Department of History ~ Ten Broeck 105, Dutch Quad
The University at Albany ~ State University of New York
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, N.Y.   12222
Phone: (518) 442-4800 ~ Fax: (518) 442-3477
http://www.albany.edu/history
E-Mail: [email protected]

Events ~ Spring 2006
[Updated 3-10-2006]

 

* ANNOUNCEMENT: Friday, April 21, 3 o’clock p.m. Campus Center 375. Twenty-sixth Annual Phi Alpha Theta Lecture: “Japanese War Crimes and Tribunals, Yesterday and Today” by Dr. Herbert Bix, Binghamton University. There will be a reception immediately following the lecture in the Campus Center Patroon Lounge. Free and open to the public. Dr Herbert Bix is Professor (Joint with Sociology) & Vice Chair of the Department of History, Binghamton University. He is an expert on the political, military, and social history of 19th and 20th century Japan. His current research centers on the Asia-Pacific War and its aftermath, Western images of the Showa emperor Hirohito, and Japanese constitutional thought.

* Monday, March 13, 2006. 3:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, U-Albany Uptown Campus: Twentieth Annual Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck Lecture: “Holy Wars in Beulah Land: The Contest among Evangelical Protestants in the Early Nineteenth-Century South” by Christine Leigh Heyrman. There will be a reception immediately following
the lecture in the Fireside Lounge. Heyrman received her Ph.D. from Yale. She is currently a Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Delaware. Her publications include Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690-1750 and Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt. Dr. Heyrman received the prestigious Bancroft Prize in 1998 for Southern Cross.


* [Week of March 23rd] The first University at Albany Reading Project is currently under way. The Project's purpose is to engage the entire university community - all students, faculty and staff - in reading and reflecting on a common text. This undertaking is designed to bring us together for reflection, analysis, and debate, reinforcing our shared enterprise as an intellectual community. The text we have chosen for this inaugural effort is Mountains Beyond Mountains, a book about race, poverty and the role of the United States in the world and Haiti by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder. This interdisciplinary work offers abundant opportunities for discussion from multiple perspectives - public health, epidemiology, anthropology, language and cultural studies, foreign policy, economics, medicine, and ethics. It also poses the question of whether a single individual can make sustained contributions in combating seemingly intractable and distant public health problems.
Professors Ron Berger and Rachel Jean-Baptiste in our department will each be facilitating a discussion group of 15 students. The discussions will take place on the week of March 23rd prior to the campus visit by the author. We have 30 copies of Mountains Beyond Mountains to give away to interested students. Students should stop by the desk of Scott Rummler to sign-up for a discussion time and day and pick up a copy of the book. First come, first served.

* March 28, 2006: Faculty Colloquium, Warren Roberts, “The Strange Adventures of a Europeanist in America—and in Albany, New York), 3pm tentatively scheduled in LEG24

* April 6, 2006: HGSO Speakers Forum, Dr. Jay Spaulding, place & time TBA

* April 21, 2006: Phi Alpha Theta Lecture, Herbert Bix

 

~ Previous Events ~



Researching New York 2005: Perspectives on Empire State History
November 17 & 18th 2005
Coming soon, the preliminary program, featured events, and registration details. http://nystatehistory.org/researchny

Historian Jill Lepore. Tuesday, September 27th, Campus Center Assembly Hall, 4:15 PM Seminar & 8 PM Reading. Jill Lepore, prize-winning historian, is the author of the new book New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery and Conspiracy in Eighteenth Century Manhattan, a history of "a city that slavery built," and the story of a rarely recounted 1741 plot by Black slaves to burn colonial New York City to the ground. Further information: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst

Announcing the Department of History's Nineteenth Annual Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck Lecture: "Clashing Pursuits of Happiness: Sex and Race in Revolutionary America," a presentation by Prof. Catherine Clinton. Monday, March 7, 2005, 2:00 p.m., Humanities 354, Uptown U-Albany Campus. There will be a reception immediately following the lecture in the History Department, East Well Area of Ten Broeck.

