Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Q&A with Pamela Matthews (Associate Dean of Liberal Arts)

We asked Pamela Matthews (Associate Dean of Liberal Arts), who was recently a guest at our Wednesday morning coffee a few questions:


MGGCHR: How would you describe your academic interests?

Pamela Matthews: American literature & culture, women's & gender studies, higher education

MGGCHR: What is your current research project and how did you come to it?

Pamela Matthews: The one on hold since I became associate dean is a project on the figure of Joan of Arc in the U.S. I came to it accidentally, as is so often the case, because I kept coming across J of A and wondered why.

MGGCHR: What is the most interesting place you have visited in the last few years?

Belgium

MGGCHR: What is your favorite course to teach, and why?

Pamela Matthews: This one's hard. I like them all, so maybe currently, it's my once-a-week meeting with nineteen of the College's Regents' Scholars, team-taught with associate dean Larry Oliver.

MGGCHR: If you had the opportunity to invite any living humanities scholar to come to the Glasscock Center as a visiting speaker, who would it be and why?

Pamela Matthews: Louis Menand. He writes for the New Yorker (as well as teaching at Columbia, I believe) and has the most beautiful writing style as well as an incredible mind.

MGGCHR: If you were stranded on a desert island, what material would you want with you?

Pamela Matthews: Oh, my. My new BlackBerry, a set of the novels of Henry James, and plenty of blank notebooks and beautiful pens.

Q&A with Lawrence Mitchell (Department of English)

We asked Lawrence Mitchell (Department of English), who is presenting on Wednesday, 31 October on "Hemingway and Boxing: Reflections in a Mirror," a few questions about his work:

MGGCHR: What is your presentation's argument?

Lawrence Mitchell: That for a variety of reasons--insecurity about his own identity, a desire to escape the conservative middle-class environment of Oak Park, the need to find a counterpoise to his compulsion to write in a type of physical activity in which he might excel and through which he might at least exorcise his demons--Hemingway was drawn instinctively to boxing and to establishing credentials as an authority on the sport by fair means or foul. Thus he claimed to have been "initiated" by champions and near champions such as Harry Greb; made ridiculous boasts (e.g. knocking out the football team and the French middleweight champion with one punch), one of which (being thumbed in the eye by Greb) could be used to cover up his inherited weak eyes that kept him out of the army in WW1; bullied usually smaller men into sparring with him; wove stories from unidentified sources (e.g. Sherwood Anderson) into his own fictitious life history, mocked those he imitated (e.g. Ring Lardner, Gertrude Stein); and eventually came to see writing as a kind of fighting--especially with dead authors.

MGGCHR: How did you hit on the focus of your current research and what interests you about it?

Lawrence Mitchell: I have a background in boxing and have built a substantial collection of boxing literature. I have also and have written articles on James Joyce and boxing and Jack London and boxing. Much of the evidence of boxing in literature has been overlooked.

MGGCHR: What is the most interesting place your research has taken you?

Perhaps the Hemingway Room in the Kennedy Library, Boston.

MGGCHR: What is your favorite course to teach, and what makes it your favorite?

Lawrence Mitchell: Well, I enjoy all my courses--but the once-in-a-lifetime "London in Fact and Fiction" was special because I got to take the class to London during Spring break and had lunch one day at a pub called "The Ring" which displayed photos of famous boxers.

MGGCHR: If you had the opportunity to invite any living humanities scholar to come speak at the Glasscock Center, who would it be and why?

Lawrence Mitchell: Matthew Bruccoli who appreciates boxing literature and has written about Hemingway and boxing.

MGGCHR: If you were stranded on a desert island, what material would you want with you?

Lawrence Mitchell: The OED and Boxiana, Fistiana, and Pugilistica.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers Fellowships

FYI Due Jan. 11
For more information visit
(http://www.caorc.org/fellowships/multi/).

The program is open to U.S. doctoral candidates and scholars who have already earned their Ph.D. in fields in the humanities, social sciences, or allied natural sciences and wish to conduct research of regional or trans-regional significance. Fellowships require scholars to conduct research in more than one country, at least one of which hosts a participating American overseas research center. It is anticipated that approximately ten awards of up to $9,000 each will be given to scholars who wish to carry out research on broad questions of multi-country significance in the fields of humanities, social sciences, and related natural sciences. All applicants must be U.S. citizens.

