Search

This article presents information on various events related to education in the U.S. The Rocky Mountain Interdisciplinary History Conference, is being conducted by the University of Colorado, in Boulder, Colorado, from September 16-17. International Conference on Socioeconomic and Political Issues in Nigeria, is to be held from September 16-17 in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The conference titled "Ireland's Great Hunger: Representation and Preservation," conference will be held at Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Connecticut, on September 17. Another conference titled "America and the Holocaust: Politics, Art, History," will be conducted by David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, at Fordham University.

The article discusses the role of historical facts and evidence in societal debates as of 2015. Topics include the role of selective advocacy rather than coverage of essential events in history curricula, the role of history courses in collective memory of past injustices, and the denial of past atrocities for nationalist or political purposes in nations including Turkey, Japan, and China.

The article discusses the report "Recasting History: Are Race, Class, and Gender Dominating American History?" from the educational organization the National Association of Scholars, and argues that it is misguided in assuming that the inclusion of social history in the teaching of American history leads to a more narrow learning experience.

The article discusses a controversial study about the history knowledge of college students conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. The report showed that American universities were failing to teach their students about American history. Some of the most prestigious schools were shown to do the worst. The researchers did not have their study peer-reviewed, but took the results directly to the media. After further investigation, many who have studied the methodology of the study believe it to be severely flawed. Details about the study and the criticisms of it are elaborated.

Presents a narrative of the author's experience of giving a series of lectures on American history and the global impact of American culture to students and faculty members at several universities in central Java, Indonesia. Information that Indonesia is a country with the largest Muslim population in the world; Expectation of the author that he would meet a number of people in Indonesia who had some familiarity with the U.S.; Information that the author had a difficult time communicating with audiences in Indonesia.

Discusses the task of reconstructing the history of South Africa and reteaching it in schools. Plan of the government to overhaul the apartheid-era education system; Factors that hinder the implementation of the changes; Debate among history professors.

Reports on the Organization of American Historians executive board's issuance of a statement affirming the importance of studying race, class, sex and ethnicity in history curricula in public schools. Need for a balanced voice over whether to increase multicultural education in the schools; Criticism on the programs which are claimed to emphasize 'Afrocentrism.'

Comments on challenges in the study of history in Russia. Cancellation of history exams in universities; Requirement for textbooks to be rewritten; Replacement of falsified history of the past with truthful account.

The article discusses the era of geological time known as the Anthropocene and the expansion of the frame of reference among historians. According to the article, the group the International Geologic Congress endorsed the Anthropocene. It also discusses French historian Fernand Braudel and the speed of change in society.

The author contends that digital technology that enables the significant enlargement of historical material will drastically alter how historians will research and write about history.

The author reflects on how technological innovations discourage an appreciation for the past and history, suggesting that higher education similarly distracts students and teachers from the achievements of history. Particular attention is given to the poststructuralism movement and the emergence of identity politics.

The article examines history as an academic subject, discussing how its value, objectives, and theories have changed over time. It notes that Marxism, modernization theory, and cultural theories were all used before globalization was implemented as an alternative area of study within history. The author goes on to explore how globalization can be viewed from a top-down or bottom-up approach, which can determine how the process is perceived by historians and scholars.

An interview with executive director James Grossman of the American Historical Association (AHA) is presented. He discusses efforts to train doctoral students in history in non-academic job skills. He notes a grant for graduate programs to train history graduate students for alternative careers. The use of apprenticeships to train graduate students in university jobs other than teaching or research is noted.

The article discusses a report created by the educational association the National Association of Scholars (NAS) asserting that social history is too dominant in the teaching of American history in U.S. universities, and argues that the report's conclusions are correct. The assertion that many history departments suffer from a lack of intellectual diversity is also offered.

The article presents a reprint of the essay "No More Plan B," by Anthony T. Grafton and Jim Grossman, which appeared in the October 2011 issue of "Perspectives on History," the journal of the American Historical Association. The authors discuss the ways in which students studying to obtain a doctoral degree in the field of history can apply their research and analytical skills to a wide range of employment opportunities, not just those in academe, and encourage history departments to emphasize this approach in student recruitment.

