UAH History Events

Talk & Film: Beside the Troubled Waters: A Black Doctor Remembers 7 November

2011-11-02T06:57:00.002-04:00

UAHuntsville Professor of History Emeritus Jack Ellis and Dr. Sonnie Hereford will present a brief film and a discussion of their recently published book, -Beside the Troubled Waters: A Black Doctor Remembers Life, Medicine, and Civil Rights in an Alabama Town- Dr. Ellis, former dean of the College of Liberal Arts, conducted extensive interviews with Dr. Hereford in preparation for the book, which is a memoir of Dr. Hereford's experiences in Huntsville as a physician and a civil rights activist.

As always, the event is free and open to the public. Please bring a friend!

7:00PM, November 7
Wilson Hall, Room 001

AIA Talk: Uncorking the Past 10 November 2011

2011-11-02T06:52:00.001-04:00

Dr. Patrick McGovern, author of Uncorking the Past: The quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages, is going to talk about the history of beer, wine, and extreme fermented beverages. Dr. McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist, will be giving a beautifully illustrated synopsis of the findings in his book.Copies of the book will be available for purchase and the author's signature.

As always, the event is free and open to the public. Please bring a friend!

Chan Auditorium, Administrative Science Building, UAH Campus

7:30 PM Thursday November 10

Lectures on the History of Childbirth with Medical Historian Dr. Judith Walzer Leavitt

2011-09-18T22:22:00.003-04:00

Dr. Judith Walzer Leavitt, an internationally recognized pioneer of research on medical history and women’s history, will deliver two public lectures at UAH on the history of childbirth. Leavitt’s visit to UAH is sponsored by the UAH Women’s Studies Program with support from the UAH Humanities Center Eminent Scholars Program.

The first lecture, “Women and the Medicalization of Childbirth in American History,” will be September 20, 7:30 p.m., in Chan Auditorium of the Business Administration Building.

The second lecture, “Make Room for Daddy: Men’s Roles in Childbirth in Twentieth Century America,” will be September 22, 11:10 a.m., in the multipurpose room of Frank Franz Hall as part of UAH’s Honors Forum.

Both lectures are free and open to the public.

Leavitt hails from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she is Rupple Bascom and Ruth Bleier Professor Emerita of Medical History & Bioethics, History of Science, and Gender and Women’s Studies. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, delivered dozens of lectures in the United States and abroad, and authored or edited eight books on public health and women’s health in social, economic, and political contexts. Her UAH lectures are based on her two books Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (Oxford University Press, 1986) and Make Room for Daddy: The Journey from the Waiting Room to the Delivery Room (University of North Carolina Press, 2009). She holds a B.S. degree in Social Sciences from Antioch College (1963) and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in History from the University of Chicago (1966 and 1975).

For additional information on Leavitt, please see her webpage, which also includes a link to her CV.

Leavitt’s current research, which continues to examine gender and public health through the twentieth century, includes two projects, one which looks at home health care during the antibiotic transition and the second which carries forward her childbirth studies.

Contact:

Dr. Molly Johnson

Director of Women’s Studies

256.824.2566

molly.johnson@uah.edu

Holocaust Survivor and Scholar Dr. William Samelson to Speak at Yom Ha Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Event on Sunday May 1

2011-04-17T22:41:00.007-04:00

On Sunday, May 1, 2011, the Jewish Federation of Huntsville and North Alabama will sponsor Yom Ha Shoah - the day for Holocaust remembrance. The event will be held at Temple B'nai Shalom (Clinton and Lincoln Streets), beginning at 3:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

The purpose of Yom Ha Shoah is to assure that the world never forgets the Holocaust. Like all memory of World War II, there are fewer and fewer actual witnesses to actual events of the era. In the case of the Holocaust there are those voices who continue to deny that six million persons were its victims.

The JFHNA event will feature Holocaust survivor and scholar Dr. William Samelson. Dr. Samelson was born in Poland. He lived there until the age of 11 when he was interned in various Nazi labor and concentration camps throughout Poland and Germany. He became a member of the partisans at the age of thirteen. Captured by the Nazis, he was taken to Buchenwald Concentration Camp where he spent three and a half years. He was liberated by the US Army in 1945, and emigrated to the US in 1948.

Dr Samelson holds a PhD from the University of Texas, Austin, and has taught at Kent State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana, and the University of Texas in Austin. He is Visiting Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Texas in San Antonio and Trinity University. Dr Samelson has written extensively about the Holocaust and lectured widely on a variety of topics relating to it. Among his many publications are: “All Lie in Wait”, “One Bridge to Life”, “Warning and Hope” and a series of six volumes of English as a Second Language texts, which have undergone numerous editions.

In addition to Dr. Samelson's talk, six candles will be lit in a ceremony similar to one followed at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum in Israel. Music composed by Modecai Gebirtig will be performed by Gonca Huff and Frank Contreras. Some of the music will be sung in Yiddish, the language spoken during the era.

A reception will follow the program and Dr. Samelson will be available for further discussion.

With questions, please contact Ed Gollop at 256 881 2477.

Classics Week 2011 with Dr. Craig Kallendorf

2011-04-11T12:57:00.002-04:00

The Society for Ancient Languages has invited Dr. Craig Kallendorf of Texas A&M University to visit UAH for Classics Week 2011. Dr. Kallendorf will give two lectures, both in Roberts Hall 419.

The first lecture, "The Commentary: A Neglected Neo-Latin Genre?" will be Friday April 15 at 11:30am.

The second lecture, "Neo-Latin Studies and Book History," will be Friday April 15 at 7:00pm.

If you have any questions, please contact the history department at 256-824-6310.

Please come and bring a friend!

Civil War Lecture with Dr. Julie Saville, Saturday April 16, 2011

2011-04-11T12:53:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, April 16, 2011, University of Chicago historian, Dr. Julie Saville, will be giving a public lecture about "Ending the Civil War: Stories from Then and Now."

The event will be in Chan Auditorium (in the Business Administration Building) at 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Saville's UAH lecture, sponsored by UAH's Distinguished Speakers Series, Women's Studies Program, and Department of History, will be the final event in an all-day symposium "Why We Are Still Fighting the Civil War," held at the Knight Center at Alabama A&M University. This month marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil war. This is a free event, and the symposium will begin at 12 noon and run until 4:00 p.m.

If you have any questions, please contact 256-824-6210 or check out http://www.uah.edu/womensstudies/symposium/

Please come and bring a friend!

AIA Talk: Romans in North Africa, 4 April 2011

2011-03-30T10:28:00.000-04:00

Dr. Naomi J. Norman is the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor as well as the head of her department. At the same time Dr. Norman is the Editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Archaeology and the Director of the UGA Reacting to the Past Program. In addition to these demanding responsibilities,since 1982 she has been directing a variety of excavations at the ancient site of Carthage, Tunisia. The southwest quadrant of the urban area where she has conducted the majority of her fieldwork is the site of the Roman circus and amphitheater. She has also worked extensively on cemetery sites and in particular the Yasmina Necropolis with its wealth of finds including sculpture, inscriptions, coins, curse tablets, inhumations and cremations that are yielding interesting new interpretations of social and religious structures in Carthage over time. She has published articles on curse tablets from the circus as well as the death and burial of children. With her extensive knowledge of Carthage, Dr. Norman is currently working on a book presenting an overview of the city incorporating evidence from recent archaeological fieldwork.

Worshipping Jupiter, Juno and Minerva in Roman North Africa

Wilson Hall 168, UAH--2:20 PM

From Sea to Sahara: The Romans in North Africa

Wilson Hall Theatre, UAH--7:30 PM

Thursday March 31: Oxford Professor Alan Knight to Speak on "The Mexican Revolution in Global Perspective"

2011-03-22T22:55:00.003-04:00

On Thursday March 31 at 7 pm in Chan Auditorium in the Business Administration Building, Professor Alan Knight will give a public talk entitled “The Mexican Revolution in Global Perspective (1910-2010).” The event is free and open to the public.

