Texas A&M Affiliates With The Folger Institute
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July 22, 2004 - Texas A&M University has joined a consortium of
universities affiliated with The Folger Institute, a center for advanced
studies in the humanities, located at the Folger Shakespeare Library in
Washington, D.C. Texas A&M joins 39 fellow universities in the
consortium and is the first university west of the Mississippi River to
associate with the institute.
"The programs of the institute are absolutely top flight. We will
attract and develop students and faculty of a much higher caliber
because of our affiliation and the opportunities that affiliation will
offer for research, learning, and teaching," says Steven Smith,
associate dean for advancement and director of the Cushing Memorial
Library and Archives. In 2001 Smith gave a presentation at the institute
on the Hinman collator, the machine used by Charlton Hinman to collate
the large collection of Shakespeare's First Folios.
The Folger Institute's programs gather graduate students and
faculty from member universities to work closely with distinguished
collections on a wide range of research topics under the guidance of
expert faculty. Texas A&M graduate students and faculty participants
will be able to present their ongoing research projects to peers/fellow
seminarians, receive constructive and multifaceted feedback, and bring
innovative materials and enhanced bibliographies back to their teaching
at A&M.
The affiliation was initiated by the Department of English and is
supported by the English department, the Office of the Dean of Liberal
Arts and the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research.
"Involvement with the Folger is a great boon to humanities
scholarship at Texas A&M," said James Rosenheim, director of the Melbern
G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research. Rosenheim noted faculty and
students will be able to work with the Folger Library's renowned
collections of rare works illuminating European culture, religion,
politics and society from the fifteenth through the eighteenth
centuries.
English Professor Margaret J. M. Ezell, who has participated in
two Folger Shakespeare Library programs, says being affiliated with the
institute will give A&M a greater opportunity to participate in seminars
and institutes that will further increase our visibility at the national
and international level.
James Harner, professor of English and the Samuel Rhea Gammon
Professor of Liberal Arts, will serve as Texas A&M's representative on
the consortium's planning board.
The Folger Institute was founded in 1970 as a collaborative effort
of the Folger Shakespeare Library and two Washington-area universities.
With support from agencies like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the
National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute offers seminars and
conferences in fields in the Folger Library collections.
Information about The Folger Institute is found at
http://www.folger.edu/institute/ or contact Kathleen Lynch, executive
director, at lynch@folger.edu.