Department Faculty Presentations

Please join us this Friday, January 28, from 3 to 5 pm in room 340 Morrill Hall to hear short presentations from four faculty members on their current research:

Dr. Richard Bellon: “Panoramic Vision, Inductive Legitimacy and Social Respectability in Victorian Science”

Dr. Leslie Page Moch: “Russians on the Road: Migration in the Tsarist Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Post Soviet States”

Dr. Benjamin Smith: “Popular Conservatism in Mexico, 1500–2000”

Dr. Ronen Steinberg: “Transitional Justice in the Age of the French Revolution”

Refreshments will be provided.

Posted on 25 January 2010 | 4:51 pm

Professor to Playwright

Faculty member Dr. David Bailey will have a staged reading of his play “Liars” this Sunday, December 20th at Riverwalk Theater at 7:00pm. Admission is free. Stop by and support the arts.

Posted on 18 December 2009 | 10:12 am

Professor Published, Translated

Professor Peter Beattie’s book The Tribute of Blood: Army, Honor, Race and Nation in Brazil 1864-1945 has been translated into Portuguese: Tributo de Sangue. The department wishes Professor Beattie a hearty congratulação for this honor.

Posted on 20 October 2009 | 9:36 am

History Podcast Gets Write-up on AHA Blog

The American Historical Association has posted an article highlighting the growing popularity of Africa: Past and Present, hosted by Professors Peter Alegi and Peter Limb.

Podcasts continue to gain popularity in both social and academic realms, becoming a routine part of Internet lingo.

Peter Alegi, associate professor in history at Michigan State University (MSU), and Peter Limb, adjunct associate professor in history at MSU and Africana bibliographer, host each program. “Our mission,” they explain, “is to broaden the availability and accessibility of cutting-edge knowledge relating to African experiences and to do so in a down-to-earth and informed manner.”

Check out the post at http://blog.historians.org/; later this week the AHA blog will feature a Q&A session with Professor Peter Alegi.

You can follow Africa: Past and Present here: http://afripod.aodl.org/

Posted on 19 October 2009 | 10:14 am

Announcement for the 3rd Annual MSU Africanist Graduate Student Conference

We are pleased to announce that Michigan State University will convene its Third Annual Africanist Graduate Student Conference on the weekend of October 9-10, 2009. The theme for the 2009 conference is “Africa’s Challenges and Possibilities”. Dr. James A. Pritchett, Director of the MSU African Studies Center, will give the opening keynote address on Friday, October 9, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. in the International Center, Room 303. The keynote address will be followed by a reception. On Satruday, October 10, 2009, panels will run from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. on topics such as technology, religion, sport, music, ethnicity, and politics in Africa.

The History Department’s generous support and involvement plays a critical role in the conference’s success. History Department organizers include Jill Kelly, Leslie Hadfield, Joshua Grace, Matthew Park, Erin Lambert, and Menna Baumann. This year’s department presenters include Joshua Grace, Matthew Park, Menna Baumann, Erin Lambert, Joseph Davey, Ndebueze Leonard Mbah, and Ashley Wiersma. Dr. Nwando Achebe and Leslie Hadfield are serving as panel discussants.

Please considering joining us for the conference. For more information, visit http://africa.msu.edu/gradconference/index.php

Posted on 29 September 2009 | 10:30 am

Ethan Segal Publication

Professor Ethan Segal’s chapter “Awash in Coins: The Spread of Money in Early Medieval Japan” has just come out in the edited collection of essays “Currents in Japanese History,” edited by Gordon Berger, Andrew Goble, Lorraine Harrinton, and Cameron Hurst, published by Figueroa Press (University of Southern California).

Over the summer, Ethan presented papers at two international conferences: in May he presented on Hojo Masako and women’s roles in early Japanese warrior society at the University of Tallinn (Estonia), and in August he spoke on the current world financial crisis and long- term effects on Asia at a Harvard business conference held at Waseda University (Tokyo).

Posted on 29 September 2009 | 10:19 am

Javier Pescador’s New Book and Art Exhibits

Professor Javier has just published Crossing Borders with the Santo Nino de Atocha with University of New Mexico Press. He has presented the department with a copy of this beautifully bound book.

Moreover, The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago has chosen Pescador’s installation “Santo Nino-Quetzalcoatl” (with Gabrielle Pescador) for contribution to the museum’s “Camino a Casa: Day of the Dead” an international ensemble of artists who have created installations for the largest Day of the Dead exhibit in the hemisphere.  The exhibit runs from September 25 to December 13. For more information on “Camino a Casa: Day of the Dead” please visit the website for the National Museum of Mexican Art here.

In addition, “Curanderas: Heart & Hands of Coatlicue” a solo photography/painting exhibit by Gabrielle and Javier Pescador, just finished at the Riverside Arts Gallery at Ypsilanti. He will have an exhibition, entitled “Border Crossers Never Forgotten” coming up later in October here in East Lansing at the Michigan State University Museum and Cristo Rey Community Center.

You can find out more about Professor Pescador’s art and upcoming exhibits at his website http://www.pescadorarte.com/

Posted on 29 September 2009 | 9:52 am

Susan Sleeper-Smith’s Edited Volume “Contesting Knowledge” Now Released

Professor Susan Sleeper-Smith’s edited volume, Contesting Knowledge, the fruits of a symposium she organized at the Newberry Library, has just been released. Dr. Sleeper-Smith also published over the summer “Resistance to Removal: The `White Indian’ Frances Slocum’” in Enduring Nations: Essays on the History of Native Americans in the Midwest, a book edited by R. David Edmunds, and published by the Indiana University Press. Her work, “Women, Kin, and Catholicism: New Perspectives on the Fur Trade,” has been reprinted in two new volumes: American Encounters: Native Americans and Newcomers From European Contact to Indian Removal, edited by Peter C. Mancall and James H. Merrell and published by Routledge Press and Native Women’s History in Eastern North America: A Guide to Research and Writing,” edited by Rebecca Kugle and Lucy Murphy and published by the University of Nebraska Press.

Posted on 16 September 2009 | 4:51 pm

Dr. Siegelbaum’s Book, “Cars for Comrades” wins Ed Hewett Prize

Professor Lewis Siegelbaum is the winner of the prestigious Ed Hewett Prize for his book, Cars for Comrades. The Ed A. Hewett Book Prize, sponsored by the  National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER), is awarded annually for an outstanding publication on the political economy of the centrally planned economies of the former Soviet Union and East Central Europe and their transitional successors.

More information regarding Lewis Siegelbaum’s recently awarded book and prize can be found here.

Posted on 16 September 2009 | 4:42 pm

Interim Chairperson published in Slavic Review

Professor and Interim Chair Dr. Keely Stauter-Halsted’s article “Moral Panic and the Prostitution in Partitioned Poland: Middle-Class Respectability in Defense of the Modern Nation,” appears in this month’s issue of Slavic Review. Interested parties may read an abstract of the article here.

Posted on 16 September 2009 | 4:15 pm