Above: History Professor Kim Morse poses with history student Sasha Doel, anthropology and history student Anna Anderson, and Afro Colombian women in traditional dress during a spring break study abroad trip to Colombia.
Message from Tom Prasch, Chair
Coming to campus late this semester, on April 20, I found much of the Henderson parking lot closed off as work crews collected storm-strewn chunks of roofing material and worked to repair the damage atop of the building; inside, a mechanical hum sounded as every fan they could find whirred at full blast, seeking to dry out water damage over all three floors of the building’s south side. Repairs continued all week.
Arriving exactly a week later, I found my way into that same parking lot blocked by a new sort of fountain: a burst water main spouting near the entrance to the lot. By afternoon, they were tearing up the concrete to repair the break. Again, repairs continued for over a week.
For the omen-inclined, such back-to-back natural (if sort of minor) disasters as a semester reached its close might seem cause for special wariness. It’s what we mean, etymologically speaking, by “ominous,” after all. But then, omens are notoriously difficult to parse (remember Oedipus’s misreading of his?). And these two could mean lots of things. It was the Business side of Henderson’s third floor that got all the water damage, not History’s; maybe the message was for them. Or it could just be a “sign” that Henderson’s getting old and could use a bit of an upgrade. A building remodel is slated in campus plans already (we’ll be watching to make sure we maintain our common area and good bookshelves).
Still, reading the tea leaves for our discipline these days, there’s plenty of news to give us pause. I noted several of those concerning trends in our last newsletter message: just to our south, Emporia State’s reorganization, eliminating the History program entirely (and the positions of several tenured History profs along the way); Washburn’s own adoption of the Kansas Board of Regents’ reorganization of General Education, which projections suggest will work to the disadvantage of History especially; and, on the national stage, ideologically-motivated trends, particularly attacks on a misunderstood “Critical Race Theory” and an underread 1619 Project, that threaten both academic freedom for professors and the possibilities of an un-whitewashed history of race in the United States as most historians (and all of those in Henderson) understand it. While we can thank our lucky stars that at least we’re not living in Florida, more local versions of those threats continue to loom.
But there are positive signs as well. At Washburn, Bruce Mactavish can continue to offer his course on Black Freedom Movements. Our faculty continue to develop new courses, like Kim Morse’s course on the History of Colombia this spring, or my History of Museums course this fall. We continue to look for opportunities for collaborative teaching, as with Kelly Erby’s work with the new TEXT program (team-teaching with Rik Hine), or Kerry Wynn’s role supporting Courtney Sullivan’s study-abroad course on French courtesans this summer, or my own guest lectures on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East for Linsey Moddelmog’s International Relations course. Historians (Kerry Wynn, Bruce Mactavish, and I) were once again key participants in this year’s interdisciplinary Faculty Colloquium (see below). A steady stream of incoming students interested in History have been showing up in New Student Orientations this semester and summer; on the other side of a Washburn course of study, a steady stream of graduating seniors celebrates their completion of their History degrees at commencement.
And Alan Bearman, still a historian even though he is also now also Interim Vice President of Enrollment Management, played a key role in developing two new outreach initiatives for Washburn University and potential students of Shawnee County: the Washburn Shawnee County Thrives Scholarship, providing an annual scholarship of $1000 to freshmen from Shawnee County, and the Washburn Shawnee County Promise Scholarship, providing full tuition to lower-income students from Shawnee County. Such initiatives, by ensuring Washburn’s continued growth, also offer opportunities for the Department of History.
Phi Alpha Theta National Conference
Before spring semester even officially began, Professor Morse and students Jessie Revell, Carlos Cedillo-Silva, Trey LaRue, and Eleanor Jones (students pictured clockwise in top left photo above with Morse) attended the biennial national conference of Phi Alpha Theta. Phi Alpha Theta (ΦΑΘ) is an international honor society for undergraduate and graduate students and professors of history. The society has over 400,000 members, with some 9,000 new members joining each year through 970 chapters nationwide. Washburn's History Department has long supported and encouraged students in presenting papers at the biennial national conferences. This year, the group traveled by train (see picture below left) to attend the conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, held in early January.
