Title

Gentle nudges and poignant pushes: Plasticity and generous scholarship

Abstract

This reflective essay describes and discusses numerous nudges Lyman Tower Sargent has given me during our interactions, dotting a timeline from my first Society for Utopian Studies conference in Memphis in the late 1990s through a recent e-mail about a conference on food utopias at Porto in April 2019. These moments—linked by their impact upon me—speak to his exemplary behaviors with both quantity and quality of scholarship. In the fields of communal as well as literary utopias, in genres as distinct as book reviews are from bibliographies, in providing definitions and clas-sifications for others in the field, and finally, by demonstrating an openness to new ideas and to younger scholars, Sargent has influence that reaches far wider than any-one first touched by his gentle nudges would ever suspect. I am fortunate to have been one of those recipients.

Department(s)

English

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5325/utopianstudies.31.2.0265

Keywords

Bibliography, Generosity, Lyman Tower Sargent, Plasticity

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Journal Title

Utopian Studies

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