Coming this Thursday and Friday (Nov. 18-19, 2004): the Researching New York: Perspectives on Empire State History Conference! Events include two free and open-to-the-public performances: "The FBI In Action: Recreating An Original 1940's Radio Drama" and "Music in the New York State Library Special Collections: Albany's Euterpian Club 1823-27 & Stephen Van Rensselaer." The conference is an annual event sponsored by the University at Albany History Department and the History Graduate Student Organization, providing a forum for the exploration of all aspects of New York State's diverse history; it brings together historians, researchers, archivists, librarians, teachers, museum curators, Web site creators, and documentarians�-emphasizing the integral relationship between researchers and resources. For registration and other information, go to: http://nystatehistory.org/researchny/

The History Film Forum
Monday nights, 7:30 PM 
History Digital Workshop 4, LG 24 Science Library

All screenings are free and open to the public. For specific dates, details, and updates go to http://www.albany.edu/history/hgso/movie.html Sponsored by the History Graduate Student Organization.   


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Writing The Invention of the White Race
Theodore W. Allen
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 4:30 PM
Campus Center 375 

Covering the Grave: Murder on the Eighteenth-Century Frontier."
The Annual Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck Lecture
Monday, March 31, 2004  4:00pm, Campus Center 375 

"Covering the Grave: Murder on the Eighteenth-Century Frontier"
Alan Taylor is an historian and award-winning author whose books focus on early American and colonial history. He is the author of William Cooper's Town (1995), a biography of the land developer and political leader, and a study of Cooperstown, New York, founded by Cooper. The book won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for American History as well as the Bancroft and Beveridge prizes. His other works include American Colonies (2001) and Liberty Men and Great Proprietors (1990). Taylor is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis. Sponsored by the Department of History.

 

Sounds of the Story: Creating Sound Effects for Radio Drama
Wednesday, March 10, 2004 10:30 AM
History Digital Workshop 4, LG 24 Science Library 

Dorothy Sweeney creates sound effects for radio. Dorothy Sweeney first began working as a "sound man" with WGY in Schenectady, New York in 1941, when she was a teenager. In this 'golden age of radio' WGY was one of the premier radio stations in the United States. While there, she worked principally on The FBI in Action, and the FM Playhouse. Hired as a wartime replacement, she worked doing sound effects at WOR in New York City from January 1944 until June 1946. While at WOR she produced sound effects for several national programs on the Mutual Broadcasting System, some of which were: Nick Carter, Master Detective; The Mysterious Traveler; and The Sealed Book. She also occasionally did sound for The Shadow, Superman, and others. We will listen to excerpts from some of her work- shows in which she was responsible for the sound effects. She will demonstrate or explain how they were done and she will discuss discuss her career in radio and respond to questions.

  • �WORLD WAR II RADIO DRAMA, PROPAGANDA, AND THE POSTWAR RADIO BLACKLIST�
    A talk by HOWARD BLUE
    Tuesday, October 28th, 2003 ~ 7:00 PM
    The Arts Center of the Capital Region
    265 River St., Troy

