8-9-16
Historians dominate Yale committee reviewing racist names on campus
Historians in the Newstags: Yale, racism
... Comprising six faculty members, three alumni, and two students, the group’s scholars have expertise in history, law, and political science.
John Witt, the committee chair and a professor of history and of law. said the panel is strengthened by faculty members who have spent their careers studying race. Instead of having to produce a recommendation on a specific building, he said, they can think about the implications of such names in broader terms.
"It’s the promise of scholarly expertise and serious engagement with questions about history and questions about historical memory," he said. "We’ll be in a pretty good position to be able to step back, away from the political controversy of the moment, and identify principles that might be enduring and last for the university."
Mr. Witt said he hoped that the committee would create a model for other colleges.
David W. Blight, a history professor who is a special historical adviser to the committee, said one of the challenges is understanding what principles were used originally to name the buildings.
The group will try to contextualize why and how buildings were first named, especially those with names that don’t have close ties to donor dollars, he said.
"Every monument or name on a building, every memorial is always to some extent about the moment it was designated," Mr. Blight said. "This business of naming is not just wholly political or wholly emotional. It’s actually based on some understanding of a historical process."
Even though it’s important to understand Calhoun College’s history, he said, the building doesn’t have to be named after the 19th-century politician for teaching purposes. What’s important is for students to understand who he was and how he reshaped the country. Calhoun, a Yale alumnus, was a U.S. vice president, senator from South Carolina, and fierce defender of slavery. ...
comments powered by Disqus
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"
Trending Now
- New transcript of Ayn Rand at West Point in 1974 shows she claimed “savage" Indians had no right to live here just because they were born here
- The Mexican War Suggests Ukraine May End Up Conceding Crimea. World War I Suggests the Price May Be Tragic if it Doesn't
- The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of