Fall 1999 Newsletter
History

“The Emperor Jones was one of several plays produced by the WPA's Federal Theatre Project in which blacks and black themes were featured. The play also was one among many controversial productions of the FTP. On the bottom of the poster, patrons are directed to the ‘white front cars’ of the trolley when proceeding to the theater.”(From Library of Congress exhibition)
(http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/homepage/lchp.html)

WELCOME BACK

The history faculty welcomes you back to the fall 1999 semester. History is on the march! The numbers of history majors have been growing and we will be adding to our full-time faculty as well. If you have friends who are interested in history, pass this newsletter along to them. Don’t keep the exciting field of history a secret.

We need your news. Submit your fascinating factoids to the editors, who have mailboxes in Room 724. Robin campus students may contact Prof. Rung in Room 600 or Box 360.

STUDENT NEWS & NOTES

Congratulations to MA student Glenn Jensen who recently presented a paper, “The AFL-CIO’s Activities in Vietnam During the War: Pacifying the Vietnamese via Trade Unions” to the Southern Labor Studies Conference in Atlanta. The paper is based upon his MA thesis, which explores the AFL-CIO’s participation in the Vietnam war. Mr. Jensen also presented his paper to a group of faculty and graduate students at Roosevelt in late September.

The Center for New Deal Studies welcomes its first graduate student assistant, Teresa Henderson, who will work during the fall semester on various Center projects. She currently works in a law office and earned her bachelor’s degree from Northeastern Illinois University. This fall she entered RU’s graduate program with an interest in recent U.S. history. Those interested in applying for next year’s fellowship may pick up applications in Room 724 downtown. The deadline is April 15.

Welcome to new students! Among our new recruits are Frank Pettice, a transfer from Prairie State College and an expert on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Mr. Pettice is a “reenactor” of Civil War soldiers, and has a presentation on the “Common Soldier” which he presents to area schools. He is also one of about 100 Abraham Lincoln reenactors in the United States.

EARN BIG MONEY! BECOME A HISTORIAN!

The Chicago Historical Society is seeking interns (some paid, some unpaid) for a variety of projects. Information on the internships is provided on the web at www.chicagohistory.org. Hard copies of the internships announcements are also posted on the history bulletin boards outside rooms 724 (downtown) and 600 (Robin) and on the bulletin board outside office 600F (Robin). Interested students should contact Marne Variso, Volunteer/Intern Coordinator (312-642-5035, ext. 345). 

Those interested in women’s history are invited to apply for an unpaid internship helping to develop a website and archive for the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union history project. Interns may be able to earn CREDIT through an independent study. If interested, contact Prof. Lynn Weiner (312-341-2134 or lweiner@roosevelt.edu).

The American Historical Association (AHA) seeks history graduate students or undergraduate history majors to undertake odd jobs at the annual convention here in Chicago (Jan. 6 to 10, 2000). Helpers will receive $10/hour and will be able to attend the conference for free. Interested students may contact Prof. Rung for applications (847-619-8563) 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Oct. 21, 11:30-2:00: Eighth Annual Roosevelt Lecture: The Legacy of New Deal Housing Policy. Speakers for the event include Prof. Gail Radford (SUNY-Buffalo) and Julia Stasch, Mayor Daley’s chief of staff and former housing commissioner. Former RU trustee and housing pioneer, the late Philip Klutznick will also be honored. Tickets, $40. RU students may receive discounted or complimentary tickets by calling Prof. Weiner (312-341-2134 or lweiner@roosevelt.edu).

Oct. 29, 8:30-Noon: A symposium on Child Care: Then and Now will be held in the Congress Lounge, sponsored in part by the Center for New Deal Studies. Featured speakers include Prof. Sonya Michel (Univ. of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign). Also invited are Manny Tuteur (United Needle Trades & Textile Employees); Carole Levine (National Council of Jewish Women); Nancy Shier (Ounce of Prevention Fund); and representatives for the Day Care Action Council and Family Resource Coalition. Tickets $5, but FREE for RU students who contact Prof. Weiner (see above).

Nov. 4, 5:30 p.m. Project: First Century, a series of lectures and discussions about the history of black Chicago will continue with Christopher Reed’s presentation, “Recent Findings from the National Archives on Black Chicago’s Military and Civilian Participation in the Civil War.” This lecture will be repeated on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 1:30 p.m., George Cleveland Hall Branch, Chicago Public Library, 4801 S. Michigan Ave.