In this article the authors discuss the difficulties each of them have experienced in developing their careers as historians, one as a professor at the University of Michigan and one as a public historian, and examine the benefits that public history projects and the discipline in general serve in the U.S. They comment on their collaborative effort to develop a graduate public history course at Michigan that will require students to complete historical research and participate in historic preservation and overview how the course will benefit the goals of the U.S. National Park Service. Additionally, the authors present their views on the relationship between academic and public history.

The author discusses the spirit of anti-intellectualism as presented in historian Richard Hofstandter's book "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life." The author examines the changing public sentiment towards intellectuals. The author responds to two arguments regarding liberal education and developing knowledge of history and critical thinking among students. He asserts that liberal education is essential for enriching the individual experience.

The article presents an in-depth examination into the job market for historians in the 21st century. Details are given describing several challenging trends in higher education, such as the limiting of degrees being bestowed by elite institutions, the overabundance of degree holding job-seekers, and the disadvantageous structural organization held by many colleges. An overview is also given of the many changing conditions of the history field since the 1950s, noting that there was no "golden age" of clear stability and demand.

The article presents a discussion concerning the use of unprepared texts in lesson plans. The author presents an argument advocating his own use of various assigned works which he himself has yet to read. The importance of not just different learning styles, but different teaching styles, is highlighted and the merits of interacting with fresh material are stressed. Challenges to the author's techniques are included and discussed, such as the question of the reliability or value of the text if it had not been previously examined.

The article discusses the experience of the author of teaching Middle Eastern history at a large research university in the South. Like any new faculty member, the author's anxieties revolved primarily around not breaking the PowerPoint projector, not being mistaken yet again for a graduate student instead of a professor, and not spilling spinach dip on the dean at one of the innumerable faculty mixers held at the beginning of the academic year. Since neither of the letters specified exactly what the author had done to place the author in the ranks of someone who, as one of the letters put it, shoveled Jews into the ovens at Dachau, it took me a couple of days of inquiries and some Google searching to figure out what was going on.

This article reports that the Hollywood actor Peter Weller is drawing rave reviews for his unlikeliest role yet: a college professor and expert in Roman history and art. Weller, 58, is best known as the titanium-clad hero of RoboCop. But lately he has been spotted teaching undergraduates of Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York City about the Roman Empire. A collector of ancient Roman coins, he earned a master's in Roman and Renaissance art in 2004 through Syracuse University's program in Florence. As a teaching assistant for Robert A. Hatfield, a Michelangelo scholar, Weller was a natural in the classroom.

Presents an article on the challenges faced in working as teaching assistant for a long period of time. Experiences in studying at Brown University for a doctoral degree in history; Alternative career in the field of public history before deciding to continue the graduate studies; Influence of age on applying for teaching positions.

Presents an article about teaching Oral History and Performance: War and American Society, a military history course at Sonoma State University in Robert Park, California. Use of the DVD version of the play "The Vagina Monologue"; Activities in the class; Response of the students to the course content; Premise of the class.

Discusses several issues related to education. Recommendations for teaching Native American history; Concept of theory in science; Misconception about children and childhood.

Focuses on role-playing, a teaching technique employed by history professor Mark C. Carnes in his course at Barnard College in New York City. Features of the course; Mechanics of the educational game; Information on several arguments raised by students of Carnes; Risks of the technique employed by Carnes; Assignments given to students as preparation for the course.

Focuses on academic approaches to history as a field of study and teaching. Presence of much debate and contradiction in historical writing; Role of historiography in the practice of writing about history; Collective memory as a historical resource, and the factor of sentimentality; Relativistic approach that memory takes in historical interpretation, and the multiplicity that results in historical documentation; Comments on the text `The Devastation of the Indies,' by Bartolome De las Casas.