Knight comes to UAH as an Eminent Scholar sponsored by the Humanities Center and the History Department. He is a professor of Latin American History at the University of Oxford (St. Anthony’s College). He is the author of The Mexican Revolution (recipient of the 1986 Albert J. Beveridge Award), US-Mexican Relations, 1910-1940, Mexico: From the Beginning to the Spanish Conquest, and Mexico: The Colonial Era. He is also the author of numerous articles, and co-editor of Caciquismo in Twentieth-century Mexico, and Revolución, Democracia y Populismo en América Latina.

Professor Knight will also address the UAH Honors Forum on Tuesday March 29 at 11:10 am in Frank Franz Hall 138. This talk, which is also free and open to the public, is entitled "State, Region, and Patria Chica in the Mexican Revolution."

Please contact 256-824-6310 with questions -- and please come and bring a friend!

AIA Talk: Irish Leprosy Hospitals Thursday 10 March

2011-03-09T12:03:00.000-05:00

Forensic archaeologist Dr. Rachel Scott of Arizona State University will be coming to Huntsville to share her knowledge about the experience of lepers in medieval Ireland, looking both at how they lived and how they died.

Dr. Rachel Scott received a Higher Diploma in Celtic Archaeology from University College Dublin. Upon her return to the states she completed her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Scott specializes in bioarchaeology and has done field work in Spain, France and Iceland along with her work in Ireland. Her research interests include social identity, especially gender identity and religious identity, as well as social constructions of disease and disability. Another of her specialties is mortuary practice about which she has a contribution in the forthcoming anthology Breathing New Life into the Evidence of Death.

Thursday, March 10

Dr. Rachel Scott

Arizona State University

Lepers and Leper Hospitals in Late Medieval Ireland

7:30 PM

Wilson Hall Theatre (not Chan!)

AIA Lectures on Buddhist Imagery, February 16 and 17

2011-02-17T12:57:00.003-05:00

AIA TALK: Art of Gandhara, Buddhist Imagery,--16 February
Dr. Kurt Behrendt has his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the curatorial staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he taught at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. He has written numerous articles on Buddhist art in India and Tibet and on the practice of pilgrimage, including studies of relics and narrative art. He has also three books on the art, archaeology, and religious practices of Gandhara in northern India.

"Art of Gandhara: Indo-Mediterranean Trade and New Buddhist Imagery," 7:30 PM Wednesday, 16 February 2011, Wilson Hall Theatre

"India and Tibet: Cultural Interactions and the Spread of Buddhism," 12:45 PM Thursday, February 17 2011, Wilson Hall 168

All events free and open to the public. Please bring a friend!

Public Lecture on "The Berlin Wall and Peenemünde: Traces of the Modern Heritage of 20th Century Germany"

2011-02-02T14:57:00.004-05:00

On Tuesday, February 8, Uta Mense, a Ph.D. student at the Technical University of Cottbus in Germany, will give a talk entitled: "The Berlin Wall and Peenemünde: Traces of the Modern Heritage of 20th Century Germany"

The talk will be at 7:30pm in Roberts Hall 419.

Uta Mense, born 1970 in Germany, worked as an architect in the Netherlands and
Germany. After completing the postgraduate master program, UNESCO „World Heritage
Studies,“ and working as a project-manager for EU-funded intercultural projects, Uta is currently doing research on Space Race Heritage, focusing on the United States, Russia/Kazakhstan, as well as its origins in Germany.

Please come and bring a friend!

Living Life in Antebellum Huntsville

2010-09-11T18:10:00.004-04:00

Friends of the UAHuntsville History Department are invited to attend a presentation, "Living Life in Antebellum Huntsville," at 2pm Sunday September 12 at the auditorium of the downtown Huntsville Library. Susanna Leberman and Ranee Pruitt have prepared the presentation, and the Huntsville Historical Society and the Huntsville Madison County Public Library are sponsors. Susanna, a UAHuntsville MA in history, promises lots of interesting old photographs!

Classics Week Speaker: Dr. Bryan Ward-Perkins

2010-04-09T00:37:00.004-04:00

UAH will have guest speaker Dr. Bryan Ward-Perkins from the University of Oxford give lectures during UAH's annual Classics Week (an event hosted by The Society for Ancient Languages and The UAH Humanities Center.) Dr. Ward-Perkins will be giving two lectures concerning the controversial fall of the Roman Empire on Friday, April 9th.

His first lecture, entitled “The Death and (very slow) Rebirth of Public Statuary, 300-1500AD,” will be at 11:30am in Roberts Hall, room 419.

The second lecture he will give, “A Real Economic Melt-down – The End of Roman Britain,” will be at 7:00pm also in Roberts Hall, room 419.

These lectures are free and open to the public.

Feel free to invite anyone that might be interested.

Valete!

History Forum Lecture on Gender in Gabon with Dr. Rachel Jean-Baptiste: Thursday March 25

2010-03-22T20:32:00.003-04:00

The history department is pleased to announce that Dr. Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Assistant Professor of African history at the University of Chicago will soon present her work on women, marriage, and sex in Gabon, Africa. This public lecture entitled, “Contested Conjugal and Sexual Relations in Gabon: Changes in Gender, Social Status, and Political Authority,” will take place March 25th at 7:00 p.m. in 419 Roberts Hall.

Dr. Jean-Baptiste, who received her doctorate from Stanford University, specializes in the social, cultural, and political history of Central Africa. Her wide-ranging research encompasses gender, sexuality, urban history, colonialism, and law in late twentieth-century Gabon. Her past work has included interracial sex, métissage, and the codification of customary law. In a forthcoming article, entitled “‘A Black Girl Should Not be With a White Man’: Sex, Race, and African Women’s Social and Legal Status in Colonial Gabon, c. 1900-1946,” Dr. Jean-Baptiste looks more closely at interracial sex.

Currently, Dr. Jean-Baptiste is working on a manuscript that considers contested conjugal and sexual relationships in Libreville. She uses these cases to dissect and explain changing gender roles, social status, and political authority in the merging city. Her public lecture draws on this recent research.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Support is provided by the History Department, Women’s Studies Program, Global Studies Program, and the Humanities Center.

AIA Talks: Moche Woman Warrior: 8 March 2010

2010-02-28T14:44:00.002-05:00

Dr. John Verano is the Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University, where he has been teaching since 1994. His talents are in demand: over the last ten years he has been a visiting professor or fellow at the Universidad Católica del Perú, Dumbarton Oaks, the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain, Yale University, and the Smithsonian. His research focuses on human skeletal biology, paleopathology, bioarchaeology, and forensic anthropology. His geographical focus is Andean South America, especially sites in Peru and Bolivia. He is an expert in mortuary practices and has extensive experience in the examination of skeletal and mummified remains. In particular, Dr. Verano explores trepanation and other ancient surgical practices. Dr. Veraano applies his skills with ancient remains in assisting local, state, and federal law enforcement officials, coroners, and medical examiners in assessing human skeletal remains.

"Royal Moche Mummy," Chan Auditorium, 7:30pm Monday March 8.

"Human Sacrifice in Ancient Peru?" Wilson Hall 168, 12:45pm March 9.

Exhibit and Opening: "Dora and the V-2: Slave Labor in the Space Age"

2010-02-08T22:10:00.004-05:00

Please attend the opening, Sunday February 21, 2010, at 3:00pm in Chan Auditorium, of our coming exhibit on "Dora and the V-2: Slave Labor and the Space Age." For details, see our entry on the History News blog.

