This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

English and Comparative Literature 225 Anniversary Timeline

ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 225 ANNIVERSARY TIMELINE

Introduction
Introduction

The following is a digital timeline of the Department of English & Comparative Literature (ECL) undertaken in celebration of 225 years of rhetoric, writing, film, and literature at Carolina. The study of rhetoric, writing, and literature began with the birth of the University and grew in substantial and meaningful ways over the last two centuries. Literature, writing, and the study of narratives has fueled the spirit of UNC, creating a culture among faculty, staff, and students that allows for critical reflection on the world around us and our experiences of it, while also imagining new possibilities. This culture of possibility and exploration generated from the study of literature, rhetoric, and writing led to the creation of the modern Department of English & Comparative Literature. Along the way, it also spurred the creation of many new programs of study and organizations at UNC, including the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, Journalism, Folklore Studies, the Playmakers, American Studies, Film Studies, Creative Writing, the Writing Program, the Carolina Quarterly, Studies in Philology, The UNC Latina/o Studies Program, and the Blake Archive. Despite this important growth, the University began with narrow ideas of who was entitled to be a student and a faculty member that reflected the prevailing ideas and inequity at the time. Therefore, this timeline begins with the acknowledgment of these exclusions and inequities as they shape the department’s history and its legacies.

The Department of English & Comparative Literature recognizes the land and sovereignty of Native and Indigenous nations in Chapel Hill, in North Carolina, in North America, and across the world.  We acknowledge that UNC’s land history includes a dispossession of people who first lived here, a dispossession that profited the University at the expense of sovereign indigenous nations.

The University of North Carolina sits on the land of the Occaneechi, Shakori, Eno, and Sissipahaw peoples. Additionally, NC has been home to many Indigenous peoples at various points in time, including the tribes/nations of: Bear River/Bay River, Cape Fear, Catawba, Chowanoke, Coree/Coranine, Creek, Croatan, Eno, Hatteras, Keyauwee, Machapunga, Moratoc, Natchez, Neusiok, Pamlico, Shakori, Sara/Cheraw, Sissipahaw, Sugeree, Wateree, Weapemeoc, Woccon, Yadkin, and Yeopim. Today, NC recognizes 8 tribes: Coharie, Lumbee, Meherrin, Occaneechi Saponi, Haliwa Saponi, Waccamaw Siouan, Sappony, and the Eastern Band Cherokee. The state is also home to Indigenous nations from Abiayala that among others include: Maya Q’anjob’al, K’iche’, Awakateco, and Mam, Zapotec, and Otomi.

Additionally, the Department of English & Comparative Literature acknowledges that much of the University was built and sustained with the forced labor of enslaved Africans and their enslaved descendants. Moreover, early funds used to build the university came from the sale of enslaved peoples who were defined by the law as escheats. According to the online exhibit, Slavery and the Making of the University, created by University archivists who researched primary documents dating back to before the founding of UNC, when the General Assembly charted the university in 1789, they did so without allotting any direct appropriations instead granting “the Board of Trustees wo sources of income: monies owed the state for certain kinds of arrearages up to 1 January 1783 and ‘all the property that has heretofore or shall hereafter escheat to the state.’” This led to the University to acquire significant wealth as it inherited property over time. Because enslaved peoples were often included in such escheated property, the university gained wealth by selling the enslaved peoples they acquired through this process.

In addition to acquiring wealth through the sale of enslaved peoples escheated to the University, the University’s infrastructure was built and maintained by people who were given the designation “University servant,” a term used for both Black Americans with ‘free’ status and enslaved persons whose time was hired from their enslavers by the university. Enslaved peoples contributed to the construction of building Old East, the Old Chapel (Person Hall), Old West, the New Chapel (Gerrard Hall), and additions to Old East and Old West, the maintenance of the arduous early life of the University before electricity and running water, including serving many students who lived on campus. According to Slavery and the Making of the University, “’it had been the custom for some of the wealthier students . . . to bring with them to college their personal slaves.’ This practice was apparently prevalent enough that the trustees in 1845 adopted an ordinance declaring that ‘no servant except the regular college servants shall be employed by the students to perform any of the ordinary duties of college servants.’” Additionally, most of the University’s first Board of Trustees owned enslaved Africans and their descedants as they were “some of the state’s wealthiest and most influential men” (Slavery and the Making of the University). Therefore, the history of the University is marked by the brutality and dehumanizing system of slavery.

