Fall 2014
FR OM TH E CHAIR
Sixteenth Issue
Inside This Issue:
Phi Alpha Theta
3
Graduate Studies
4
Student News
3
2013-2014 M.A. Thesis
Abstracts
5
Where Are They Now?
5
Graduates 2013-2014
7
Faculty Activity
8
Special points of
interest:
 Alan B. Larkin Symposium on the American
Presidency featuring
David McCullough-12
 John O’Sullivan Memorial Lecture featuring Chistopher R.
Browning-13
Having just completed my first year as department chair, coming on the heels of three outstanding predecessors (Drs. Kollander, Engle
and Norman), I’ve come to realize more than
ever what big shoes theirs are to fill. Fortunately,
I’ve had the benefits of their advice, although (as
we say in our book prefaces), any and all mistakes are mine alone. In this, inaugural column
for the annual newsletter, rather than give a detailed description of department activities over
the past year, I will simply summarize the highlights, give a brief glimpse of what lies ahead,
and then draw your attention to the wonderful
news of the various events and achievements of
our students and faculty that can be found inside
these pages.
To facilitate their research last year,
two faculty members, Dr. Graciella CruzTaura and Dr. Douglas Kanter were on fullyear sabbaticals, while Dr. Mark Rose and Dr.
Douglas McGetchin had one-semester sabbaticals, with the latter also on a Nehru-Fulbright
grant in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. We are happy
that all are back on campus this year. A number
of faculty members were also honored in other
ways. Dr. Evan Bennett was awarded tenure
and promoted to the rank of associate professor.
Dr. Eric Hanne was appointed to the ChastainJohnston Middle Eastern Studies Professorship
in Peace Studies; Dr. Stephen Engle was one of
four master teachers (2013-15) selected by the
college; and Dr. Barbara Ganson was named
director of the Latin American Studies Certificate Program. Our senior secretary for many
years, Ms. Zella Linn, received a well-deserved
promotion to program assistant. I thank her for
her invaluable assistance in managing an increasingly complex enterprise. For 2014-15, Dr.
Kenneth Holloway is a scholar-in-residence at
Fudan University in Shanghai where he is also
teaching and working on a possible student exchange program. In Spring 2015, Dr. Patricia
Kollander will be using her Scholarly and Creative Activity Fellowship (SCAF) to continue her
research into German émigrés who fought for
the U.S. during World War II. Sadly though, we will
be without Dr. Kristen Block, who has taken a position at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. We
wish her well.
Our two signature events held every year,
the John O’Sullivan Memorial Lecture and the Alan
B. Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency,
once again proved very successful, thanks in large
measure to the efforts of its director, Dr. Stephen
Engle and his assistant, Ms. Zella Linn. In the former, Dr. Jeffrey Morton lectured on the role of
diplomacy in recent U.S. foreign policy, while famous Watergate journalists, Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein enlightened a rapt, sold-out crowd of
2,500, with their insights into the Watergate scandal
40 years on. The scholars on board for this year
should be just as compelling. With the upcoming
70th anniversary of the end of the Second World
War, Professor Christopher Browning will give the
O’Sullivan lecture on “Hitler and the Decisions for
the Final Solution” on October 29th, while bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, David
McCullough, will be the featured speaker at the
Larkin Symposium on February 18, 2015, talking
about President Truman and the decision to drop the
atomic bomb on Japan. Be sure to mark your calendars for both dates!
Without a doubt the history department has
been fortunate to have so many faithful and generous
donors, such as Charna Larkin and those who donate to the O’Sullivan lecture fund. As you’ll read in
the following pages, there is much to be proud of in
the many achievements of our students, and due to
the recent gifts of Frances Edelman, Marny Glasser, the Weiner Family, and others, we were able to
increase the number of student awards this past year.
It is with great sadness, however, that I note the
passing of Frances Edelman this past March (see
story inside). A generous and longstanding donor to
the history department, her thirst for learning in all
of her 99 years was never quenched. We will miss
her visiting our classes and discussing various historical topics, but her presence will always be with us in
our memories and in her generous legacy, including
an array of student awards. We were also saddened
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 2
by the passing in July of one of our other devoted patrons, Mr. Gus
Friedman, one of the originators of the O’Sullivan Lecture Series
Fund.
In Memoriam: Frances Edelman (1914-2014)
Much of the past year has been devoted to finding new ways
to advise our history students better and help them succeed. To that
end Dr. Eric Hanne has stepped in to serve in our revived position of
undergraduate director. A number of new initiatives are being put into
place and I thank him for his dedication and hard work. The same
goes for our interim graduate director, Dr. Patricia Kollander, who
helped update the graduate webpage and facilitate the move towards a
more electronic application and graduation process. Thanks to the
faculty advisor, Dr. Sandra Norman, the dean, our generous patron,
Ms. Marny Glasser and the chapter’s officers, seven Phi Alpha Theta
graduate students presented papers at the Florida History Conference
last January, the most from any university in the state.
For me, I enjoyed especially the scholarly events sponsored
by the department this year, including the visits by Dr. Denise Spellberg (University of Texas at Austin), who spoke on Thomas Jefferson
and the Qu’ran to a standing room only crowd, and Dr. Morten
Schlütter (University of Iowa), who lectured on Zen and the Art of
Formless Precepts in the Evolving Platform Sutra. Dr. Derrick
White also led a panel discussion of university scholars and local
leaders after a campus screening of the new documentary, Hate in the
Heartland.
In this new academic year there is much for us to look forward to. Dr. Douglas Kanter has begun his tenure as the new graduate director; and we welcome a wonderful new colleague, Dr. Kelly
Shannon, (Ph.D Temple University, 2010) an expert in the history of
modern U.S. foreign policy and international human rights. She
comes from the University of Alaska-Anchorage but seems to have
adjusted quite well to the brutal south Florida climate. She is teaching
graduate and undergraduate courses while also serving as a charter
fellow of the FAU Center for Peace, Justice and Human Rights. The
department has a new, more exciting webpage, and the students are in
the midst of organizing a History Club. We are offering for the first
time a new history-based freshman writing course that will fulfill a
basic university requirement, and we have a brand new, high-tech
seminar room that will benefit both students and faculty.
Having just scratched the surface, as you can see, we don’t
stand still as a department. You’ll be able to sense the energy and
high level of activity at work here as you read through the rest of this
newsletter. And there is much more to come—as our faculty members
continue to excel as scholars, as our classes combine the best of tradition and innovation in teaching, and as our ready graduates prepare to
take their places as informed, educated citizens in a diverse and increasingly complex world. Stay tuned.
Ben Lowe
Professor and Chair
Mrs. Frances Edelman, one of the history department’s most
generous and longstanding donors, passed away on March 17, 2014
just before reaching her 100th birthday. She was born in Manhattan
right after her parents’ arrival in 1914, just as the First World War
had broken out in their native Austria. A U.S. citizen before her parents, Frances lost her father when she was four years old, leaving her
young mother with three small children to raise. As the oldest, she
learned responsibility and self-discipline at an early age, and her
mother taught her the value of giving and helping others.
While in high school, Frances began working part-time as a
typist for a Wall Street firm. After graduation, her family moved to
the Bronx and she worked for eight years as a receptionist at Selrite, a
furniture showroom in Manhattan. While she could not go on to college full time, she took night courses at City College Annex, and
loved attending lectures and studying Italian, and took every chance
to further educate herself. This is a quality that stayed with her
throughout her life.
In 1940, on July 4th, Frances met her husband, Saul, a very
successful Wall Street analyst and fellow resident of the Bronx, and
by December they were married. Over the next fifteen years, the couple had two sons and lived in Queens and then in Great Neck. Frances
was very active in Hadassah and for a number of years was responsible for the upkeep of a forest in Israel named for her mother.
Eventually moving to Florida, the Edelmans lived briefly in
Hollywood before moving to Boynton Beach in the 1970s. After
Saul’s death in 1981, Frances enrolled at FAU, expecting to complete
a degree in economics, which she had started at City College Annex.
She quickly fell in love with the university and found her interests
were much more wide-ranging. She enrolled in many courses over the
years and her professors simply loved her; but it wasn’t long before
she started looking for a way to help students, remembering her own
situation as a young student many years ago. In 1996, she and her son
began an endowment, offering ten scholarships annually (named for
family members), based on their academic performance and potential.
An FAU publication once referred to these recipients of her generosity
as her “legion of scholars.” Her devotion to history — especially
women’s history — was passionate. In 2004, she became a charter
member of the history department’s Socrates Club, which recognizes
the contributions of older students who take our classes and whose
enthusiasm has helped inspire a younger generation to study and learn
from the past. Frances also financed the remodeling of the History
Seminar Room that now bears hers and her husband’s names. She
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 3
enjoyed very much the letters and cards sent by students thanking her
for her help, and letting her know of their future plans. In 2006,
Frances moved to Stratford Court in Boca Raton.
Recent M.A. Graduates
She seems to have made many friends there, and in one of their publications they gave this wonderful description of her character: “Frances
has lived all her life according to her mother’s teaching. Here, she
extends her care for other to small personal gestures of love and
friendship, a truly pleasant, outgoing person. Frances Edelman’s life
illustrates that it is, indeed, more blessed to give than to receive.”
Those of us in the History Department who got to know her could not
have said it better. She was an amazing person who lived a life full of
purpose. Her kindness and generosity to the college, and especially to
the history department, knew no bounds,. Her love of learning was
insatiable. And her winning personality endeared her to all who came
to know her.
During 2013-2014, 7 students graduated
with Masters of Art degrees in history:
Frances’ financial support became the lifeblood for many
department activities and events, including our student awards, as well
as assistance with student research and writing. Her gifts have enabled
the department to hold special events, such as the annual faculty/graduate student reception and Phi Alpha Theta induction. And her
presence continues to linger. Her generous endowment– including a
major scholarship fund named for her granddaughter, Traci Jill Edelman– ensures that her memory will live on; but her legacy is also a
deeply personal one that will be an integral part of the history department’s identity for many, many years to come.
We would like to congratulate our recent graduates for a job well
done, and wish them all the best in their future endeavors!
Katherine Dahlstrand (Fall 2013)
Kiel Kinsella (Fall 2013)
Matthew Placido (Fall 2013)
Alecia Harmer Rotondo (Fall 2013)
Eliot Kopp (Spring 2014)
Gregory Shibley (Spring 2014)
Adam Rea (Summer 2014)
New Teaching/Research Assistants for the
Fall 2014-Spring 2015 Academic Year