Nov. 11: Time and place TBA: This year’s Carolyn W. Haas Lecture in honor of St. Clair Drake will feature Roosevelt alumnus (BA) Dr. Darlene Clark Hine, John A. Hannah Professor of History at Michigan State University. Dr. Hine’s talk is “Race, Gender, Power and Comparative Black History: A Look Ahead.”

Nov. 18th: The Mansfield Institute for Social Justice announces a talk by RU alumnus and UIC Ph.D. Tadeusz Debski to be held in the Sullivan Room (time tba, but around 4:00 p.m.). Dr. Debski will speak on the topic of his dissertation, a study of Polish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. Dr. Debski received his BA and MA at Roosevelt, where he worked with Prof. Leon Stein. Polish by birth, Dr. Debski experienced the war first hand, having been incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps. He later immigrated to the United States, became a machinist and then in his 60s went back to school. At 77 he became the oldest student ever to earn a Ph.D. at UIC. Join us for this special event. For more information, contact Prof. Leon Stein (847-619-8564).

SWINGING CLUBS

Two new clubs have swung into action. The history club, based at the Robin Campus, has been meeting since last spring. The group planss to sponsor many more activities of interest to history buffs, including a trip to the Frank Lloyd Wright Studio. For information contact President Holle Arnold harnold@cifnet.com or faculty advisor Margaret Rung (847-619-8563 or mrung@roosevelt.edu).

RU’s Phi Alpha Theta chapter, Kappa Upsilon, has been revived! A university-wide honor society, the group has begun meeting and seeks new members. To see if you qualify to join, contact Prof. Margaret Rung (see above).

FACULTY AT WORK

Congratulations to Stephen Brown, lecturer in history, for successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation at UIC, titled, “When Middle Class Ambition Met Southern Honor: A Cultural Study of the Leo Frank Case.”

Professor Dan Headrick will have his book, When Information Came of Age published by Oxford University Press. In July, Canal Cuarenta, a Mexico City TV station, interviewed Prof. Headrick (in Spanish!) on the history of telecommunications and international politics. He also continues to hone his skill at mixing business with pleasure. This summer he vacationed in the Ivory Coast, where he took pictures and gathered material for his BGS seminar on comparative cultures. In the Spring 2000 semester, he will be Distinguished Visiting Professor of World History at Hawaii Pacific University. Aloha!

Food Historian Prof. Bruce Kraig continues to express himself in many different media. This year, Prof. Kraig’s knowledge of the history of the hot dog came in handy, earning him air time on the History Channel and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” as well as print space in the Smithsonian Magazine. His own documentary, “Food for the Ancestors,” a program about the Days of the Dead in Mexico will be broadcast nationally on October 29 and on Chicago’s WTTW/Channel 11 at 6:00 p.m. on October 31. This feature is one of four on food and culture he and his collaborator, Jan Thompson, have contracted with PBS to produce. Next year, look for his documentaries on India and Korea. At times, he appeared in the flesh, giving talks for the Field Museum, the Newberry Library and the Fulbright Association. In addition, Prof. Kraig is working on writing one book (on the history of food in Chicago) and editing two others for a new series on food by the University of Illinois Press.

Prof. Christopher Reed’s book, “All the World is Here!” The Black Presence at White City will be published this December by Indiana University Press. Prof. Reed lectured on “The Historical, Documentable Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable” at the DuSable Museum of African-American History on August 29. He also spoke at RU College Alumni Day (Sept. 25) on “The Chicago NAACP as a Guide to Chicago History” and at the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association’s 2nd Annual Conference in Chicago on “The History of Black Entrepreneurship and Business Development in Chicago.”

In June 1999, Presidential Studies Quarterly published Prof. Margaret Rung’s “Richard Nixon, State and Party: Bureaucracy and Democracy in the Post-War Era.” Last spring she received RU’s Ostrowsky Award in the humanities for “Paternalism and Pink Collars: Gender and Federal Labor Relations, 1941-1950,” which was published in Business History Review. Prof. Rung also used an RU summer grant to spend four weeks at the National Library and Archives of Canada researching a new study of labor regulation in Canada and the United States.

Historian of the Holocaust, Prof. Leon Stein travels to Oxford University in July 2000 for “Remembering the Future 2000: An International Conference on the Holocaust.” While there he will deliver a paper entitled, “A Parting of the Cross: The Contrasting National Cultures of Lutheranism in Germany and Denmark During the Holocaust.” This past year he published a chapter, “Christians as Holocaust Scholars,” in Problems Unique to the Holocaust (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1999). Moreover, Prof. Stein became a frequent visitor to Milton Rosenberg’s radio program, “Extension 720” (WGN radio). In April 1999 he spoke about the Holocaust survivor as educator and in June returned for a discussion of Peter Novick’s book, The Holocaust in American Life.