Moreover, inequity and exclusion governed much of the official and social life of the University as people were denied admittance and ability to work at UNC because of their religion, gender, race and ethnicity. While these exclusions no longer govern the University to the extent that they once did, these legacies still shape University life. Today, People of Color disproportionately work as service staff on our campus and in our wider society. This community is largely responsible for the maintenance of the campus, the food and food service available at Chapel Hill, and many other basic necessities that make gatherings possible. Additionally, the student body and faculty are not representative of the racial and ethnic diversity of North Carolina. The following timeline of the Department of English and Comparative Literature draws attention to these exclusions and inequities in its history.

It is also important to note that we have thought deeply about how and when to use racial, ethnic, and gender descriptors. We acknowledge that such descriptors are always incomplete as they do not take into account the fullness of a person or their specific experiences and histories, and they represent, as Patricia Williams explains, “only one of a number of governing narratives or presiding fictions” that configure a person’s place in the world (The Alchemy of Race and Rights, 256). With this in mind, when possible, we have tried to use the terms with which the people written about identify themselves. When referring to the scholarship of individuals, we have tried to use the categories they use to describe their own scholarship. We have also chosen to use the descriptor Black American in place of African American, because we acknowledge not all people who identify as Black, identify with African ancestry. Additionally, we have capitalized all racial and ethnic categories.

While this is the most comprehensive collection of the history of rhetoric, writing, film, and literature at Carolina compiled to date, this history is still incomplete. The collection of records and the construction of archives are shaped by power structures that determine what is worthy of collection and documentation and what is left out. Such choices create silences and fragments in the historical record. This timeline also reflects the inequality of the available records, as for much of the early history little to nothing was recorded about women and people of color, and these records were less likely to be preserved over time. We recognize that many histories are passed down outside of formal archival spaces. Therefore, if you have such information that could add to this timeline, please contact the DLC lab at DLC_Lab@unc.edu.

Additionally, the new ECL major (with concentrations in social justice and literature, creative writing, comparative and world literatures, film studies, British & American literature, science, medicine & literature and writing, and editing & digital publishing) was designed to teach students how to think critically about how such archival silences, exclusions, and inequities are produced, as well as how to challenge them. In many ways the creation of the timeline is meant to further the important inclusive work done in the humanities. This work focuses on sharing the stories of all people with the beauty of their diverse experiences, while recognizing the challenges presented in making these voices heard.

Acknowledgements

This timeline was created by the Digital Literacy and Communications Lab, directed by Dr. Courtney Rivard. Students in the lab, including Garland Reiman, Emily Youree, Paul Blom, and Hannah Montgomery, spent countless hours over a two-year period combing through archives, conducting interviews, and compiling information to create this most complete history of the Department of English and Comparative literature that currently exists. This work could not have been completed without the help of Dr. Connie Eble and Dr. Erika Lindemann. Dr. Eble provided her wealth of personal knowledge and records as she came to serve as a faculty member in the department in 1971. Dr. Lindemann served as faculty member in ECL for 30 years. Not only did Dr. Lindemann provide her personal knowledge, but she also shared her research into the history of rhetoric and writing, which includes UNC’s contribution to this history. Additionally, as the former associate dean for Undergraduate Curricula, she created a digital history of the antebellum University, which can be found at "True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students at the University of North Carolina ."  The digital infrastructure of this timeline is built with the open-source software provided by Scalar. Grant Glass provided the customized coding to adapt the software to the needs of the project.