Revell was the first to present her work at the conference. Her paper, '"No Openings': Black Women Fight Racial Discrimination in Wartime Hiring Practices at a Kansas City Factory, 1943-1945," drew from original historical research completed as part of her history capstone project. Next to present was Jones, who shared work entitled "Cultural Pluralism: How the Melting Pot Redefined Inclusivity in an Era of Exclusion" as part of a panel examining cultural identity in postwar America. Cedillo-Silva also presented work from his capstone project, "Resistance in the Face of Eugenics: A Court Case, Newspapers, & a Movement Against Eugenics." As part of a panel on intellectual history, LaRue presented his paper entitled "Mr. Justice Brewer: Judicial Role and Ideology." Morse chaired two student panels, one on the topic of race in America and another on Mexican American History.
Morse enthused about each student's presentation and overall comportment throughout the conference: "The students were amazing. Not only were their presentations top-notch, but they also asked perceptive questions all day, all panels." The group also found time to squeeze in some sightseeing and delicious food before returning to Topeka.
International Brown Bag Presentation
Professor Kerry Wynn and Jessie Revell shared about their gleanings from last spring's study abroad trip to France at the first International Brown Bag of the semester, held in the International House in February. Their presentation, "Women in WWII: A Study Abroad in France," discussed the travel component of the course Women in World War II, co-taught by Wynn and Courtney Sullivan (Modern Languages), in spring 2022. Read more about the trip in the spring 2022 edition of the newsletter here.
History Day 2023
Judges new and, um, seasoned pose here at lunch during the 2023 regional History Day competition, hosted by the Department. Those pictured here include Jack Williamson*, Jeannette Nobo, Cassandra Blackwell*, Whitney Casement*, Brian Adams, Amy Billinger*, Julie Murray*, Blanche Wulfekoette, Nick Murray*, Hannah Kirby, Trey LaRue*, Don Finch*, and Kimmy Woodworth. Williamson, Thank you, all, for your time and dedication to History Day! (History Department alumni denoted with an *)
Spring Historical Movie Nights
Our Historical Film Nights series this semester began by preparing us for the coronation being prepared across the puddle by screening the film adaptation of Mike Bartlett’s channeling of Shakespearean histories to imagine a sort of future history play, Charles III (2017). The Washburn Review covered the event: https://washburnreview.org/42297/arts-entertainment/historical-movie-night-screens-king-charles-iii/. In February, for Black History Month, we followed up with another film adaptation of a stage play, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020), perhaps the most celebrated of his cycle of plays on the African American experience over the course of the twentieth century. For our March selection, we presented a fiftieth-anniversary screening of Peter Bogdanovich’s Kansas-set Depression-era picaresque road movie, Paper Moon (1973). In April, we marked the passing of Solomon Perel this past semester by screening Polish writer/director Agnieszka Holland’s celebrated adaptation of his memoir, Europa, Europa (1990). The event again caught the notice of the Washburn Review: https://washburnreview.org/44797/news/news-campus-news/europa-europa-a-compelling-coming-of-age-story-amidst-war-and-identity-struggle/. Finally, for our Finals Week comic relief, we returned to Mel Brooks’s interpretation of history, but in a new form of a long-awaited sequel: History of the World, Part 2 (2023). But since Brooks’s latest sketch-comedy take on history runs four hours, we thought it prudent to offer only half of it this semester: History of the World, Part 2, part 1. More to come.
