This page hosts information about “Salt Water in the Archive,” a maritime studies panel at the 50th Anniversary Conference for the John Carter Brown Library Fellows program. The conference was held June 7-9, 2012, in Providence, RI.
Here’s my post-conference wrap-up post.
Here’s video of the event.
The panel, which I co-chaired with Mac Test of Boise State U., is called “Salt Water in the Archive: Toward a New Oceanic Studies.” It’s scheduled for 2:30 pm on Friday June 8.
We’re planning a roundtable / discussion format, in which the five panel members and two co-chairs will respond to a few precirculated prompts and questions. Right now we’re thinking about three instigating questions:
1. What’s the saltiest single item — the most oceanic, nautical, or otherwise flavored with the taste of the maritime world — you’ve encountered at the JCB? How did it change or influence your research?
2. What do you think is the central insight or benefit of recent oceanic studies? Participants might want to refer to a single text or texts that have seemed especially valuable. We’d love it if people would be willing to share both their favorite element or moment in their own work and also something from outside the panel group.
3. What do you think the future of oceanic studies will be, thinking especially about the impact of archival collections, expanding digital access, and current trends in the field?
Our plan will be to work our way around the table three times, one for each question. We don’t expect people to have short papers to present, though it would be great to have a particular item from the JCB ready for question #1 and a text or two ready for question #2. Works in progress, current or prospective, might figure in responses to #3. We hope that our conversation will evolve organically around the table next month.
Confirmed panelists include
Hester Blum, English, Penn State University
hester.blum@psu.edu
Mary Fuller, Literature, MIT
mcfuller@mit.edu
Evelina Guzauskyte, Spanish, Wellesley College
eguzausk@wellesley.edu
Chris Pastore, History, University of Montana
pastorec@gmail.com
John Hattendorf, Maritime History, U.S. Naval War College
john.hattendorf@usnwc.edu