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THESEMIANNUALNEWSLETTEROFTHEROBERTPENNWARRENCENTERFORTHEHUMANITIES VOL. 18, NO. 1 • FALL 2009 • VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

“Immigration and the American Experience” An Interview with Daniel B. Cornfield and Gary Gerstle

he 2009–2010 Fellows Program at the Warren Center, “Immigration and the TAmerican Experience,” will focus on the culture and politics of immigration as it relates primarily to the U.S. experience from the early American period to the present. Using a comparative-historical approach, the Fellows will draw on the humanities and social sciences, as well as studies in interna- tional human rights, transnationalism, and international migration in world regions other than North America. The co-directors are Daniel B. Cornfield, professor of sociology and political science, and Gary Gerstle, the James G. Stahlman Professor of American History. Letters met recently with Professors Cornfield and Gerstle at the Vaughn Home to discuss the program.

LETTERS: Could you talk about this project in terms of what you hope to achieve within the next year? How did the project come about?

CORNFIELD: It came about because we are friends and colleagues and we share a com- Daniel Cornfield (left) and Gary Gerstle mon interest in the topic, and although Gary is a historian and I am a sociologist, we have a occurred in the period of 1880–1924. Many tremendous amount of overlap in our sub- of the debates that we are witnessing now in Inside stantive interests. Also, this seminar coincides the United States, and elsewhere, regarding Immigration and the American Experience .....1-5 with the recent growth of a critical mass of immigration, and immigration as a so-called Vanderbilt faculty in several disciplines who national “wedge” issue, were partly defined in The Humanities at Vanderbilt: Getting Them have an interest in immigration, and we are that previous era. To me as a sociologist, When They’re Young and Other Reflections ...5-7 very fortunate to have many of them in our immigration as a historical, cyclical process Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture ...... 7 seminar. But if I may just back up a century poses enduring questions about community Black Europe: or so to talk about the timing of the issue of identity, about individual identity, about the Diasporic Research in/on Europe...... 8 immigration—immigration as an issue tends nature of group relations in society, and 2010–2011 Fellowship Opportunties ...... 8 to come in waves because immigration, at about the mission and definition of the entire least to the United States, has come in waves, nation and its place in the world. 2009–2010 Faculty Fellows...... 9 and we are presently in a big wave. The last 2009–2010 Graduate Fellows...... 10 big wave, when much scholarship, literature, GERSTLE: One of my favorite passages from poetry, and political conflict emerged, a work on immigration history is from Oscar

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Handlin’s classic, The Uprooted (1951). At the rapidly and at a higher level than others, or felt that immigrants from low-wage nations ception of blocked mobility was presumably ica’s exclusivity rather than its inclusivity. a region that is rapidly changing but that still beginning of the book he states, “once I was it the institutional opportunity struc- would undermine the wages and working con- brewing in Nashville. But the coalition that America, from this point of view, was a proper has less experience than many other parts of the thought to write a history of the immigrants in tures—the kinds of workplaces, and labor ditions and bargaining strength of skilled, mobilized to oppose English-only consisted of destination only for certain kinds of people— country have had in terms of diverse groups of America. Then I discovered that the immi- markets, and the way we organize our commu- unionized U.S. workers—who, at that time, a wide range of segments of the community. It Protestants, Europeans, and whites—and Americans learning to live among each other in grants were American history.” That last line nities, that made the American dream more were not typically immigrants, and therefore included a large group of people who philo- should close its doors to other kinds of peo- conditions of equality. Hope and fear battled has long stuck with me. This country has accessible to some groups than to others? he took an exclusive approach to both trade sophically took an inclusive approach to immi- ple—Catholics, Christian Orthodox, Jews, each other in the Nashville English-only refer- always been a country of immigrants. To study In the process of developing an institutional unionism and immigration. That whole debate gration—the same inclusive Muslims, Africans, Asians, and endum of January 2009, and hope won. It was immigration is not just to study those who approach to understanding social mobility and had remained dormant for a while because perspective that would have been other nonwhites who, by reason a good day for Nashville. Perhaps we will one came to the United States from elsewhere and the pursuit of the American dream, sociologists immigration all but stopped for about the next taken in the nineteenth century of religion and race, were day look back on this moment, too, as putting made homes here. It is to study the very began to query, especially in the 1980s and forty to fifty years, except for the immigration that I described before. And there deemed unfit for life in America. efforts at immigration reform in the nation as a processes through which the United States 1990s, a little bit more about how institutions of Mexican agricultural workers. Then with was another group, sometimes From this perspective, the Amer- whole on a more positive foundation. constituted itself and reconstituted itself as a matter, and where they come from. So that is immigration reforms beginning around 1965, overlapping with the first, who ican “genius” for liberty, prosper- nation. As Dan suggested, we are in the midst when sociology as a discipline became much and then later in the 1980s and 1990s, many were very concerned about the ity, and self-government was LETTERS: Are there any other foundational of a major wave of immigration more comparative-historical in its more immigrants started coming to the United investment potential and eco- thought to be rooted either in immigration laws established in the early and, I would add, a major recon- approach, opening up, to me, the States, this time from many different parts of nomic future of Nashville as a religion (Protestantism) or in American period that have changed drastically stitution of how we think about possibility of having even more the world, especially the global south, and, not city. These groups, such as the race (whiteness) or both. Groups recently? Are there other laws that were ourselves as a nation. Immigra- dialogue with historians on the least of all, Mexico. Chamber of Commerce, view whose religion or race put them amended or changed between immigration’s tion density in America is history of immigration, labor and anti-immigrant mobilizations as at too great a distance from the first wave and the current wave? approaching the all-time peak the American dream, the impact LETTERS: Could you discuss, on a local level, an ugly deterrent to new business Cornfield Anglo-Saxon ideal were judged achieved early in the twentieth on identity, the capacity to build Nashville’s relationship to immigration and investment in Nashville. From incapable of assimilation, of cher- GERSTLE: There have been two founda- century (about fifteen percent of new communities, and, not least the recent rejection of the English-only law? that perspective, and from a philosophical per- ishing or practicing American democracy, and tional changes in American immigration law. the total population). It seems, of all, the capacity to build a An off-shoot of that is the differentiation spective, a fairly wide coalition of people that of pursuing the American dream. Anti-immi- The first I have already addressed: the elimina- then, so important to understand dynamic labor movement. between assimilation and upward mobility. ordinarily would not coalesce on political gration groups undertook major efforts to tion of racial restrictions on naturalization and this moment both on its own In the late nineteenth century, How do you differentiate between those two issues came together on this issue to oppose exclude these “inferior” and “un-American” immigration that occurred in the 1950s and terms and in relation to earlier immigrant labor intellectuals terms and how important is such a differentia- English-only. The net result was fifty-seven peoples from entering the United States and 1960s and the consequent reaffirmation of percent of the voters opposing English-only as they were frequently successful: The Congress America as a universal nation, welcoming peo- waves and reconstitutions. It Gerstle defined some of the parameters of tion? seems important to assess how our contemporary policy debates a way to define Nashville. passed laws that excluded East and South ple of every race and nationality. The second immigrants are experiencing this moment and about inclusion and exclusion of immigrants CORNFIELD: Between 1990 and 2006 the Asians from the 1880s to the 1960s, and East- has been the abandonment of an almost com- how that experience is similar to, or different in society and in the labor movement. There average annual unemployment rate for GERSTLE: The defeat of the English-only ern and Southern Europeans and Africans pletely “open borders” approach to immigra- from, the experience of immigrants in earlier are three immigrant labor intellectuals of the Nashville was a very low 3.9 percent, so we law was a great victory for Nashville, and an from the 1920s to the 1960s. Meanwhile, an tion and the embrace instead of an generations. We want to know what impact 1900-era who are illustrative, namely, Daniel had full employment locally. During that important piece of good news for the nation obscure naturalization law passed by the first immigration regime grounded in restriction. the immigrants are having on American society De Leon from Venezuela, Morris Hillquit period of time, absorption of newcomers from as a whole during a period marked by growing U.S. Congress in 1790 limited citizenship to For much of the nineteenth century the and what impact that society is having on from Latvia, and Samuel Gompers from Lon- any background was relatively smooth because hostility toward the immigrants in our midst. those immigrants who were “free and white.” United States, then a labor-hungry nation (its them. We seek to understand this moment by don, England. As labor leaders they were orga- under those conditions individuals can picture Throughout American history two rival con- This law remained in effect for more than one economic and political systems still unproven) drawing on, and drawing together, the various nizing immigrant and native workers to help a pathway toward the American dream. As the ceptions of what this nation should be have hundred and fifty years, and was used at vari- pursued an open borders approach: the gov- disciplines—history, sociology, anthropology, them to accomplish the American dream, each economy began to slow down in the early battled each other for supremacy. One con- ous times to exclude African, Asian, and Arab ernment placed no limits on the number of political science, literature and cultural stud- with a different strategy and philosophy. De 2000s we started to see more evidence of what ception put forward America as a refuge for immigrants already resident on American soil immigrants who could enter the United States ies—that have become interested in immigra- Leon represented the most inclusive, interna- is called “nativism,” the expression of anti- the world’s poor, persecuted, and dispossessed. from becoming citizens of the United States. in any given year, and barred almost no tion and have contributed to a common fund tionalist orientation toward immigration—he immigrant attitudes by some members of the This America welcomed newcomers, promis- The Civil Rights Revolution of the 1960s groups from immigrating. Quotas did not of knowledge about it. It is that understanding favored almost completely open borders and local community who became less welcoming, ing them the kind of opportunity and free- did a great deal to affirm the universalist con- exist; the illegal alien problem did not exist. In and drawing together that we hope to achieve the inclusion of all workers regardless of ethnic and in some cases hostile, toward immigrants. dom denied them in the Old World. From ception of America and to undermine the fact, the very category of the “illegal alien” had in this seminar. background in the U.S. labor movement. Mor- The 2008–09 English-only mobilization that this perspective, America was a place where restrictive and racist conception. Indeed the yet to be invented. That began to change with ris Hillquit was one of the co-founders with you are referring to occurred at a time when the poor could become prosperous, where the Civil Rights Revolution triggered a remarkable Chinese Exclusion in 1882, a movement cul- CORNFIELD: The sociological and historical Eugene Victor Debs of the Socialist Party of the economy was slowing down as the popula- religiously and politically persecuted could rewriting of the country’s immigration laws so minating in what Dan has referred to as the understanding of migration has been linked in the United States of America. Hillquit repre- tion was diversifying dramatically. In 1990, at become free, and where the masses could as to open the United States to the peoples of Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, which part to labor issues. Many labor sociologists sented a middle ground between the com- the beginning of that full-employment period become sovereign. America was a place, too, the world in ways never accomplished before. limited the number of immigrants outside the and labor historians would have had some pletely inclusive approach and the completely that I described before, there were hardly any where any individual could reinvent him or The result has been a wave of immigration as western hemisphere who could come to the connection to immigration because those two exclusive approach. Samuel Gompers was the immigrants living in Nashville. Two and a half herself in the pursuit of happiness and self-ful- significant as any in American history and United States to one hundred and fifty thou- issues, theoretically and in practice, were forty-year president of the American Federa- percent of Nashvillians were “foreign-born,” fillment. We should never underestimate the unprecedented in its racial, religious, and geo- sand per year, an eighty-five percent reduction tightly linked. When I was in graduate school tion of Labor, which is the forerunner organi- the expression of the U.S. Census. By 2007, pull of this American dream, and its influence graphic diversity. We are living through, as a in the numbers who had been arriving annu- as a labor sociologist in training, our chief zation of the AFL-CIO that plays a major role that percentage had climbed to about twelve on generations of immigrants, including those result, a major moment of national reconstitu- ally until that time. Those one hundred and nemesis in the interdisciplinary field of labor in contemporary labor and immigration policy percent who were foreign-born. In sociological who live among us today. At various moments tion. Any such moment is bound to shake up fifty thousand slots were distributed among studies would have been economics. As labor debates. Gompers represented what was called terms, and in everyday terms, that is consid- (most of the nineteenth century, for example), older notions of national belonging, of what it the various nations of the world, with most sociologists, we were developing an institu- the restrictionist approach, a very exclusive ered dramatic social change. too, the United States backed this vision of an means to be an American, and of what it is that slots being reserved for the “racially superior” tional understanding of the pathways to the approach, and was one of the forces behind the As the economy worsened while this dra- inclusive and opportunity-filled America with binds together those who live alongside one peoples of northwest and northern Europe. American dream—what do they look like? famous 1924 federal legislation which cur- matic social change was occurring, for some one of the most liberal immigration policies of another into one nation. These moments are By the 1960s, this “racial quota” system had Was it individual choice, as the economists tailed immigration from Eastern, Central and Nashvillians, the American dream appeared to any nation in the world. both exciting and stressful times; they inspire come to be despised and was scuttled in favor were arguing, that accounted for why some Southern Europe, effectively ending the previ- be increasingly opaque. So the English-only The other conception of America was radi- hope and generate fear. It is not surprising that of a system that gave each nation the same people attained the American dream more ous wave of immigration to the U.S. Gompers mobilization occurred at a time when that per- cally different: this conception stressed Amer- both the hope and fear are intense in the South, number of slots, with preference going to those RPWLetters_Fall09:Letters 9/15/09 9:21 AM Page 4

