For families of British soldiers killed in the First World War, the question of how to remember the men they糖心传媒檇 lost was a delicate one. Most died too young to have had much life to commemorate.
In the years after the war, people in towns and villages across Great Britain erected public memorials to the local men who糖心传媒檇 died. Many of the monuments list individual names, a gesture of remembrance that has since become a central convention of memorial art.
But often soldiers糖心传媒� families craved more personal tribute. Many of them privately published books糖心传媒攖ouchingly akin to scrapbooks糖心传媒攖hat tried to capture a fleeting life between covers for a small circle of friends and relations.
糖心传媒淭hey糖心传媒檙e extraordinarily miscellaneous volumes,糖心传媒� says . 糖心传媒淭hey糖心传媒檙e trying to produce something that will contain and sum up his life糖心传媒攂ut there糖心传媒檚 not really enough life to do it. They might include a remembrance from a sibling, or the parents, or a friend. There are often extracts from letters he wrote as a schoolboy, or from the front. Or a poem he wrote to his mother when he was seven years old.
糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 incredibly poignant.糖心传媒�
London scrutinizes the remembrance books in 糖心传媒淧osthumous Lives: World War I and the Culture of Memory.糖心传媒� A scholarly book manuscript, it糖心传媒檚 just one of many research projects on memory and forgetting that the Humanities Center is supporting this year. The center incubates interdisciplinary study of an annual theme糖心传媒攍ast year, environments, and next year, expertise and evidence糖心传媒攖hrough public lectures, workshops, and a slate of fellowships for internal and external scholars at all professional ranks.
Joan Rubin, the Dexter Perkins Professor in History and the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center, calls promoting interdisciplinary research a foundational part of the center糖心传媒檚 mission: 糖心传媒淭he exchange of ideas with faculty members who hold assumptions different from one糖心传媒檚 own糖心传媒攚ho invoke theories, apply methods, or know about materials that put a researcher糖心传媒檚 subject in a new light糖心传媒攊s essential to insuring that a scholar糖心传媒檚 contributions to knowledge remain fresh and original,糖心传媒� she says.
A home for the humanities
The was created in 2015 to enhance the study of the humanities at Rochester and to strengthen ties to related disciplines. It offers a place to come together for students and faculty who want to exchange ideas, develop research questions and projects, and explore the application of technology to humanistic study.
The center also brings together a number of longstanding humanities-centered programs at the University, including the Distinguished Visiting Humanist program, the Ferrari Humanities Symposia, the ; and the , which supports lectures, workshops, and symposia throughout the academic year.
With a permanent home in Rush Rhees Library, the center is at a crossroads of the River Campus. But it also makes its presence felt locally, through public lectures by prominent public intellectuals and collaborations with other area institutions. And its national fellowship program extends its influence well beyond Rochester’s borders.
Joan Rubin, the Dexter Perkins Professor in History and the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center, wants the center to benefit all Rochester students: “I firmly believe that an appreciation for the humanities and an understanding of human culture are central to what it means to be an educated citizen.”
London holds one of two Bridging Fellowships at the Humanities Center this year, part of a University-wide program that supports faculty members in interdisciplinary study. Probing British national culture from a variety of angles in her research, she examines material culture, literary culture, history, and politics. She investigates the World War I poets糖心传媒� hold on the British imagination; Virginia Woolf糖心传媒檚 invention, in A Room of One糖心传媒檚 Own, of William Shakespeare糖心传媒檚 gifted, thwarted sister, 糖心传媒淛udith Shakespeare糖心传媒澨切拇綌an act of imagining that London reads as a 糖心传媒渃ounter monument, if only an ephemeral one, to the memorials to the 糖心传媒榞lorious dead糖心传媒櫶切拇綕; 聽and the official blotting from memory of the 糖心传媒渟hot at dawn糖心传媒� soldiers, executed for cowardice and other military offenses, and the recent, successful campaign to pardon them posthumously.
The fellowship, she says, has been an opportunity to situate her project within the larger context of memory studies and to move beyond purely literary and historical perspectives to harness also the insights of musicology, visual studies, and political philosophy.
糖心传媒淏eing exposed to other disciplinary perspectives, and other theoretical work on the subject, expands the ways that I think about what I糖心传媒檓 doing and think about the ways that my own work might speak to multiple audiences,糖心传媒� she says.
, this year糖心传媒檚 other Bridging Fellow, is a professor of English at the Eastman School of Music. He has been investigating issues of remembering and forgetting in early modern England for almost 25 years. Over the course of that time, memory has changed from a relatively idiosyncratic interest to one widespread among early modern literature scholars, especially experts on Shakespeare.
Baldo is the author of . (Routledge, 2012), and he糖心传媒檚 particularly interested in how the Reformation糖心传媒檚 upheavals affected memory in Shakespeare糖心传媒檚 lifetime.
