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This past summer Shane Clauser ’07 (Pottsville, Pa.) investigated European colonialism and post-colonial theory to map the “origins” and effects of colonization, particularly within African and Caribbean cultures. He determined how these societies have attempted to redefine their cultural identities under a history of slavery and subjugation.
The English and government & law double major collaborated with Ian Smith, associate professor and associate head of English, through Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, in which students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend. The program has helped to make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate each year share their work through articles in academic journals and/or conference presentations.
Smith and Clauser’s research will appear in the forthcoming Shakespeare Encyclopedia, edited by Patricia Barker of Stanford University. Smith then plans to contribute work on “racial cross-dressing” toward completing a book-length project tentatively titled “Fabricated Identities.”
Clauser also analyzed Elizabethan perceptions of race as manifested in sartorial/corporal theater performance, in which white European actors would blacken their bodies or wear racial prosthetics, conventionally in the form of cloth, to portray a “racial other.”
“I assessed plays to reveal politically inscribed language in a study of race and semantics to illuminate the ways in which race pervaded literary discourse during the period,” Clauser says.
To accomplish this, he researched the early modern antecedents of “blackface” performance that appeared powerfully in 19th century American entertainment. He focused on the early modern period and examined how the use of prosthetics for “racial cross-dressing” intersected with economics, trade, the commodification of the body, and the early discourses of slavery.
Smith was impressed with Clauser’s work ethic and academic abilities.
“Shane is truly one of the most gifted students I have come across in my time here at Lafayette; should he choose, he could have an excellent graduate career,” says Smith. “My expectations were amply fulfilled and exceeded. He was diligent, disciplined, and professional to a superlative degree, and he met every challenge that the project posed with insight and critical abilities beyond the scope of the typical undergraduate.
“Thus the work produced was enhanced by a level of critical discussion and interaction of the highest level that was constantly full of surprises and discoveries. In addition, he was simply an excellent worker with an attitude to match; he would get things done at lightening speed. This was, without a doubt, a most successful and rewarding enterprise.”
“The experience offered insight into the process of conducting research in a proper and effective manner,” adds Clauser. “Working with a professor allows a student to partake in a mutual exchange of concepts and ideas that can be productive and rewarding for both parties. Furthermore, English as a discipline is not just an aesthetic enterprise or concerned with a formalist representation of language. Rather, the research performed this summer has shown how literature, or more accurately the ‘text’ – in all its cultural significances – intersects with the sociological, political, and historical realities of race, class, gender, and sexuality.”
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Forty students were accepted to present their research at this year’s conference.