EAS Editors’ Note: This is Part II of a guest-edited roundtable that was in response to “Facing the Future of Early American Studies,” the July 2023 conference where scholars reflected on the scholarship and mentorship of Daniel K. Richter, director emeritus of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. Read Part I here.
Facing the Archive from the Present: A Celebration of Dan Richter’s Work, Part II
Links to Facing the Archive from the Present, Part II Posts:
As literary scholars, we want to honor the spirit of Dan Richter’s work in early American history and in particular, Dan’s commitment to the intersections of language, history, and storytelling. To that end, we are excited to share this second roundtable discussion to celebrate Dan’s support as a mentor and scholar at the McNeil Center and beyond. We’ve convened literature and history scholars together in honor of the multiplicity of Dan’s work and his expansive way of thinking about the narration of history. His research and mentorship has inspired scholars of the early Americas across disciplines in the humanities, both inside and outside of the traditional forms of the academy. Dan is also a wordsmith, a critic of language, and as anyone who has ever attended a McNeil Center seminar knows, he is an expert in writing puns. In particular, we want to recognize Dan’s attention to language and narration as a historian, a facet of early American studies that is too often under appreciated.
Tara A. Bynum and Liz Polcha
Liz Polcha is an Assistant Professor of English and Digital Humanities at Drexel University.