News from the John W. Kluge Center: In the Know #9: The Newsletter of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress 

In the Know #9: The Newsletter of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress 

We at the Kluge Center continue to extend our heartfelt support for all affected by this outbreak. This newsletter is for supporters and friends who may be missing the intellectual stimulation of our panel discussions and author salons. Below please find helpful links to resources for viewing past discussions, blog posts, updates for current fellowship applications, and information on virtual events. If you know others who may also be interested in our activities, please forward this email their way. As always, the Kluge Center remains committed to bringing the best in publicly engaged conversations your way. Let’s keep the conversation going.

- John Haskell, Director of the Kluge Center

 

Events

On December 3, Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology Susan Schneider, as well as Caleb Scharf and Sarah Imari Walker, talked about the relationship between life, intelligence, and consciousness as it relates to the search for life in the universe and artificial intelligence. On December 17, Frances E. Lee, recent Library of Congress Chair in Congressional Policymaking at the Kluge Center, and James M. Curry, discussed their 2020 book: The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era and its surprising findings about the effect polarization is having on the passage of bills. Read a brief overview of the conversation here.

 

Kluge Alumni Spotlight on:

Mark A. Noll

Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History, 2004

Kluge Center Project: Significance of the Bible in American public life

What was most valuable about your time at the Kluge Center?

It was a signal honor to serve as the Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History during the 2004-2005 academic year. The Library turned out to be ideal—indeed, the best place in the world—for working on several projects in nineteenth-century religious history, the American Civil War, and the history of enslavement. Particularly helpful for research in foreign religious opinion on the Civil War was the Library’s extraordinary resources in material published outside the United States. With perhaps one or two exceptions, whatever I requested from England, English Canada, France, French Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, or Scotland showed up the very next day! I also learned much from conversations with Kluge fellows, some working on subjects close to my interests, but others far distant. (Highlights were two opportunities to converse with Vaclav Havel who was in residence during the spring.) Formal presentations by the fellows proved unusually enlightening, particularly when they addressed questions far from my areas of expertise. Not least in importance was the tireless assistance provided by all of the Kluge administrators and staff.

Research from my time at the Library contributed directly to two books, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (University of North Carolina, 2006) and God and Race in American Politics: A Short History (Princeton, 2008). I have been retired from the University of Notre Dame since 2016, but continue to work on a project that has resulted in one book, In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783 (Oxford, 2016), and hopefully one still to come, tentatively entitled “Bible Nation, from Tom Paine and Bishop Asbury to Cardinal Gibbons and Woodrow Wilson.”

 

Learn more about Mark Noll’s research at the Kluge Center:

Webcast: The King James Version of the Bible in American History.

Webcast: Writing the Story of America's Religious Origins.

Appointment: Press Release

 

Kluge Kudos and Media Mentions

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson (Distinguished Visiting Scholar) published a new book called Without Oars: Casting Off into a Life of Pilgrimage. The book offers a view on the faith voyage as embodied practice of heading into the unknown and unknowable.

 

Aynne Kokas (Kluge Fellow) was a guest on the Tech Sequence podcast where she discussed TikTok and larger issues of US user data exfiltration to external nation states. Kokas also spoke at an event at Rice University's Baker Institute. Her talk: "’Wolf Warriors’ And Hollywood: Public Diplomacy and Soft Power in a Time of Deteriorating US-Chinese Relations" is available through CSPAN.

 

Jennifer Victor (Distinguished Visiting Scholar) in the The Guardian, discussed the $200 million raised by Trump and how it could be used for his post-presidency career.

 

James Goldgeier (Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations) had his article “NATO Enlargement and the Problem of Value Complexity” published in the Journal of Cold War Studies.

 

Did You Know? Interesting Facts About the Kluge Center

Did you know former Kluge scholar Abdolkarim Soroush was chosen in 2005 as a part of Time’s 100 Most Influential Scientists and Thinkers?

 

Insights: The Kluge Center’s Blog

Lovelace Fellow Velia Ivanova was interviewed by Mike Stratmoen on her work studying “The Musical Heritage of Incarceration.” John Haskell reviewed the Kluge Center’s last couple years of public events, highlighting how they fit into our mission of promoting “conversations on the future of democracy.” He also wrote about our recent event with Frances Lee and James Curry, a discussion of lawmaking in a polarized time.

 

Social Media:

Be sure to follow our Twitter account to get all the latest on our blog posts, open applications, and any future events.

 

We Want to Hear From You:

Do you have thoughts on what would make an interesting blog post? Submissions for the Kluge Kudos and Media Mentions section? What about an idea for event programming? Please reply to this email or contact Andrew Breiner at abreiner@loc.gov.