Oral History Projects at Queens Museum and Brooklyn Navy Yard

Throughout the month of April, Dr. Kristin Szylvian’s students took part in oral history projects at the Queens Museum and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The students that participated at the Queens Museum recorded over 30 interviews for the Queens Memory Project that included memories about the World’s Fair, the Panorama, a model of New York City built for the 1964 World’s Fair, and stories about living in Queens and the greater New York City area. The students that participated at the Brooklyn Navy Yard had the opportunity to record memories from individuals who worked there, and individuals who grew up in Brooklyn around the Navy yard.

"I felt deeply privileged to assist in the Oral History research project our class partook in for the Queens Memory Project.. My most fruitful interview was with Christine McLaughlin.  A lifelong Queens resident, she readily discussed the memories the New York City Panorama exhibit evoked for her.  She focused her answers on how much had changed during the decades that she lived in Queens." – Christopher Cody

Christopher Cody interviewing Christine McLaughlin

Dr. Aron's Wishtory and History of the American West Lecture

In case you missed it, Visiting D'Angelo Chair for the Humanities Dr. Stephen Aron gave this speech on an Alternative History of the American West, on April 16th, 2015

Dr. Stephen Aron's Discover NY Lecture

In case you missed it! Visiting D'Angelo Chair for the Humanities Dr. Stephen Aron gave a Discover NY lecture on March 25, 2015 where he discussed what has made New York City so successful, what makes all cities successful, as well as the similarities and differences between New York City and Los Angeles. Here is a sample of the talk.

Dr. Stephen Aron is a distinguished professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is known for his expertise on the western United States. He is a welcomed addition to the history department faculty in St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Stephen Aron will be speaking again this Thursday April 16, 2015 in DAC Room 206.

Click Here to find out more about Dr. Stephen Aron

Gaiutra Bahadur, Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture, April 1st, 2015, St. John's Hall 308, 12:30 p.m.

 

Please join us for Gaiutra Bahadur's lecture, "Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture," about indentured labor in the post-emancipation Caribbean, with a focus on women.

Gaiutra Bahadur is an award-winning American journalist and book critic. Her book Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture (University of Chicago Press, 2013) was a finalist for the UK’s prestigious Orwell Book Prize, for political writing that is artful, and won the 2014 Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Prize, awarded by scholars of the Caribbean to the best book about the Caribbean published in the previous three years. Coolie Woman was also one of three nonfiction finalists for the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Her essays, criticism and journalism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Nation, History Today, Dissent, The Virginia Quarterly Review and Ms. Magazine, among other publications.

 The lecture will be from 12:30 -- 1:30 p.m. in St. John's Hall, Room 308. All are welcome!

Faculty Book Panel Discussion about South Asian History - Dr. Neilesh Bose at NYU's Global South Asia, Feb. 27, 2015

Dr. Neilesh Bose will be launching his recent book, Recasting the Region: Language, Culture, and Islam in Colonial Bengal (Oxford, 2014) a panel about new books in South Asian history at the NYU Global South Asia Conference on February 27 and 28, 2015. Dr. Bose will be presenting portions of his book about cultural histories of late colonial and early-postcolonial Bengal alongside Dr. Andrew Sartori  of NYU's Department of History, who will also be presenting from his new book, Liberalism in Empire: An Alternative History (California, 2014). Both books explore the subject of colonial Indian history and the role of Islam and the politics of late colonialism in Bengal from different vantage points. Joining the panel will be Dr. Sudipta Kaviraj of Columbia University's Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies and Dr. David Ludden of NYU's Department of History. The conference website is http://southasianyu.org/ and the book launch panel will take place at 3:15 - 5:15 p.m. at the Institute for Public Knowledge, 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor, NYU, New York, NY 10003.

HIS 404 to work with Queens Musuem

On December 10 Prof. Szylvian met with staff members from the Queens Museum to discuss the details of a project that will be completed by the students enrolled in HIS 404 Oral History. Our mission: Work with LIS students to gather and process oral history interviews with people who made or visited the famous NYC Panorama created for the 1964 World's Fair.  The Panorama was restored several years ago and is now one of the most popular exhibits at the Queens Museums. Come join the team and improve the interpretation offered to the public; enroll in the class today or contact Szylvian to work as an intern or volunteer.

*Call for Papers* - 2d World History Theory and Practice Conference - May 2, 2015 proposals due Jan 31, 2015

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR UPCOMING CONFERENCE

WORLD HISTORY THEORY AND PRACTICE:

GENDER, TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE

NEW YORK CITY

MANHATTAN CAMPUS

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2015

St. John's University's History department convenes its second World History Theory and Practice conference in order to advance theories and to consider practices of world history. The conference will offer panels on both research and teaching with the aim of fostering research-driven conversations on the teaching of world history.

We invite papers that deal with any aspect of the themes of this year's conference - Gender, Technology, Culture. We seek a broader understanding of how each of these has informed historical research, teaching, and public history. Paper proposals need not address all three areas, or necessarily more than one, but all papers should make a contribution to the wider discourse on the theory and practice of World History. Topics may include, but are not limited to, mass or popular movements, invention/innovation in global perspective, popular culture in world history, the gendering of technology, representations of gender/technology in the arts or media, the history of ideas, cultural influences/confluences/conflicts, and the application of theory, research, social media, and other technologies to classroom practice.

We welcome digital applications of world history and paper proposals from world history practitioners—world history instructors, advanced graduate students, public historians, librarians, archivists, and museum curators—who research and teach world history and study how gender and technology have shaped our culture and our histories. In particular, we are interested in proposals that highlight the significance of research for the practice of world history or how the practice of world history affects the way that we conceptualize research.

Please submit a 250 word abstract for a 20-minute presentation and a one-page CV or resumé to conference organizers at worldhistorytheorypractice@gmail.com by January 31, 2015.