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November 06, 2009

Grant of the Week: NEH Challenge Grants in United States History and Culture

NEH invites applications for Challenge Grants in United States History and Culture. This grant opportunity is designed to help institutions and organizations strengthen their ability to explore significant themes and events in American history, so as to advance understanding of how—since the nation’s founding—these events have shaped and been shaped by American identity and culture. Nonprofit institutions (public agencies, private nonprofit organizations, tribal governments) are eligible for these grants. Deadline: February 3, 2010. See the National Trust for Historic Preservation “Show Me the Money” blog and the NEH Challenge Grants page for more information.

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November 05, 2009

What We’re Reading: November 5, 2009 Edition

Native American Heritage MonthNovember is National Native American Heritage Month and in this What We’re Reading we bring you three sites with information on events, activities, lesson plans, and resources on various topics pertaining to Native Americans. From the National Coalition for History read up on all the budget updates, new commissions, and nomination progress happening in Washington. Two articles focus on assessments and suggestions: the first on PhD programs, and the second on natural-history museums. Finally, learn more about photographer Roy DeCarava, look back at Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation: A Personal View, consider hiking the Ridgeway National Trail.

Native American Heritage Month

News

Assessments and Suggestions

Assorted Articles

Contributors: Elisabeth Grant, Jessica Pritchard, and Robert B. Townsend

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November 04, 2009

New Member Category for Early Career Professionals

By Elise Lipkowitz and Robert B. Townsend

We are pleased to announce the establishment of an Early Career Member category, to assist junior members of the profession in their transition from graduate school into long-term employment in the profession.

For years now, younger members of the Association have chafed at the doubling of dues when they switch from student to regular member, and quite a few have indicated they had dropped their memberships as a result. To encourage sustained membership in the Association, the new category will provide an incremental step on the path toward sustained membership—rising from the student rate of $39 to the transitional rate of $50 for the first three years after leaving the student membership category.

At a time when any number of historical organizations are competing for historians’ limited membership dollars, we hope this will provide early career professionals with the resources and information they need to ease the transition from student to a long-term career in the discipline—while doing so at a price they can afford. For historians just starting out in the profession, the Association’s publications and web site provide the latest news and trends in the discipline; resources on teaching, publication, and tenure; and the Archives Wiki. Membership in the Association also supports networking opportunities at the annual meeting, letters of introduction to research institutions, annual meeting sessions that address career development issues, research grants, prize opportunities, and much much more.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and ideas about how we might improve the membership experience for historians and aspiring historians at all stages in their careers. Please feel free to comment here, or write to us directly.

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November 03, 2009

Celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall

By Jessica Pritchard

Wallstories contemporary danceIt seems hard to believe that a mere 20 years ago, a physical barrier ran through Berlin, Germany, dividing the city’s residents in two. The Berlin Wall symbolized the Cold War, serving as an incessant reminder to East and West Berliners of their turbulent past, which only bled into their present isolation.

Until November 9, 1989, when the world watched as Berliners traveled freely, harmoniously from the east side of the Germany to the west, from the west side of Germany to the east. No violence. No fear. Just freedom.

Websites
To celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, we’ve compiled a list of web sites below for your enjoyment, enlightenment, and education.


  1. German Missions in the United States – “The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago marked the beginning of a new era in history. It was the end of the Cold War, the beginning of a fully united Europe, and proof that peaceful change is possible, even in the moments when it seems most unlikely.”

  2. Making the History of 1989, from the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) located at George Mason University, this web site offers countless resources on the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The following excerpts are taken from the web site.

    • Introductory Essay – Sets the scene for the events of 1989 and explains their significance in world history.

    • Primary Resources – Over 300 primary resources, including government documents, images, videos, and artifacts with introductory notes.

    • Scholar Interviews – Four scholars focus on the history and events surrounding 1989 through primary sources.

    • Teaching Modules – Provide historical context, strategies, and resources for teaching the history of 1989 with primary sources.

    • Case Studies – Teaching case studies provide historical context and strategies for teaching the history of 1989 with primary sources.

  3. Newseum – The Berlin Wall

    • The Newseum online forum explores the role of news during the era of the Berlin Wall. Start by exploring Two Sides, One Story, which juxtaposes the spread of news in the highly controlled portion of East Germany as opposed to that in West Germany, where the news spread freely and openly.