The article discusses financial commitments by Harvard University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to improve teaching through grants to faculty members. Topics include the adoption of the role-playing history teaching innovation Reacting to the Past, annual teaching conferences at Harvard, and the time that faculty members need to plan teaching innovations.

Reports that Randolph Community College in North Carolina has dropped a continuing-education course called `North Carolina History: Our Part in the War for Southern Independence.' Complaints against the course which put a pro-confederate spin on the Civil War; The premise that slaves were content with their lives in captivity as a key premise of the course; Jack Perdue, the instructor for the course.

Opinion. Comments on the way the American Historical Association has allowed its original mission of promoting the study of history to become muddled with posturing on difficult public-policy issues. Danger of division of membership; Taking positions for which no consensus exists; Deeper problem.

Discusses the report, titled 'One Nation, Many Peoples: A Declaration of Cultural Interdependence,' issued by the committee appointed by the New York State Department of Education to develop a social-studies curriculum for elementary and secondary students. Call for a conceptualization of history; Recognition of multiplicity and contradiction instead of homogeneity; Members of the committee; Issues that should be included in history teaching.

Reports that historian and professor emeritus at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, Gertrude Himmelfarb will deliver the 20th annual Jefferson Lecture, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Plan of the historian to take the occasion to assail what she sees as the failings of the new approaches in studying the past; Points of interests which she will include in her speech.

Reports on the views of women historians regarding the purpose and identity of women's history studies in the United States. Origin of women's history studies and its direction in U.S. education; Complications in scholarship due to factors affecting women's lives like race and class; Challenge on the diversity of feminism and the impact of professional success on societal criticism.

Describes University of Virginia history professor Edward Ayers' revisionist Civil War history project. His objection to the oversimplification of the conflict as a referendum on industrial society and the place of blacks in America; His creation of a Web site containing every available piece of information about two opposing communities, Confederate Augusta County, Virginia, and Unionist Franklin County, Pennsylvania.

Discusses classicist Mary Lefkowitz's refutation of the Afrocentric viewpoint in her book `Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became An Excuse to Teach Myth as History.' Lefkowitz's disagreement with the treatment of Greek history in Afrocentric work; Views on the racial make-up of ancient Greece; Egyptian influence on Greek thought; Contentions of racism and views on the teaching of history; Funding of Lefkowitz's book provided by conservatively oriented organizations.

The article presents a personal narrative of an Australian professor teaching world history at an American university and includes his perceived differences between Australian, British and American higher educational systems.

The article discusses dual-degree programs, earning a master's degree while working towards a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree, for history Ph.D. candidates. The authors provide their own stories of undergoing dual-degree programs and the benefits of job searching in multiple fields. Barriers for the program as well as ways to overcome them are discussed.

The article discusses statistics and surveys regarding the gender imbalance of students and faculty members in the academic fields of history and philosophy in the U.S. The article cites statistics which show male dominance in both disciplines and provides comments from several individuals regarding gender stereotypes in academe, college student recruitment, and interdisciplinary studies including professor Brian R. Leiter, professor Sally Haslanger, and American Historical Association deputy director Robert B. Townsend.

The article discusses massive open online courses (MOOCs), and presents the author's experiences teaching a MOOC on history in 1994. The course, which was run using Gopher internet protocol and an email discussion list and included participants from around the world, is described. The author's reflections on the limitations of MOOCs including the difficulty of engaging students with little contact, the lack of practical benefits for students due to their unaccredited nature, and few tangible rewards for teachers are also offered.

In this article the author discusses history doctoral programs at U.S. universities and argues that such programs should focus on interdisciplinary curriculum in order to best prepare students for employment in jobs both within and outside of academe. He comments that graduate professors should tailor the curriculum to meet the needs of individual students and presents remarks from Princeton University professor Julian E. Zelizer on training graduate students in history to enter the field of public policy. The author also highlights efforts at Yale University to prepare history Ph.D.'s to enter the field of public history in places such as museums, art galleries, and archives.

