University of Washington

Last Autumn we said "bon voyage" to our esteemed colleague Professor R. Kent Guy, as he embarked on a well-earned retire- ment. The eminent scholar of Chinese history was celebrated by former graduate students — now scholars across the globe — at a Qing history conference co-hosted by the Jackson School for International Studies. Through the exceptional group of graduate students he has trained and his highly regarded monographs — The Emperor's Four Treasuries: Scholars and the State in Late Ch'ien-lung Era (1987) and Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644-1796 (2010) — Professor Guy has had a profound influence on the field of Qing history. In his over three decades at the University of Washington, he served as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, Chair of East Asian Studies and Director of Graduate Studies before serving as Chair of the Department of History. As Chair, he skill - fully guided the Department through the challenging budgetary times of the economic crisis, ensuring that when the clouds lifted our reputation and the work it depends upon had not suffered. Professor Guy was a supportive colleague and beloved teacher. It is thanks to him that courses on China are now central to History's undergraduate curriculum. Professor Stephanie M. H. Camp, a beloved colleague and friend in our department, passed away from cancer on April 2, 2014. She was 46 years old. A widely-admired and influential historian of African Americans, slavery, the American South, and women and gender, Professor Camp was the Donald W. Logan Family Endowed Chair in American History. Her work focused on the social and cultural history of the body and its significance as an index of social power and powerlessness, a political resource, and an instrument of cultural pleasure. Her 2004 book, Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South, garnered a number of honors, including the 2005 Annual Lillian Smith Book Award. Elegantly written, the book spoke with authority and passion about how enslaved women struggled to craft lives for themselves, even under terrible conditions and how they managed to find joy and pleasure, and to resist the force of domination. She also edited, with histo - rian Edward Baptist, a 2006 anthology, New Studies in the History of American Slavery. At the time of her death, she was writing an important new book titled, Black is Beautiful: An American History, which examines debates among and between African Americans, whites Americans, and Europeans about whether and in what ways the bodies of black people could be beautiful. Colleagues in and outside of the department considered Stephanie Camp one of the most conscientious and committed scholars they knew. Students knew her as an exceptionally skilled, creative, and Professor R. Kent Guy Retires In Memorium dedicated teacher whose personal dynamism, warmth, and atten- tive listening skills made her a much sought out mentor. Discussing why she loved to teach her undergraduate seminar on "Beauty and the Body," she explained that: "Young people today face stupefying amounts of messaging and pressures about their bod- ies. It's great to be able to pause, read intensively, and sit around a table and talk about the histories of the cult of the body beautiful and hopefully dismantle the ideals a bit. The class is also fun — we laugh a lot, which is refreshing since so much of human history doesn't necessarily give us all that much to laugh about." Professor Camp was also passionately engaged in social justice activism. Because she believed it was important to share her knowledge with a wide audience, and those who might not have traditional educational opportunities, she lectured on slavery at Monroe State Prison. And in 2007, she and a UW graduate student organized a protest against the "Maasai Journey" program at the Woodland Park Zoo, arguing that it mirrored earlier practices of grouping African people together with animals at world's fairs. A devoted mother, a legendary cook and hostess, Professor Camp leaves behind many friends in Seattle and across the country. She is survived by her son Luc Ade Mariani and his father Marc Mariani in Seattle; and, in Philadelphia, her parents, Donald Eugene Camp and Marie Josephe (Dumont) Camp, and sister Dorothea Rae Camp. To honor Professor Camp's memory, the Department of History established the Stephanie Camp Memorial Lecture Fund for the History of Race & Gender. This fund will be used to support an annual lecture or a workshop in her honor. Since retiring, Guy has been busy teaching on Semester at Sea, a floating university where students and faculty can make site visits at vari- ous ports of call. On a voy- age that took him from San Diego, around Asia, Africa, and Europe, Guy taught classes on Chinese history. Asked about his recent experience, Guy replied, "Many people imagine retiring and then sailing off into the sunset, but I have had the extraordinary privilege of having done so…There were too many highlights to list, among them sail - ing into Shanghai and Hang Long harbors at twilight, watching the skyline light up, seeing Burma for the first time, petting a cheetah at the Cheetah Rescue project in South Africa, and dining at Rick's Cafe in Casablanca. There can surely be no better way to embark on retirement than this!" PHOTO: THE JACKSON SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (Continued on next page) PAGE 4 University of Washington

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