December 2008

Book by Linda Heywood and John Thornton wins African Studies prize

he annual meeting of the African Studies Association, held in Chicago No- vember 13-16, had as its theme “Knowledge of Africa: The Next Fifty Years.” On November 11 graduate student It is at this event that the winner of the annual Melville J. Herskovits Award T Michael McGuire traveled to Smith is announced, the most important book award in the field of African Studies. Last College, where he addressed an under- year’s winner was Barbara Cooper of Rutgers University (PhD from Boston Univer- graduate seminar studying the Smith sity in 1993). College Relief Unit (one of the non- At the awards ceremony on November 14, the Association revealed that this governmental organizations, or year’s winners were Professors Linda Heywood and John Thornton of Boston Uni- NGOs, his dissertation examines). En- versity for their jointly authored book, Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the titled “Allies Yet Adversaries: The Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660 (Cambridge University Press, 2007); a third Smith Unit and Its Organizational In- winner was Professor Parker Shipton of BU’s Anthropology Department. teractions in France,” it briefly covered The Heywood-Thornton book narrates the making of a Creole Atlantic world. It the complementary and competitive tells the story of the formative period of African American culture when Angolans relations the Smith Unit had with the were brought to the New Worldthrough the slave trade to Portuguese, English, and French government and several French Dutch colonies. The authors represent various Angolan kingdoms as culturally di- and American NGOs as the Unit verse and changing and show the attitudes of Europeans to the continental Afri- helped reconstruct sixteen devastated cans changing as they encountered African political, religious, cultural, and mili- villages in the Somme region. After the tary institutions. Internecine wars produced talk, Michael reports, he fielded stu- captives. Slave trading, initiated by Portu- dents’ questions on their research on guese pioneers, was taken over by Anglo- the Unit, offered advice on how to in- Dutch privateers, and then by Dutch and terpret and “decode” their sources, and British colonials conducting business with suggested how the Unit’s work “fit” African sellers. The book shows how the ex- into the broader contours of the First port of people who were already Christian World War and wartime and postwar and literate made the terms of enslavement Franco-American relations. differ over time. This multi-lingual research Professor Allison Blakely presented into the cultural, economic, and political a paper on “Postcolonial Immigration factors that produced the Atlantic Creole and Identity Formation in Europe world pays equal attention to intra-colonial Since 1945: The Russian Variant” at the and local African struggles and links specific International Institute of Social His- continental and New World histories and in- tory workshop on Postcolonial Immi- tegrates fine detail with a broad thematic vi- gration, co-sponsored by the Dutch sion. Royal Institute of Anthropology, No- Congratulations to Professors Heywood vember 7-8 in Amsterdam. He also pre- and Thornton on this significant recogni- sented a paper on “Blacks in Post-So- tion of their scholarly work. viet Russia in European Perspective” at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Ameri- US Civil War. emphasis on Arabization and Islamic can Association for the Advancement In October Professor Emerita Merle fundamentalist hostility toward Chris- of Slavic Studies, Philadelphia, No- Goldman participated in a conference tians have forced the exodus of Arme- vember 21. at the New School for Social Research nians in large numbers, thereby weak- In December visiting faculty mem- in New York on “Intellectuals at Risk.” ening the Armenian community. N ber Samuel Deese will publish an arti- It focused on the state of intellectuals cle in the UK history of science journal historically and at present in terms of Endeavour. The title of the article is “A “free inquiry.” Metaphor at Midlife: ‘The Tragedy of Professor Arianne Chernock deliv- the Commons’ Turns 40.” The meta- ered a paper on “Feminism as Perfect- phor used in Garrett Hardin’s influen- ibilism in Enlightenment Britain” at tial essay (“The Tragedy of the Com- the Northeast Conference on British mons”) led to the idea that human re- Studies, held at Boston