Visiting Fellow Archive (2002-2003)
2002-2003 Heading link
ABOUT
The 2002-2003 Institute for the Humanities Visiting Fellow is Lawrence Levine, Margaret Byrne Professor of History, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, and Professor of History and Cultural Studies, George Mason University.
He will be in residence at the University of Illinois at Chicago from February 24 to March 7, 2003, offering two seminars on “American culture and the Great Depression”. The two seminars are open to faculty and advanced graduate students. Preregistration is not required but it is highly recommended for the seminars. The lecture on March 9 is open to the public.
The Great Depression in the United States was a seminal event which continues to affect and fascinate us. It also continues to elude us in a number of essential ways. We understand its political and economic aspects far better than its cultural dimensions and we are more familiar with the voices of America’s leaders than of its people. The seminars will focus on ways in which we might broaden and deepen our knowledge by employing sources we have neglected and listening to voices we have ignored.
EVENTS
Seminar I: “Listening to New Voices”
Tuesday, February 25, 2003, 2-5 p.m.
Film Screening: Sullivan’s Travels
(Preston Sturges, 1941)
Tuesday, March 4, 2003, 2-5 p.m.
Seminar II: “The Uses of Popular Culture”
Wednesday, March 5, 2003, 2-5 p.m.
Readings:
Seminar I: Lawrence and Cornelia Levine, The People and the President: America’s Conversation with FDR. Please read at least some of the letters in all four parts of the volume. Available at the UIC Bookstore textbook counter.
Seminar II: Lawrence Levine, “Hollywood’s Washington: Film Images of National Politics During the Great Depression” and “The Folklore of Industrial Society: Popular Culture and its Audiences.”