    Presented by Talking History/UAlbany & Friends of WRPI

        Most of us know something about the use of propaganda during World War II, but how many of us know about the important role radio and radio drama played during the War? Such radio programs as An American in Britain, Lux Radio Theatre, New World A 'Comin, An Open Letter on Racism, Passport for Adam, This Is Our Enemy, Uncle Sam and many other shows were central elements in a widespread campaign to bolster domestic loyalty and to sway American hearts and minds during the War. Besides buttressing home front morale, these programs also challenged Americans� racial, ethnic, and gender prejudices. This was not surprising in light of the fact that many of the radio writers and actors involved in these shows were liberals, progressives, and generally associated with the American Left. Their association with Left-wing causes and groups�including the Communist party in some cases�was not overly problematic to station managers, sponsors, and Federal government officials during the War, when the Soviet Union was an ally. But the story changes dramatically after the surrender of Japan and the defeat of Germany. The radio blacklist began; progressive radio personalities soon found themselves targeted by networks, the government, and fellow right-wing actors and writers. Actor Ward Bond, who took an active role in helping to blacklist his colleagues on the political left, once told a radio director, "We know Norman Corwin was not a communist, never was a communist. But he'll do until one comes along."
       On Tuesday, October 28th Howard Blue will tell the story of World War II radio drama and the post-War blacklist. Blue, an educator, translator, and writer, is the author of Words at War: World War II Era Radio Drama and the Postwar Broadcasting Industry Blacklist (Scarecrow Press, 2002). A two-part interview with Blue aired on Talking History and is now available on the on-line show archive (https://talkinghistory.org). For all who are interested in the history of radio, World War II radio drama, government propaganda, censorship, and the cultural history of the American left, Blue�s visit and presentation will truly be a treat.

  • Talk: Andrew Jacobs (D-IN) and Jack Buechner (R-MO). October 29 from 1:00 p.m to 3:00 p.m in the Campus Center Assembly Hall and Fireside Lounge, Uptown Campus. Two former members of the U.S. Congress, Andrew Jacobs (D-IN) and Jack Buechner (R-MO) will be giving a public lecture, convening a questions and answers session, and attending a reception that will follow the discussion. Jacobs helped write the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and headed one of the first open debates in the House about the Vietnam war. Buechner served as Deputy Whip to Newt Gingrich during the late-1980s. Faculty, students, and the local community are invited to attend.

  • The History Film Forum ~ Sponsored by the History Graduate Student Organization
    Wednesdays this Spring, 7:00pm, New Science Library, Digital Workshop 4, LG 24

    All screenings are free and open to the public. and each screening will be followed by a discussion. Some of the films scheduled include Salt of the Earth, Metropolis, and D.W. Griffiths lesser known Broken Blossoms. For details, updates, and new additions go to http://www.albany.edu/history/hgso/movie.html   


    Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: History and American Memory
    The Annual Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck Lecture
    Monday, March 24, 2003  4:00pm, Campus Center 375     

    Annette Gordon Reed New York University Law School professor, Annette Gordon-Reed, author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, co-author with Vernon Jordan of Vernon Can Read: A Memoir and and the editor of Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History will deliver the the annual Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck Lecture on Monday, March 24th. It is free and open to the public. Theodore Fossieck established this lecture in 1986. Fossieck served as the Principal of the campus's laboratory Milne High School from 1948 to 1972. Dr. Fossieck set up the endowed lecture in memory of his wife. He had a strong interest in Colonial and American Revolutionary History and the lecture brings to campus some of the most respected scholars in these fields.

    Immediately following the lecture, there will be a reception in the History Department, East Well area of Ten Broeck.   


    "Writing History to Change the World"
    23rd Annual Phi Alpha Theta Distinguished Lecture
    Friday, April 4, 2003  3:00pm, Campus Center Assembly Hall     

    Robin D. G. Kelley, Professor of History and Africana Studies at New York University, will deliver this year's 23rd Annual Phi Alpha Theta lecture. His talk will focus on how African American historians have tried to use history as a tool for social change in the 20th century. Kelley is the author of numerous books and articles on U.S. and African-American history, urban studies, working class radicalism, and cultural history, including his most recent Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (2002). He has also published Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (1997), Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class (1994), and Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (1990).

    A reception in the Campus Center Fireside Lounge will immediately follow Professor Kelley's lecture. This lecture is co-sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta and the Department of History.   


    Performance: A Century of Sound: Listening In With The Kitchen Sisters.
    Tuesday, April 22, 2003  7:00 pm, Linda Norris Performing Arts Center, WAMC.      

