Faculty

William Cummings

Professor

Curriculum Vitae

My scholarly interests are in the area of historical consciousness and systems of thought. I am less interested in the past itself than in the histories that humans in different cultural contexts have made of it. History-making is a continual human activity, and I study the ways in which perceptions of and narratives about the different pasts are located, constructed, and given form. I think about the ways that historical sites, genres, and practices mediate the pasts we seek to comprehend. I have written about topics that range from the advent of literacy and historical manuscript production in premodern Indonesia to contemporary American historical film production related to the Vietnam War. My current research project is on how visual histories of the Vietnam War rely on genre conventions and other narratological features to construct the past in particular and peculiar ways.