Arnold Rampersad : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Arnold Rampersad, the Sara Hart Kimball Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, reflects on his education, his career at Stanford, and the biographies of Black Americans that he has written. Rampersad describes his upbringing in Trinidad, his path to Bowling Green State University, and his graduate work at Harvard. He reflects on the treatment of race in the Caribbean versus the United States, and describes how he became interested in nineteenth- century American literature, African American literature, and the complex and underappreciated writings of W.E.B. Du Bois. He then turns to his portfolio of biographies of Black subjects, outlining his research methods and writing process, and sharing details about his books on Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson, and Ralph Ellison. In describing his time at Stanford, Rampersad shares memories of the Department of English, teaching and students, and his tenure as senior associate dean for the humanities. Having spent time on the faculty at other universities, including Columbia, Rutgers, and the University of Virginia, Rampersad provides a comparative perspective on university cultures, approaches to undergraduate education, and administrative structures.
- Summary
- Growing up in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad • Influence of Catholicism and British education system in Trinidad’s schools • Books and reading as a child and teenager • Expecting not to attend college • Competitions and exams for scholarships • Race in Trinidad in the 1950s • Teaching for a year after finishing high school • Passion for cricket and soccer • Working in radio in Trinidad and Barbados • Opportunity to pursue a college degree in journalism in the United States • Attending Bowling Green State University in the 1960s • Growing interest in American writers • Finding success in the university setting • Playing catchup in order to get BA in two years • Applying to graduate schools; master’s thesis on Herman Melville’s Israel Potter • Awareness of race in Trinidad vs. the US • Race at BGSU • Memories of his first exposure to American literature when a shopkeeper lends him The Great Gatsby and Look Homeward, Angel • Attitudes towards the Vietnam War at conservative BGSU • Choosing Harvard over Stanford for graduate school • Graduate student life at Harvard • Living in Lowell House with Zeph Stewart as house master • Harvard’s English Department in the late 1960s • Teaching experiences at Harvard • Acting as the TA for Roger Rosenblatt’s course on African American literature • Reading list for Rosenblatt’s course • Relationship with Black students at Harvard • Memories of Harvard professors Walter Jackson Bate and B.J. Whiting • Dissertation advisor Alan Heimert; interest in the phenomenon of “cultural Renaissance” • Encountering The Souls of Black Folk and decision to write about W.E.B. Du Bois for his dissertation • Receiving a harsh reader’s report from historian August Meier when trying to publish dissertation • Reflections on his decision to accept Meier’s criticism and substantially revise the work • Motivation to write a full intellectual biography of Du Bois, especially the inadequate scholarly treatment of his contributions • Important early biographies of Black figures, including Zora Neale Hurston • Publication of The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. Du Bois • Trying to find a new research subject after Du Bois • Limitations of Stanford and other western institutions as repositories for African American literary collections • Leave of absence to teach in Harvard’s African American Studies Department in 1978-79 • Offer to be the biographer of Langston Hughes • Trips to the East Coast to access the Hughes papers at Yale • Rampersad’s archival research methods and systems • Contents of the Hughes papers • Archival answers to questions about Hughes’ sexuality and love life • Conducting interviews as part of biographical research • Writing, publication, and reception of The Life of Langston Hughes in two volumes • Acting as a trustee of the Hughes estate • Rationale for writing an afterword in the second edition discussing his treatment of Hughes’ sexuality • Working with Library of America on editing Richard Wright’s books • Meeting Arthur Ashe around the time he announced his AIDS diagnosis • Working with Ashe on Days of Grace: A Memoir • Ashe and civil disobedience • Ashe’s letter to his daughter • Publishing the book after Ashe’s death • The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes • Writing a biography of Jackie Robinson that moved beyond baseball to capture his civil rights and political activities • Relationship with the Robinson family • Working on the Ralph Ellison biography; author’s papers at the Library of Congress • Thoughts on why Ellison wrote only one novel, Invisible Man • Reflections on writing his own memoir • First academic position at University of Virginia • Strength of the English Department at UVA in the early 1970s • Culture of UVA and challenges of being an assistant professor • Story of recruitment to Stanford • Teaching at UVA • Stanford in the mid-1970s • Job talk on Flannery O’Connor • Teaching American literature and African American literature at Stanford • Teaching at Rutgers University • Decision to leave Stanford for the East Coast • How to thrive as a humanities scholar • Humanities at Stanford • Reflections on the interconnection of student evaluations of his teaching, race, and competence • Stanford’s Program in Modern Thought and Literature • Creation of the American Studies House at Stanford • Changes in curriculum and the profession • Thoughts on trigger warnings and political correctness • Lack of teaching training for graduate students • Teaching at Columbia University • Teaching at Princeton • Silicon Valley’s influence on Stanford • Undergraduate education at elite institutions • Changes to the Stanford campus • Role of the library in a university • Stanford’s Residential Education program • Harvard and Princeton’s residential systems • History of Black students and faculty at Stanford • Memories of Kennell Jackson • Stanford’s difficulty in attracting and holding on to minority faculty • Mormonism and Stanford • Catholicism at Stanford and Memorial Church • Hiring and promotion in university settings • Academic appointments and systems • Power dynamics in academics • Assigning billets within the English Department • Role of the dean in departmental hiring and promotion decisions • Tenure system • Differences in the appointment powers of departments and programs • Importance of teaching in appointment and promotion decisions • Appointment as senior associate dean for the humanities • Responsibilities as associate dean • Impact of deanship on his research and writing • Making difficult decisions • Challenges with faculty appointments and salary negotiations • Role of the provost at Stanford • Stanford’s leadership and administration • Thoughts on the hiring rates of minority faculty at Stanford • Stanford compared to Ivy League universities • Reflections on the new internationalism
Description
| Type of resource | sound recording-nonmusical, text, still image |
|---|---|
| Extent | 4 audio files; 1 text file; 1 photograph |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | November 5, 2019 - 2019-11-14 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Rampersad, Arnold | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Rampersad, Arnold | |
| Interviewer | Horton, Larry N. | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Rampersad, Arnold |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford University. Department of English |
| Subject | American literature |
| Subject | Biographers |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile | Arnold Rampersad was a member of Stanford’s English Department from 1974 to 1983, before resigning to accept a position at Rutgers University. Since then he has taught there and at Columbia and Princeton before returning to Stanford in 1998. Rampersad’s most recent book is Ralph Ellison, a biography of the novelist. His other books include The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. DuBois (1976); The Life of Langston Hughes (2 vols., 1986, 1988); Days of Grace: A Memoir (1993), co-authored with Arthur Ashe; and Jackie Robinson: A Biography (1997). In addition, he has edited several volumes including Collected Poems of Langston Hughes; the Library of America edition (2 volumes) of works by Richard Wright, with revised individual editions of Native Son and Black Boy; and (as co-editor with Deborah McDowell) Slavery and the Literary Imagination. He was also co- editor, with Shelley Fisher Fishkin, of the Race and American Culture book series published by Oxford University Press. Rampersad’s teaching covers such areas as nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature; American autobiography; race and American literature; and African-American literature. From 1991 to 1996, he held a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He is a 2010 recipient of the National Humanities Medal. |
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| Transcript |
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| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/sm521tt9020 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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