NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vera M. Kutzinski has been appointed to lead an
innovative center at Vanderbilt University which studies North,
Central, and South America across political and disciplinary
boundaries.
Kutzinski, who will hold the Martha Rivers Ingram Chair of English,
begins work this summer as director of the Center for the Americas. She
concludes a 25-year career at Yale University, first as a graduate
student and then a professor of English, African- American studies and
American studies.
"I am delighted that Vera Kutzinski will be joining the Vanderbilt
faculty," said Chancellor Gordon Gee. "She is a distinguished scholar
who will lead our efforts to build a comprehensive and unique Center
for the Americas. We could not be more fortunate."
Kutzinski said the Center for the Americas will be "the place where
we can seriously begin the process of lending substance to the rhetoric
of mutuality and partnership among the nations and peoples in the
Americas.
"Ultimately, the center, in partnership with governments, non-profit
organizations and businesses, will design programs and implement
systems that make the Americas a better place to think, live and work."
Kutzinski will bring "enormous enthusiasm" to the Center for the
Americas, said Richard C. McCarty, dean of the College of Arts and
Science. "Dr. Kutzinski is not only a great scholar, but she will also
be a creative force on campus, pulling our faculty together to build a
center with a powerful national reputation," McCarty said.
Kutzinski earned master’s degrees in Afro-American studies and
American studies from Yale and went on to earn her doctorate in
American studies there. Her research interests as a comparative
Americanist have included race, gender, sexuality and translation. She
is currently at work on a book about Langston Hughes in the Americas.
At the helm of the Center for the Americas, Kutzinski wants to
be "a dreamer and a pragmatist at the same time." The center will break
the standard American studies model of treating the United States as a
privileged focus of interest.
"I imagine the Center for the Americas as a hemispheric forum that
reconnects ivory towers with their real-world contexts," she said.
"This means the kind of research projects the center will
promote-transnational, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary-should, in
the long run, become the basis for doing tangible, durable good
throughout the Americas."
The Center for the Americas was established in the summer of 2003 to
connect scholars who might not otherwise collaborate and build on
already existing trans-institutional programs to study issues involving
the Americas. Comparative literature, African-American studies,
American and Southern studies, immigration and women’s studies are
among the programs that will be affiliated with the center.
The Center for the Americas is also designed to raise Vanderbilt’s
profile abroad and attract more international students and faculty to
its Nashville campus.
"What impressed during my visits was the
palpable sense of intellectual energy, which was present every single
time I had a conversation with a member of the Vanderbilt community,"
Kutzinski said. "Vanderbilt’s pro-active, entrepreneurial stance toward
innovative research and teaching is like a breath of fresh air to me."
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu