Alumni Doswell, Courtney to lecture at MCRelease Date:
March 20, 2007
MONMOUTH, Ill. — Two Monmouth College graduates will return to their alma mater
and present evening lectures that are free and open to the public.
On March 28, Ray Doswell ’91, curator of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in
Kansas City, Mo., will speak at 7 p.m. in the Whiteman-McMillan Highlander Room
of the college’s Stockdale Center. The following evening, Charles Courtney ’57
will give a lecture at 7 p.m. in the Morgan Room of the college’s Poling Hall.
Doswell will speak on “Black Baseball: 1860-1960,” with an emphasis on the Negro
Leagues, which began in 1920. Of his subject matter, Doswell has said, “This is
an untold American history. A lot of people are still unaware of the existence
of the Negro Leagues. But baseball is such a vital and important part of
American history, and the Negro Leagues are an important part of that history.”
Doswell, who holds a master’s degree in history from the University of
California-Riverside, said the museum offers serious study of the Negro Leagues
and their impact on American and African-American culture.
“I want to help people get the whole perspective of the Negro Leagues and put it
in the context of black history and American history,” he said. “What little
Negro League history is available was written by fans, sportswriters and other
people who like the game. Not much of it is written by historians, so we want to
do more scholarly, historical work with it.”
Courtney’s talk is titled “What, Who, We: Exploring Recognition,” and draws on
recent work by French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur.
“‘What, who and we’ each connects with experiences that are central to the life
of every college student,” said Courtney, who taught philosophy at Drew
University for 40 years. “College is a time for learning to recognize many
different aspects of the world and to start to become an expert about one of
them (what), for recognizing oneself (who) and for building community through
giving and receiving recognition (we). Each of these is a process that can
succeed or fail.”
He added, “I will propose that philosophical reflection can help us understand
the experiences of being correct or mistaken about what is; being who I am by
keeping or breaking my promise; and living together in a constant mix of
misunderstanding and the gift of companionship.”
After graduating from Monmouth, Courtney earned a divinity degree from Harvard
University and received master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy from
Northwestern University.
Released
by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330
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