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who had skills that the United States needed or ally much better off having had that law on change their names; to hide their religious But the space for particularity and difference hyper-assimilation into the U.S. pop culture to fend off either hyperassimilation and loss of family members in the United States with the books, because over time it has been a spur practices or else make them conform to the is much greater than previous generations of by the youth of that immigrant group. In this the traditions on the one hand, and to fend whom they wished to be reunited. However, toward integration and belonging, toward traditions of American Protestantism; to aban- Americans thought it could be, and our expec- case, the older generation of the immigrant off hostile receptions from the native commu- the 1960s reformers gave no thought to making Americans out of groups whose initial don ethnic and food cultures to which they tations for how immigrants should and will group plays a role of imparting to the younger nity on the other, to try to maximize a mutu- returning to the open borders approach of the arrival was greeted with suspicion and disdain. were deeply committed; to conform to images assimilate have correspondingly changed. generation of that immigrant community ally beneficial incorporation of newcomers in nineteenth century. They remained committed It has certainly been preferable to the situation of beauty and comportment that blond-haired, some of the cultural traditions—language, their new home. to the principle of restricting entry; and while that prevailed in several European countries blue-eyed Anglo Saxon Americans were CORNFIELD: The individual and group religion, and food—of the homeland culture. they doubled the number of immigrants who across the middle and late decades of the thought to embody. A hundred years ago struggle about identity and how far to assimi- That is the immigrant artist’s cultural-preser- LETTERS: Your plan for the upcoming year could legally enter each year, they put enor- twentieth century, where groups of non-Euro- Henry Ford dramatized the transformation late, versus retaining one’s traditional cultural vationist role. seems both thoughtful and clearly struc- mous pressure on the available slots by bring- pean immigrants (such as Turks in Germany) expected of immigrants by staging theatre identity and traditions, is like the “fiddler on The other role that the same immigrant tured—is there anything that you are excited ing western hemispheric nations under the were barred from citizenship and belonging shows in Dearborn, Michigan, in which his the roof.” In Nashville, we not only have artist could play, might be called the cultural about that you have not mentioned? umbrella of restriction for the first time. Latin across generations. There the children and immigrant workers would enter a huge melting many fiddlers in the music industry, we have ambassador, in which case the immigrant artist American peoples now found their entry into grandchildren of immigrants had no more pot in the dress of their native lands and many fiddlers on roofs in the Nashville immi- displays, with great dignity, the cultural tradi- CORNFIELD: Are we going to do field trips? the United States restricted; in some countries, chance of becoming citizens than the original emerge at the other end dressed and looking grant communities, who are basically playing tions of his or her ethnic group in venues of We should! such as Mexico, those desiring to come to the immigrants themselves. The creation of a the part of one hundred percent Americans. the role of defining social identities. My the so-called native or mainstream commu- United States from the start vastly exceeded the caste-like group of perpetual outsiders gener- Few immigrants became the one hundred department colleague Professor Jennifer Lena nity. Basically, the ambassador role becomes GERSTLE: I agree! My hope for the seminar quota allotted to them. They came anyway, ates deep alienation and rancor over the long percent Americans of Henry Ford’s imagina- and I have done some local research on the important to those immigrant groups who is that it will reenact intellectually the creativ- giving rise to the problem of the illegal alien. term, to the detriment not simply of the eth- tion. Most found ways of maintaining trea- role of immigrant artists in this very process experience the most hostile reception from ity that often results from many different Today the presence of an estimated ten to nic population, but of the entire society in sured aspects of their ethnic cultures. But that Gary is talking about, dual identities. We natives, in which case the immigrant artist immigrant groups coming together and inter- twelve million illegal aliens on U.S. soil reveals which they reside. The Fourteenth Amend- most had to do so quietly; few felt able to have found that there are two types of immi- assuages the hostile native community in acting with each other. My hope is that the how much our immigration system has failed; ment has made it possible for the United escape the judgment that somehow they were grant artists’ roles—performing and visual order to improve the comfort level and incor- diverse disciplinary backgrounds and interests solving the illegal alien problem presents the States, for the most part, to escape this “per- lesser Americans. Among them resentment at artists. Some immigrant artists are cultural poration of the immigrant group in their new that seminar participants will bring to our dis- greatest challenge to U.S. policymakers. The petual outsider” phenomenon. the harshness of the assimilatory pressures preservationists. For these immigrant artists home. The immigrant artist is a way for an cussion will yield new ways of thinking about problem emerged as a result of the United Permit me, if I may, to use the reference to directed at them smoldered. and groups, the threat to immigrant identity is immigrant community to empower itself and continued on page 11 States embracing, almost a hundred years ago, integration and belonging to return to a ques- That resentment helps to explain the big an immigration policy grounded in the princi- tion you presented to us early on about how cultural change that the civil rights revolution ple of restriction, meaning that the U.S. would to understand the relationship of assimilation set in motion in the 1960s and the 1970s. admit only a small portion of those desiring to and upward mobility. To rephrase that ques- The impact of the slogan “Black is Beautiful” come to America. In restricting immigration in tion: is assimilation necessary to upward was huge, not simply among African Ameri- this way the United States departed in a funda- mobility? In other words, must one conform cans but among all Americans whose skin The Humanities at Vanderbilt: mental way from the open borders policy it fully to the culture that one, as an immigrant, color, religion, or national origins marked pursued for much of the nineteenth century. finds in America in order to enjoy the fruits of them as different from the mainstream. If the Getting Them When They’re Young and Other Reflections One law that profoundly affects the immi- America—first and foremost, economic pros- group in America that had suffered the worst grant families in the United States has not perity and security, and second, a satisfying discrimination and cultural denigration could Edward H. Friedman changed since its inception. This is the Four- sense of belonging? Immigrants have always declare its beauty to the nation, then why teenth Amendment to the Constitution, understood that to make it in America, one could not Latinos, Asians, Italians, Poles, Jews, passed by Congress in 1866 and ratified by needed a certain amount of assimilation, espe- and others do the same? And if one’s culture “A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be I had heard remarks that students at elite writing, and analyzing literature in a language the states in 1868. Section one of that cially fluency in English. That is why America was beautiful and valuable, then why should it filled.”