Submitted December 14, 2006, 5:32 PM
Name
Dr. Marilyn Sanders Mobley
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As the founder and former director of African American Studies, I feel a tremendous amount of sadness about losing such a great scholar, teacher, and colleague. Larry asked to affiliate with African American Studies not long after he came to Mason back in 1995, and though he worked with many graduate students, I was always grateful when he offered a course for our program. Even when he wasn't teaching a course for us, he attended AFAM faculty meetings and contributed to the intellectual life of our program. He was much loved by his graduate students, and I can think of one in particular who came to our Cultural Studies program, primarily because he was here. She wanted the benefit of his expertise about jazz as a cultural form in America.
As many of us know well, Larry was a warm,kind, gentle spirit, with a brilliant mind and a gift for teaching. His book "Black Culture and Black Consciousness" and his contribution to the film "Ethnic Notions" are part of my own intellectual development and teaching. Each semester that I showed "Ethnic Notions," I would always talk over the film (when he was on the screen with caption indicating his former institution)to be sure my students knew he was no longer at Berkeley, but on a member of our faculty here at Mason.
Lawrence Levine's tremendous legacy at Mason was partly shaped by what he contributed to African American Studies and Cultural Studies. In fact,as I recall, the last time I talked to him was at a Cultural Studies dinner party for new students and faculty. In addition to wonderful conversations about music, history, and travel, I will always treasure my memories of him as a great person, scholar/ teacher and cultural critic. I count it a blessing to have known him.
Marilyn Mobley
Associate Provost
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