Message from Tom Prasch, Chair

Late in the semester, on 21 April, our colleague Tony Silvestri posted a bluntly brief update on Facebook: “I CAN’T WAIT for this hellish semester to be over. The worst.” The post garnered 168 reactions, and, if you look closely, that tally included every one of the Facebook-using faculty of the History Department. And, as the semester drew to a close a week or so later, Silvestri posted again: “Just pressed the ‘End Meeting For All’ button on the last Zoom class of the semester. I am grateful to Zoom for making it possible to keep teaching, but I am sure ready to be DONE with Zoom classes forever.” 297 responses this time, including, once again, all the rest of us.

Yes, it’s been that kind of semester. Sure, we’ve been doing our best under the circumstances, hybrid classes and Zoom events, imaginative strategies to keep people engaged, to keep our students involved, to keep ourselves going. But still, just look around. Teaching through masks, to masked students, all carefully social-distanced. Regular email updates telling us who is quarantined this week, who can come back to campus. Our department’s communal space dismantled, the furniture piled up along one wall to keep people from being social. Empty hallways, closed doors. All of us history faculty, and clearly most of our students as well, exhausted, Zoomed out, barely holding it together.

And one core emptiness at the center of it all: that spot behind the plexiglass at the center of our office empty, too. In late March, our Administrative Assistant, Robin Shrimplin, was felled by a stroke. She survived, and is slowly recovering, but still, as we shift gears to summer, she’s out on medical leave, her desk yawningly vacant.

So yes, that kind of semester, the kind for which all appropriate adjectives are unsuitable for newsletters.

But things are beginning to turn around. Thank the vaccine, our university’s year of disciplined caution, or maybe just the passage of time. Whatever, we’ll take it. Come fall, classes return largely to their traditional form: no more masks, classrooms back to their former capacities. Campus events: actually on campus, not solely in Zoomspace. Senior auditors welcomed back. Our faculty, all fully vaccinated, is ready to return to the teaching that we love. We even took an afternoon off of grading to gather together to restore our communal space. Have a look:

So we’re ready for you to come back. Coffee will be brewing. Classes will be going. We’re offering some good ones; have a look at the listings below. And we hope to see you come fall.

2021–2022 Scholarship Awardees

Gunnar Alknis Scholarship: Adam Holmes

Bright/Bader Scholarship: Megan Deitz

Donald Danker Scholarship: Dalton Tripe

Robert Davis Scholarship: Kyle Wolnik

Marilyn Geiger Scholarship: Katie Johnson

Gilbert Galle Scholarship: Carlos Cedillo Silva

Robert C.Haywood Scholarship: Quan Nguyen

Robert & James Mackey Scholarship: Jake Broadbent

William Wagnon Scholarship: Cheyanne Colwell

Linda Wahl-Stoltenberg Scholarship: Kat LaFever, Jessie Revell, Lylah Keyes

Deans Scholarship: Trey LaRue and Jordan Dickens

Congratulations!

Fall 2021 Upper-Division Course Offerings

HI 300VA: Remembering Vietnam: In this class students will develop a historical basis for understanding the Vietnam War, including its origins, longevity, and consequences. We'll analyze diverse perspectives regarding American involvement in Vietnam, through nonfiction, fiction, personal narratives, film, and the arts, as well as increase geographical and cultural knowledge of Vietnam and, more broadly, Southeast Asia. (Online) Goossen.

HI 303A: the American Revolutionary Period: The American Revolution was far more complex and enduring than a war for political independence. This class examines the major causes, consequences, and interpretations of the U.S. revolutionary period. Major questions to be examined will include: 1) How did revolutionaries define and then constantly redefine the meaning(s) of equality and freedom as they carried out their revolution and, later, sought to create a lasting nation? 2) What roles did race, ethnicity, gender, and class play in defining who was and was not “American” and entitled to liberty? 3) How did the institution of slavery influence the Revolution and vice versa? We will also consider the long and spirited debate among historians about the meanings of the American Revolution and its contradictions. Course counts towards general education social science (GESS) requirements. (11:00-11:50 MWF) Erby

HI 307A: American Civil War, 1848–1877: A survey of the sectional crisis beginning with the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848 to resolution of the crisis by 1877. Themes include: the nature of Northern and Southern societies; the political crisis of the 1850s; the relative military strengths of each side; the major battles and campaigns; the Northern and Southern home fronts, the role African-Americans played in their own liberation; the process by which reconstruction first emerged and then collapsed. Prerequisite: 3 hrs HI or consent. Course counts towards general education social science (GESS) requirements. (11–12:15 TR) Mactavish

