Across the state and across the pond, History students, faculty have busy weekend
History students at OAH (left to right) Prof. Eric Morgan, Lucas Farley, Natasha Bruns, John Herman, Ari Verhein, Jamie Davis, Nicole Remsza, Jenelle Juedes, and Robert Lemmer
From Milwaukee to Copenhagen, the weekend of April 20-22 was a busy one for UW-Green Bay History students and faculty.
The Organization of American Historians and the National Council on Public History held their annual meetings in Milwaukee. Prof. Kim Nielsen (Democracy and Justice Studies/History) was a guest of honor at a reception hosted by Beacon Press, in recognition of her forthcoming book, A Disability History of the United States (Oct. 2012). Prof. David Voelker (Humanistic Studies/History) participated in a well-attended panel titled “The End of the History Survey Course,” which promoted the teaching of historical thinking over “coverage for the sake of coverage.” Prof. Andrew Kersten (Democracy and Justice Studies/History) helped lead a 3-hour workshop for teachers on “Incorporating Labor History into your Curriculum.” And Prof. Eric Morgan (Democracy and Justice Studies/History) led a group of 10 UW-Green Bay History majors to attend the conference on Saturday.
Prof. Harvey Kaye (Democracy and Justice Studies/History) was also in Milwaukee, at the Wisconsin Labor History Society’s annual meeting. There, he presented the group’s High School Essay Contest awards.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the state, Prof. J. Vincent Lowery (Humanistic Studies/History) delivered the keynote address, “Looking for the Port City Prophet: An Historian’s Tale of Research and Revisionism,” at the Student History Research Symposium hosted by St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.
A bit further from home, Prof. Caroline Boswell (Humanistic Studies/History) gave an invited paper on “Performing Dissent: The Politics of Gesture in Interregnum England” at the interdisciplinary symposium “Mapping Theories of Performance and Visual Culture in the Early Modern World.” The symposium was held at the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas.
Finally, Prof. Heidi Sherman (Humanistic Studies/History) was in Copenhagen, Denmark, presenting her paper titled “Doubtful Commerce: Did Novgorod export flax to Western Europe in the 13th-15th centuries?” at an invitational workshop.
Across states, regions and even continents, the students and faculty made — and are making — a difference, said Voelker, chair of History.
“It is a coincidence, I suppose, but a powerful coincidence, that on this single weekend in late April, eight members of the history faculty were actively engaged in promoting our discipline to audiences of students, scholars and teachers across the state, nation and world,” Voelker said. “This engagement is what makes UW-Green Bay a true university — as opposed to a “school merely. Going forward, we need to preserve our ability to create new knowledge and share it with such a broad audience.”
