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Dwight Conquergood (1949-2004) Papers

 Collection
Identifier: 20/74

  • Staff Only
  • No requestable containers

Scope and Contents

Boxes 1-25

The Dwight Conquergood Papers fill 25 boxes and span the years 1974-2005; the bulk of the papers date from 1980 to 2002. The papers consist mostly of materials from his administrative work and the courses he taught at Northwestern; notebooks and other resources from his field research; and copies of papers and articles he authored.

Biographical files contain clippings about Conquergood (Box 1, Folders 2-3) and personal correspondence (Box 1, Folders 5-6; Box 2, Folders 1-4). They also include copies of his curricula vitae from various points in his career (Box 2, Folder 5) and the guest book and schedule of speakers from his memorial service held at Northwestern in January 2005 (Box 3, Folder 3).

The Northwestern University subseries includes class notes and student work from some of the courses Conquergood taught at Northwestern. It also includes university correspondence (Box 3, Folder 9; Box 4, Folders 1-3) and course and teacher evaluations (Box 4, Folders 4-5). The rest of the subseries is divided into three sections: the Department of Performance Studies, the Graduate School, and the School of Speech. The Department of Performance Studies section includes overviews of department's graduate (Box 10, Folder 5) and Ph.D. (Box 11, Folder 4) programs, as well as internal and external department reviews (Box 11, Folder 5). The Graduate School section includes materials from the 1999-2000 Curriculum Review Committee (Box 11, Folder 9) and the School of Speech section contains materials from the school's Task Force on Cultural Diversity (Box 11, Folders 14-15), both of which Conquergood served on.

The research subseries contains materials from Conquergood's four main areas of ethnographic field work: Albany Park, the Gaza Strip, Hmong refugees, and Chicago street gangs. Each section contains correspondence between Conquergood and his subjects, as well as other academics interested in his research. The correspondence in the street gangs section contains letters from incarcerated members of the Latin Kings (Box 16, Folder 7). Each section also contains field notebooks Conquergood used to record his research and other information pertaining to these groups. The Hmong refugees section contains English-to-Hmong dictionaries (Box 13, Folder 5) and translations of Hmong proverbs (Box 13, Folder 1). The street gangs section contains depositions Conquergood delivered for trials (Box 16, Folders 8-9), a copy of the Latin Kings' Manifesto (Box 16, Folder 11) and scrapbooks of the Kings' tags (Box 17, Folder 3). Items within each file are arranged chronologically.

The scholarship subseries contains information from conferences Conquergood spoke at or attended (Box 18, Folders 2-4; Box 19, Folder 1). The papers and publications sections contain copies of papers he presented at conferences and articles of his that were published in journals and anthologies.

The photographs subseries contains pictures and slides from Conquergood's field research, including pictures of Hmong immigrants, his visit to the Thai refugee camp Ban Vinai, and numerous images taken or used in his classroom.

Dates

  • 1974-2005
  • Other: Majority of material found within 1980-2002

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Box 9, Folders 10-11 contain personnel matters from Conquergood's time as chair of the Department of Performance Studies and may only be used with the permission of the department's current chair. Student records are present in materials found from Box 5, Folder 5 through Box 9, Folder 9 as well as in Boxes 10 and 11; consultation with University Archivist required prior to use of these materials.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is stored at a remote campus location and requires two business days advance notice for retrieval. Please contact the McCormick Library at specialcollections@northwestern.edu or 847-491-3635 for more information or to schedule an appointment to view the collection.

Extent

48 Boxes

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Conquergood received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University in 1977 and served as an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Communication at The State University of New York in Binghamton for a year before returning to Northwestern to teach in 1983. He remained at Northwestern until his death in 2004. His research focused on marginalized societies and refugee groups, as well as the implications, purpose and rituals of the death penalty in/on American society. The Dwight Conquergood Papers fill 25 boxes and span the years 1974-2005; the bulk of the papers date from 1980 to 2002. The papers consist mostly of materials from his administrative work and the courses he taught at Northwestern; notebooks and other resources from his field research; and copies of papers and articles he authored.

Arrangement

Biographical materials are arranged by topic. Northwestern University materials are arranged by topic and course designation. Research materials are in four groups: Albany Park, the Gaza Strip, Hmong refugees, and Chicago street gangs; each group is arranged alphabetically, when possible. The scholarship materials are in broad chronological groups. Whenever possible, materials in each folder within each subseries are in chronological order.

Method of Acquisition

The Dwight Conquergood Papers include materials donated by Patrick Johnson (Accession No. 06-77, June 23, 2006). Some biographical materials came from the University Archives' Biographical Files (Accession No. 03-135, August 26, 2003). An additional accession was donated by Alan Shefsky of the Performance Studies Department (Accession No. 08-24, February 29, 2008).

Separated Materials

Approximately 20 linear feet of extraneous and duplicate material, including newspapers and magazines that had no connection with the papers, packing materials, and duplicates of Conquergood's class notes, papers and publications have been discarded. A T-shirt and a vest from his time with the Latin Kings have been separated and placed with the Archives' collection of artifacts. Seventy-nine videotapes and seven audiocassette tapes were also separated and placed in the audio-visual collections of the University Archives.

Processing Information

David Morrison; May 9, 2008. Tim Garrett; July, 2009.

Title
Guide to the Dwight Conquergood (1949-2004) Papers
Author
David Morrison
Date
09/05/2008
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng

Library Details

Part of the Northwestern University Archives Repository

Contact:
Deering Library, Level 3
1970 Campus Dr.
Evanston IL 60208-2300 US
847-491-3635