Spring 1999 Newsletter
History

Introduction

The history faculty at Roosevelt welcomes you all back to the spring semester. We hope you enjoy this first newsletter, our effort to build a sense of community among our graduate and undergraduate students.

This newsletter is for you. Any students wishing to edit, write or submit information should contact the editors in room 724.

Who We Are

The history program consists of six full-time and several adjunct professors, about 25 undergraduate majors and about 45 graduate students seeking an MA. Our strengths are in American and European history.

Alumni News

Many distinguished people have graduated from our history program, including university professors, high school teachers, lawyers, writers, and journalists. Send us any alumni news! We have recently heard from:

Albert Lieberfarb (BA 1995), now an attorney specializing in immigration law.

TJ Mertz (MA 1994), working on his PhD dissertation in history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and studying 19th century school reform.

Marilyn Perry (MA 1997), now a free-lance writer specializing in corporate histories, genealogy, and encyclopedia articles.

New Fellowship Announced!

The Center for New Deal Studies, has just been given the Rosalind and Albert Lepawsky Fellowship, a tuition grant of $1500 to be offered to a history graduate student each year. The holder participates in Center activities and assists the Director during the fall semester. For details or to apply contact Joanne Canyon-Heller at 312-341-2440.

History at the Center of Things

Roosevelt historians direct three of the four Centers and Institutes within the College of Arts & Sciences. The Mansfield Institute for Social Justice is led by Professor Leon Stein, the Center for New Deal Studies is led by Lynn Weiner and the St. Clair Drake Center for African and African American Studies is led by Professor Christopher Reed.

Upcoming Events

February 1999: Project: First Century will continue with events focused on African-American history in Chicago. Details TBA.

April 1999: Irma Jockwig Miller Lecture in Chicago Metropolitan History (TBA).

April 22, 1999: The Center for New Deal Studies’ “Welfare to Work” series, featuring Professor Sonya Michel of the Univ. of Illinois at Champaign speaking on the history of day care in the U.S. (11:30, room 720, downtown).

May 3, 1999: Dr. Matthew Holden, RU Alumnus, Professor of Political Science at the University of Virginia and incoming president of the American Political Science Association will present the inaugural Carolyn Haas lecture in honor of St. Clair Drake. Look for details this spring from Professor Reed.

New Courses

Prof. Dan Headrick is offering History 253 (Contemporary World Cultures) on Tuesday evenings downtown. The course will compare the societies of Japan, Mexico, and the Ivory Coast to each other and to Chicago. Open to all undergraduates.

Look for History 326, Gender and American Identity at the Robin Campus.

It’s official! The university has approved a minor in North American Studies, consisting of 18 hours and including Libs 260, a course on North American metropolitan issues. This past fall, Prof. Rung and Prof. McHugh (political science) taught Libs/Hist/Pos 260, Ethnicity in North American Cities. Students interested in the minor should contact Prof. Rung (x3725).

How to Study History

Major: 33 semester hours in history, including Hist 106, 107 and any two of Hist 121, 122, 111, and 112. 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 downtown, or in Room 600 at Robin.

Minor: Two courses from Hist 106, 107, 121, 122, 111, 112. 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 downtown or Room 600 at the Robin Campus.

Current graduate advisors are Prof. Bruce Kraig (downtown, x3736) and Prof. Leon Stein (Robin Campus, x8564). Please contact them to schedule comprehensive exams.

Faculty News

Prof. Leon Stein has been named Mansfield Chair in Social Justice, and will direct the Mansfield Institute. A specialist in the history of the holocaust, Prof. Stein will be directing teacher training workshops at Roosevelt this summer.

The world’s expert on the history of the hot dog and a food historian, Prof. Bruce Kraig is completing a documentary for public television on the food and culture of Korea. His previous prize-winning shows featured the foods and cultures of Mexico and China. He also spoke this fall at Oxford University.

Look for Prof. Margaret Rung’s “Richard Nixon, State and Party: Democracy and Bureaucracy in the Postwar Era” in the Spring 1999 edition of Presidential Studies Quarterly. Her “Paternalism and Pink Collars: Gender and Federal Employee Relations, 1941-1950” appeared in Business History Review, v. 71, no. 3 this past June.

Prof. Lynn Weiner’s review of P. Muriello’s book, The Common Ground of Womanhood: Class, Gender and Working Girls’ Clubs, 1884-1928 was published in the Annals of Iowa. She also commented at a session of the American Studies Association in Seattle in November.

This fall, radio fans heard Prof. Christopher Reed interviewed about African American participation in the 1893 World’s Fair on WBEZ’s program, 848.

Summer/Fall 1999 Preview

Look for the course, Europe in the Age of Total War, to be offered at the Robin Campus this summer by adjunct professor Steven Soper (Ph.D., University of Michigan). We are working to offer more courses in European and Latin American history at both campuses and therefore encourage students to sign up so that we may continue to schedule these classes.

Footnotes

Students interested in forming a Roosevelt University chapter of Phi Alpha Theta (the history honorary society) should contact Prof. Rung at x3725.

Attention internet browsers! Check out the new history listserv designed for undergraduate history majors. Access it through h-net’s web site: http://www.h-net.msu.edu.

History