Can the Indian manuscript and manuscript library be art? In what follows, I reflect on this question by examining a set of photographs I created for an art project called Manuscriptistan. I explain what it has meant for me to aestheticise Indian manuscript libraries and manuscripts, and I offer some insights about why it is important for scholars…[Read more]

“Selling Science in the 20th Century” was a public talk delivered as part of the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Saturday Speakers series. The presentation focused on Beckman Instruments, science advertising, the Beckman Historical Collection, and the digitization component of CHF’s Beckman Legacy Project. Audience members also had the opportunity…[Read more]

When we think we know Fernando Pessoa, a new surprise arises: this time, one related to the genesis of Mensagem, the most established and celebrated book of the Pessoan canon. That book, published in 1934 with a title only finalized at the time of the typographical proofs, was initially called Portugal—an inscription dating from 1910, when P…[Read more]

PDF copy of the syllabus for “Mapping Violence,” an undergraduate course co-taught by Profs. Monica Muñoz Martinez and Jim McGrath with Teaching Assistant Edwin Rodriguez. The course draws on and contributes to work from Mapping Violence, a digital restorative justice initiative focused on acts of state-sanctioned racial violence in Texas and…[Read more]

A somewhat whimsical musing on music videos by Fall Out Boy and Beyoncé, all through the lens of Lucretius by way of John Rahn.

Over the course of the last year the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) and the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park (Roshan Institute-UMD) have begun collaborating with the Raja of Mahmudabad family on the preservation of their important manuscript collection. The project will help protect the…[Read more]

This chapter develops two claims that are central to the book’s overall argument. The first is that certain temporal musical objects exist only as ephemera—always remaining outside of symbolic representation. These objects are constituted by lived time, or time as it shows up in human lives. The second claim is that the ephemeral meaning of mus…[Read more]

A summary of the structure and objectives of Arnie Cox’s “Music By Ear” program, a complete system of aural skills pedagogy rooted in memorization and dictation of a variety of repertoire. Music by Ear can be executed, with some modifications, asynchronously and online in response to COVID-19. (Note: this document and this method are the work of…[Read more]