    • The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall takes you through an interactive timeline that serves as a great resource for students, asking them to become Berliners. For instance, the site suggests the following activity: “Pretend you are a resident of either east or west Berlin. Draft a letter that you hope will make it to the other side of the wall. Address the letter to a family member or close friend. Or write an article that you would want delivered to the people on the other side. What do you want to say?

    • Then explore Stalin’s manipulation of photographs for political and social gain in The Commissar Vanishes.

    • The web site concludes with Gene Mater’s essay, “The German Media and its Role in History over the Last Century.”

  4. National Archives and Records Administration – On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy traveled to Berlin and gave a moving speech to Berliners, commending them on their fight for freedom.

Photographs
Take a historic journey along the Berlin Wall via photographs, from its original construction through today:

Videos

Upcoming Events
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Los Angeles, CA

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November 02, 2009

Program of the 124th Annual Meeting – Now Online!

By Elisabeth Grant

2010 Program of the 124th Annual Meeting of the American Historical AssociationThe Program for the 124th Annual Meeting is now available online. Use it to:

Or use the search box to find sessions and events through relevant keywords.

Highlighted Sessions
Every year sessions at the annual meeting cover an impressive range of places, time periods, topics, and themes. Here is just a glimpse of the range of presentations scheduled for the annual meeting:

More Information
For more Annual Meeting information see the 2010 Annual Meeting page online. There you will find information on registering for the meeting, accommodations, transportation, and more. Also see the AHA web site for Job Center info, Exhibit Hall details, and instructions on how to submit proposals for the 2011 meeting.

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October 30, 2009

Grant of the Week: Rachel Carson Prize for Best Dissertation in Environmental History

The American Society for Environmental History offers the Rachel Carson Prize for Best Dissertation in Environmental History. This year, ASEH’s prize committees will evaluate submissions of dissertations completed between November 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009. Three copies of the dissertation must be submitted by November 6, 2009. For more information see the ASEH awards page, or contact Lisa Mighetto at director@aseh.net.

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October 29, 2009

What We’re Reading: October 29, 2009 Edition

Edsitement Festivals of the DeadWe start off this week with news and advocacy. Take a look at all the items in the National Humanities Alliance’s October Policy Digest as well as their push for NEH funding, review COSSA’s Washington Update, and in non-Washington related news, check out a map from 1675 up for auction in the UK.  Today, October 29th, is the anniversary of the “Black Tuesday” stock market crash, and we bring you three articles from NPR remembering the event. Have an iPhone? Check out a few apps for historians. And finally, with Halloween taking place this weekend we couldn’t resist brining you a couple of Halloween-related links.

News and Advocacy

Anniversary of Black Tuesday
This week, NPR remembered the 80th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash, now commonly referred to as “Black Tuesday.” View three articles they’ve recently posted on the crash and the Depression.

iPhone Apps for Historians

Halloween

Contributors: Miriam Hauss Cunningham, Elisabeth Grant, Arnita A. Jones, and Jessica Pritchard

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October 28, 2009

American Historical Review - October 2009 Online

By Robert A. Schneider, Editor, American Historical Review

American Historical Review October 2009The October 2009 issue of the American Historical Review is now on-line at the University of Chicago Press.  It contains two forums, one on “Truth and Reconciliation in History;” the other on “Taylor Branch’s America during the King Years.”  There is also our usual extensive book review section.  In addition, readers will discover something new: Following “In this Issue,” we introduce  “In Back Issues,” an attempt to draw attention to our extensive inventory of articles by taking a look at what was in the AHR 100, 50, and 25 years ago.

AHR Forum: Truth and Reconciliation in History
The forum “Truth and Reconciliation in History” deals with a global experience that both calls history into question and calls upon the participation of historians.  Especially since the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa in 1995, after the ending of apartheid, several nations and groups have attempted to confront and possibly come to terms with their fractious and traumatic pasts.  This forum offers three examples of how historians have played a role in these attempts.  Elazar Barkan introduces the forum with his essay, “Historians and Historical Reconciliation,” in which he surveys the role historians have played “to promote reconciliation through collaborative work to produce a shared history.”  The following three articles offer case studies of this process at work.  The Polish-Jewish experience during World War II is examined by David Engel, in “On Reconciling the Histories of Two Chosen Peoples.”  In “Truth in Telling: Reconciling Realities in the Genocide of the Ottoman Armenians,” Ronald Grigor Suny delves into initiatives by Turkish, Armenian and other scholars to reach some common understanding of the ethnic conflicts in the early part of the 20th century.  And Charles Ingrao’s “Confronting Yugoslav Controversies: The Scholars Initiative” gives an account of the ongoing efforts of a whole range of scholars, both from the Balkans and outside that region, to fashion a single narrative of the crimes and misdeeds committed in the former Yugoslavia.  The comment is by James Campbell whose essay, “Settling Accounts? An Americanist Perspective on Historical Reconciliation,” not only reflects on these three cases but also offers a commentary on the reconciliation process from the perspective of someone with experience in American attempts to deal with its own problematic past. As Barkan notes in his introductory essay, the participation of historians in these kinds of projects is one example of how scholarship, often assumed to be irrelevant to social problems, relegated to the ivory tower, can play a crucial role on the public stage.