Spring Break in Colombia
From March 9–19 Professors Morse and Tonya Ricklefs (Social Work) accompanied eight students-- five from social work and three from history and anthropology--to Colombia. The group spent eight days, hosted by the social justice organization, Sembrandopaz (Sowing Peace), between Cartagena, Sincelejo, and a farm owned by the organization. They were immersed in conversations about the intersections between social and restorative justice; healing, history and historical memory; sustainability of all sorts; community organization; and peace-building in the Montes de Maria region of Colombia. It was an intense, life-changing experience for all participants. That phrase “first-world problem” took on real meaning. There is no doubt that all participants rethought what good living means, and were overwhelmed by the heroism of normal people as they rebuild communities devastated by decades of violence and revivify their small piece of dry forest one tree at a time. The group walked a lot, which was good because they ate incredibly well – the fish! The juices! Coconut rice! COFFEE!! Though they did not see a sloth, the travelers did see howler monkeys (noisy!), and helped release a rescued mama possum with babies and a turtle into the forest. The group managed to get home without sneaking any street dogs through customs, though the little black charmer from the beach in Tolu nearly had Sasha Doel and Morse sold.
Should you want more information on Sembrandopaz see https://www.sembrandopaz.org. There is a “Translate” button at the bottom right of the page. Best news is WU History and Social Work are going back next year, May 2024. Contact kim.morse@washburn.edu if you are interested.
Photos from the trip are below.
Washburn Hosts Midwestern Victorian Studies Association Conference
Near the end of March, some fifty Victorianists descended on Topeka when Washburn’s History Department hosted the interdisciplinary Midwest Victorian Studies Association’s annual conference. Taking a cue from the passing of Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest ruling monarch (Victoria herself a close second), MVSA took as a theme “Ruling Visions: Citizens, Subjects, Sovereigns.” Queens ranged from the actual to the literary (Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts, for example) to the metaphoric. Other sessions focused on Victorian political theory and new directions in Victorian scholarship. Highlights included the plenary lecture by Arianne Chernock, author of The Right to Rule and the Rights of Women (2019), and a progressive dinner through Topeka’s own Victorian neighborhood, Potwin, culminating in a Victorian hymn singalong with Potwinite Ann Palmer at the organ. The History Department offered free participation in the conference to Washburn History students; you can see one History major, Austin Jaspers, rubbing shoulders with visiting Victorianists in Potwin in one of the pictures.
Washburn Faculty & Students Present at the Annual Meeting of the Kansas Association of Historians
The 94th annual conference was held at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas March 31 and April 1.
The conference began with a roundtable session discussing research underway at the Kansas Historical Society for green book listings in Kansas. Washburn History/Anthropology student Anna Anderson (also an inten at the Kansas State Historical Society) was among the presenters in an opening roundtable on current research on Green Book listings—safe havens for African Americans in an era of segregation—in Kansas. In a panel about Indigenous history, anthropology student Kiwenke Hubbard presented the final paper they developed in Professor Kelly Erby's fall 2023 John Brown class entitled "An Indigenous History of Cmokman (John Brown)" (below, top photo). Jessie Revell reprised the work she took to Albuquerque in January (see story above) about Black women fighting racial discrimination in a Kansas City factory during World War II (not pictured). Washburn faculty members Bruce Mactavish, Valerie Mendoza (Center for Student Success and Retention), Kerry Wynn, and Kelly Erby co-presented with students Revell, Brand Peterson, and Megan Dorantes about their research into the history of inclusion at Washburn (below, second photo from top). Tom Prasch Prasch shared '"A Biographical Study of an Infant': Darwin, Consanguinity, and Child Development" as part of a panel on health, family, and eugenics (not pictured). History student Riley Smith also presented "Reading Hieroglyphs” (pictured below, third photo from top).
On the second day of the conference, history student Kyle Wolnik presented virtually his research on World War I entitled "A Broken World: A Fractured France in the Great War" (below, final photo).
