Working Groups 2008-2009

Biography and Life Story

From "This American Life" to the "Diagnosis" column in The New York Times to the Biography Channel, to the myriad uses of "case studies" in advertising and politics, to the sales figures for print biography (now accounting for as much as ¾ of all nonfiction book sales by some accounts), it is clear that all forms of "life story" are experiencing an unprecedented cultural interest. At the same time, the standard human biography or life story keeps expanding: group biographies, graphic life stories, and the wildly popular recent biographies of racehorses, of salt, of cod fish, of oysters, for examples. What do we make of all this? What can we -- as a group of writers and scholars who (variously) use life story -- learn from one another’s methods, goals, disciplinary backgrounds, audiences, medias, and different ways of asking questions about the shapes and meanings of human lives? "Biography" is meant here in the widest possible sense and we hope to include a range of people who use "life stories" - case studies, interviews, ethnographic work, and so on. Open to non-Northeastern members of the community: biographers, filmmakers, journalists, etc.

Faculty convener: Professor Carla Kaplan: c.kaplan@neu.edu

Identities

Incompatible notions of identity permeate the modern political arena, the world of commerce and information exchange, social organizations of all shapes and sizes, and the private sphere. Debates over identity flow between the singular and plural — me and we. They also impact our discussion of they — the Other. Perceptions of identity impact our notions of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religious identification and sexual orientation. This working group will explore these issues and concerns from a host of disciplinary and methodological perspectives.

Faculty convener: Professor Amílcar Barreto: a.barreto@neu.edu

The Public Sphere

Faculty convener: Professor Mary Loeffelholz: m.loeffelholz@neu.edu