AHR Forum: Taylor Branch’s America in the King Years
The second forum in this issue looks back upon a notable achievement in the writing of recent American history, America during the King Years, by Taylor Branch. The final volume of this trilogy was published in 2007. Three historians examine Branch’s contribution from different perspectives. In “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Meaning of the 1960s,” Michael Kazin takes an appreciative look at the volumes’ interpretation of that turbulent decade, but also offers some criticism of Branch’s narrative as analytically inadequate to explain the social and political trends that defined the period.  Clayson Carson’s “The Biography Branch Might have Written,” assesses the work from a biographical perspective, questioning whether Branch provides an accurate understanding of the deep sources of King’s actions throughout his life.  Finally, Peniel Joseph, in “The Black Power Movement, Democracy, and America during the King Years,” focuses on African American militants and radicals, charging that Branch fails to acknowledge adequately the important role played by these figures both in the wider context both of American history and the Civil Rights movement.

December’s issue will include an AHR Forum on “Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality and Gender,” and the AHR Conversation on “Historians and the Study of Material Culture.”

With this issue we note several changes on the Board of Editors.  Toby L. Ditz, Lloyd S. Kramer, Daniel Lord Smail, Eric Van Young and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom are leaving the board, with our thanks for their invaluable service.  Their replacements are Jane Kamensky, Jeremy Popkin, Paul Freedman, Jonathan C. Brown, and Ruth Rogaski.

Robert A. Schneider (Indiana Univ.) is the editor of the AHR. He can be reached at raschnei@indiana.edu.

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October 27, 2009

2008 AHA Annual Report

The AHA’s Annual Report for 2008 is now available online. It contains a preface from former AHA president Gabrielle M. Spiegel, reports from Council, lists of members (25-year, honorary, and life), and donors to the association. You’ll also find minutes from the 123rd business meeting, council decisions, and the financial report (PDF). Check out executive director Arnita Jones’s report for a broad overview of 2008. Find all of this and more in the 2008 Annual Report online.

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October 27, 2009

AHA’s Two-Year College Task Force Begins Work

The ad hoc Two-Year College Task Force, which was established by the AHA’s Council in January 2009, has begun its work of exploring various issues relating to history faculty at two-year colleges. At the end of its three-year tenure, the task force is expected to present a set of recommendations to Council.

The task force, which was constituted in March 2009, consists of J. Frank Malaret (Sacramento City Coll.) serving as chair; Trinidad Gonzales (South Texas Coll.); Judith Jeffrey Howard (National Endowment for the Humanities, retired); Natalie Kimbrough (Community Coll. of Baltimore County); Kevin Reilly (Raritan Valley Community Coll.); and David A. Berry (Essex County Community Coll.) representing, ex-officio, the Community College Humanities Association.

The Two-Year College Task Force was prompted, among other things, by a recommendation of the Working Group on the Future of the AHA, which was concerned about the small number of faculty from two-year colleges who were members of the Association.

Purpose: The Working Group on the Future of the AHA recommended, therefore, that a new task force should be constituted to explore how to increase AHA membership of community college faculty by better serving their needs. The task force will also address the issues of part-time two-year faculty.

Plan of action: The task force will devote its first year primarily to gathering information. AHA staff has already begun collecting names and e-mail addresses of two-year faculty currently teaching history courses so that an e-mail survey of faculty can be conducted. The task force will hold open forums at the annual meetings of the AHA and at such meetings of other associations (like the CCHA, for example), as are financially feasible. Each year the task force will provide an interim written report to the AHA Council. In January 2012 the task force will submit to Council a draft final report, with a final version due no later than June 2012. The report will offer formal recommendations for future action, with some estimation of costs, for Council approval.

