Month: March 2012

During 2012-2013, Truman history professor Daniel Mandell will focus on research and writing at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in Worchester, Mass., thanks to a long-term fellowship awarded by the AAS and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  He will also spend a week as a visiting scholar at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies.  Mandell’s project, which began with his sabbatical in 2007, is a study of changing concepts of equality in America.

The AAS, founded 200 years ago, is one of the oldest research libraries in the United States, with one of the most complete holdings of materials published in America before 1850.  The NEH provides much of the funding for the Society to give three long-term research fellowships every year to scholars who apply on an international competitive basis.  Mandell will spend most of his time at the Society reading relevant children’s literature, newspapers, pamphlets, and periodicals published between 1790 and 1850,.  He also expects to write large segments of the book manuscript, which will examine questions of class and ideas of equality from 1600 through 1880.

The Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, founded in 1930, is one of the world’s foremost centers for groundbreaking theoretical science and humanities research, with closely linked Schools of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Historical Studies.  Every year each of the Schools brings together scholars to conduct and share research on aspects of a broad topic; Mandell will be participating in the School of Social Studies, which this coming year will focus on the theme of “Economics and Politics.”

Huping Ling, Professor of History, has been selected by the University of Saskatchewan as a Role Model Speaker at the College of Art and Science in 2012. She will deliver a public lecture on the “Rise of China and Chinese in North America” on May 15, 2012.

On March 29 and 30, Professor Ling will give a series of invited public lectures in Chicago on her newly published book Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community Since 1870 (Stanford University Press, 2012). She has been invited by DePaul University for its “Women’s History Month Lecture” to deliver a public lecture on “Celestial Women in the Windy City” on March 29 (Richardson Library Room 400, 5-6 pm), by the Asian American Studies Program at University of Illinois in Chicago to give a public lecture on “Chinese in Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community” on March 30 (208 Burnham Hall, 10-11am), and by the Chinese American Service League to give a public lecture on “Chinese Community in Chicago” (Grand Hall, 2141 S. Tan Court, 1-2pm).

On Thursday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m., The Truman State Department of History will host Rev. Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C from Notre Dame University, who will deliver the 2012 Barbara Early-Vreeland Lecture.  The Lecture will take place in the Student Union Building, Activities Room.

Rev. Miscamble, Professor of History at Notre Dame, will speak on his recently published book The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

At Notre Dame, Rev. Miscamble teaches U.S. diplomatic and political history.  His research focus is post World War II U.S. foreign policy.  The author of numerous books, two of his titles have received the Harry S. Truman Book Award.  Those have been George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, 1947-1950 (Princeton University Press, 1992) and From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

A native of Australia, Rev. Miscamble earned both a B.A. and a M.A. from the University of Queensland.  He then earned three degrees at Notre Dame: a Master of Divinity, a M.A. in history, and his Ph.D. in history.  He was ordained as a priest in 1988.

The Barbara Early-Vreeland Lecture, established by Joseph Vreeland in memory of his wife who graduated from our university in 1973, gives the Truman community the opportunity to hear public lectures by scholars of international reputation.