Additional events include:

"Preserving the History of the V-2 and Slave Labor at Dora"
Yves Le Maner, Director, La Coupole History and Remembrance Center (France)
Dr. Jens-Christian Wagner, Director, Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial (Germany)
Monday February 21, 11:30am-12:25pm, Frank Franz Hall Multipurpose Room

"Mittelbau-Dora in History and Memory"
Dr. Michael Neufeld, Chair, Space Division, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Thursday February 25, 7:30pm, Chan Auditorium

"Images of Dora: Art, Photographs, and the Holocaust"
Dr. Daniel Magilow, Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Thursday March 4, 7:30pm, Chan Auditorium

Faculty Music Recital
Dr. Don Bowyer, Professor of Music, UAHuntsville
Friday March 7, 3:00pm, Roberts Recital Hall

Please come and bring a friend! More information at 256-824-6114

Dr. John Kvach and UAH Students Scanning Local Civil War Photos and Documents Saturday February 6, 2010

2010-02-01T19:05:00.004-05:00

Do you have any old Civil War era photographs or documents?

Then head down to the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (915 Monroe Street) Saturday, February 6, 2010, where Dr. John Kvach, along with his UAH history students and 10th-grade students and teachers from Huntsville High School, will have a scanning session in the Heritage Room on the third floor from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Working with Kvach are Huntsville High teachers Diane Blocker and Amber Hall and local resource librarians Ranee Pruitt and Nancy Rohr. They are collaborating on the "Real People, Real History" History-Channel-funded project to highlight the history of the Civil War in Madison County by creating a website.

Kvach is asking those with documents or photos to schedule an appointment Saturday through Blocker at wdblocker@gmail.com or Kvach at 824-2570.

"We're hoping to get some photos or documents their great granddads or anybody else passed down," Kvach said. "We want to highlight the 150th commemoration of the Civil War."

Pictured here is a photograph showing Union troops occupying Huntsville. For more information, see the February 1, 2010 article in the Huntsville Times.

Speaker on "Gender and Treason in the Civil War," Monday Nov. 2

2009-10-20T20:22:00.005-04:00

The history department is pleased to invite our public supporters to two lectures by Dr. Stephanie McCurry, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

On November 2, Dr. McCurry will discuss “Gender and Treason during the Civil War,” at 7:00 p.m. in the Roberts Recital Hall. On November 3, she will present “Arming Slaves in the Confederacy” during an afternoon Honors Forum from 11:10-12:30 p.m. in Frank Franz Hall Multipurpose Room.

Dr. McCurry’s Master’s of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households and the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country changed the way historians think about gender and politics. Her book was also instrumental in focusing scholars’ attention away from Southern planters and onto Southern yeomen, or smaller farmers. This excellent, ground-breaking work won numerous awards, including the John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association and the Charles Sydnor Award of the Southern Historical Association.

In the spring, Harvard will publish her newest work, Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South. In this monograph, McCurry takes a new look at popular politics in the Confederate States of America, concentrating on the disenfranchised and the transformation of the southern body politic before military defeat and Reconstruction. She will be sharing work from this soon to be published work with UAH and the Huntsville community in November.

Both lectures are free and open to the public. Support is provided by the UAHuntsville Distinguished Speakers Series, History Department, Honors Program, and Women’s Studies Program.

Please come and bring a friend!

AIA Talk: Children in Wartime, October 14

2009-10-11T18:11:00.001-04:00

Dr. John Oakley of the College of William and Mary, author of critically acclaimed books including The Wedding in Ancient Athens and Coming of Age in Ancient Greece, will examine representations of children in Greek art during the war between Athens and Sparta and then compare this evidence to images of children during war in the modern world. Dr. Oakley will speak on Wednesday, October 14 at 7:30 PM in the Shelby Center at UAH. More information at 824-6114.

Two Upcoming Community Events Involving UAH History Alumni

2009-10-11T10:35:00.005-04:00

The UAH history department is pleased to announce two upcoming community history events, both of which involve the work of UAH history alumni.

The first is the multimedia production, "Upon their Shoulders: the Merrimack Story," from October 15-19, 2009, featuring the legendary actress Lee Meriwether. It will tell the rich history of Huntsville through the lives of the real people who labored in the city's textile mills. It will trace the lives of three boys beginning in 1911and feature rare photos and film footage and dramatizations of actual events.

Alumna Susanna Leberman has been consulting and helping with images and narration, and the production also quotes from UAH alumna Whitney Snow's history MA thesis, "The Cotton Mills of Huntsville."

The event will be at the Merrimack Performing Arts Center. Further information is available at www.merrimackhall.com or 256-534-6455.

The second community event is the annual Maple Hill Cemetery Stroll, held at Maple Hill Cemetery in downtown Huntsville on October 18, 2:00-4:30 pm. More than 65 costumed characters, representing historic Huntsville personages, will come alive to tell the history of the cemetery and of Huntsville. UAH history alumna Susanna Leberman will participate. Further information is available at http://www.huntsvillepilgrimage.org/.

Pictured her see a flyer for "Upon their Shoulders" and a photograph from a previous Cemetery Stroll.

Public History Student Elisabeth Spalding to Give Talk at Huntsville Library on Restoring Old Photographs

2009-06-15T20:41:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday June 24, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Huntsville Library, history major Elisabeth Spalding will give a public lecture on "Preserving Your Past: Technology and Digital Restoration." This lecture will be based on the internship Elisabeth completed in the Huntsville Library Archives as part of the class she took Spring 2009 with Dr. John Kvach on "Public History."

Elisabeth will talk about the history of photography including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, and CDVs as well as the importance of restoring old photographs. She will also give tips on simple and easy digital photo touch-ups that anybody can do.

Please come and learn about the history of photography and about how to preserve your old photographs!

Public Talk on Alabama During the Civil War by UAH History Major Joseph Richardson

2009-04-06T22:59:00.003-04:00

We are pleased to announce that history major Joseph T. Richardson, the winner of the new Dr. John Rison Jones Award in Southern History, will give a public talk on "I.D.W. Cobb: North Alabama Partisan Ranger: Researching a Local Civil War Soldier."

The lecture will be at the Huntsville Public Library on Wednesday April 15, 2008, at 6:30 pm in the Library Auditorium.

Richardson will present his research on I.D.W. Cobb (1847-1933), a local Confederate veteran who took part in North Alabama's untold partisan ranger conflict behind Union lines, serving under Captain Milus E. "Bushwhacker" Johnston and Colonel Lemuel G. Mead.

Starting from scratch with the name of a man he'd never heard of, chosen from a list of local veterans provided by my professor Dr. John Kvach, Richardson's research process helped him illuminate the life of this forgotten soldier in records, photographs, and finally his own words.

Richardson will also present a brief overview of his methods and sources, to encourage others to discover their own Civil War heritage.

Please come and bring a friend!

Film Showing Friday April 10: Conspiracy (2001)

2009-04-06T22:48:00.003-04:00

All students and community members are welcome to watch the HBO Film "Conspiracy," made in 2001, on Friday April 10, 2009 at 1:00pm in Roberts Hall 423 (the history seminar room). The film stars Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci and examines the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 at which leading Nazis formalized plans for the "Final Solution" to kill all of the Jews in Europe.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Molly Johnson at molly.johnson@uah.edu

Please come and bring a friend!

AIA Talk: Cahokia and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex

2009-03-29T21:48:00.001-04:00

Dr. John E. Kelly of Washington University in St. Louis is an expert on eastern North American archaeology, particularly Mississippian culture as evidenced at the extensive site of Cahokia, just outside of St. Louis. Cahokia, a World Heritage UNESCO Site, possesses approximately 120 mounds, including Monk’s Mound, the largest mound in North America. It is also the location of the intriguing “Woodhenge,” a monument that marked the solstices and equinoxes much like Stonehenge in England. Dr. Kelly has been working frequently at Cahokia and other nearby Mississippian sites since 1969. He is interested in the role of ritual and kinship as manifested in the imagery and dispersal of various artifacts and techniques. This manifestation of Mississippian culture is referred to as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC).