The task force efforts may also include commissioning articles for Perspectives on History and pamphlets and organizing annual meeting sessions on topics such as survey courses in higher education, a large percentage of which are taught by two-year college faculty.

The task force held its first meeting in Washington, D.C., in June 2009. Questions about the task force may be addressed to: Noralee Frankel. See also the resources for two-year college faculty available on the AHA’s web site.

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October 26, 2009

Members’ Books Received at the AHA – October 2009

By David Darlington

As a service to AHA members, we are listing books by members received in the headquarters office in recent months. These postings will only constitute an announcement of their publication and provide short descriptions of the books (as described by their publishers). These are not reviews. Books for review by the AHR need to be sent to the attention of Moureen Coulter, 914 Atwater, Bloomington, IN 47401.

Confederate Guerrilla: The Civil War Memoir of Joseph BaileyBaker, T. Lindsay, ed. Confederate Guerrilla: The Civil War Memoir of Joseph Bailey (Univ. of Arkansas Press, 2007)
An ordinary Confederate soldier turned Southern guerilla, Joseph M. Bailey in his memoir, Confederate Guerrilla, provides a unique perspective on the fighting that took place behind Union lines in Federal-occupied northwest Arkansas during the American Civil War. Comprehensive annotations are provided by editor T. Lindsay Baker (W.K Gordon Center for the Industrial History of Texas), who has verified the facts relating to almost every person, incident, and location mentioned by Bailey.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American LifeGinzberg, Lori D. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life. (Hill and Wang, 2009)
In this subtly crafted biography, the historian Lori D. Ginzberg (Penn State Univ.) narrates the life of the founding philosopher of the American movement for woman’s rights—a woman of great charm, enormous appetite, and extraordinary intellectual gifts. That nearly all of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s ideas, including the demand for woman suffrage, are now commonplace is in large part because she worked tirelessly to extend the nation’s promise of radical individualism to women. At once critical and admiring, Ginzberg captures Stanton’s ambiguous place in her own community of reformers and intellectuals, describes how she changed the world, and reveals how Stanton’s legacy has shaped American feminism in significant and complex ways.

Social and Economic Networks in Early Massachusetts: Atlantic ConnectionsHamilton, Marsha L. Social and Economic Networks in Early Massachusetts: Atlantic Connections. (Penn. State Univ. Press, 2009)
The 17th century saw an influx of immigrants to the heavily Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. This book redefines the role that non-Puritans and non-English immigrants played in the social and economic development of Massachusetts. Marsha Hamilton (Univ. of South Alabama) shows how non-Puritan English, Scots, and Irish immigrants, along with Channel Islanders, Huguenots, and others, changed the social and economic dynamic of the colony.

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil WarMcCaslin, Richard B. Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War . (Univ. of Arkansas Press, 2007)

More than 250 portraits—many never before published—are found in Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War. The eighth volume in the distinguished series joins the personal and the public to provide a uniquely rich portrayal of Tennesseans—in uniforms of both blue and gray—who fought and lost their lives in the Civil War. Richard B. McCaslin is a professor of history at the University of North Texas and author of two prior entries in the series.

Beyond the Miracle WorkerNielsen, Kim E. Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller (Beacon Press, 2009)
After many years, historian and Helen Keller expert Kim Nielsen (Univ. of Wisconsin-Green Bay) realized that she, along with other historians and biographers, had failed Anne Sullivan Macy. While Macy is remembered primarily as Helen Keller’s teacher and mythologized as a straightforward educational superhero, the real story of this brilliant, complex, and misunderstood woman, who described herself as a “badly constructed human being,” has never been completely told. Beyond the Miracle Worker, the first biography of Macy in nearly 50 years, complicates the typical Helen-Annie “feel good” narrative in surprising ways. By telling the life from Macy’s perspective—not Keller’s—the biography is the first to put Macy squarely at the center of the story. It presents a new and fascinating tale about a wounded but determined woman and her quest for a successful, meaningful life.