NEA Literature Translation Fellowships

FYI due Jan. 7
For more information visit
(http://www.nea.gov/Grants/apply/LitTranslation/index.html)

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) encourages applications for Literature Translation Fellowships for projects that involve the specific translation of prose, poetry, or drama from other languages into English. Translations of writers and of work which are insufficiently represented in English translation are encouraged. All proposed projects must be for creative translations of published literary material into English. The work to be translated should be of interest for its literary excellence and value. Priority will be given to projects that involve work that has not yet been translated into English. Grants are for $10,000 or $20,000, depending upon the artistic excellence and merit of the project.

The Bellagio Study and Conference Center Scholar and Artist in Residence

FYI due Jan. 15
For more information visit
(http://www.rockfound.org/bellagio/bellagio.shtml )

The Bellagio Study and Conference Center in northern Italy offers Individual, Collaborative, and Parallel Residencies for scholars and artists. The center offers one-month stays for 15 residents at a time. Individuals in any discipline or field and coming from any country who expect their work to result in publication, exhibition, performance, or other concrete product are welcome to apply for a period of work uninterrupted by the usual professional and personal demands.

Study of the United States Institutes

FYI due Dec. 14
For more information visit
(http://exchanges.state.gov/education/rfgps/dec14rfgp.htm).

The Branch for the Study of the United States, Office of Academic Exchange Programs, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, invites proposal submissions for the design and implementation of five Study of the United States Institutes to take place over the course of six weeks beginning in June 2008. These institutes should provide a multinational group of experienced educators with a deeper understanding of U.S. society, culture, values and institutions. Four of these institutes will be for groups of 18 foreign university level faculty each, focusing on American Politics and Political Thought, Contemporary American Literature, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Religious Pluralism in the United States. The fifth institute will be a general survey course on the study of the United States, for a group of 30 foreign secondary educators. Applicants may only propose to host one institute listed under this competition.

ELSI Small Research Grant Program

FYI due Feb. 16
For more information visit
(http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-08-013.html).

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, encourages Small Research Grant (R03) applications from institutions/organizations that propose to study the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of human genome research.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Next Week's Events at the Glasscock Center

The following is a list of next week’s events supported by the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and/or its affiliated programs:

**Monday, 22 October**
Glasscock Center Publishing Workshop: With Jennifer Frangos (Associate Editor The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation), 10:00 a.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.

Co-Sponsored Lecture: Jennifer Frangos (University of Missouri – Kansas City), presenting “Cunning Stunts: Sex Between Women in Eighteenth-Century England,” 7:00 p.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.

**Wednesday, 24 October**
Glasscock Coffee Come & Go featuring Pamela Matthews, Associate Dean of Liberal Arts, 8:30-9:30 a.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.

2007 Cushing/Glasscock Graduate Award Winner Presentations: by Jake Heil (English) and Rob Carley (Sociology), 4:00 p.m., Mayo Thomas Room, Cushing Memorial Library and Archives.

**Thursday, 25 October**
Graduate Colloquium: Victor E. Agosto Roldán (Hispanic Studies), “E-Poetry: Beyond the Paper and Pen,” 4:00 p.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.

Call For Submissions: “Exploring New Media Worlds: Changing Technologies, Industries, Cultures, and Audiences in Global and Historical Context” to be held at Texas A&M University, February 29 to March 2, 2008. See the conference website at http://comm.tamu.edu/mediaworlds for more information or e-mail mediaworlds@libarts.tamu.edu with questions. The deadline for submissions is 20 November 2007.

