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:

  1. 1795, January 15 - University Opens
  2. 1796, July - David Ker (1758-1805) Resigns
  3. 1875, September 15 - The University Reopens with a College of Literature
  4. 1818 - William Mercer Green (1798-1887) Graduates
  5. 1844 - The University Magazine of 1844
  6. 1829 - George Moses Horton (born c. 1797) Publishes Poetry Collection
  7. 1996 - Mae Gwendolyn Henderson joins the Faculty
  8. 1805 - Curriculum Changes Become Effective
  9. 1995 - First Class on Asian American Literature
  10. 1795, December - Davie's Plan of Study Proposed
  11. 1901 - The Department of English Formally Established
  12. 1826 - Caroline and Nicholas Hentz
  13. 1999 - María DeGuzmán joins the faculty
  14. 1965 - Karen Lynn Parker (1943- ) Graduates
  15. 1935 - Josefina Niggli
  16. 2020, February 12 - Greenlaw Gameroom Launches
  17. 1796 - The Preparatory School Established
  18. 1838, August - John DeBerniere Hooper (1811-1886) Becomes Professor of Latin and French Languages
  19. 1864 - Edwin Wiley Fuller (1847-1876) Enrolls
  20. 2020, Spring - 2021, Fall - COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts UNC
  21. 1849 - Albert Micajah Shipp (1819-1887) Becomes Professor of English Literature
  22. 1927 - Construction of Wilson Library Begins
  23. 1795, February 2 - First Student Arrives
  24. 1852, February - The North Carolina University Magazine Published
  25. 1918 - Frederick Koch (1877-1944) Founds the Carolina Playmakers
  26. 1920 - Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) Graduates
  27. 1856, December - Hildreth Hosea Smith (1820-1908) Becomes Professor of Modern Languages
  28. 1887 - Stephen B. Weeks (1865-1918) Receives First Earned Graduate Degrees in English
  29. 2018 - Alan Shapiro Graduate Student Lounge
  30. 1962 - 1973 U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War Prompts Student Protests
  31. 1914 - Edwin Greenlaw (1874-1931) Becomes Chair of the Department of English
  32. 1979 - Thadious Davis (1944- ) Joins the Department of English
  33. 1947 - Jesse Rehder (1908-1967) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
  34. 1931 - Charles Phillips Russell (1884-1974) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
  35. 1836 - 1,900 Books in University Library
  36. 1905 - Louis Round Wilson (1876-1979) Receives English Department's Second Ph.D.
  37. 1931 - Contempo Published; the Intimate Bookshop Opens
  38. 1893, February 23 - The Daily Tarheel First Published
  39. 1951 - Harvey Beech (1924-2005), James L. Lassiter (1909-2003), J. Kenneth Lee (1923-2018), Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), and James Robert Walker (1924-1997 )
  40. 1999 - Tyler Curtain joins the faculty
  41. 1906 - Studies in Philology Founded
  42. 2020, Fall - Heidi Kim Becomes Director of the UNC Asian American Center
  43. 2021 - 225th Celebration
  44. 1865, April 16 - May 2 - Chapel Hill Occupied
  45. 1885 - Thomas Hume (1836-1912) Becomes Professor of English Language and Literature
  46. 1898 - Sallie Walker Stockard (1869-1963) Graduates
  47. 1927 - Howard Mumford Jones (1892-1980) Establishes The Bull’s Head Bookstore
  48. 2018 - English and Comparative Literature Major Redesigned
  49. 1921 - Paul Green (1894-1941) Graduates
  50. 1945 - Two Japanese American students come to UNC after internment camps
  51. 1795 - The Debating Society Founded
  52. 2015 - M.A. in Literature, Medicine, and Culture
  53. 1818 - Addition of Professorship of Rhetoric and Logic
  54. 1913 - Edward Kidder Graham (1876-1918) Becomes UNC President
  55. 1871, February 1 - The University Closes for Four Years
  56. 1890 - The Hellenian First Published
  57. 1967 - The First Film Course Offered
  58. 1999 - Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture Established
  59. 2008 - Beverly Taylor (1947- ) Becomes Chair of Department of English
  60. 1862 - Twenty-Four Students Graduate
  61. 1963, June 26 - Speaker Ban Law Passes; Protests Ensue
  62. 1968 - Daphne Athas (1923-2020) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
  63. 1973 - Cellar Door Established
  64. 1983 - Louis Rubin (1923-2013) Founds Algonquin Books
  65. 1940 - Curriculum in Folklore Established
