For the fourth consecutive summer, CIC and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History together with the United Negro College Fund cosponsored the highly popular “Slave Narratives” seminar for full-time faculty members in history, English, and related fields. The seminar was held June 12–15, 2011, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and was once again led by David W. Blight, Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale. Interest far exceeded capacity, and 24 participants were selected from more than 70 nominations.
The seminar began with a consideration and discussion of the place of slavery and Abolition in American history and culture as well as the voice of the slave and the emergence of slave narratives in the Abolitionist movement that led into a close study of Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave. The seminar also focused on ways of reading and teaching Frederick Douglass’ narrative as well as Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself. The seminar concluded with a review of the genre of post-emancipation narratives, including narratives from Professor Blight’s recent book, A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including their Narratives of Emancipation.
Blight is the author of several other books including Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, for which he won the 2001 Frederick Douglass Prize and the 2002 Bancroft and Lincoln Prizes; Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the Civil War, Frederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee; and the edited volumes, When This Cruel War Is Over: The Civil War Letters of Charles Harvey Brewster, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. Du Bois.
2011 Slave Narratives Seminar Participants
Francine Allen
Assistant Professor of English
Morehouse College (GA)
Darien Adreu
Associate Professor of English
Flagler College (FL)
John Ayabe
Assistant Professor of History
Simpson University (CA)
George Baily
Associate Professor of English
Columbia College Chicago (IL)
Patrick Bass
Professor of History
Morningside College (IA)
Joan Crouse
Professor of History
Hilbert College (NY)
Lisa Crutchfield
Assistant Professor of History
LaGrange College (GA)
Eurie Dahn
Assistant Professor of English
The College of Saint Rose (NY)
Michelle DeRose
Professor of English
Aquinas College (MI)
Michael Drexler
Associate Professor of English
Bucknell University (PA)
Deirdre Egan
Assistant Professor of English
St. Norbert College (WI)
Scott Gac
Assistant Professor of History
Trinity College (CT)
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Joyce Hope Scott
Associate Professor of American Studies
Wheelock College (MA)
Katharine Ings
Associate Professor of English
Manchester College (IN)
Gregory Kaster
Professor of History
Gustavus Adolphus College (MN)
Timothy Lehman
Professor of History
Rocky Mountain College (MT)
Andrew Leiter
Associate Professor of English and American Studies
Lycoming College (PA)
Sheila Lloyd
Assistant Professor of English
University of Redlands (CA)
Emerson Powery
Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies
Messiah College (PA)
Autumn Quezada-Grant
Assistant Professor of History
Roger Williams University (RI)
Sonia Rey-Montejo de Cesteros
Assistant Professor of Modern and Classical Languages
University of St. Thomas (MN)
Vivien Sandlund
Associate Professor of History
Hiram College (OH)
Beth Vanlandingham
Associate Professor of History
Carson-Newman College (TN)
Novian Whittsitt
Associate Professor of Africana Studies and English
Luther College (IA)
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