Dr. Sun speaks to History Club on “Commemoration, Celebration, and Politics”
On September 24, Dr. Raymond Sun spoke to the History Club on the topic of “Commemoration, Celebration, and Politics,” looking at how American presidents from Reagan to Obama have invoked the memory of the D-Day landings to shape our collective memory of the event and use it inspire support for their present-day political agendas.
Amy E. Harrington Canfield (’04, History) has had an article published in the Pacific Northwest Quarterly, entitled “Irrigation and the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, 1902-1920.”
Amy’s PhD dissertation title was ‘Pocatello Land Rush of 1902 and the Fort Hall Indian Reservation: A study of Allotment, “Surplus Lands,” and Trust-Fund Violations, 1867-1907.’ Her thesis committee consisted of Professors Orlan Svingen, Susan Armitage and LeRoy Ashby.
WSU History student Kevin Schilling received a $5000 scholarship established in memory of Arthur Asante Sawe, who died tragically in a car accident on January 1, 2014. Kevin was nominated for his academic accomplishments, and because of his strong record of community involvement.
Arthur was a very special young man whose life touched many people. He was the only child of a single mother from Tanzania. He attended University Prep in Seattle. He devoted a great deal of time and energy to making the world a better place throughout his short life. Arthur earned an invitation to the White House as a result his fourth grade campaign against violent video games marketed to children. He graduated from WSU in 2011. After graduation, Arthur Sawe worked at the Legacy Group in Seattle and they have established this scholarship in his memory.
Kevin received this award because his many years of community service exemplify the reasons for which the scholarship was established.
As Jordan Frost drove through the rolling wheat fields outside of Pullman, five hours from the familiar suburban sprawl of King County, the questions began running through his head:
The WSU History Club is a recognized student organization open to students from any major. History Club members participate in a variety of social, educational, and service activities.
The History Club’s goal is to help students, of any year and major, explore their historical interests and interact with lovers of history on campus.
This year the History Club has elected an entirely new panel of student leaders and is planning a year full of on campus events, trivia, debate, and internship opportunities.
2023 – 2024 Officers and Information:
President: Madison Watt
Vice President: Mariah Landon
Treasurer: Asia Larocque
Secretary: Andersen Barry
Public Relations: Camryn Kintner
Club Faculty Advisor and RSO Coordinator: Dr. Nikolaus Overtoom
For more information about the Club, please contact the faculty advisor at nikolaus.overtoom@wsu.edu
Through the Hanford History Project, WSU leads a coalition of community partners in preserving—and enabling research on—the history of the greater Hanford community.
From its crucial role in the Manhattan Project through the present-day focus on environmental cleanup and lingering health effects, the history of the Tri Cities is fundamental to major historical questions regarding national security, urban planning, the American West, science and technology, the environment, and other topics.
Through contract with the US Department of Energy and donations from community partners, the Hanford History Project is developing an archive and museum from major collections of never-before-seen documents and unique artifacts. Current priorities include digitizing our collection of oral histories and connecting them to relevant researchers. Student interns are hard are work cataloging the archival collections we have received from the Department of Energy, after which we will turn towards developing finding aids and making the collections accessible to scholars.
Eventually, we hope to establish a museum and archival reading room near (or at) the planned visitor center for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, of which Hanford represents one-third (along with Los Alamos and Oak Ridge). This will help in bringing local residents and tourists into these historical conversations.
Sue Peabody’s “Freedom Papers Hidden in His Shoe: Navigating Emancipation across Imperial Boundaries” appeared in a special issue “The Politics of Empire in Postrevolutionary France,” edited by Naomi Andrews and Jennifer Sessions, of French Politics, Culture, & Society. 33:1 (Spring 2015): 11-32.
The program consists of at least 30 credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree, distributed as follows:
History 509/510: Field Course in American History – 6 credits
History 527: Public History: Theory and Methodology – 3 credits (fall semester)
History 528: Seminar in Public History – 3 credits (qualifies as a departmental seminar; offered every other spring semester)
History 529: Interpreting History through Material Culture – 3 credits (qualifies as a departmental seminar; offered every other spring semester, alternating with History 528)
History 580: Historiography – 3 credits
History 598: Internship – 3 credits (traditional letter grade credit; up to 12 hours)
History 700: Master’s Research, Thesis, and/or Examination – 6 credits
Up to 9 related graduate credits can be taken outside history. Related courses are offered in anthropology (archaeology), agricultural economics, architecture, business administration, communication, economics, geography, English, environmental science, forestry and range management, interior design, law, political science, and sociology.
