Fonds RC0218 - Richard Slobodin fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Richard Slobodin fonds

General material designation

    Parallel title

    Other title information

    Title statements of responsibility

    Title notes

    Level of description

    Fonds

    Reference code

    RC0218

    Edition area

    Edition statement

    Edition statement of responsibility

    Class of material specific details area

    Statement of scale (cartographic)

    Statement of projection (cartographic)

    Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

    Statement of scale (architectural)

    Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

    Dates of creation area

    Date(s)

    • 1961-2001 (Creation)

    Physical description area

    Physical description

    1.35 m of textual records
    9 reels audio tape
    1 audio cassette

    Publisher's series area

    Title proper of publisher's series

    Parallel titles of publisher's series

    Other title information of publisher's series

    Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

    Numbering within publisher's series

    Note on publisher's series

    Archival description area

    Name of creator

    (1915-2005)

    Biographical history

    Richard Slobodin (1915-2005) was an American anthropologist and a founder of the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University. Born and educated in New York City, he worked extensively from the 1930s onwards as an ethnologist. The chief focus of his ethnological studies were the Dené peoples of the Yukon and Alaska, particularly the Gwich'in (Kutchin). His scholarly interests were broad, however, and he published extensively on a variety of subjects. These publications included significant biographical treatments of pioneering anthropologists <a href="http://holdings.mcmaster.ca/index.php/rivers-w-h-r-2">W.H.R. Rivers</a> and Northcote W. Thomas.

    After a brief stint in the United States armed forces during and after the Second World War, he returned to academic life only to fall afoul of Sen. Robert McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUUAC) in the early 1950s. This blacklisting saw him disbarred from academic employment for a period of seven years, during which time he worked a variety of jobs to support himself before eventually completing his Ph.D. in 1959. He spent the next four years working various academic appointments in the United States while seeking entry to Canada, which repeatedly denied him a visa owing to his supposed Marxist connections.

    He finally was admitted to Canada in 1964, accepting an academic appointment at McMaster University, and he became a Canadian citizen in 1970. During the 1960s and 1970s Slobodin continued extensive fieldwork in the Arctic while also playing an instrumental role in developing the faculty of anthropology at McMaster, of which he was a co-founder. In 1981, he was forced to accept compulsory retirement owing to his age, but remained active in the United Church and the New Democratic Party while maintaining voluminous correspondence with friends and fellow scholars around the world. He died in 2005 at the age of 89.

    Custodial history

    Scope and content

    The fonds consists chiefly of Slobodin's publications, draft publications, and associated research materials. Also included are a number of Slobodin's research diaries and files relating to his fieldwork in the Arctic and a small collection of correspondence and teaching notes.

    Notes area

    Physical condition

    Immediate source of acquisition

    Arrangement

    The fonds is organised into the following series: 1) Publications and Associated Material, 2) Field Notes and Diaries, 3) Research Files and Correspondence, and 4) Teaching Notes.

    Language of material

      Script of material

        Location of originals

        Availability of other formats

        Restrictions on access

        There are no access restrictions.

        Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

        Finding aids

        Associated materials

        Related materials

        Accruals

        Further accruals are not expected.

        Alternative identifier(s)

        Standard number

        Standard number

        Access points

        Place access points

        Name access points

        Genre access points

        Control area

        Description record identifier

        RC0218

        Institution identifier

        Rules or conventions

        Status

        Level of detail

        Dates of creation, revision and deletion

        Language of description

          Script of description

            Sources

            Accession area