Angela Hawley

Shellie Labell
Ben Lowe, Chair

Sean Mallen
STUDENT NEWS

Matthew Morris
Student Awards and Distinctions

Douglas Provenzano
Students in the department continue to pursue high levels of
achievement in academics. This year, the following students received
awards for academic and teaching excellence in history: Daniel
Graves received the Martin and Sylvia Shaw History Scholarship;
James Turner received the Hugh Ripley Award and the Percy and
Pauline Greenberg Memorial Award in History; Kathryn Cain received the Saul Edelman Award in Latin American History; Larry
Espana received the Saul Edelman Memorial Award in History; Jacob D. Ptak received the Martin and Sylvia Shaw History Essay
Award. As for teaching assistants, Nicholas D. Belotto received the
Frances Edelman Graduate Teaching Award; and Michael P. Makosiej was awarded the John O’Sullivan Travel Research Grant.
Returning Teaching Assistants
These
awards
were presented at the department awards ceremony
in Spring 2014. Many of the
donors, who through their
contributions make these
awards possible, were present to meet the recipients.
We want to extend our congratulations to the honorees
and thank our donors, as always, for their commitment to inspire excellence in our students. If you want to help support our student financial programs, donations are indeed most welcome. To find out how to
support the History Department’s Foundation Awards, see page 18.
Department Donors
Mrs. Marny Glasser
and Dr. Howard
Weiner.

Rhonda Cifone

Michael Makosiej

Michael Garreaud

Mark Pickering

Michael Goodwin

Andrea Schwab
Phi Alpha Theta - by PAT President, Kasey Nell
The Phi Alpha Theta-Xi Omega chapter has been involved
in many departmental and community events in the past year. The
chapter provided student ambassadors for
the O’Sullivan Lecture and the Larkin
Symposium. The organization also held an
annual book sale event that helps support
travel for presenters at conferences. In
fact, with the success of the book drive the
chapter, combined with the generous support of the Department of History and the
dean of the college, was able to
Phi Alpha Theta, founded 1921
send seven students to present
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 4
papers at the Florida History Conference in January 2014 in St. Augustine! In the community, members have served as judges for high
school History Day events.
This upcoming year, Phi Alpha Theta plans to stay involved.
Members will be serving as student ambassadors at the Southeastern
World History Association on October 10-11. Several students in the
chapter will have a panel at the conference. Phi Alpha Theta will once
again be serving as ambassadors for the O’Sullivan Lecture and the
Larkin Symposium. Students are already getting papers accepted for
the 2015 Florida History Conference and the Florida Phi Alpha Theta
conference depending on the funding. Phi Alpha Theta is ready to
begin another exciting and challenging year at Florida Atlantic University! New members for 2014 are:
After the awards and induction ceremony, the Chapter held a lively
election and elected four new officers. Congratulations to the new
Nicholas Belotto
Rhonda L. Cifone
Elenie Louvaris
Natgan P. Dehnert Michael Morris
Annaleah D. Morse
Alexandra Levine
Andrea Schwab
The Master of Arts in History
Graduates of FAU’s M.A. program in History have gone on to pursue
successful careers in teaching, business, law and a variety of other
fields. The Master of Arts in History has both a thesis and a non-thesis
option. The thesis option requires 30 credit hours, with a minimum of
24 hours of graduate course work and the completion of an M.A. thesis, for which a minimum of six additional credits must be earned.
The non-thesis option requires a total of 36 credit hours of graduate course work. Those students wishing to pursue the thesis track
must submit an “Admission to Candidacy” form after the completion
of 18 hours of graduate work. Once students are granted thesis option
status, they work in conjunction with the Director of Graduate Studies
to create a thesis committee.
Andrew K. Walsh
Michael Makosiej
Michael Goodwin
Interested in Graduate Studies?
officers for the academic year 2014-2015:
A student seeking admission into the graduate program in history
should have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent from an accredited institution, or, for international students, an institution recognized in his/
her own country as preparing students for further study at the graduate
level. Applicants must have a minimum 3.0 grade point average
(GPA) for the last 60 undergraduate hours attempted and a combined
score of 155 or higher on the verbal and a 4.0 on the analytical sections of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). In addition, the students
must submit two letters of recommendation to the department, a fivepage typed, double-spaced autobiographical statement indicating the
nature of their preparation for graduate work and the reason for seeking the M.A. in history, and a formal research paper.
For information contact the Graduate Director, Dr. Douglas Kanter
([email protected] ). Fall 2014 Thesis Deadlines:
Phi Alpha Theta President: Kasey Nell