WUmester 2023 College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Colloquium
The historians in the group interpreted the "Health and Healing" theme of this year's Faculty Colloquium broadly. Kerry Wynn shared initial results from her examination of post-Civil War military bounty land grants and the ways such grant lands were inherited and exchanged in Shawnee County. The military bounty system provided a key mechanism in US appropriation of Indigenous lands, and eventually figured into the ways in which land-grant colleges developed. Bruce Mactavish discussed the work he has been doing with Kelly Erby, Kerry Wynn, Valerie Mendoza, and a number of Washburn students exploring the extent to which Washburn's self-mythology of inclusion and access in its early years played out in the actual lived experience of minority students on campus if that period. A variation on Mactavish's talk was presented in the panel he participated in at the Kansas Association of Historians. Tom Prasch explored the changing ways Charles Darwin deployed the observations he made of his own infants, to trace stages of mental development in his final published essay on the subject, but initially out of concerns about the possible consequences of his marriage to his first cousin. Prasch also delivered a shorter version of his research at the Kansas Association of Historians conference.
Tony Silvestri Promoted to Senior Lecturer
This Spring, the Washburn Board of Regents awarded Tony Silvestri the status of Senior Lecturer. The designation recognizes not only long-term commitment, but also distinguished service to the university. As College guidelines note: "Promotion from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer is awarded to those who exhibit a consistent record of exemplary performance in their position. It requires active participation in the academic department of appointment with responsibilities that include: a sustained record of teaching effectiveness, collegiality, and a record of appropriate service."
Spring 2023 Commencement
A few snapshots of department faculty members and graduates are included below. Clockwise from top left: Kim Morse, Jessie Revell, and Kelly Erby; Morse and Carlos Cedillo-Silva; David White; Erby, Revell, Cheyanne Colwell, Cedillo-Silva, Morse, and Kayleigh Smith; and Cedillo-Silva.
Alumni Updates
Mary Lucia Darst is graduating this spring with a PhD in Music History from Oxford University.
Katie Wade will start a PhD at the University of Kansas this fall in Women and Gender Studies.
Christian Gilbert is now the Senior Program Manager at The Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender & Gender Expansive Health.
Recent BEd graduates are excited to begin teaching in local schools. Jessie Revell will teach English Language Arts at Robinson Middle School. Cheyenne Colwell will teach history at Washburn Rural Middle School. Kaleigh Smith will teach sixth grade at Logan Elementary.
Then & Now
Alumus Adam Payne (BA '14), who now teaches history at Parsons High school, received his Master's in Leadership and Communication from Washburn in May. Below he poses with Kim Morse at his undergraduate commencement in 2014 and again in 2023. Congratulations, Adam!
History Students Recognized as Sibberson Award Finalists
Washburn University recognized two recent graduating history majors, Trey LaRue and Carlos Cedilla-Silva, as Sibberson Award Finalists. The Sibberson Award is a substantial monetary award established by the trusts of Erna Sibberson and Gretchen O.A. Sibberson.The purpose of the award is to honor the most deserving student(s) selected from among the highest-ranking member(s) of the senior class in the undergraduate program at Washburn. Read more about the purpose of the Sibberson Award here.
Trey LaRue (Fall 2022)
Trey is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in political science and history with a minor in philosophy. He plans to work in a government or law office setting after graduating. Trey plans to pursue a law degree in the future.
During his time at Washburn, Trey was an active member of the Washburn Student Government Association serving as a senator, Speaker of the Senate, and as Legislative Director. In addition, he served as president and vice president of the Washburn Pre-Law club. Trey was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, and the University’s Honors Program.
For his Washburn Transformational Experience Scholarly and Creative and History honors project, Trey presented as paper based on his History capstone entitled “Mr. Justice Brewer: Judicial Role and Ideology” at the Phi Alpha Theta Conference in January 2023.
Trey served as a constituent-services intern in Governor Laura Kelly’s office from January 2021 through May 2022 and is currently working as an intern in Treasurer Lynn Roger’s office.