The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman, Apostle of AbolitionSlaughter, Thomas P. The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman, Apostle of Abolition (Hill and Wang, 2008)
John Woolman was one of the most significant Americans of the 18th century, though he was not a famous politician, general, scientist, or man of letters, and he never held public office. In this biography, Thomas P. Slaughter (Univ. of Rochester) makes it clear why he mattered so much. A humble tailor who was known at first only to the few hundred other Quakers at their meetings in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and New England, Woolman became a prophetic voice for the entire Anglo-American world when he spoke out against the evils of slavery, and his extraordinary Journal, first published in 1774, has never been out of print since. Slaughter goes behind and beyond the famous Journal to search for the sources of Woolman’s spiritual power and enduring influence. His deft, dramatic portrait of this saintly figure reveals the ways in which the mystic Woolman became transformed into an unforgettable figure.

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October 23, 2009

Grant of the Week: Olivia James Traveling Fellowship from the Archaeological Institute of America

The Olivia James Traveling Fellowship, from the Archaeological Institute of America, provides $25,000 for travel and study in Greece, Cyprus, the Aegean Islands, Sicily, southern Italy, Asia Minor, or Mesopotamia, conducted between July 1 of the award year and the following June 30. Eligible applicants must be United States citizens, and preference will be given to individuals engaged in dissertation research or to those who received their PhD within five years of the application deadline. For more information see the Olivia James Traveling Fellowship page online. The deadline for applications is November 1st.

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October 22, 2009

What We’re Reading: October 22, 2009 Edition

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wins Kennedy Medal In the news this week, AHA President Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has won a prestigious award, the Gates Foundation has donated a significant amount to the African American History and Culture Museum, and a Russian historian has been detained for violating “privacy laws” in his research. We also link to two articles on the history of healthcare. One comes from the History Guys and another from James Mohr, history professor at the University of Oregon. Then, peruse images that have been faked, drawn, or added to Flickr. There are also a number of other articles on a variety of topics, including: Google Books, open access, the value of a college education, a new Lincoln exhibit, and the National Book Awards. Finally, we round this post out with a little fun: creepy songs from the Library of Congress archives.

News

Health Care and History

Photographs and images

Assorted Articles

For Fun

Contributors: David Darlington, Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, Jessica Pritchard, and Robert B. Townsend

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October 21, 2009

Directory of History Departments and Organizations Now Online

Online directoryWe are pleased to announce that a searchable edition of the Directory of History Departments and Organizations is now available online, and we are offering a special trial preview through October 31 to anyone with a web browser.

The new version is intended to make the Directory more useful for historians, administrators, and anyone interested in the history profession. Like the print version (mailed out in early October), the online Directory has information on over 820 history departments and historical institutions, and nearly 20,000 historians and history specialists. But with the online version you will also be able to identify specialists in particular subjects and from particular schools; develop benchmark groups of departments with similar degrees, tuition levels, and numbers of students and faculty; and you can also look up the holdings and programs of more than 100 historical organizations. The online edition should also provide the most current information, as departments and organizations will be able to come in and update their entries throughout the year.

To try the online Directory, you will just need to log in as a Guest at http://www.historians.org/pubs/directory2/loginform.cfm (user: Guest, password: To1031). After October 31, only members and institutions who have subscribed to the Directory (through the Member or Departmental Services Programs) or purchased access through the AHA’s Pubs Shop will have full access. A limited version of the Directory, allowing lookup of basic contact information for listing institutions, will remain available.

Please give the online Directory a trial run and e-mail us at feedback@historians.org to let us know what you think about it, and how it might be improved. We look forward to hearing from you. We will continue to develop the Directory in the coming years, and hope to improve the connections with the related History Doctoral Programs site, so your comments and suggestions will play an important part in shaping future developments.

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October 21, 2009

Africa Past and Present Podcast - Q&A with Dr. Peter Alegi

By Jessica Pritchard

Africa Past and Present PodcastNote: This interview follows Monday’s post on the Africa Past and Present podcast site. The following is an interview with Peter Alegi, the host.

1. How does podcasting affect the production and dissemination of historical knowledge?

Peter Limb and I launched the Africa Past and Present podcast in January 2008 to make African history and African Studies available to a broader public. We thought podcasting could help democratize knowledge and partly address our frustration with the limited impact of African scholarship on mainstream knowledge about Africa.

Building on MSU’s strengths in digital humanities (www.matrix.msu.edu), we chose a “radio magazine” style for the podcast. Each thirty-minute biweekly episode features a “fireside” chat-type interview with a scholar (sometimes more than one). We try to keep things interesting for our audience and for ourselves by covering a wide range of topics with our guests, such as Islam in West Africa, slavery and the slave trades, Africa’s place in the Indian Ocean, environmental history in Malawi, Garveyism, American Zulus, colonial prisons in Senegal, and soccer.

