9th Annual Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship Lecture by Lois Parkinson Zamora

The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University is pleased to announce a public lecture by Lois Parkinson Zamora, Professor of Comparative Literature and Art History at the University of Houston, the recipient of the 9th Annual Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship, for her book The Inordinate Eye: New World Baroque and Latin American Fiction (University of Chicago Press, 2006). Zamora will present a lecture entitled “The Baroque Self: Frida Kahlo and Gabriel García Márquez,” on Wednesday, 13February 2008 at 4:00 p.m. in the Glasscock Building, Room 311.

Zamora’s research uncovers the transnational influences on Baroque art in the New World to determine how those relationships influence contemporary narratives and form points of resistance to European colonization. Latin American artists create a discourse of “counterconquest” that Zamora terms the “New World Baroque,” a hybrid form combining the diverse influences of indigenous, African, and European cultures in an effort to challenge the hegemony of Catholic and monarchical ideologies.

The Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship was endowed in 2000 by Melbern G. Glasscock, Texas A&M University Class of '59, in honor of his wife. The Glasscocks have made numerous gifts to Texas A&M University. In July 2002 they generously endowed the Center for Humanities Research, which was renamed in Mr. Glasscock’s honor.

The Book Prize is chosen by a committee of two humanities scholars from Texas A&M and one from another university. This year’s committee was Suzanne Poirier (Department of Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago), David McWhirter (Department of English, Texas A&M University), and Cynthia Werner (Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University).

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.

Fellowship for the Study of Minorities in American Maritime History

FYI due March 30.
For more information visit
(http://www.mysticseaport.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id
=BA0F6A5D-D0B2-1CEA-5778CABEA131F76E).

Mystic Seaport invites applications for the annual competition for the Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship. Paul Cuffe, born in 1759 on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, was the son of a Wampanoag Indian mother and a former slave father. Active in the Quaker community, he founded a free school in Westport, Massachusetts. Before his death in 1817 he became a sea captain, shipowner, landowner, and respected community leader.

Since 1989, Mystic Seaport's Paul Cuffe fellowship has provided funds to thirty-five researchers from universities, colleges, and museums. The fellowships are offered to encourage research that considers the participation of Native and African Americans in the maritime activities of New England, primarily its southeastern shores. Fellowships support research and writing, a portion of which should normally be carried out in the Mystic area. The fellowships of up to $2,400 are made possible through the generosity of a local private foundation.

Gerald R. Ford Library Research Grants

FYI due March 15 and Sept. 15.
For more information visit
(http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/hpgrants.asp).

Two grant programs are available to support research in the holdings of the Gerald R. Ford Library. These holdings focus on Federal policies, U.S. foreign relations, and national politics in the 1960s and 1970s. There are earlier and later materials depending upon your topic. The grant programs are:

The Gerald R. Ford Foundation awards several Research Travel Grants of up to $2,000 each in support of research in the holdings of the Gerald R. Ford Library. A grant defrays travel, living, and photocopy expenses of a research trip to the Ford Library. Grants are awarded twice a year with application deadlines of March 15 and
September 15.

The "Gerald R. Ford Scholar Award (Dissertation Award) in Honor of Robert Teeter" in the amount of $5,000 is given annually to one individual to support dissertation research on an aspect of the U.S. political process during the latter part of the twentieth century. See details about the award

The Irene Ledesma Prize

FYI due May 1.
For more information visit
(http://www.westernwomenshistory.org/cfp.htm).

The Coalition for Western Women’s History announces the 10th Annual Irene Ledesma Prize, 2008. For Ph.D. graduate student research in western women’s history. Deadline for submission: May 1, 2008.

The $1,000 prize supports travel to collections or other research expenses related to the histories of women and gender in the American West. Applicants must be enrolled in a Ph.D. program and members of the CWWH. The prize honors the memory of Irene Ledesma whose contributions to Chicana and working-class history were ended by her untimely death in 1997.

The CWWH will award the prize at the CWWH Breakfast during the 48th Annual Western History Association conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 22 – 25, 2008.

