Fellows Archives | Page 9 of 11 | National Humanities Center

Fellows

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Celeste-Marie Bernier, “‘Lexicon of Liberation’: Imaging Slavery and Imagining Freedom in the African Atlantic Diaspora”

This talk will explore the writings, drawings, paintings, prints, and sculpture produced by African, African American, African Caribbean, and Black British women and men, enslaved and free, living and working across the Black Diaspora over the centuries. Living and dying against a white racist backdrop that sought to destroy Black bodies and souls, they generated alternative art-making traditions and experimental writerly practices that constitute nothing less than “declarations of independence.”

history of the banjo

“The Banjo: A Musical Conversation” with Laurent Dubois and Joe Newberry

​The banjo links disparate musical and cultural traditions — from Africa to the Caribbean to the United States — and its history is deeply interwoven with the history of those places. ​Recently, NHC Fellow Laurent Dubois and musician Joe Newberry​ participated in a “musical conversation” exploring this fascinating history and performed songs for NHC trustees, Fellows and special guests.

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Marlene L. Daut, “The Haitian Atlantic”

“The Haitian Atlantic” discusses eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Afro-diasporic writing and art about the Haitian Revolution. By exploring a broad range of engagement with the Haitian Revolution from writers living in the Atlantic World, Marlene Daut reveals a traveling language of Haitian revolutionary thought to be central to the development of not only Afro-diasporic anti-slavery activism, but a broader transatlantic abolitionist literary culture that reveals itself to have been shaped in many ways by imagining Haiti.

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Marlene Daut, “The Haitian Revolution in Literature”

While historians have increasingly marked the Haitian Revolution as a key moment in the history of the Atlantic world, literary depictions of the revolution and events surrounding it have remained little known among contemporary readers. By exploring a broad range of works from writers living in the Atlantic World, Marlene Daut has uncovered a transatlantic abolitionist literary culture that was shaped in many ways by imagining Haiti.

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Laurent Dubois, “The Banjo: America’s African Instrument”

The banjo links disparate musical and cultural traditions — from Africa to the Caribbean to the United States — and its history is deeply interwoven with the history of those places. In this podcast, host Robert D. Newman talks with Fellow Laurent Dubois about this history and his book, The Banjo: America's African Instrument, published earlier this year by Harvard University Press.

Novel Sounds

Florence Dore, “Novel Sounds: American Fiction in the Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll” (Part 2)

​In part 2 of this interview, Florence Dore and host Robert Newman ​continue to explore ​the surprising reciprocity between rock and literature​​. They also discuss the conference Novel Sounds—upcoming October 14-15 at the National Humanities Center—which will bring together scholars, critics, and performers to examine rock’s broader connections to a wide array of social, historical, and cultural concerns.

Novel Sounds

Florence Dore, “Novel Sounds: American Fiction in the Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll” (Part 1)

While it is not difficult to perceive rock ‘n‘ roll’s profound influence on American culture since the mid-1950s, we seldom consider the surprising reciprocity between rock and serious literature. In this podcast, host Robert Newman talks with Florence Dore about the rock-literature nexus and on the ways that rock has both reflected and helped shape our national heritage.

immigration and legal history

Kunal Parker, “The Long Struggle Over U.S. Immigration and Citizenship”

Contention over questions surrounding immigration and citizenship have been foregrounded in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but how does the current debate relate to America's historical treatment of foreigners and the establishment of birthright citizenship in the U.S. Constitution? In this podcast, host Richard Schramm talks with Fellow Kunal Parker about this history and helps frame current discourse as it relates to legal history.

Charles Lindbergh

1927! Kaleidoscope of a Year

From The Jazz Singer to the carving of Mount Rushmore to Charles Lindbergh’s first transatlantic flight: 1927 invites reflection on the intersections and serendipitous synchronicities of one eventful year. Was the world flapping its way into Depression, or did modernist advances still offer hopes for the future? Join NHC Fellows and friends for a multimedia exploration of this rich cultural and artistic landscape. This event will include a variety of short talks on cultural, political, and historical topics as well as selections of music, film, and literature that capture this vibrant moment in the modern era — between the World Wars and before the approaching worldwide depression.