Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Washington State University
History | Archives

U of I Professor Emeritus Katherine Aiken (WSU PhD alumnus) Earns State’s Top History Award

Professor Katherine AikenWe would like to congratulate University of Idaho Professor Emeritus Katherine Aiken (WSU Department of History alumnus) on being named as the recipient of the prestigious 2020 Idaho State Historical Society’s Esto Perpetua Award.

Professor Aiken’s research has long focused on social and cultural history, as well as on topics in women’s history and labor history. She recently spoke to current WSU Professor Raymond Sun, and offered the following fun answers to our alumni questionnaire:

One Word that Describes Me: I think many people would use the word “dedicated” to describe me. Once I commit to something, I am determined to see it through.

Coolest/Most Memorable Thing I Did as a Student at WSU: I was in the department where my father had been a major in the 1940s and my two sisters, Mary and Sally, and my brother Jerry were all students at WSU during my tenure there.

Favorite WSU History Course: I enjoyed every history course I took at WSU and was privileged to have such talented professors as David Coon, Richard Hume, Howard Payne, Edward Bennett, and Susan Armitage. My advisor, mentor, and friend LeRoy Ashby taught courses that informed my entire career, especially his Recent America courses. I taught History for almost four decades and the foundation that Washington State University faculty provided stood my in good stead. I thought of my professors often when I prepared lectures and assignments.

Most Notable Accomplishment: Being married for over forty-six years with two children and two grandchildren is certainly my most noteworthy personal accomplishment. I was the first tenured woman in the University of Idaho Department of History and the first woman dean in the liberal arts college.

Advice I would Give to a Prospective WSU Student: Enroll at Washington State University. WSU prepared me well for all my endeavors—I could not have received a higher quality education anywhere. Even more importantly, I received personal attention from faculty and staff.

After Graduation I… Worked for five years at Lewis Clark State College in Lewiston before returning to my undergraduate institution—the University of Idaho. I was a history professor, college dean, and interim provost and executive vice-president. I am an American historian; I focus on women, labor, social and cultural, environmental, and Idaho history.

Favorite Historical Movie? During this centennial year for women’s suffrage I often think of Iron Jawed Angels. However, Hidden Figures hits every target. It does a good job of setting out historical context; it illustrates systemic racism; it emphasizes women’s accomplishments and their determination; and it is a terrific example of how historians can make visible parts of our past that were invisible.

 

If you enjoy reading about the accomplishments of our fantastic alumni please click here to take an opportunity to look at our other Alumni Spotlight articles, as well as the alumni updates offered in our annual newsletter by clicking here!

Dr. Overtoom publishes new article

Assistant Professor Nikolaus Overtoom celebrates for the release of “The Parthians’ Failed Vassalage of Syria: The Shortsighted Western Policy of Phraates II and the Second Reign of Demetrius II (129-125 BCE)” in Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 60.1-2 (2020).

“Acta Antiqua publishes original research papers, review articles and book reviews in the field of ancient studies. It covers the field of history, literature, philology and material culture of the Ancient East, the Classical Antiquity and, to a lesser part, of Byzantium and the Latin culture of Mediaeval, Renaissance and Early Modern Europe, as well as the ’Nachleben’ of Classical Antiquity,” (AKJournals).

Dr. Noriko Kawamura presents in the Malcolm Renfrew Interdisciplinary Colloquium

To Transnationalize War Memory
for Peace and Kyosei: Reconciliation
of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima

Abstract

How we remember World War II in the Pacific is clearly divided by national boundaries. The contrast between how Americans and Japanese remember Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. use of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki clearly demonstrates this point. This divide is hard to erase in a world that consists of nation-states, but this talk will explore how we may be able to make conscious efforts to build bridges across national boundaries that exist in war memories by learning the other side’s experiences and understanding the common humanity beyond nation-states.

This talk was originally planned as part of the Hiroshima exhibit organized by the University of Idaho Library for the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. The exhibit depicts the exchange of gifts between Hiroshima University and the University of Idaho to share their hopes and commitments to humanity and world peace.

Biography
Noriko Kawamura is the Arnold M. and Atsuko Craft Professor in the Department of History in Washington State University in Pullman. She earned a B.A. from Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Washington in Seattle. She first taught at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, and joined WSU’s History Department in 1992.

Kawamura’s research focuses on the history of war, peace, and diplomacy in the Pacific World. She teaches the history of U.S. foreign relations, U.S. military history, World War II in the Pacific, and the Cold War. Her publications include Emperor Hirohito and the Pacific War (University of Washington Press, 2015), Turbulence in the Pacific: Japanese–U.S. Relations during World War I (Praeger, 2000), and Building New Pathways to Peace (University of Washington Press, 2011). She is currently writing a book about Emperor Hirohito’s Cold War, under contract with the University of Washington Press.

Exhibit
A special collection donated to the University of Idaho by Hiroshima University in Japan is on display on the second floor of the U of I Library.  In the early 1950s, as Hiroshima University began to rebuild from the effects of the atomic bomb, the university reached out around the world to ask for book donations. U of I responded with a book and gift of $5 to purchase a tree.

In 2011, U of I received a gift from students at Hiroshima University to recognize the donation. The box included a set of manga about the bomb, copies of the correspondence from 1951-1952, and roof tiles that had been blown off of a local building during the bomb blast and had been dredged off the floor of the Hiroshima River.  See a video tour of the exhibit, “Growing from Ground Zero

The library exhibit and Prof. Kawamura’s talk are co-sponsored by the Borah Foundation and the Martin Institute at the University of Idaho. Sign up for this event at the link here.

Dr. Linda Heidenreich, new book!

Dr Linda Heidenreich’s new book, Nepantla Squared: Transgender Mestiz@ Histories in Times of Global Shift. Published by University of Nebraska Press, you can read about the book and Dr. Heidenreich by clicking here!

Also, click here to check out the Daily Evergreen interview by DE reporter, Anna Young. Dr. Heidenreich talks about the history of the book and explains their writing process and influences for Nepantla Squared. Congratulations Dr. Heidenreich!

Dr. Boag interviewed on iHeartRadio and Jefferson Public Radio!

Professor Peter Boag, historian of the American West, the Pacific Northwest, modern America, the environment, and sexuality, recently guest starred in and iHeartRadio podcast this summer. “Dressed: The History of Fashion – Re-Dressing America’s Frontier Past,” can be found in the iHeart Radio podcast database – click here to listen!

Peter also provided an interview with Jefferson Public Radio (out of Southern Oregon) about the painter William S. Parrott. It was originally live, but the digital version is now available on their website, click here to lsiten!