An essay is presented in which the author presents his beliefs that doctoral programs in history at U.S. universities should be reformed to better prepare students to enter into nonacademic careers, adapted from a speech he gave at a conference of the American Historical Association (AHA). He comments on the lack of tenure-track college history professorships available, argues that civic leadership should be a focus of the education and training of historians, and discusses interdisciplinary studies in graduate education.

The article discusses the job market for graduates of doctoral programs in history and examines how several U.S. universities are developing systems to track the employment outcomes of their graduates. Particular focus is given to the impact of the U.S. economic crisis on the availability of tenure track positions as college professors of history and increased criticism of college humanities departments regarding their educational quality. Potential changes to college history doctoral programs, including their training of students to find employment outside of academe, are examined and the ways in which the history department at Rutgers University is handling such issues is highlighted.

The article discusses the Web site the History Engine, which was designed to help students in the United States work together to make sense of history documents online. The site helps students publish brief essays on American history. The entries are moderated by professors and organized by time period, geographic location, and themes.

The author discusses the issues that she faced in teaching a class about African American history at a college with a small African American student population. The author discusses how the election of U.S. President Barack Obama shows the changes that have taken place in American society where an African American can be elected to the nation's highest public office. The author comments on the aspects of slavery and the other abuses that African Americans have suffered in history would be incorporated into the course.

The article presents information on the contributors to "The Journal of American History" special edition, "Through the Eye of Katrina: The Past as Prologue?" The publication is edited by University of South Alabama history chair Clarence L. Mohr and Tulane University historian Lawrence N. Powell, who also is writing a history of New Orleans, Louisiana. The contributors, led by journal editor and Indiana University history professor Edward T. Linethal, are examining the historical context of 2005's Hurricane Katrina through sociological, geographical, and musicological viewpoints. The special issue addresses issues including culture and geography, attempts to engineer safety in a location surrounded by water, and the event's impact on the U.S. government.

A description is given of the course "Western Civilization in Python Perspective," offered at Alfred University of Alfred, New York, studying the depiction of history within the films of Monty Python.

The article presents information on a global modules program at Champlain College in Vermont. History professor Gary Evans Scudder Jr. decided, in 2003, to connect his senior class world issues students with students at a Champlain campus in Dubai in order to broaden discussion. With help from the information technology staff, a secure online discussion forum was opened and the first global module proceeded. Each semester Scudder partners with a foreign institution and students at each university study the same reading on a topic and then discuss the material online. Examples include discussion of peace activism with Austrian students, women's issues with Moroccan students, and Aristotle's concept of friendship with Israeli students.

The article looks at the disappearance of American culture studies within American history education in colleges and universities. According to the article, the majority of American historians no longer regard American culture an essential area of study. The author states that most of the re-examinations of American culture are not written by academics, but by freelance journalists and film critics. The article discusses several books, including "The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America," by Lawrence W. Levine, and opportunities for students to learn about American culture.

The article discusses the results of the 2006 U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports. In June 2007, the federally financed organization released the results of its 2006 tests of historical knowledge among schoolchildren. Although there were small improvements since the last NAEP test in 2001, the author states that the new findings were appalling. Those with basic or below knowledge declined only a few percentage points. The report appeared amid plans to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, whose focus on reading and mathematics has been blamed for cutbacks in other subjects, such as history.

The article reports that Douglas G. Brinkley, author of a best-selling book on Hurricane Katrina, is leaving Tulane University and heading westward to Rice University, where he will try to make Rice's history department one of the best in the country. The move comes after Brinkley became director of the Theodore Roosevelt Center for American Civilization and a history professor at Tulane in 2005, when he was convinced he would spend the rest of his career there. He is glad to stay in the Gulf Coast region.

The article focuses on the American Historical Association's Annual Meeting, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, from January 4-7, 2007. Conference attendance statistics, job recruiting activity, and debates concerning campus speech codes, are discussed. U.S. Representative John Lewis, D-Georgia, was awarded the Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Award for his involvement in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. A resolution expressing opposition to the Iraq War was passed at the association's business meeting; the resolution will be submitted to an electronic vote of the membership.