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Scholarly Programs

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Brian Lewis, “George Cecil Ives and the Transformation of Discourses on Sexuality”

The British writer, reformer, and criminologist George Cecil Ives lived through a transformation in our collective understanding of sexuality, witnessing the rise of sexology and psychoanalysis. But he did not simply observe these social changes; he chronicled them exhaustively through his published works, correspondence, scrapbooks, and a three-million-word diary. Brian Lewis (NHC Fellow, 2022–23) has analyzed these records to help us to understand how individuals actually experienced these philosophical and social shifts.

photos of Nina Simone and Langston Hughes

W. Jason Miller, “Nina Simone and Langston Hughes: Collaborators Across Genres”

The influence that Nina Simone and Langston Hughes have had on American music, literature, and culture can hardly be overstated. However, the relationship between these two figures has received little to no attention from scholars to date, despite their long history of collaboration. W. Jason Miller (NHC Fellow, 2022–23) is conducting research into this partnership in order to inform new understandings about the intersections between art and politics in the Black Arts Movement of the mid-twentieth century.

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Featured Research: Music and Its Uses

This month we highlight the research of 2023–24 Fellows whose projects consider the role that music plays in shaping lives. From churches in medieval Iberia to movie houses in the Soviet bloc to the streets and dancehalls of New Orleans and Nigeria, these scholars are examining music’s profound power to reveal and reimagine the world around us.

Black opera singers on stage

Naomi André, “A History of Blackness in Opera”

As an art form, opera has proven to be simultaneously entertaining and relatable to diverse audiences, even though it has also been characterized by associations with whiteness and elitism. Naomi André (NHC Fellow, 2022–23) is working to tell a more comprehensive and inclusive story of this genre by constructing a history of Blackness in opera from the nineteenth century to the present.

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Scholar-to-Scholar Talk: “Family as a Knowledge Methodology: Writing Intimate Histories”

On February 9, 2023, historian Blair L. M. Kelley (NHC Fellow, 2022–23) and political scientist Tiffany Willoughby-Herard (NHC Fellow, 2022–23) opened a conversation at the NHC about “Family as a Knowledge Methodology: Writing Intimate Histories.” Africana religious studies scholar LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant moderated the discussion. These distinguished scholars of African American life discuss how our families teach us about being free and being unfree. They ask, how do our family stories help us think about scholarly knowledge-making? What are the larger stakes of writing about Black families?