News: 2008-09

Spotlight on Seefeldt and Thomas

Congratulations to Doug Seefeldt and Will Thomas, whose digital research is highlighted in the Annual Report of the UNL Office of Research. The report reviews Doug's digital site, "Envisaging the West: Thomas Jefferson and the Roots of Lewis and Clark", and Will's new project "Railroads and the Making of Modern America".

Carole Levin's Book Wins Award

The Society for the Study of Early Modern Women has just announced that Carole Levin's recent book, Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England, has won their Award for the Best Collaborative Project published in the field in 2007. Carole will receive the award at the Society's Annual Meeting during the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference later this month.

Congratulations to Amy Burnett

Amy Burnett's book, Teaching the Reformation: Ministers and Their Message in Basel, 1529-1629 (Oxford University Press, 2007), has just received the Gerald Strauss Prize for 2008 from the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference. The award is offered annually and honors the best book in the field of Reformation history. Selection criteria include quality and originality of research, methodological skill and innovation, development of fresh and stimulating interpretations and insights, and literary quality. Amy will receive the award at the annual meeting of the SCSC in October.

Professor Ricardo Navarette Visiting UNL

Professor Ricardo Navarette, Professor of English Literature at the University of Seville, is visiting our department to teach a five-week mini-course on "The Story of Bullfighting in the Age of Cultural Rights." He is here as part of our new faculty exchange program with the University of Seville, under which James Garza taught a course in Seville last spring. The class is cross-listed with the Departments of English and Modern Languages, who are partners with us in the exchange. Ricardo is teaching TR, and his office is in 1034 Oldfather Hall.

Rising Up: Virginia's Civil Rights Movement

The documentary co-produced by Will Thomas, "Rising Up: Virginia's Civil Rights Movement," will air on NET this Thursday, July 31, at 9:00 p.m. A press release on the documentary is attached below.

"Rising Up," a U.Va. student-made documentary film of the African American experience in the Civil Rights era, will air on PBS stations across the nation beginning Thursday, February 7th. Check local listings for details.

The film broadly covers the South, but concentrates on Virginia and follows major events with close, personal stories, including: Samuel W. Tucker's 1939 library sit-in, Irene Morgan's 1946 busing case before the Supreme Court, the school desegregation crisis in 1958-59, the 1960 sit-ins, the violence of Danville, Va. and Birmingham, Ala. in 1963, and the resurgence of black voting and politics in 1965.

"Rising Up" was produced by William G. Thomas and Bill Reifenberger and their undergraduate students at the University of Virginia. Thomas, now the John and Catherine Angle Professor in the Department of History at the University of Nebraska, began the project in 2005 as a faculty member at U.Va. when he started digitizing local television news footage from the 1950s. Much of this material has been thrown away by or lost by local stations, but WSLS and WDBJ in Roanoke had kept their extraordinary news films.

"We were very lucky to find these old films of Martin Luther King and John Kennedy," Thomas said, "but we were amazed to find the footage of the local people who made the civil rights movement happen."

Bill Reifenberger, a documentary filmmaker who has produced films on the Tuskegee Airmen and the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, worked with the U.Va. students to interview many of the participants in these events. "What makes this documentary unique," he said, "is really that it is entirely student produced. We asked the young people in our class to tell the story of the civil rights struggle and we see here in 'Rising Up' what was important to them about that period."

Created from the perspectives of young people today, "Rising Up" was written, directed, narrated, filmed and edited by a talented group of undergraduate students at the University of Virginia. They take viewers through a series of compelling stories about how everyday Americans were moved to take a stand.

Mia Morgan, currently in her second year at the University of Virginia's School of Law, was an undergraduate at U.Va. and one of the twenty students in the class with Thomas and Reifenberger. Her uncle was the first African American student to desegregate the schools in Charlottesville, Virginia. "We had an opportunity to interview people who made difficult choices," Morgan said, "and we felt we needed to tell their story."

Rare footage from WDBJ and WSLS in Roanoke, Va., combine in "Rising Up" with remarkable interviews and footage from an NBC News debate between James J. Kilpatrick, Jr., a leading news editor in the South, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on whether the sit-ins were justified. This documentary also features a rarely seen speech from Rev. Dr. King on the violence at Danville in 1963.

Doug Seefeldt is featured on the front page of this week's Scarlet!
Please visit the article by clicking here.

Thomas receives AC LS Digital Innovation Fellowship

History professor William Thomas received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, for research on railroads. 2006-07 marked the second year of the ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowships, which are funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Five awards were given to scholars conducting research in film studies, Chinese ethnography, African history and U.S. history. Thomas will explore the social consequences of railroad growth in mid-19thcentury America. The fundamental concern of his work will be an examination and representation of the national development of the railroad network across space and over time, and its multivalent effects on American communities. The outcome of the project will be the largest historical database of railroad and social change available over the Web for wide access and use in research and teaching.

