Guest Lecture Ethelene Whitmire (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
My new book project examines the experiences of African Americans who studied, visited, lived and performed in Denmark during the 20th century. This project attempts to answer two questions: Why did African Americans go to Denmark? and What were their experiences as while there? My central argument is that African Americans viewed Denmark as a racial utopia. In the beginning of the 20th century educators, civil rights activists, scholars, social workers and union organizers went to Denmark to study the folk school/adult education and cooperative movements for peasants. They hoped to create similar programs for poor African Americans in the U.S. In the second half of the century, artists and performers found financial and creative support for their craft in Denmark. They also felt that the lack of racial discrimination created an atmosphere in Denmark that was conducive to their productivity.
Ethelene Whitmire is an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Currently, she is a Fulbright visiting professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Transnational Studies. Whitmire was recently awarded a Public Works grant from the from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for the Humanities funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which is the latest of a number of awards and fellowships she has earned, including a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, the University of Michigan’s Rackham Merit Fellowship, and the American Library Association’s Carroll Preston Baber Research Award. She has a book titled Regina Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian forthcoming with the University of Illinois Press and is currently conducting research on Audre Lorde, an activist and a poet who was also a librarian. Using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, Whitmire investigates the academic library use and the information-seeking behavior of undergraduates with a specific focus on students of color. Her research also addresses the role of the academic library and its resources and services in the lives of the undergraduate with a focus on the library’s impact on their critical thinking.
The event is free and open to the public.
This lecture is organized by the Department of American Studies and sponsored by the Office of International Relations, University of Graz, and Fulbright Austria.
Information:
Department of American Studies Graz
Institut für Amerikanistik
Attemsgasse 25/II
A-8010 Graz
Tel. +43/316/380-2465
amerikanistik@uni-graz.at
http://amerikanistik.uni-graz.at