March 30
"Cahokia's Mound 34 and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex" Chan Auditorium 7:30 PM

Film Viewing of "Downfall": Friday March 27

2009-03-25T09:08:00.002-04:00

All students and community members are invited to view the German film "Downfall"
(2006). This film recounts the final days of Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazis in the spring of 1945 in Berlin. It is based in part on the memoirs of Hitler's secretary as well as on the works of leading historians.

The film will be shown at 1:00 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423 (the history department's seminar room).

Please contact Dr. Molly Johnson with any questions: molly.johnson@uah.edu

2009-03-20T09:51:00.001-04:00

After a earning a Loyola University master's degree in public history, Brian Coffey worked as a public historian for both public and private institutions. He has published articles on American industrial history and participated in several historic preservation projects. For the last decade, he's served the National Park Service as a historian. In his role as NPS Historian in the Southeast Region, Brian has traveled to and worked in dozens of National Parks from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the Great Smoky Mountains. He will be discussing this work from an "inside the NPS" perspective Tuesday, March 24th, at 7:30 in RH 419.

AIA TALK 10 March: The United States vs. Art Thieves: Tales from the FBI's Real Indiana Jones

2009-03-07T21:37:00.004-05:00

Robert K. Wittman joined the FBI as a Special Agent in 1988 and was until a few months ago assigned to the Philadelphia Field Division. As a result of specialized training in art, antiques, jewelry and gem identification, he served as the FBI’s investigative expert in this field worldwide. He has been responsible for the recovery of more than $225 million worth of stolen art and cultural property and has been instrumental in the prosecution and conviction of numerous individuals involved in these crimes. Because of this unique experience, SA Wittman was the Senior Investigator of the FBI’s rapid deployment national Art Crime Team (ACT), working under cover in a variety of roles.

SA Wittman’s investigation of a theft at the Pennsbury Manor, the historical home of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, resulted in the first prosecution and convictions under the federal Theft of Major Artwork Statute (18 USC 668). Other highlights of his most recent recoveries include one of the original 14 copies of the Bill of Rights, which is valued at $30 million. The original had been sent to North Carolina for ratification in 1789 and was later stolen by a Union soldier during the Civil War. Wittman led an international undercover operation that netted $50 million worth of paintings stolen from a private estate in Madrid, including two paintings by Goya. He was involved in another undercover operation responsible for the recovery of Rembrandt’s “Self-Portrait” which was stolen from the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm and valued at $36 million. SA Wittman recovered three of five Norman Rockwell paintings stolen from a private gallery in Minneapolis from a farmhouse in Brazil. Also in South America, he led the operation to return a 2,000 year-old golden Pre-Columbian piece of body armor known as a “Backflap,” created by the ancient Moche people and looted from the Royal Tomb of the Lord of Sipan in Peru. For his efforts, the President of Peru awarded Wittman the “Peruvian Order of Merit for Distinguished Service.” In 2004, the Smithsonian Institution presented SA Wittman the “Robert Burke Memorial Award for Excellence in Cultural Property Protection” at the National Conference on Cultural Property Protection in Washington, D.C.

He has given presentations at the American Association of Museums (AAM) Annual Conference; National Conference on Cultural Property Protection at the Smithsonian Institution; the International Conference on Museum Security (ICOMS) in Basel, Switzerland; the J. Paul Getty Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; the San Diego Museum of Art; the Princeton Art Museum; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Cincinnati Art Museum; the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; the Minneapolis Institute of Art and many others.

March 10
"US vs. Art Thieves: Tales from the FBI's Real Indiana Jones"
Chan Auditorium
7:30 PM

Dr. LeeAnna Keith to Speak on "Alabama Fever": Wed. Feb. 25, 7:00 p.m.

2009-02-19T15:24:00.006-05:00

The History Department at UAHuntsville is pleased to welcome Dr. LeeAnna Keith to campus. In addition to meeting with undergraduate and graduate students in Dr. John Kvach's course on "Public History," Dr. Keith will give two public lectures:

History Forum: "Alabama Fever: Slavery and Western Expansion in Antebellum Huntsville"
Wednesday, February 25, 7:00 p.m., Roberts Hall 419

Honors Forum: "The Colfax Massacre"
Thursday, February 26, 11:10 a.m., Frank Franz Hall Multipurpose Room

In the first lecture, Dr. Keith will examine the role that “Alabama Fever” had on the development of antebellum Huntsville and Madison County. “Alabama Fever” became a term commonly used to describe the excitement created by the opening of new land after the United States government defeated the Creek Nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. Enticed by fertile land, navigable rivers, and the possibility of spreading slavery to new territory, thousands of settlers from the South Atlantic seaboard moved into present-day Alabama, creating the foundation for an agricultural, slaved-based plantation economy that would exist until the Civil War.

In the second lecture, Dr. Keith will discuss her book, The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction . Her website describes the book as follows:
"On Easter Sunday, 1873, in the tiny hamlet of Colfax, Louisiana, more than 150 members of an all-black Republican militia, defending the town's courthouse, were slain by an armed force of rampaging white supremacists. The most deadly incident of racial violence of the Reconstruction era, the Colfax Massacre unleashed a reign of terror that all but extinguished the campaign for racial equality.

LeeAnna Keith's The Colfax Massacre is the first full-length book to tell the history of this decisive event. Drawing on a huge body of documents, including eyewitness accounts of the massacre, as well as newly discovered evidence from the site itself, Keith explores the racial tensions that led to the fateful encounter, during which surrendering blacks were mercilessly slaughtered, and the reverberations this message of terror sent throughout the South. Keith also recounts the heroic attempts by U.S. Attorney J.R. Beckwith to bring the killers to justice and the many legal issues raised by the massacre. In 1875, disregarding the poignant testimony of 300 witnesses, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in U.S. v. Cruikshank to overturn a lower court conviction of eight conspirators. This decision virtually nullified the Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871--which had made federal offenses of a variety of acts to intimidate voters and officeholders--and cleared the way for the Jim Crow era.

If there was a single historical moment that effectively killed Reconstruction and erased the gains blacks had made since the civil war, it was the day of the Colfax Massacre. LeeAnna Keith gives readers both a gripping narrative account of that portentous day and a nuanced historical analysis of its far-reaching repercussions."

Dr. Keith's visit is co-sponsored by the History Department and the Honors Forum at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Please contact 256-824-6310 with questions.

2009 Classics Week: Professor Robert Kaster of Princeton University

2009-02-18T13:58:00.006-05:00

The Society for Ancient Languages at UAHuntsville is pleased to announce the 2009 Classics Week, featuring Professor Robert Kaster, Professor of Classics and Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin at Princeton University. Kaster will give two lectures on Friday, February 27, both in 419 Roberts Hall. At 11:30 a.m., he will discuss "Roman Values and Virtues," and at 7:00 p.m., he will discuss "Cicero in Mourning."

Professor Kaster received a BA degree from Dartmouth College in 1969 and MA and PhD degrees from Harvard University in 1971 and 1975. His specialities are Roman rhetoric, ancient education, and Roman ethics. He has published six books, including Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity, which won the Goodwin Award of Merit in 2001. His works in progress include an annotated translation of Seneca's De ira and De clementia and an edition of Macrobius's Saturnalia.

Please come to one or both talks and bring a friend! Please contact Dr. Richard Gerberding, Professor of History and Director of Classic Studies at gerberr@uah.edu.

Film Showing: Sophie Scholl, the Last Days

2009-02-18T13:57:00.009-05:00

ed to view the German film "Sophie Scholl: The Last Days" (2005) on Friday February 20 at 1:00 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423 (the seminar room). This film recounts the actions and interrogation of Sophie Scholl, key member of the White Rose student resistance group based at the University of Munich during the Nazi era. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. This is one of several films Dr. Molly Johnson is showing as part of her class on "Nazi Germany and the Holocaust." Please contact her with any questions at Molly.Johnson@uah.edu.

AIA Talks: Aspects of Africa, Feb. 17-19

2009-02-11T22:21:00.003-05:00

Dr. Paula Girshick comes to Huntsville as a Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Professor. She is a Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at Indiana University, where she is also affiliated with the Center for Archaeology in the Public Interest.