HI 300A: Worlds Fairs: When the world’s first International Exhibition opened beneath the legendary Crystal Palace in London in 1851, its organizers promulgated an almost utopian vision for the world’s fair: to provide a spectacular showcase for new works of industrial art and invention; to revivify design stultified by industrial mass production; to bring applied sciences and the arts together; and by providing an arena for peaceful competition between nations, to eliminate the need for war. Not quite all of that happened. Nevertheless, the idea of the world’s fair caught on and spread. Always ephemeral—usually lasting half a year or so—these displays provided a striking spatial expression of ideological vision, a celebratory summation of historical traditions, industrial innovations, art galleries, and displays in fields ranging from anthropology to environmentalism, often combined with an arena for projections of possible futures. World’s fairs have been sites for innovation in architecture (that Crystal Palace, Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome), are linked to projects for urban renewal (from South Kensington’s museum district in London to New Orleans’s Warehouse District), and have even contributed to world food cultures (St. Louis’s 1904 fair popularized hot dogs, hamburgers, ice-cream cones, and cotton candy) and entertainment (the Ferris Wheel, premiered at the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago). Fairs also provide ideal sites for interdisciplinary research, and the course will draw on investigations by anthropologists, art historians, and urban planners as well as historians. And although the fairs might only last a season, they often leave relics behind. Washburn students are well positioned to explore some of those: the diorama at the KU Natural History Museum, originally displayed at the Columbian Exhibition in 1893; the murals in Wamego’s Columbian Theater, another survival of that same exhibition; and the Swedish Pavilion of the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904, now in Lindsborg. (MW 1–2:15) Prasch

HI 300D: Civilization of Ancient Rome: This survey course covers the history of ancient Roman civilization from its origins to Late Antiquity. The course is divided into three major sections. The first section, FOUNDATIONS, covers the early development of Italy, the establishment and development of the Roman Republic, and key Roman cultural institutions, especially the Roman state religion. The second section, TRANSFORMATION examines the slow disintegration of the institutions of the Republic, and its eventual collapse under the weight of the political ambition of senators such as Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Julius and Augustus Caesar. The third section, IMPERIUM, covers the history of the empire from Augustus to its collapse in the West in 476 and beyond, with special attention to the development of new religions to challenge the older order, namely Christianity and the other Mystery Cults. Throughout the semester we will be exploring sub-themes, such as the legitimacy and usefulness of drawing parallels between the histories of Rome and the United States, and the ever-changing perception of Rome in the modern popular imagination as evidenced in film. Also part of the course will be an extended simulation of the Roman Senate in the aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar, with students representing senators faced with the conflict between the achievement of personal ambition and the good of the state in troubled times. Prerequisite: 3 hours of History or permission of the instructor. (2:30-3:45 MW) Silvestri

HI 362A: History of Latin America: Sure, you have heard of Simón Bolívar, but have you heard of Angela Batallas? She was the Ecuadoran enslaved woman who sought out Bolívar to insist that he intervene with her master, also her paramour, to secure her freedom. She said: “The union of two people of opposite sex renders them one, for from this act regularly results issue: et erum duo in carne uma. And is it possible to believe, using good judgment, that Ildefonso Coronel, when he proposed such a union to me, wanted half his body to be free, the other half enslaved, subject to servitude, sale and other hatefulness, which some disgraced people cling to as relics of the feudal system that has enveloped us for nearly three centuries?" How about Luisa Capetillo, the Puerto Rican labor activist arrested for wearing pants? Or Or Pepe Zuñiga, who used art to understand revolutionary Mexico in the 1960s? HI362 will explore 19th, 20th, and 21st century examples of Latin Americans who used the legal and extralegal tools at their disposal to make the small revolutions necessary to make citizenship, social contracts, politics, economics, international relationships, and life meaningful through discussions of primary and secondary source readings, graphic novels, and film. (8–9:15 T/TR) Morse

On Catching up with Some of our Alumni and the Value of a History Major

Faculty member Kelly Erby invited several History Department alumni to talk to students in her HI 395: History Forum class this spring. Over Zoom, the guests chatted with students about the skills they had honed as history majors and how they had leveraged these skills to find fulfilling careers since graduating from Washburn. Their varied career paths and inspiring insights are worth sharing in this space as well.

Caitlin Sturgeon (ba '13) is the assistant director of prospect development and strategy at the Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation. Caitlin told students that the intellectual curiosity that had made them interested in history in the first place, and that they had further developed in their history courses, would continue to propel them forward in life and work.

Mallory Lutz (ba '18) provided historical interpretation as a Park Guide in the National Park Service at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site from June 2017 to December 2018. She currently works in government relations as a lobbyist at the Kansas Statehouse, advocating for clients on issues ranging from access to social services, health care, and public education. Mallory said that her history classes at Washburn had helped her learn to approach complex problems that don't necessarily have a right or wrong answer to seek a successful solution.

Michael Spangler (ba' 12) is the high school/middle school librarian for Jefferson West USD 340. He is also currently completing an M.A. in Library Science and Information Management at Emporia State University. Michael candidly told students about the several different careers he had pursued since graduating from Washburn. He said that majoring in history, something he was passionate about, had helped him to do well in his undergraduate coursework and that this success had given him greater confidence. Michael discussed how feeling confident had helped him to move on from jobs and situations where he felt stuck to pursue greater fulfillment.

