Olivia DrakeWesleyan University received a grant worth $177,918 from the U.S. Department of Education to help establish a Middle Eastern Studies Certificate Program at Wesleyan. The grant will be applied over two years. Bruce Masters, the John E. Andrus Professor of History, says he and other interested faculty will propose to the Educational Policy Committee an interdisciplinary cluster of courses that will allow interested students to graduate with a certificate in Middle Eastern Studies, in addition to their departmental/program major. The grant, along with a commitment from Academic Affairs, is supporting a long-term contract adjunct instructor in Arabic language.
Claire Potter, professor of history, chair and professor of American studies, director of the Center for the Americas, is featured in a June 24 Inside Higher Ed article titled "Fifty Years After Stonewall." Police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwhich Village in June 1969 and drag queens fought back. In the article, Potter says the GLBTQ liberation "is unfinished and becoming more complex as the research emerges that takes us on beyond Stonewall. What I would like for transgender studies in 10 years is what is happening already in gay and lesbian history: placing the emergence of identities and the emergence of liberation…
A book review by Kirk Swinehart, assistant professor of history, was published in the June 27 edition of The Chicago Tribune. Swinehart writes about the novel, Tall Man, written by Australian author Chloe Hooper. According to the review, Hooper has written an account of life and death on Australian's Palm Island "as fast paced as it is horrific. Australians long ago consigned Palm Island to the bin of places best forgotten. And there it stayed until November 2004, when a 36-year-old Aboriginal man named Cameron Doomadgee died in police custody. Overnight, Palm Island became the epicenter of a wrenching national…
During his 82-years of life, author and historian William Manchester made himself known for his writings on Winston Churchill, President John F. Kennedy, Douglas MacArthur, among other great figures. On Feb. 5, the Friends of the Wesleyan Library will sponsor an event honoring and celebrating Manchester, a writer in residence at Wesleyan whose ties to the university date back to 1955. Manchester died at his home in Middletown, Conn. in June 2004. "There are so many people on campus who still remember Manchester," says Leith Johnson, project archivist for Wesleyan's William Manchester Papers. "Almost all of his books made it…
Q: Brian, in addition to being the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy and tutor in the College of Social Studies, you are the executive editor of the journal History and Theory. What is the purpose of the publication? A: The purpose of the journal is to publish the best current thinking about the theory and philosophy of history. We also maintain a discussion network that provides a site for members to communicate about matters relevant to our subject area. Lastly, we seek to enhance the intellectual life at Wesleyan (more…)