at the University of Mary Washington
On November 1, The Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Career Services, and the Office of Community Service invite you to learn about the volunteer and internship opportunities (both undergrad and postgrad) available in our community and in the DC area for those interested in working with women and women’s issues. See below for time and date.
Working with Women in our Community and Beyond
7 pm, November 1st
Lee Hall 412
On this coming Wednesday, October 26th, Dr. Michelle Newton-Francis will share her research and lead a discussion on ”Not Winging it at Hooters: Conventions for Producing a Cultural Object of Sexual Fantasy.” Dr. Newton-Francis is an assistant professor of Sociology at American University.
Date / time: Wednesday, 10/26, 12-1 pm
Location: Lee Hall 414
This talk is sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
If you are interested in going to law school and pursuing careers in law, be sure to attend one or both of the following sessions:
November 10, 2011
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Red Room-Woodard Campus Center
Info Session: William and Mary Law School
Description:
Join an admissions representative and a current student (also a UMW alumnus!) from The College of William and Mary-Marshall Wythe School of Law for an information session in the Red Room. They will be giving information about the program as well as answering questions. Sponsored by Career Services, this event is open to all students interested in law school. Registration not required. More information on Employ·An·Eagle.
November 10, 2011
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Lee Hall 411
Event Name: Legal Eagle Alumni Career Panel
Description:
Join several UMW alumni who have pursued legal careers after graduation at this career panel. Lawyers, a corporate VP, a policy maker, a current law school student, and more will be telling their stories and answering questions about their UMW experiences, law school preparation, life after law school and their career path. Sponsored by Career Services and Alumni Relations, this event is open to all students interested in law school. Registration not required. More information on Employ·An·Eagle.
Dr. Bruce O’Brien’s latest book, Reversing Babel: Translation Among the English During an Age of Conquests, c. 800 to c. 1200, has recently been published by the University of Delaware Press.
As noted by its publisher, this study starts with a small puzzle–why did Normans translate English law, the law of the people they had conquered, from Old English into Latin? Solving this puzzle meant asking questions about what medieval writers thought about language and translation, what created the need and desire to translate, and how translators went about the work. These are the questions Reversing Babel attempts to answer by providing evidence that comes from the world in which those who lived in England did their translating–not just Norman translators of law but any translator of any text, regardless of languages or genres. Reversing Babel reaches back from 1066 to the translation work done in an earlier conquest-a handful of important works translated in the ninth century in response to the alleged devastating effect of the viking invasions–and carries on to the wave of Anglo-French translations created in the late twelfth century when England was a part of a large empire, ruled by a king from Anjou who held power not only in western France from Normandy in the north to the Pyrenees in the south, but also in Ireland, Scotland, Wales. In this longer and wider view, the significance of political events on translation is more easily weighed in relationship to other influences. Ideas about language and translation formed the foundation for literary translators, ideas that came principally from biblical translators like Jerome and from classical Latin grammarians. These, along with poetic traditions and habits of translation, were engaged by the contact situations created in England between speakers and readers of different languages by a series of conquests and settlements that mark this as the most politically unstable period in English history. The variety of medieval translation among the English, and among those translators working in the greater empires of Cnut, the Normans, and the Angevins, is remarkable. Reversing Babel does not try to describe all of it; rather, it charts a course through the evidence and tries to answer the fundamental questions medieval historians should ask when their sources are medieval translations.
The faculty teaching the “James Farmer and the Struggle for Civil Rights” First-Year Seminar are pleased to announce a public lecture that is part of the course.
“Sights of Struggle: Race, Art, Pedagogy”
A lecture by Dr. Leigh Raiford
Thursday, October 20, 2011, 7:00pm
411 Lee Hall
Dr. Leigh Raiford is Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare: Photography and the African American Freedom Struggle (University of North Carolina Press, 2011) and co-editor with Renee Romano of The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory (University of Georgia Press, 2006).
Dr. Raiford’s visit to UMW is sponsored by the James Farmer Lecturer and Postdoctoral Committee.
The Department of History and American Studies will be offering several new or significantly revised courses for the coming Spring 2012 semester. See below for full descriptions.
AMST 202 –Sophomore American Studies Seminar: Identity & Citizenship in the Digital Age (M. Burtis)
Not just for sophomores and not just for AMST majors, this class is an exploration of how digital technologies and networked culture are influencing our sense of self and community, from the crafting and presentation of personal identity, to the empowerment of individual voices to create and effect change, to the building of communal narratives and spaces in an increasingly global and networked society.
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HIST 300N — Native American History (J. Sellers)
This class will consider Native American experiences from the pre-contact era to the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. Beginning with a consideration of the diverse cultures and societies inhabiting North America prior to contact with Europeans, the course will then consider how native peoples incorporated European newcomers into their physical and intellectual worlds. Proceeding through the colonial era and the nineteenth century, we will continue to explore the unique dynamics and experiences of Indian country, as well as Native Americans’ responses to the growth of European colonies and later the United States. Throughout the course we will address methodologies for studying Native American history.
