Seven Stars in the Humanities
A Humanities Pleiad
Anthony Kaldellis,
professor in the Department of Greek and Latin, is one of six newly promoted full professors to speak in the College of Humanities Inaugural Lecture Series for 2007-2008. His April 7, 2008 lecture, "The Byzantines: Who Were They?" comes from a long study of a complex subject. The people whom we know as the Byzantines called themselves Romans: their state was a direct continuation of the Roman Empire, their capital was New Rome, and their ruler was the emperor of the Romans. Yet from the ninth to the twenty-first century this claim has never been properly recognized: modern scholarship still misrepresents them as Greek, multi-ethnic, medieval, oriental, Orthodox, or 'Byzantine.' In this lecture, Professor Kaldellis will speak about what it means to be a Byzantinist today, and about our continuing reluctance to respect the Byzantines' notions of who they were and why they mattered.
Hugh Urban,
professor in the Department of Comparative Studies, is one of six newly promoted full professors to speak in the College of Humanities Inaugural Lecture Series for 2007-2008. His lecture, delivered on March 13, 2008, spoke of "Religion and Secrecy: From Colonial India to the Bush Administration." The talk was framed around the juxtaposition of religion and secrecy in two parallel imperial formations: British India, and its successor as dominant global power, the United States. Hugh Urban is the recent author of The Secrets of the Kingdom: Religion and Concealment in the Bush Administration, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2007.
Lindsay Jones,
professor in the Department of Comparative Studies, is one of six newly promoted full professors to speak in the College of Humanities Inaugural Lecture Series for 2007-2008. His lecture, given on October 15, 2007, was a study of juxtaposition, both generally as a necessary consequence of the comparative enterprise, and specifically through the example of the archeological site of Monte Albán. At once one of Mexico's premier tourist destinations and a primary source of information on pre-Columbian history and religion, the Oaxaca ruins are a perfect symbol of the inevitability, and the heuristic value, of juxtaposition and revalorization.
Craige Roberts,
professor in the Department of Linguistics, is one of six newly promoted full professors to speak in the College of Humanities Inaugural Lecture Series for 2007-2008. Her lecture, given on February 18, 2008, examined the word "the." Too often the English definite article is overlooked, but not in this lecture, which spoke of the many ways in which this small but important word is variously articulated, and by doing so demonstrated that language speakers are capable of wielding abstract meanings to which we have no conscious access. It is perhaps only appropriate that at "The Ohio State University," one of its professors has had the definitive word on this subject.
Kevin Boyle,
Humanities Distinguished Professor in the Department of History, gave the University Distinguished Lecture for 2007-2008 on March 5, 2008. The Distinguished Lecture Series is one of Ohio State's highest honors for a senior faculty member, and Professor Boyle rose to the occasion, with a lecture given almost entirely without notes on the life of Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Entitled "The Splendid Dead: An American Ordeal," the lecture spoke movingly of a figure who was both anarchist and victim, both scapegoat and martyr. The Lecture Series allows the speaker the opportunity to designate $5,000 to promote the academic goals of the lecturer's College; Professor Boyle chose to designate his award to the Foster Rhea Dulles Memorial Fund in the Department of History, to support graduate students working in twentieth-century American history.
Amy Shuman,
professor in the Department of English, has been awarded the College of Humanities Exemplary Faculty Award for 2007-2008. Amy Shuman is a superb scholar, having carved out new territory for folklore research in her projects on conversational narrative, orality and literacy, folklore and feminist theory, and ethnicity studies. As a teacher she has worked with graduate students in Communications, Anthropology, Sociology, Art Education, Education Policy and Leadership, Education Theory and Practice, Comparative Studies, Women's Studies, Fine Art, Photography, and English. As a university leader, she was the founding director of the Center of Folklore Studies, and has served Ohio State and the central Ohio community in measureless ways. Her newest project, a documentary on philanthropy, is a representation of all that she is and does for every aspect of the College of Humanities: the College is pleased and proud to recognize Amy Shuman as this year's winner of the Exemplary Faculty Award.
Sai Bhatawadekar,
who received her Ph.D. from the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and is now on the staff of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, has been awarded the College's Diversity Enhancement Award. Her great work is the support and development of South Asian studies in the College: Dr. Bhatawadekar has brought the world of the College of Humanities together to create the Hindi language program that is now thriving under her inspired leadership. As a result of her administrative, diplomatic, and pedagogical efforts, students at Ohio State have been introduced, through Indian poetry, religion, and philosophy to Indian cinema, cuisine, and cricket, to a culture and a heritage that is a vital part of our world today. The College of Humanities is extremely proud to recognize this outstanding teacher, mentor, and scholar with the 2007 Diversity Enhancement Award.
For a complete listing of previous 'Seven Stars,' visit our archive page.