Improving Writing in History Survey Courses
College of Arts and Sciences - $18,000

The project will redesign an introductory survey history course (History 202) to include writing as a central component of learning. Technology will be used to offer students explicit instruction in disciplinary conventions and habits of mind, and then give them ample opportunities to practice writing in specific context. Nearly 2,000 students from all academic colleges take this course each spring semester. The aim is to help first-year students improve their college-level writing skills. The plan is to develop a model that would work across humanities and social science courses.

From left to right are Leen-kiat Soh (Computer Science and Engineering), Will Thomas (History) and June Griffin (English)

Will Thomas has just been named the Eccles Center Visiting Professor in North American Studies at the British Library. The fellowship is awarded by the British Association for American Studies and goes to one North American scholar per year. The fellowship supports ten weeks of study in residence at the British Library in the Eccles Center for American Studies. Will plans to hold the Eccles Professorship next fall while he is on leave from UNL.

Mark Reuter was accepted into the 2008 Mellon Summer Institute in English Paleography, directed by Dr.Heather Wolfe, manuscript librarian at the Folger Shakespeare Library, to take place at the The Huntington Library in California. This was a highly competitive institute with only fifteen slots and it was not only open to Ph.D. candidates but to university faculty as well.

John Wunder will become President Elect of the Western History Association at their next annual meeting in October, will serve in that capacity during 2009, and will be President of the WHA during 2010. This is without doubt the most prestigious office in the field of western history, so it represents a signal honor for John, who is the first member of this department to hold the position.

Congratulations to Donna Akers, who has received an Arts & Humanities Enhancement Award to help support her research during the coming year. The award is funded by the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development with a partial match from the College of Arts and Sciences and the History Department.

Parks Coble awarded Sellers Professorship of History

Parks Coble (right), professor of East Asian history, was recently awarded the James L. Sellers Professorship of History at UNL. John and Catherine Angle (left and center) of Lincoln were on hand to celebrate the award and announced they have contributed another major gift toward the endowed professorship program. Annual interest earned from the endowment provides research and program support to Coble's study of the lasting effects of World War II on China and Japan.

Parks M. Coble, professor of East Asian history, is the newest recipient of the James L. Sellers Professorship of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The professorship was established in 1994 by John and Catherine Angle of Lincoln with a gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation in honor of Catherine´s father. Sellers taught history at the University of Nebraska from 1930 to 1959 and served as chair of the history department from 1951 until his retirement in 1956.

The Sellers Professorship was the history department´s first endowed faculty support fund. The Angles recently provided another contribution to the fund, enabling it to provide additional support each year.

"Just as my father was highly devoted to the university and was always interested in making it better, we hope the Sellers Professorship and our other gifts continue to spark interest in the humanities at the university," Catherine Angle said.

Coble joined the history department in 1976 and teaches courses on East Asian history, including surveys of general East Asian history and specialized courses on China and Japan. His research field is 20th Century China with special emphasis on the political history of Republican China, the history of Chinese business and Sino-Japanese interactions. He has published numerous articles about China and Japan, as well as three books, which have been translated into Chinese.

"I am deeply grateful to receive the James L. Sellers Professorship, and express my appreciation to John and Catherine Angle," Coble said.

Coble said the support received from the professorship will enable him to continue his current research examining the lasting effects of World War II in Asia.

"Although more than six decades have passed since the end of this conflict, its impact still shadows East Asian relations, particularly between China and Japan," Coble said. "I hope my research will foster a deeper understanding of the meaning of this watershed event in 20th century history."

Kenneth Winkle, chair of the history department, said he was delighted to nominate Coble for the Sellers Professorship.

"Dr. Coble´s research and teaching are exemplary of what we try do in the history department, as far as producing original insight and interpretation for students and the wider audience," he said. "The Sellers professorship is invaluable in recognizing outstanding achievements and research in the history department and encourages all of us to achieve Dr. Coble´s level of scholarship."

The first recipient of the Sellers professorship was Benjamin G. Rader, professor of history, who recently retired.

The Angles became especially interested in supporting university faculty members within the humanities after learning some of the UNL´s most qualified teachers and researchers were being wooed by other schools.

In addition to the Sellers professorship, the couple created the Angle Chair in the Humanities in 2000 for the UNL College of Arts and Sciences. It is currently held by William G. Thomas III, who teaches and researches American history.

"We believe excellent faculty represent the core of the university," John Angle said. "The humanities touch virtually every student who comes though the university, and hopefully our professorships recognize the importance of those disciplines."

