Humanities Archive
Crisis of Conscience
by Warren Goldstein '73, '83PhD
March/April 2004
William Sloane Coffin Jr. turned Yale into a center of Vietnam draft resistance. Most remarkable was that the university let him do it.
The Land That Knew Hell
by David Case
November/December 2003
For those who survived the massacres in East Timor, justice depends on historical truth. Genocide researcher Ben Kiernan is helping them find it.
The Second Coming of
the Divinity School
September/October 2003
Why should a twenty-first-century research university spend millions refurbishing
a seminary? Professors, students, and alumni offer twelve views on God and
man at Yale.
The Books That
Made the Writers
Introduction by Tom Wolfe Jr. '57PhD
Summer 2003
The "man in white" in other alumni authors mine their library shelves
to reveal why you are what you read.
The Golden Hours of
the Romanovs
by Tim Townsend
Summer 2003
In 1920, a Russian aristocrat fled the country with hundreds of photographs,
now at the Beinecke, of the tsar and his family.
Back in the Fold
by Mark Alden Branch
April 2003
Six years ago, Yale declined a gift for gay and lesbian studies from firebrand
author-activist Larry Kramer '57, and it seemed unlikely that he would ever
have anything good to say about his alma mater. But time -- and a gift from
Kramer's brother -- has healed a number of wounds.
Training the Next
Leaders
by Bruce Fellman
March 2003
When Paul Kennedy, John Gaddis, and Charles Hill looked at their students,
they saw the next generation of top diplomats, executives, military officers,
and maybe even a U.S. president. In a course on "grand strategy," the
professors offer the "big picture" principles that can help shape
future leaders.
Finding Franklin
by James McElroy
November 2002
Using the voluminous Papers of Benjamin Franklin at Yale, Sterling
Professor Emeritus Edmund Morgan fleshes out our most intriguing
founding father.
Considering Free Speech
by Bruce Fellman
Summer 2002
After a hiatus for the year-long celebration of the Tercenntenial,
the AYA Assembly returned to business with a consideration of a
topic at the core of the university: free expression.
Leading the Libraries
by Bruce Fellman
February 2002
Last summer saw a changing of the guard at the libraries. Alice
Prochaska, the new University Librarian, and Barbara Shailor, director
of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, are overseeing
a revolution in the way information is collected and dispenses.
But don't count out the book just yet.
Where We Stand
by Bruce Fellman
December 2001
A two-day conference called "Gender Matters" marked
the advancements women have made at Yale and the changes they have
effected in academia, the arts, business, and the professions.
More than 300 atendees, many of them prominent graduates, shared
in charting the road ahead.
Lights! Camera! Yale!
by Peter Hawes
April 2001
With its first tenured professors, the once beleaguered film
studies program is hoping for a renaissance.
The Birthplace of the
ABCs
by Bruce Fellman
December 2000
In the late 1980s, when Yale Egyptologists John and Debby Darnell started
exploring the western desert in the land of the pharaohs, conventional wisdom
suggested they'd find nothing of interest. Conventional wisdom turned out
to be wrong.
Welcome to World
Lit
by Mark Alden Branch
April 2000
Can one course introduce students to literature written in dozens of languages
over several millennia? Despite some skepticism, two comparative literature
professors -- and a battery of guest lecturers from throughout the university
-- are giving it a try.
A Life in History
by Howard Lamar
April 2000
History professor C. Vann Woodward, who died in December, helped reshape
the way Americans look at the South. A colleague and former president of
the university remembers Woodward's contributions to Yale and the nation.
The Persistence of Poetry
by Peter Hawes
March 2000
In an era of sound bites and instant communication, a hard-core group of
faculty and students still subscribes to the close reading of great verse
as a way to help fathom the world around them.
Days of Duck and Cover
by Mark Alden Branch
March 2000
Among Yale undergraduates, the Cold War is hot -- at least when it's taught
by historian John Lewis Gaddis. Armed with new information from Soviet archives,
Gaddis is reframing conventional views of the conflict that dominated international
affairs for almost half a century.
Afro-Am at 30
by Bruce Fellman
Summer 1999
Born in the turbulence of the 1960s, both the African-American studies program
and cultural center have enjoyed considerable success. The increased diversity
of their constituencies is causing some changes in their missions.
Beyond Women's Studies
by Mark Alden Branch
December 1998
After 20 years, it's not just about women anymore. Renamed women's and gender
studies, the interdisciplinary undergraduate program now encompasses all
manner of investigations into questions of gender and sexuality, and not
everybody is happy about the changes.
Just Be Nice
by Stephen Carter
May 1998
Now that New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has instructed his citizenry to
give up their notoriously rude ways, the concept of civility has apparently
become safe for national debate. A professor at the Law School has been on
the case for some time.
Battling Babel
by Mark Alden Branch
April 1998
Spanish is soaring, French has fallen, and a number of other foreign languages
have emerged on Yale's linguistic landscape. The new Center for Language
Study is charged with getting all of the university's langugae instructors
talking to each other.
History's New Team
by Bruce Fellman
March 1998
Having suffered losses of seasoned talent in recent years, the history department
is rebuilding with a new crop of stars, while relying on some time-tested
academic principles.
Rewired Editor Tackles
Teaching!
by William F. Buckley '50
December 1997
A seasoned wordsmith returns to Yale to promote old-fashioned good writing
with the latest technology.
Culture from
Scratch
by Annie Murphy Paul
November 1996
Since the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, scholars there have been
struggling to rebuild the national identities suppressed under Soviet domination.
A meeting on Hillhouse Avenue may have accelerated the process.
Teaching Ethics in An
Age of Ambivalence
by Bruce Fellman
Summer 1996
From forest management to fetal transplants, the "right" course
of action is increasingly hard to identify. Faculty members across the disciplines
seem united in believing that, with guidance, students can penetrate the
moral gloom.
On Learning to
Write Well
by Annie Murphy Paul
Summer 1996
It may come as a surprise that many students who are otherwise highly qualified
for Yale arrive with serious writing problems. Computers seem to be compounding
the situation, which has given new urgency to the way the college deals with
it.
Tales of the"Un-Fake"
by Jennifer Kaylin
May 1996
The reputation of a map donated to the Beinecke Library and later suspected
of being a fraud has been rehabilitated, but the process highlights the problems
of proving a document's authenticity beyond a doubt.
Back to the "Killing
Fields"
by Patrick Dilger
April 1996
A professor of history has made a personal crusade of pursuing Pol Pot, the
Cambodian ruler responsible for the deaths of thousands in the 1970s.
Rethinking Philosophy
by Jon Zonderman
November 1995
After a painful period of internal upheaval, a flagship department
is still struggling to rebuild.
An Anatomy of Multiculturalism
by Richard Brodhead
April 1994
The current debate over the canon is growing polarized between defense of
tradition against "barbaric" innovations, and defense of change
against the "tyranny" of received wisdom. At the risk of making
both sides unhappy, the dean of Yale College argues for a more nuanced approach.
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