History Commons^™

A December To Remember, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It has been a December to remember. As the month comes to a close with a remarkable flurry of headline sports stories, its clear that this one month was not only one for the memory bank, but that it may have been the most fitting way to end a year that has certified the decade as the Naughty Naughties. What seemed like an awkward tag at the beginning of the new century has become a most appropriate signature phrase as this decade comes to its ignominious close.

Bobby Bowden Departs, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

When is the right time to leave? Some wait too long, others leave too soon. Some go out on top. Some tarnish their legacy before letting go.

Into The Murky World Of Class Consciousness, Peter S. Carmichael

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

In a 1975 article on the place of yeomen farmers in a slave society, Eugene D. Genovese identified a critical question concerning the nature of the Old South. The issue, he wrote, is to explain “the degree of class collaboration and social unity” that existed among all whites, which to Genovese appeared “all the more impressive in the face of so many internal strains.” Although some critics mistakenly charged that Genovese argued for non-slaveholder passivity in the face of planter hegemony, he was, in actuality, acknowledging that class relations were permeated with tension and discord, causing bitter resentments that occasionally …

Self-Advocacy Of Women In Sexualized Labor, 1880-1980s, Kim Marie Matthews

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study is to centralize, into women's history, the marginalized historical voices of women activists working in sexualized labor (and/or those using sexualized economic strategies). This thesis situates the work of Josie Washburn, a former madam who turned self advocate in 1907, squarely within the Progressive Era debate on prostitution, By centralizing women's voices of sexualized lahor, it provides a means to track the long-term evolution of the intersections between women's sexualized labor choices, traditional labor choices, self-advocacy, popular media, and social/political movements on behalf of women. This study asserts that a majority Progressive Era working women …

Marginal Benefit Of Hosting The Summer Olympics: Focusing On Bric Nation Brazil (Rio 2016), Benjamin Mcguirk Wagar

Global Studies Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Estatura Y Condiciones De Vida En Tiempos De Morelos, Amilcar Challú

History Faculty Publications

¿Cuánto medía Morelos? ¿Un metro y medio? ¿Era de estatura media? Lo que implica fi nalmente preguntar: ¿cuál era la estatura media en los tiempos de Morelos? Al fi nal de esta pesquisa la respuesta a esas preguntas quedará clara. Morelos medía cerca de 1.60 cm, unos cuatro centímetros más baja que la media de los nacidos en su año (1764). Pero comparado con los nacidos en el año de su muerte (1815), la estatura de Morelos hubiera estado casi en el promedio. El caso de la estatura de Morelos es una anécdota, pero el ejercicio que nos permite estimar …

Interview With Funeka Sihlali, Renell Schubert

Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement

Length: 92 minutes

Oral history interview of Funeka Sihlali by Renell Schubert

Ms. Sihlali begins by describing her childhood in King William’s Town when the Apartheid regime was instituted, living in government housing with her family in a single-room house with no bathroom, sharing a toilet with four other households. She explains having to learn the customs which were different from that in her home, for example, to look at African elders was a sign of disrespect, but outside of the home, she had to learn to make eye contact with white people to keep them from seeing her as …

Interview With Otis Cunningham, Danny Fenster

Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement

Length: 98 minutes

Oral history interview of Otis Cunningham by Danny Fenster

Mr. Cunningham begins by explaining what it was like growing up amidst the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago, witnessing the reactions to the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. He explains how he first became involved in activism for African liberation movements when he joined the African-American Solidarity Committee where he served on the editorial board of their journal and he elaborates on the work they did. He recalls the social gatherings that sprung up through the movement. He explains the complicated history and relationships …

Islamic-Catholic Relations: A Local And Global Comparison, Matthew Hoppler, Jennifer Bell, Ruth Donaghey

Global Studies Student Scholarship

In our modern world, religion remains one of the most important aspects of an individual’s life, no matter what faith they choose to celebrate. Given the world’s increasing interconnectedness and continuing globalization, members of different faiths are becoming more exposed to communities of one another. In modern times, the disagreements between faiths continue just as they have in the past; however there are more efforts on each side to overcome differences and establish a peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding. Two of the most prominent faiths in today’s world are Catholicism and Islam, which have many differences between them. As Americans, …

End The Nfl Blackout!, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the past week there has been some comment on the NFL television blackout policy that prohibits the televising of home games in the home market unless there has been a sellout 72 hours in advance of kickoff. Some, including Richard Sandomir of the New York Times, have suggested that in this time of economic crisis, when it appears that the number of sellouts of NFL games will be dropping, that Commissioner Goodell should end or suspend the blackout policy. This is a reasonable sentiment, although one might question if offering more blood and circuses offers a viable solution to …

Making The College New - And Old - Again, Catherine Mcnicol Stock

Convocation Addresses

Catherine McNicol Stock, professor of history, says one must look at the College's history to inform an understanding of its present and future.

'Roots Run Deep Here': The Construction Of Black New Orleans In Post-Katrina Tourism Narratives, Lynnell L. Thomas

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

This article explores the emergent post-Katrina tourism narrative and its ambivalent racialization of the city. Tourism officials are compelled to acknowledge a New Orleans outside the traditional tourist boundaries – primarily black, often poor, and still largely neglected by the city and national governments. On the other hand, tourism promoters do not relinquish (and do not allow tourists to relinquish) the myths of racial exoticism and white supremacist desire for a construction of blacks as artistically talented but socially inferior.

