The collection consists largely of materials related to Professor Roeming's teaching
and service activities at UWM. Included in these are class and teaching materials
such as course syllabi, notes, and transcripts from the "Introduction to Western
Civilization" course, which Roeming created with Visiting Professor Alain Bosquet.
There are records from UWM events and speakers, including notes and correspondence
planning UWM summer program events, and papers and photographs related to the
Aschenbach memorial sculpture and related courses. The collection includes a variety
of notes and transcriptions of lectures Roeming gave at conferences, such as the
Wingspread Conference, the Science Fiction Research Association Conference, and
Midwest Conference on Foreign Language Teaching among others. Also included are a
variety of research and grant proposals, some of which were accepted and others
which were not, related to projects and courses Roeming was involved with at
UWM.
Also included is correspondence between Roeming and other university officials,
including Chancellor J. Martin Klotsche and College of Letters & Science
Dean William Halloran, and some records of university policy changes and proposals,
such as the merger between the departments of Comparative Literature and Foreign
Languages. The collection also contains correspondence with elected officials and
other scholars, largely related to conferences and courses with which Roeming was
involved. Of particular historical note is his correspondence with Constantin
Popescu of the Publishing House for Literature, Bucharest, Romania, who wrote
extensively of his experiences as a scholar behind the Iron Curtain. There is also
correspondence with well-known, local officials such as Frank P. Zeidler and
Governor Patrick Lucey.
The collection also comprises records from organizations and projects outside of UWM
with which Professor Roeming was involved. Most notably, the collection contains
correspondence and notes regarding Roeming's work on Camus: A
Bibliography (1968), which was one of the earliest digitally operated
and updated bibliographies on the works of any major author. Included in this
portion of the collection is his correspondence with the Camus family and other
scholars of Albert Camus. Some letters are in French and German. The collection also
contains correspondence related to Roeming's time on the Wisconsin State Nursing
Board, including some vitriolic letters complaining about a fee increase on nursing
licenses to fund nursing scholarships. The collection also contains various records
from Roeming's time as editor of the Modern Language
Journal, specifically materials relating to his appointment, reports
from his time as editor, and correspondence relating to his time as editor,
including some contentions regarding the sale of the journal that arose during his
time as editor.
Finally, the collection includes numerous audio reel recordings of conventions,
seminars, colloquia, interviews, speaker panels, and conversations in which Roeming
was involved. The recordings date from 1963 to 1974 and include recordings of
prominent individuals such as Gabriel Marcel, Adrienne Rich, Robert Gilka, and
others. Recorded events include the 1969 Language and Social Stratification
Symposium, the 1973 Wingspread Conference on the Humanities, the 1974 Science
Fiction Research Association Conference, along with others. The tapes also include
audio of Roeming himself, either as a speaker, an interviewer, or an informal
discussion participant.
