New Book by Professor Alisha Knight Examines Work of Writer, Activist Pauline E. Hopkins

CHESTERTOWN, MD—A new book by Alisha Knight, associate professor of English and American Studies at Washington College, offers the first full-length critical analysis of pioneering African American writer Pauline Hopkins. Just released by the University of Tennessee Press, Knight’s Pauline Hopkins and the American Dream: An African American Writer’s (Re)Visionary Gospel of Success will provide literary scholars and historians alike with insight into the life and writings of a woman who openly confronted discrimination at the turn of the century.

“Pauline Hopkins broke the mold of the domestic tradition of nineteenth-century women’s writing, choosing instead to use self-made African American men and women to critique the racism and sexism that prevailed in American society,” says Knight.

A prolific writer, Hopkins published four novels, seven short stories, and numerous articles for the Colored American Magazine, where she also worked as an editor, in just the four-year period between 1900 and 1904. The Maine native lost her position at the magazine because of her habit of challenging authority figures with her then-revolutionary ideas about how literature should be used to advocate racial and gender equality in a Post-Civil War America. Her “Famous Men” and “Famous Women” series for the Colored American Magazine offered African American models of success, but her fiction often depicted African American heroes who either failed to achieve success at home because of societal barriers, or found success only after leaving the United States.

“I've always been interested in authors who have been underrepresented in the canon and in the classroom,” Knight explains, “and being able to study Pauline Hopkins at length has been fulfilling. I’m pleased that Hopkins has been gaining attention, and I hope my book helps make her work more accessible to students and everyday readers. Hopkins wanted her writing to reach a broad audience, and she worked hard to produce material that was both straightforward and intellectually engaging. I would like to think that my book does likewise.”

Dr. Knight is a summa cum laude graduate of Spelman College who went on to earn a master’s from Rutgers and both a master’s and doctorate from Drew University. In addition to teaching at Washington College, she directs the Black Studies Program, which encourages a greater understanding of black culture and a new appreciation for the impact people of African descent have made on world cultures and human history.

Among Dr. Knight’s published articles are “Furnace Blasts for the Tuskegee Wizard: Revisiting Pauline E. Hopkins, Booker T. Washington, and the Colored American Magazine” (American Periodicals) and “One and One Make One: A Metacritical and Psychoanalytic Reading of Friendship in Toni Morrison's Sula” (College Language Association Journal). Recipient of a prestigious Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation in 2007, she is currently working on a study of late 19th and early 20th century African American book publishing practices.

This Mon & Tues: The Beat Generation and All That Jazz!

CHESTERTOWN, MD— In 1978, Allen Ginsberg brought the iconoclastic poetry and freewheeling spirit of the Beat Movement to Chestertown. On a visit to Washington College, Ginsberg read his celebrated poem “Howl” to a packed house and, so the story goes, attempted to levitate a few stubbornly recalcitrant buildings.

This month, the spirit of the Beats will return to Washington College in The Beat Generation and All That Jazz, a two-day commemoration headlined by musician David Amram, an original member of the Beats who worked closely with Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and others.

The program begins on Monday, March 28 with a screening of Howl at 7:30 p.m. in Norman James Theatre on the College campus (300 Washington Avenue). This 2010 film, starring James Franco, is a genre-bending hybrid mixing Ginsberg’s original reading of his epic poem with animation and a dramatization of the obscenity trial that followed in 1957. Amram, who often accompanied Ginsberg and Kerouac at coffeehouse “jazz/poetry” performances, will introduce the film.

On Tuesday, March 29, at 7 p.m., Amram will give a concert in Decker Theatre accompanied by Washington College’s own Tom Anthony on bass and Ray Anthony on drums. The trio will play favorites from Amran’s long and varied career, which has included collaborations with iconic musicians and composers ranging from Leonard Bernstein to Dizzy Gillespie and Willie Nelson. The concert will also include a screening of the short 1959 film, Pull My Daisy, narrated by Jack Kerouac with music by Amram.

In his post-Beat years, David Amram has gone on to a stellar career as a musician and composer, producing orchestral and chamber music works, operas, and scores for Broadway productions and feature films, including Splendor in The Grass and The Manchurian Candidate. He has authored three books, including the memoir Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac (Paradigm, 2008). During his visit to Washington College, Amram will also offer a special "music/poetry" workshop and open rehearsal for students. (Contact Professor Kenneth Schweitzer, kschweitzer2@washcoll.edu, for workshop registration).

“We’re excited to welcome the Beat Generation – in the multitalented person of David Amram – to Washington College,” said Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center. “More than thirty years after Allen Ginsberg’s legendary visit to campus, a new cohort of students will be able to come face-to-face with a movement that continues to inspire millions.”

Sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center and co-sponsored by the American Studies Program, the Department of Music, and the Rose O’Neil Literary House, both Beat Generation programs are free and open to the public.

Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in colonial Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience is dedicated to fostering innovative approaches to the nation’s past and present through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach, and a special focus on written history. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

Twenty-One Muslim Students To Participate In First-Ever American Studies Institute At Washington College

Chestertown, MD, June 16, 2003 — Washington College will host 21 Muslim students from several Asian countries this summer for an ambitious new cultural exchange program. The American Studies Institute at Washington College, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, is the first-ever government-funded program to invite college students from Islamic backgrounds to study American culture and history. The theme of the Institute is “American Democracy: The Great Experiment.” It will run from June 29 to August 2 in Chestertown.
Student leaders from predominantly Islamic universities in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh (seven students from each country, 12 women and 9 men in all) were selected from hundreds of applications by the respective U.S. Embassies in Islamabad, New Delhi and Dhaka. Through experiences such as Fourth of July parades and minor-league baseball games, to academic readings and discussions of political writers and theorists, the students will spend a month in a small American town—Chestertown—immersing themselves in American culture.
A series of lectures by Washington College faculty and distinguished visitors will introduce students to both the possibilities and the realities of American democracy. During the first week, titled “Birthrights,” the students will concentrate on the ideals of the founders, studying the charter documents of the United States along with the writings of Washington, Jefferson, Adams and other members of the original “greatest generation.” The second week's program, “Civil Rights,” will focus on ways that Americans have struggled to realize those ideals, and will include segments on the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. Week three, “Chestertown, U.S.A.,” will give the students a close look at democracy in action, allowing them to meet with community leaders from diverse backgrounds. Week Four, “America and the World,” will examine the relationship between the United States and other nations.
The Institute is distinctive because of Washington College's small-town setting that allows international students to experience directly an America very different than the one portrayed in movies, television and popular media. Chestertown, known for its picturesque streets lined with 18th-century houses, will be a living laboratory in which to study America's founding, and as a busy county seat, provides an easy way for students to meet and interact with the men and women who translate democratic ideals into everyday practice through local courtrooms, politics, volunteerism and community activism.
In addition to classroom experience, the students will participate in a wide variety of extracurricular activities, including field trips to Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York City. Once the students have completed their course of study in Chestertown, they will travel to Washington, D.C., to tour the shrines of American democracy and receive final briefings at the Department of State. By interacting with a wide variety of American citizens, these future leaders will return to their countries with a greater understanding of American history and the democratic ideals that guide it.
For further information about the American Studies Institute, contact Kees de Mooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, 410-810-7156, or visit the Center online at visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu. The C. V. Starr Center is a forum for new scholarship about American history. Drawing on the special historical strengths of Washington College, the Center explores the early republic, the rise of democracy, and the manifold ways in which the founding era continues to shape the fabric of American culture. The Center is interdisciplinary, encouraging the study of traditional history alongside new approaches, and seeking to bridge the divide between the academic world and the public at large.