Description
Book SynopsisAn anthology of the personal/autobiographical essays of scholars who have made the life story an important part of their disciplinary research. This book represents various disciplines, including mathematics, sociology, psychology, literature, religion and legal history. It also chronicles the origins of autobiographical criticism.
Trade Review“This anthology of autobiographical writing by scholars with a range of ties to the academy, this mosaic of brave, graceful, and compassionate voices, skillfully edited by Diane P. Freedman and Olivia Frey, bears testimony to the strength of an intellectual movement that is changing the way scholarship is being done. . . . [T]his book asserts the importance of a common project, a shared commitment to a way of knowing as well as a way of telling.”—
Ruth Behar, from the foreword
“This collection brings a new kind of scholarship into focus: research that has a human face and speaks with a human voice. In these essays, knowledge comes alive for the reader because it has sprung from the lived experience of the investigator. The contributors are pioneers in their fields, blazing trails for future work in their disciplines.”—
Jane Tompkins, author of
A Life in School: What the Teacher LearnedTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Foreword / Ruth Behar xiii
Self/Discipline: An Introduction / Diane P. Freedman and Olivia Frey 1
Language and Literature
Finding the Right Word: Self-Inclusion and Self-Inscription / David Bleich 41
Gender Tragedies: East Texas Cockfighting and
Hamlet / Carlos L. Dews 68
Three Readings of the Wife of Bath / Merrill Black 85
Listening to the Images: My Sightless Insights into Yeats's Plays / David Richman 96
Activist Academic: Memoir of an Ethnic Lit Professor / Bonnie Tusmith 114
Following the Voice of the Draft / Donald M. Murray 129
Notes of a Native Daughter: Reflections on Identity and Writing / Carla L. Peterson 138
History
Tribute to Robert D. Marcus / David Bleich 159
Journey/man: Hi/s/tory / Robert D. Marcus 161
Religion
From
God of the Oppressed / James Cone 189
Philosophy
Beyond Holocaust Theology: Extending a Hand across the Abyss / Laura Duhan Kaplan 205
Maternal Thinking / Sara Ruddick 216
Africana Studies
Altered States / Kwame Anthony Appiah 233
Art History
History of an Encounter / Eunice Lipton 257
Music
Devouring Music: Ruminations of a Composer Who Cooks / Peter Hamlin 265
Film
When the Body Is Your Own: Feminist Film Criticism and the Horror Genre / Julie Tharp 281
Filming Point of View / Deborah Lefkowitz 292
Anthropology
From
The Broken Cord / Michael Dorris 311
Juban America / Ruth Behar 331
Close Encounters with a CSA: The Reflections of a Bruised and Somewhat Wiser Anthropologist / Laura B. Delind 349
Law
The Death of the Profane (a commentary on the genre of legal writing) / Patricia J. Williams 365
English Education
My Father/ My Censor: English Education, Politics, and Status / Brenda Daly 375
Research Psychology
Adventures of a Woman in Science / Naomi Weisstein 397
Biology
Through the Looking Glass: A Feminist's Life in Biology / Muriel Lederman 417
Medicine
That Disorder: An Introduction / Alice Wexler 435
A Textbook Pregnancy / Perri Klass 444
Math, Psychology, and Science Education
Personal Thinking / Seymour Papert 455
Selected Bibliography 467
Contributors 483
