Erwin Straus
Straus faculty photo. Courtesy of Western Regional Archives.
Erwin Straus and his Psychology class, ca. 1942-1943. Courtesy of Western Regional Archives.
FOCUS
Social Sciences
ROLE
Faculty
ATTENDANCE
1938 - 1944
BIRTH
1891-11-11
Frankfurt, Germany
DEATH
1975-05-20
Lexington, KY
Erwin Straus was a German-American phenomenologist and neurologist who helped to pioneer anthropological medicine and psychiatry, a holistic approach to medicine that is critical of mechanistic and reductionistic approaches to understanding and treating human beings.
Straus taught psychology and philosophy at the college from fall 1938 to summer of 1944, and was a resident in 1945.
David Peifer has written about Erwin and other science students and faculty at the college: The Sciences at Black Mountain College
Relationships
Wife: Fellow BMC Faculty, Trudi Straus
Asheville Art Museum Collection
There are many mentions of Straus in college bulletins. His biography shared along with course offerings is below,
2017.40.014 1938-1939 catalogue,
"Erwin Walter Straus Psychology Universities of Berlin, Zurich, Munich, Goettingen, Dr. Med. Positions with Charite and Poliklinic Hospitals, Berlin, 1919-1933; University of Berlin, 1927-1936. Guest lecturer at Universities of Amsterdam, Groningen, Leyden, Utrecht, 1933, Sorbonne, 1935, Practicing physician, 1923-1936. Editor of “Nervenarzt”, 1928-1935. Author of Wesen and Vorgang der Suggestion, Atlas der Elektrodiangnostik, Geschehnis und Erlebnis, Vom Sinn der Sinne. Black Mountain College, 1938."
Author
Amanda Hartman
Amanda Hartman is the creator of BMC Yearbook, serving as the lead director, engineer, and researcher. She holds a MLIS in archive/ collections management, MA in art/ museum education, and BA in design. After working in museums and archives for a decade, she made the transition to tech and is now a software developer specializing in applications for museums, archives, and higher education.
Her interest in Black Mountain College began while working as a digital archivist with the Asheville Art Museum's BMC archive collection. She transcribed and digitized over 1500 documents created by the college. While working closely with these archives, she began independent research on the interracial program and Negro Week activities BMC, writing biographies of lesser known students and staff members. That research transformed into this BMC Yearbook project.
