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Posted by: Andrew Breiner
The following is a guest post by L. Marvin Overby, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri and 2018-2019 Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the John W. Kluge Center. During my fellowship at the Kluge Center I am researching a book with my University of Missouri colleague James Endersby. Tentatively …
Posted in: Government, History, Politics
Posted by: Andrew Breiner
During his time as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar here at the John W. Kluge Center, Georgetown University history professor Adam Rothman recorded an extraordinary series of podcasts. In the podcasts, Rothman examines documents from the Library of Congress’ manuscript collection relating to the lives of African-Americans in the 19th century. He found a number of …
Posted in: Culture & Society, History, Literature
Posted by: Adam Rothman
An unusual letter arrived in the mail for the Tennessee planter James K. Polk shortly after he won the 1844 presidential election. Written from Carrollton, Mississippi, and dated November 28, 1844, the letter began “My Dear Master” and was signed by “Blacksmith Harry.” Here’s what Harry wrote: Suffer your faithful survant Harry to say a …
Posted in: Africa, Culture & Society, History
Posted by: Andrew Breiner
While Adam Rothman, Georgetown University history professor and former Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Kluge Center, was at the Library, he had the opportunity to work on transcribing the Library of Congress’ Omar Ibn Said Collection, which was just released online. Ibn Said was an educated, wealthy man living in West Africa until he was …
Posted in: Africa, Culture & Society, History
Posted by: Stephen Houston
The association of directions with colors may be the oldest known set of philosophical ideas in the world, transmitted from ancient Asia to the Americas over 10,000 years ago. Obvious Concepts Some concepts come naturally to humans. In several ancient societies, the moon relates to a goddess, and logically so, for menstruation and lunar cycles …
Posted in: Culture & Society, History, Latin America, Visual & Performing Arts
Posted by: Andrew Breiner
On Wednesday, January 16, the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress will host “The United States and the World: Legacies of the Paris Peace Conference”. This event marks the 100th anniversary of the Paris Peace Conference, which ended World War I and previewed many of the issues that would define international affairs …
Posted in: Foreign Policy, History
Posted by: Dan Turello
On a rainy day in late spring, a pan-Asian noodle restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue offered the perfect nook for a spirited conversation about big data, algorithms, and the construction of our legal and social realities. Among those at the table with me were Martin Hilbert, who was a Kluge Distinguished Visiting Scholar and is Associate …
Posted in: Culture & Society, Digital Revolution, Government, History, Media & Communications, Philosophy, Politics, Sociology, Uncategorized
Posted by: Travis Hensley
The following is a guest post by Alexandre Loktionov, PhD candidate in the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and a 2016 AHRC Fellow at The John W. Kluge Center. I am an Egyptologist happily working as a fellow at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress. To some, I recognize that …
Posted in: Africa, Culture & Society, History, Law
Posted by: Travis Hensley
The following is a guest post by Samira Mehta, Assistant Professor at Albright College and the 2015 David B. Larson Fellow in Health and Spirituality at The John W. Kluge Center. This is the first post of a two-part interview by two of our Larson Fellows. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Yale University, …
Posted in: Culture & Society, Health & Medicine, History, Religion, Sociology