Dr. Girshick has had a distinguished career doing significant field research on the Benin Kingdom in Nigeria, and analyzing the cultural, political, and historical significance of the highly ritualized royal art of the Benin. She is an expert on the priestesses devoted to the powerful deity Olokun. She has published significantly on Benin art and her book, The Art of the Benin, published by the British Museum Press and the Smithsonian Institution, remains the most important survey of Benin visual culture.

More recently, Dr. Girshick has turned her attention to the use of art and museums in establishing national identity in post-Apartheid South Africa. She also investigates the dynamics of the South African market for so-called “traditional” African art.

At Indiana University Dr. Girshick teaches a wide range of fascinating courses that relate to her research areas: “Art and Commodity,” “Exhibiting Cultures: Museums, Exhibitions, and Worlds’ Fairs,” “Theories of Material Culture,” “The Anthropology of Tourism,” and “Public Art: Monuments and Memorials.”

February 17
Paula Girshick, Indiana University
Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Scholar Program
"Molders of the Gods: the Priestess as Artist in the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria"
Roberts Hall 419, 12:45 PM

February 17
Dr. Paula Girshick, Indiana University
Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Scholar Program
"There Are Three Things in the Palace That Are Threatening": Royal Ritual Symbolism in the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria"
Chan Auditorium
7:30 PM

February 18
Dr. Paula Girshick, Indiana University
Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Scholar Program
viewing and discussion of film "In and Out of Africa"
Union Grove Gallery 12:30

February 19
Dr. Paula Girshick, Indiana University
Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Scholar Program
"National Monuments and the Re-figuration of the Past in Post-Apartheid South Africa"
Chan Auditorium
7:30 PM

Research Talk by Dr. Christine Sears

2009-02-11T22:20:00.003-05:00

On Monday February 16 at 5:30 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423 (the seminar room), Dr. Christine Sears, Assistant Professor of History, will give a talk on her research entitled "'American Livestock:' Masculinity, Slavery and Barbary Pirates."

This event is co-sponsored by the History Club and the Phi Alpha Theta history honorary.

Please come and bring a friend!

Film Showing: Schindler's List, 1:00 p.m. Friday February 13

2009-02-08T20:57:00.006-05:00

You are invited to watch Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List , winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1993, on Friday February 13 at 1:00 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423. This film tells the true story of how German industrialist Oskar Schindler saved the lives of over 1000 Jews from Poland during the Holocaust.

This is the first of four films to be shown in conjunction with Dr. Molly Johnson's course on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Please contact her with any questions at molly.johnson@uah.edu.

Please come and bring a friend!

Iraq and Afghanistan: What the News Leaves Out

2009-01-27T19:55:00.004-05:00

The History Club and Phi Alpha Theta are co-sponsoring a presentation by Dr. James Isbell, lecturer of history, and George Preussel, senior history major, on Monday February 2 at 6:00 p.m. in Roberts Hall 419 (the art history lecture hall).

Dr. Isbell was stationed in Afghanistan in 2007 as a Lieutenant with the Navy Intelligence Unit. George was stationed in Iraq in 2005 as a Marine Staff Sargeant. They will share their experiences with students and answer student questions.

Please come and bring a friend! This promises to be a very interesting discussion!

History Club Movie Night

2009-01-21T21:13:00.003-05:00

On Thursday January 22, the History Club will show the movie "Mongol" at 6:15 p.m. in Roberts Hall 419 (the art history lecture hall).

Please come and bring a friend!

AIA TALK: January 20 City of the Grim Reaper

2009-01-21T21:11:00.002-05:00

Dr. Paul Zimansky received his undergraduate degree in Classics at Johns Hopkins University and then did his PhD at the University of Chicago in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He has taught at UC Berkeley and Boston University before his current position as Professor of Archaeology and Ancient History at SUNY Stony Brook, where his wife and frequent collaborator, Dr. Elizabeth Stone, is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology. Prior to the outbreak of the recent wars in Iraq, Dr. Zimansky participated in and led excavations at Nippur, Bastam, Tell Hamide, and Mashkan-shapir, which will be the site he presents to us. Mashkan-shapir is approximately 100 miles southeast of Baghdad and in its hey day was larger than the famed Sumerian city of Ur. Mashkan-shapir was dedicated to the deity Nergal, the Mesopotamian god of death, and its rulers were rivals of the famed Babylonian king, Hammurabi. Recent satellite and aerial photography reveals that this once thriving city that contained extensive, well-preserved and highly significant archaeological remains has been looted on an industrial scale.

"City of the Grim Reaper: Rediscovery and Demise at Mashkan-shapir, Iraq"
Chan Auditorium, 7:30 PM
Posted by Stephen Waring at 9:01 AM 0 comments

History Club/Phi Alpha Theta Event on Nov. 13: Research Talk by Dr. Sandra Mendiola

2008-11-06T12:02:00.002-05:00

History Club and Phi Alpha Theta invite you to come hear new history professor Dr. Sandra Mendiola give a talk, entitled "Research on the Streets: Vendors and Politics in Puebla, Mexico," on Thursday November 13 at 5:30 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423 (the seminar room). Snacks will be served!

Pictured here is a photograph from Sandra's research.

Please come and bring a friend!

History Club Events for November

2008-10-31T10:49:00.007-05:00

The History Club has several events planned for November.

On election day, November 4, the History Club will host a bake sale in Morton Hall from 9-2. Come and enjoy a baked treat -- and be sure to vote! On Thursday November 6, History Club will show the film Iron-Jawed Angels and serve pizza in Roberts Hall 423 at 6:15 p.m.The film explores Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and the National Woman's Party campaign to gain for women in the United States the right to vote.

Wine and Auction Benefit for the North Alabama Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, Saturday November 15

2008-10-23T23:11:00.007-04:00

The History Department has been a long-standing supporter of the North Alabama Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, which has brought five to six distinguished scholars and archaeologists to UAH to share their research insights every year for the past decade. We are pleased to announce AIA's upcoming Wine Tasting and Silent Auction benefit.

The benefit will be on November 15 at the Lowe House in historic Twickenham. The Lowe House is the elegant home of UAH president David Williams. We will sample fine wines from Spain, Argentina, and Chile with the guidance of sommelier Tami Herrington of Pinnacle Imports who will be talking about the history of these wines and their vineyards as well as describing the character of the individual wines. Archaeologist Dr. Tom Sever will give a brief talk on his current research on the Maya. We have a number of fine items in our auction. Enjoy the company of others interested in archaeology.

For tickets, please contact Lillian Joyce (joycel@uah.edu).

Phi Alpha Theta/History Club Sponsor Lecture by Dr. John Kvach (Thurs. Oct. 16)

2008-10-13T09:11:00.006-04:00

Phi Alpha Theta and the History Club are cooperating to sponsor a talk by new history professor Dr. John Kvach, on "How Old is the New South?: J.D.B. De Bow and the Economic Development of the Nineteenth-Century American South."

The talk will be on Thursday October 16, 2008, at 5:30pm in Roberts Hall 423. Light refreshments will be provided.

Dr. Kvach's dissertation, recently completed at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, explored J. D. B. De Bow, the editor of De Bow’s Review, and the movement toward economic modernization in the antebellum South.

Please come and bring a friend!

History Forum Lecture by Oral Historian Charles T. Morrissey: Wednesday Oct. 22

2008-10-07T17:47:00.003-04:00

The History Department is pleased to announce the upcoming History Forum lecture by Charles T. Morrissey, "Life and Memory in America: Oral History in an Age of Public Amnesia."

Morrissey, a past president of the Oral History Association, began his career in 1962 by interviewing former members of the White House staff during the Truman administration for the Truman Library, and he subsequently directed the John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Project. He has also directed projects for and about the Ford Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Bush Foundation of Minnesota, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and a Washington group, Former Members of Congress. He frequently teaches oral history workshops and has published more than fifty articles about oral history skills and applications.