Jess Rezac (ba '08) worked as the director of digital engagement at the Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, in addition to other positions in museums and development, before changing careers to become a full-stack software engineer for a KC advertising firm. Jess shared with students the importance of taking advantage of opportunities as they become available and echoed Michael in feeling confident to go after what you want.

Emily Bradbury (ba '00) serves as the executive director of the Kansas Press Association. She emphasized the important "soft skills" she honed as a history major, including the ability to connect with people, listen well, and work as part of a diverse team. Emily also celebrated the data-analysis skills she learned in history classes.

Whitney Casement ('ba 09 & jd '12) is an associate attorney at Stevens & Brand, LLP in Topeka. Whitney’s practice focuses primarily on general litigation, employment law, administrative law, and professional licensure actions. Whitney emphasized the importance of empathy she learned as a history major and how this empathy has helped her to better understand her clients and do her best for them. She also talked about how history faculty had helped her to become a stronger writer.

Ryan Hansen (ba '16) is the Program Consultant Internal Service for the Offender Registration Unit of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The Offender Registration Unit is the central repository for offender registration records for the state of Kansas. The unit also maintains the public website for the state registry. Ryan shared advice for obtaining a job with the state. He said that the oral and written communication skills he had developed as a history major continued to set him apart from colleagues.

Cassandra Blackwell (ba '13) is Business Analyst for the Commission Services and Delivery at Security Benefit. A former Civil War–era interpreter, she now pursues technical writing and coding. Cassie talked about the critical-thinking skills she learned in her history coursework that have helped her successfully pull off such flexibility throughout her career.

WUmester 2021: Sustainability

The 2021 WUmester topic examined the concept of sustainability from the perspectives of academic disciplines across campus and through co-curricular programming. It considered sustainable and unsustainable lifeways across cultures and throughout history in order to expand and complicate our ideas of what sustainability means and why it is vitally important in the twenty-first century. And, as always, the Department contributed to WUmester opportunities in a variety of ways.

For example, in the aftermath of the lies about voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election and the attack on the U.S. Capitol, a virtual forum in February considered the question "Is Democracy Sustainable?" Panelists examined the question across time and geographic regions.

Hans Werckmeister's Algol: Tragedy of Power, the Historical Film Night selection for February, imagines a future in which humanity is freed from its dependence on fossil-based fuels, thanks to a revolutionary technology gifted one miner by a visiting space alien. The positive outcomes of the new technology include the cleansing of cities from the pollution caused by coal-based power generation, the liberation of millions of miners from menial labor, and a radiant future marked by sleek, curvilinear architectural forms. But the film also explores the dark side of unintended consequences, as the concentration of power in the hands of one man gives meaning to the film's subtitle. The sustainability of civilization itself was at the heart of March's film selection, Things to Come (1936). Pioneering sci-fi writer H.G. Wells, adapting his own novel, projects a timeline into the twenty-first century in this British classic, taking us through decades of description accompanying endless technologically enhanced war (with a zombie-fying pandemic thrown in for good measure). Finally, a new civilization emerges from the ashes: Wings over he World, committed to a world without war and featuring a technocratic single-state future (with much cooler planes). Yet trouble arises even in this futurist utopia.

In addition, Tom Prasch and Kelly Erby participated in the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Colloquium on the topic of sustainability. The colloquium is an interdisciplinary forum for faculty to explore their research interests with other faculty members. Prasch's research examined socialist futurisms and sustainability exemplified in the transition points in late-Victorian/Edwardian time-travel narratives. Erby discussed findings from a co-authored paper she completed with fellow faculty at Washburn about supporting and sustaining professional development in inclusive pedagogies.

Kerry Wynn, director of Washburn's Honors Program and Center for Undergraduate Scholarly and Creative Support, incorporated WUmester in a number of honors program opportunities and classes, including an honors section of HI 102: Modern World History taught by Kim Morse. Using mostly primary sources and beginning with the Industrial Revolution, students explored themes of sustainability and industrialization, race, scientific racism, environment, community, cities, food, land, gender, class, culture, and democracy. Primary sources included readings from China, Russia, India, Bangladesh, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Malawi, South Africa, Nigeria, Germany, France, England, the United States, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil. The class hosted guest speakers to help them think through sustainability and solid waste management in India (Avantika Ramekar, WU Instructor of Geography) and sustainability and community in Lawrence, Kansas (Jasmine Moore, Sustainability Director for Douglas County, Kansas and the City of Lawrence, KS J). The students’ final project was to create a StoryMap. Using the ArcGIS StoryMap software, the students worked in groups of two or three to select a sustainability-related topic, relate it to a specific problem in the present, assess its historical roots, and present ideas about possible solutions. StoryMap topics ranged from a comparative analysis of school lunch programs in Japan and Canada, to Uighur genocide in China, to Brazil’s response to COVID-19, to racism in contemporary England.