Contents of this tag:

On January 15, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opens its doors. However, no students would arrive until mid-February. David Ker (1758-1805), a Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland, was the only professor teaching at the University and held the title of presiding professor, an equivalent to the president of the University. In April the faculty doubled with the addition of Charles Wilson Harris (1771-1804), a tutor of mathematics.
In July 1999, María DeGuzmán (1964-) joins the faculty. Together with Tyler Curtain and Erin Carlston, the three bring the study and teaching of queer theory to the department. Additionally in that same year, DeGuzmán taught the first Department of English courses in Latina/o literature, photography, and film. Fall 1999 she establishes The UNC Latina/o Cultures Speakers Series and later, in 2004, The UNC Latina/o Studies Program, the first of its kind in the Southeast.
In August the professorship of modern languages, held by John DeBerniere Hooper since 1836, is retitled the professorship of French. The professorship of ancient languages is abolished and separate professorships are created for Greek and Latin. Hooper continues to teach both Latin and French for several years, although his teaching of French is occasionally assigned to other instructors whose tenure was usually short-lived.
On February 2 1795, the first student, James Hinton from Wilmington, North Carolina, arrives at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Two weeks later, Hinton is joined by Maurice Moore, Alfred Moore, Richard Eagles, John Taylor, William M. Sneed, Hutchins G. Burton, Francis Burton, and Robert H. Burton, Junior. By the end of the first year, the student body consisted of 41 young white men.
A successor to The University Magazine of 1844, the student-led North Carolina University Magazine is published from February 1852 until May 1861. After the Civil War, it reappears as University Magazine but fails after seven issues. Revived in February 1882, it enjoyed uninterrupted success until June 1895. Revived again in November 1897, it continued publication under various titles and sponsorships until 1948, when it became the Carolina Quarterly.
To reflect the variety of offerings within the department and provide students with an opportunity to customize their major, the curriculum was redesigned with six new concentrations: British and American literature; comparative and world literatures; creative writing; film studies; science, medicine, and literature; social justice and literature; writing, editing, and digital publishing. The new major also promotes the benefits of double majoring.
In 2015, the Department of English & Comparative Literature launches a new Masters program in English & Comparative Literature with a concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture alongside the HHIVE Lab, a health humanities research lab founded by Professors Jane Thrailkill and Jordynn Jack. Together, the LMC MA program and HHIVE Lab work closely with the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Social Medicine to offer an interdisciplinary curriculum in health humanities and support student and faculty research that combines humanities and health.
Approximately 450 Union cavalry troops commanded by Gen. Smith Dykins Atkins (1835-1913) occupy Chapel Hill from April 16 to May 2. Classes are suspended and some of the officers are quartered in University dormitories. Atkins posts guards from the Ninth Michigan Regiment at all houses requesting protection, and Union Gen. Francis Blair (1821-1875), a UNC alumnus, sets a Federal guard over the University campus.
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1954, when American advisors and military aid were sent to South Vietnam to support the government in its war against communist North Vietnam. President Kennedy increased the American military presence in 1962, and President Johnson escalated the war in the mid-1960s, sending hundreds of thousands of combat troops to support the South Vietnamese army. A growing anti-war movement and rising death tolls eventually led to a peace agreement between the U.S. and North Vietnam in January 1973. However, hostilities between North and South Vietnam continued until April 30, 1975. More than three million people, including 58,000 Americans, died over the course of the war, more than half of them Vietnamese civilians (Britannica).
Professors Thadious Davis together with Professor Trudier Harris, who was hired in the same year, become the first Black women on the English faculty. She is currently the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published extensively in African American literature and Southern literature focusing on race, region and gender.
Blyden Jackson, begins teaching in the English department. Professor Jackson was the first tenured Black faculty member at UNC, and developed and taught the first courses in African American literature at UNC. Additionally, he chaired the advisory committee overseeing the curricula that eventually became the Department of Afro and African American Studies. He also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School from 1973 to 1981, helping to recruit and retain Black graduate students and faculty members.
