Tag Archives: cultural history

Student Perspectives: Second Annual Women’s Liberation Teach-In

On November 7, 2017, Fordham students gathered for the second annual women’s liberation teach-in at Rodrigue’s Coffee House, on the Rose Hill campus. Part of Professor Kirsten Swinth’s Modern U.S. Women’s History, students in the teach-in emulated women’s liberation groups of the 1960s and 1970s. The teach-in is a valuable tool Dr. Swinth has used to move students from the pages of their textbooks into the lived experience of the subjects they study. Here’s what some of the students had to say about that experience. Continue reading

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Filed under Courses, Events, Public History

The Professor and the Process: Dr. Steven Stoll and Ramp Hollow

The History Department blog recently caught up with Dr. Steven Stoll to discuss his newest book, Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia (Hill and Wang, 2017). The book illuminates how the persistent poverty and pejorative perceptions associated with Appalachia are a result of the industrial powers that utilized the people to strip the land of its natural resources.

History Department: So how did the entire project begin?

Steven Stoll:  I originally set out to write a book about the collision between agrarian people (peasants, settlers, campesinos) in the Western Hemisphere. I then decided Continue reading

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Filed under Faculty News, Publications

Thinking About the History of the Digital Era at the Society for the History of Technology

Philadelphia was the location on the weekend of October 26-29 for the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). For the conference, Professor Asif Siddiqi organized a panel titled “Democratizing the Technologies of Pop Music: Songs in the Key of Gender, Fandom and Digital Sampling.” The panel forms the basis for a new book project by Professor Siddiqi, a collection of essays provisionally titled One Track Mind. The book will bring together academics and cultural critics to talk about Continue reading

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Filed under Alumni News, Conferences, Department Events, Digital Resources, Essays in History, Events, Faculty News

Fordham Professors in the News

Dr. Saul Cornell, the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, the author of A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America, and a recognized authority on the Second Amendment, has recently published two online articles about the gun debate: “Gun Anarchy and the Unfree State, the Real History of the Second Amendment” in The Baffler (October 3), and in Salon (October 22), “Five Types of Gun Laws the Founding Fathers Loved: Were muskets in 1777 better regulated than assault rifles in 2017?”

Dr. Asif Siddiqi’s highly regarded book, Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974, was quoted in a recent New Yorker article. The article, “Remembering Laika, Space Dog and Soviet Hero” (November 3, 2017) quoted Dr. Siddiqi’s description of the stringent requirements that Soviets followed in choosing dogs for the space mission.

Dr. Steven Stoll’s forthcoming new book, Ramp Hallow: The Ordeal of Appalachia (Hill and Wang) received an in-depth review in Washington Monthly, published jointly with ProPublica (October 30). As described by the reviewer, Stoll, “has set out to tell the story of how the people of a sprawling region of our country—one of its most physically captivating and ecological bountiful—went from enjoying a modest by self-sufficient existence as small- scale agrarians for much of the eighteen and nineteenth centuries to a dreary dependency on the indulgence of coal barons or the alms of government.” Dr. Stoll will discuss his new book at The New School on November 13.

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Filed under Essays in History, Faculty News, Publications, This week in Fordham History

Postcard from Domfront

Graduate students Rebecca Bartels, Toby Hrynick, and Thomas Schellhammer and Professor Rosemary Wakeman spent 3 days in June in the French town of Domfront in Lower Normandy. The stay was organized by Mayor Bernard Soul of Domfront and Eric Fauconnier of the Pays du Bocage Region. Domfront is a picturesque medieval town that played an important role in the wars against the English and the French Wars of Religion. Domfront’s well-known chateau was used by Henry, the youngest son of William the Conqueror to rally the local lords. He eventually became Duke of Normandy and Henry I of England. Domfront’s “Medieval Fair,” held each August, is among the most well-known in France and attracts thousands. Continue reading

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Filed under Grad Student News, Historical Sites and Museums, outreach

GSAS Fellowship Awarded to History PhD Candidate

Congratulations to Christine Kelly on being awarded the 2017-18 GSAS Higher Education Leadership Fellowship. The fellowship is designed as a collaborative mentorship for PhD candidates, through which the fellow engages with GSAS administration to learn the ins-and-outs of higher education administration and while providing their own ideas and insight into the graduate school to help better GSAS. Continue reading

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10/17/16: Simon Reynolds Discusses New Monograph on Glam Rock

