Faculty Fellows Program
2001-2002 FellowsEach year the Humanities Center supports up to six faculty fellows. The fellowship provides a small reduction in teaching load, an undergraduate research assistant, and the opportunity to meet throughout the year and share in discussions of research. These rich and valuable interdisciplinary conversations about research are only one dimension of the program. An important distinguishing feature of the fellows program is that each fellow must work with the center to plan a program that connects that fellow's work to the broader community, and not just to the broader academic community. 2001-2002 was the third year of this program. Highlights of our fellows' research and community connection projects follow.
Pascale-Anne Brault, Napoleon in the DePaul Archives
For her fellowship project, Brault took on the daunting task of evaluating and bringing to public attention DePaul's extensive but little-known collection of Napoleana, one of the largest in the country. Brault enlisted the help of Napoleon experts from the U.S. and France to assess the collection, which was determined to be of great value not only for the number of volumes it includes but also because of it counts many one-of-a-kind texts among this number. With her research assistants, Brault created an electronic annotated bibliography of the collection, which is linked with the Fondation Napoléon in Paris. She also assisted the library's department of Special Collections in creating a public exhibition entitled Napoleon: The Myth and the Man (which will remain on display until September 2002). The exhibition opening, attended by seventy-five students, faculty, and Napoleon enthusiasts, featured presentations by Dominique DeCherf, Consul General of France, and John Clubbe, Professor Emeritus, University of Kentucky. Although removed both thematically and historically from her work in contemporary French and francophone literature, this project nonetheless allowed Brault to extend her work in translation studies and deepen her commitment to innovative pedagogy. She brought her students into the archives, where they embarked on an ambitious translation of correspondence between and about Napoleon and his son. Supported by a grant from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Brault published their work in a volume entitled, Napoleon and Son: The Story of a Lost Legacy. Students around Chicago have also benefited from Brault's fellowship, as she and University Archivist Kathryn DeGraff have hosted archival tours for groups from the Lycee Francaise De Chicago and Lincoln Park High School.
Susan McGury, Sounds of Absence
As the centerpiece of her fellowship project, McGury wrote, produced, and directed a theatrical work entitled, Sounds of Absence: A Dramatic Presentation of the Poetry and Music of Loss. Collaborating with a talented ensemble of actors and musicians, she adapted the poetry of Jane Kenyon and Donald Hall to create a powerful meditation on loss and grief. She premiered the piece at DePaul before an audience of 130 on May 25. In the discussion that followed, McGury and her fellow artists-actors Nancy Nickel and Gary Houston, soprano Elaine Lemieux and baritone David Holloway, cellist Martine Benmann and violist Shelley Weiss, and composer Ilya Levinson, who created an original score-discussed their collaboration. They spoke of the challenges involved in transforming the written poetic word to spoken word, music, and song, and of the complex interplay of visual and vocal text, and the simultaneous presentation and critique of these texts, that resulted from their efforts. Earlier in the day, McGury shared her interest in creative responses to loss in other ways. She organized and hosted a panel discussion with grief experts, which was attended by twenty-five individuals. Panelists, including poet Flora Anderson-Chestnut, Nan Giblin, dean of Northeastern University School of Education, and minister John Willits, discussed the therapeutic value of creative work, especially writing, in dealing with loss. A writing workshop followed, facilitated by Elizabeth-Ann Stewart, of DePaul's religious studies department.
Millàn-Zaibert, Alexander von Humboldt's "Romantic" Encounter with Latin America: A Study on the Development of Tolerance
Combining her interests in German Romantic and Latin American history and philosophy, Millàn-Zaibert examined the ways in which Alexander von Humboldt's scientific research in Latin America, for which he is well known, helped to promote a more open, mutually respectful attitude than had characterized previous encounters between Europe and the Americas. In connection with this latter aspect of his legacy, which has received little attention, Millàn-Zaibert identifies Humboldt's encounter with Latin America as a "romantic" one, distinguishing it from the colonial encounters that predated him. The book-length manuscript that will result from this project thus highlights the role of European romantic philosophy in replacing the narrow colonial worldview with one in which difference and diversity could be appreciated. As a way to share her interests with others, Millàn-Zaibert invited Solveig Hoogesteijn-one of Venezuela's most accomplished film directors-to discuss her recent documentary commemorating the 200th anniversary of Humboldt's arrival in Venezuela, In Search of Humboldt. In addition to Humboldt's legacy, Hoogesteijn discussed the making of the film and addressed variety of issues impacting artistic expression and cultural preservation in contemporary Venezuela. A rich and lively discussion followed about the overwhelming impact of North American mass media exports on local culture, the relationship of art to the health and development of a country, and the role of the government in funding and supporting the arts.
Brian Sikes, Face to Face
Originally titled Signal to Noise: Using Digital and Analog Media to Create Large-Scale Murals, Sikes' project underwent a transformation in the course of the fellowship year. While some of the techniques he employed remained the same, as did the large scale of the pieces, his subject matter changed significantly following the events of September 11. Moving away from the abstract iconography of his previous work, Sikes created two composite portraits constructed from photographs of more than 150 DePaul students, staff and faculty. Sikes explained that the portraits were "a way for me to keep working in the days after September 11, when the last thing I wanted to do was sit in the studio engaged in the introspective pursuit of individual creative work. . . . Face to Face is a way for me to visually and metaphorically reference, interrogate and celebrate those bonds of association that sustain and challenge us." Through his community connection piece, Sikes forged additional bonds. In partnership with the Stockyard Institute, a community-based arts education initiative directed by DePaul faculty member Jim Duignan, he conducted a digital imaging workshop over three weekends for students from Zawadi, the institute's west-side partner. In conjunction with the workshop, Sikes created three additional composite portraits for the Face to Face series, which are on exhibit at the Humanities Center until mid-summer, when they will go on permanent display in Zawadi's facilities.
Peter Steeves, The Philosophy of Disney
Steeves worked throughout the fellowship year on a book examining the philosophy of Disney. Written with both academic and popular audiences in mind, the manuscript considers the philosophical implications for our culture of living in a society pervaded by the Walt Disney corporation in all of its manifestations, including theme parks, corporate stores, movies, vacation destinations, company-owned towns, and endless merchandising. This project extends Steeves' efforts over the past several years to bridge the study of popular culture and academic philosophy. Along the same lines, for his research session with the fellows, he led his colleagues in thinking about the nature of experience at Disneyland and in a comparative analysis of the moral codes at play in Disney's Pinocchio and the nineteenth century tale by Carlo Collodi on which the film was based. For his community connection piece, Steeves will lead a group of Chicago area high school teachers in a similar "reading" of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, as part of the Humanities Center's sponsorship of the 2002 Chicago Humanities Festival: Brains and Beauty. Entitled "Brains and 'Beauty and the Beast': Disney's Construction of Ethical Norms," this Classics in Context session will take place in April 2003.