Our Spring 2008 Department Newsletter has hit the printers and the postal service. But you can also find it here:
http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/history/pdfs/hstdeptnewsletter08.pdf
Events and Announcements
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Speaker: 2008 Graduate History Colloquium Keynote Address
“Fortuyn (killed), Van Gogh (killed) and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (banished): Driving out The Unholy Trinity from the Netherlands”
By Dr. Henri Beunders, Professor of the History of Society, Media, and Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam
April 3, 2008 in the Park Library Auditorium at 3:00pm
April 3, 2008 in the Park Library Auditorium at 3:00pm
Professor Beunders, a renowned expert in the history of media and society, having worked as a journalist and foreign desk editor with the Dutch newspapers Haagsche Courant and NRC Handelsblad that involved extensive travels throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Africa, will speak on the matter of Islam in contemporary Europe, looking at how countries like the Netherlands are dealing with the problems and tensions that have arisen from this new social and cultural dynamic. There will be a reception afterwards in the Baber Room of Park Library that is free and open to the public.
(Sponsored by the Department of History and the Center for Transnational and Comparative History)
Friday, March 14, 2008
Fall 2008 Course Spotlight: "London, the Seminar"
HST 496: Research Seminar/HST 744: Seminar in Nineteenth Century European History
"London, the Seminar: From the Great Fire of 1666 to the Present"
Professor James Schmiechen
Tuesdays, 7:00-9:50pm
In its heyday of the 19th century, London was not only the capital of Britain, but also the world’s largest city, the financial and cultural capital of the world, and the center of the world’s largest empire. This seminar looks at how the physical makeup of the city—including the character of its people, its spatial layout, architecture, housing, and services infrastructure—was shaped and reshaped by industrialization, new cultural/political values, population growth, and war. It is also an attempt to discover how and why “London” was a hotbed for great invention and creativity and architectural wonder.
Each student in the seminar will participate in collective reading/discussion and take on a specific research sub-topic—anything from street entertainment and food/housing for the lower classes to the building of great concert halls, new Houses of Parliament, the role of the monarchy in the history of the city, and the rebuilding of London following the Great Fire of 1666, the onset of industrialization, and the bombing ‘Blitz’ of World War Two.
For each student the outcome of the seminar will be a seminar paper. Course assessment will include, as well, seminar discussion participation and analysis of select readings.
"London, the Seminar: From the Great Fire of 1666 to the Present"
Professor James Schmiechen
Tuesdays, 7:00-9:50pm
In its heyday of the 19th century, London was not only the capital of Britain, but also the world’s largest city, the financial and cultural capital of the world, and the center of the world’s largest empire. This seminar looks at how the physical makeup of the city—including the character of its people, its spatial layout, architecture, housing, and services infrastructure—was shaped and reshaped by industrialization, new cultural/political values, population growth, and war. It is also an attempt to discover how and why “London” was a hotbed for great invention and creativity and architectural wonder.
Each student in the seminar will participate in collective reading/discussion and take on a specific research sub-topic—anything from street entertainment and food/housing for the lower classes to the building of great concert halls, new Houses of Parliament, the role of the monarchy in the history of the city, and the rebuilding of London following the Great Fire of 1666, the onset of industrialization, and the bombing ‘Blitz’ of World War Two.
For each student the outcome of the seminar will be a seminar paper. Course assessment will include, as well, seminar discussion participation and analysis of select readings.
Fall 2008 Course Spotlight: "Ethiopia and the Horn"
HST 597L Special Studies
"Ethiopia and the Horn
(Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti)"
Professor Solomon Getahun
Mondays, 6:30-9:30pm
This course explores the sub-region in light of the history of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the oldest nations and a country that has never been colonized. It is also one of earliest and oldest Christian nations which also became one of the first to accept Islam. Such oddities coupled with maritime trade, migration and wars made the country in particular and the Horn of Africa in general a melting pot as well as a center of competing ideologies and nationalisms.
Throughout the semester, we will study the evolution and development of the Ethiopian state since the earliest times to the present. While doing so, we will critically examine the role of competing interests such as the rise of Europe (Portugal and Spain) and the Ottoman challenge of the 16th century and its impact on political developments in the Horn of Africa, the legacies of colonialism, Cold War politics, globalization and the rise of ethno-nationalism, and religious fundamentalism in the making and unmaking of the states in the Horn of Africa.
"Ethiopia and the Horn
(Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti)"
Professor Solomon Getahun
Mondays, 6:30-9:30pm
This course explores the sub-region in light of the history of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the oldest nations and a country that has never been colonized. It is also one of earliest and oldest Christian nations which also became one of the first to accept Islam. Such oddities coupled with maritime trade, migration and wars made the country in particular and the Horn of Africa in general a melting pot as well as a center of competing ideologies and nationalisms.
Throughout the semester, we will study the evolution and development of the Ethiopian state since the earliest times to the present. While doing so, we will critically examine the role of competing interests such as the rise of Europe (Portugal and Spain) and the Ottoman challenge of the 16th century and its impact on political developments in the Horn of Africa, the legacies of colonialism, Cold War politics, globalization and the rise of ethno-nationalism, and religious fundamentalism in the making and unmaking of the states in the Horn of Africa.