Getting back to the original question, it’s difficult to say if and how our podcast affects the production and dissemination of historical knowledge about Africa. We do know that our audience is international and growing. In September 2009 we set a new record for unique visitors to the site (4,647) and total downloads (3,869) from 63 countries, including South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, and Egypt. Several university libraries list our podcast as an African e-resource (for example, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/cult.html), and the content is finding its way into scholarly engagements thousands of miles away from East Lansing. For instance, a colleague recently gave a talk in New York and during the Q&A a graduate student prefaced her question with a comment along these lines: “In your recent interview on the Africa Past and Present podcast you said that . . .”. Can you believe it? Another example comes from a prospective graduate student who told us he’d listened to our podcasts during his long journey by car from California! He is now enrolled in our African history doctoral program at MSU (http://history.msu.edu/african_history1.php) so maybe the podcast played a small role as a recruiting tool.

2. What pedagogical applications do podcasts offer?

Podcasts can be used in the classroom in many different ways. While there is a learning curve with this medium, instructors can easily record lectures and make them available on a course web site. With basic IT knowledge and minimal technical support, interested folks can craft documentary-style pieces and soundscapes that place people in a particular historical time and place (e.g., World at War podcast: http://worldatwar.libsyn.com/). Others keep an audio blog to comment on current events or share their thoughts on “hot” books in their field. Podcasting can also enhance online teaching and foreign language training. In short, there are many possibilities.

In my introductory African courses, I assign episodes of Africa Past and Present to complement lectures, discussions, and more conventional assignments. For example, as part of the “Spirituality and Religion” unit this week, students are reading my colleague David Robinson’s work on Islam in Africa and listening to episode 1 of the podcast—an interview Robinson and I conducted with Dr. Cheikh Babou, a Senegalese historian at University of Pennsylvania, and author of a new book, Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913. Several scholars are now using our podcast in their Africa courses, which we encourage under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Students generally report that they like that they can listen to the podcast on their iPods on the bus, while working out and elsewhere; it allows them to productively fill in “dead time” and thus extend learning outside the boundaries of the classroom.

3. What kind of role do you see podcasts playing in digital preservation and electronic publishing?

Central to our mission of democratizing knowledge about Africa is the creation of a free, open-access, Web-based digital archive of all the podcasts. Any user with an internet connection can listen and download the shows. Moreover, the wonderful eGranary Digital Library (http://www.widernet.org/digitallibrary/), a low-cost, innovative way to deliver digital teaching tools to scholars and students in developing countries, redistributes the podcast to many African universities and schools lacking adequate internet access.

The podcast itself is an electronic publication. It’s a wide ranging and informed intellectual labor of love that comes out of two years of hard work. The medium allows us to publish on a regular basis on issues of interest to our academic community and the community at large that sometimes do not fit neatly into the conventional print outlets. In a world of iPhones, Kindles, and peer-to-peer file sharing, traditional monographs are under threat so historians need alternative outlets. I think it’s terrific that the AHA is covering our podcast and discussing online publishing; it’s a sign that it is starting to move with the times and also legitimizes what we are doing.

Some of our podcasts have focused on African e-publications, such as Sean Jacobs’s Africa is a Country blog (http://africasacountry.com/) and the “New Media and Southern African Studies” round table discussion held at the last North East Workshop on Southern Africa. In the near future, we plan to interview scholars working on African digital humanities projects like Diversity and Tolerance in West African Islam (http://westafricanislam.matrix.msu.edu/) and others.

But our experience with podcasting also suggests that e-publishing and print publishing can complement each other. For instance, a transcript of our interview with Professor Robert Edgar (Episode 7, April 15, 2008) was published in a recent issue of the journal Safundi (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17533170903020973).

4. Explain the importance and role of partnerships with scholars in Africa in the production of your podcasts.

About half of our guests have been African scholars, either faculty visiting MSU or individuals based at other universities whom we speak to via Skype. In January 2010 I am going to South Africa for a year on a Fulbright and part of my plan is to interview local scholars and build a stronger network of Africa-based experts for the program. Maybe podcasting can help narrow the digital divide between Africa and the much of the rest of the world and in the process develop scholarly partnerships based on the principles of equality and reciprocity.