Shock and Awe, on sale 10/11/16

The History Department has collaborated with the English, Art History, Music, and Communications & Media Studies Department to invite acclaimed British music journalist and cultural critic Simon Reynolds to discuss his upcoming book, Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century (Harper Collins, 2016), on October 17th at the Pope Memorial Auditorium at our Lincoln Center Campus. The talk will be followed by a conversation with Dr. Asif Siddiqi, who discusses the event below:

Reynolds is among the most respected and famous pop culture critics in the world and has left a deep imprint on the history of pop music in particular. A writer for The Guardian, the New York TimesRolling StoneVillage Voice, etc., he has published many award-winning and critically acclaimed books on the history of pop culture, including The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock’n’Roll and Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture.
His new book Shock and Awe is a provocative historical exploration of 1970s pop culture, from David Bowie to disco, and touches on issues of gender fluidity, authenticity, sexual decadence, and star-making in the late 20th century. The book’s release is timely in a number of ways, not least in its conjunction with the death of David Bowie earlier this year.
The talk should prove topical, edifying, and entertaining, and is not to be missed. Read a review of Shock and Awe here and see below for further event details.
“Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the 21st Century: A Conversation with Simon Reynolds”
Date and Time: Monday, October 17, 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Location: Pope Memorial Auditorium, Lowenstein Center @ Fordham Lincoln Center
Address: 155 W. 60th St., New York, NY 10023 (Corner of 60th St. and 9th Ave.)

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2016 Fordham History Graduate Colloquium Conference- Thursday April 28

 

Screenshot 2016-04-23 22.42.33

The Fordham History Department is proud to announce the History Colloquium Conference for 2016. The conference takes place this Thursday morning in Flom Auditorium on the lower floor  of the Walsh Library. Once again, our students will present on a diverse range of topics using a variety of approaches and sources material. Click on paper titles to find abstracts of these presentations.

Session I: Recovering Lost Lives from the Archives (10:00-10:40)

Amanda Haney, “Thomas Boleyn, A Man of Power in his Own Right”(Abstract)

Damien Strecker, “Edler Hawkins and the Formation of St. Augustine (Abstract)

Session II: Conflict, Identity, and Society (10:40-12:00)

Sajia Hanif, “The Marketplace of Death: the Crusade of Varna 1444” (Abstract)

Robert Effinger, “’Pursue One Great Decisive Aim with Force and Determination’: Prussian and Russian State, Economic and Military Reform, 1806-1815″ (Abstract )

Jason McDonald, “Japanese Teeth and Skulls in American Newspapers, 1884-2012” (Abstract)

Giulia Crisanti, “‘Balkanism’ and ‘Balkanization’ in Western Media During the Yugoslav War of the 1990s” (Abstract)

Coffee: 12:00-12:15

Session III:  Culture and Politics in the 20th Century US (12:15-1:15)

Nicole Siegel, “Cantors On Trial: The Jazz Singer, Its Responses, and the American Jewish Experience 1927-1937″ (Abstract)

Grace Healy, “Swamp or Climax Region? Congressional Perceptions of the Everglades, 1947-1989” (Abstract)

Michael McKenna, “Heads We Win, Tails You Lose: Television and the Rise of the New Right, 1964-1976” (Abstract)

Lunch will be served for all participants and their guests at 1:15 in the History Department

 

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Filed under Courses, Events, Grad Student News

Graduate Courses in History, Fall 2016

The History Department is excited to announce our lineup of Fall Courses for 2016. As always, the courses reflect the depth of expertise of our faculty and the rich variety of themes and perspectives on offer in our program. The full complement of six courses in Medieval, Early Modern, Modern European, and US history (with one course offering a global perspective on US history) is designed to provide all of our students with opportunities to pursue periods, areas, and subjects of interest to them. Medievalists can begin their year-long proseminar/seminar sequence, while other students identify topics and mentors for their final research papers.

 

Students should remember to contact the director of graduate studies before making their selections.

HIST 5411 Gender and Sexuality in Early America (Mondays, 5:30-7:20)

From Professor Doron Ben-Atar,  author of the recent book, Taming Lust: Crimes Against Nature in the Early Republic, comes this new course offering, encompassing “readings in the history of gender and sexuality discourse in Early America and the British Atlantic world of the 17th and 18th centuries.” Students of US History and the history of gender and sexuality

HIST 5506 European Nationalisms and Early Modern (Jewish) History (Mondays, 3:30-5:20)

One of our newest faculty members, and the department’s first Shvidler Chair in Judaic Studies and director of Jewish Studies at Fordham, Magda Teter presents her first graduate course at Fodham in Fall 2016.