Trey received the Brunt Honors scholarship, Simpson scholarship, Myers Social Science scholarship, Miller scholarship, Whitcomb scholarship, Wade political science scholarship, Hudelson scholarship, Dr. Steven Cann political science scholarship, C. D. Seckinger history scholarship, Ruth Walker O’Riley scholarship, and the Keith Bossler Family scholarship.
CARLOS MARTIN CEDILLO-SILVA (Spring 2023)
Carlos is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. He plans to attend the University of Chicago School of Law. Administrative law, medical malpractice, and land use are of current interest where he plans to use law school to narrow his field, eventually returning to a law school to help marginalized students have better access to legal education.
Carlos joined the Washburn varsity debate team in fall 2019. Despite not being a debater in high school, he became a high-ranking member of the debate circuit placing at tournaments throughout his career. Carlos became the president of the team.
In 2021 he was cofounder and treasurer of Washburn Unite for Reproductive Gender Equity. Carlos has been a member of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor’s society, becoming vice president. In 2022 he presented his capstone research at thePhi Alpha Theta conference. In 2022 he was cofounder of the Spanish Club on campus where he served as vice president. Carlos was a cofounder and treasurer of Washburn Bowling club, member of Bonner’s Society, member of First- Generation society, and a member of Washburn HALO.
Carlos has worked at all three levels of government while at Washburn University. First, in 2019 he worked for Kansas Hispanic & Latino American affairs commission to help disseminate Kansas politics to Hispanics and Latinos across the state. He worked for the Library of Congress as a digital communication assistant working in their digital audio collections. He went on to work for the Kansas Governor’s Office as a Constituent Services Intern. At the city level he worked as a Planning intern in the city’s planning department.
Carlos was a member of the Honors College, a Bonnor’s Scholar, Brunt Scholar, Gilbert Galle History Scholar, Kansas Hispanic Scholar, William H. Guild Modern Languages Scholar, Friends of Mabee Library Scholar, and a Clyde Hill Scholar. He was a Hispanic Scholarship Fund Award Winner. He received a Certificate of Excellence in Spanish.
Department Faculty Summer Plans
Kelly Erby: I will chase my kids through the streets of Chicago and feed them way too many hot dogs (with pickles) during an early-summer getaway. Then I'll do my very best to settle into my new role as interim Dean of Washburn's College of Arts and Sciences.
Bruce Mactavish: My Summer 2023 plans include the wonderful seasonal activities of longer walks with our dogs, longer bike rides on the gravel roads of central Kansas and my favorite, more time around the BBQ grill. My Summer also means exploring significant chapters of African-American history with my students in History 300, “Black Freedom Movements.” My new academic project is reading and planning for “Brown v Board at 70.” This is a new course that I will teach in the Spring of 2024.
Kim Morse: I hope to return to research projects I have not touched in years? But I am also realistic. I agreed to review a colleague’s manuscript on early-twentieth-century Venezuela. And I am looking forward to figuring out new readings for colonial, and teach HI102.
Tom Prasch: I plan to take a classic Americana roadtrip with my wife Marcia Cebulska and grandson Judah: Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Badlands, Wounded Knee, Wall Drug, that range of stuff. Since Judah vetoed Rushmore on political grounds, we'll substitute the Sitting Bull Monument and skip the Hitchcock movie.
Tony Silvestri: I am looking forward to creative pursuits—music, painting, writing. I’m writing from Guatemala where they are performing the Latin American premiere of my work The Sacred Veil. There are upcoming performances in Des Moines and in July a Kansas City performance by a new choir called SONUS.
Kerry Wynn: I am co-leading another study abroad trip to France with Dr. Courtney Sullivan in the first few weeks of the summer break (read more about it in the next newsletter). Then, instead of teaching a class this summer, I am going to take one—a statistics course that will help me interpret the data I'm gathering for a project on land ownership in Kansas. Hopefully, the stock of French candy I always bring home will last through the final exam!
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