Department of History and American Studies

The applications for the 2011-2012 National Security Education Program’s
David L. Boren Scholarships for undergraduate students and Fellowships
for graduate students are now available at www.borenawards.org
<http://www.borenawards.org/>. Boren Awards provide unique funding
opportunities for U.S. students to study in Africa, Asia, Central &
Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East, where they
can add important international and language components to their educations.

Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 for an academic year’s study
abroad. Boren Fellowships provide up to $30,000 for language study and
international research. The application deadline for the Boren
Fellowship is February 1, and the deadline for the Boren Scholarship is
February 10.

Please contact the Boren Awards staff at boren@iie.org
<mailto:boren@iie.org> or 1-800-618-NSEP with any questions.

The Montpelier Foundation Development Department is looking for a volunteer student intern to assist in a variety of assignments including prospect research, direct mailings, special events, Raiser’s Edge database maintenance and other tasks as needed. Interns can gain valuable experience in fundraising and special events in a professional development office that supports the operations and educational programs of the home of James and Dolley Madison, including active archaeology programs, curatorial efforts to furnish the mansion and constitutional studies programs at the Center for the Constitution.  Hours are flexible Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Montpelier Foundation’s primary mission is to present the lasting legacy of James Madison as Father of the U.S. Constitution, architect of the Bill of Rights, and fourth president of the United States. To accomplish this task, the Foundation is developing Montpelier as a place to learn about Madison’s legacy and his vision of a constitutional government that is upheld by engaged citizens.

For more information, please contact Brittany Asher (basher@montpelier.org).

Anyone considering doing HIST/AMST 485 this year should come to a meeting on Tuesday, August 24, from 5 to 6 pm in ANXA 114. If you are doing 485 in the fall of this year, this is a mandatory meeting.

Contact Dr. McClurken with any questions.

Mount Vernon Archaeology seeks to hire the position of Assistant Archaeologist.  This is a fulltime, permanent position with benefits.  The successful candidate will work in conjunction with the Director of Archaeology to oversee the ongoing archaeological program at George and Martha Washington’s plantation.

The position will oversee and implement all phases of archaeological research including planning field and laboratory strategies, writing reports, directing staff, volunteers, and interns, interpreting archaeology to the public, participating in public programs, and developing exhibits.  The successful candidate will also be encouraged to publish and present the findings of projects in professional publications and conferences as well as to community groups and organizations and through the internet.

The successful candidate must possess excellent skills in the excavation of historic sites (a minimum of three years field experience) and significant experience with material culture analysis of the historic period in the mid-Atlantic.  The candidate should also have experience supervising archaeological field and lab work and possess strong communication, organizational, and computer skills.  GIS experience is strongly preferred.  An M.A. in anthropology, archaeology, or related discipline is preferred but individuals finishing graduate coursework will be considered.  Individuals with a research interest in landscape archaeology, plantation communities, and 18th-century material culture are especially encouraged to apply.

Mount Vernon offers a compensation package that includes competitive pay, medical coverage, retirement plan, and paid vacation, sick, and holiday leave.  The salary will be commensurate with the applicant’s credentials and experience.

How to apply:

Applications may be submitted via email to Esther White, Director of Archaeology ( ewhite at mountvernon.org), and should include a letter of interest, a resume or curriculum vitae of relevant experience, and names and contact information for three references.  Initial screening of applications will begin September 1 and continue until the position is filled.

After a two-year hiatus the Virginia Indian Festival is returning to Riverbend Park on Saturday, September 11, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The festival will be held rain or shine and will feature members from eight tribes native to Virginia – Chickahominy Tribe, Monacan Nation, Upper Mattaponi Tribe, Rappahannock Tribe, Pamunkey Tribe, Mattaponi, and Tauxenent who will share their culture, history and traditions with park visitors. The day will be filled with hands-on activities appropriate for the entire family.

Let yourself be transported to an earlier time while you move to the rhythmic drumming of the Rappahannock tribal dancers. Use hot coals and chopping tools to help build a dug-out canoe from a massive log. Learn to make arrowheads and other stone tools from expert toolmakers. Take aim and hit the mark with an arrow loosed from a bow on the archery range. Try to master the skill of throwing spears using an atlatl. Watch as animal hides are tanned. Walk among authentic totem poles. See historic and genuine clothing and tools.

Admission is $5 for guests ages three and older. Food, jewelry, pottery, musical instruments and other American Indian crafts will be available for purchase.

Visitors may also delve into the park’s new exhibit, Riverbend Park: A Rare and Rugged Refuge, which explores the creation of the Potomac Gorge and the lives of the native people who first inhabited the area – and still do. The exhibit is on display in the Visitor Center year round.

From the Montpelier website

Research Assistant—Documents

The Research Assistant will work as a member of the Curatorial Department, with emphasis on conducting research and analyzing the correspondence of James and Dolley Madison and their contemporaries, with an emphasis on identifying furnishings and decorative arts elements. The position is grant funded for 12-18 months and is contingent upon receipt of grant funding. Benefits package is available.

We are seeking a highly motivated individual who brings a background in American history with a general knowledge of 18th- and 19th-century decorative arts to the position. The successful candidate will have research skills and experience doing research in archives, courthouses and other repositories. Applicant must have strong communication and writing skills. Experience with computer databases is preferred.

BA required in history, art history, anthropology, classics, museum studies, American Studies, or related research field. Must be able to maintain accurate records; excellent visual recall, and the ability to make connections between disparate data, have good organizational skills and attention to detail.