Morrissey's main lecture will be on Wednesday, October 22, at 7:00 p.m. in Roberts Recital Hall.

Morrissey will give an additional public lecture to the UAHuntsville Honors Forum, "Oral History and the Modern Presidency," on Tuesday October 21 at 11: 10 a.m. in the Frank Franz Hall Multipurpose Room. In addition, he will guest lecture in several classes.

Special thanks to the UAHuntsville Faculty Senate Distinguished Speakers Series, the Honors Program, the Humanities Center, and the Bankhead Foundation for helping the History Department make Morrissey's visit possible.

Please call 256-824-6310 with questions.

AIA Lecture on Mycenaean Coastal Worlds: Thursday October 2

2008-09-29T23:39:00.002-04:00

The North Alabama Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America is featuring Dr. Thomas Tartaron, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, on Thursday, October 2.

Dr. Tartaron’s field work is in Greece where he is currently Co-Director of the Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project. In his talk, Dr. Tartaron will focus on archaeological methods of reconstituting the coastal worlds of the Mycenaeans, using the concept of “coastscapes” within a broad landscape archaeology approach. In the Saronic Gulf region, recent discoveries have made it possible to recreate a Bronze Age Saronic “small world,” populated by small coastal settlements enmeshed in habitual maritime interactions within a political and economic system dominated by Kolonna on the island of Aigina. These interactions were in turn embedded, through the agency of Kolonna, in trade networks in the Aegean Sea and beyond. Dr. Tartaron’s current research in the region of the Saronic coastal village of Korphos in the Corinthia investigates how this small world was transformed by the expansion of the state of Mycenae in the 14th century B.C.

The talk will be held in Chan Auditorium of the Administrative Science Building on the UAH campus at 7:30 PM on Thursday October 2. Please bring a friend!

Second Zotero Workshop Scheduled for Friday October 3

2008-09-29T15:17:00.004-04:00

At popular request, Dr. Sam Thomas will do a second Zotero workshop on Friday, October 3, at 2:00 p.m. in Roberts 423. Be sure to attend and learn how to make the process of researching and writing papers much easier!

Invitations to History Club Zotero Workshop and Movie Night and History Club/Phi Alpha Theta Bake Sale

2008-09-22T12:17:00.007-04:00

The UAHuntsville History Club and the Tau Omega chapter of Phi Alpha Theta have several events scheduled for the coming two weeks.

On Tuesday, September 23, at 12 noon in Roberts Hall 434, the History Club is sponsoring a workshop on Zotero, a wonderful Google application that can help you download, organize, and format bibliographic references. Dr. Sam Thomas's presentation will make the process of compiling bibliographies and writing research papers much easier for you!

On Tuesday, September 30, the History Club and Phi Alpha Theta are consponsoring a Bake Sale as a fundraiser from 9am to 2pm in the lobby of Morton Hall. Come and buy some yummy baked goods!

On Thursday, October 2, the History Club is sponsoring a Movie Night featuring "Amistad" in Roberts Hall 419 from 6pm to 9pm.

Please come to any and all of these events -- and spread the word to others!

AIA TALK September 17: Satellites & Egypt

2008-09-11T21:49:00.001-04:00

Dr. Sarah Parcak has a PhD from Cambridge University. Dr. Parcak is the founding Director of the Laboratory for Global Health Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she also holds a tenure-track position in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Anthropology. Dr. Parcak is an expert in the use of remote sensing satellite images to detect archaeological sites, many of which were previously unknown. According to Dr. Parcak, “only 1/100th of one percent of archaeological sites in Egypt have been discovered. Our entire understanding of Egyptian history is based on these few discoveries. What we have discovered so far is just the tip of the iceberg.” Dr. Parcak has published widely in archaeological journals, and is writing Satellite Archaeology for Routledge. She has received extensive media coverage for her work in satellite archaeology by the Discovery Channel (where she was featured in “Why Ancient Egypt Fell”), The Economist, The Times, Popular Science and internet-based news channels such as LiveScience.

Dr. Parcak will be guest lecturing in the Women in Antiquity seminar on women’s lives at Deir el-Medina, the workers’ village for the Valley of the Kings, final resting place of the New Kingdom Pharoahs. This talk is open to the public.

Her evening talk will be directed toward her research using satellites. With the aid of this technology, she can identify sites in a matter of weeks instead of years. In 2003-2004 she located over 130 new sites dating from the time of the pyramids through the early Christian period.

“Women and Power in Antiquity: A New Kingdom Case Study from Deir el-Medina, Thebes” September 17, 2008 (Wednesday) 2:20 PM Roberts 419, UAH

“Making the Mummies Dance from Space: Using Satellite Imagery to Find Ancient Egypt” September 17, 2008 (Wednesday) 7:30 PM Chan Auditorium, UAH

Archaeology Lectures: Gender in Ancient Egypt

2008-08-15T10:44:00.008-04:00

“Hatshepsut: Women and Power” August 25, 2008 (Monday) 2:20 PM Roberts 419, UAH

“Androgyny and Blurred Boundaries in Ancient Egypt” August 25, 2008 (Monday) 7:30 PM Chan Auditorium, UAH

Dr. Ann Macy Roth is currently the Director of the Giza Cemetery Project and has spent considerable time in Egypt pursuing her research. She teaches as the Clinical Associate Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Art History at New York University. Dr. Macy Roth investigates questions of gender, wealth, and rank evident in cemeteries.

In her daytime lecture, Dr. Macy Roth will discuss the famous female pharaoh Hatshepsut. In her evening talk she will explore how the ancient Egyptians believed that to maintain the universe, they needed to maintain the boundaries between things. Since one of the principal boundaries in their universe was the distinction between male and female, it is curious that there is so much evidence, in both the political and the religious realms, for the blurring of that distinction. Androgyny occurs both in literary sources and in representations in tombs and temples. This talk will present examples of this androgyny and discuss some possible reasons for the blurring of gender boundaries.

Please come and bring a friend! For more information, contact Dr. Lillian Joyce, President of the North Alabama Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, at JoyceL@uah.edu

Classics Week 2008: Dr. Nathan Rosenstein on Roman Military History

2008-03-29T18:38:00.006-04:00

The Society for Ancient Languages and the History Department at UAH are pleased to announce 2008 Classics Week featuring Dr. Nathan Rosenstein, a professor of history at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Rosenstein, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, is a specialist in the history of the Roman Republic and early Empire. He is the author of Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and Late Republic (1990), Rome at War: Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle Republic (2004) and co-editor, along with Kurt Raaflaub, of War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (1999) and, with Robert Morstein-Marx, of A Companion to the Roman Republic.

Dr. Rosenstein will give two public lectures on Friday April 4, 2008, both in Roberts Hall 419 (the art history lecture hall):

12:00 noon: "Phalanges in Rome?"

7:00 p.m.: "War and State Formation: Republican Rome and Warring States in China"

Please come and bring a friend! For more information, contact society.latin@gmail.com

AIA TALKS: King's Handkerchief and Angkor Wat

2008-03-25T21:01:00.000-04:00

Dr. Robert Brown LA County Museum & UCLA will talk on “The King’s Handkerchief: Royal Power at Angkor Wat in Cambodia” on Mar 27, 2008 (Thurs) at 7:30 PM in Shelby Hall, Room 107.

After graduation from the University of New Mexico, Dr. Brown joined the Peace Corps and worked as an English teacher in Thailand from 1966-1968, which furthered his interest in the cultures of Southeast Asia. His two years in the Peace Corps were in turn followed by three years of service in the US Army. After teaching English as a Second Language in the Los Angeles County School system, Professor Brown began his formal study of Southeast Asia art, earning his MA and PhD from UCLA in Indian Art History. Currently, he is both a Full Professor at UCLA and the Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Dr. Brown has received numerous grants, including a Donner Foundation Grant, a Pacific Rim Grant, and a Carpenter Foundation Grant. He is author of The Dvaravati Wheels of the Law and the Indianization of South East Asia and editor of Ganesh: Studies of an Asian God, Living a Life in Accord with Dhamma, Art from Thailand, and The Roots of Tantra.

