by COYOTE SHOOK This essay is part of a slow research series, What is Research? “Just use this time to rest,” the doctor advised me as though he was delivering good news. Rest as a concept did not exist in my worldview. While melancholy and illness doubtlessly pranced rampantly through Appalachian… read more
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Wonder, depth, understanding: Scholarship in process
by CELSO VIEIRA This essay is part of a slow research series, What is Research? Learn about the series and click here to add your voice to the conversation. Wonder: that is the starting point of philosophy, according to Plato. Myths capture our attention by telling wonderful stories. Philosophers, however, look for hidden wonders disguised… read more
Highlights from an unprecedented year
It was not the year we anticipated, hoped for, or a year we would want to repeat. The first rumblings of the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, escalated in February, and eventually erupted in our community in March when the Center closed its doors to in-person visits and staff… read more
Inspiration and insight in the papers of author Julian Barnes
Explore the Harry Ransom Center, search digital collections, or plan your visit. by VANESSA GUIGNERY In the fall of 2001, I was in Normandy with author Julian Barnes to take part in an event around his most successful novel, Flaubert’s Parrot (1984), when he told me with a wry smile… read more
EXCERPT: Julian Barnes From the Margins: Exploring the Writer’s Archives
by VANESSA GUIGNERY The following is excerpted from the book, Julian Barnes From the Margins: Exploring the Writer’s Archive (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), by author Vanessa Guignery. The archives for each of Barnes’s novels reveal a composition pattern that starts with various notes about what to include, followed by several drafts containing… read more
The camera as a weapon against racial injustice: Eli Reed’s Black In America
During the hot summer months of 2020, especially in the weeks following the May 25th killing of George Floyd while in police custody, the Magnum Photos, Inc. Photography Collection was often on my mind. The scenes of protest that we witnessed, in countless cities across the United States and the… read more