糖心传媒淪hakespeare may have been raised in a secretly Catholic family, although it糖心传媒檚 not absolutely established,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淪ome of the traumatic events under the Protestant King Edward VI are only a couple of decades before Shakespeare糖心传媒檚 birth. And then, 11 years before Shakespeare was born, the nation turned Catholic again under Queen Mary糖心传媒攁nd then Protestant again five years later.糖心传媒� Such turmoil surely bled into the times when Shakespeare was writing his history plays in the 1580s and 1590s, Baldo contends: 糖心传媒淭he history plays ask the question, is memory a divisive issue? Is it something that divides rather than unites the English people?糖心传媒�
Through his fellowship project糖心传媒� 糖心传媒淧ostmemory, Prosthetic Memory, and the English Reformation糖心传媒澨切拇綌he seeks to introduce to Shakespeare studies two related concepts about memory. The first, coined by literary and gender studies scholar Marianne Hirsch, is 糖心传媒減ostmemory糖心传媒澨切拇綌it refers to the experiences of people born a generation after a cultural trauma, who remember the events only through stories, images, and behaviors they encounter growing up. 糖心传媒淧rosthetic memory,糖心传媒� a term invented by historian Alison Landsberg, also describes taking on memories of events one didn糖心传媒檛 experience, but Landsberg focuses on how private memories of collective historical events can be created through encounters with mass products of mass culture, including books, movies, and糖心传媒攖he height of popular culture in Shakespeare糖心传媒檚 day糖心传媒攑lays.
In his relationship to the Reformation, Shakespeare would have been part of just such a 糖心传媒済eneration after,糖心传媒� Baldo says. He calls Shakespeare a 糖心传媒渢raumatist糖心传媒澨切拇綌a 糖心传媒渄ramatist who helps his audiences process traumatic memories and who also explores with his audiences various healthy, just, and productive ways of recalling the past.糖心传媒�
With the support of his fellowship, Baldo is also developing a course for Eastman students on the literature of remembering and forgetting, an opportunity for them, as musicians, to consider how the arts and humanities are repositories for cultural memory and their potential also to offer alternatives to official accounts of history.
糖心传媒淚 think memory is one of those subjects that糖心传媒檚 so fundamental,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淲ithout it, we have no sense of identity, either personally or as a group, and you can come at it from so many angles.
糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 a great subject for bringing colleagues from across the University together.糖心传媒�
Meet a few Humanities Center fellows
Intellectual exchange is at the heart of the Humanities Center, with programs for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. The center糖心传媒檚 fellowship programs糖心传媒攕upported for their first three years by Jay 糖心传媒�51 and Deborah Last糖心传媒攁re an important part of that exchange. The fellowships bring together scholars in a broad range of fields from within the University and without, to carry out research and engage with students and other scholars at the center.
Dan Blim, an assistant professor of music at Denison University, is spending the academic year at the center researching the role of music in 21st-century acts of memorialization in the United States through 9/11 commemorative compositions, reissues of historical recordings, and museum soundscapes.
Blim says he appreciates the opportunity that the fellowship provides to immerse himself in the project, and the resources of the University糖心传媒檚 libraries, including Eastman’s renowned Sibley Music Library. But it’s the interactions with other scholars that he finds most valuable.
糖心传媒淭he opportunity to workshop my research in this setting has been indispensable. Music is a very jargon-filled field, and notoriously difficult to talk about,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淗aving a chance to discuss music with colleagues outside the field has helped me make sure that my work can speak clearly both to musicologists and those who might approach 9/11 without music training.糖心传媒�
And the experience is changing his own frame of reference, too: 糖心传媒淥ne of the best results of these workshops is colleagues providing work in other fields that helps me expand my thinking, and also can put music into sharper relief when comparing it to what art and text can and cannot do in this sort of context.糖心传媒�
Ben Nienass, a political scientist on the faculty of Montclair State University, studies theoretical and political efforts to rethink collective memory in postnational constellations, specifically in the contexts of regional integration and migration.
糖心传媒淎s a political theorist, I aim to think through the political implications of specific memory practices and their impact on our ideas of belonging, citizenship, and political action. Presenting my work to colleagues from a wide spectrum of disciplines in the humanities has encouraged me to place these memory practices in much broader cultural, historical, and aesthetic developments,糖心传媒� he says, 糖心传媒渙ften beyond their specific national contexts, and to think of them as modes of actions that are more than just political strategies.
糖心传媒淚n a field糖心传媒攎emory studies糖心传媒攖hat often praises itself for its interdisciplinarity but still rarely goes beyond multidisciplinary studies, the exchange created by the Humanities Center cannot be underestimated.糖心传媒�
Evelyne LeBlanc-Roberge, an assistant professor of art and art history at Rochester, held a fellowship in the fall to support her multimedia work interpreting how people occupy physical space, with projects focused on waiting rooms糖心传媒攆rom doctors糖心传媒� offices to airports糖心传媒攁nd on the experiences of people who have been incarcerated. She calls the center a 糖心传媒渟timulating platform糖心传媒� to learn about research in multiple fields. 糖心传媒淚t fed my projects in invigorating ways,糖心传媒� she says. It also contributed to her participation in the Rochester Decarceration Research Initiative with colleagues in other fields糖心传媒攁nthropology, English, and religious studies糖心传媒攁nd in the Warner School of Education and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.