Dr. Brown's talk on "The King's Handkerchief: Royal Power at Angkor Wat in Cambodia" will describe two stone relief portraits of King Suryavarman II among the stone relief carvings at Angkor Wat. Suryavarman built Angkor Wat in the 12th century, in part as a heaven on earth. Portraits are almost non-existent inSoutheast Asian art before those at Angkor Wat. One shows the King holding two unusual and unique objects. The talk attempts to identify the objects and relate them to his power as king and to the symbolism of the monument.

The next day, Dr. Brown will lecture on “Royal Burials and Buddha Relics” Mar 28, 2008 (Friday) 12:30 PM Shelby, Room 109. Several royal burials were excavated by the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1970s. The contents of these burials, located at Tilya Tepe, are used to argue that the use of relic deposits in Buddhist stupas in Ghandhara, an area that today includes parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, are related to kingly burials. That is, the relics carry as much a royal meaning as a Buddhist one.

Award-Winning Historian Dr. Michael Neufeld to Speak on Wernher von Braun Feb. 26 and Feb. 28

2008-02-17T13:08:00.016-05:00

Dr. Michael Neufeld, Chair of the Space History Division at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution and author of Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (Knopf, 2007), will give two public lectures the last week in February.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 26
"Wernher von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War"
7:30 p.m.
Roberts Recital Hall, UAH
Book signing following the talk

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 28
"Space Hero or Nazi Villain? Wernher von Braun as Cold War Icon"
11:10 a.m.
Frank Franz Hall, UAH
(as part of the UAH Honors Forum)

Dr. Neufeld's biography of von Braun was just chosen as the winner of the 2008 Richard W. Leopold Prize of the Organization of American Historians. The Leopold Prize is given by the Organization of American Historians every two years for the best book written by a historian connected with federal, state or municipal government.

Neufeld's book has been critically acclaimed by the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the L.A. Times Book Review, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times of London. Neufeld also discussed his book on NPR’s Talk of the Nation in October and with the Smithsonian's Air and Space Magazine.

Neufeld is visiting UAH as a Humanities Center Short-Term Eminent Scholar.

Public Lectures on the History of Ghana: Thursday February 21

2008-02-13T11:36:00.010-05:00

The UAH Global Studies Program, in cooperation with the Honors Forum and the History Department, is pleased to announce two upcoming lectures by Dr. Jean Allman, an African history specialist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Her main public lecture, on Thursday, February 21 at 7:30 in the Shelby Center, Room 109, is entitled ““Nuclear Imperialism and the Pan-African Struggle for Peace and Freedom: Ghana, 1959-1962.” The talk will explore Pan-Africanism, African nationalism, and movements for independence through a close focus on the relationship between struggles for the liberation of the continent from colonial rule and pacifist movements in opposition to nuclear armament. The movement against nuclear imperialism that took root in the Pan African freedom struggle not only showcases the “global” and the “transnational” in ways that need to be recovered, but stands as a counter-narrative, a corrective, to the afro-pessimism that has so dominated scholarship on Africa since the 1980s.

Dr. Allman will also give a lecture as part of the UAH Honors Forum. The lecture, at 11:10 a.m. on February 21 in Frank Franz Hall, is entitled "The Disappearing of Hannah Kudjoe: Nationalism, Feminism, and the Tyrannies of History."

Dr. Allman has written The Quills of the Porcupine: Asante Nationalism in an Emergent Ghana, 1954-1957 (1993) and co-written TONGNAAB: The History of a West African God (2005) and "I Will Not Eat Stone": A Women’s History of Colonial Asante (2000). She has also edited several volumes and published over 25 articles. She has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora and for the African Studies Association.

AIA Talk: Early Peoples of Eastern North America

2008-01-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

Dr. David Anderson will discuss “First Peopling to Monumental Architecture in Eastern North America” in Chan Auditorium at 7:30 PM on 4 February 2008. Our first speaker's talk will build upon and possibly challenge the suggestions that Dr. James Adovasio made in his engaging spring 2007 lecture on Paleolithic culture and the peopling of the Americas. For his University of Michigan PhD dissertation, "Political Change in Chiefdom Societies: Cycling in the Late Prehistoric Southeastern United States," Dr. Anderson received national recognition by winning the Society for American Archaeology's (SAA) prestigious Dissertation Prize. The SAA honored Dr. Anderson again in 1997 and 1999 with its Presidential Recognition Award and its Excellence in Cultural Resource Management Research Award. After a fascinating career with the National Park Service, which had Anderson working from the Caribbean to New Mexico to Shiloh, TN, he joined the anthropology faculty at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he has been teaching since 2004. The University of Alabama Press has published four of his last five books. His most recent tome, co-authored with K. Maasch and D. Sandsweiss, explores a timely issue that also had implications for past cultures: Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics: A Global Perspective on Mid-Holocene Transitions.

Mark Your Calendars! Dr. Michael Neufeld to Speak on Wernher von Braun

2008-01-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

The UAH History Department is delighted to announce the upcoming visit of Dr. Michael Neufeld, the chair of the Space History Division at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Neufeld has just published Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (Knopf, 2007), a pathbreaking biography that has been widely praised by the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the L.A. Times Book Review, and the Washington Post. Neufeld also discussed his book on NPR’s Talk of the Nation in October.

Dr. Neufeld will be in Huntsville from February 25 to February 29 as a Humanities Center Short-Term Eminent Scholar. He will give two public lectures, one on "Wernher Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War" on Tuesday February 26 at 7:30 p.m. in Roberts Recital Hall, and a second on "Space Hero or Nazi Villain?: Wernher von Braun as Cold War Icon" as part of the UAH Honors Forum on Thursday February 28 at 11:10 a.m. in Frank Franz Hall. He will also lead discussions with students enrolled in Dr. Dunar's "U.S. Foreign Policy since 1920," Dr. Waring's "Modern America," and Dr. Johnson's "Studies in Modern Europe" classes.

Mark your Calendars!

Archaeology Talk: Desperate Etruscan Housewives

2007-11-01T08:46:00.000-05:00

Did desperate Etruscan housewives cause the collapse of a whole civilization? Did the women's antics provoke a Roman army in 264 BC into leveling the rich Etruscan city of Volsinii (modern Orvieto)? Come find out in a talk by Dr. Jean Turfa of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The AIA talk will be Monday 5 November 2007 at 7:30 PM in Chan Auditorium of the Administrative Science Building on the UAH Campus. The following day, Dr. Turfa will speak on "Love and Death in Etruscan Urns," in the Multi-Purpose Room of Frank Franz Hall at 11:10 AM. Please bring a friend. For more information, call 824-6114.

Films on Communist East Germany (Friday November 16, 2007)

2007-10-30T21:59:00.000-05:00

Please come watch two films on everyday life in communist East Germany on Friday November 16, 2007, in Roberts Hall 423.

The first film, the comedy "Goodbye Lenin," will be shown at 1:00 p.m. It focuses on the efforts of a son to protect his ill mother, a loyal communist, from the knowledge that the East German government has collapsed.

The second film, the drama "The Lives of Others," will be shown at 3:15 p.m. "The Lives of Others" focuses on how the strategies of the East German Secret Police (the "Stasi") affected East German citizens. This film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Both films focus not only on what life was like in East Germany, but also on the collapse of East Germany and the process of German reunification.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Molly Johnson at Molly.Johnson@uah.edu.

Public Lecture: Dr. Francille Rusan Wilson on the History of Black History (Tues., October 23, 2007)

2007-10-16T18:53:00.000-04:00

The History Department and the Office of Multicultural Affairs are pleased to announce the visit of Dr. Francille Rusan Wilson, a specialist in African-American History and Women's History, to UAH.