    The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, have produced radio together since 1979. They have been honored with numerous broadcasting awards for their creative story-telling techniques and well-crafted productions-most notably for their work on National Public Radio's Lost and Found Sound, a series that explores history through recorded sound. Nelson and Silva regularly conduct workshops and public presentations throughout the country. In this presentation, they will showcase highlights from their work and that of other audio producers who are making use of new technologies to capture and present history in sound. This event is free and open to the public as part of the Capital Voices ~ Capital Lives Aural History Project, https://www.talkinghistory.org/albany/index.html. It is sponsored in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.   

    Symposium/Workshop: Capital Voices ~ Capital Lives: Discovering, Recording, and Preserving the Stories of Our Past
    Saturday, May 31, 2003  9:00am - 5:00pm, LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED     

    This daylong symposium will focus on the aural history of the Capital Region and will officially launch the Capital Voices ~ Capital Lives Aural History Project-an ongoing effort to gather, preserve, and make accessible the sounds, voices, and stories of this historically-rich region. https://www.talkinghistory.org/albany/index.html. Speakers will discuss the importance of gathering the sonic treasures of Albany's history in order to compose an oral/aural history of our past. Workshops will explore recording and interview techniques, demonstrate the use of antique and modern recording technologies, explain how to preserve old recordings, and offer detailed instruction on how to produce historical documentaries from "found" and created sound. This event is free and open to the public. Watch this space for additional details. Sponsored by The ClioMedia Initiatives and the Department of History.   

    "Film and History: The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow"
    Tuesday, February 25, 2003  7:30pm, Humanities 039

    Documentary filmmaker Richard Wormser will talk about the making of the film series, "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow." This film, a four-part series that aired on PBS nationwide last fall, documents the history of segregation and has been praised by historians and film critics alike for its sensitive and illuminating treatment of the history of race in America. Wormser's talk will focus on the issues confronting a filmmaker when documenting the history of segregation and will include the viewing of excerpts from the series. Wormser, a series producer, director, and writer for "Jim Crow," has produced over 100 other film and video programs for television and education, and has won over 20 awards for his film work. More information about the film, and about a companion book recently published by St. Martin's Press, can be found on the website, www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow.  
    This lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Department of Africana Studies, the History Graduate Students Organization, and Phi Alpha Theta.   

     

    Researching New York: Perspectives on Empire State History is an annual conference sponsored by the University at Albany History Department and the History Graduate Student Organization and the New York State Archives and Archives Partnership Trust. It provides a forum for the exploration of New York State's rich and diverse history and brings together historians, researchers, archivists, librarians, teachers, museum curators, Web site creators, and documentarians—emphasizing the integral relationship between researchers and resources. The 2002 Conference will take place on Thursday and Friday Friday, November 21st and 22nd, 2002. In coooperation with the University at Albany's Albany Heritage Semester, this year's conference will feature several sessions devoted to Albany's rich history, including the keynote address:

    Joseph E. Persico
    The Rockefeller Years: Transforming Albany

    Further information about the Conference, updates, and links to past programs are available at the Researching New York homepage: http://nystatehistory.org/researchny.
    ~ ~ ~

    Albany Heritage Year Event: ARBOR HILL - TEN BROECK TRIANGLE WALKING TOUR. June 19, 2002. Historic Albany Foundation and the Society of Architectural Historians will co-sponsor a walking tour of the architecturally rich section of Albany known as the Ten Broeck Triangle on Wednesday, June 19, from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m. The tour will be led by Tony Opalka, an expert in architectural history and city planning whose roots and interests lie in the historic districts of Albany. Tony will discuss history and architectural style, while pointing out architecturally significant buildings along the tour route. The tour will begin at 5:45 with a slide presentation featuring a brief history of Arbor Hill and old photos. Meet at Sweet Pilgrim Baptist Church, at the Corner of Clinton Avenue and Ten Broeck in downtown Albany. This event is free and open to the public. Please call Historic Albany Foundation at 518-465-0876 for more details.