Final copy of thesis to M.A. Committee
Sept 19
Phi Alpha Theta Vice President: Andrea Schwab

Suggested deadline for thesis defense
Oct. 3
Phi Alpha Theta Secretary: Rhonda Cifone

Completed thesis to Chair of Dept.
Oct. 24
Phi Alpha Theta Treasurer: Nick Belotto

Suggested date for thesis to Dean of College
Nov. 3

Thesis due to the Graduate College
Nov. 14
Spring 2015 Thesis Deadlines:

Final copy of thesis to M.A. Committee
Feb. 6

Suggested deadline for thesis defense
Feb. 27

Completed thesis to Chair of Dept.
Mar. 13
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 5

Suggested date for thesis to Dean of College
Mar. 27

Thesis due to Graduate College
Apr. 10
From the Interim Graduate Director
The graduate program has enjoyed another productive and successful
year. The department continues to receive many excellent applications which allow us to be very selective in our admissions. Over the
past year, we’ve been fortunate to have a steady stream of very gifted
and committed teaching assistants, including Nick Belotto, Jessica
Bromfield, Kris Lalji, Cheyenne Oliver, Rhonda Cifone, Michael Makosiej, Michael Garreaud, Mark Pickering, Michael
Goodwin and Andrea Schwab.
The latter six have returned for the Fall 2014 semester; they are
joined by first year students Angela Hawley, Shellie Labell, Sean
Mallen, Matthew Morris and Douglas Provenzano. We heartily
congratulate our recent graduates, Kate Dahlstrand, Matthew Placido, Adam Rea, Alecia Harmer Rotondi, Gregory Shibley, and
Kiel Kinsella.
The annual Graduate Student-Faculty Reception in October 2013,
once again proved to be a very special event, attended by faculty
members, current and prospective students and other distinguished
guests. Graduate students also assisted with department symposia,
and enjoyed presentations by distinguished guests such as Bob
Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
In closing, I have enjoyed my time as interim graduate director immeasurably. I’d like to express my thanks to History program administrator Zella Linn, whose hard work, dedication and vigilant oversight of all details contribute mightily to the program. I also want to
extend my appreciation to the students who work in the office,
Channa Dorvilias and Deana-Kaye Russell whose dependability
and skills have kept the program’s day-to-day operations running
smoothly. In addition, I’ve appreciated the fantastic support supplied
by all the alumni, donors, and other friends of the program, including
Marny Glasser, Marjorie O’Sullivan, and the Weiner family.
The program will be in excellent hands with Dr. Kanter, who assumed his duties as director of graduate studies in August 2014.
Since we like to keep an up-to-date e-mail address list of our alumni,
please send your current information to [email protected]
—Patricia Kollander
2013-2014 M.A. THESIS ABSTRACTS
“Katharine Dahlstrand: “A Nation of Outsiders: Industrialists,
African Americans, and Veterans in East Tennessee during Reconstruction.” Advisor: Dr. Stephen Engle
With the end of the American Civil War, the nation created entire
populations of outsiders seeking acceptance and participation in the
rebuilding of the country. Northern industrialists, African Americans,
and veterans returning from military service demonstrated the failures of Reconstruction in their efforts to reconcile their position with
the white southern inhabitants of East Tennessee. This region repre-
sents a unique place to explore Reconstruction and exclusionary citizenship because of its distinct relationship with both the Union and the
Confederacy during the war. This
thesis examines the people who
lived the life of an outsider because
of their background, skin color, or
military service. By focusing on
those who failed at successfully
entering, or reentering, society, this
thesis illustrates the informal fight
for acceptance that began when the
formal battles of the Civil War
ceased.
Gregory Shibley: “New York’s
Little Syria” Advisor: Dr. Marianne Sanua
This thesis argues that from 1880 to 1935, Syrian immigrants, who
comprised an enclave on the Lower West Side of Manhattan in New
York City, sought to control the pace and extent of their assimilation
into mainstream American society, by either distancing themselves
from their ethnicity, or by using their ethnicity to their advantage, or
by combining both approaches to varying degrees, as they determined
individually, rather than monolithically.
Matthew Placido: “Founding Mothers and Movement Mammas:
African-American Women in the Depression Era Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union” Advisor: Dr. Derrick White
This thesis explores the lives of poor, black sharecropping women,
arguing that the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union provided an avenue
for them to embrace civil rights activism, perform semiprofessional
work, and construct a sisterhood of black female solidarity – thus
making the union an organization through which lower-class African
American women contributed to the “Long Civil Rights” movement.
During the Great Depression, black and white farmwomen from the
Delta region worked together to fight the system of racial subjugation
and exploitation. Black women represented one of the largest and
most important demographic groups within the STFU, frequently serving as secretaries, local presidents, and organizers for the union. The
administrative records and public literature generated from within the
STFU movement show that these women made great strides in pioneering the model of gender-neutral, racially cooperative activism that
would be later embraced by SNCC during the mid-twentieth century
civil rights movements.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Richard Judd (B.A. ’00) Candidate for the M.A. degree, was awarded the James Madison Fellowship. The Fellowship is for secondary
school teachers and awards $24,000 for a graduate degree focused on
constitutional studies. Part of the program includes a summer institute
at the Georgetown University that awards 6 graduate credits.
Benjamen Salata (B.A. ’98) is currently working as Curator of Collection, Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
Oner Kiziltan (B.A. ’13) was offered scholarships for three law
schools, and selected Nova University Law school. He notes: “the
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 6
education I received with the History major at FAU prepared me for
this. I don’t think I could have had any other major or group of professors which could have done a better job of preparing me for law
school.
Terry Randolph (M.A. ’05) is department chair and professor of
political science and history at Palm Beach State College in Boca
Raton, Florida where he teaches classes on American government,
political science, international relations, and American history. He just
returned from a month in Eastern Europe during the height of the crisis in Ukraine. While there, he delivered a lecture on American foreign policy at Vilnius University in Lithuania. Here is a link to the
event:http://www.fsf.vu.lt/fakulteto-ivykiai/1019-prof-terry-hrandolph-u-s-foreign-policy-and-the-crisis-in-ukraine-its-challengesand-implications-for-lithuania-and-the-baltic-region-2014-06-20.
Nicholas Belotto (B.A. ’12) is currently working as an AP instructor
at Donna Klein Academy, Boca Raton while he completes his master’s thesis at FAU.
Matthew Placido (B.A. ’11, M.A. ’13) is currently working as a
teacher at Nova High School in Davie, Florida.
Katherine Dahlstrand (B.A. ’11, M.A. ’13) is in the Ph.D program
in History at the University of Georgia on an academic fellowship.
Gayle Lavallee (B.A. ’14) received her BA in History in Summer
2014 and has recently joined FAU’s Department of Advancement
Services as the new Gift Processor. For the past three years she processed gifts and ran reports for the Unity School in Delray Beach
where she had previously worked for many years in the library.
Ryan Craig (M.A. ’ 08) works for the Carter Center as a Long Term
Observer for the Parliamentary and Presidential elections in Tunisia.
His area of responsibility is the five northwestern governorates of
Tunisia, and is living in the city of Bizerte, a nice port town, and will
likely remain there into early 2015.
Public History continues to play an important role in the department
for students who want to explore their options with a history degree.
The internship program gives students an opportunity to work in a
variety of settings where they can put their historical training to work.
In the University Libraries Special Collections, they might be indexing photo collections, working on upcoming exhibits, working with
oral histories, or producing finding aids for researchers. Students are
taking their skills to do work at the Boca Raton Historical Society,
