Thursday, April 27, 2017
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
On Gazing and Erasure ... and Our Preliminary Processing Plan
Dear Archiving Folks,
You may not be experiencing the positive affective rewards of all your work thus far, but I think you have done tremendously much and should take a moment to reflect on it all!
I've been paying special attention to three things in your work and in your interactions with one another: (1) the knowledge you make in your journals and reflections, whenever you develop a new lens for critique, or discover a new possibility for archival work; (2) the ethic and care with which you take stewardship of the materials you are examining; and (3) the theories you build when you let the collection speak back to what you read, and vice-versa. In all these things, I have only seen upward progress. Nicely done.
You may not be experiencing the positive affective rewards of all your work thus far, but I think you have done tremendously much and should take a moment to reflect on it all!
I've been paying special attention to three things in your work and in your interactions with one another: (1) the knowledge you make in your journals and reflections, whenever you develop a new lens for critique, or discover a new possibility for archival work; (2) the ethic and care with which you take stewardship of the materials you are examining; and (3) the theories you build when you let the collection speak back to what you read, and vice-versa. In all these things, I have only seen upward progress. Nicely done.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
"Women in the Archives, Vandals in the Stacks"
Dear ENG 4938 Seminar,
A fuller post will appear here in advance of next class, recounting some highlights of our previous unit. For now, in the interest of two reminders:
A fuller post will appear here in advance of next class, recounting some highlights of our previous unit. For now, in the interest of two reminders:
- Tuesday's readings by Ramsey and Yakel have been moved to Thursday 3/30. Although we will meet in Special Collections on that day, please plan to have finished your third Problem-Solving exercise and bring those readings to class so that we can discuss the implications of archival digitization on a collection like Nellie Godfrey King's.
- As we convene in Special Collections on Tuesday 3/28, I have asked you to keep in mind some central questions from our discussions this week, most notably:
- How can/does "whiteness" become an archival imperative?
- How might we be sensitive to "whiteness" -- or avoid it from becoming -- an imperative in our processing of Nellie Godfrey King's papers? (A related question brought up by Mallorie right at the end of last class: "Why/Would we want to?")
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Taking "Social, Critical & Feminist Consciousness" to the Archives
Dear ENG 4938 Seminar,
In the interest of two reminders:
In the interest of two reminders:
- The Women Writers Project offers free access for the month of March, so I have invited you to use that as one of your repositories for Problem-Solving Exercise #3;
- our next reading assignment (for Thursday 3/23) is Ramirez ("Being Assumed Not to Be") and Eubanks ("Mississippi on My Mind"). And yes, I'll ask you one more time to bring back Steedman chapter 6. Next time, I will open our discussion with some passages from her chapter to create a reflective backdrop for the other two essays.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Steedman, Davy, and Kirsch: Cultural Memory and the "Feminist" Archive
Dear Folks,
I promised I would bring two things back into our discussion:
Promises kept.
I promised I would bring two things back into our discussion:
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's dohistory.org project
- Carolyn Steedman's "What a Rag Rug Means."
Promises kept.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Some Changes to Our Reading Schedule
Dear Archiving Folks,
Much to my chagrin, we cannot read everything. As promised, here are the changes I'd like to make to our reading schedule, allowing us to finish the discussions we need to finish in this unit on "Archiving for Social, Critical, & Feminist Consciousness." Please do make these changes in your schedules or on your syllabi:
Much to my chagrin, we cannot read everything. As promised, here are the changes I'd like to make to our reading schedule, allowing us to finish the discussions we need to finish in this unit on "Archiving for Social, Critical, & Feminist Consciousness." Please do make these changes in your schedules or on your syllabi:
- T Mar 7 - Steedman ch 6 "What a Rag Rug Means" and Davy "Cultural Memory and the Lesbian Archive"; please also have Kirsch "Feminist Research" at the ready, as we will likely put Steedman and Davy into conversation with the latter pages of her chapter
- Th Mar 23 - Eubanks "Mississippi on My Mind" and Ramirez "Being Assumed Not to Be"
- T Mar 28 - unchanged
- T Apr 18 - unchanged
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Some Resources for Working in the Archives
Dear Archiving Folks,
I offer a reminder that next week's schedule has been reversed: Tuesday (2/21) we are in Special Collections to further explore the Leora Pruitt King papers in all their riches; Thursday (2/23) we are in the regular classroom for a discussion of archiving for social, critical, and feminist consciousness. Next week marks the beginning of our third unit, and in this unit we may begin to think and talk more explicitly about archival erasure.
