Letter from the Director
Dear friends of the CSWR,
This is a bittersweet year for me: my ninth and final year as the Director of the CSWR. It has been such an honor to lead this extraordinary community of scholars, and I am proud of what we have accomplished together over these years. I’m excited to see who will lead the CSWR after me and in what direction they will take it.
Our long-running research and programs under the banner of “Transcendence and Transformation,” or T&T for short, is culminating this year with the Transcendentalism Initiative, motivated by a conviction that 19th-century American Transcendentalism, traditionally centered in Concord, MA, remains a vibrant, living tradition, whose message should resonate as much today as it did in its own day. My colleagues Gosia Sklodowska and Russell (Russ) Powell are helping me lead this initiative, and I want to bring to your attention many ways you can engage with our programs. On Mondays (or the occasional Tuesday) we are hosting research talks from 12-1:30 pm, which you can attend in person or online. Due to Labor Day, the first of these will take place on Tuesday, September 8: Russ will be speaking on “Emancipating Ecology: The Emerson-Thoreau Fault Line and Why It Matters for the Climate Crisis.” You can register here, and see the whole semester’s lineup here. Russ will be co-teaching a full-year (fall and spring semester) course at HDS, with our affiliate John Kaag, entitled “Crisis and Transcendence: The Legacy of American Transcendentalism.” Over the course of the year, we are welcoming dozens of scholars, artists, and practitioners to live at the CSWR as part of our Transcendentalism residency program. Some will be staying with us for as long as a year, others for only a month. These residents will be joined by an equally impressive group of local experts. Together, this cohort will be collectively working to reimagine Transcendentalism’s past, present, and – most importantly – future.
Other ways you can get involved include two workshops this fall: one led by Rochelle Johnson on “Exploring Spirituality in Nature Writing” on four consecutive Wednesday afternoons in September; another led by Ryan Shea on “Phenomenological Ecology” on October 2-3. Russ and I are organizing a daylong conference in honor of one of my beloved teachers, Stanley Cavell, who taught in the Harvard Philosophy Department for nearly his whole career, and whose work on Thoreau and Emerson remains hugely influential. Please join us, in person or online, on October 22, for this special event, “Stanley Cavell’s Transcendental Etudes,” featuring Branka Arsić, Nancy Bauer, Mark Cladis, and John Lysaker as speakers.
We will be continuing, and expanding, our essay series. Russ will continue as editor of his essay series, “Transcendentalism Now”; Gosia will edit a new series on “Mystical Scriptures,” and together with Phyllis Cole, another series, “Toward a Female Genealogy of Transcendentalism.” Gosia is also launching a new video series featuring scholars from our cohort, including with John Kaag on “Emerson and the Problem of Evil.”
We’re also excited about two new art exhibits we’re hosting. Please join us on September 14 from 4-5:30 pm for the opening of Carl Austin Hyatt’s exhibit, “Salt | Sea | Stone.” And also on October 13 from 4-5 pm for the opening of Chris Volpe’s exhibit, “In This Twilight: Tar Paintings in Conversation with American Transcendentalism.”
What a feast we have prepared for this semester! And next semester will bring yet another feast. I’m grateful, as always, to Gosia and Russ, and also to the whole CSWR team without whom none of this would be possible. It has been such an honor to work with this team, and I will miss them terribly when I step away from this position next summer. But there will be plenty of time for tearful goodbyes in the late spring; now is the time for excited anticipation. Please do join us, in person or online, for as much of these offerings as you can. This looks to be a truly outstanding year for the CSWR!
Sincerely,
Charles Stang