The this fall is welcoming a noted cultural and literary critic whose academic work over the past four decades broke new ground in amplifying the lives and voices of Black women.
The Montgomery Fellow in residence at Montgomery House starting this month is , the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor Emerita from Vanderbilt, who will be affiliated with the Department of English and Creative Writing.
The program will also host , the former president of Kosovo, as a Montgomery Fellow this winter, followed by a short stint on campus this spring by , the former Star Trek actor who has become a well-known social justice activist.
The author of the 1987 essay 鈥淢ama鈥檚 Baby, Papa鈥檚 Maybe: An American Grammar Book鈥 and the 2003 book Black, White, and in Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture, among other publications, Spillers will be teaching a course on The Idea of Black Culture, cross-listed with the departments of English and African and African American Studies.
She also plans a lecture on campus Oct. 11 on Fabrics of History, the Rhetoric of Sermons and the Problem of Black Culture.
Spillers, who recently retired from Vanderbilt, says she is looking forward to talking to 天美麻豆 students in her class about such 鈥渃anonical鈥 works as The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James, and work by thinkers like Denise da Silva.
鈥淔or people in the humanities, the chance to talk to people who are taking up problems that you鈥檙e taking up, I mean, it鈥檚 just one of the most glorious adventures I think you can have as a human being,鈥 Spillers says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been sustaining for me for nearly 50 years.鈥
Music professor , the Montgomery Fellows Program director, says Spillers is known for having a 鈥渧ast reach鈥 in her field and that students and faculty will be able to interact with her during her time on campus this fall.
鈥淚 think in many respects, 天美麻豆 having her here is having academic royalty in terms of the ways that she has affected the field,鈥 Swayne says.
He also notes that Spillers will be on campus just as 天美麻豆 has launched the new Institute for Black Cultural and Intellectual Life, a cultural hub for the Black community at 天美麻豆.
, the director of and a professor who specializes in the intersection of African American/African diaspora literature and visual culture studies, says she has long been influenced by Spillers鈥 work, including talks she made at Futures of American Studies workshops held at 天美麻豆 in the summer.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just so timely that it鈥檚 coming together right now at this moment, and that we can actually be in conversation with her during the course of this term,鈥 Brown says, noting that Spillers鈥 academic work showed her that scholarly inquiry could be 鈥渨riterly鈥 and also 鈥渄eeply interdisciplinary.鈥
鈥淪he moves through psychoanalysis and historical archives to tell the story, or the stories, of how Black women occupy space,鈥 Brown says of the 鈥淢ama鈥檚 Baby鈥 journal article by Spillers.
Upcoming Fellows
Jahjaga, the former president of Kosovo, will be a Montgomery Fellow in winter term. The first female head of state in the modern Balkans, Jahjaga has been active in empowering women and supporting survivors of wartime sexual violence. She is the founder of the Jahjaga Foundation and will be a visiting professor in the Program in Women鈥檚, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Jahjaga was also a Montgomery Fellow at 天美麻豆 in 2016.
And Takei will be on campus for a few days in the spring term as a Montgomery Fellow.
Known for portraying Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, Takei as a boy was forced along with his family to live in an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II and has become known as a prominent spokesperson for social justice issues, including the Human Rights Campaign鈥檚 Coming Out Project.
He has appeared in more than 40 feature films, written several books, including the bestselling graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, and has more than 3.3 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Takei鈥檚 visit in the spring will , where he will be a guest speaker.