The Historical Society of the Palm Beaches, the Seminole Tribal Museum and historic preservation sections on the Big Cypress Reservation, the Delray Beach Historical Society, and others. We always have
more requests than students to fill the slots. A growing number of
students who have completed the internship have obtained jobs in the
Public History field, or are pursuing Public History graduate work.
See page 11 for more information or contact Dr. Sandra Norman at
[email protected].
Every site we cooperate with recognizes their responsibility as teachers in the field. Every student finishes with a project (article, exhibit,
finding aid, etc.) that can be listed on their cv. Many students have the
opportunities to publish with their sponsoring agency.
In the last year sixteen graduate and undergraduate students have participated in the Internship Program. From Plantation to Palm Beach,
local museums and historical societies have benefited from hosting
interns.
We hope to expand the number of sites available to our students. Any
student interested can stop by Dr. Norman’s office for a chat.
Graduate Student Interns at U.S. Senate
Historical Office
Dr. Rhianna Rogers (M.A. ’04) is Assistant Professor of Cultural
Studies at SUNY Empire State College in Buffalo, NY, where she has
been since 2010.
Britt Roberts (BA ’10) received her Master’s degree in Ancient History from University College at the University of London in 2011 and
is currently an Inventory Administrator at Sotheby’s in London.
Austin Shaw (B.A. ’07) received his Master of Divinity from the
Honor School of Theology at Oxford University in 2010 and is now
Pastor of College Ministries at Grace Church in Middleburg, Ohio.
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
For over twenty years the History Department has given students the
opportunity to complete an internship as a part of their education.
Internships provide students with the chance to give their historical
expertise to a public history site and in turn they learn how that site
operates and what being a Public Historian means.
This past summer graduate student and teaching assistant Michael
Goodwin (first row, far left) interned in the Senate Historical Office as
part of the Secretary of the Senate Internship Program. During his
time there he transcribed and audio-edited an oral history interview
with Patrick Hynes, who started his Senate career as a Democratic
page; assisted the office with converting their oral history interviews
of Francis R. Valeo, Carl Marcy, and Kelly Johnston onto a web format; and published featured biographies of senators (Stephen Bradley,
William Crawford, and James A. Bayard) that can be found on the
U.S. Senate’s webpage at:
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/one_item_and_teasers/featu
red_biographies.htm. As part of his experience he will be writing an
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Graduates 2013-2014
Page 7
Fall 2013
Spring 2014
Spring 2014 Continued
Summer 2014
Amendt, Kristine A.
Bostwick, Anthony K.
zxPetersen, Lee A.
Alvarado, Catherine~
Bierman, Blake L.
Broderick, Rachel Lynn
Ptak, Jacob D.
Arias, Michael Lee
Borges, Teresa Elizabeth
Bucca, Rian S.
Ramirez, Frilys-Beth~
Bennis, Gregg Mitchell~
Casillas, Jr. Manuel~
Buell, Sean
Rusch, Robert
Bethel, Vanessa Anne
Clark, Tara Lynn
Chandeck, Michael Anthony
Shibley, Gregory*
Clark, John Matthew~
Curry, Kimberly Ann
Choate, Gail Lois~
Sirvinskas, Michael Lewis
Cogoni, Sean Lance~
Dahlstrand, Katherine*
Clark, Michael D.
Thompson, David Kasey
Copeland, Michael
Doherty, John~
Davis, Kara
Truong, Viet-Hang Le
Diaz, Alexandra~
Edge, Joseph Charles~
Dunn, Stephanie~
Ullmayer, Nicole Barbara~
Diaz, Roger Joseph~
Garcia, Michael L.
Dunne, Ian Michael~
Walker, Shane Allen
Garcia, Silvia Alicia
Gossman, Jesse~
Floris, Nigel Paul~
Ward, Dominique Diandra~
Halverson, Daniel Lee
Graeber, Lorissa Larue
Garretson, Nicole Andriana~
Hare, David Justin~
Hawley, Angela Rae
Granston, Kadeem Carmichael~
Herrera, Michael
Heizmann, Candice Rae~
Hebert, Jesse Thomas~
Kennedy, Valerie Michelle~
Ivins, Andrew Reynolds~
Hutcher, Jesse Chaim~
* - denotes M.A.
Lavallee, Gayle Jean
Joa, Claudia Roman~
Israel, Eric Jon
~ - denotes a minor
Lietzke, Cory James
Kenney, Douglas Charles
Lee, Allison Dean~
Owen, Phillip A.
Kinsella, Kiel*
Louvaris, Elenie
Rariden, Kevin Gene Wilson~
Landesman, Rachel Marie~
Luthi, Spencer Drew
Rea, Adam*
Leyden, Sean
Martin, David W.
Riganati, Christie Leigh~
Mattei, Antonietta Aurica
Martin, Robert Jay~
Setter, Paul~
Mazzarino, Andrew J.
Martinez-Agullo, Francisco~
Siddiqi, Dj~
Miller, Brett Aaron
Moran, Ryan Patrick
Morris, Matthew
Moreno, Julie Fallon~
Placido, Matthew*
Mustasam, Qasim Bin~
Raspolich, Joseph Michael~
Parsons, Kiana~
Reiter, Daniel Benjamen~
Robles, Daniela~
Rotondi, Alecia Harmer*
Rodriguez, Gavrielle
Sawyer, Maxwell H.
Sayer, Elizabeth Reid
Schultz, Lauren Elizabeth~
Thieman, Levi James~
Tomei, Mallory Ann
Trader, Erick
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 8
article essay for the Secretary of the Senate's newsletter, Unum, on
Senator William Fulbright's break with Lyndon Johnson after the Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution.
FACULTY ACTIVITY
EVAN BENNETT was awarded tenure and promoted to associate
professor. His book, When Tobacco Was King: Families, Farm Labor,
and Federal Policy in the Piedmont, was published by the University
Press of Florida in October 2014. He is currently working on a history
of a small North Carolina crossroads that explores the effects of modernization, migration, and federal farm policy on the rural people of
the South.
BOYD BRESLOW is continuing his work on the medieval London
Recorder and started investigating John de Bauquell, a London merchant and seemingly royal servant.
GRACIELLA CRUZ-TAURA, on sabbatical leave during the academic year 2013-2014, returned to Spain to do archival research and
complete a book manuscript. She was the Organizer and Chair of the
panel “ Perspective on Colonial Cuba,” during the New Directions in
Cuban Studies Conference, sponsored by the University of Miami
Cuban Heritage Collection and the Institute for Cuban and Cuban–
American Studies, 20-21 March 2014. This year the University of
Miami Libraries selected for its Digital Exhibits site an exhibition
Cruz– Taura curated: In Search of Freedom: Cuban Exiles and the US
Cuban Refugee Program. See
http://scholar.library.miami.edu/digital/exhibits/show/freedom.
STEPHEN D. ENGLE spent the year revising his book-length manuscript entitled Gathering to Save a Nation. In addition, he gave a daylong series of lectures on the Civil War at the Smithsonian Institution.
He continues his term as an OAH Distinguished Lecturer, an Advisory
Board Member for the Lincoln Prize, and as the SecretaryTreasurer/Book Review editor for the Society of Civil War Historians.
He is in the second year of a two-year term as a Master Teacher for
the College of Arts and Letters.
BARBARA GANSON’s article, “Cuestiones de Genero, Honor, e
Adulterio en Mision Jesus, Paraguay, 1782-1784” was accepted in
September 2013 for a special edition of a journal in France on indigenous South American languages of Quechua and Guarani. “Questions
of Gender, Honor, and Adultery in Mission Jesus, Paraguay, 17821784” is an analysis of the politics of gender and adultery in the Spanish colonial Paraguayan town of Jesus during the late eighteenth century based on an extensive judicial investigation, which includes a
Gurani text. In addition, as area editor for the journal, The Americas,
she is working on putting together a special collection of articles on
the ethno history of the Rio de la Plata, for which she will write an
introduction, and present to the editorial board at their annual meeting
at the AHA/Conference on Latin American History in New York City,
January 2-5, 2015.
ERIC J. HANNE finished up his first year as Director of undergraduate Studies, spending his time advising history majors and working to
improve their overall academic experience. In addition, Dr. Hanne
was appointed as the Chastain-Johnston Distinguished Professor of
Middle Eastern and Peace Studies (2013-2015), a position that gives
him the opportunity to promote the study of the region in terms of
teaching, research, and public events. Dr. Hanne’s book chapter,
“Ritual and Reality: the Bay a Process in Eleventh– and TwelfthCentury Islamic Courts” was published in Court Ceremonies and Rituals of Power in Byzantium and the Medieval Mediterranean (Brill,
2013) and he continued to write books reviews and encyclopedia articles. Currently, he is working on a commissioned work for the YA’LA
Source Companion to Medieval Islamic Political Literature on Abu la
b. al-Farra”s al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya, an article on Dubays b. Mazyad,
and his larger monograph study of the Mazyadids of Hilla. In July
2014, Dr. Hanne took part in the International Medieval Congress at
