Arts & Culture
Goldberg Standard
Alumni honor legendary history professor.
In the 1960s there was one standard for influence among UW humanities professors — the Goldberg standard. History professor Harvey Goldberg ‘43, PhD’51, who taught at the UW from 1963 to 1987, helped define the UW for a generation, mesmerizing his students in the classroom and shaping their thoughts for years after graduation.
Now a group of UW alumni in New York have banded together to memorialize the legendary teacher and continue his work by dedicating a classroom in his honor at New York City’s Brecht Forum, a thirty-year-old political and cultural venue for the progressive community.
The Forum also hosts an annual Harvey Goldberg Lecture, the second of which will take place on October 6. It will feature a performance by Ben Sidran ‘67, himself a Goldberg disciple, and a talk by UW history professor Jeremi Suri, who is publishing two books in 2006: Henry Kissinger and the American Century and The Global Revolutions of 1968.
In l963, UW President Fred Harvey Harrington recruited Goldberg, a social historian, away from Ohio State University, where his eloquent lectures and passionate social consciousness had already made him famous.
In the 1960s there was one standard for influence among UW humanities professors — the Goldberg standard. History professor Harvey Goldberg ‘43, PhD’51, who taught at the UW from 1963 to 1987, helped define the UW for a generation, mesmerizing his students in the classroom and shaping their thoughts for years after graduation.
Now a group of UW alumni in New York have banded together to memorialize the legendary teacher and continue his work by dedicating a classroom in his honor at New York City’s Brecht Forum, a thirty-year-old political and cultural venue for the progressive community.
The Forum also hosts an annual Harvey Goldberg Lecture, the second of which will take place on October 6. It will feature a performance by Ben Sidran ‘67, himself a Goldberg disciple, and a talk by UW history professor Jeremi Suri, who is publishing two books in 2006: Henry Kissinger and the American Century and The Global Revolutions of 1968.
In l963, UW President Fred Harvey Harrington recruited Goldberg, a social historian, away from Ohio State University, where his eloquent lectures and passionate social consciousness had already made him famous.
Soon Goldberg’s lectures in Agriculture Hall were attracting standing-room-only crowds, bringing in even students who weren’t enrolled in his courses.
“He was a bundle of energy. He started each lecture with a gulp of breath and would go from there,” recalls Ellen Meyers ‘71, a founding member of the Harvey Goldberg Classroom and the Teachers Network, a nonprofit organization that supports public school teachers. “We were on the edge of our seats. We never scheduled a class after his because he would always go over [time] and we didn’t want to miss a thing.”
Goldberg, who taught an estimated twenty-five thousand students in his career and supervised ninety-nine PhD dissertations, was “all about humanity,” says Meyers, and many of his students are still in touch with his ideals and values. The October 6 event is open to all. To learn more, contact Meyers.
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— Karen Roach ‘82
“He was a bundle of energy. He started each lecture with a gulp of breath and would go from there,” recalls Ellen Meyers ‘71, a founding member of the Harvey Goldberg Classroom and the Teachers Network, a nonprofit organization that supports public school teachers. “We were on the edge of our seats. We never scheduled a class after his because he would always go over [time] and we didn’t want to miss a thing.”
Goldberg, who taught an estimated twenty-five thousand students in his career and supervised ninety-nine PhD dissertations, was “all about humanity,” says Meyers, and many of his students are still in touch with his ideals and values. The October 6 event is open to all. To learn more, contact Meyers.
org.
— Karen Roach ‘82
The Power of Parody
African professor explores the subversive world of political cartoonists.
Tejumola Olaniyan knows that the distance from the tip of a political cartoonist’s pen to the door of a prison cell — or the muzzle of an assassin’s gun — can be frightfully short.
In his native Africa, Olaniyan has seen the cost. Algerian cartoonist Guerrovi Brahim was murdered in 1995. Tony Namate, a cartoonist in Zimbabwe and a friend of Olaniyan’s, is in hiding, fearing retribution from the government of Robert Mugabe. Another Algerian, Lamari Chawki, received a three-year prison term for mocking that nation’s flag.
Earlier this year, when political cartoons in an obscure Danish publication rocked the Islamic world and unleashed widespread civil unrest and death with their depiction of the prophet Mohammed, Olaniyan was not surprised. A professor of English and African languages and literature, he was already at work on a book about the ability of cartoons to sear into people’s hearts — and land their creators in serious jeopardy.
