History Department Group Photo (2016)

 Here are some photos from our department photo archive:  a December (2016) department group photograph, a scene from our annual ice cream social for graduates on Baccalaureate Day in 2015, and Emeritus Professor Ke-wen Wang (with George Dameron) at his retirement dinner (2015).

New Faculty Member Joins Department

The Department of History is delighted to welcome our new faculty member, Rowena Xiaoqing He.  Specializing in the history of East Asia, Dr. He focuses on contemporary and modern Chinese history, society, and politics. She will be teaching this year our two-semester survey of East Asian history, Traditional (History 141) and Modern (History 143) East Asia, as well as an upper division honors seminar on her specialty, the legacy of Tiananmen Square.  She is the author of Tiananmen Exiles:  Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).  Before coming to Saint Michael's College, Dr. He completed her Ph. D. at the University of Toronto and pursued post-doctoral research at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. She comes with previous teaching experience at Harvard and Wellesley.  On behalf of the department, I extend a warm welcome to northern Vermont and our college to Dr. He--

 

The 2014 Phi Alpha Theta (History Honors Society) Induction (Spring, 2014)

 



      Two of the most important events every academic year are 1) the two sets of senior theses presentations in the fall and spring semesters and 2) the induction of our new History honors society members  (Phi Alpha Theta).  The department is now preparing for its fall 2014 set of senior thesis presentations on Saturday, December 6 (9 am-2 pm).  Pizza is always served for lunch.  A third major event every year is our annual Kuntz Lecture, and that is coming up in the spring.  Information will be forthcoming at the "Department News" link at our department website.

 



 

2013 History Graduates Win Awards

The Department of History congratulates three graduating seniors for the awards they received during the 2013 Commencement week in May.  At the Senior Brunch Corry Smith received the "Martin Luther King, Jr. Society Award" for his outstanding leadership in promoting interracial understanding and awareness about the African American community."  There he is below, sitting with his mother and father at our annual History Department ice cream social on Baccalaureate Saturday (May 11, 2013).

 

 

Anthony Bassignani, a double major in History and English, was awarded History Department Honors at the 2013 Commencement, and Hanna German (double major in Classics and History) won the Edward Pfeifer Award for the best senior thesis of 2012.  The title of her thesis, advised by Dr. George Dameron, was "The Baroque Palace as a Mechanism of Power."





 

 



Senior thesis presentations a huge hit!

History students presented their final capstone projects in a conference style event on Student Research Day here at Saint Mike's. we are all very proud of their accomplishments!











- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Saint Edmund's Hall

Phi Alpha Theta Induction

The new inductees of the history honor society here on campus!







Congratulations, all!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Alliot Hall

Fall 2012 Senior Thesis Presentations

On December 1, 2012, the Department of History hosted its fall senior seminar presentations for History 410.  Nineteen students presented the results of their research on that day, and the topics ranged from the persecution of Jews during the Black Death, the politicization of the American environmental movement, the effect of the media on American elctions, and the involvement of women in the Civil War.  We always pause for breaks in the course of the day for coffee and donuts, and lunch is always pizza and soda.

The day included panel discussions (left), student presentations (Emily Cryan, below, seen here speaking about P. T. Barnum and Bridgeport, Connnecticut) and opportunities for informal conversations (Professors Purcell and Wang, seen here below, during a break).

Saint Mike's History professors have a pizza break between sessions

Here we are eating pizza and getting ready for the next session of wonderful students!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Saint Ed's 102

New History Department member!

An unexpected participant in the student research day was the newest member of the History Department : Liam Purcell!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Saint Mike's

Spring Semester Senior Thesis!

Here we are at the end of the year and hearing the wonderful thesis presentations of our Spring crop of graduating seniors. The topics were as varied as the students' interests; we learned about the Devil, Genghis Khan, John Eliot and the Peace Corps. The department is proud of the work our students have done and all that they have accomplished in their four years here at Saint Mike's!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Saint Edmund's Hall

Saint Michael's Student named as best paper presenter at Phi Alpha Theta conference

Matt Phillips was recognized as best presenter at the Phi Alpha Theta regional student conference on April 14, 2012 at Plattsburgh, NY. His study, "Revolution, Identity, and the Early American Textbook," examined the evolution of national identity through the texts of early American textbooks.