I offer a reminder that next week's schedule has been reversed: Tuesday (2/21) we are in Special Collections to further explore the Leora Pruitt King papers in all their riches; Thursday (2/23) we are in the regular classroom for a discussion of archiving for social, critical, and feminist consciousness. Next week marks the beginning of our third unit, and in this unit we may begin to think and talk more explicitly about archival erasure.
Is Nellie Here?, and FSCW Mascot
Is Nellie here? Or here, somewhere?
Before Chief Osceola, there was this guy, and then ... that guy.
-Dr. Graban
Before Chief Osceola, there was this guy, and then ... that guy.
-Dr. Graban
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Feb 14 Case Study: Finding Aids Analysis
Dear All,
Last week we considered some of the possibilities and problems with historical revisionism through writing women's lives and un-silencing their "archives," including the idea that we (as readers) may write things into the story by our own archetypal expectations.
Last week we considered some of the possibilities and problems with historical revisionism through writing women's lives and un-silencing their "archives," including the idea that we (as readers) may write things into the story by our own archetypal expectations.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Feb 9 Case Study: Text as Archive
Dear Archiving Folks,
I have shortened Thursday's excerpts from Elizabeth McHenry's Forgotten Readers so that we can also read excerpts from Afua Cooper's The Hanging of Angelique (both in our Canvas CL). I seriously hope you enjoy both these projects. McHenry's is the longer of our excerpts in which she does some theory-building about "invisible readership" by examining the activities of African-American literary societies in the 19th century. Cooper's is the shorter of our excerpts in which she performs postcolonial critique by recovering and retelling the execution of Angelique, a Portuguese slave who was charged for burning her mistress's home in Montreal in 1734.
I have shortened Thursday's excerpts from Elizabeth McHenry's Forgotten Readers so that we can also read excerpts from Afua Cooper's The Hanging of Angelique (both in our Canvas CL). I seriously hope you enjoy both these projects. McHenry's is the longer of our excerpts in which she does some theory-building about "invisible readership" by examining the activities of African-American literary societies in the 19th century. Cooper's is the shorter of our excerpts in which she performs postcolonial critique by recovering and retelling the execution of Angelique, a Portuguese slave who was charged for burning her mistress's home in Montreal in 1734.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Feb 7 Case Study: Life Writing as Historical Record
Dear Folks,
Tuesday begins a quick succession of miniature case studies, intended to help us consider some of the risks and rewards of drawing on social memory as intellectual history. None of these terms is settled in our minds; thus, I offer you this unit in our course primarily to explore. To aid that exploration, I'd like to shorten the critical reading so that you have time to explore our exhibit before class.
I'll ask that half the class read Wendy Hesford's "Memory Work" and half the class read the chapter from Carolyn Heilbrun's Writing a Woman's Life. Let's arbitrarily split it up this way:
Tuesday begins a quick succession of miniature case studies, intended to help us consider some of the risks and rewards of drawing on social memory as intellectual history. None of these terms is settled in our minds; thus, I offer you this unit in our course primarily to explore. To aid that exploration, I'd like to shorten the critical reading so that you have time to explore our exhibit before class.
I'll ask that half the class read Wendy Hesford's "Memory Work" and half the class read the chapter from Carolyn Heilbrun's Writing a Woman's Life. Let's arbitrarily split it up this way:
- Hesford -- Daniel, Devlin, Kaitlin, Christina, Mallorie, Shaimaa
- Heilbrun -- Alejandro, Eleanor, Jordan, Rachel, Sarah, Sidney
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Denotative Fictions and Institutional Value
Dear All,
A former mentor and dear friend forwarded the link to Correal's recovery story last week (appearing in Friday's edition of The New York Times) just as I was preparing notes for today's discussion of Finnegan's piece. It stuck with me.