UNC institutes a temporary grade CC (composition condition), which prevents students from graduating until they complete English C, a tutorial, noncredit “review of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and composition” (Catalogue 1965-1966, 191). Seen as punitive, English C was discontinued in the 1980s, and the one-person Writing Laboratory became the Writing Center to help students with all elements of academic writing.
The Latina/o Studies Program, the first program of its kind in the Southeast, is inaugurated on September 20. Professor María DeGuzmán (1964- ), who joined the faculty in July 1999, is the founding director of the program. The program, housed in the Department of English & Comparative Literature, offers undergraduate and graduate level classes across multiple departments and hosts an undergraduate minor, several speaker series, undergraduate and graduate symposia, instructional support for graduate students, working groups, a film database, and literary and cultural studies events.
Professor Trudier Harris together with Professor Thadious Davis, who was hired in the same year, become the first Black women on the English faculty. Professor Harris remained with the department, with the exception of a brief stint at Emory University from 1993-1996, until her retirement from UNC in 2009. She held the J. Carlyle Sitterson Distinguished Professorship of English from 1988-1993 and 1996-2009. The author and editor of 24 books and numerous articles, Harris has published widely on African American literature and folklore.
Professor Louis Graves (1883-1965), who taught journalism courses in the Department of English, resigned in 1921 to found the Chapel Hill Weekly. He was succeeded by Professor Gerald Johnson (1890-1980), who became the first head of the Department of Journalism in 1924. The department would become the School of Journalism in 1950 and is currently known as the Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
The Curriculum in Folklore and the Curriculum in American Studies are merged to form the Department of American Studies. Professor Joy Kasson (1944- ) becomes the department’s first chair. The Department offers undergraduate majors and minors in five areas of study—American Studies, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Folklore Studies, Southern Studies, and Global American Studies—together with graduate degrees.
The Department of English offers the first film course in the 1967-1968 academic year. English 42, “Movie Criticism,” cross-listed with RTVMP 42 in the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures, is taught by Professor Kimball King (1934-2019) and Martha Nell Hardy (1925-2005). Professor Howard Harper (1930-2019) begins teaching the course the following year as part of his regular assignment until his retirement.
The Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers is adopted on June 26, 1963, and bars speakers on any UNC system campus who are members of the Communist Party, among other alleged activities. Students protested the so-called Speaker Ban Law and challenged it by inviting Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker to speak on campus in March 1966. Students listened as the speakers stood on the public sidewalk bordering McCorkle Place. A lawsuit, Dickson v. Sitterson, overturned the law in 1968.
In 1973, Cellar Door, an undergraduate literary journal at Carolina, begins publication. Published each fall and spring in print and online, the magazine seeks to showcase undergraduate students’ outstanding poetry, prose, and art. Students can apply to join the reading staff, and creative writing faculty members such as Max Steele (1922-2005) and Randall Kenan (1963-2020) have served as judges for work submitted by UNC students. English Professor Michael McFee (1954- ) is currently the student advisor for the journal.
Established in 2011, the Digital Innovation Lab (DIL) aims to “integrate project-based, digital methodologies into humanities scholarship and to promote public humanities through digital innovation” (“Our History”). The DIL is a function of the Carolina Digital Humanities, a set of partnerships and programs promoting “innovation in digital teaching, research and outreach in the arts and humanities” (“About CDH/DIL”)
The Southern Folklife Collection is created in 1986 by merging the UNC Folklore Archives, established by faculty members in the Curriculum in Folklore in 1968, and the John Edwards Memorial Collection, purchased in 1983. A component of the Manuscripts Department of the UNC-Chapel Hill University Library, the Southern Folklife Collection houses a remarkable collection of archival resources for the study of American folk music and popular culture.
In response to increased activism on the part of students, the Faculty Council voted to establish a curriculum in African studies in 1969 and a curriculum in African American studies in 1972. The curricula were merged in 1979 and became the Department of Afro and African-American Studies in 1997, renamed the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies in 2013. English Professor Trudier Harris (1948- ) chaired the curriculum from 1990-1992.
The Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program is established with Shelby Foote becoming its first writer-in-residence. In 2013 it became the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Program, and in 2016, the Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence program. The program brings “significant contemporary writers to campus to meet with students and faculty, to visit classes, and to give readings, talks, and symposia” (“Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence”).

This page references:

Banner