THE CEIMSA DOSSIER

UNIVERSITE STEHDHAL-GRENOBLE 3

(2004)

DOCUMENT #16

TO: Mme. Odile Lagacherie
Vice-Président de l'Université Stendhal

From: Andrew Ross,
Professor of American Studies
New York University

Dear Vice-President Lagacherie:

I write to you concerning the decision to close down the CEISMA. For the last ten years, I have been director of the American Studies graduate program at New York University. In that capacity, I wrote a letter, several years ago, supporting the funding of the CEISMA. From my own estimation of its programs, it was clear to me that the Center had an intellectual profile that was more than worthy of support. Indeed, it was engaged in projects that very few other American Studies programs in Europe have had the foresight to undertake.

In the intervening years, while we have not participated directly in the Center’s programs, I and my colleagues and students have benefitted greatly from the reports and essays circulated by CEIMSA. Taken as a whole, they have been a remarkable resource, unavailable for the most part in the U.S., and  only possible, perhaps, due to the European location. 

From what I have read and heard from a wide range of sources, the decision to close the Center is based on an underestimation of its high value to the international community of American Studies scholars.  In addition, it seems plausible, from the evidence,  that this is something of a political decision. If so, it would be disturbing for the international reputation of Stendhal University to be linked or associated with this kind of motivation. At a time when U.S. Studies is all the more urgent, and when Franco-American relations are ever more vital, it would be a grave mistake, in my view, to carry though with the closure.

In view of the above, I join my voice with hundreds of other scholars in the international community in urging you to reconsider the decision.

I am the author of editor of thirteen books in the field of American Studies.

Yours Faithfully, 

Andrew Ross
Professor of American Studies
New York University
285 Mercer St. 8th Floor
NY, NY 10003