Perhaps it came as a light-hearted balm at a difficult time. Perhaps it came as an opportune case study for self-reflection or critique. For whatever reason, Correal's essay made me look again at Finnegan's shack/sharecropper problem (Finnegan 120) as a problem of institutional value. In what ways are we institutionalized to the point where we unqestioningly carry the value of our institutions into how we encounter the archive? Institutional belonging is powerful and intricate -- we belong to a discipline, a school, a department, a way of thinking/being/writing/reading, and that is just within FSU, not even considering those other social, moral, political, or religious institutions that form our identities.
A former mentor and dear friend forwarded the link to Correal's recovery story last week (appearing in Friday's edition of The New York Times) just as I was preparing notes for today's discussion of Finnegan's piece. It stuck with me.
Perhaps it came as a light-hearted balm at a difficult time. Perhaps it came as an opportune case study for self-reflection or critique. For whatever reason, Correal's essay made me look again at Finnegan's shack/sharecropper problem (Finnegan 120) as a problem of institutional value. In what ways are we institutionalized to the point where we unqestioningly carry the value of our institutions into how we encounter the archive? Institutional belonging is powerful and intricate -- we belong to a discipline, a school, a department, a way of thinking/being/writing/reading, and that is just within FSU, not even considering those other social, moral, political, or religious institutions that form our identities.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Assemblage, Category Disorder, and Readings Next Week
Dear All,
As promised I announce a change in next week's readings.
For some light reading on the side, check out this recovery story by Annie Correal, in today's edition of The New York Times.
As promised I announce a change in next week's readings.
- For Tuesday, please read Nesmith and Finnegan, both in CL.
- For Thursday, please read Jimerson (in CL) and 2 of the following 3 in K&R: Gold "Accidental," Sharer "Traces," Rohan "Stitching and Writing."
For some light reading on the side, check out this recovery story by Annie Correal, in today's edition of The New York Times.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Steedman and Jimerson -- Dust and Archives Power
Dear Folks,
We are back in our regular classroom on Thursday, to discuss Chapter 1 of Carolyn Steedman's Dust and (coincidentally) Chapter 1 of Randall Jimerson's Archives Power. Metaphors abound in the early portions of each chapter (and, in fact, Mattias makes a cameo appearance in Jimerson's pages).
Give yourself time to dwell in each chapter -- time to work through their claims, to annotate terms that are new or unfamiliar in their usage, and to consider the challenge in each chapter. Someone or some idea or some activity or some perspective is being challenged in each piece, and that's part of what we will discuss on Thursday.
We are back in our regular classroom on Thursday, to discuss Chapter 1 of Carolyn Steedman's Dust and (coincidentally) Chapter 1 of Randall Jimerson's Archives Power. Metaphors abound in the early portions of each chapter (and, in fact, Mattias makes a cameo appearance in Jimerson's pages).
Give yourself time to dwell in each chapter -- time to work through their claims, to annotate terms that are new or unfamiliar in their usage, and to consider the challenge in each chapter. Someone or some idea or some activity or some perspective is being challenged in each piece, and that's part of what we will discuss on Thursday.
Friday, January 20, 2017
Some Resources for Problem-Solving Exercise #1
Dear Folks,
As promised, here are some sources that might help you along.
As promised, here are some sources that might help you along.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
"Who Owns the Past?"
Hello, Archiving Folks.
I was reflecting on some of the things you noticed during Dean McCormick's introduction to the FSU Special Collections yesterday, not only about how the Special Collections becomes what it is, but also about the constraints we will experience as we seek institutional resources for the first Problem-Solving Exercise. That called to mind one of Hunter's powerful (I think) implications about archives and manuscripts in his "Introduction" -- the implication that, in most cases, history would never be known (or understood as a "history") if someone had not deliberately curated it.
I was reflecting on some of the things you noticed during Dean McCormick's introduction to the FSU Special Collections yesterday, not only about how the Special Collections becomes what it is, but also about the constraints we will experience as we seek institutional resources for the first Problem-Solving Exercise. That called to mind one of Hunter's powerful (I think) implications about archives and manuscripts in his "Introduction" -- the implication that, in most cases, history would never be known (or understood as a "history") if someone had not deliberately curated it.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Welcome Message
Welcome to ENG 4938 for the spring 2017 semester! This dedicated blog space will host announcements, updates, gateways for assignments and journal prompts, and a forum for conversation as we embark on our research. Feel free to browse the links at right to preview (or review) any of our course documents.
-Dr. Graban
-Dr. Graban
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