Center for the Humanities

• Home
• About Us
• Current Theme and Program
• For Faculty
• For Students
• Visiting Scholars
  • Past Distinguished Visiting Professors
• Forms and Flyers
• Past Events
• Links
• Site Map

Visiting Scholars

In keeping with its mission to highlight some of the exciting contributions made by scholars in the Humanities to countless fields of research, the Center for the Humanities invites scholars from various disciplines to share their expertise with the Grinnell College community. This year, the Center for the Humanities is pleased to welcome Jeanette Roan as our Visiting Scholar in residence. Dr. Roan works in the field of Visual Culture, which is the focus for this year’s programming at the Center. She received her B.A. in Visual Arts from Brown University and her Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester. She comes to Grinnell from George Mason University, where she taught courses in Film and Media Studies, Cultural Studies, and English. She is the author of On Location: Travels to Asia on the American Screen, forthcoming from University of Michigan Press, in which she explores the emergence of cinema during the "age of empire," race and ethnicity in U.S. film, cinema and Asian Pacific American culture, and globalization and culture. While at Grinnell, Dr. Roan will teach Humanities 395 each semester, participate in the Center’s annual symposium, and work with faculty pursuing research related to visual culture.

Distinguished Visiting Professors

Beginning in 1999, the first year of the Center’s operation, the Center invited a Distinguished Visiting Professor to Grinnell College. The Distinguished Visiting Professor led both a faculty seminar and a student seminar in their field of expertise. In some years, a single Distinguished Visiting Professor remains in residence for the fall semester, and returns briefly each Spring to participate in our annual symposium. In other years, the Center invites multiple Distinguished Visiting Professors to campus for shorter periods during the Fall Semester, all of whom take turns leading the faculty and student seminars and who also return for the spring symposium. Beginning in 2008, the Center will explore other modes of bringing cutting-edge scholarship in the Humanities to Grinnell’s campus; however, we anticipate returning to the Distinguished Visiting Professor program in the future, although not on an annual basis.  

Click the links below to learn more about past Distinguished Visiting Professors. See also the Past Events page for a description of the faculty seminars, student seminars, and symposia they led.