    "Documenting the Labor History of 'The Big Apple:' A conversation with: Joshua Freeman." 3:15 PM ~~ Digital Classroom 4, Wednesday, May 1, 2002.
    Joshua B. Freeman, the author of Working Class New York: Life And Labor Since World War II, will meet informally with students and interested faculty to discuss the trials and tribulations of conceptualizing, researching, and writing the labor history of New York City. Freeman is Professor of History and director of the Labor Studies program at Queens College, and a faculty member of the CUNY Graduate Center history program. He is an editor of the International Labor & Working Class History. His previous books include Audacious Democracy (ed.), Who Built America? vol. II (co-author) and In Transit: The Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933-1966, winner of the prestigious Philip Taft Labor History Book Award. He is also the recipient of numerous fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies.

    At 6:00 PM Wednesday evening Professor Freeman will also speak at Page Hall, 295 Western Avenue on the University at Albany downtown campus, as part of a panel for the 4th Annual Hudson/Mohawk Mayday festival. [Another Albany Heritage Year Event:] A light supper will be served beginning at 5:00 pm. Following the panel discussion there will be a screening-the United States debut-of The Navigators, a major British film by Ken Loach, director of Bread and Roses. The Navigators follows the fortunes of the British railroad workers as they struggle against the privatization of Britain's rail system. The event is free and open to the public. All are invited to attend. Further information is available at http://library.Albany.edu/speccoll/mayday/.

    The Phi Alpha Theta Lecture: "Looking Back at the U.S. and the Middle East after September 11." Professor Leon Carl Brown, the Garrett Professor in Foreign Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University and a specialist on the Middle East, will present this year's Phi Alpha Theta Lecture on Wednesday, April 17 at 4:00 PM in Humanities 354. Professor Brown's talk, is sponsored by the History Department and Phi Alpha Theta and is open to the public.

    The Art of Creating New York State Public Policy: On April 11, 2002, Thursday, 4:30-6:00 p.m. Page Hall, downtown campus. Panel discussion, featuring noted historians/biographers: Betty Winfield, author of FDR and the News Media, Robert Slayton, author of Empire Statesman: the Rise and Redemption of Al Smith, Paul Grondahl, Times Union feature writer and author of Mayor Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma, and Richard Norton Smith, author of Thomas E. Dewey and His Times.

    Albany Heritage Year Event: Saturday, April 13, three days after the Beverwyck 350 kickoff in Corning Park at City Hall. Janny Venema (New Netherland Project) and Kevin Moody (Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc.) will present a talk on early Dutch traders in Albany at the Albany Visitors at Quackenbush Square at 1:30pm. Free.

    Albany Heritage Year Event: Sunday, April 7, 2002 at the Schuyler Mansion 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, SPRING CHAMBER CONCERT. The Musicians of Ma'alwyck recreate the atmosphere of the Schuyler Family "Salon" by performing period music in the great acoustics of the Mansion. Admission fee $25. The proceeds of the concert support future interpretive programming at the Mansion.

    Albany Heritage Year Event: Dr. Charles Gehring, Director of The New Netherland Project, will deliver a public lecture on "The Rise of Beverwijck" on Thursday, April 4, at 11:30 AM in Page Hall on the UAlbany downtown campus. This lecture was arranged by the Colonial Working Group of the Albany Heritage Program as a guest presentation for Prof. Sung Bok Kim's course on Colonial America to 1763 and is free and open to the public.

    The Fosseick Lecture: "A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution." On Tuesday, March 19, 2002 at 3:30 PM in Humanities Room 354, Professor Carol Berkin, City University of New York, will deliver the History Department's Annual Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck Lecture on early American history. Her talk will offer a more realistic history of how the "founding fathers" produced the Constitution; that is, with uncertainty, rather than with the fully realized intent of demigods so often ascribed to them.

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