  66. 2011 - The Digital Innovation Lab Launches
  67. 1877 - The Summer Normal School Opens
  68. 1969 - Blyden Jackson (1910-2000) Joins the Faculty
  69. 2013 - Jane Austen Summer Program Inaugurated
  70. 1799 - Faculty Members Resign
  71. 1924 - Department of Journalism Established
  72. 1975, April - Women’s Studies Program Approved
  73. 2003 - Randall Garrett Kenan (1963-2020) Joins the Faculty
  74. 1798, July 4 - First Graduation
  75. 1878 - Albert Bunker
  76. 1893 - Shinzaburo Mogi
  77. 1897 - The Concept of a Major Introduced
  78. 1965 - The Writing Center Begins with English
  79. 1970, October 4 - Greenlaw Hall Dedicated
  80. 2004, September 20 - Latina/o Studies Program Founded
  81. 1909 - First Journalism Course
  82. 1966 - Doris Betts (1932-2012) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
  83. 1979 - Trudier Harris (1948- ) Joins the Department of English
  84. 1948 - The Carolina Quarterly Launches
  85. 1955 - LeRoy Frasier (1937-2017), Ralph Frasier (1939?- ), and John Lewis Brandon (1938?-2018)
  86. 1928, May - Bingham Hall Construction Begins
  87. 1997 - SITES Launches
  88. 2006 - The William Blake Archive Arrives at UNC
  89. 1868 - The University Closes for an Academic Year
  90. 1949 - C. Hugh Holman (1914-1981) Joins the Department of English
  91. 1901 - Yackety Yack First Published
  92. 1957 - O.B. Hardison, Jr. (1927-1990) Joins the Department of English
  93. 1996 - UNC Libraries Launches Documenting the American South
  94. 1967 - Louis D. Rubin (1923-2013) Begins Teaching English
  95. 1929 - Henry Owl (1897-1980) Graduates with an M.A.
  96. 1980 - Erika Lindemann (1946- ) Becomes Director of Composition
  97. 1936 - A Handbook to Literature Published by Doubleday
  98. 1998 - Rashmi Varma Joins the Faculty
  99. 1946 - Katherine Kennedy Carmichael (1912-1982) Becomes Dean of Women
  100. 2008 - The Department of American Studies Formed
  101. 1861, May 20 - North Carolina Secedes
  102. 1949 - Werner P. Friederich (1905-1993) Co-Founds Comparative Literature
  103. 1903 - The Curriculum Changes
  104. 1922 - Letter-Grade System Established
  105. 1972 - Patsy Brewington Perry (1933- ) Earns Ph.D. in English
  106. 1930 - Orpah Cummings (1908-1994) Joins the Department as Secretary
  107. 1950, June 25 - The Korean War Begins
  108. 1903 - Graduate School Established
  109. 1915 - UNC Enrollment Tops 1000 Students for the First Time
  110. 1923 - Majors and Minors Established
  111. 1863 - Eight Students Graduate
  112. 1893, January 20 - The Philological Club Organized
  113. 1916 - Honors Program in English Language and Literature Established
  114. 1924 - Irene Dillard Elliott (1892-1978) Earns a Ph.D. in English
  115. 1986 - The Southern Folklife Collection Established
  116. 1941 - World War II Begins
  117. 1877 - Modern Graduate Degrees Established
  118. 1917-1918 - World War I
  119. 1969 - Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Established
  120. 1935 - The General College Established
  121. 1990 - Pamela Cooper Joins the Faculty
  122. 1943 - Post-War Committee
  123. 1865, April 9 - General Lee Surrenders His Army
  124. 1953 - The Quarter System Discontinued
  125. 1907 - The Carnegie Library Completed
  126. 1979 - English 131 Established
  127. 1993 - Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program Established
  128. 1945, May - V-E Day
  129. 1948 - David Henry Malone (1919-2003) Defends First Comparative Literature Dissertation
  130. 1954 - The Honors Program Established
  131. 1971 - Graduate Students Form the English Club
  132. 1936 - Department of Dramatic Art
  133. 1945, August 15 - V-J Day
  134. 2006 - The Department of English and Comparative Literature
  135. 1866 - Three Students Graduate
  136. 1886, October - The Shakespeare Club Founded
  137. 1909 - College of Liberal Arts Established
  138. 1966 - Curriculum in American Studies Established
  139. 1971 - Leroy Martin (1943-1988) Earns Ph.D. in English
  140. 1860 - UNC as One of the Largest Higher Education Institutions in the U.S.
  141. 1922 - Enrollments Increase to Over 2000 Students
  142. 1972 - First Class on Women in Literature

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