—Plutarch private institutions these days tended to be that is not their first is even more striking. Amendment states that “all persons born…in has long been the place where foreign lan- be scrapped? Should not aspects of it be pre- whiny, more than a bit bratty, and with nega- Equally notable is that many of the texts stud- the United States…are citizens of the United guages go to die, making America more of a served and melded with the broader American “I had a terrible education. I attended a school tive attitudes and a strong sense of entitle- ied date from the sixteenth and seventeenth States.” Soon after this amendment passed, monolingual society than almost any society culture? Or perhaps the broader mass culture for emotionally disturbed teachers.” ment. Those comments scared me, because I centuries. I cannot help but think of their this question arose: if an immigrant mother on the face of the earth. Ethnic groups have should be resisted in favor of cultural particu- —Woody Allen had loved the students at my previous schools; accomplishments as analogous to the oft-cited who was barred from becoming a citizen by only rarely carried their Old World languages larity and diversity? Out of these questions my students always had given me great joy allusion to Ginger Rogers as dancing back- reason of race or illegal entry to the United into the third generation. The pattern of strik- emerged a deep and wide-ranging conversa- came to Vanderbilt in the year 2000, after and contentment, and they had made me feel wards and in high heels. States gave birth to a child on U.S. soil, was ing gains in English fluency and loss of one’s tion about the proper relationship between having taught for twenty-five years, at a that my investment of time and energy in my There are several texts that remain most this child nevertheless a citizen of the United mother tongue is even apparent among His- immigrant cultures and national culture, Ismall liberal arts college and two large state career was fully worthwhile. I wondered if the prominent in my teaching. One is an intro- States by the terms of the Fourteenth Amend- panic immigrant communities today, if we about the virtues and vices of assimilation, universities. I had given freshman seminars and Vanderbilt students would change that rosy duction to Hispanic literature titled, in its ment? In the 1890s the Supreme Court measure these patterns across generations. about the value of homogeneity versus multi- beginning and intermediate Spanish language picture. Fortunately, the assessment by short form, Aproximaciones, or approaches, answered this question with a resounding yes. But if immigrants in past generations were culturalism. The conversation sometimes courses, conversation and composition courses, assorted colleagues in the profession has which I coauthored with two colleagues from Since that time groups of immigration critics willing to assimilate up to a point, they often became angry, even rancorous, but it was and surveys and other undergraduate literature proven to be “not applicable” in my case. Arizona State University and which is now in have often protested this Supreme Court deci- resented the heavy-handed assimilationist pres- never dull, and out of it across the last forty courses, along with doctoral seminars in the From my first semester at Vanderbilt, I have its sixth edition. The book likely has influ- sion and the language of the fourteenth sures brought to bear on them by the native- years has emerged a superior understanding of humanities, comparative literature, and Spanish had exceptionally bright students who also enced (or at least reached) more readers than Amendment on which it is based. One hears born: Irish immigrants in the nineteenth the value of cultural diversity and a belief that literature, from medieval to postmodern. I have been respectful, courteous, and engaging all my other publications combined. Another this criticism today when a Pat Buchanan or century hated Protestants for trying to force America can accommodate a variety of cul- thought that I had seen it all, but Vanderbilt has human beings. I constantly feel intellectually is an anthology of Spanish and Spanish-Ameri- Lou Dobbs talks about a Mexican mother ille- their children to learn from the King James tures, and indeed, is a richer nation when a given me more opportunities than ever to teach stimulated and challenged, in the best sense of can short stories, called El cuento: Arte y análisis gally entering the United States simply to give Bible in public schools. Theodore Roosevelt variety of cultures flourish within it. Diversity a broad range of courses with a broad range of the term. Students impress me with their abil- (The Short Story: Art and Analysis), which I birth to a child on U.S. soil, thus giving that believed that the celebration of St. Patrick’s is not a substitute for assimilation; there must students, with results that I can only describe as ity to master language, literature, and complex have used in class as recently as the spring child U.S. citizenship—and the family a last- Day was an unacceptable affront to American be common political principles and a shared thrilling for me. (My students would have to and often abstract concepts. The fact that, in semester of 2009. In 2006, Jeffrey Ullom of ing claim on America. But I think we are actu- patriotism. Immigrants were pressured to culture that bind us together as Americans. speak for themselves, needless to say.) the majority of instances, they are reading, the Department of Theatre at Vanderbilt, who RPWLetters_Fall09:Letters 9/15/09 9:21 AM Page 6

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now teaches at Case Western Reserve Univer- Experimental Novel”), I have had the opportu- specializing in Renaissance and baroque Span- asm, good spirits, and compelling arguments. of the students. One of my favorite discus- academic ventures in an atmosphere that sity, directed a production of Wit’s End, my nity to teach courses in the Master of Liberal ish literature. I was a man with a plan, an We read ten stories and saw a film (Woody sions was the half-hour or so in which the stu- highlights dialogue, the sharing of ideas, and adaptation of La dama boba (The Lady Simple- Arts and Sciences (MLAS) program and in the ambitious but doable plan, which included the Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo), and each stu- dents talked about their own reading and film an unapologetic attitude toward the pursuit of ton), a play by the brilliant and prolific seven- Programs for Talented Youth (PTY), both of reading and discussion of about seventy-five dent wrote an original short story. The stu- preferences. Besides excelling in their classes, excellence. Importantly, the programs convey teenth-century Spanish dramatist and poet which have had a lasting impact on me. While pages of Don Quixote per day, complemented dents’ analyses were nothing short of brilliant, these young women are voracious readers, and the message that the humanities play a crucial Lope de Vega and one of the staples of my the two groups are radically different in some by a wide-ranging introduction and a selection and the combination of dynamism, humor, they like to