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Discovering Walt Whitman at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

Walt Whitman has been the subject of rigorous study for more than 100 years. Is there anything left to discover? Three former Kluge fellows and scholars of Whitman help to answer the enduring appeal of “America’s poet” and discuss their research at the Library’s Kluge Center. No one’s work seems to get “discovered” as much …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Dance, Manhood and Warfare Amongst the Acholi People of Northern Uganda

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

The following is a guest post by Lucy Taylor, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Leeds and a 2015-2016 British Research Council Fellow at The John W. Kluge Center. The Library of Congress holds some of the richest material in the world concerning African dance. One of the most interesting collections—comprising photographs, sound recordings, motion …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Cross-Cultural Links in Modern Computing

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

“The humanistic inquiry and innovation may appear to be independent of one discipline to another. Yet they weave a more interconnected story as well as demonstrate the pervasiveness of digital technologies in modern culture.” -Jennifer Baum Sevec In her lecture “It From Bit: Cross-Cultural & Interdisciplinary Links in Modern Computing,” Kluge Staff Fellow Jennifer Baum …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Medieval Manuscripts at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

“The possibility of [the] destruction of manuscripts makes accurate and thorough catalog description mandatory.” -Ilya Dines In his lecture “Medieval Manuscripts at the Library of Congress,” Kluge Fellow Ilya Dines discussed his experience cataloging medieval manuscripts at the Library and the importance of the Library’s collection. The Library holds hundreds of medieval manuscripts from a …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

How a Scholar Uses Her Ph.D. to Combat Corruption Around the World

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

In 2012 and 2013, Nieves Zúñiga was an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Fellow at The John W. Kluge Center, researching a project titled “Indigenous Struggles over Recognition in Bolivia: Contesting Evo Morales’s Discourse of Internal Decolonization.” Today, she is putting her knowledge of Bolivian society to use as part of the EU-funded project …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Ted Widmer Appointed Director of The John W. Kluge Center

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

Today the Library of Congress announced that Edward L. (Ted) Widmer will be the next director of The John W. Kluge Center. Widmer is a historian, author, and former presidential speechwriter who most recently has served as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and as a senior fellow and …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Using the Kislak Collection to Study the Early Americas

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

This week the Kluge Center extended the application deadline for Kislak Fellowships until October 31. These unique fellowships support research related to the discovery, contact, and colonial periods, particularly (but not exclusively) in Florida, the Caribbean, and Mesoamerica using The Jay I. Kislak Collection. The Kislak Collection is an extraordinary trove of materials. It includes: …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

The Kazakh Famine of the 1930s

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

As a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress, historian Sarah Cameron researched a book project on famine in Kazakhstan, 1930-33. She sat down with Jason Steinhauer to discuss this understudied chapter in Soviet history. Hi, Sarah. Tell us briefly about the Kazakh famine of 1930-33. The Kazakh famine was the defining event in the …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

The Idea of Peace in the Qur’an

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

The following is a guest post by Dr. Juan Cole, 2016 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South. In contemporary debates on the roots of Muslim radicalism and the character of the religion, it is important to go back to the Muslim scripture or Qur’an (sometimes spelled Koran). Like the Bible, the Qur’an …