Dr. Wilson will give a public lecture, “Carter G. Woodson’s Great Cause: The History of the Black History Movement,” on Tuesday, October 23, at 7:30 p.m. in McDonnell Douglas Auditorium in the Material Sciences Building at UAH (the building with the blue tower).

Dr. Wilson earned a B.A. from Wellesley College, M.A.T. from Harvard University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is an Associate Professor of African-American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Southern California.

A Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. Dr. Wilson is an intellectual and labor historian whose current research examines the intersections between black labor movements, black social scientists, and black women's history during the Jim Crow era. She is the author of The Segregated Scholars: Black Social Scientists and the Creation of Black Labor Studies, 1890-1950 (Carter G. Woodson Institute Series in Black Studies) (University of Virginia, 2006). Her current research, a biography of lawyer and economist Sadie T. M. Alexander, explores the impact of racism and sexism on and media representations of black professional women in male professions in the early twentieth century.

Additional sponsors of Dr. Wilson’s visit include UAH Women’s Studies, UAH Continuing Education, the Bankhead Foundation, and the UAH Humanities Center.

Please contact 256-824-6310 with questions.

Society for Ancient Languages Public Reading, Thurs. October 18

2007-10-09T15:25:00.001-04:00

The Society for Ancient Languages at UAH is pleased to announce its upcoming Public Reading, to be held in Union Grove Gallery on Thursday, October 18, at 7:30 p.m. The topic is "Arma et Toga: The Roman Military Machine in War and State," and there will be readings in both Latin and English of writings by Horace, Cicero, and St. Augustine. In addition, Dr. Jerry Mebane, Professor of English, will speak on the concept of a just war. The Public Reading will also include a musical interlude featuring members of the Society.

This event is part of the build-up to Classics Week in Spring Semester 2008, which will feature Dr. Nathan Rosenstein of The Ohio State University, a specialist in the history of the Roman military.

AIA Talk: Ancient Greek Astronomy (22 October)

2007-10-09T09:51:00.000-04:00

Dr. James Evans of the Physics Department of the University of Puget Sound will give a talk to the North Alabama Chapter of the AIA on "The Material Culture of Ancient Greek Astronomy." The talk will be 22 October at 7:30 PM in Chan Auditorium. He is associate editor of the Journal for the History of Astronomy and the author of The Theory and Practice of Ancient Astronomy (Oxford University Press, 1998) which covers the field from Babylon to the Scientific Revolution. Please come and bring a friend.

Roman Women at Iberian Villa (Wednesday 26 September)

2007-09-19T10:21:00.000-04:00

The North Alabama Society of the Archaeological Institute of America is delighted to host its first public lecture of the fall. Dr. Maia Langley, of the Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal and scientific director of the Interpretation Center of Torre de Palma, will talk on "Placing Roman Women: Life, Luxury and Longevity at an Iberian Villa." The event will be in Chan Auditorium in the Administrative Science Building on the UAH campus at 7:30 PM on Wednesday 26 September. Please come and bring a friend.

Film Showing: "Downfall" (Friday April 20)

2007-04-15T23:37:00.000-04:00

"Downfall" ("Der Untergang"), the final film related to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust to be shown this semester, will be featured Friday, April 20, 2007, at 2:30 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423. "Downfall" focuses on the final days of Hitler and his inner circle in 1945. The screenplay was informed by the writings of academic historians, by Albert Speer's diaries, and by the memoir of Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge. "Downfall" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Molly Johnson at 824-2566 or johnsomw@uah.edu.

Film Viewing: "The Pianist" (Friday April 6)

2007-04-01T22:09:00.000-04:00

Please come watch "The Pianist" on Friday April 6 at 2:30 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423 (the seminar room). The film depicts how celebrated Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman survived the Holocaust. "The Pianist," directed by Roman Polanski, won Oscars for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay in 2002. Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Oscar for his work portraying Szpilman. If you have any questions, contact Dr. Molly Johnson at johnsomw@uah.edu or 256-824-2566.

AIA Talk: "Early Human Populations in the New World: A Biased Perspective"

2007-03-16T00:08:00.001-04:00

In the news recently you have probably heard or read about the re-dating of Clovis sites, traditionally thought to be the earliest evidence of human habitation in the New World. Dr. James Adovasio, an expert in the archaeology of early humans, has published on the so-called “Venus” figurines of the Old World as well as on settlement in the Americas. He published his controversial views on the occupation of the North America in his book The First Americans. Professor Adovasio is currently Dean of the Zurn School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania. He is also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution and the Carnegie Museum and serves as an Expert Witness on Federal Government Archaeological Resources Protection Act. Adovasio shared his views on PBS’s acclaimed program NOVA in the 2004 episode on America’s Stone Age Explorers. He will be speaking on Tuesday 27 March at 7:30 PM in McDonnell Douglas Auditorium in the Material Science Building on the UAH campus.

2007 Classics Week: Dr. Erich Gruen to Speak on the Roman Republic

2007-03-13T19:04:00.000-04:00

Dr. Erich Gruen, professor of classics at the University of California at Berkeley, is the guest at the 2007 Classics Week, sponsored by the Society for Ancient Languages. On Friday March 30, Dr. Gruen will give two public lectures in Roberts Hall 419, one on "Cleopatra in Rome: Facts and Fantasies" at 12:00 noon, and one on "Rome and the Myth of Alexander the Great," at 7:00 p.m. Both lectures are free and open to the public. If you have any questions, please contact the History Department at 256-824-6310.

Dr. Gilbert C. Din to Speak on "Before the Louisiana Purchase"

2007-03-13T18:54:00.000-04:00

The History Department is pleased to announce that Dr. Gilbert C. Din, Visiting Eminent Scholar in History, will give a public lecture on "Before the Louisiana Purchase: The Limitations of the Three Empires in the Mississippi Valley," on Thursday March 29 at 7:00 p.m. in Roberts Hall 419. Dr. Din is a professor emeritus from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and the author of several books on colonial Louisiana. For more information, please contact the history department at 256-824-6310.

Upcoming Film: "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days"

2007-03-02T16:24:00.000-05:00

On several upcoming Friday afternoons, the department is showing films in conjunction with Dr. Molly Johnson's course on "Nazi Germany and the Holocaust." The next film will be "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days," a German production nominated for an Academy Award as the Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. Sophie Scholl was a co-founder of "White Rose," a student group at the University of Munich that opposed the Nazi regime.

Please come watch the film on Friday, March 9, at 2:30 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423. If you have questions, call 824-2566 or email johnsomw@uah.edu.

Archaeology Lecture on Constantine's Conversion

2007-02-10T16:34:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, February 20, the
North Alabama Societyof the Archaeological Institute of America is bringing Dr. Ken Harl of Tulane University to UAH. Dr. Harl will give a lecture entitled "Make Haste Slowly: Constantine, His Coinage, and the Conversion" at 7:30 p.m. in Chan Auditorium in the Administrative Sciences Building. Check out Dr. Lillian Joyce, President of the North Alabama Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, with Constantine's foot!

Travel to Rome with the History Club!

2007-02-10T16:32:00.000-05:00

Please join the History Club for public viewings of HBO's Rome on Thursday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423.

Visiting Scholar to Speak on Athletics in Fascist Italy

2007-01-12T15:45:00.000-05:00

The History Department, together with the North Alabama Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, is pleased to announce the upcoming visit of Dr. G. Vincent Arnold of Concordia College to UAH. Dr. Arnold will give a lecture entitled "Athletics, Architecture, and Authority in Fascist Italy" at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, February 5, in McDonnell Douglas Hall.

Dr. Arnold will also speak on "Archival Research and Fascism: A Scholar's Journey Through the Nine Circles of Hell" to students enrolled in Dr. Molly Johnson's seminar on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. This lecture will be on Tuesday, February 6 at 3:55 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423.