regrets and thoughts

Sat Apr 12 18:18:33 UTC 2014

So, it looks to me like we're talking about at least two different things, maybe three, all of which I would like to see done.

(1) A collection of Bob's papers, to be published as a book and/or perhaps a journal special issue. The Siouan archive collection would be a good start on gathering these papers, though there might be others that he never sent in.  These would be work that was finished (or close to it) but either not published or published in out-of-the-way places.  Someone would need to select which works to include, edit them (as has been pointed out, some may not be quite ready for public consumption), and of course find a publisher.  Volunteers?

(2) A different collection of less-polished or fragmentary material, to be given to some appropriate archive.  I imagine a lot of what Dave K will find in the "garage full of files" will be notes, correspondence, class handouts ... the kind of things that don't belong in a book or journal but that might well be of great interest to future researchers.  Yes, things do get buried in archives, as someone said, but at least they are there for some future person to dig up.  Bob once sent me a bunch of his old class handouts on comparative Romance; nothing publishable, but invaluable in putting together my own Romance linguistics course.  I bet there's lots of similar stuff on Siouan in that garage.  Someone (Dave K?) would need to contact an archive & do some sorting...

(3) A festschrift in Bob's honor.  This would presumably be a selection of papers on Siouan languages by some of us, though it might include a paper or two of Bob's too.  There was a suggestion earlier that it could serve as a venue for some of the papers from the abandoned Comparative Siouan Syntax project.  This one would take a fair amount of cat-herding, getting people to send papers in by some reasonable deadline, selecting, editing, finding a publisher -- lots of work, but seems well worth doing.

Let's talk about all of these in Madison.  To answer Meredith's question -- I think we should have a fairly good chunk of time (at least an hour??? perhaps at the end of an afternoon so it could run as long as needed?) Will there be a separate chance to talk about Bob's life and what he meant to us all, or are you picturing rolling a memorial together with talking about publication plans?

Sorry to go on at such length -- the thread seems to be getting a bit fragmented and I'm hoping to gather it back together.
Catherine

>>> Marianne Mithun  04/12/14 11:22 AM >>>
I completely agree with David. There is so much there, and when I've asked 
Bob about various things, he's come up with handouts from 25 years earlier, 
and papers from decades before or recently, all of them so valuable. A 
tricky call of course. How many of us would like our unfinished work out 
there. But so much of Bob's work was really finished.

Marianne

--On Saturday, April 12, 2014 7:34 AM -0600 ROOD DAVID S 
 wrote:

> Dave, if Carolyn is willing, I think it would be much better to try to
> arrange for a book or a series of journal publications (e.g. a special
> issue of IJAL) rather than an archive.  Things get buried in archives.
> However, I know that a lot of what Bob circulated to us was stuff he
> considered unfinished.  The extent to which anyone else would consider
> that work publishable needs to be discussed with Carolyn.
>
> Best,
>      David
>
> David S. Rood
> Dept. of Linguistics
> Univ. of Colorado
> 295 UCB
> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
> USA
> rood at colorado.edu
>
> On Fri, 11 Apr 2014, David Kaufman wrote:
>
>> I don't know if Bob expressed such an interest, at least not to me, and
>> possibly not to Carolyn either (she didn't mention it).  I'd have to look
>> into how we would go about submitting papers to these organizations for
>> their archives.  Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> David Kaufman
>> Linguistic Anthropology PhD candidate, University of Kansas
>> Director, Kaw Nation Language Program
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 1:26 PM, David Costa
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Did Bob ever express a preference as to where his papers should end up?
>>> I would assume either the NAA or the APS would be best...
>>>
>>> Dave Costa
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi David and all,
>>>
>>> Sorry to hear David that you won't be able to make it to the SCLC this
>>> year.
>>>
>>> I know we have talked about doing a Festschrift in Bob's honor, and this
>>> is certainly something we can discuss at the meeting.  Hopefully our
>>> organizers can set aside some time on the schedule so we can all
>>> participate in this discussion.
>>>
>>> As for the CSD, I think it's a great idea to have it finalized and
>>> published in some form, either electronically or in print, or both.
>>>
>>> As concerns Bob's unpublished papers and computer files, Carolyn, Bob's
>>> wife, and I have been in touch fairly regularly.  Even before Bob's
>>> death, she said that she and Bob had discussed it and thought it would
>>> be best that I come up to their house and "clean out" his garage full
>>> of files, books, etc.  Also, I plan to take a USB drive and download as
>>> much of his computer files as possible, at least some of which I know
>>> pertain to Kaw. I'll be happy to distribute whatever I find pertaining
>>>  to other Siouan languages to those of you who want it.  I'm hoping to
>>> go up and do this in the next couple of months, possibly in early June
>>> or so before it gets too hot.  I know Carolyn is thinking about selling
>>> the house and moving up to be with family in Wisconsin, so this
>>> cleaning out will have to be done fairly soon anyway.
>>>
>>> Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted as plans for these things become more
>>> concrete.  Things are a bit crazy for me right now as I work full-time
>>> for the Kaw Nation and try to finish my dissertation without yet having
>>> another committee member to substitute for Bob.  I hope to defend in
>>> May, but I'm still awaiting final word on a new committee member and
>>> date from my advisor.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>> David Kaufman
>>> Linguistic Anthropology PhD candidate, University of Kansas
>>> Director, Kaw Nation Language Program
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 12:27 PM, ROOD DAVID S
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi, everyone,
>>>>         My family schedule for at least part of the summer has finally
>>>> settled down, and I regret that it precludes me from attending the SCLC
>>>> again this year.  The earliest I could get to Madison would be
>>>> mid-afternoon on Saturday, hardly the appropriate time for
>>>> participating in the meeting.
>>>>
>>>>         I am very much interested in what is decided about honoring Bob
>>>> Rankin, however, and in what might be done to make his huge
>>>> contribution to the history of Siouan and the structure of Dhegiah
>>>> part of a permanent record.  I know he has many papers that have never
>>>> been published, as well as many that are published here and there in
>>>> places we don't always know about.  As early as 1984, at the workshop
>>>> that launched the Comparative Dictionary project, I proposed a
>>>> "collection of papers" volume that would be a place for his work (and
>>>> others), but that has never materialized. Moreover, for the last few
>>>>         years Bob was the major player in the evolution of the
>>>> Comparative Dictionary.  As most of you know, Iren Hartmann at the
>>>> MPI-Leipzig is working on creating a usable digital verson of the CSD.
>>>> Of the original 5 participants (John Koontz, Wes Jones, Dick Carter,
>>>> Rankin and me) in the project, I guess I'm the only one who is still
>>>> interested and available, so I'm going to work with Iren to see if
>>>> that can't be finalized and formalized.  There is quite a bit of
>>>> urgency here, because as many of you know, the structure of the MPI in
>>>> Leipzig will change dramatically in May of 2015, and they will likely
>>>> no longer be interested in supporting Iren's work.
>>>>
>>>>         If any of you have any thoughts on how best to move forward
>>>>         with either Bob's legacy or the CSD, please discuss them at
>>>> the meeting and keep me informed.  I don't feel like I know Carolyn
>>>> well enough to approach her about any of this; perhaps one of you
>>>> would be willing to help with that.
>>>>
>>>>         Best wishes to all for a fruitful and fun meeting.
>>>>
>>>>         David
>>>>
>>>> David S. Rood
>>>> Dept. of Linguistics
>>>> Univ. of Colorado
>>>> 295 UCB
>>>> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
>>>> USA
>>>> rood at colorado.edu
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>

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