College on No- production must be brought under the vember 14. coercive control of state power; al- Professor Andrew Bacevich had Professor Charles Capper, one of though this concept has been rejected two newspaper articles published: “The the editors of Modern Intellectual by every government on earth, with the Age of Triumphalism Is Over,” Los An- History, announces the contents of qualified exception of the People’s Re- geles Times (October 26) and “Evangeli- the November issue of the journal: public of China, the metaphor itself cal Foreign Policy Is Over,” Boston has become wildly popular in a variety Globe (November 6). of fields from ecology to property law In November graduate student to the programmatic architecture of the Robyn Metcalfe presented a paper at Kasper Risbjerg Eskildsen, “Leopold Internet. The Society for the History of Science von Ranke’s Archival Turn: Loca- Professor Eugenio Menegon pre- and Technology Conference in Lisbon, tion and Evidence in Modern sented a paper entitled “Ubi Dux, Ibi Portugal. The title of the paper was Historiography” Curia. Kangxi’s Imperial Hunts and the “The Removal of the Live Cattle Mar- Linda Walsh, “The ‘Hard Form’ of Jesuits as Courtiers” at the international ket in Nineteenth Century London” Sculpture: Marble, Matter and symposium “In the Light and Shadow and was part of a session titled “Cre- Spirit in European Sculpture from of an Emperor: Tomás Pereira, SJ (1645- ating a Liveable City.” the Enlightenment through Ro- 1708), the Kangxi Emperor, and the Je- A film has been made of the life of manticism” suit Mission in China” organized by Gabor Boritt (PhD from Boston Uni- Gillis J. Harp, “Traditionalist Dis- the Technical University of Lisbon and versity in 1967, now a well-known au- sent: The Reorientation of Amer- the Orient Foundation in the Portu- thority on ) begin- ican Conservatism, 1865-1900” guese capital on November 10-11. Based ning with his early days in Hungary. Trygve Throntveit, “The Will to Be- on first-hand reports by court Jesuits The work is entitled “ to Get- hold: Thorstein Veblen’s Prag- participating in three large imperial tysburg.” Boritt is Professor of Civil matic Aesthetics” hunting trips and military exercises in War Studies and Director of the Civil Mongolia and Manchuria in 1682-85, War Institute at . Essays this essay is part of Professor Men- Professor Simon Payaslian pre- Elizabeth Borgwardt, “Site-Specific: egon’s new research project on aristo- sented a paper, titled “The Armenian The Fractured Humanity of J. cratic networking and imperial patron- Community in Syria: Between Integra- Robert Oppenheimer” age at the Qing court during the seven- tion and Assimilation,” at the annual Devin O. Pendas, “Explaining the teenth and eighteenth centuries, as meeting of the Middle East Studies As- Third Reich: Ethics, Beliefs, Inter- seen through Chinese, Manchu, and sociation in Washington, DC, Novem- 23 ests” Western sources. ber . The paper examines the extent to Anna Vaninskaya, “The Orwell In October Professor Charles which the Armenian community in Century and After: Rethinking Capper served on America’s Media Syria has been integrated into Syrian Reception and Reputation” Makers Development and Production “nation-statehood,” on the one hand, Grants Panel of the National Endow- and has maintained a sense of Arme- Review Essays ment for the Humanities. nian national identity, on the other. Professor Nina Silber spoke to the The Armenian community has experi- John Coffey, “Milton, Locke and the Women’s History Graduate Program enced certain obstacles to integration New History of Toleration” and the campus community at large at since Syrian independence, including James A. Harris, “Editing Hume’s Sarah Lawrence College on November Arab nationalism and Nasserism in the Treatise” 5, addressing the question of research 1950s and 1960s, a chronic sense of polit- Thomas Augst, “Literary Practices methods and sources in studying men’s ical and economic instability, and Is- and the Social Life of Texts” and women’s experiences during the lamic fundamentalism. The growing

