Monthly Archives: November 2019

by | November 26, 2019 · 1:31 pm

Creating an Antiracist, Inclusive, and Transformative Classroom Environment

On November, 5th, 2019, History’s Technology and Pedagogy (TAP) hosted a workshop facilitated by Lisa Betty (Teaching Fellow, History). The session, entitled Creating an Antiracist, Inclusive, and Transformative Classroom Environment, demonstrated how to actively incorporate antiracist pedagogy in the classroom through language-use and writing. With inspiration from bell hooks’ engaged pedagogy and Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, graduate students discussed strategies for decolonizing language and writing in the classroom through the use of collaborative group work sessions and compulsory critical thinking. Lisa, Amanda, Patrick, and Toby would like this session to be the first of a larger workshop that aims to support GSAS Teaching Fellows in creating and implementing similar antiracist pedagogical strategies within the classroom and their teaching practice.


The History Department sponsored graduate group Technology and Pedagogy (TAP) meets weekly on Thursdays to discuss ways to incorporate technology in the classroom. Please contact Patrick, Toby, or Amanda for more information.


The History Department sponsored graduate group Technology and Pedagogy (TAP) meets weekly on Thursdays to discuss ways to incorporate technology in the classroom. Please contact Patrick, Toby, or Amanda for more information.

(Left to Right) David Howes, Tanner Smoot, Lisa Betty, and Amanda Racine

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by | · 1:25 pm

What Is Global History at Fordham? (Part 1 – Prof. Asif Siddiqi)

In this new series, “What is Global History at Fordham,” we will hear from members of Fordham’s Global History consortium on what global history means to them and how it shapes their work.

Today, we begin with Professor Asif Siddiqi.

“As a historian of science and technology, global history is neither world history nor is there one single version of it. Instead, my research is focused on highlighting the many globally connected histories of science and technology. Instead of looking at (for example), German science or a Japanese nuclear reactor or a Russian satellite, our approach would consider larger concepts such as mobility or waste or infrastructure and reconstruct their global manifestations and changes across time and space. Our teaching will give you the tools to investigate, research and write your own version of a globally connected history.”

You can follow Prof. Asif Siddiqi on Twitter @historyasif

Asif Siddiqi

           

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by | November 20, 2019 · 10:43 am

Prof. S. Elizabeth Penry’s New Book, “The People Are King: The Making of an Indigenous Andean Politics (Oxford University Press),” is Now Out!


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In the sixteenth century, Andean communities were forcibly removed from their villages by Spanish colonizers and resettled in planned, self-governed towns. Rather than conforming to Spanish cultural and political norms, indigenous Andeans adopted and gradually refashioned the institutions imposed on them, in the process producing a new kind of civil society that merged their traditional understanding of collective life with the Spanish notion of the común to demand participatory democracy. This hybrid concept of self-rule spurred the indigenous rebellions that erupted across Latin America against Spanish rulers and native hereditary nobility. Through the letters and documents of the Andean people themselves, The People Are King examines the community-based democracy that played a central role in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions and continues to galvanize indigenous movements in Bolivia today.

“Elizabeth Penry offers a sharply original account of the Andean Age of Rebellions, placing it in a culture of civic populism whose roots extended to both pre-conquest Peru and medieval Spain. Where previous narratives have gravitated toward charismatic leaders, The People are King breathes a democratic spirit that is both moving and persuasive.”—Jeremy Mumford, Brown University 

“This meticulously researched and gracefully narrated look at the transformation over time of the public sphere in indigenous communities of highland Bolivia offers readers a remarkable window into how and why the Great Rebellion of the 1780s unfolded by focusing on communities instead of on the leadership. This is an unusual and exciting second look at the prelude to independence in Spanish America.”—Joanne Rappaport, Georgetown University 

“Elizabeth Penry’s skillfully crafted study reconstructs the ways colonial Andean comunes or commons became grassroots laboratories where modern ideas of communal self-government and popular sovereignty gradually emerged. Inscribed in the best traditions of Andean history and ethnohistory, The People are King is a much-needed contribution to the intricate ways indigenous community politics helped establish the foundations of the modern world.”— José Carlos de la Puente, author of Andean Cosmopolitans: Seeking Justice and Reward at the Spanish Royal Court 


You can purchase the book here

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Prof. S. Elizabeth Penry

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by | November 16, 2019 · 3:37 pm

Is the World Still Living in the Shadow of the Crusades?

The official website for BBC History Magazine interviewed our colleague, Prof. Nicholas Paul. Read Prof. Paul’s comments below:

Confronted with the message, propagated by both the European and Anglophone extreme right and Islamic jihadist groups, that we live in an age of renewed conflict between Islam and the west, many people may understandably conclude that we have inherited an ancient legacy of holy war. We have – though not in the way that many imagine.

The legacy of the crusades today is not due to the continuity over time of any medieval crusading institution. After all, the crusade indulgence offered by the church – a central element of the architecture of these holy wars – had effectively disappeared by the 17th century. Surviving crusading orders, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, are now devoted to charitable work. And no modern state, whether in Spain, the Baltic or the eastern Mediterranean, can trace its origins to the ‘crusader states’ established by medieval conquests. Too much historical water – reformation, revolution, global exchange, the rise and fall of empires, the shock of modernity – has passed under the bridge for any modern community to still bear marks of crusading violence.

