Thursday, August 25, 2022

August 25, 2022: Virginia Profs: Grace Elizabeth Hale

[For this year’s annual Cville series, I wanted to highlight a handful of inspiring and impressive profs at my hometown school, the University of Virginia (beyond the UVA prof who will always come first in my heart). I’d love to hear about profs—teachers, advisors, mentors, colleagues, friends—you’d highlight in comments!]

I ended yesterday’s post by noting that all of this week’s subjects have inspired me in various ways—with the last two UVA professors I’ll highlight, that inspiration has come especially through groundbreaking and impressive scholarly works that have significantly shifted my perspective on issues at the heart of my own AmericanStudying. When it comes to Dr. Grace Elizabeth Hale, her 1999 book Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 was one of the first I read as I moved from undergrad to grad school, and a true model for me of the kinds of analyses and writing alike I wanted to do in my career. As her work and career have evolved in the two decades since, what Hale has especially modeled in a truly interdisciplinary, American Studies approach, one that has taken her ideas and subjects from the post-war middle class to the indie music scene in Athens, Ohio, among others. Can’t wait to see where Hale’s work takes her, and all of us, next!

Last UVA prof tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Professors you’d add to the weekend post?

No comments:

Post a Comment