A look at The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany," an online archive devoted to the experiences of black GIs in Germany after World War II:The domestic history of the American civil-rights movement is well known to scholars. Less familiar is the movement's international side, especially as it played out in Germany, where African-American GI's stationed after World War II helped spread its ideas. The transatlantic influence worked in the other direction, too, as those soldiers brought their experience in fighting for democracy home to the United States." Read More at Wired Campus »
Writing
“Hot Type: New Forms of Scholarship in a Digital World Challenge the Humanities”
I report on "Online Digital Scholarship: The Shape of Things to Come," a conference held at UVa in late March. What was hot? "Social editions" and the idea that sometimes sustainability means knowing when to let a project die. Not so hot: traditional publishing. Read More at The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) »
“In Court, a University and Publishers Spar Over ‘Fair Use'”
The latest twists in the lawsuit brought by three big academic publishers against Georgia State University over the use of copyrighted material in e-reserves--potentially a very big deal for scholarly publishers, authors, and anyone who wants to use copyrighted material in class. Read More at The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) »
“Literary Scholars Ponder Their Discipline and Its Direction”
Top literary scholars gathered at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., to figure out how they can better explain what they do to administrators, students, and the general public. What was mostly missing from the conversation: the digital humanities and the lousy job market. Read More at The Chronicle of Higher Education »
“A Shakespeare Scholar Takes on a ‘Taboo’ Subject”
In a new book, Contested Will, Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro argues that Stratfordians and anti-Stratfordians have more in common than they admit or acknowledge. All sides want to find autobiography in the plays of William Shakespeare--a habit that Shapiro, a firm Stratfordian, says is the wrong approach. Read More at The Chronicle Review »
