Join us for “Equality as the Foundation for Liberty: Reading the Declaration and Constitution Together,” a lecture that will be presented by Prof. Danielle Allen, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, at 1:30 p.m. in the Little Theater, Baldwin Hall.

The Declaration and Constitution are often thought to stand in tension with each other—the first promoting the ideal of equality, the second that of liberty. In this lecture, Professor Allen explores the argument of the Declaration to show the several ways in which it anticipates the Constitution and thereby draws equality and freedom into a close relationship with one another.

Prof. Allen is the author of Our Declaration and other books on various topics.

Che Guevara Final Project film from Che at the Movies (HIST 365), Truman State University, May 2014.

On April 12, 1945, Harry S. Truman became president of the United States following the death of his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt.  On the 69^th anniversary of that event, the weekend of April 12, 2014, students from Truman State University toured sites related to Truman in the greater Kansas City area.

The students were members of a class taught by Jeff Gall entitled “The Life and Times of Harry Truman.”  As they neared the end of the semester, what they had learned in class became more tangible as they visited the following sites in Independence, Grandview, and Kansas City: the Truman boyhood home, the Truman courtroom in the Jackson County Courthouse, the Truman Farm, “Boss” Tom Pendergast’s office, and the Victorian home where Harry and Bess lived their adult lives.

They also spent an afternoon at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.  There, before touring the museum, they took part in a historical simulation at the “White House Decision Center” in which they recreated Truman’s decision to enter the Korean Conflict.  Finally, they toured the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial, followed by a great meal at Kansas City’s landmark eatery, Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque.

The students would like to thank Dean Elizabeth Clark of the School of Social and Cultural Studies for financial support that helped make the trip possible.

The Truman Faculty Forum presents:

Dr. Jerrold Hirsch, History
“FWP 2.0: Is a 21st-century Federal Writers’ Project Possible?”
Wednesday, April 2, Baldwin 156 at 7p.m.

Dr. Hirsch will explore the renewed interest in the New Deal’s Federal
Writers’ Project since the economic implosion that began at the end of
2008. This renewed interest reflects seemingly permanent questions
about American culture and nationality, and about a perpetual need to
rediscover a diverse pluralistic America.

Refreshments will follow the talk.

Dr. Shannon Fogg, associate professor of history at Missouri University of Science and Technology, delivered the 2013 Barbara Early-Vreeland Lecture on March 26. Her lecture was entitled “Stealing Home: The Looting of Jewish Apartments in Paris During the Second World War.”  Dr. Fogg is an authority on life in Vichy France.  Cambridge University Press published her book The Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France: Foreigners, Undesirables, and Strangers in 2008. The Missouri History Conference voted it the best book produced by a Missouri historian that year. In her Early-Vreeland Lecture, Dr. Fogg discussed the focus of her new book. That work will survey the “Furniture Operation,” which the German occupation force implemented during World War II in order to deprive Jews in Paris of all of their household possessions. The event drew a large crowd of students, faculty, and members of the Kirksville community. More photos are available in the Photo Gallery.

Huping Ling, Professor of History, has been selected as Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor, by the Chinese Ministry of Education. The New Changjiang Scholar Program beginning in 2012 is funded and administered by the Chinese Ministry of Education. It is designed to select eminent scholars in the world to help internationalize China’s higher education and research. The program awards only 50 prominent scholars overseas annually, mostly in STEM and only a couple in social sciences, to teach and conduct research with leading Chinese scholars at selected institutions of higher education. Ling’s Chair Professorship is associated with Wuhan Theoretical Research Center of Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and the School of History and Cultural Studies at the China Central Normal University. During her tenure (October 2012-October 2015), Ling will work jointly with prominent Chinese scholars, conducting research on Chinese Overseas Studies, giving public lectures at conferences and universities, launching cutting-edge research projects, initiating new research institutions and programs, teaching courses in Asian American studies,  and supervising doctoral dissertations.

Rutgers University Press has launched a new book series on Asian American studies—“Asian American Studies Today”—in the summer of 2012. The Press has invited Ling to design the series and serve as the inaugural series editor. Asian American studies is a dynamic and vibrant field of study that has, in the four-plus decades since its creation, established itself as a well-developed academic discipline. The Asian American Studies Today Series at Rutgers seeks to publish quality monographs and essay collections on cutting-edge themes and issues. In particular, it is interested in manuscripts focusing on sub-groups, areas, and topics that have not yet received enough scholarly attention:  Southeast Asian Americans and other recent ethnic enclaves (such as the Japanese Shin Issei and Kashmiri Hindus), newer sub-groups of Asian Americans (such as professionals, undocumented immigrants, and Asian adoptees), communities in the Midwest and South, Asian American socioeconomic diversity, transnationalism, globalization, homeland polity, and other pertinent topics. Currently, only a handful of academic presses have book series on Asian American studies, such as Stanford University Press (Gordon Chang as series editor), the University of Illinois Press (Roger Daniels as series editor up to 2010), Temple University Press (co-editors), and Rutgers University Press (Huping Ling as series editor). Rutgers University Press has been actively publishing excellent titles in Asian American Studies, some have been award-winners. The new Rutgers Book Series will help enhance the Press’ reputation and attract strong manuscripts.

The Changjiang Scholar Chair Professorship is a great honor, not only to Professor Ling, but also to Truman. It would spread Truman’s name in China, help recruit best Chinese students for Truman (which is the fastest growing and the largest international student group at Truman now), and attract prominent Chinese scholars to teach at Truman under the Chinese government funding. The Rutgers book series editorship will also help boost Truman’s reputation and image as well.

Marc Becker’s Latin American History at the Movies made the following film depicting Argentina’s Dirty War. The Dirty War was known for the government’s ability to make people “disappear” as it targeted guerrillas and other opposition.The film follows the story of a young woman as she discovers the truth about her family and is forced to face what she thought was history.