Sellers was the president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (now the Organization of American Historians) from 1952 to 1953 and was active in the Nebraska State Historical Society, serving on its executive board for 20 years. He served as superintendent from 1943 to 1946 and as president from 1958 to 1959. He was also the editor of Nebraska History, a quarterly journal published by the society, and served on the board of directors for the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Mo.

After Sellers´ death in 1966, the historical society, with the help of John and Catherine Angle, established an annual award in his name, presented each year to the author of the best article published in a volume of Nebraska History.

Our graduate students Tonia Compton and Lisa Maurer were recognized by Chancellor Harvery Perlman and Vice Chancellor for Research Prem Paul at the Graduate Fellows Reception in the Lied Center on Oct. 17, 2007. Tonia was recognized for receiving a Presidential Fellowship, and Lisa was recognized for receiving an Othmer Fellowship.

Margaret Jacobs has just received a Visiting Fellowship in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University from June to August 2008. She will be undertaking collaborative work with members of the academic staff at the Centre and conducting research for her new project, tentatively titled "Dances with History". In this comparative study, she plans to explore how some indigenous groups in the American West, Hawaii, and Australia used dance as a means of conveying their histories. Most indigenous dances have been examined as expressions of the sacred or as a means of creating order and social control over the group. Margaret Jacobs seeks to understand how dances could also convey history as defined and understood by indigenous groups. She wants to look in particular at attempts to restrict indigenous dances and what impact this had on how indigenous groups could tell their own histories to themselves and to outsiders. History-making and telling is a primary means of creating group identity and cohesion; thus, curtailing a group's means of telling its own history constitutes a devastating colonial practice.

News: 2005-06

Information Clearinghouse: Waskar T. Ari Chachaki, Ph.D., Issues Surrounding His Faculty Appointment to the Department of History and the Institute for Ethnic Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In Memoriam: James A. Rawley, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Lloyd Ambrosius, Professor of History, is the first recipient of the Samuel Clark Waugh Distinguished Professorship of International Relations. The UNL College of Arts and Sciences announced the award April 29, 2005, at a reception honoring Ambrosius and the Waugh family. The endowed professorship was created by Samuel Waugh's daughter Elizabeth Brownlee of Winter Park, Florida, and her family with a $250,000 gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation. "In honor of my father and his accomplishments, I wanted to create this professorship to support the university which he loved so much and to support a cause to which he showed so much dedication," Brownlee said. "Today we live in an uncertain world, where international relations are more important than ever. It is my hope that by supporting the research and scholarship of this professorship, we will contribute to increased understanding and appreciation of other countries and of the role the United States plays in sustaining world peace," Brownlee said. Ambrosius has published numerous major works on American foreign relations. His scholarship in international history has focused on President Woodrow Wilson and German-American relations. He has been invited throughout his career to deliver lectures on U.S. foreign policy issues at several European universities and has worked to promote better transatlantic understanding.

Parks Coble, Professor of History, received one of two 2005 Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Awards from the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Coble is a leader in the field of comparative world history, especially his expertise concerning the relationship between the two Asian superpowers, China and Japan, say his nominators. Coble researches the political history of modern China, focusing especially on the relationship between business and government. The other part of his research focuses on the relationship between China and Japan during the years 1931-1945 when Japanese imperialism in China was a source of conflict between the countries. Dr. Coble is a leader in the efforts of those countries to overcome the legacy of World War II.

James LeSueur, Associate Professor, Department of History, received a 2005 UNL College Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. LeSueur joined UNL in 2001. In 2002 he was named senior associate member of the Middle East Centre of St. Antony's College, Oxford University. Dr. Le Sueur has an "if you build it, they will come" attitude toward teaching. He says, "I think professors should expect the most from students and always keep them challenged and, above all, reading and engaged. My goal, therefore, is to provide a learning environment that motivates students to become critical thinkers, readers, writers, and ultimately compassionate citizens of the world." A specialist in French and Algerian history, the history of European imperialism, 20th-century decolonization, and 20th-century intellectual history, he believes active scholarship informs classroom teaching. He says, "I attempt to find links between historical issues and present concerns, which is why I focus on 20th century and contemporary history."

Victoria A. O. Smith, Assistant Professor, Department of History, received the 2005 Harold and Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award. The Edgerton Award is presented each year to honor an outstanding junior faculty member who has demonstrated creative research, extraordinary teaching abilities and academic promise. Dr. Smith is a descendant of Cherokee and Delaware Nations. She teaches that the place of Native American history is the foundation of American history. "It is not possible to thoroughly understand American history unless one understands its impact on Native Americans; the two histories are inseparable." At the same time, Dr. Smith notes that it is important that today's students understand that they are not personally responsible for injustices inflicted on Indians in the American past. It is more important to challenge today's students to address past injustices with fairness, knowledge and a willingness to effect change as they move into positions of power after graduation from college.