- "Buds, Bugs and Birds"
- Grad Student Sarah Chieko Hunter discusses her research
- Posted September 11, 2009
Department: Features
Grad Student Sarah Chieko Hunter explains her study during the Oct. 23 Fridays at Newcomb. (Photo by Tammy C. Barney)
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"Land of the Lion and the Sun: Early modern European depictions of Iran"
Oct. 2. 2009
Elio Brancaforte, associate professor of German, discusses
how European travelers viewed Persia in the 16th and 17th centuries. (Photo by Tammy C. Barney)
As part of a book project, Associate Professor Elio Brancaforte is researching how Europeans learned about Iran in the 16th and 17th centuries.
"I'm looking at a lot of different travelers and gathering
information on what they thought of Persia at the time," he said during the
Oct. 2 Fridays at Newcomb lecture. "Many travelers wrote very colorfully about
they're journeys."
Brancaforte, who has taught German at Tulane for nine years,
recently retraced the footsteps of the travelers that he has studied. His trip
was partly funded by a Newcomb Fellows grant.
"Certain cities haven't changed that much since the 1700s,"
he said.
Brancaforte's favorite traveler is Pietro Della Valle
(1617-1623). "He spent some time in Istanbul," Brancaforte said. "He also went
to Egypt and bought two mummies."
The travelers were interested in many aspects of Persia,
such as its history, coins, rhubarb, eggplant and legends, which they were
trying to debunk.
"What the travelers saw was not what was actually published
afterwards," he added. However, "many of the books were bestsellers because
Persia was a new land."
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Student Poster Presentations
Sept. 25
Tracy Blackerby, right, talks about her research project in Mumbai, India. (Photo by Tammy C. Barney)Several Tulane students who received research/travel grants from the Newcomb College Institute presented their work during the Sept. 25 Fridays at Newcomb. The following students participated: Shannon Berryhill, Suzanne Monaco, Cristina Strunk, Lin Bai, Chloe Palmer, Tracy Blackerby, Faine Greenvood, Ashley Coleman and Anna Whalen.
Applications for the next grant cycle are due Nov. 2 at 4 p.m.
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"Set Free by a Sonnet"
Sept. 18
Marilyn Miller, associate professor of Caribbean Studies, discusses Juan Francisco Manzano, a 19th century Cuban slave, during the Sept. 18 Fridays at Newcomb lecture. (Photo by Tammy C. Barney)Marilyn Miller, an associate professor of Caribbean Studies at Tulane, posed an interesting question to the audience during the Sept. 18 Fridays at Newcomb lecture.
If you were a slave without access to reading and writing, she asked, "how would you construct a support network? What would you do to try to be successful?" In U.S., slaves escaped to the North, Miller said, answering her own question when the room fell silent. However, "if you were a slave on the island of Cuba in the 1800s, there was no where for you to go."
Juan Francisco Manzano (1797-1854) was in that position. A Cuban slave, Manzano could not read or write but he was a great performer of poetry. Using his poetry, Manzano gained recognition and his freedom. He received 800 pesos for a sonnet that he wrote, and used the money to buy himself out of slavery. His life story is the only slave narrative in Spanish, according to Manzano.
"He writes this poem in a bid for his freedom," she said. "Manzano never said out right that slavery should be abolished. It was risky for him to write his story when the people who owned him were still alive. "
Miller's efforts to research Manzano have taken her to Washington, D.C.; Havana, Cuba; and Madrid. She has more research that she would like to do.
"I'm trapped," Miller said of her interest in Manzano, "I'm under his spell."
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"Brothels, Depravity,
and Abandoned Women"
Sept. 18
Students chat with Visiting History Professor Judith Schafer following her Sept. 11 lecture on her book, "Brothels, Depravity, and Abandoned Women: Illegal Sec in Antebellum New Orleans." (Photo by Tammy C. Barney)
Judith Schafer, a visiting history professor at Tulane, was not surprised that a standing-room-only crowd came to hear her Sept. 11 lecture, the first of the fall Fridays at Newcomb series. Lectures about her book, " Brothels, Depravity, and Abandoned Women: Illegal Sex in Antebellum New Orleans," always draw a crowd.
" 'Sex sells' is certainly a good motto," Schafer said. "I have written two books on slavery and the law and those two books did not sell as must as this book has sold in four months."
Schafer did not set out to write a book about brothels. She said the stumbled on the topic while researching her other books. During her hour-long talk, she described the brothels of the antebellum era and the women who worked in them.
During the 1850s, 108,000 people lived in New Orleans, according to Schafer. Of those, 30,000 were slaves or free people of color; the rest were white. The city's population at that time also included several thousand prostitutes.
"Almost all were Irish women," she said, because they were 18 to 25 years old when they came to the city and "had nothing else to sell basically." She added that some of the women were raped and forced into the business. Women who lost their virginity before marriage were considered ruined.
Slaves also were forced to work in the brothels. Their owners took the wages. Ironically, Schafer said, free women of color ran a few brothels as well.
