The office of Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98 offers a perfect view of student protests on the Main Green. But Kertzer doesn't just watch from inside - he knows what it's like to raise his voice on behalf of the little guy and once spent the night in military barracks with the late American writer Norman Mailer after being arrested for protesting the Vietnam War at the Pentagon during the mid-1960s, when he was a student at Brown.
Now, acting as the chief academic officer of the University - and second-in-command to President Ruth Simmons - Kertzer doesn't occupy his time solely with administrative duties. He is also a professor of anthropology and Italian studies and a historian whose books have been translated into over a dozen languages. His latest book, "Amalia's Tale," published in March, reflects a theme common in his other work - David standing up to the institutional Goliath - as it retells the court battle of an illiterate Italian wetnurse who sued Bologna's medical establishment for its negligence in the 1800s.
From Providence to Bologna
"Amalia's Tale" follows a peasant woman, Amalia Bagnacavalli, as she and her ambitious attorney, Augusto Barbieri, sue a hospital-run institution whose unsafe practices of handling babies caused Bagnacavalli to contract syphilis. Kertzer's book, which draws from hundreds of documents in Bologna's historical archives, traces Bagnacavalli's path from her impoverished mountain village to the foundling home where she picks up an infected baby to breastfeed for money, then to the Bolognese courts and ultimately to the Italian Supreme Court.
Kertzer and his wife, Susan Kertzer '70, have lived in Italy and still travel there frequently. Kertzer discovered Bagnacavalli's story 15 years ago, when he was writing "Sacrificed for Honor," a book detailing European politics of reproductive control over the past few centuries.
Though he majored in anthropology at Brown and received his Ph.D. in anthropology at Brandeis University in 1974, Kertzer's books focus on Italian history. Lining the shelves of the provost's spacious office in University Hall are the international editions - he can't read the Japanese ones - of his books ranging from subjects such as the Vatican's treatment of Jews to the Italian Communist Party.
Kertzer, who speaks fluent Italian and French, did not begin studying Italian history until graduate school, when he lived in the country for a year. Before becoming a historian, he was primarily an activist.
From bourgeois to radical
Hailing from what he calls a "bourgeois" background in Westchester County, N.Y., Kertzer immersed himself in activism while at Brown. By the time he graduated in 1969, he was the acting president, secretary and university affairs chairman of the Campus Action Council, a student anti-war group, and the editor of "Confrontation," the "Journal of Radical Thought" he founded in October 1967. His yearbook photo shows him as a clean-cut, if not entirely clean-shaven, young man. His dark hair is cropped but not slicked back like many of his peers on the same page.
"The transformation came from our generation," says Kertzer, when discussing activism at Brown today and when he was a student. "The groups here were more devoted to civil rights, more politically engaged outside the University. ... I don't think it's the same at all. In the late 1960s, there was much more political activism."
Still, he says student activism today provides "vibrance on campus" - provided that it does not turn "sanctimonious, holier-than-thou."
In the late 1960s - a time when Pembroke College still existed and, Kertzer recalls, female students could not leave their dorms after 9 p.m. - the CAC thrived as it organized protests against military personnel and the ROTC.
One of Kertzer's strongest memories of this period, however, was the time he was arrested at the Pentagon.
On October 21, 1967, Kertzer, along with at least 14 other students from Brown and Pembroke, was arrested for "disobeying the orders of a U.S. Government Marshall," according to an Oct. 23, 1967 Herald article. More Brown students were arrested than those of any other college, the same article reported. Approximately 200 Brown students marched on the Pentagon that day.
Kertzer and his friend Robert Cohen Jr. '68, also a former CAC student leader and a Herald reporter, blocked military traffic with other protesters before police picked them up and carted them to a military barracks south of Washington, the two of them recall.
There, Cohen recalls, was where they met Mailer, dressed in a three-piece suit.
Kertzer and Cohen first saw Mailer when he broke up an argument between various anti-war factions of the arrested protestors. Later, Cohen says, they walked over to Mailer and told him that they were taking an American literature class with R.V. Kessel, a Brown professor who had also published various books.
"Oh, I know R.V.!" Kertzer recalls Mailer saying. Because Cohen and Kertzer had been arrested, Mailer wrote a note on their behalf: "Dear R.V., please excuse David and Bob for being late for class. -Uncle Norm. P.S. Wish you was here!*!" Kessel kept the original note, but Cohen made photocopies for himself and for Kertzer. Cohen donated his copy to the John Hay Library, while Kertzer keeps his in his office, decorated with a red frame and a photograph of Mailer.
The students were released with five-day suspended sentences and $25 fines, according to The Herald.
"It was the best company I ever kept," says Kertzer with a laugh.
This was not the only time that Kertzer would be arrested for protesting. During one summer while at graduate school, Kertzer was arrested with a group of female welfare recipients who had demanded clothing for their children from the welfare office. Kertzer recalls that he was not even allowed into court for his own trial because he was not wearing a suit and tie.
A return to Brown
Now, as provost, Kertzer's typical day of work begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. He attends meeting after meeting, has appointments with various deans and members of the faculty and takes half an hour to eat, he says. Every once in a while, he has time for a vacation in Maine and to research his next book - currently, he's writing about Mussolini.
When asked if he would protest now, given the opportunity, Kertzer replies that there is "a tendency, a time in life to protest. ... I think I can have impact in other ways."
Unlike most provosts at other universities, Kertzer says, he had not done much administrative work before stepping into his position in 2006. He compares the transition from professor to administrator to "walking into someone else's life." Smiling, he says, "It does seem kind of funny ... the cardboard way I viewed the administration" when he was in college.
"There were two absolute standout students (in the CAC)," Cohen says. "(Kertzer) was one of them. He was very smart, very committed, (he had) excellent values, no question. ... David still has the values he had then."
Cohen, now a labor lawyer in West Virginia, understands that Kertzer's responsibilities have changed. "He's a provost of a world-class university. You can't go out in that situation (and) carry a picket sign." With a pause, he adds, "He's not on Wall Street, for God's sake!"