Congratulations, Matt!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Plattsburgh, NY

Saint Michael's students shine at the Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference

History students Jacob (Jake) Carleen, Matthew Phillips, and Mary Farnsworth presented formal papers at the Phi Alpha Theta Regional History Honors conference. They made us proud with their professional delivery of original research and writing. Their attendance at the conference marks the end of very distinguished academic careers here at Saint Mike's as all three will graduate this next month.

Jake's paper focused on the story of Blues singer, Memphis Minnie, and the connection between the experiences of African Americans in the Depression. Matt's paper focused on the connection between national identity and the development of a national creation story in early history textbooks. Mary's paper looked at the WWI experiences of Albert Fray, shell shock and the larger story of the soldiers who returned with severe mental and physical disabilities.

We are all very proud of Jake, Matt, and Mary!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Plattsburgh, N.Y.

The end of finals!

Well, here we are at the very end of finals week in the last testing period of the last day! I appreciate that my students are all tired, anxious to be done, and to be on their way to home, family, and Christmas vacation. Amen.





I commend those students who stuck it out with me over the week and are diligently finishing their exams on this last day. I thank them all for their efforts.







I hope they all have a great vacation and come back safely. I look forward to seeing them all here in the new 2012 spring semester!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Saint Edmunds Hall, Room 106

Tis the Season!: Senior Thesis Presentations (2)

As the day progressed, so too did the wonderful presentations! The students were professional, absorbed in their topics and the faculty inordinately proud of their accomplishments! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:STE 102

Tis the Season!: Senior Thesis Presentations

The sure signs are out that it is the end of the fall semester here at Saint Mike's. The bells are pealing with Christmas hymns, the library is full of students working with a redecorated effort (perhaps they are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?), and in the History Department the seniors are finishing up their capstone projects in Senior Seminar. Saturday, December 3rd, is the day they present their project presentations and we all celebrate their creativity, industriousness, and the fruit of their labors.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Saint Ed's Hall

Early Fall Semester Update

It is indeed hard to believe that we are at the beginning of the fourth week of our fall (2011) semester! I think we have started the semester well here in the History Department. Our six full time and two part-time members of our department are offering sixteen courses on the introductory and upper levels, covering American, European, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Asian history. (Our colleague, Dr. Douglas Slaybaugh, is on sabbatical this fall, as I think I have mentioned before.) We have a number of new seminars offered this fall. Each caps at fifteen students, and they include "Orwell in the 1930's" (Dr. Jennifer Purcell) and "Topics in Latin American History: Islands in the Caribbean" (Dr. Kathryn Dungy, pictured above). We also have one new introductory survey course, "Medieval Europe" (taught by yours truly), which is a one semester replacement for our medieval history survey that used to be two semesters. Other offerings on the upper level include "World War II in Asia," "The American Revolution," and "The Black Death."

What is also particularly exciting to me is the strong start of our senior seminar in History, required of all majors in their senior year. This is the capstone course for our majors, and each of them will be presenting his or her research results in early December. It is always a small seminar, and this semester we have fourteen students working on a variety of topics (ten History majors and four American Studies majors). The wide-ranging topics include the Armenian genocide, the history of policies in Major League Baseball on performance enhancing drugs, the Thomas Indian School in New York, and the legacy of racism in Birmingham, Alabama.

In the past few months we have been revising our History Department Web site, so if you have not yet checked it out, please do so. We also have a number of upcoming events, including our annual Kuntz Lecture early next semester and our bi-annual pre-registration pizza dinner for our majors in October (when we lay out the course selection for the following semester).

Today I am headed out to the Ethan Allen Homestead in the new North End of Burlington to hear a lecture by my colleague, Dr. Susan Ouellette. She is talking about what we can learn about women's work in early nineteenth century America from her study of the diary of Phebe Orvis Eastman (her current research). This comes just a few days after I heard my colleague in Religious Studies, Dr. John Kenney, speak at the College on Neo-Platonism and Saint Augustine. These are two reasons why being a faculty member at Saint Michael's College can always be so enlightening and also so much fun. The learning just never stops, even (or especially) for a middle-aged college professor.

Academic fair!

Here we are at Ross gym with professor Dameron and Tan Wai Hui. A freshman History student Mr. Tan stopped by our table to talk and get to know us. We are pleased to have a great new student join the ranks!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Ross gym

First day at Saint Mike's

Okay. Summer's officially over...... The first day of classes is Monday, the freshmen are on campus, and the rest of the students will move in this weekend just ahead of a hurricane. Hopefully everyone will be safe and the worst that happens is we get some much-needed rain here in the valley.