Leeds, participating in two round tables on medieval Empire, and
moderating a panel on “Women in Empire.” While in England he also
conducted research in the British Library Manuscript Collection. Dr.
Hanne is looking forward to the new developments ahead for the coming academic year, most especially the inception of the new student
club for History Majors!
KENNETH HOLLOWAY presented a paper entitled “A humanistic
approach to the Vimalakirti, and the DNA it shares with pre-Qin religious texts from Guodian,” at a conference hosted by the Institute for
Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University in May 2014. This fall, Dr. Holloway is teaching classes in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism in Shanghai Vhina at
Fudan University’s School of Philosophy, which is ranked in the top
20 worldwide. In the spring, he will be back at FAU and will be looking forward to sharing with students what he has learned about the
role of tradition in modern China. In addition, Dr. Holloway is working on setting up an exchange program for FAU students to go to
Shanghai with him in the fall of 2015. Interested students should email
him at [email protected].
DOUGLAS KANTER was on sabbatical in the 2013-2014 academic
year, during which he spent five months conducting research in
Britian and Ireland for his current book project, “Gladstone and Ireland.” Dr. Kanter also published an article on “Gladstone and the
Great Irish Famine” in the Journal of Liberal History, as well as a
long review essay in Eighteenth-Century Life. In addition, he presented papers at the annual Gladstone Conference in Hawarden, Wales,
and at the southern regional meeting of the American Conference for
Irish Studies. Dr. Kanter returns to the classroom in the fall of 2014, at
which time he also assumes his new position as the history department’s director of graduate studies.
PATRICIA KOLLANDER returns to full time faculty status in August 2014 after serving as interim director of graduate studies. During
the academic year 2013-2014, she delivered a paper at the German
Studies Association Conference in Denver, Colorado, and completed
book reviews for the Yearbook of German-American Studies. She
History Review
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received a Scholarly and Creative Arts Fellowship for Spring 2014,
which will enable her to make progress on a book manuscript on the
contributions of German émigrés to U.S. war effort during World War
II.
TALITHA LeFLOURIA’S new book, Chained in Silence: Black
Women and Convict Labor in the New South, is under contract with
the University of North Carolina Press and is slated for publication in
Spring 2015.
BEN LOWE completed his first year as department chair, a job he
has found to be both challenging and rewarding, and quite timeconsuming. He is thankful for the sage advice of former chairs and the
generous assistance of colleagues as he settles in. His article, “A Short
Reformation? A Case for Recalculating the Chronology of Religious
Change in Sixteenth-Century England” was published in Anglican and
Episcopal History. He also had several book reviews appear in various
journals; and he has given numerous public and professional presentations on different aspects of Tudor and Stuart history over the past
year. His current research looks at the public response to Protestant
and Catholic martyrdoms in England’s west country between 1555
and 1590.
DOUGLAS T. McGETCHIN co-edited Transcultuaral Encounters
between Germany and India in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Kindred
Spirits (Routledge, 2014) and contributed a chapter “Asian AntiImperialism and Leftist Antagonism in Weimar Germany.” He wrote
book reviews for the German Historical Institute London Bulletin and
The Historian. He is serving as president of the Southeastern World
History Association (SEWHA) and organizing its 26th Annual Conference, October 10-11, 2014, at FAU in Boca Raton, with the theme
of “Peace and Human Rights in World History” (See http://
www.sewha.org/conference). He successfully completed a NehruFulbright grant conducting research in Kolkata (Calcutta) India in
2013-14, and is currently writing a new book “The Boycott or the
Bullet: Debates over Nonviolence in Indo-Western Anti-Imperialist
Struggles, 1893-1964,” that traces interconnections between networks
of international activists in Europe, South Asia, and the United States.
He is presenting parts of this new work at: the German Studies Association; the SEWHA conference; the Florida Conference of Historians; and the “Germans in the Pacific World from the Late 17th to 20th
Century” Conference.
SANDRA NORMAN spent 2013-14 developing a new course for the
department, The History of Natual History. In December, she spent
time at the British Library and Natural History Museum in London
conducting research. In May, she was back at the library and visited
the estates of a number of the great English natural historians and
scientists.
MARK ROSE who was on sabbatical in Fall 2013, has spent the last
year continuing his research and writing on bank politics since 1970;
and on five American cities since 1945. He published his “Railroads
as Legal Regimes,” a comment on Alfred Mierzejeski’s book essay
“Apples and Oranges: The Historical Development of Railroads in the
U.S. and Germany” (Tubingen: Mohl Siebeck, 2014), 225-28. He coedited the September 2014 issue of the Journal of Urban History, with
Roger Biles and Raymond Mohl, focusing on the Post-Interstate Era,
and co-authored with them, “Revisiting the Urban Interstates: Politics,
Policy, and Culture since World War II.” He chaired and provided
comment for the panel, “Refashioning the Post World War II Urban
Landscape” at the Urban History Association in October 2014, and
will be giving invited presentations on his bank politics research at the
Hagley Library, University of Pennsylvania History Forum, and the
Newberry Library over the next year. He was co-chair of the Business
History Conference held in Frankfurt in March 2014 and will chair the
local arrangements for the 2015 conference in Miami.
He also continues to serve as co-editor of the book series, “American
Business, Politics, and Society,” published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Society of Colonial Wars in Florida Award
On October 3, 2013, Mr. Jim Ward, representing the Society of Colonial Wars in Florida, contributed $405 to the History Department to
help promote research “on American history from the settlement of
Jamestown on May 13, 1607 to the Battle of Lexington on April 19,
1775.” The SCW has been an longstanding donor to our program in
early American history, and this past year, its gift assisted Dr. Kristen
Block’s research on illness and religion in the eighteenth century Atlantic world.
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FAU’s Dr. Jeffrey Morton Gives 2013 John O’Sullivan Memorial Lecture
The 2013 John O’Sullivan Memorial Lecture featured Dr. Jeffrey Morton, Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University, who
recently received the prestigious Foreign Policy Association Medal at the World Leadership Forum in New York. Dr. Morton’s talk was entitled “The Role of Diplomacy in 20th-Century American Foreign Policy,” and was held on November 14 th in the University Theatre on FAU’s
Boca Raton campus. Dr. Morton used an illustrated Power Point presentation to trace the changing priorities of U.S. foreign policy and to show
how diplomacy today is still making a difference in maintaining global stability and in helping the U.S. achieve its geopolitical interests. The
audience of 200 included members of the O’Sullivan family, History Department faculty, donors and alumni, and Boca Raton High School
Model U.N. students.
The mission of the John O’Sullivan Memorial Lectureship has been to provide students, secondary school teachers, faculty, and public guests
the opportunity to hear a lecture by a distinguished historian who has published in a field of twentieth-century U.S. history relevant to Dr.
O’Sullivan’s own interest and specialties. Over the years the lectureship has hosted scholars of World War II, the Vietnam War, the nuclear
age, the Holocaust, modern American culture, and post-1945 political and diplomatic history. Dr. O’Sullivan was a longtime faculty member
and former chair of FAU’s History Department before his death in 2000.
Larkin Symposium 2014: “Inside the White House from Nixon to Obama” Featuring Carl Bernstein
and Bob Woodward
Celebrated investigative journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were the featured speakers at the History Department’s 2014 Alan B.
Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency. Early in their careers at the Washington Post in the early 1970s, Woodward and Bernstein
