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 began working remotely. What happened next was a natural shift to expanding the Center’s online presence throughout the year. [Read more…] about Highlights from an unprecedented year
archive
Inspiration and insight in the papers of author Julian Barnes
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 that I would soon be going to Austin, Texas. As I looked at him quizzically, he explained that he had decided to place his archive at the Harry Ransom Center. At that time, I had completed my doctoral thesis on “Postmodernism and modes of blurring in Julian Barnes’s fiction” at the University of La Sorbonne in Paris and published books and articles of literary analysis of Barnes’s work, but I had never examined a writer’s archive and I had never been to the United States. [Read more…] about Inspiration and insight in the papers of author Julian Barnes
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. [Read more…] about EXCERPT: Julian Barnes From the Margins: Exploring the Writer’s Archives
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 world, reminded me of the iconic Civil Rights Movement images that Magnum’s photographers created. Burt Glinn in 1957 Little Rock, Eve Arnold at the 1961 Black Muslim rally, Danny Lyon at 1963 SNCC sit-ins, Leonard Freed at the 1963 March on Washington, Bruce Davidson at the 1965 Selma march: These images, and many more, documented the epic Black struggle to achieve greater social justice, a struggle that so obviously continues. [Read more…] about The camera as a weapon against racial injustice: Eli Reed’s Black In America
Modified research services offered remotely
The Harry Ransom Center continues to monitor the local and global developments related to COVID-19, as well as changes in university guidelines. The University of Texas at Austin will be closed from Dec. 23 through Jan. 3, 2020. Ransom Center research services will not be offered during that time.
[Read more…] about Modified research services offered remotely
DARE TO RESEARCH: Diversity Awards for Research Engagement
by JIM KUHN
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. [Read more…] about DARE TO RESEARCH: Diversity Awards for Research Engagement