Scholars cross disciplines to spark new ideas
Ruth Stevens
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The first participants in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, gathered on a stairway in the newly renovated Joseph Henry House, are, from top, David Chamberlain, Danielle Fosler-Lussier, Robert Goulding, Elisabeth Hilbink, Branden Joseph and Giovanna Ceserani.
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The scholars have been selected as the first participants in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts. Made possible through the generosity of Trustee Lloyd Cotsen, the program will attract some of the best recent Ph.D. recipients in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences to the campus each year. This first cohort of fellows was chosen from among 900 applicants in a selection process coordinated by Mary Harper, acting associate director of the society.
The fellows are appointed for three-year terms. Ultimately, the total number of fellows in the society will be between 18 and 24.
The participants are teaching half time, dividing their activities between the Humanistic Studies Program and the department of their academic specialty. They also are meeting regularly for discussions and seminars with Princeton Faculty Fellows.
"The Society of Fellows will be a source of new opportunities for teaching and research in areas that require cooperation among disciplines," said Alexander Nehamas, the Edmund N. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities, who directs the society. "It will foster closer and more imaginative interactions among undergraduates, graduate students and faculty. All of us at the University, and elsewhere besides, will benefit from it."
"This is a really important opportunity," said Danielle Fosler-Lussier, a musicologist who recently earned her doctoral degree from the University of California-Berkeley. "It's allowing us the chance to develop courses that might not fall within someone's preconceived idea of a curriculum.
"Usually in an introductory teaching job, you have to teach the institution's standard survey courses -- courses that fit into a pre-existing curriculum," she continued. "Here, we're being offered the opportunity to develop courses from a pretty early stage that may or may not fit in with a particular curriculum. We can explore the things that are the most meaningful to us."
Fosler-Lussier is serving as a preceptor for a course on the history of opera this fall. She will be co-teaching a humanistic studies class on Western culture in the spring. In the future, she plans to offer a seminar on music and the Cold War as well as courses on music and social identity -- two areas in which she specializes.
Fosler-Lussier appreciates the fact that the fellows teach only one course per semester. "We really have a lot of time to get our own research programs in order and to publish in a way that moves beyond what we had to do as Ph.D. students," she said. "In a regular tenure track job, you would teach four or five courses a year at most institutions. Having to teach only two a year frees up a lot of time for intensive research."
She expects that her experience as a fellow will affect her work not only while she's at Princeton, but after she leaves.
"I've already had some very interesting conversations with people here," she said. "As we present our work to each other, I'm hoping to get feedback that will really alter the way my research goes while I'm here, and then, of course, into the future."
David Chamberlain said that his experience at Princeton already has had a "huge impact" on him. He came to the University two years ago under another fellowship program through the Humanities Council after earning his doctoral degree in classics from the University of California-Berkeley.
"I've really taken to heart what the teaching here is about, which is very interdisciplinary," he said. "I'm thinking of myself more as a humanist and less as a classicist. This program forces you to think in interdisciplinary terms if you're going to get anything out of being around the other people. That is going to affect what kind of jobs I apply for in the future. I'd love to be in a humanities center or some sort of interdisciplinary position rather than a pure classics position."
Chamberlain is a specialist on Herodotus, the ancient historian who was one of the first people in the West to use prose rather than verse. He is teaching an intensive introduction to Western civilization through the Humanities Council this fall. In the spring, Chamberlain will teach a course based on another area of his research. He will focus on hypertext, which he defines as "interactive non-linear literature mostly written on and for the computer."
"These texts ask you to participate in the readings," he explained. "They might give you a choice of 'Do you like this section?' If so, you'll click on a link that will take you somewhere else, depending on your interests. You could argue that it's a new form of literature. It gives me a nice perspective on my research on Herodotus."
The Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts is housed with the Humanities Council in the newly renovated Joseph Henry House.
Here is some brief biographical information on the first participants. In appreciation of Cotsen's generosity, all of the scholars are designated Cotsen Fellows. Some are jointly funded by other donors, as reflected in their titles.
David Chamberlain (Cotsen-Clover Fellow) earned a Ph.D. in classics from the University of California-Berkeley and is a specialist on Herodotus. He has developed a new course on reading and writing "hypertext," designed to teach students how to use new electronic media to gain fresh insights into the nature of prose.
Giovanna Ceserani (Cotsen Fellow), a classicist from Cambridge University in England, wrote her dissertation on "The Study of Magna Graecia: Classical Archaeology and Nationalism Since 1750." She has held fellowships at Brown University and at the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art in Paris. At Princeton, she will study the 18th-century origins of the modern historiography of ancient Greece.
Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Cotsen-Behrman Fellow), a musicologist from University of California-Berkeley, examines the effect of Cold War politics on European musical life, with a focus on Hungarian music and the postwar reception of Bela Bartok's work. She previously has held research fellowships at Berkeley and in Budapest. Her teaching integrates history and literature into the study of musical composition. Fosler-Lussier will explore how and why certain musical styles became associated with the idea of political freedom after World War II.
Elisabeth Hilbink (Cotsen-Wilson Fellow) earned her Ph.D. in political science from the University of California-San Diego. Her dissertation examined judicial performance in Chile, asking how different institutional characteristics affect the court's capacity to contribute to democracy. Hilbink's broad intellectual interests bridge the fields of law, politics and political theory. She will teach in the Woodrow Wilson School and pursue research on the effects of institutional changes to the judiciary in civil law countries of Southern Europe.
Robert Goulding (Cotsen Fellow) holds a Ph.D. in combined historical studies from the Warburg Institute at the University of London. He has studied the mathematical and astronomical papers of Sir Henry Savile (1549-1622). Research fellowships at Oxford University and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich have allowed Goulding to pursue his interdisciplinary interests in the history of science and the transformations of the classical heritage. His projects at Princeton will include a monograph on the Renaissance debate over three ancient geometrical problems.
Branden Joseph (Cotsen Fellow), a historian of art and architecture from Harvard University, is a specialist on experimental art: John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg and the neo-avant-garde. The author of articles on post-war American art, he is also the founding editor of a new academic journal, Grey Room, on the history and theory of architecture, art and media. At Rice University last year, he taught courses on Andy Warhol, television and contemporary theory. While at Princeton, he will begin a new project on Warhol.
The Faculty Fellows who are associated with the society are: Harold Foster, professor of art and archaeology; Anthony Grafton, the Dodge Professor of History; Simon Levin, the George M. Moffett Professor of Biology; Susan Naquin, professor of history and East Asian studies; Joyce Carol Oates, the Roger S. Berlind Professor in the Humanities; and Michael Wood, the Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English.
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October 16, 2000 Contents • Close
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