The legacy of the crusades is, nonetheless, powerful, primarily because of the passions and predilections of 19th- and 20th-century Europeans. They found in the crusades a useful past through which they sought to understand their own world of overseas empires, warring nations and rapid social change. These modern observers constructed a storehouse of popular images and stories – such as the epic encounter of Richard I and Saladin during the Third Crusade – and used them to make claims about morality and collective identity.

Western Europeans took these images and attitudes abroad – for example, in 1898, when Kaiser Wilhelm II re-enacted the conquest of Jerusalem and rebuilt Saladin’s tomb at Damascus, laying a gilt bronze wreath (later taken by TE Lawrence and now displayed in London’s Imperial War Museum). It was in this modern context that a new historical memory of the crusades was constructed – one that stripped away fundamental elements of crusading history and is easily co-opted by those who would make a ‘clash of civilisations’ seem habitual and inevitable.

To read the entire conversation, click here:

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Prof. Nicholas Paul

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by | · 3:25 pm

How A Mystery Torah Ended Up In An Online Thrift Store Selling For $456

Here is an excerpt of an article featuring our colleague, Prof. Daniel Soyer.

“In 1938, there were at least eight Berdichev societies in New York, said Daniel Soyer, a professor of history at Fordham University and the author of a book about Jewish immigration societies. Though Soyer said that none of these societies were religious, it was common practice for a landsmanshaft to sponsor the creation of a Torah on behalf of their hometown. That means the scroll could have belonged to a congregation that had no connection to Berdichev, but did have a connection to someone from there. Alternatively, it could have been the property of someone whose name was Berdichev, Soyer said.”

You can read more here:

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Prof. Daniel Soyer

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by | · 3:14 pm

Graduate History Workshop CFP: “Retracing Power: Authority, Conflict, And Resistance in History” – Deadline, December 13, 2019.

 

The Fordham History Department, through its O’Connell Initiative on the Global History of Capitalism, is accepting abstracts for its Graduate Student Workshop. The workshop will take place on Friday, April 3, 2020 at the Rose Hill Campus. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a space for graduate students to present, read, and receive valuable feedback from other graduate students and Fordham faculty on projects they are planning on publishing.

Our goal is to foster conversations across a wide variety of topics. Concepts such as power, politics, and society can be interpreted broadly across time periods and geographies. Submissions can include topics on race, gender, class, political and social structures as well as economic, cultural, and religious institutions from antiquity to the modern era. We especially welcome papers exploring the following questions: How are culture and political power intertwined?  How did gender, race, or class shape involvement in political institutions? How have class and race intersected with political power? How has the authority of religion affected social relations? How did the power structures of trade and colonialism function? What is the relationship between knowledge and power in social domains such as education, science, and/or medicine? Papers can investigate, but are not limited to, the question of power and:

Deadline & Submissions:

We invite submissions for individual papers from advanced MA and PhD students. Titles and abstracts (250-300 words) should include a working title and a main argument and be sent to fordhamgradworkshop@gmail.com by the deadline of December 13, 2019.  All submissions should include a separate document containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information. 

Chosen participants will be notified by email no later than February 3rd, 2020. The final papers should be full-length drafts, about 20-35 pages in length (c. 5,000-9,000 words, double-spaced) with full citations. Papers should not have been published elsewhere. Presenters should plan to circulate their papers at least two weeks before the meeting. At the workshop, we will ask all contributors to not present their papers but introduce and frame their arguments with a 10-12-minute introduction leaving the bulk of the session to a detailed discussion of the paper among participants.

Financial Support: 

Fordham will offer up to $250 per accepted participant to defray travel costs.  The day’s schedule will also include a light breakfast, lunch and closing reception.

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Filed under Conferences, Department Events, Grad Student News, O'Connell Initiative, Workshop

by | November 1, 2019 · 4:08 pm

An Exciting Week at Fordham

Prof. Kirsten Swinth was cited in The New York Times’ article, “‘A Very Unwelcome Feeling’: The First Women at Yale Look Back.” You can read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/upshot/yale-first-women-discrimination.html?searchResultPosition=1

You can follow Prof. Kristen Swinth on Twitter @kswinth

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Kisten Swinth

The students of Prof. Steven Stoll’s Environmental History of New City course, taught in conjunction with the New-York Historical Society, have been mapping and connecting NYC’s past, present, and future. You can watch and learn more about their efforts here: https://news.fordham.edu/arts-and-culture/mapping-the-past-with-the-new-york-historical-society/

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Steven Stoll

Prof. Yuko Miki, the recent recipient of the American Historical Association’s Wesley-Logan Prize for the outstanding book in African diaspora history, discussed Race & Citizenship in Latin America alongside Fordham Law Professor Tanya Hernandez. The Maloney Library’s Behind the Book Series organized this event.

Yuko Miki

Prof. Saul Cornell and Dr. Nicole Hemmer discussed the history and politics of impeachment. In case you missed it or want re-watch it, you can re-catch their fascinating exchange here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPy_rDyLfow

You can follow Prof. Saul Cornell on Twitter @SaulCornell

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Saul Cornell

Prof. Nana Osei-Opare was interviewed by Starr FM, a Ghanaian based radio station, about his thoughts on the historic Africa-Russia Summit in Sochi.

You can follow Prof. Nana Osei-Opare on Twitter @NanaOseiOpare

Nana Osei-Opare

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