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HIST 300M — History of Manhood in the United States (W. Mackintosh)
A course on the history of manhood has a deceptively simple title. The topic seems self-evident, and the choice of subjects unoriginal; after all, hasn’t most history been taught as the history of men? But underneath this surface obviousness lies a set of complex questions: how have men lived in history as men? In other words, how has men’s experience of gender structured their lives and shaped they ways in which they exercised (or were subjected to) power, and how has this experience of masculinity changed over time? These questions owe a fundamental debt to women’s history, whose practitioners have persuasively demonstrated that gender is “a useful category of historical analysis,” and thus this course builds on the trailblazing work of women’s historians by applying gender analysis to men. A course on the history of manhood is also necessarily a course on the history of those against whom dominant men have defined themselves, including women, boys, queers, and racial and class “others.” History of Manhood in the United States will trace the changes and continuities in these conflicting masculinities from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries.
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HIST 300P–Modern Indonesian History: The Making Of A Nation (W. Redfern)
This course will provide an overview of modern Indonesian history, examining how Indonesia came to be what is today: the fourth most populous nation and the largest Muslim nation in the world, one of the largest democracies in the world, and one of the most diverse countries in the world in terms of cultures and ethnicities. Focusing in particular on the formation of the nation and the state and their continuing evolution, the course explores the Dutch colonial era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, followed by World War II and the Indonesian Revolution, and then the establishment of independent Indonesia and its continuing development, including Sukarno’s Indonesia, the New Order era, and Indonesia today. Major conceptual topics include colonialism, decolonization and nationhood, authoritarianism and democracy, and economic growth and development. Class sessions will be a blend of lecture, discussion and audio-visual presentation. The course does not assume any prior knowledge of Indonesia.
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HIST 471C3 – Adventures in Digital History – (J. McClurken)
This seminar will focus on the process of creating digital history. The course readings, workshops, and discussions will be aimed at exposing students to the philosophy and practice of the emerging field of History and New Media. The course will be centered on the creation of four digital history projects, all of which are related to making local resources available online. These projects are likely to include the creation of a digital exhibit on original political cartoons located at the James Monroe Museum, the building of a digital project on James Farmer; researching and presenting on the buildings on campus and the people for whom they are named, and either reworking and expanding a site on historical markers OR working on the history of local African American education.
Why take this class? You’ll build technological proficiencies and creative skills that will help you in other courses and in the post-college world. You’ll participate in creative workshops constructing the newest form of history, honing your research and writing ability as you present materials in new forms, new technologies, and new venues. You’ll also have a chance to work with faculty and staff from multiple academic departments, the James Monroe Museum, and the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies.
No digital creation skills are necessary, just an open mind, a willingness to learn, and a desire to analyze, create, and present historical content in new and creative ways.
Any questions? Contact me at jmcclurk@umw.edu or @jmcclurken on Twitter or check out the previous iterations of this class athttp://digitalhistory.umwblogs.org/ and http://dh2010.umwblogs.org
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HIST 471D9 — History of Multiculturalism in the United States (M. Johnson)
This course will examine the evolution of the idea of multiculturalism in the United States. Students will investigate the intellectual origins of multiculturalism and the political battles over its meaning and value.
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HIST 471E1 — Sufi Movements and Orders (N. Al-Tikriti)
This seminar examines the history and evolution of Sufi movements and orders as a social trend in Islamic societies. Starting with the earliest expressions of individual mystical piety in early Islam, the course explores the growth, articulation, and politicization of Sufi saints and orders from the medieval to the modern. Ranging chronologically from the 7th century to the 21st century C.E., geographically from North Africa to South Asia, and thematically from philosophy to theology to revolutionary politics, this course provides a comprehensive view of Islamic civilization through the lens of Sufism. Structured as a seminar discussion course, each class will combine discussion of common readings and individual presentation assignments. Students will be required to complete an oral presentation and a seminar paper.
Dr. Will Mackintosh has a new research article, “‘Ticketed Through’: The Commodification of Travel in the Nineteenth Century,” that will soon be published by The Journal of the Early Republic. It is due to appear in their Spring 2012 edition.
In addition to his work on this study, Dr. Mackintosh presented a paper entitled “Constructing Negative Tourist Archetypes in American Satire, 1800-1860” at the “Travel in the 19th Century: Narratives, Histories and Collections Conference” at the University of Lincoln. He has also composed the official entry on “Leisure” for the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History.
- Does the big research project due this semester seem too daunting?
- Do you know what you want to say but have a difficult time getting started?
- Does the writing project feel like it is in too many pieces and you will never get it put together properly?
Come and hear Charles Shields, New York Times best selling author and biographer speak on how to manage such big projects all while making them effective.
WHEN: Tuesday, October 11th, 10:00 AM
WHERE: UMW Fredericksburg campus, Lee Hall, Rm. 412
WHO: Open to all UMW students, faculty, staff, and to the public. (Free)
Author of the best-selling biography, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee and author of the forthcoming book And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life, Charles Shields will be providing a series of talks followed by a Question and Answer session on the aspects of writing.
Shields is also the Associate Director of the University’s Great Lives public lecture series. Shields was a crowd favorite earlier this year as he spoke about the life of Harper Lee.
Sponsored by the UMW Writing Centers.