For more information, visit the Africa Past & Present podcast or see our previous blog post, “Africa Past and Present: The Podcast about African History, Culture, and Politics.”

Comment [5]

October 20, 2009

Perspectives on History – October 2009

By Elisabeth Grant

Perspectives on History October 2009This month, in the October issue of Perspectives on History, get ready for the 124th AHA Annual Meeting, keep up with AHA news and activities, learn the news from Washington, read about training teachers of world history, and go to the movies.

Annual Meeting
As we slip deeper into fall, thoughts are turning to the upcoming 124th Annual Meeting in San Diego this January 7-10, 2010. Karen Halttunen, the AHA’s vice president, teaching division, starts off by highlighting the miniconference on “Historical Perspectives on Same-Sex Marriage” to be held at the meeting. Read her description of the event, and see the right-hand side bar for a complete list of all events.

Sharon K. Tune brings readers two informational pieces on the meeting, including some useful reminders and “Information and Accommodations for Persons with Disabilities.” Then, get a glimpse of the host city through Iris Engstrand’s “An Overview of San Diego,” and Matt Bokovoy’s “City Beautiful: Balboa Park and the San Diego Expositions.”

A hot topic of every Annual Meeting is jobs in the history profession, and many discussions also take a look at the Job Center. Robert B. Townsend’s article “Time to Dispense with the AHA Conference Interviews?” takes up a recent post in the blogosphere about the best way to interview job candidates, and includes comments from historians with a range of opinions.

Then, even as we gear up for the 124th meeting, preparations are already being made for the 125th. Read the “Call for Proposals: 125th Annual Meeting of the AHA” by Michael H. Fisher and Barbara H. Rosenwein, and check back to submit your proposal later in the fall.

AHA News, Activities, and Articles
Not only is the October issue of Perspectives on History now available, so is the October issue of the American Historical Review. Robert A. Schneider, editor of the AHR, sums up what’s in this month’s issue.

A couple of AHA news items are mentioned this month, including: the establishment of a new Technology Advisory Committee and an invitation for nominations for the 2010 AHA election. A reprinting of the AHA’s “Statement on Diversity in AHA Nominations and Appointments” is posted in the hope that it will encourage members to suggest more individuals from diverse backgrounds for both appointments and nominations.

Also check out William M. Ferraro’s look back at “The AHA and the George Washington Bicentennial in 1932.”

From Washington and our Affiliates
From Washington, the “Senate Bids Farewell to Historian Baker” and Lee White, director of the National Coalition for History, lays out “The Fiscal 2010 Federal Budget.” Meanwhile, Miriam Hauss Cunningham reports on the National History Center’s Summer Institute on Immigration, held in July 2009.

Teaching
Two sections of this month’s issue may be of interest to history teachers. The first is a Forum on Training Teachers of World History. Robert Bain and Lauren McArthur Harris provide the introduction to the forum, and are followed by Sharon Cohen’s “Teaching Teachers of World History,” Peter N. Stearns’ “Getting the Big Picture: Teaching World History Teachers,” and Barbara Tischler’s “Teaching World History: Issues and Possibilities.”

Then, in the 11th installment of the “Masters at the Movies” series, Louis A. Pérez Jr. introduces Stan Katz’s take on Eyes on the Prize.

In Memoriam
The issue wraps up with remembrances of Joseph O. Baylen, Kenneth Stampp, Roger Trask, and Eugene Yazkov.

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October 19, 2009

Africa Past and Present: The Podcast about African History, Culture, and Politics

By Jessica Pritchard

Africa Past and Present PodcastPodcasts continue to gain popularity in both social and academic realms, becoming a routine part of Internet lingo. Africa Past and Present offers podcasts that center on the history, culture, and politics of Africa and the African Diaspora. The types of podcasts range from personal interviews, to discussions on current events, to hot topics in African history.

Peter Alegi, associate professor in history at Michigan State University (MSU), and Peter Limb, adjunct associate professor in history at MSU and Africana bibliographer, host each program. “Our mission,” they explain, “is to broaden the availability and accessibility of cutting-edge knowledge relating to African experiences and to do so in a down-to-earth and informed manner.”

The web site receives funding from MSU and MATRIX, the Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University, the latter of which is also responsible for production.

The following synopses are taken from the Africa Past and Present website and will give an idea of the types of podcasts available. Then, return later this week to read a Q & A post with Dr. Peter Alegi.

