AIA Talk: Underwater Maya 1 March 2012

Dr. Heather McKillop, the Doris Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Studies at Louisiana State University will give two talks on underwater archaeology of Maya sites in Belize.  Dr. McKillop is author of several books, including The Ancient Maya:  New Perspectives and In Search of Maya Sea Traders. 

In her midday talk she observes that since wood normally decays in the tropical landscape of the Maya area, the stunning preservation of wooden posts and artifacts in a peat bog below the seafloor in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, provides new information about Classic Maya buildings and life-ways. Dr. McKillop established the Digital Imaging and Visualization in Archaeology (DIVA) Lab at Louisiana State University. In the spring of 2011 her team set up a remote lab in their jungle field camp in Belize, where they did 3D scans of artifacts and returned them for storage at the underwater sites. In this presentation, she highlights use of a 3D laser scanner and 3D printer. She notes that digital images are critical to preserving a record of deteriorating artifacts, and digital images and 3D prints that create plastic replicas of the artifact, are also important for teaching, displays, study, and an effort for the local people to protect the underwater Maya sites by investing in them through tourism.

Describing the topic of her evening talk, Dr. McKillop relates, “While walking in a shallow lagoon in southern Belize in search of 'briquetage'—broken pots used to boil brine over fires to make salt—we made an accidental discovery that has transformed our knowledge of the ancient Maya. We found wooden posts and artifacts—including the only reported ancient Maya canoe paddle—perfectly preserved in a peat bog below the sea floor...In this presentation, I summarize the discovery and mapping of some 4000 wooden posts between 2005 and 2009, as well as the ongoing field research excavating 'Ancient Maya Wooden Architecture and the Salt Industry.'”

What: “Underwater Maya: 3D Digital Imaging and Site Preservation”

When:  March 1 (Thursday) 2012

Where:  12:45 p.m. Wilson Hall 168, UAHuntsville

What:  “Underwater Maya: Discovery, Mapping and Excavating in a Peat Bog Below the Sea Floor, Belize”

When:  7:30 p.m. March 1 (Thursday) 2012

Where:  Wilson Hall Theatre, UAHuntsville

Please come and bring a friend!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!