**Individuals interested in participating in the newly formed Critical Geography Study Group should see the invitation on our blog at http://glasscock.blogspot.com/
**If you are interested in meeting with any of our visiting speakers contact Dr. Donnalee Dox at dox@libarts.tamu.edu
**For further information consult the Glasscock Center website at http:// glasscock.tamu.edu/
**For current events at the Glasscock Center consult our blog at http://glasscockcenter.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Common Feast, Separate Tables, or Bum's Rush: A Roundtable on the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University is pleased to announce the first of two internal roundtables devoted to the intersection of humanities and non-humanities fields of inquiry. The first, “Common Feast, Separate Tables, or Bum’s Rush: A Roundtable on the Humanities and Social Sciences,” will be held Tuesday, 30 October from 3:30-5:00 p.m. in the Glasscock Center Library, Room 311, Glasscock Building.

Cary J. Nederman (Political Science) will moderate a discussion among Jyotsna Vaid (Psychology), Sarah Gatson (Sociology), Dror Goldberg (Economics), Kim Hill (Political Science), and Cynthia Werner (Anthropology).

The point of departure for the event is the fragmented state of disciplines, in which various conceptions of proper scholarship populate the same metaphorical “restaurant,” where each discipline protects its place at the table. In particular, the roundtable will address the relationship between humanities research, which takes an interpretive approach to questions of meaning in human experience, and social scientific research that is informed by quantitative methodology.

A second roundtable, on “Humanities and Medicine,” will take place in spring 2008.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, see our website http://glasscock.tamu.edu/ , visit our blog at http://www.glasscockcenter.blogspot.com, or contact the Glasscock Center at glasscock@tamu.edu or at 979-845-8328.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Latin American and Caribbean Fellowships

FYI due Dec. 1
For more information visit
(http://www.gf.org/broch.html).

For the Latin American and Caribbean competition: completed applications should be postmarked not later than December 1, 2007. Final selection of Latin American and Caribbean Fellows for 2008 will be announced in June 2008. In 2007 the Foundation awarded 35 Latin American and Caribbean Fellowships for a total of $1,200,000 (an average grant of $34,285). There were 395 applicants.

Franklin Research Grants

FYI due Dec. 1
For more information visit
(http://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/franklin.htm).

The Franklin Research Grants program is particularly designed to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses.

Franklin grants are made for noncommercial research. They are not intended to meet the expenses of attending conferences or the costs of publication. The Society does not pay overhead or indirect costs to any institution. Grants will not be made to replace salary during a leave of absence or earnings from summer teaching; pay living expenses while working at home; cover the costs of consultants or research assistants; or purchase permanent equipment such as computers, cameras, tape
recorders, or laboratory apparatus.

Disciplines: Environmental & Life Sciences; Medical - Basic Science;
Social Sciences; Physical Sciences & Engineering; International
Opportunities; Arts & Humanities.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Q & A with Joan Wolf (Women's Studies Program)

We asked Joan Wolf (Women's Studies Program), who is presenting on Wednesday, 17 October on "The Maternal-Industrial Complex: Risk, Breastfeeding, and Motherhood in America," a few questions about her work:

MGGCHR:
Please provide a few-sentence description of your presentation's argument.

Joan Wolf: I argue that neo-liberal risk culture combines with an ideology of total motherhood to make breastfeeding something of a moral imperative despite the fact that the medical evidence for breastfeeding's benefits is weak and inconsistent.

MGGCHR: How did you hit on the focus of your current research and what interests you about it?

Joan Wolf:
Initially, I was interested in why academic feminists had said so little about breastfeeding, a process that requires an enormous physical and emotional commitment from mothers. I decided to glance through the medical literature to get a better grasp of precisely what medical benefits were attributed to breastfeeding. Several months later, I began to understand that feminism's relationship with breastfeeding was but one dimension of a much broader and more perplexing question: why, when the scientific evidence is weak and inconsistent, is there virtual consensus on breastfeeding's superiority?

MGGCHR:What is the most interesting place your research has taken you?

Joan Wolf: Mentally, well, I think a lot more about breasts than I ever thought I would. Geographically? I spent a very interesting afternoon in the Austin Babies R Us.

MGGCHR: What is the favorite course that you teach, and why?

Joan Wolf: Reproduction and the Politics of Motherhood. The course is constantly evolving, expanding, and, for me, endlessly fascinating.

MGGCHR: If you had the opportunity to invite any living humanities scholar to come speak at the Glasscock Center, who would it be and why?