The Water Torture Of Baseball's Steroid Leaks, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

When I was a young boy I remember using the term "Chinese water torture" for any activity that seemed long, torturous, and pointless. I have been reminded of this repeatedly over the last few years as slowly, usually one by one, the names of those baseball players who tested positive for some sort of performance enhancing drugs have become public. Anonymous and confidential drug testing that was conducted for Major League baseball and the MLB Players Association in 2003 to determine the extent of a drug problem in baseball has turned out to be not so confidential.

An Amazing Open, And An Obscenity In Arlington, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

If you watched The Open from Turnberry this weekend there were two surprises: Tiger Woods didn’t make the cut and Tom Watson nearly won the tournament. It became obvious that Tiger wasn’t playing his A-game when in the middle of his second round he played himself out of the tournament. Woods was one under par after seven holes and then went bogey, bogey, double bogey, par, bogey, double bogey. He was hitting shots that any weekend duffer could relate to as he topped the ball, mishit the ball several times, and explored all of the varieties of the rough. It …

Fabulous Finals At Wimbledon, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It’s been a week now since the finals were played at Wimbledon. On the women’s side the Williams sisters once again demonstrated to their opponents just how difficult it will be to win a tournament during which both of them are playing their normal game. On the men’s side Roger Federer entered the history books by winning his 15th Grand Slam event. As always Wimbledon offered a level of play that was memorable, and laid down new bench marks for high quality play and then reset the argumentative territory for the title “best Wimbledon match of all-time,” or at the …

American Studies, Cultural History, And The Critique Of Culture, Richard S. Lowry

Arts & Sciences Articles

For several decades historians have expressed reservations about how scholars of American studies have embraced theory and its jargons. The program for a recent American studies convention seems to confirm the field’s turn from history and its embrace of the paradigms and practices of cultural studies. The nature of this gap is complicated by comparing scholarly work published since 2000 on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era in the respective flagship journals of each field. Scholars in both fields are committed to the study of culture, but they differ in how they understand historical agency and subjectivity. A historical overview …

More Corruption In College Sports, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The story began with this line: The NCAA placed Alabama's football program and 15 other of the school's athletic teams on three years' probation for major violations due to misuse of free textbooks.

A Wild Weekend In Sports, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It was one of those weekends of sports gluttony, especially if you were fixated on a television set, intent on catching every bit of drama you could find. And indeed there was much to find. Hockey, basketball, tennis, golf, NASCAR, baseball, horse racing, and who knows how much else if you have access to the worldwide network of sports channels available from every corner of the universe. As for me, this weekend was extraordinarily full of sport as I was a bit under the weather and looking for escape from the realities of physical irritation.

Jienan Yuan (Chien Yuan) Interview, Lauren Smith

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with record producer and composer Chien Yuan by Lauren Smith

Anita Chang Interview, Lauren Smith

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with filmmaker Anita Chang by Lauren Smith. For more information on the artist visit: http://anitachangworks.com/

Flo Oy Wong Interview, Angelika Piwowarczyk

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with Chinese American multimedia artist Flo Oy Wong by Angelika Piwowarczyk

http://www.flo-oy-wongartist.com/

Australian Aboriginal Ethnometeorology And Seasonal Calendars, Philip A. Clarke

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

This paper uses a cultural anthropological approach to investigate an indigenous Australian perspective on atmospheric phenomena and seasons, using data gained from historical records and ethnographic fieldwork. Aboriginal people believe that the forces driving the weather are derived from Creation Ancestors and spirits, asserting that short term changes are produced through ritual. By recognizing signals such as wind direction, rainfall, temperature change, celestial movements, animal behaviour and the flowering of plants, Aboriginal people are able to divide the year into seasons. Indigenous calendars vary widely across Australia and reflect annual changes within Aboriginal lifestyles.

Danny Pudi Interview, Shariq Jefferi

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with comedian Danny Pudi by Shariq Jefferi

Cynthia Tom Interview, Lauren Swift

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with painter and president of the Asian American Women Artists Association Cynthia Tom by Lauren Swift

Chris Naka Interview, Cheryl Franzen

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with new media and video artist Chris Naka by Cheryl Franzen

Vincent Chung Interview, Pete Koszulinski

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media's graphic designer Vincent Chung by Pete Koszulinski

Larry Lee Interview, Ami Shah

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with installation artist and curator Larry Lee by Ami Shah

Larry Lee website

View Larry's work in the AAOH project gallery

The Japanese Revolutionaries: The Architects Of The Meiji Restoration, 1860-1868, Dana Kenneth Teasley

Student Papers (History)

Scholars have offered many conflicting interpretations of the Japanese Meiji Restoration of 1868, but few have put forth a comprehensive analysis as to the nature of the protagonists and the motivation of those who initiated this revolutionary movement. Although historical interpretations of the Restoration and its heroes have ranged from a romantic and generalized theory of economic struggle to focused studies of individuals whose motivations were singular, the true character of the samurai revolutionaries behind the Restoration is the issue here. Of those samurai who, acquired knowledge of Western civilization and technology, took part in the Restoration, and witnessed the …

Vincent Pham Interview, Devin Meyer

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with Vincent Pham a Doctoral Student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and co-author of Asian Americans and the Media (Polity, 2008).

Gordon Cc Liao Interview, Elise Osenbaugh

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2009 interview with poet Gordon CC Liao