The Grotto
Gazette
Volume 8 Issue 7
March 30, 2006
Fulbright
Scholar Pays a Visit
By
Audrey Easter
On Monday, March 20, 2006, the
students of Dr. Gibbs’ History of South Asia course received a special
treat. No, not ice cream or cookies. They had the privilege of
having Dr. Pramod Nayar, a
Fulbright Scholar, visit the class.
Dr. Nayar, who was born in southern India and
raised in central India, is an
English professor at the University of Hyderabad. He
has taken a year off as part of his Fulbright honors to teach at Cornell University.
Dr. Nayar has written on many different issues
involving Indian literature, but he is currently researching British writings
on India.
His focus here is on travelogues from 1600-1800 A.D.
Dr. Gibbs contacted Dr. Nayar to see if he could
suggest an important Indian novel, written in English, for the class. Dr.
Nayar suggested The Shadow Lines, by Amitav Ghosh, and he also agreed
to travel to Roanoke to
discuss the work with the class. The novel he selected is told by a boy
who grows up in the 1950’s and 1960’s in India and then
travels to London. It
is also the story of an Indian family and an English family who interact
together during different generations. The work spans from World War II
through the 1970’s.
Dr. Nayar gave the class a short biography of himself
as well as explaining the social context of Ghosh’s work. According to
Dr. Nayar, there is an extreme debate regarding why
Indian authors choose to write in English when there are so many different
Indian languages (24 spoken by at least 1 million people). This debate
has been circling since India gained
its independence from Britain in
1947. Dr. Nayar also discussed themes of the
book in great depth, like where home is and why events in history are more
important to some people than others.
The entire class really enjoyed the visit with Dr. Nayar
and are very thankful to Dr. Gibbs for arranging for this opportunity!!
_________
History
Department on the Town
By
Lauren Cook and Tara hall
For those of you that didn’t come to DC this past weekend, you
missed a lot of fun! Here’s a brief run down of the fun my friends and I had.
After a long bus ride to D.C. and a
brief moment to settle in to our rooms, we walked across Key bridge to Georgetown for an amazing dinner at Clyde’s. Then most of us hit the sack to
rest up for a big day on Friday.
Friday morning we set out for Mount Vernon with Drs. Miller and Leeson for a self-guided tour of the grounds. The farm is
still working and all of the people there are more than willing to tell you
about George Washington. One man even lied about how successful he was as a
general. The grounds were nicely kept but nothing was blooming yet so it wasn’t
as pretty as it will be soon. After a nice lunch on the grounds, we headed back
into DC.
At 1:00 we were dropped off at the United States Holocaust Museum. We talked with a survivor there who
had never actually seen the war. Her family kept her and her siblings in hiding.
She had several extended family members who were sent to the camps, and she
said she was not scared at the time because her family didn’t act scared. I
thought it was interesting how she told us about being scared of the outdoors
after the war. I really enjoyed her talk.
From there we went into the museum
itself and we could go where we pleased. I saw Dr. Willingham a few times
walking about, and I was interested by all of the things he knew beyond what
the museum showed. There were many fascinating displays in the museum, all of
which were heart-wrenching, but some of them were more difficult than others:
the railcar that the Jews were transported in, the room with a portion of the
shoes taken from the prisoners which smelled of old leather, the picture tower
with the photos of an entire Jewish village that was wiped out, and the room
that showed the details of how the gas chamber worked as well as videos of what
the soldiers and doctors did to people in the medical experiments.
Afterwards, we went to Chinatown with Dr. Willingham and ate at the
China Doll. We had a great time eating amazing food and telling funny stories.
It was definitely a nice way to end such an interesting day. After dinner, the
group went to the mall at night to get some shots of the monuments. Although it
was very cold, this was really amusing as well.
Saturday while Dr. Leeson’s class went to the National Museum of the American Indian, we went with
Dr. Miller and Dr. Selby to the Spotsylvania battlefield and we learned more details about the Civil
War battle. It was really cold, but our guide was really interesting and I
enjoyed seeing the earthworks where the soldiers dug in.
Sunday we
spent mostly getting ready to leave. I was so exhausted from having so much fun
that I was glad to see my bed back at home. For those of you that missed it, I
hope you get another opportunity next year!
Want to print your DC story in the
Gazette? Email it to the editor!
_________
Dr. Selby Switches Sides
By
Audrey Easter
In West
Hall, Office Number 4, the office by the stairs, you can find Dr. John Selby,
Professor at Roanoke College.
You already know that he deals with all of us on a daily basis. But what
does Selby do when we’re gone; when he doesn’t have papers and blue books to
sort through? He already wrote a book (Virginians at War), so what
else is left for him? He does research, of course! Dr. Selby was
kind enough to give us a glimpse of what he is up to.
Dr. Selby is continuing his research
into the Civil War. This time he wants to look at the Union side, instead
of the Confederate. His primary interest remains the same: how do
ordinary people face extraordinary challenges?
The setting is the brutal “Overland
Campaign” of General Grant in the spring and summer of 1864 in Virginia. Specifically, Dr. Selby will
focus on the role of the famed 2nd Corps in some of the worst
fighting of the Civil War. The key issues he addresses are leadership,
loss, and survival. How did units retain their fighting ability while
suffering heavy losses? What role did veterans play in the survival of
units? How effective could leadership be, given the astounding attrition
rate among officers? How were new officers trained? What cohesion
could units sustain? What actually remained of the original 2nd
Corps, in numbers and in spirit, after two months of fighting and loss?
These questions will send Dr. Selby
down battlefield paths he has never walked, and to libraries he has never
visited. It is the type of journey into the historical “unknown” that
those who love history find fun, so you’ll probably be hearing about some of
his findings from time to time.
Do you
think this is cool? I’m sure he’d be glad to chat about it, so stop by
sometime!