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.

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.