From the course description:

Modern historiography, including Jewish historiography, and history as an academic discipline are products of modern national movements. The narratives they produced provide tools for shaping national and ethnic identities in the modern era, and had long lasting ramifications not only for the study of history but also for the inclusion or exclusion of specific groups in modern European societies. This course will explore how the writing of history has been linked to the larger questions of national identity, and nationalism, and to questions of political inclusion and exclusions. We will read the early Jewish historians of Germany, Poland, and Palestine/Israel and explore how their visions of premodern Jewish history were shaped by larger questions that were also occupying other European historians and intellectuals.

HIST 5915 US and Latin American Borderlands (Wednesdays 3:30-7:20)

Professor Salvador Acosta is another history faculty member with a new book out:  Sanctioning Marriage: Interethnic Marriage in the Arizona Borderlands. As the title implies, Professor Acosta is a leading authority on the history of the US and its borders, especially with Latin America. As the description of his course explains,

This course explores the concept of the borderlands, i.e., the political and geographic spaces where groups of people meet and interact. Individuals enter these areas with acquired cultural and ideological backgrounds that undergo transformations as they encounter different customs and worldviews. The course focuses on United States and Latin American history, in particular, on the roles of nation building and its concomitant identity construction. It uses various categories of analysis, such as race, gender, and hegemony, to discuss the interaction among groups of people as they meet along political and geographic borders.

HIST 6530 The European City 1700-2000 (Thursdays 5:30-7:20)

Professor Rosemary Wakeman is the director of Urban Studies at Fordham, who has published on the history of French cities, including books on the cities of Toulouse and Paris and is currently working on the history of the New Town Movement.

From the course description:

This course concentrates on theoretical and interpretive approaches to the study of the city and urban life. It considers the transformation of urban space and culture from the eighteenth century to the present during which commercial capitalism, industrialization, and massive human migration remade basic social and cultural relationships. Among the key factors of investigation are class and mass culture, gender, production and consumption, accumulation and cultural display, architecture and planning, and the evolution of urban space and topography.

HIST 6152 Medieval Women and the Family (Tuesdays, 3;30-5:20)

Professor Maryanne Kowaleski is the former director of Medieval Studies at Fordham and former President of the Medieval Academy of America. Fresh from a year’s research leave at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Professor Kowaleski will offer the medieval elective course covering the critical areas of social, economic, and gender history.

From the course description:

This course surveys recent historiography on the roles and status of women in medieval society, as well as the structures and dynamics of medieval families.  Among the debates to be explored are the effect on medieval society of the Christian Church’s teachings on virginity, sex, and marriage, and the influence of geography (northern vs Mediterranean Europe), environment (village, town, and convent), and status (noble, bourgeois, or peasant) on the work, family role, and authority of women. Chronologically the course will range from the early Christian period to the Renaissance. Recent scholarly work on nuns, mystics, and beguines will be examined, and readings will also cover different approaches to the study of women and family, including the methodologies of literary scholars, demographers, feminists, and legal historians.

HIST 7056 Proseminar: Medieval Political Cultures (Wednesdays 5-7:20PM) 

When he is not wearing the hat of Director of Graduate Studies in the History Department, Professor Nicholas Paul is a historian of the medieval aristocracy, the crusades, and medieval political culture. In 2016-7 he will offer the Proseminar/Seminar sequence, a year long course that allows medievalists a full semester to master the historiography on a given topic. With the topic and extensive background reading in hand, students will spend the Spring semester conducting research and writing their final papers. The course description explains:

This course, the first part of a two-semester proseminar/seminar sequence will introduce students to recent debates and different approaches to cultures of power and political processes in western Europe in the central middle ages. Among the many topics we might consider are: lordship, status and the sources of political authority; the origins and significance of consultative assemblies; the rituals and rhetoric of courtliness and persuasion; the relationship between rulership and sanctity; and the rise of accountability. Through in-class presentations and discussions, students will become familiar with a wide range of source material, from diplomatic and documentary collections to historical narratives and courtly literature.

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Phi Alpha Theta Speaker on Spaceflight and US Culture

Matt Tribbe addresses Fordham Phi Alpha Theta

Matt Tribbe addresses Fordham Phi Alpha Theta

Historian Matt Tribbe discussed his recent book, No Requiem for the Space Age (Oxford University Press, 2014), for the Phi Alpha Theta Lecture Series on Monday, November 10.  Dr. Tribbe’s talk explained the links between space exploration and American culture in the 1960s, including fascinating connections between the Apollo moon landings and evangelical Christianity, New Age yogic practices, the modern environmental movement, and popular film and fiction.

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