broke open the Watergate scandal that resulted in President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. The pair spent about ninety minutes reminiscing, offering historical insights, and answering questions at the February 19 th event before a capacity audience of 2,500 at FAU’s Barry Kaye Auditorium, and afterwards autographed books for those who attended.
After an introduction by the university provost, Dr. Gary Perry, Dr. Timothy Naftali, a former director of the Nixon Presidential Library, monitored the discussion which centered mostly on Nixon and Watergate—with neither speaker holding back. As it was the 40 th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation, the two journalists recounted the various ways the president brazenly broke the law during what Bernstein called a “criminal
presidency.” The sudden appearance of the voluminous White House tapes became the smoking gun and revealed Nixon’s mindset and just
how far he would go to retain power as he masterminded the scandal’s cover-up. Woodward also discussed the controversial pardon of the president, admitting that over the years he had changed his mind about it, coming to believe that President Ford was a decent man who wanted what
was best for the country and hoped a pardon would help heal Watergate’s wounds more quickly.
One of the audience questions was posed by an eleven-year-old boy who hadn’t even been born in the same century as the scandal. When he
stepped to the microphone to ask what it was like to keep pursuing a story that no one supported or seemed to care about, the impressed Bernstein jokingly asked him to send him his résumé. Later, when the young student was found in line waiting to have Bernstein and Woodward
sign one of their books he proudly remarked, “Now I can tell my teacher I came to see them.” A number of History Department graduate students helped with the logistics of the event and were thrilled to have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with the two celebrated reporters.
The evening before the main event featured a screening of the film, All the President’s Men, in the Student Union, that included a commentary
from Dr. Naftali. A large number of students attended, obviously interested in this “ancient” scandal, and participated in a rousing question and
answer period with the Nixon scholar.
As an outreach to the community, symposium invitees included social studies teachers from Palm Beach and Broward counties, social studies
teachers and students from Spanish River High School, Pine Crest, Oxbridge Academy, and American Heritage Academy, History Department
faculty, alumni and students, staff members of the Palm Beach Historical Society, FAU Board of Trustee members, Palm Beach State College
faculty and students, donors to the History Department, and local PBS station, WXEL’s Vice President, Bill Scott, and Mary Doscher, Marketing Director.
History Review
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New Inductee to Socrates Club
On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the History Department inducted
Mr. Joseph Friedman into its Socrates Club in recognition of his lifelong love for history and commitment to learning, Joe has been a
longstanding supporter of FAU and especially the History Department. He was one of the originators of the annual John O’Sullivan
Memorial Lecture, and has been taking history classes in the 60+ program for many years. The Socrates Club was organized in 2006 to
honor those students who “over the years have accumulated a vest
knowledge of history by sitting in on several classes and engaging in
numerous discussions, and who by their very presence in our classes
every semester have proved an inspiration to the faculty that the lure
of studying the past is alive and well among students —of any age—at
Florida Atlantic University.” The first member of the Socrates Club,
Mrs. Frances Edelman, was inducted also in her 90th year. Joe Friedman has demonstrated that he is most worthy to be received as its
newest member.
2014 Elaine Neefus Scholarship
The Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum is pleased to announce
the winner of 2014 Elaine Neefus Award for historical scholarship.
The $300 award was established in 2000 in honor of a longtime Historical Society volunteer and is given to college students majoring in a
subject relating to local history or historic preservation. The recipient
of the 2014 award is Elenie Louvaris, who just graduated from FAU
with a B.A. in history. A Fort Lauderdale resident, Ms. Louvaris interned at the Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum in the summer
of 2013 and returned as a volunteer in Spring of 2014. Elenie has decided to make the museum field her chosen profession and has been
accepted into the University of Colorado at Denver’s museum studies
graduate program starting in August, 2014.
Elenie said that her reward will “help me pay for books/tuition in my
graduate program, and will help me on my journey to learn how to
preserve the important histories that are all around us.”
“Elenie has been an invaluable asset to me and this institution,” reports Curator Susan Gillis. “I am most pleased that she has selected
my profession as her own and I know that she will find great success
in her future career.” Congratulations to Elenie and special thanks to
Florida Atlantic University’s History Department and the Public History program for providing us with a continuous flow of talented interns.
Spotlight on the Historical Society of Palm Beach County
Located in the restored courthouse inn downtown West Palm Beach, the Historical Society of Palm Beach county is dedicated to the capture,
preservation, and dissemination of the history of the entire county and surrounding areas. Currently four former graduates of the History Department
serve on the staff on the Historical Society: Debi Murray (M.A. ’09) is Chief Curator, Richard Marconi (B.A. ‘01) is Curator of Education, Benjamen Salata (B.A. ‘98) is Curator of Collections and Nick Golubov (B.A. ’13) is Research & Curatorial Assistant. Because of our close connection,
interns from the History Department are particularly welcomed and presented with unique opportunities to conduct research, help design exhibits,
and interact with the staff. Students come away enthused about Public History, and seeing graduates with “real jobs.”
History Review
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Page 12
SAVE THE DATE!
2015 Alan B. Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency
The 2015 Alan B. Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency will host Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian David McCullough with
“Truman’s Presidency and World War II at 70” on Wednesday, February 18, 2015, 3:30 p.m. Wilson D. Miscamble, prize-winning author and
historian will serve as moderator. The event will take place in the Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton
Campus.
David McCullough has been widely acclaimed as a “master of the art” and “a matchless writer.” He won the Pulitzer Prize twice, the National
Book Award twice, and the Francis Parkman Prize twice. He also received the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American
Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, the Gold Medal for Biography given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.
As the host of PBS’s American Experience for more than a decade, he told the stories of history in a riveting, accessible fashion for viewers of all
ages and backgrounds. He has lent his voice to several Ken Burns documentaries including the recent series, The Roosevelts, and narrated the 2003
film Seabiscuit.
McCullough received his first Pulitzer in 1993 for Truman, a biography of the 33rd president. His second Pulitzer was awarded for John Adams,
published in 2001 and one of the most praised and widely read American biographies of all time. McCullough’s most recent book is in the New
York Times best-seller The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. His work has been published in 10 languages and, in all, over nine million copies
are in print. None of his books have ever been out of print— a rare feat in publishing. He is presently working on a biography of the Wright brothers.
McCullough graduated with honors in English literature from Yale and has received 52 honorary degrees.
Wilson D. Miscamble is professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and leading authority on American diplomatic history. He won the
Harry S. Truman Book Award in 1992 and again in 2008 for his publication From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War.
His most recent book is The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs and the Defeat of Japan. Miscamble takes a new look at the
end of World War II and the emergence of the Cold War, and offers a new interpretation of Harry Truman’s foreign policy, including the use of the