choose books that make them feel role in the curriculum and in the choices courses on early modern Spanish theater. It ways, they are very much alike in others. of short stories, films, and literary concepts. and intelligence absolutely won me over. unique, whether this means books that project available. The message that the humanities was a privilege to see Professor Ullom’s con- The term “working professionals” has been Accustomed to (and certainly spoiled by) moti- With WAVU under my belt, I eagerly worlds and situations similar to their own or count may be subliminal, but it is there, at the summate skills at work in showcasing the play used to describe the participants in the MLAS vated students, I was not as fully prepared as I awaited my second VSA session and my entirely different models. The teaching assis- point at which the older students recognize and the talents of the actors, who together dis- program. The students in my classes have should have been for teenagers to act like course on “Analyzing Fiction: From the Short tant Anna-Lisa Halling, a doctoral student in the advantages of a liberal education on their covered the heart of the play. (I have published included doctors, lawyers, businessmen and teenagers. Four of the students read Don Story to the Novel” in June of 2009. The Spanish, helped me fill in some (wide) gaps in own and the young students are, conceivably, an essay on the process, titled “Wit’s Friend; businesswomen, scientists, and educators, Quixote and turned in the daily written assign- group was the same age (twelve to thirteen- my knowledge of teen topics, specifically those most impressionable. Or, Collaborating with Lope de Vega,” but it among others. A good percentage are Vander- ments according to schedule. Three read more year-olds) and the reading selections and film with a feminine twist. As I review my years at Vanderbilt, I see was the collaboration with colleagues and stu- bilt employees. Those in the program take sporadically and did not deliver the written would be repeated, but the course would be a One common feature of the MLAS and my classes in Spanish and comparative litera- dents at Vanderbilt that truly moved me.) courses on topics that encompass the humani- exercises on the due dates. This kept Antón week in length, would feature five additional PTY options is a broad group of humanities ture as a center of sorts, with MLAS and PTY If had had to choose a signature text, as it ties, the social sciences, and the natural sci- and me on our pedagogical toes and in a state short stories and a novel (Mark Haddon’s The topics: literature, theater, film, art history, phi- as concentric circles that enhance and enrich were, that would be Miguel de Cervantes’s ences. They are free—and encouraged—to of anxiety. Who was shaking whose world here? Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), losophy, and on and on. The Masters of Lib- my teaching and learning curves. These pro- Don Quixote, published in two parts in 1605 explore a range of areas and to step out of We tried to make sure that we filled our many and all fifteen of those who enrolled were eral Arts and Science allows mature students grams broaden the bases of the Vanderbilt and 1615. At Vanderbilt, I have taught the their comfort zones. The program underscores hours of class per day with productive discus- young women. Once more, I ended up having to pursue knowledge, to keep learning across community. On one level is renewal through novel in Spanish and in English, to under- learning for its own sake. The seminar that I sion and exercises. We were aided by those stu- great fun, and I was again enlightened in the the board. The Programs for Talented Youth continuing education. On the other is an graduate and graduate students. Those who have taught in the MLAS program is “Don dents who had accepted the challenge, tastes and opinions of teens (and tweens). The offer lessons in robotics, forensic anthropol- effort to “get them while they’re young” and perhaps have astounded me most are the Quixote and the Development of the Novel,” including several brilliant readers. Each student readings included stories by four women writ- ogy, law, medicine, mathematics, and scien- to win them over for life. This is good for advanced undergraduate students who read which begins in early modern Spain and ends worked on a final project: an original short ers—Chopin, Matute, Ferré, and Nella tific research on one end of the spectrum and them, good for the humanities and other dis- the 1000 pages of the narrative in Spanish, in the U.S. and England in the new millen- story, play, or critical commentary. One stu- Larsen—chosen before I received the class ros- existentialism, the Western canon, creative ciplines, and, hardly unexpectedly, good for together with other literary, critical, and theo- nium. There has been an air of seriousness, dent read a story by a contemporary Spanish ter. I was pleased by the critical and original writing, and the graphic novel on the other. the instructor. In the words of Ira Gershwin, retical materials, and who discuss the readings excitement, and dedication in each of the author and wrote an analysis in Spanish. I must writing and by the academic and personal gifts The youthful scholars are able to embark on “nice work if you can get it.” and write about them in Spanish. By the end classes. The students have responded with admit that I felt slightly disappointed at the of the semester, they are—as they always share enthusiasm to the substantial amount of read- end of the session. I had, of course, wanted to with me—completely worn out but invigo- ing, and they have offered superb comments reach everyone, but that had not happened. rated by their efforts. I am the facilitator, but in group discussions and in weekly written Still, according to the evaluations, the students they are the achievers, and I feel that what can exercises. My contact with these adult learners had all loved being at Vanderbilt. Not surpris- be considered an ordeal affects them as readers has given me great faith in—and admiration ingly, life at the Commons and the social possi- and as thinkers, energizing them imaginatively for—what universities tend to label as “con- bilities were able to trump coursework, Poet Rosanna Warren to Present and, I believe, philosophically. Don Quixote is, tinuing education.” It also has given me, as a particularly homework. Still, I got the students in my opinion, most fascinating in its treat- Hispanist, or specialist in Hispanic studies, through Don Quixote without resorting to Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture ment of reality, which at times seems to reside the chance to plug my wares, so to speak, by force—which obviously is not the way to pro- osanna Warren, University Professor, Foundation Award, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s in the margins of the novel but is really never building the course around Don Quixote, the mote a love of literature—and, as a result, they Emma Ann MacLachlan Metcalf Profes- Digest Award, the “Discovery”/ The Nation far off-center. Readers are, arguably, required novel that best exemplifies my particular are conversant with the novel and with sophis- sor of the Humanities, and Professor of Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim to contemplate and reassess their views of per- strategies for advocating the study, analysis, ticated concepts such as metafiction, intertex- R English and Modern Foreign Languages and Lit- Foundation and the American Council of spective, perception, truth, history, and art and appreciation of literature and culture. tuality, the implied author, and deconstruction, eratures at Boston University, will present this Learned Societies. Most recently, she was a fel- itself. Don Quixote may be the ultimate work- And, I might add, I have maintained ties with to name but a few. And they rewarded me with year’s Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture at 4:10 p.m. low at the New York Public Library’s Dorothy in-progress and self-referential object, and a number of my MLAS colleagues. an advanced course in teenage psychology. on Thursday, October 29th in the Moore Room and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and