The program consists of at least 72 credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree, distributed as follows:
History 509/510: Field Course in American History – 6 credits
History 527: Public History: Theory and Methodology – 3 credits
History 528: Seminar in Public History – 3 credits (qualifies as departmental seminar)
History 529: Interpreting History through Material Culture – 3 credits (qualifies as department seminar)
History 580: Historiography – 3 credits
History 598: Internship – 3 credits (traditional letter grade credit; up to 12 hours)
History 800: Doctorate Dissertation Exam – 21 credits
World/Comparative Field
The World/Comparative Field provides spatial and temporal context to complement Primary and General Fields and to provide research and teaching breadth. The World/Comparative field must be different from the Primary and General Fields.
All PhD students, except those who take World History as their General Field, must take 9 credits of graduate courses to fulfill the requirements of World/Comparative Field as their complementary field. The World/Comparative Field will have dual purposes of (1) providing opportunities that allow students to learn and explore global and comparative perspectives of students’ research subjects, and (2) offering credible training in world history as a teaching field. All students are required to take 570, 571, and one more field course (either 571, a graduate field course outside their General Field, or a 400 or 500-level course outside History). They must pass all three courses with the minimum grade of B+. No preliminary examination is required for the World/Comparative Field.
Up to 12 related graduate credits can be taken outside history (see related courses above).
Optional Alternatives
Another primary field can be substituted for American history if circumstances so warrant. For example, a candidate might be interested in obtaining a curatorship at a history museum in London, England. A logical primary field would be modern European history with perhaps a secondary field in U.S. history, depending on the scope of the museum. Any change from the primary field in American history or selection of a non-history secondary field, for instance anthropology, must be approved by the departmental public history committee.
Internships
A supervised internship is an integral part of the public history track. It affords students the opportunity to work as temporary employees, and it provides them with firsthand experience (in some cases compensated) in settings such as archives, museums, historical societies, or federal agencies. Students at WSU have been interns at local, state, regional, and national sites, including local historical societies, the Washington State Historical Society, the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office, the Nevada State Parks System, the National Archives–Central Plains Region, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Forest Service, the Historic American Engineering Record, and numerous private research firms or agencies. Most, though not all, travel to off-campus locations to serve internships. Summer internships are common. Students who enroll in 10 hours of History 598 (Internship) will have spent a full semester as on-site interns.
Internships provide students with practical insights into potential historical employment. Private sector or institutional supervisors provide mentoring relationships, and they introduce students to the professional networks common to the public historian’s work environment.
Students are expected to identify an appropriate internship at least one semester prior to beginning the internship. During that semester, the student will organize an I-1 meeting and present to the committee a draft Memorandum of Understanding that describes in detail the work to be performed, the time and credit involved, the compensation (if any), and the obligations of all parties—the student, the faculty advisor, and the internship supervisor. The major professor will write a brief memo to the director of graduate studies indicating that a successful I-1 has been held.
Academic credit can be earned by registering for History 598, Internship. For each semester hour of credit, the student works 50 hours. At some point in their program all students must register for at least 3 hours of internship credit.
Advising Procedure
Students must have a major professor to be admitted to the Ph.D. program. Because of the internship and the interdisciplinary emphasis of the public history track, it is imperative that the student draw up a degree program and choose the members of an advisory committee by the end of the second semester.
The major professor must be a member of the graduate history faculty who has fields and/or skills related to one or more of the following: the primary field, the coordinate primary field, or the area of specialization.
The advisory committee will comprise the major professor (chairperson) and a minimum of 2 other faculty members, one of whom may be from another department representing the student’s interdisciplinary concentration.
A supervised internship is an integral part of the public history track. It affords students the opportunity to work as temporary employees, and it provides them with firsthand experience (in some cases compensated) in settings such as archives, museums, historical societies, and private historical research firms.
Students at WSU have been interns at local, state, regional, and national sites, including local historical societies, the National Park Service, the National Archives–Central Plains Region and Pacific Northwest Region, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Forest Service, the Historic American Engineering Record, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Experience Music Project in Bellevue, Washington, the Nevada State Parks System, as well as numerous private research firms or agencies. Most, though not all, travel to off-campus locations to serve internships.
Academic credit may be earned by registering for History 598: Internship. For each semester of credit, the student works 40 hours. Summer internships are common, but several students have enrolled in History 598: Internship for a full semester as on-site interns. At some point in their program all students must register for 3 hours of internship credit.
Internships provide students with practical insights into potential historical employment. Private sector institutional supervisors provide mentoring relationships, and they introduce students to the professional networks common to the public historian’s work environment.
For each internship, a contract or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is drawn up that describes in detail the work to be performed, the time and credit involved, the compensation (if any), and the obligation of all parties: the student, the faculty advisor, and the internship supervisor.
Dr. Matthew Sutton, associate professor of history, will present an Honors Distinguished Faculty/Humanities Fellowship lecture in October.
Sue Peabody’s “Freedom Papers Hidden in His Shoe: Navigating Emancipation across Imperial Boundaries” appeared in a special issue “The Politics of Empire in Postrevolutionary France,” edited by Naomi Andrews and Jennifer Sessions, of French Politics, Culture, & Society. 33:1 (Spring 2015): 11-32.