In August, WBEZ radio interviewed Prof. Lynn Weiner about her current project on the history of the PTA. The following month, she presented a paper on the same topic to the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. She was also interviewed in the October issue of Chicago Parent. Prof. Weiner spent her RU research leave last spring gathering research for this study.

HOW TO STUDY HISTORY

Major: 33 semester hours in history, including Hist 106, 107, and Hist 111or 121, and Hist 112 or 121. Students write at least three term papers in history. For information, see the leaflet, “For Students who are Majoring in History,” available in Room 724 (dt) or 600 (Robin Campus).

Minor: Two courses from Hist 106, 107, 111, 112, 121, 122. Four upper-level courses in history, at least two of which are at the 300-level.

Graduate Degree: 36 (non-thesis) or 30 hours (with thesis) , including Hist 401 (methods) and Hist 450 (seminar). See the leaflet, “Graduate Studies in History,” available in Room 724 (dt) or 600 (Robin Campus).

The current graduate advisor is Prof. Leon Stein (Robin, 847-619-8564; dt, 312-341-2196).

FOOTNOTES

The Illinois Humanities Festival will be held in various Chicago locations (including Roosevelt) in early November. Among the historians appearing will be David Kennedy, who recently wrote a book on the period from 1929-1945 and J.C.D. Clark, noted historian of 18th century Great Britain.

SPRING PREVIEW

Impress your friends with your organization and foresight: enroll early for Spring 2000. Advanced registration begins October 25th. Remember, you do not have to register immediately after selecting your courses with your advisor. See your advisor, work out your schedule, and then meander into the registrar’s office when you & your pocketbook so desire!

Dr. Steve Soper , lecturer in history, will be offering Hist 358/458, From Vienna to Sarajevo, 1814-1914 on Saturday mornings at the Robin campus. This was a course previously offered at the 200 level.

Social Justice: History, Issues, Strategies (Hist/Libs 254) will be offered for the first time by Prof. Stein this spring. This course fulfills the signature course requirement and will also be used as a foundation course for a minor in social justice, now being developed.

HISTORY SPRING 2000 SCHEDULE

DOWNTOWN

• 106: The U.S. to 1865 M/W 10:50-12:05, Kinney, J.
• 107: The U.S. Since 1865 T 6:00-8:30, Orenic, L.
• 121:Hist of Western Civ to 1648 W 6:00-8:30, Kraig, B.
• 122: Hist of Western Civ fr 1648 T/Th 9:25-10:40, Staff
• 229: Af-Amer Hist, 1877-present T/Th, 12:15-1:30, Lucas D.
• 240: Intro to Africa W, 6:00-8:30, Okafor, J.
• 254: Social Justice: History, Issues, Strategies T/Th, 12:15-1:30, Stein, L.
• 255: History of Philosophy M, 1:40-4:10 , Warner, S.
• 322/422: Renaissance & Reformation W, 1:40-4:10, Kraig, B.
• 323/423: Urban Vision: Cities & Suburbs in Hist W, 6:00-8:30, Rung, M.
• 326: Gender & American Identity M 6:00-8:30, Staff
• 337/437: Hist of U.S. Reform Movements M/W 12:15-1:30, Weiner, L.
• 349/449: North American Slavery M/W 10:50-12:05, Reed, C.
• 351/451: U.S. in Early National Period M 6:00-8:30, Reed, C.
• 352/452: Making of Mod. America, 1880-1929 T 6:00-8:30, Brown, S.
• 354: Middle East Conflict Th 6:00-8:30, Miraki, M.
• 376/476: History of Food in Americas Th 6:00-8:30, Kraig, B.

ROBIN CAMPUS

• 106: The U.S. to 1865 W 6:30-9:00, Brown, S.
• 107: The U.S. since 1865 T/Th 12:15-1:30, Rung M.
• 111: The World to 1500 F 10:50-1:20, Kraig, B.
• 122: Hist of Western Civ Since 1648 Th 6:30-9:00, Grossman, R.
• 240: Intro to Africa M 1:40-4:10, Staff
• 260: Ethnicity in North Amer. Cities T 3:05-5:35, Rung, M.
• 314/414: Native Amer in U.S. Hist T 6:30-9:00, Staff
• 327/427: U.S. Labor History M 6:30-9:00, Orenic, L.
• 358/458: Eur., Vienna to Saravejo, 1814-1914 S 9:30-12:00, Soper, S.
• 383/483: Hist & Pol of Women in U.S. Th 6:30-9:00, Staff

History