“Cartoons may seem to be innocuous and childish, but they are very powerful,” he says. “Political cartoons are supposed to upset their target.”
Olaniyan’s focus is on the developing nations of Africa, places often beset with problems of war, disease, poverty, and corruption. His forthcoming book will examine how cartoonists in English-speaking African nations — including Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria — frame those issues for readers who often don’t have many other sources of news.
Tejumola Olaniyan knows that the distance from the tip of a political cartoonist’s pen to the door of a prison cell — or the muzzle of an assassin’s gun — can be frightfully short.
In his native Africa, Olaniyan has seen the cost. Algerian cartoonist Guerrovi Brahim was murdered in 1995. Tony Namate, a cartoonist in Zimbabwe and a friend of Olaniyan’s, is in hiding, fearing retribution from the government of Robert Mugabe. Another Algerian, Lamari Chawki, received a three-year prison term for mocking that nation’s flag.
Earlier this year, when political cartoons in an obscure Danish publication rocked the Islamic world and unleashed widespread civil unrest and death with their depiction of the prophet Mohammed, Olaniyan was not surprised. A professor of English and African languages and literature, he was already at work on a book about the ability of cartoons to sear into people’s hearts — and land their creators in serious jeopardy.
“Cartoons may seem to be innocuous and childish, but they are very powerful,” he says. “Political cartoons are supposed to upset their target.”
Olaniyan’s focus is on the developing nations of Africa, places often beset with problems of war, disease, poverty, and corruption. His forthcoming book will examine how cartoonists in English-speaking African nations — including Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria — frame those issues for readers who often don’t have many other sources of news.
“The literacy in terms of being able to read and write is very low,” Olaniyan says. “But there is a high degree of visual literacy. Cartoons have always been very popular. People regard cartoonists as trusted guides to help them make sense of the chaos of the political scene.”
The power of political cartoonists in Africa is such that when a former Nigerian regime instituted a national “War Against Indiscipline,” one of the discouraged activities — along with things such as littering — was cartooning the head of state.
That subversive nature appeals to Olaniyan, who first developed a liking for cartoons as a high school student in Omu-Aran, Nigeria. And while American political cartoonists also take on tough issues, he says that the work of their African counterparts differs in significant ways.
“In Africa, the issues they are faced with are issues of life and death and the macropolitical issues of extreme inequality, torture and injustice, and poverty. That propels them to be more edgy,” he says. “Cartoonists in the west have views that are more micro.
“You actually have to be creative to be corrupt here. In Africa, we’re talking about very vulgar corruption, and with impunity. They are faced with issues that are far more urgent,” he adds.
The power of political cartoonists in Africa is such that when a former Nigerian regime instituted a national “War Against Indiscipline,” one of the discouraged activities — along with things such as littering — was cartooning the head of state.
That subversive nature appeals to Olaniyan, who first developed a liking for cartoons as a high school student in Omu-Aran, Nigeria. And while American political cartoonists also take on tough issues, he says that the work of their African counterparts differs in significant ways.
“In Africa, the issues they are faced with are issues of life and death and the macropolitical issues of extreme inequality, torture and injustice, and poverty. That propels them to be more edgy,” he says. “Cartoonists in the west have views that are more micro.
“You actually have to be creative to be corrupt here. In Africa, we’re talking about very vulgar corruption, and with impunity. They are faced with issues that are far more urgent,” he adds.
Another difference is artistic. Because they are often dealing with the same big-picture issues again and again, African cartoonists must reinvent their styles to keep readers interested, Olaniyan says. American cartoonists tend to adopt a style and portray issues through that lens.
The common thread, though, is that political cartoonists everywhere play an important role in attacking the status quo. And although many people have suggested that it was irresponsible for Danish newspapers to portray the prophet Mohammed in cartoons, Olaniyan suggests it would be more irresponsible to squelch cartoonists’ freedom to critique society.
“There are all kinds of speech in this country that I don’t like and would like to pulverize into the ground. Much of it is speech directed at people like me,” he says. “But the question is, would I want to sacrifice freedom of speech for the benefit of not hearing those forms of speech? The answer is no.”
— Dennis Chaptman ‘80
The common thread, though, is that political cartoonists everywhere play an important role in attacking the status quo. And although many people have suggested that it was irresponsible for Danish newspapers to portray the prophet Mohammed in cartoons, Olaniyan suggests it would be more irresponsible to squelch cartoonists’ freedom to critique society.
