Gordon Fellman papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 03-MWalB00024A

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The files in this collection were created from 1949 to 2006. They include correspondence, memos, posters, and fliers; local, student, and national newspaper coverage; manuscript notes; and videos. There is considerable primary documentation of the events and dialogue between the participants of the 1960s and 1970s student protest movements at Brandeis and across the nation. A substantial amount of secondary material reflects the wider view of the social and political turmoil surrounding the Vietnam War. A later section documents the student and faculty attempts to force the University to divest its endowment of stock in companies that were active in South Africa during the 1980s. This collection also includes materials related to Fellman's teaching, research, and writing.

Dates

Creation: 1949-2006, undated
Creation: Majority of material found within 1960-2006
Other: Date acquired: 1998-06-16

Creator

Fellman, Gordon (Person)
Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV, 1935- (Person)
Derber, Charles (Person)
Lerner, Max, 1902-1992 (Person)
Schwartz, Morris S. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection contains restricted materials. Please contact the University Archives & Special Collections in advance to request access.

Conditions Governing Use

Requests to reproduce or publish material from the collection should be directed to the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University.

Biographical / Historical

Gordon Fellman (1934-) held the position of Professor of Sociology at Brandeis from 1964-2022, as well as serving as Chair of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. Fellman obtained his B.A. from Antioch College and a PhD. in Sociology from Harvard University. During his tenure at Brandeis, Professor Fellman has been both a witness to, and a participant in, many campus events that had national significance. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the occupation of Ford Hall and the organization of the National Strike Center were seminal moments in the history of American and African-American student activism. Professor Fellman actively collected materials on the occupation by scouring the campus for fliers, handouts, and other material related to these activities and movements. In the 1980s, Professor Fellman was active in the American Anti-Apartheid movement, and in particular opposed the use of University investments in South Africa. He has been crucial in bringing world attention to the plight of Tibet and in organizing the 1998 visit of the Dalai Lama to Brandeis. His publications include "The Deceived Majority: Politics and Protest in Middle America" (1973), and "Rambo and the Dalai Lama: The Compulsion to Win and its Threat to Human Survival" (1998).

Extent

16.5 Linear Feet (13 record center boxes, 5 manuscript boxes, 1 oversized flat box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in seventeen series, mostly based on subject. The series are as follows: Series 1. Ford Hall Occupation; Series 2. Gryzmish Sit-in; Series 3. National Strike Center; Series 4. Pearlman Occupation; Series 5. Tibet; Series 6. Dalai Lama; Series 7. Other Research Interests; Series 8. Videos; Series 9. South Africa, Apartheid and Divestment; Series 10. CIA; Series 11. Newspapers; Series 12. Dissertation; Series 13. Brandeis Course Materials and Events; Series 14. Inner Belt; Series 15. Correspondence; Series 16. Addendum 1/24/2022; Series 17. Addendum 5/23/2022

Within each series, materials are arranged alphabetically or chronologically by sub-series, or in original subject order. For more information about each series, please consult the series descriptions in the box and folder listing.

Custodial History

The materials in this collection were transferred to the Archives by Professor Fellman in 15 accessions, between 1998-2022.

The provenance and custodial history of this collection is varied, as some materials were created by Gordon Fellman but many were not. Specifically, the materials on the Ford Hall Takeover of 1969 and the National Strike Information Center were largely created by the Brandeis students involved in those efforts. The majority of the National Strike Information Center materials consist of items left behind by the student activists who had been doing their work in the Sociology Department offices. The Ford Hall Takeover materials have various creators, including students from both inside and outside of the movement, administrators, faculty, and other community members. The materials documenting Ford Hall were sought out, collected, and then curated by Gordon Fellman for many years before they came to the archives, and have become inseparable from his personal files.

Related Materials

For copies of Strike Newsletter numbers 1-3 (1970) please see Student Activism collection Also see Gordon Fellman's web site at http://people.brandeis.edu/~fellman/index.html

General

The following folder was discovered to be MISSING on 1/23/06: Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, Harvard University, n.d.

Processing Information

This collection was originally processed in 1999. The collection underwent a box shift in 2002, and subsequent addenda were processed in 2006. A digital finding aid was produced in 2010. The finding aid was updated multiple times to include recent addenda and new descriptive information between 2016-2022.

Most of the collection was reorganized by the archives to facilitate research use. However, addenda from 2022 were maintained in the order in which they were received by the archives.

Restriction reviews were conducted on the majority of this collection, though it is unclear what method of review was used.

The provenance and custodial history for this collection were reconstructed and compiled through informal interviews with Gordon Fellman in 2018 by the University Archivist.

Student work was weeded from the 5/23/2022 Addendum, due to privacy concerns and low research value.

This collection contains both devised titles, and titles assigned by the creator.