Send resume and cover letter to: Megan Brett, Research Database & Records Manager, mbrett@montpelier.org. The deadline for the receipt of applications is August 6, 2010 at 5 p.m.

Margaret Greene, UMW History alum (’06), has won a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship. Currently a third-year doctoral student in Modern Chinese History at the University of California, San Diego, she is pursuing a dissertation entitled “The Sound of Ghosts: Chuanqi, Kun Opera, and the Staging of a New China.”

Her project focuses on the elite form of kun opera, particularly its celebrated genre of supernatural tales, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.  In contrast to the traditional narrative, which states that kun opera was on a steady decline from the later years of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) until the 1990s, her preliminary research has shown a flowering of kun opera in the 1950s and early 1960s – thanks in no small part to state efforts to preserve China’s illustrious artistic past (including ghosts!).  Margaret’s work explores the interaction between state policy and artistic production, and how politicians, dramatists, and performers attempted to create artistic forms for a “new China” that were at once appropriately socialist and thoroughly Chinese in character.

Margaret will leave this fall for a year’s research in Shanghai, China, where she will be affiliated with East China Normal University (ECNU).

This would be a great job for one of our graduates, especially if you’ve certified to teach.   The following is from the CHNM website.

The George Mason University, Center for History & New Media (CHNM) within the Department of History and Art History is hiring a full-time Outreach Manager for the National History Education Clearinghouse (http://teachinghistory.org).

Responsibilities include working with K-12 history/social studies teachers nationally, coordinating outreach activities and materials, and project management. B.A. by August 2010, or an equivalent combination of training and experience, is required; M.A. degree in history and K-12 teaching experience are preferred. This is an exciting opportunity that is particularly appropriate for someone with a combined interest in education and history. The successful candidate will be an energetic, well-organized person who takes initiative, works well in a team, and is comfortable performing a variety of tasks.

For full consideration, apply online at http://jobs.gmu.edu for position number 10403z. Please include a cover letter, resume or CV, and list of three professional references.

CHNM will start looking at applications by July 15, 2010.

Marissa S. Allison, a History and Middle Eastern Studies graduate (2010) of the University of Mary Washington, has won a Critical Language Scholarship from the United States Department of State. With this prestigious award, she will travel to Muscat, Oman for a 9 weeks of intensive study of the Arabic language.

As noted in UMW’s own announcement of the award, Marissa completed study abroad programs in Costa Rica, Jordan, and Egypt while a Mary Washington student. She also has gained experience as an Arabic media research intern with the global intelligence network Stirling-Assynt, as a research intern at the Palestine-Israel Journal in Jerusalem, and through a Baghdad Embassy virtual internship. In addition to being named to the Dean’s List and receiving honors with the Virginia Social Sciences Association for an undergraduate paper and student presentation (based on her senior thesis, written with Dr. Al-Tikriti, on the 1979 Siege of Mecca), Marissa is a magna cum laude graduate of UMW.

Conference CALL FOR PAPERS: Health/Care/Nation
Sponsored by the Canadian Association for American Studies and the University of Windsor

14-17 October 2010 http://uwindsor.ca/caas2010

Keynote Speakers:

Gerard Boychuk, Director of the Global Governance Graduate Program at Balsillie School of International Affairs and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo

Donna Smith, journalist and activist, California Nurses’ Association/National Nurses United

During 2009 fears of “death panels” clashed with calls for universal coverage, as President Barack Obama encountered an increasingly heated debate about health-care reform. In this moment the very definitions of the terms health and care and their relations to concepts of the nation are taking on new significance in American political and cultural life. For some vocal Americans, the deeply held values of self-reliance and suspicion of government control are bound up with the “system” (be it the health-care system, or more general national, economic, social, and/or cultural systems), while at the same time a majority wants the government to guarantee health insurance for all in a Medicare-like program. A different provision for health-care invokes various and contradictory national and personal self-definitions and political battles. Body scanning, pandemic planning, the criminalization of abortion, and the proposal that all citizens must have health insurance are just a few examples of sites where these new definitions and struggles are engaged. What becomes apparent, then, are the complicated layers and contradictions in political and cultural debates. This conference, sponsored by the Canadian Association for American Studies and the University of Windsor, aims to explore the topics of U.S. health, care, and nation, together or separately, in order to illuminate and clarify the cultural contradictions and historical, cultural, and philosophical roots of these issues. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary panels that address the questions from different intellectual angles–history, literature, film and media studies, gender and sexuality studies, political science, sociology, philosophy, or the arts. Topics could include, but are not limited to:

The American political system and the problem of health care reform
Representations of health (widely defined)
Representations of health-care
Representations of disability
Biopolitics, surveillance, and/or socialist medicine
The philosophy and/or history of American “health”
The history of earlier American proposals for national health insurance
Health and gender
The philosophy and/or history of stem cell research
The philosophy and/or history of abortion and women’s medicine
Feminist health care activism
“Caring” and the nation
Nationalism vs. nationalizing
The American body politic
The business of selling health
Pandemics and other fears
The Hollywood Image: Anorexia/Obesity/Plastic
Race and health

This is only a partial list–topics from all areas of American Studies will be considered. We invite panel or individual proposals from faculty and independent scholars and particularly welcome graduate student proposals. A brief CV for each participant and an abstract of 250 words or less for each paper, with an additional paragraph of 200 words to describe panels, should be sent electronically by 31 May 2010 to:

Christina Simmons, CAAS Conference Committee
Department of History
University of Windsor
401 Sunset Ave.
Windsor, ON N9B 3P4
 caas at uwindsor.ca