thus the reader cannot help but participate in My first exposure to the Programs for Tal- The summer course made me want to try on the second floor of the Vanderbilt Law School. Writers. Professor Warren served as Chancellor the creative act. The undergraduate students ented Youth was a three-week course on Don again, and the PTY invited me to teach a Professor Warren, a renowned poet and of the Academy of American Poets from 1999– who undertake this task are likely to be Span- Quixote in the 2008 Vanderbilt Summer Acad- course in the Weekend at Vanderbilt Univer- critic, and the daughter of the writers Robert 2005. In 1997 she was elected to the American ish majors and even more likely to be double emy. I had a group of seven students from sity (WAVU) program in late March of 2009. Penn Warren and Eleanor Clark, is the author Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2005 she majors, combining literary studies with a fourteen to sixteen-years-old, each a high The two-day intensive course brings together most recently of a book of literary criticism, was elected to the American Academy of Arts remarkable variety of other disciplines, and, achiever and a solid reader. The VSA offers advanced seventh and eighth graders. I Fables of the Self: Studies in Lyric Poetry. Her and Letters. for me, this diversity of interests makes their courses for students from middle school planned a course on the short story. I can only books of poetry include Snow Day, Each Leaf The Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture Series was reading and reflection especially laudable. through high school, with sessions of from one describe the two days as awe-inspiring. The Shines Separate, Stained Glass, and Departure. established in1994 through the endowment of Likewise, I am continually amazed by the to three weeks. It was my goal to “move and students, aged eleven to thirteen, were unin- Professor Warren has received several awards Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Nash, Jr., and Mr. thoughtful and innovative readings of Don shake” my band of talented youths, to provide timidated by the complicated readings, which and honors for her work, including the Pushcart and Mrs. George D. Renfro, all of Asheville, Quixote by graduate students, who probably them at this early stage in their academic included stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Prize, the Award of Merit in Poetry and the North Carolina. The lecture honors Harry C. will have the chance to teach Cervantes’s novel careers with a taste of literature and literary Twain, Guy DeMaupassant, Kate Chopin, and Witter Bynner Prize from the American Acad- Howard Jr. (B.A., 1951) and allows the Warren in one context or another. analysis like nothing they had ever experienced. several Spanish and Spanish-American writers, emy of Arts and Letters, the May Sarton Prize, Center to bring an outstanding scholar to Van- Beyond the outstanding students that I I had spent a good deal of time on the course among them Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Acad- derbilt annually to deliver a lecture on a signifi- have had in the Department of Spanish and design, and I had my favorite novel as the focal Ana María Matute, Juan Rulfo, and Rosario emy of American Poets, the Ingram Merrill cant topic in the humanities. Rosanna Warren Portuguese and in the Honors seminars for text. I had a seminar-sized group and the able Ferré. They had no qualms about articulating College Scholars (on “Don Quixote and the assistance of Antón García, a doctoral student their views, and they proceeded with enthusi- RPWLetters_Fall09:Letters 9/15/09 9:21 AM Page 8

Letters • Fall 2009 • 8 Letters • Fall 2009 • 9

Black Europe: Diasporic Research in/on Europe Immigration and the American Experience: 2009–2010

he Warren Center is pleased to working closely with Brenda Ables, the Direc- and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting (African Warren Center Faculty Fellows announce that the capstone project of tor of Social Studies Support Services at the American and diaspora studies, women’s stud- the 2007–2008 Faculty Fellows Pro- Tennessee Department of Education, to make ies and French). Participants in the 2007– T DANIELB.CORNFIELD is a professor in JONATHAN T. HISKEY is an associate pro- EFRÉN O. PÉREZ is an assistant professor in gram is a twelve minute documentary film this contribution possible. Each school will 2008 Faculty Fellows group were Devin Fer- highlighting their topic of study, “Black receive a DVD, as well as gus (history), Kathryn T. Gines the sociology and political science departments. fessor in the department of political science. the department of political science whose Europe: Diasporic Research in/on Europe.” access to the film on the (philosophy and African Ameri- He has published, edited and co-edited several His research includes studies in high migra- research interests include race, ethnicity, and The film, written and produced by Lyle Jack- state-wide digital library. can and diasporic studies), articles and books including “Immigrant Arts tion communities in Oaxaca, Mexico and anti-immigrant opinion. He has most recently son, encapsulates the group’s year-long exami- The film will be made avail- Catherine A.J. Molineux (his- Participation: A Pilot Study of Nashville Cochabamba, Bolivia. His most recent articles co-authored the chapter “Rebuilding Black nation of the newly emergent study of the able on Vanderbilt Univer- tory), Ifeoma C.K. Nwankwo Artists” in Engaging Arts: The Next Great Trans- include “Exit Without Leaving: Political Dis- Voting Rights Before the Voting Rights Act” unique experience of people of African sity’s iTunes U as well. This (English), and Hortense Spillers formation of America’s Cultural Life (Routledge, engagement in High Migration Municipalities in The Voting Rights Act: Securing the Ballot descent in Europe. Entitled “Black Europe: contribution to the students (English). The William S. 2008), and Labor in the New Urban Battle- in Mexico” in Comparative Politics (2008) and (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2005). He has African Presence in the Formation of Europe,” and teachers of Tennessee is Vaughn Visiting Fellow for the grounds: Local Solidarity in a Global Economy “The Political Economy of Subnational Eco- several articles under review, and is working the piece demonstrates the group’s diverse aca- made possible through the year was Tina Campt (women’s (Cornell University Press, 2007). He is a com- nomic Recovery in Mexico” in Latin American on an article titled “Juan for All: Implicit Atti- demic fields and approaches to the study of combined resources of the studies, Duke University). Vis- missioner on the Metro Nashville Human Research Review (2005). He has co-edited, tudes and Public Opposition to Immigration.” Black Europe, and vibrantly depicts current Warren Center and the Pro- iting speakers who are also fea- Relations Commission. He is the Spence and with Katharine Donato, a forthcoming issue and historical representations of race, identity, gram in African American tured in the film include Alison Rebecca Webb Wilson Fellow and will co- of Annals of the American Academy of Social JEMIMA PIERRE is an assistant professor of and origins. The debut film screening was and Diaspora Studies. This Blakely (African American stud- direct the Warren Center Fellows Program. and Political Sciences, which explores migra- anthropology at the University of Texas at held at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cul- has been a rewarding educa- ies, Brown University), Perry tion patterns across Latin America. Austin. She has published several articles, KATHERINE M. DONATO is the chair of including “The Beacon of Hope for the Black tural Center on March 18, 2009. tional collaboration between Giulia de Medici Brug (psychology, Saint Mary’s Furthermore, the Warren Center and the our two programs and we University College), Angela Y. the department of sociology and the director KEVIN M. LEANDER is an associate profes- Race” in Cultural Dynamics (2009), and “‘I Program in African American and Diaspora look forward to future successful collabora- Davis (history of consciousness and feminist of the Program in Medicine, Health, and sor of language and literacy in the department Like Your Color!’ The Local (and Global) Studies are very pleased to note that we will be tions as well. studies, University of California, Santa Cruz), Society. Her research interests include migra- of teaching and learning at Peabody College. Geography of Race in Urban Ghana” in the distributing copies of the path-breaking docu- The 2007–2008 Fellows Program was co- Trica Keaton (American studies, University of tion between Mexico and the United States, His research interests include immigration Feminist Review (2008). Her research interests mentary this fall to all high schools in the state directed by Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr. (philosophy Minnesota), and Jemima Pierre (African immigrants in the U.S. economy, and ethnic and its relationship to new media including include social and cultural anthropology in of Tennessee, both public and private. We are and African American and diaspora studies) American studies, University of Texas). and gender stratification. She has authored the relationship between online and offline West Africa and the United States, as well as and co-authored numerous articles including social practices, human geography, and social diasporic belonging and national identity for- “The Cat and Mouse Game at the Mexico- practices with digital literacies and new mation of postcolonial African immigrants to U.S. Border: Gendered Patterns and Recent media. He has authored and co-authored sev- the United States. She is this year’s William S. Shifts” in International Migration Review eral articles including “They Took out the Vaughn Visiting Fellow. 2010–2011 Warren Center Fellowship Opportunities (2008) and “Shifts in the Employment Con- Wrong Context: Uses of Time-Space in the ditions of Mexican Migrant Men and Practice of Positioning” (2008), and has co- NINA WARNKE is an assistant professor of he Warren Center will sponsor two These categories could stretch from literature departments or those whose work is of a Women: The Effect of U.S. Immigration Pol- edited Spatializing Literacy Research and Prac- European Studies in the Max Kade Center for fellowship programs in the 2010– to music to images, both moving and still humanistic nature are invited to apply for the icy” in Work and Occupations (2008). tice (Peter Lang Publishing, 2004). European and German Studies. Her current T 2011 academic year: one for faculty (including technological representations such seven dissertation-completion fellowships. book project, tentatively entitled “From Scorn members and one for Vanderbilt University as magnetic resonance imaging, sonograms, as The fellowship provides a stipend as well as a GARY GERSTLE is the James G. Stahlman IFEOMA C.K. NWANKWO is an associate to Nostalgia: Early American Yiddish Theater graduate students. well as digital media), and also to material cul- modest research fund. Students are not Professor of American History. His research professor of English. Her books include Black and the Cultural Politics of the Jewish Immi- The 2010–2011 Faculty Fellows Program ture (sculpture, pottery, grave goods). “Social allowed to hold any other form of employ- interests include immigration, nationality and Cosmopolitanism: Racial Consciousness and grant Press” examines nineteenth and twenti- will be co-directed by Bonnie J. Dow (Com- change” is likewise understood broadly. It may ment during the term of the fellowship. Grad- race, and the role of class in social and political Transnational Identity in the Nineteenth-Cen- eth century immigrant Yiddish theater and munication Studies) and Laura M. Carpenter manifest in activism, policy, or politics, but it uate Student Fellows are expected to complete life. He has authored and co-authored several tury Americas (University of Pennsylvania Press, press and how it negotiates and redefines itself (Sociology) and will focus on the topic “Rep- also operates at the level of identity, lifestyle, and defend their dissertations before the start books including Ruling America: A History of 2005), and the forthcoming Rhythms of the through American culture. She has published resentation and Social Change.” The seminar and culture. While emphasizing participants’ of the next academic year. Wealth and Power in a Democracy (Harvard, Atlantic World: Rituals, Remembrances, and several articles, including “Theater as Educa- will explore the complex and multidirectional concrete research projects that focus on the The Graduate Student Fellows will meet 2005), and American Crucible: Race and Nation Revisions (Michigan, 2009). In her current pro- tional Institution: Jewish Immigrant Intellectu- relationship between representation and social relationship between representation and social in weekly seminars at the Warren Center, giv- in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 2001), ject “Voices from Our America: African Amer- als and Yiddish Theater Reform” in The Art of change. In our current globalized and medi- change, the seminar also will encourage inter- ing presentations from their work to the sem- which won the 2001 Saloutos Prize for out- ican Worldviews” she examines the interactions Being Jewish in Modern Times (University of ated culture, experiences of social change are rogations of the meaning and nature of repre- inar and discussing texts of common interest. standing work in immigration and ethnic his- of Latin American, Caribbean, and African Pennsylvania Press, 2007). commonly communicated through a variety sentation and of social change as contested The Warren Center will also arrange for a tory. He is the Jacque Voegeli Fellow and will immigrant populations. of representational means, and the reach and concepts in and of themselves. number of visiting speakers to meet with the co-direct the Warren Center Fellows’ Program. influence of mass communication increases The Warren Center will sponsor a Visiting seminar during the year to provide opportu- the possibility that representations can be used Fellow with expertise in the area of study, in nities for discussion of issues pertinent to to create social change as well as to reflect it. addition to selected members of the Vander- scholarly life, such as the art of writing, suc- Yet today’s conditions are not unique—histor- bilt faculty. Information regarding the internal cessful strategies for publication, funding ical examples abound of instances in which and external application process can be opportunities, grant writing, and workshops representations of circumstances and events, obtained from the Warren Center or its web- on delivering academic presentations. Each once disseminated, have both communicated site, www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center. Warren Center Graduate Student Fellow will and facilitated social change. The Warren Center will also sponsor an give a public lecture in the spring term. Fel- The seminar will include participants who interdisciplinary year-long Graduate Student lows will also be expected to be active partici- study a broad range of representation, includ- Fellows Program. Vanderbilt University gradu- pants in the life of the Warren Center during ing verbal, visual, and other material means. ate students in the traditional humanities their fellowship year. RPWLetters_Fall09:Letters 9/15/09 9:21 AM Page 10

Letters • Fall 2009 • 10 Letters • Fall 2009 • 11

2009–2010 Warren Center Graduate Student Fellows THE ROBERT PENN WARREN CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES

ELENADEANDA-CAMACHO, the Mary tion of Jimmy Carter as U.S. President. Jack- ories of gender and sexuality. She has received Warren Center Staff Statement of Purpose and Joe Harper Fellow, is a doctoral candidate son presented a talk entitled “Martin Luther the Robert Manson Myers Graduate Award in Established under the sponsorship of the College Edward H. Friedman, Director of Arts and Science in 1987 and renamed the in Spanish, writing her dissertation on the King Jr. and the ‘Stonewall’ of Presupposition- the department of English. In her disserta- Mona C. Frederick, Executive Director Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities inquisitorial censorship of discourses perceived alism: The Historical Imagination of the Reli- tion, “Morbid Strains: Obsession and Specta- Polly Case, Activities Coordinator in 1989 in honor of Robert Penn Warren, Van- as obscene in Spain and New Spain during the gious Right” at the 2008 American Historical cle in Victorian Literature from In Memoriam Katherine Newman, Administrative Assistant derbilt alumnus class of 1925, the Center pro- Justin Haynes, LETTERS editor eighteenth century. Her dissertation, “To Pious Association annual meeting. to The Picture of Dorian Gray,” she argues motes interdisciplinary research and study in the Ears: Poetics and Politics of Obscenity in that an important grouping of Victorian humanities, social sciences, and, when appropri- Letters is the semiannual newsletter of the Robert ate, natural sciences. Members of the Vanderbilt Inquisitorial Spain during the Enlightenment,” SARAHE.KERSH is currently a doctoral authors use morbid themes and forms to Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at community representing a wide variety of spe- proposes a political reading of literature that student in English. Her dissertation, “Naked work out the relation between the aesthetic Vanderbilt University, VU Station B #351534, cializations take part in the Warren Center’s pro- was considered “obscene,” as well as a poetic Novels: Victorian Amatory Sonnet Sequences and the social in a culture increasingly domi- Nashville, Tennessee 37235-1534. (615) 343- grams, which are designed to intensify and 6060, Fax (615) 343-2248. reading of inquisitorial censorship to show how and the Problem of Marriage,” examines the nated by new forms of production, reproduc- increase interdisciplinary discussion of academic, these seemingly opposite discourses can be sus- ways nineteenth-century sonnet sequences tion, and circulation. social, and cultural issues. pended and converged. She interrogates how reshape expectations of Victorian desire, love, For a listing of Warren Center programs and activities, please contact the above address or Vanderbilt University is committed to principles of equal opportunity issues such as colonial difference, gender, or and marriage. Through readings of British RACHELNISSELSON is a doctoral candi- visit our Web site at www.vanderbilt.edu/ and affirmative action. Published by Vanderbilt University Creative Services. race, helped to delimit what should be called poetry from the mid-nineteenth century date in French literature. Her dissertation, rpw_center. obscene and thus what should be censored. through the fin de siècle, she draws connec- entitled “Forgetting the Future: Memory and Photos by Steve Green; Warren photo by Mike Minehan. tions between the strict formula of the sonnet the Future of Israel/Palestine in 20th- and GESAFRÖMMING is a doctoral candidate and the strict bond of Victorian marriage so as 21st-Century Francophone Literature,” in German whose dissertation, “The Musical to problematize both the poetic form and the focuses on the works of several French-speak- Moment,” is an exploration of how the legal institution. Prior to being named a ing authors who treat the Israeli-Palestinian ancient trope of melancholy’s musical redemp- Robert Penn Warren Fellow, Sarah received conflict. Rachel’s project seeks to demonstrate Warren Center Staff Change tion is re-inscribed into late eighteenth-cen- funding for graduate school through the Jacob that by highlighting the dissonances between tury thought. Her work examines how, in an K. Javits Foundation. memory and history, as well as between per- Sarah Harper Nobles, who has been on the Our new administrative assistant at the age that increasingly locates melancholy’s sonal and societal narratives, these texts con- staff of the Warren Center since December Warren Center is Katherine Newman.A causes in the defects of social and political life, GAIL MCCONNELL is a doctoral candidate vincingly argue against one-sided historical 2006, left Vanderbilt late this summer to native of Nashville, Katherine is a graduate of a phantasmagoric male subject emerges to in English literature at Queen’s University, accounts in favor of the recognition of a multi- enroll in graduate school at the University of the University of Pennsylvania, and has a Mas- which the hope for melancholy’s political Belfast, who will be affiliated with the Warren plicity of narratives of the Middle East region. Michigan, where she will be pursuing a Ph.D. ter of Science in Teaching from Fordham Uni- overcoming is bound. Analyzing moments of Center’s Graduate Student Fellows Program in American history. All of us who have versity and an MFA from Emerson College. musical catharsis in a variety of works, she for the 2009–2010 academic year. Her thesis MATT WHITT, George J. Graham Jr. Fel- worked with Sarah over the years will miss her Katherine has spent the last several years in argues that this anti-melancholic sovereignty examines religion and theology in contempo- low, is a doctoral candidate in philosophy. His extraordinary administrative abilities, her gra- elementary and middle school education, reveals itself in the very moment of its musical rary northern Irish poetry. Drawing on theol- dissertation rethinks the importance of geo- cious style, and her wry sense of humor. She most recently as a fifth grade writing teacher overcoming to be inseparably blended with ogy and critical theory, her thesis seeks to graphical territory to modern ideals and con- has made numerous and significant contribu- at the KIPP Academy in Nashville. We ideals of rigid self-control that themselves critique sectarian and secular investigations of temporary practices of sovereign statehood. In tions to the intellectual life of the Warren warmly welcome Katherine to the Vanderbilt prove to be responsible for the melancholic the relationship of poetry and religion, within it, he argues that territoriality has long facili- Center, and for this, and much more, we will community and look forward to working with malady in question. Irish literary criticism in particular. It develops tated sovereignty by occluding and stabilizing remain ever grateful. We all wish her the best her in the years ahead. a theological critical perspective with which to essential ambiguities in the relations between of luck in graduate school. PATRICK JACKSON, American Studies Fel- read the poetry of Seamus Heaney, Michael political authorities and their subjects. As con- low, is a doctoral candidate in history whose Longley, and Derek Mahon, and examines the temporary forms of globalization destabilize dissertation is entitled “Evangelicals and Amer- significance of New Criticism, Catholic territorial criteria of political belonging and “Immigration and the American Experience” ican Political Culture, 1925–1978.” He is iconography, Calvinism and negative theology subjection, these ambiguities become increas- continued from page 5 interested in the interchange where philosophy, to their work. ingly legible and offer new possibilities for the religion, and politics meet, and his dissertation democratic self-constitution of political com- immigration in the past and in the present, to try to discern that, even to assimilate it to investigates American conservative evangelical ELIZABETH S. MEADOWS is a doctoral munities. In addition to his work in philoso- and in the United States as well as other parts some degree, than through a discussion of political thought and action in the years candidate in English. She studies Victorian phy, Whitt holds an M.A. degree in Inter- of the world. immigration? between the Scopes Trial in 1925 and the elec- literature and culture, visual culture, and the- disciplinary Social and Political Thought. CORNFIELD: I look forward to a sponta- LETTERS: This has been a fascinating look neous, dynamic interchange. I have a fascina- into what your seminar will feature. Thank tion with the intellectual history of different you for your time and best wishes for your disciplines because to me each discipline rep- seminar in the coming academic year. resents a way of thinking, and what better way RPWLetters_Fall09:Letters 9/15/09 9:21 AM Page 12

First Class U.S. Postage PAID Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities Nashville, TN VU Station B #351534 Permit No. 1460 2301 Vanderbilt Place Nashville, Tennessee 37235-1534