Brenna Miller and Jesse Spohnholz published an article, based on their work on the History for the 21st Century project: “Collaboratively Reforming General Education History Education: A Roadmap for the 21st Century.” The Proceedings of the H-Net Teaching Conference, 1 (2023): 77–87.
Beth Erdy (PhD 2013) has accepted a new position with the National Park Service. Effective September 25 she will be Museum Curator for the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service – see notice here.
Nikolaus Overtoom is the keynote speaker for the History Colloquium at LSU, Baton Rouge, LA, Sept. 15, 2023. His talk is titled: “Patricide, Fratricide, and Betrayal: The Role of the Parthians in the First War with Rome.”
Andra Chastain was interviewed about the recent Argentine elections for El Regionalista, an online news site based in Chile.
Alan Malfavon was notified by Dr. Romeo Cruz Velazquez, Director of the Historical Archive and Library of the port-city of Veracruz, that he is being nominated for this year’s Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán Medal, an award given by the IVEC (Instituto Veracruzano de la Cultura/ Veracruz’s Institute of Culture), the cultural government agency from the State of Veracruz, given to scholars who dedicate their work and research to the study of African heritage and History in Mexico and Veracruz. The medal is named after the pioneer of Afro-Mexican studies in Mexico, Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, a Physician and Anthropologist from Tlacotalpan, Veracruz who in 1946 published the first Historical and Anthropological study on Mexico’s African descendants.
Charles Weller’s new monograph is out and now on display in the main office: ‘Pre-Islamic Survivals’ in Muslim Central Asia: Tsarist, Soviet and Post-Soviet Ethnography in World Historical Perspective (Islam and Global Studies Series, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023). The volume traces the conceptual lens of historical-cultural ‘survivals’ in various Christian, Islamic and offshoot secular traditions of historiography, especially E.B. Tylor & company, and their subsequent impact on Tsarist, Soviet and post-Soviet historiography of Muslim Central Asia. It draws from European, Central Asian, Middle Eastern and world history situated within a global-crosscultural frame, contributing to scholarship on ‘syncretism’ and ‘conversion’, definitions of Islam, history as identity and heritage, and more. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-19-5697-3 Dr. Weller has also now signed a contract with Brill Academic for his manuscript on Moses, Muhammad and Nature’s God in Early American Religious-Legal History: A Global Crosscultural Perspective, 1640-1830. The volume should be out next year.
May 2023 History graduate Alicia Callahan has been recognized as one of four Portz Scholars by the National Collegiate Honors Council for her Honors thesis, “Soldiers of the Super Sixth,” on the long-term effects of combat and liberating the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald on the soldiers of the Sixth Armored Division in World War II. Alicia’s thesis was nominated by the WSU Honors College for this award. Her thesis advisor was Associate Professor Ray Sun. In recognition of her award, Alicia will receive a stipend and will present her research at the 2023 conference of the NCHC in Chicago this November.
Robert Franklin and the Hanford History Project are thrilled to be awarded a three-year grant from the National Park Service titled “Digital Asset Management and Community Engagement to Enhance Understanding of Park Resources” at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Hanford Unit. Robert will lead a WSU team to write a digital asset management plan for the entire Manhattan Project National Historical Park and train staff on implementation. In addition, for the Hanford Unit, the WSU team will host community workshops, conduct archival research and consolidate fundings into a summary report. These findings and the digital asset management plan will be used to curate 6 digital image galleries; develop one digital walking tour of East Pasco; write 10 articles, create 20 oral history vignettes; and produce one story map. The project includes funding for undergraduate and graduate student interns. If anyone has or knows students who might be interested in participating, please contact Robert Franklin directly at robert.franklin@wsu.edu.