More importantly, the semester is about to launch and everyone is anticipating an exciting new experience. The faculty and administration are looking forward to the launch of the new curriculum model and the expansion of our scholarly and academic efforts. The students, while there maybe some apprehension among them, are looking forward to the changes that will hopefully smooth out some of the variable credit bumps they and others have experienced in the past.

In the History department we are excited about all of this, but we also have a few other developments that raise our spirits. We have a new faculty member to get to know, Kathryn Dungy, our newly appointed Latin Americanist. Kathryn's expertise will enhance the department's offerings and her presence will grace us. Another new faculty member will arrive in the fall of 2012, Katharina Ivanyi, who will teach courses on the Near East, Islam, and the Ottoman Empire. The history program will be enormously enhanced by these teachers and their scholarly interests.

So, here we go, but maybe we can still enjoy a few sunsets over the water.........



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Somewhere on Lake Champlain

Our New Curriculum ..... and other stuff

Although I am still concentrating hard upon enjoying the remains of the summer, I have been thinking about the new curriculum and what it means for faculty as well as students. Most faculty are excited to have the opportunity to expand their courses within the new scheduling concepts and to think about creating greater academic rigor in those same courses. As they imagine it, students will have the ability to concentrate on four courses rather than a multitude of five, six or seven as often has been the case in the past.

On the other side of the desk, students have expressed various opinions to me as well; some fear the new curriculum could mean unreasonable expectations on the part of faculty in their course work while others see the revised schedules as a sort of "get out of jail free" card. I hope that as the new semester unfolds and we begin to explore the ways in which the new 4/4 scheduling works, we will find that there is time for more textured and nuanced learning both in the classroom as well as in outside preparation. At the same time, the new schedule will also mean less awkward maneuvering for athletic and other extra-curricular student pursuits. I hope the results will live up to our aspirations, but it will take a commitment from all of us to make it happen. I promise to do my part.

While the summer is still upon us, I contemplate this from a distance. I still have those summer commitments to finish. Maxx has learned to sit, stay, and lie down! He does not see the necessity of learning "Come!" I think he's just adopted the Champlain islands attitude: no worries, mate, the sun is shining!




Obedience school may be next, but in the meantime I am working on my tan......





Have a safe and happy rest of the summer!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Alburgh, Vermont, United States

Faculty Summer Research

This summer I will not be doing research in Italy, as I was doing in the fall semester of 2010 during my last sabbatical (the photograph of me on a bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice was taken in October of that year). Rather, like most of the my colleagues in the department, I will be writing at home this summer. In my last post I described the senior thesis presentations, awards, and festivities that come at the end of the academic calendar in May--these are the graduation events that mark the culmination of the year for the History major. After we faculty members congratulate and sadly say goodbye to our students (as we did on May 16), we begin to devote ourselves exclusively to research, writing, and to preparing for our classes in the coming fall semester. The three and half months between Commencement in May and the first day of classes in September are among the most productive periods for faculty scholarship. Dr. Susan Ouellette has already carefully outlined in her blog the nature of her work during her sabbatical on a new manuscript, and she will continue this writing project during the summer. All other faculty members in our department are equally engaged, exploring the variety of historical problems that intrigue them most. A few examples demonstrate this quite well. Dr. Purcell is currently in Britain doing research for her new book on an aspect of twentieth century British popular culture and gender (she will also be presenting at a conference). Dr. Slaybaugh, our twentieth century US historian, is beginning his sabbatical (second half of 2011) this summer, which he will devote to the research and writing of his next book. For the first part of the summer, however, he will be supervising a student, Mary Farnsworth, in her summer research project (funded by the Vice President for Academic Affairs). This is a survey and study of Ms. Farnsworth's family papers that go back to the time of the American Revolution. My main set of tasks this spring and summer is to complete three essays and deliver them to the editors who have requested them. One essay has to do with the history of the idea of Purgatory and is entitled "Purgatory and Modernity." Another essay outlines the history of the Church in the Florence (Italy) at the time of the early fourteenth century poet, Dante Alighieri. The third essay will interpret the development of church lordship in the European Middle Ages and is meant primarily for an audience of professional scholars and advanced students of medieval Christianity. So, as you can see, during the spring and summer months after Commencement and before classes begin on August 29, the members of the History Department are doing what they love to do: explore the past, write about it, and make their discoveries available to other historians and to the public by publishing their findings. And in the fall, they will bring and share what they have discovered and their enthusiasm for their research into the classroom with their students.