Part One: On the role of the arts and humanities in Purdue’s early days
A Purdue English professor since 1994 with a specialty in poetry analysis and literary criticism, I sometimes find myself wondering about the history of my disciplines at a leading STEM-oriented university. As Purdue celebrated the anniversary of its founding more than 150 years ago, I became increasingly curious to know if Indiana’s Land Grant has […]
Part Two: On the role of the arts and humanities in Purdue’s early days
Alongside the myth that liberal studies were inessential at early Purdue, I have often heard it said that Purdue did not offer graduate training or graduate degrees in English and history until the 1960s. The truth is that Purdue was offering graduate work and conferring graduate degrees in the humanities in the early years. The […]
Multiplier effect
Jay Zawacki can look back and identify many ways in which his Purdue experience impacted the direction his life would take. For one thing, it was in the Purdue Memorial Union’s music listening room that he met a persistent, Brahms-loving fellow student named Alice Acton. After enrolling at the university in fall 1948, Zawacki got […]