atomic bombs in 1945.
Miscamble is known for his fairness, wisdom and wit.
A book signing will follow the event.
Admission:
McCullough and Miscamble VIP Event: $50
McCullough Lecture: $35
For tickets, call 1.800.564.9539, visit www.fauevents.com (http://www.fauevents.com) or drop by the FAU Box Office located in FAU’s Student
Union.
History Review
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SAVE THE DATE!
John O’Sullivan Memorial Lecture for 2014:
“Hitler and the Decisions for the Final Solution”
The 2014 John O’Sullivan Memorial Lecture will feature Christopher R. Browning, one of the most distinguished scholars of the Holocaust.
Famous both for his groundbreaking works Ordinary Men and the Origins of the Final Solution Browning will lecture on “Hitler and the
Decisions for the Final Solution” on Wednesday, October 29, 2014, 4:00 p.m., FAU’s University Theatre, Boca Raton campus.
His research focuses on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He has written extensively about the Nazi decision and policy making in regard to
the origins of the Final Solution, the behavior and motives of various middle and lover echelon personnel involved in implementing Nazi
Jewish policy, and the use of survivor testimony to explore Jewish responses and survival strategies.
Browning received his Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He taught at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington
for 25 years, before moving to the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. He is a three-time recipient of the Jewish National Book
Award. In 2006, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
For tickets and other information, call 1.800.564.9539 or visit www.fauevents.com
Depending on availability, tickets may also be obtained at the University Theatre one hour prior to the lecture. Tickets available for purchase
August 1, 2014.
Admission: $20
Groups of 20 or more: $15
Faculty, Staff and Alumni: $10
FAU students with current ID: $5
For group tickets, call 561.297.6124
Free parking is available in Parking Garage II and Lots 1, 25 and 27
A book signing will follow the lecture in the University Theatre lobby.
History Review
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Page 14
Chastain Johnston Distinguished Lecture on Middle Eastern and Peace Studies
On February 27. Dr. Denise Spellburg (University of Texas at Austin) gave a lecture, “Islam and the Founding Fathers as the inaugural lecture in
the Chastain Johnston Distinguished Lecture on Middle Eastern and Peace Studies series. She has researched and written extensively on the topic of
Islam in American and European history. Her works include Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past; The Legacy of ‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr (Columbia
University Press, 1994) and, most recently, Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders (Knopf, 2013). This lecture addressed her recent
work on Islam and the notion of inner-faith tolerance. Some of the key sources for her recent work, most notably the George Sale English translation of the Qur’an, may be found in the Marvin and Sybil Weiner “Spirit of America” collection housed in the FAU Library. A few of these works
were on display during the lecture.
FAU Lecture on Zen and the Art of Formless Precepts
The Department of History in Florida Atlantic University’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and the Levenson Chair in Asian Studies presented a lecture on “Zen and the Art of Formless Precepts in the Evolving Platform Sutra” on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 4 p.m., at the Wimberly
Library, fifth floor, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus. The lecture was presented by Professor Morten Schlütter of the University of Iowa.
One hundred years ago, two expeditions crossed the Silk Road in western China in search of treasure. These expeditions were headed by Sir
Aurel Stein of England and Paul Pelliot of France. At an oasis called Dunhuang, they made a fantastic discovery. Hidden in the secret chamber of a
Buddhist cave was a lost library from 1,000 years ago. Today, scholars are still just scratching the surface of this discovery. At the FAU lecture,
Schlütter discussed a chapter from his current book project on the most famous of all Zen texts, the Platform Sutra. The version of the sutra found
in Dunhuang that he is working on describes a ritual for the bestowal of formless precepts. These precepts are the natural moral compass that exists
in all of us. In later editions of the sutra, the ritual side of this concept begins to be downplayed. Why this happens, and what this means for our
understanding of Zen was the subject of Schlütter’s fascinating lecture.
In addition to the lecture, there was a special exhibit of rare books from FAU Special Collections. Did you know that the famous Civil War General
Ulysses S. Grant, who is remembered on the U.S. $50 bill went to China and met with members of the imperial family? A rare copy of this 19th
century book that describes his journey was on display before and after the lecture. This book and others from FAU’s rare book collection represent
a time capsule of what Stein and Pelliot would have read before embarking on their adventures on the Silk Road in 1901.
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 15
History Department Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellow in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, 201314
with, at most, one third of any given file. The work was mostly intensive rather than extensive: carefully reading through documents and
writing out quotations of key passages by hand, quite slower from the
usual method of scanning as many documents as possible and saving
the detailed work for later.
While in India, he was able to present parts of his research
in Channai (Madras) and at the University of Calcutta. The papers
included “African-Americans and Debates over Violent and Nonviolent Paths to Indian Independence, 1905-1939,” South and Central
Asia Fulbright Conference, Chennai, India, March 09-13, 2014, and
“Researching World History: Modern Indo-German Anti-imperialism
in the Indian Freedom Movement,” March 4, 2014, for “Research
Methodology: Facts and Fiction,” a short course for Senior Faculty
(Professor/Associate Professor/Reader), UGC-Academic Staff College, Department of Education, University of Calcutta, Alipore Campus, February 28 to March 6, 2014.
Doug McGetchin successfully completed a Fulbright-Nehru
research grant in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 2013-14, part of a current book project “The Boycott or the Bullet: Debates over Nonviolence in Indo-Western Anti-Imperialist Struggles, 1893-1964,” that
traces interconnections between networks of international activists in
Europe, South Asia, and the United States.
The research included primarily looking in the West Bengal
State Archives at archival documents from the first half of the 20 th
century. Materials included the formerly classified documents of the
British Intelligence Branch, or secret imperial police, who kept close
tabs on all foreigners and subversive Indian nationalists, often through
paid informers. There were a number of hurdles to surmount in the
archives, other than getting there, which involved overcoming the
heat, dust, Kolkata traffic, and cab drivers’ variable fares. The archive
does not allow scanning or taking notes on a laptop, and for any files
after independence (1947), foreigners are required to keep two sets of
handmade notes: one for themselves, and a duplicate copy kept by the
archive. It did allow photographs of documents, but only after a request in writing, and only then in maximum batches of 100 photos,
His family accompanied him, including two girls (12 and 9) and a boy
(4). The youngest ones had the easiest time dealing with the culture
shock if not the frequent stomach upsets, but overall it was a tremendous cultural experience making friends and enjoying the vibrant life
of Kolkata and its festivals, musical gatherings, and everyday wonders. His fondest memories other than the interesting work and warm
people, was walking three miles each day to the archive across the
bustling city, crowded with stalls of street vendors making good use of
every square inch of space.
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 16
Alumni Profiles
Lauren Bimmler
DEGREE: B.A in American Studies from FAU Wilkes Honors College ’08; M.A in History from Florida Atlantic University FAU ’10,
(I’m an owl through and through!)
Phillip Guerty
CURRENT POSITION: I’m the Undergraduate Program Administrator in the Department of English at Harvard University. (What’s
that?!) I run the undergraduate program for the English Department .
DEGREE: B.A. from Florida Atlantic University, (1993); M.A. from