Joan Wolf: Probably Joan Scott, who has an uncanny ability to ask penetrating questions and answer them in ways that are simultaneously systematic and nuanced. Or maybe Anthony Giddens, whose written work is often dense but whose ideas are sometimes stunning.

MGGCHR: If you were stranded on a desert island, what material would you want with you?

Joan Wolf: 1. The complete John Coltrane Impulse! recordings (or maybe just my iPod with an inexhaustible battery).

2. Foucault's oeuvre, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, and cookbooks to read for fun.

3. Avocados and diet coke.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Critical Geography Study Group

Dr. Reuben Rose-Redwood, Dr. Wendy Jepson, and Dr. Tina Mangieri would like to invite graduate students and faculty to participate in an informal study group that will examine the philosophical underpinnings of recent scholarship in critical geography. The aim of the Study Group is to provide a forum to read and discuss classic and contemporary texts that engage with critical approaches to studying space, place, and the environment. We will begin by reading selections from Foucault's Security, Territory, Population (2007), Crampton and Elden's Space, knowledge and Power (2007), and Agrawal's Environmentality (2005). Subsequent readings will explore other approaches to critical geography, drawing upon a broad range of theoretical perspectives and empirical content. We plan to start out by meeting once every two weeks (or once a month depending on the level of interest). If you are interested in participating, send an email to Dr. Rose-Redwood at sredwood@geog.tamu.edu. Once we have a sense of the level of interest, we will then decide an appropriate time to meet that fits everyone's schedule.

Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship

Due Jan. 30
For more information
http://programs.ssrc.org/dpdf/).

The Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) is a strategic fellowship program designed to help graduate students in the humanities and social sciences formulate doctoral dissertation proposals that are intellectually pointed, amenable to completion in a reasonable time frame, and competitive in fellowship competitions.

The program is organized around distinct "research fields," subdisciplinary and interdisciplinary domains with common intellectual questions and styles of research. Each year, an SSRC Faculty Advisory Committee selects five fields proposed by pairs of research directors who are tenured professors at different doctoral degree-granting programs at U.S. universities. Research directors receive a stipend of $7500. Graduate students in the early phase of their research, generally 2nd and 3rd years, apply to one of five research fields led by the two directors; each group is made up of ten to twelve graduate students. Fellows participate in two workshops, one in the late spring that helps prepare them to undertake predissertation research on their topics; and one in the early fall, designed to help them synthesize their summer research and to draft proposals for dissertation funding. Fellows are eligible to apply for up to $5000 from SSRC to support
predissertation research during the summer.

Foundation For the Future Research Grants

More information at
http://www.futurefoundation.org/awards/rga_home.htm).

Deadlines: Apr. 30, 2008 (preliminary grant applications); Aug. 1, 2008.

The Foundation For the Future conducts and funds a Research Grants Program to provide financial support to scholars undertaking research at a macro level that is directly related to better understanding the factors affecting the long-term future of humanity. The Future of Humanity Grants are $5,000-$25,000 only for subjects that are of interest to the Foundation.

Stanford Humanities Center Residential Research Fellowships

THE STANFORD HUMANITIES CENTER INVITES APPLICATION FOR RESIDENTIAL
RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS.

EXTERNAL FACULTY FELLOWSHIPS

Open to scholars from humanities departments as traditionally defined and to other scholars seriously interested in humanistic issues. Fellowship term: September 2008-June 2009. Deadline: October 14, 2007

DIGITAL HUMANITIES FELLOWSHIP

Open to scholars whose research projects are critically shaped by information technology. Fellowship term: September 2008-June 2009. Deadline: October 14, 2007

HUMANITIES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FELLOWSHIP

Open to scholars who are not U.S. nationals. Proposals by applicants should focus on themes of international studies compatible with the mission of one of the research centers of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (the award co-sponsor). Fellowship term: September 2008-June 2009. Deadline: December 3, 2007.


More information at
http://shc.standford.edu (click on Fellowships)

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Next Week's Events at the Glasscock Center

The following is a list of next week’s events supported by the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and/or its affiliated programs:

**Monday, 8 October**
Co-Sponsored Lecture: Osvaldo Pardo (University of Connecticut), presenting “Colonial Mexican Imprint Collection: Fall Lecture,” 4:00 p.m., Cushing Library.

