ruet , Visiting Fellow Asia Research Center, London School of merveilleux , the élégant , in all three Economics, UK and Associate Researcher CERNA, Ecole des mines, Paris, languages, the dandy. This lexical France shift reflected a change in the value of Ajitava Raychaudhuri , Professor, Department of Economics, Jadavpur the character. Whereas the old terms University, Calcutta, India evoked the effeminacy ( lindo , beau), Wang Wei, Professor, Institute of World Economics and Politics, absurdity (coxcomb, macaroni), Chinese Social Science Academy, Beijing, China apishness (popinjay) and smallness Kong Xinxin , National Research Center for Science and Technology for (petit , preciosity) of the figure, the new Development, Beijing, China terms retain to this day positive Project II connotations: to be swell, exquisite, Comparing Scales of Citizenship between Social and Legal Representations marvelous or elegant is ultimately fine John Clarke , Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, and dandy. The character that was Milton Keynes, UK once a lampoon of fashion became, in Kathleen Coll , Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, Introduction to the the late eighteenth century, an ideal of Humanities, Stanford University, USA self-fashioning. Evelina Dagnino , Professor, Departamento de Ciência Politica, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil Who or what? That's a good question, for the dandy could be Guest Fellows : described as a who that is Jean-François Huchet , Director, French Center for Study of Contemporary transforming himself into a what , as China, Hong Kong. someone who is making his life into a Catherine Neveu , Laboratoire d’anthropologie des institutions et des work of art. Most studies on the organisations sociales, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme , Paris, France subject have focused on the who's who of dandyism, on real-life figures Special Guest Member: such as Beau Brummell, Oscar Wilde, Moshik Temkin , Department of History, Columbia University, USA Max Beerbohm. My project also deals 2 Columbia University Institute for Scholars NEWSLETTER n°7 2006-2007 with some historical dandies—the muscadins of the their own work. Although the academicians notified local French revolution, for example—but I am more interested authorities of their intentions and organized themselves in the "what", the dandy as a label, cultural construct or by developing statutes for their institutions, they were not aesthetic ideal and the types of discourses that are responding to royal directives. They established woven around him and his dress during this politically reputations for themselves and their academies by tumultuous moment. corresponding with several Parisian “brokers” who worked on their behalf in the complex world of the What does dandyism have to do with revolution? republic of letters in Europe. Eventually, each group of academicians initiated, at different moments in the history The connection between dandyism and revolution is in of their institution, a request for letters patent from the many ways counter-intuitive. We tend to think of the king. In keeping with the distinct relationships he had with dandy as disengaged and indifferent, too superficial to each city in France, the king had no one policy that espouse a political cause and too self-absorbed to care governed his decision on whether or not to grant letters about society. Our view of the figure, however, is patent. Each academy had to mount a campaign to coloured by mid- and late nineteenth-century portrayals, persuade the king of the seriousness of their work and which have generally been privileged in critical the benefit they could offer the crown. Achieving this discussions of dandyism. As a result, we tend to conflate recognition from the crown was important for the dandyism with aestheticism and to limit the transgressive longevity of the academies and brought additional force of the figure to his sexual ambiguities. When we privileges to members as well as fame to the cities. Louis’ turn our gaze back to the 1790s, however, a different policy was, in short, not uniform, but individualized to fit picture begins to emerge, for during this period perhaps the concerns of the crown at the time. more than any other, one wore one's politics on one's sleeve. Debated in national assemblies and disputed on What was the nature of a provincial academy and how the street, fashion was a constant site of contention and would you define its relationship to the center: dissension during the French Revolution. Indeed, one of its major players is identified by his clothes or lack Provincial academies were voluntary associations thereof: the sans-culotte .