“There are all kinds of speech in this country that I don’t like and would like to pulverize into the ground. Much of it is speech directed at people like me,” he says. “But the question is, would I want to sacrifice freedom of speech for the benefit of not hearing those forms of speech? The answer is no.”
— Dennis Chaptman ‘80
COLLECTION: The Royal Touch
In the 1700s and 1800s, there was no better medical school than the one at Edinburgh University in Scotland. It produced such minds as Joseph Lister, who pioneered the use of antiseptic, and Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock Holmes. The library of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh was then the envy of the scientific world. Today, thanks to the late medical librarian Helen Crawford, many of those books reside at the Ebling Library, which serves the UW’s health science programs.
Medicine has come a long way in the last hundred years (discoveries include, for instance, germs), but the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh hasn’t — forced into smaller quarters in 1969, it had to sell many of its historical books. Between 1969 and 1970, Crawford jetted from Madison to Britain three times, working feverishly to acquire as many of these volumes as she could. She succeeded in purchasing 55 percent of the medical texts for the UW, including a comprehensive set of dissertations.
“The collection includes works from primarily the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries,” says Greg Prickman, Ebling’s historical services librarian. “They show the early efforts to understand what diseases are and how the body works.” As such, they represent a timeline for the history of medicine. But they also offer a personal glimpse inside the minds of some of history’s most famous doctors. “The books were used fairly heavily,” says Prickman. “And so there are often graffiti and notes in the margins.”
The Edinburgh collection is non-circulating, but patrons can find it in the Ebling Library’s reading room.
— John Allen
Medicine has come a long way in the last hundred years (discoveries include, for instance, germs), but the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh hasn’t — forced into smaller quarters in 1969, it had to sell many of its historical books. Between 1969 and 1970, Crawford jetted from Madison to Britain three times, working feverishly to acquire as many of these volumes as she could. She succeeded in purchasing 55 percent of the medical texts for the UW, including a comprehensive set of dissertations.
“The collection includes works from primarily the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries,” says Greg Prickman, Ebling’s historical services librarian. “They show the early efforts to understand what diseases are and how the body works.” As such, they represent a timeline for the history of medicine. But they also offer a personal glimpse inside the minds of some of history’s most famous doctors. “The books were used fairly heavily,” says Prickman. “And so there are often graffiti and notes in the margins.”
The Edinburgh collection is non-circulating, but patrons can find it in the Ebling Library’s reading room.
— John Allen
ARTIFACTS
Students at Hillel had a chance to get Lost in March — they heard from two writers of that award-winning ABC program, Adam Horowitz x’94 and Edward Kitsis ‘93. The writers screened an episode, discussed their creative process, and shared insider highlights about the show.
It’s often been said that UW-Madison marches to the beat of its own drum — and campus is about to get a lot more drummers. The Drum Corps International World Championships will be held at Camp Randall from August 8 to 12. Madison last hosted the competition in 2002.
Is Stalin set for a comeback? Sociology professor Theodore Gerber and his colleague Sarah Mendelson from the Center for Strategic and International Studies released a survey in February that indicated that young Russians hold an ambivalent or even positive view of the dictator. Some 56 percent of them felt he did more good than bad and 51 percent said he was a wise leader.
William Broad MA’77, a senior writer for the New York Times, takes a look into the past to see how the ancients tried to foretell the future with The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Message of Ancient Delphi, published this year by Penguin. The book combines science and history, but reads like a detective story, following the efforts of an archaeologist and a geologist as they worked to uncover once and for all the secrets of the Oracle of Delphi, one of the most influential prophets of ancient Greece.
It’s often been said that UW-Madison marches to the beat of its own drum — and campus is about to get a lot more drummers. The Drum Corps International World Championships will be held at Camp Randall from August 8 to 12. Madison last hosted the competition in 2002.
Is Stalin set for a comeback? Sociology professor Theodore Gerber and his colleague Sarah Mendelson from the Center for Strategic and International Studies released a survey in February that indicated that young Russians hold an ambivalent or even positive view of the dictator. Some 56 percent of them felt he did more good than bad and 51 percent said he was a wise leader.
William Broad MA’77, a senior writer for the New York Times, takes a look into the past to see how the ancients tried to foretell the future with The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Message of Ancient Delphi, published this year by Penguin. The book combines science and history, but reads like a detective story, following the efforts of an archaeologist and a geologist as they worked to uncover once and for all the secrets of the Oracle of Delphi, one of the most influential prophets of ancient Greece.