**Wednesday, 10 October**
Glasscock Coffee Come & Go featuring Steve Daniel, Professor of Philosophy and ‘Featured Author,’ 8:30-9:30 a.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.

**Thursday,11 October**
Africana Studies Colloquium: Bertram Ashe (University of Richmond), presenting “Wacky Fun with Jar Jar Binks: Post-Soul Blaxsploration in Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks,” 4:30 p.m., Whitley Suite, Evans Library.

**Friday, 12 October**
“Five and Twenty” Glasscock Center Anniversary Celebration: featuring Larry J. Reynolds (English), 3:30 p.m., MSC, Room 206. Reception following at 5:00 p.m., The University Club, 11th Floor, Rudder Tower.

**Saturday, 13 October**
“Five and Twenty” Glasscock Center Anniversary Celebration: featuring Jeffrey N. Cox (University of Colorado – Boulder) and Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe (University of Notre Dame), 9:00 a.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.


**If you are interested in meeting with any of our visiting speakers contact Dr. Donnalee Dox at dox@libarts.tamu.edu
**For further information consult the Glasscock Center website at http:// glasscock.tamu.edu/
**For current events at the Glasscock Center consult our blog at http://glasscockcenter.blogspot.com/

Buttrill Endowment for Ethics Lecture

Dr. Jan Boxill to Speak in Glasscock Center Inaugural
Buttrill Endowment for Ethics Lecture

The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research is pleased to announce a public lecture to inaugurate the Carrol O. Buttrill ’38 Endowment for Ethics. Dr. Jan Boxill of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill will present a lecture entitled “Sport as a Public Forum for Ethics” at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 16 October, 2007 in the MSC’s Forsyth Center Gallery.

Dr. Boxill is the director of the Parr Center for Ethics at the University of North Carolina and has published on many aspects of ethics, including feminism and affirmative action, as well as sports. Her publications include Sports Ethics (2003) and Issues in Race and Gender (2000).

The Buttrill Endowment for Ethics will support an annual public lecture and a campus roundtable on a matter of current, general ethical concern, as well as support the exploration of teaching and research on ethics within specific academic disciplines

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, see our website http://glasscock.tamu.edu/ , visit our blog at http://www.glasscockcenter.blogspot.com, or contact the Glasscock Center at 979-845-8328.

The Schomburg Center Scholars-in-Residence Program

FYI due Dec. 1
For more information
(http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/scholars/aboutscholar.html).

The Schomburg Center Scholars-in-Residence Program assists those
scholars and professionals whose research in the black experience can
benefit from extended access to the Center's resources. Fellowships
funded by the Center will allow recipients to spend six months or a year
in residence with access to resources at the Schomburg Center and other
centers of The New York Public Library. The program encourages research
and writing on black history and culture, facilitates interaction among
participating scholars, and provides wide-spread dissemination of
findings through lectures, publications, and colloquia and seminars. It
encompasses projects in African, Afro-American, and Afro-Caribbean
history and culture.

ARCE Fellowships in Egypt

Due Jan. 18
For more information
(http://www.arce.org/fellowships/funded_fellowships.html).

ARCE administers fellowships for study in Egypt by students enrolled in
doctoral programs at North American universities and by post-doctoral
scholars and professionals affiliated with North American universities
and research institutions. Depending on the source of funding,
fellowships are granted for periods of betweeen 3 and 12 months.

The Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Competition

FYI due Dec. 18
For more information
(http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?oppId=15586&flag2006=true&mode=V
IEW)

The Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP)
is pleased to announce an open competition for assistance awards through
this Request for Proposals (RFP). EAP's Regional Women's Issues Fund
(WIF), which has supported women's advancement in the region over the
past several years, will soon be available under the Economic Support
Fund (ESF) account for FY 2007-2008. EAP welcomes project proposals from
credible local or international organizations that address women's
economic empowerment, foster political participation, and/or contribute
to women/girls' freedom from violence.