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship

FYI continusous submission
For more information visit
(http://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/programme/stip_aus/tshp1.htm).

This fellowship program enables highly qualified scientists and scholars, aged up to 40 years, of all nationalities and disciplines resident outside of Germany who hold doctorates to carry out research projects of their own choice in Germany. Applications may be submitted at any time for research stays of up to two years.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is particularly interested in attracting highly qualified young scholars from countries strongly influenced by Islamic culture, who hold doctorates, to carry out research projects of their own choice in Germany. Applications may be submitted for long-term research stays of at least 6 and at most 12 months; an extension of up to 24 months is possible. Scholars from the disciplines of humanities, social sciences, and law may apply to the AvH directly at any time. There are no quotas for individual countries and disciplines. Funding is not available for short-term study visits, participation in conferences, or training courses.

Q&A with Linda Radzik

We asked Linda Radzik (Department of Philosophy), who presented on Wednesday, 23 January on "Changing the Past," a few questions about her work:

MGGCHR: What is your presentation's argument?

Linda Radzik: It is sometimes said that atonement for wrongdoing is impossible (at least for a secular worldview) because the past cannot be changed. In this paper I examine a number of compelling accounts of atonement that suggest the past can be changed in some morally meaningful sense. I argue that these accounts ultimately fail as accounts of atonement, however, because changing the past turns out not to address the core problem of wrongdoing.

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

Linda Radzik: I had already done some work related to punishment, forgiveness and attributions of collective responsibility for wrongdoing. All of these are issues that deal with the aftermath of wrongdoing. It occurred to me that the philosophical literature almost always proceeds from the point of view of either a victim or a judge, but never of the wrongdoer herself. The literature asked, "What should we do with wrongdoers?" but not, "What should I do if I am the wrongdoer?" This struck me as deeply problematic--as an attempt to "other" wrongdoers, rather than to acknowledge our own moral fallibility.

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

Linda Radzik: Because I had such a hard time finding discussions of atonement in the philosophical literature, I had to look farther afield. One thing I did was to search for representations of atonement in film, literature and popular culture. I've become something of an expert on the TV show, "My Name is Earl."

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

Linda Radzik: I enjoy any class where I get to teach moral philosophy. I especially like to consider questions such as: Are moral claims the sorts of things that are true or false? Is morality just a matter of convention? Why should I be moral? Morality is a very odd thing. It is easy to see why we should be skeptical about it. But, I find, it is impossible to simply remain agnostic about morality. You have to make choices, and so you have to find some way to understand yourself as making choices that are better rather than worse.

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?

Linda Radzik: I am a big fan of Christine Korsgaard, a philosopher at Harvard and author of my favorite book on the foundations of morality. I don't always agree with her conclusions, but her arguments are always fascinating.

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

Linda Radzik: A boat with an outboard motor and plenty of gasoline.

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, 28 January**
Queer Studies Working Group Meeting: 2:00-3:30 p.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.
Digital Humanities Lecture: Mike Godwin (Wikimedia Foundation), presenting “After the Revolution,” 4:00 p.m., Evans Library, Room 204E.

**Tuesday, 29 January**
Buttrill Endowment for Ethics Roundtable: “Ethics, Money, and Intercollegiate Sport,” 3:30-5:00 p.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.

**Wednesday, 30 January**
Glasscock Coffee Come & Go: 8:30-9:30 a.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311. Featuring Cheryl Hanks, Assistant Dean, College of Liberal arts.

**Thursday, 31 January**
Graduate Colloquium: Michael Doron (History), presenting “The End of the Disinterested Profession: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Union Corruption Scandals of the 1950s,” 4:00 p.m., Glasscock Building, Room 311.

**Friday, 1 February**
Digital Humanities Lecture: Gary Marchionini (University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill), presenting “The Open Video Digital Library: The Challenge of Transition from Test Bed to Sustainable Library,” 3:00 p.m., Evans Library, Room 204E.

**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/