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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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