CHATTLETON: The reverberating lawn
While serving as a Kenan Fellow of the Academical Village this past summer, I researched the sonic history of the University. I discovered a common narrative of our University’s past — an early period dominated by “noise,” riots and protest, followed by a “quiet” era which continues into the present. This is a fanciful narrative which unfortunately predominates today. It troubles our own ideas both of what the meaning of “noise” is and of how political the University has always been. With the University’s Bicentennial upon us, it is important that we recognize the breadth of this noisy past, and listen to what it has to teach us as we enter a new chapter in our University’s history.