[Expositions 5.2 (2011) i-ii]  Expositions (online) ISSN: 1747-5376 

Editors’ Preface 

John A. Doody, Gregory Hoskins, John-Paul Spiro 

 

The Fall 2011 issue of Expositions: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities could be 

subtitled, “Past, Present, and Future.” Much of this issue’s content focuses on the world of 

ancient Greece, while other pieces explore such topics as the origins of Islam and nineteenth-

century German aesthetics. Alongside these contributions are provocative meditations on the 

personality of Adolf Hitler and the present-day struggles of women in what are called 

“developing countries.” Some readers of Expositions may be inclined to read only those pieces 

which fall into their own fields of interest; something is here for almost anybody. But it is the 

juxtaposition of such works that makes Expositions what it is: a journal that, in its insistent 

interest in our common humanity, refuses to privilege any particular discipline, discourse, or 

ideology. 

 

We have published numerous pieces on art and music – both of which require interdisciplinary 

approaches and are thus perfect for Expositions’s mission. In this issue, we are proud to present 

our feature article, Joseph E. Morgan’s “Reference, Autonomy, and Nationalism in Early 

German Romantic Art,” which considers the interplay of ideas, history, and aesthetics. In a 

different key, Edward Green’s daring and original essay, “The Mind of Adolf Hitler: A Study in 

the Unconscious Appeal of Contempt,” applies aesthetic ideas back into history and psychology.  

 

Few books could be as timely as Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women 

Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. In our Academic Roundtable, our varied 

interlocutors, in light of their own expertise and experience, commend the book’s intentions and 

overall mission while considering its omissions, prejudices, and evasions. Meanwhile, Jack 

Tannous’s review of Fred M. Donner’s Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam 

considers the historical and theological blind-spots in a controversial work of recent scholarship 

(again, while still finding much to praise). These contributions cannot help but have 

contemporary resonance. 

 

As one reads through this issue’s Interviews or Overheard in the Academy, one finds that the 

central concern throughout is not in conserving or preserving or resurrecting the works of the 

ancients but in keeping them available and continuing their conversations. Classics, as a 

discipline, has been pronounced dead many times over, just as now all the Humanities are said to 

be dying (or are in the process of being murdered), and yet students continue to respond to good 

teaching, scholars continue to produce good work, and new technologies present us with new 

ways of reading and thinking about classical texts. Aristotle – simultaneously one of the greatest 

and most difficult of ancient thinkers – is perennially the center of scholarly debates (and an 



Editor’s Preface  ii 
 

unacknowledged participant in many political debates) and in this issue we present interviews 

with Susan D. Collins and Mark Shiffman, two scholars who have labored intensely to bring his 

work to Greek-less readers. Meanwhile, in our Overheard in the Academy on “The Future of the 

Classics,” Fellows from the Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC 

reflect on their discipline – yes, its past, present, and future – with freshness, insight, and a 

diversity of approaches. (Go to http://vimeo.com/channels/chsfellows for original versions of 

these pieces, presented at the Center for Hellenic Studies on April 2, 2011.) 

 

Special thanks must be given to Sally Scholz for her initiative on the Academic Roundtable and 

to Don Lavigne for doing all the real organizational work on the Overheard in the Academy.  

http://vimeo.com/channels/chsfellows