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

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

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

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.