Africa and the Indian Ocean
Episode 32: September 30, 2009

Historian Ned Alpers (UCLA) discusses changing trends in Indian Ocean history and Africa’s centrality within it. Drawing from over three decades of research and a recently published book, Alpers discusses east African views of the Indian Ocean; slavery and the slave trade; resistance and agency. He concludes by reflecting on the daunting challenges and exciting opportunities facing Indian Ocean historians today. With guest host Laura Fair.

African Identities and Genocide Studies
Episode 25: August 15, 2009

Professor Abebe Zegeye, Chair of Genocide and Holocaust studies at the University of South Africa, discusses Africans’ multiple identities and genocide studies in Africa.  Is there a need for a different model than that of Holocaust studies to analyze political violence in colonial and post-colonial Africa? Zegeye closes with thoughts on his recent appointment as Director of Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research in Johannesburg.

Slavery in West African History
Episode 20: January 30, 2009

Our first anniversary episode! Historian Martin Klein, Emeritus at the University of Toronto reflects on African history and historiography and his life’s work on slavery in West Africa. Klein then sheds light on his ongoing research in cooperation with leading Africanists on African slaves. He concludes with observations about the state of historical research in Senegal, Mali, and Guinea.

Atlantic History
Episode 12: August 30, 2008

Walter Hawthorne, Associate Professor at MSU History Department, is an expert on Africa and the Atlantic World in the era of the slave trade.  We talk with him and Joseph Lauer about the history of rice farmers on the Upper Guinea Coast and the vigorous debate over Judith Carney’s “Black Rice” thesis. Hawthorne closes by describing his book Forging a Creole Atlantic: Africans on the Upper Guinea Coast, in Portugal and in Amazonia, 1650-1830.

Amadu Bamba and the Muridiyya of Senegal
Episode 1: January 15, 2008

The inaugural episode of Africa Past and Present introduces the podcast and features an interview with University of Pennsylvania Professor Cheikh Anta Babou. In the second segment, MSU University Distinguished Professor David Robinson joined Peter Alegi for an interview with Cheikh Babou, the Senegalese historian and author of Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913 Professor Babou hopes his book will encourage readers to “understand that Islam is diverse; not to see Islam as an essence, not to confuse it with Arab culture or Middle Eastern Culture.” Robinson stresses the importance of learning about religious diversity in a post-9/11 world and to appreciate that “what some people say is Islam is really a distortion of that main tradition.”

Check back later in the week to read a Q & A post with Dr. Peter Alegi.

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October 16, 2009

Grant of the Week: Academic and Artistic Fellowships from the Camargo Foundation

The Camargo Foundation welcomes applications from scholars pursuing studies relating to French and francophone cultures and from composers, writers, and visual artists pursuing specific projects.  The interdisciplinary residency program is intended to give fellows the time and space they need to realize their projects. The foundation’s hillside campus overlooks the Mediterranean Sea in Cassis, France; it includes fully furnished apartments, a reference library, and art/music studios. Fellows are provided with self-catering accommodation on campus. A stipend of $1,500 is also available. The deadline for applications is January 12, 2010. See the web site for more information and instructions on how to apply.

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October 15, 2009

Job Center 2010 - Reservations now Accepted

Is your institution conducting interviews at the 124th annual meeting this January? The forms for reserving tables or private rooms at the Job Center are now available online. Space in the Job Center is available on a first come, first served basis until November 15, 2009.

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October 15, 2009

What We’re Reading: October 15, 2009 Edition

Norman Rockwell Free SpeechThree articles start off What We’re Reading this week. First, the Chronicle examines history of science professor Robert N. Proctor’s fight to keep his unpublished manuscript private. Then, Wired critiques Google’s Usenet Archive, and Google responds. And finally, the Wall Street Journal takes a look at Norman Rockwell’s paintings of the “four essential freedoms.” From the blogosphere, Laura Wimberley at ACRLog looks at budget cuts in higher ed while the GeneologyBlog worries about Indiana’s State Archives. Meanwhile, from the opinion columns, we bring you thoughts on Walmart and the Wilderness Battlefield, as well as one take on Tarentino’s Inglourious Basterds. Finally, this post rounds out with ten history podcasts you might want to check out.

Articles

Blog Posts

Opinion

Resources

Contributors: David Darlington, Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, Jessica Pritchard, and Robert B. Townsend

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