Florida Atlantic University, (1997); Ph.D. from Indiana University,
Bloomington (2007).
FIRST JOB: My very first job was a counselor-in-training at a summer camp in Connecticut.
CURRENT POSITION: Associate Professor of History at University
of North Georgia
BIGGEST CHALLENGES: Figuring out what to do with my life
professionally!
FIRST JOB: Editor, Organization of American Historians Magazine
of History (after finishing my PhD).
BEST FAU MEMORY: I took a class in my second term – Modern
British and Irish History with Dr. Kanter. To put it mildly, I was terrified of taking this class. It was the most challenging yet rewarding
experience I had in grad school.
BIGGEST CHALLENGES: Keeping a balance in life between my
career, family, and all the other things that go on.
ROLE DEPT. OF HISTORY PLAYED IN YOUR CAREER: I
graduated from the History Department with a fond appreciation of
the professors, advisors, and staff that supported my academic passion. The passion for the liberal arts that I was able to cultivate in the
History Department, and understanding how those ideas and ways of
thinking translates to the world after college, helps me understand my
students and support them in a way that many do not. Aside from that,
the skills I learned when in the classroom, the library, and at my desk
at home while pursuing my Master’s Degree – researching, communicating effectively, creativity, attention to detail, and an appreciation
for the past – has helped me face my career in higher education head
on.
GOAL: I hope to continue to cultivate my career at Harvard.
FAVORITE BOOK: My favorites are Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the
Woods and Steven Millhauser’s Martin Dressler: The Tale of an
American Dreamer, a book I read in Dr. Chris Strain’s undergraduate
colloquium at the HC.
PERSONAL: I’m going on my third year as a resident of the everlovely and historical Cambridge, Massachusetts, always honing my
rendition of “Sweet Caroline,” eating as much chowder as possible,
and digging out of the occasional blizzard.
BEST FAU MEMORY: In a general sense, all of the amazing people
that I got to know and talk with every day including faculty members
and fellow students. I had a really wonderful time at FAU which made
learning exciting and fun.
ROLE DEPT. OF HISTORY PLAYED IN YOUR CAREER: The
department did an incredible job of preparing me for graduate school
and for a career in academia. Not only did I get really well trained in
research and writing but also, through being able to serve as a graduate assistant, in teaching as well.
GOAL: To keep learning and improving both personally and professionally.
FAVORITE BOOK: As of now, and this changes all the time, it’s
White Mughals by William Dalrymple.
PERSONAL: I live in Buford, Georgia with my wife Deb and three
children (Becklan who is four years old; Sam who is three years old;
and Cora who just turned one).
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 17
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 18
SUPPORT THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT - ANNUAL DEPARTMENT AWARDS
General donations to the History Department (HUM 200) are always appreciated to further the work of our faculty, students, and general program
needs or you can contribute to one of the established funds listed below. For more information, contact the History Department at 561-297-3840 or
mail your check payable to the FAU Foundation, Inc. to:
Florida Atlantic University
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of History
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431
HUM 200 History Department - The general department account for which we may spend the principal to further the goals of the department. In the past
we have used the funds to furnish technological equipment needed for research but not funded by general university support. We have also used the funds to
support the activities of Phi Alpha Theta and the department lectureship series.
HUM 200 The Department of History Award in Honor of Frances Edelman - A monetary award to a Graduate Student Teaching Assistant based upon
academic achievement and student evaluations.
HUM 205 Martin and Sylvia Shaw History Scholarship - A monetary award for a history major with academic merit and financial need. The award will
be applied to tuition and fees. Student must enroll following receipt of the award.
HUM 205 Martin and Sylvia Shaw Award for the Best History Essay - A monetary award for the best essay/paper from an undergraduate History major.
Any paper written in 2014 is eligible.
HUM 220 Francis Edelman Graduate Teaching Award - A monetary award to a Graduate Student based upon academic achievement and student evaluations.
HUM 220 Traci Jill Edelman Memorial Endowed Fund - A monetary award for a History student based upon the best essay/paper in Latin American
History; a monetary award for a sophomore or junior History major with academic merit; a monetary award for a history major who is also enrolled in the
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program; a monetary award to a History undergraduate student for the best essay/paper in European history; and a
monetary award for the best History M.A. thesis.
HUM 235 John O’Sullivan Annual Memorial Lectureship - Allows the Department of History each spring semester to host a distinguished scholar in
20th Century American History to lecture to students, secondary school teachers, faculty and the public.
HUM 240 John O’Sullivan Travel Grant - An award to defray the costs of graduate thesis research; amount varies based upon availability of funds and
applications. To be eligible, students must have achieved candidacy and submitted a statement of purpose and budget for their research, as well as a letter of
support from their primary thesis advisor.
HUM 290 Levinson Award in East Asian History - A monetary award for a History student based upon the best essay/paper in East Asian History.
HUM 630 Harold L. Glasser Memorial Award - A monetary award to a History graduate or undergraduate student to support research activities related to
the Harold L. Glasser Collection.
HUM 650 Percy and Pauline Greenberg Memorial Award in History - A monetary award for an outstanding graduating Senior History major.
HUM 785 Hugh W. Ripley Award– A monetary and book award to a student who has demonstrated their library research skills in Historical Methods
and Senior Seminar. Professors’ recommendations are required.
Checks can be made out to the FAU Foundation with a notation of the Department and account number. All of the students and faculty thank you for your
support of our programs.
History Review
Sixteenth Issue
Page 19
ATTENTION ALUMNI
Please keep us current on where you work, promotions, new history ventures, and any business or academic honors. Please complete this
form and send it back to Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of History, 777 Glades
Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431. If you would like, you may also fax your information to 561-297-2704, or e-mail Zella Linn at [email protected]
PLEASE TYPE OR PRINT.
Name_________________________________ Degree and Year of Graduation_____________________________________
Home Address_________________________________________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip_________________________________________________________________________________________
Is this an address change?
□Yes
□No
Home Phone________________ Home Fax________________ Home e-mail Address_______________________________
Occupation/Profession/Employer__________________________________________________________________________
Work Address_________________________________________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip_________________________________________________________________________________________
Is this an address Change?
□Yes
□No
Business Phone________________ Business Fax________________ Business e-mail Address________________________
Preferred mailing address
□Home
May we include your e-mail address in your update?
□Business
□Yes
□No
Comments about honors and awards received, work, education, community, service, etc.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don’t forget to send us photos-wedding photos, baby photos, class reunion photos, etc. (Photos cannot be returned.)
Thank you for sharing your news with FAU and your classmates!
Non Profit Org
Non Profit Org
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ∙ ANNUAL NEWSLETTER
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Florida Atlantic University
U.S. POSTAGE
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PAID
Boca Raton, Fl
PO Box 3091
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991
Phone: 561-297-3840
Fax: 561-297-2704
Email: [email protected]
Boca Raton, Fl
Permit No.77
Permit No.77