Page 2 NEWS professional Shakespeare company land, particularly looking at material (they’re doing The Merchant of Venice from 1960 to 1976, a time span that right now), writing curriculum and will reveal continuity or change from teaching in educator institutes. one Olympiad to the next. Bryan Thrift (PhD 2005) had an arti- cle entitled “Jesse Helms’s Politics of Pi-  Michael McGuire’s dissertation William Leeman (PhD 2006) had ous Incitement: Race, Conservatism, subject is “Comrades in Arms, Critics an article published in the September and Southern Realignment in the in Peace: American Non-governmen- 2008 issue of New England Quarterly: 1950s” published in the November 2008 tal Organizations, the Reconstruction “George Bancroft’s Civil War: Slavery, issue of The Journal of Southern History. of France, and Franco-American Rela- Abraham Lincoln, and the Course of tions, 1914-1929.” Mediated through History.” “The article started out,” Bill NGOs, humanitarian aid from the reports, “as my research paper for Pro- US reconstructed much of France and fessor Silber’s Civil War course in 2001— briefly yet intensely integrated tens of about historian George Bancroft’s in- thousands of French and American terpretation of the Civil War and his in- citizens. Despite the goodwill and teraction with Abraham Lincoln—and work of the NGOs, however, Franco- was extensively revised over the past GRAF award winners American relations soon grew year and a half. It was a lot of work but strained; Michael’s goal is to learn I’m really happy with how the article announced why such sustained NGO activities came out.” failed to improve postwar Franco- Lori Shaller (MA 1989) writes: I The fall winners of Graduate Research American relations. wanted to let you know about a re- Abroad Fellowships (which should re- The fellowship will enable Michael source which is appropriate for both ally be named the Barbara Diefendorf to consult several archives in France, professors and students. I’ve written awards for the faculty member who including the Archives de France, two teaching units, and have a third in first had the idea for them) included those of the Ministry of War, and process, for an e-text called www two students in the History Depart- those of the Ministry for Foreign Af- .worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu.Itisde- ment: Anne Blaschke (who received a fairs. He hopes these collections will signed for high school and college level short-term award) and Michael indicate “whether structural coopera- students, and it covers from the begin- McGuire (winner of a long-term fel- tion was evolutionary or consistent, ning of time to today. The e-text is di- lowship). whether the French government facili- vided up into “Big Eras” and covers so- tated or impeded structural coopera- cial, political, environmental, cultural,  Anne Blaschke is researching a tion and consolidation under the and economic topics. Ross Dunn, Pro- dissertation entitled “Manhood, Femi- American Red Cross, whether French fessor Emeritus of WorldHistory at San nism, and Sports: American Race and officials tried to insure that American Diego State University, conceived of Gender Politics at the 1968 Olympic NGO members could communicate and is the editor of the project, and it’s Games” in which she will explore how with French citizens, and what they been done in cooperation with the the Mexico City Olympics both re- did to insure that volunteers could Center for History in the Schools at flected and shaped broader develop- not enter and leave at their whim.” UCLA. It follows the National Stan- ments within sixties political culture. dards for History. I’ve written a unit In particular, the work will analyze The department congratulates called “Living Rooms,” which is an eco- the ’68 games as “a high-water mark of these two students and wishes them logical, experiential study of architec- gendered racial politics within the Af- well in their research. ture at the start of the nineteenth cen- rican American equality struggle,...as tury, and another unit called “Environ- the apotheosis of a specific strain of mental Change: The Great Accelera- gendered racial thought—an emphasis tion,” which looks at world on black manhood—and also as a environmental history from 1900 to turning point toward feminism for 1950. I’m working on a third unit on en- black women US athletes.” For the GRADUATE STUDENT MILESTONE vironmental history from 1950 to 2000. latter group, the Olympics “marked a I’ve actually left classroom teaching for critical transition from submission to Andrew Ballou’s dissertation prospec- now and am working for a Jewish social assertiveness in both sports and US tus has been accepted: “Fellowship Re- justice organization called Rabbis for cultural politics.” verberations: The Fellowship of Recon- Human Rights and am also writing cur- Anne will use the award to spend ciliation and Social Christianity, 1914- riculum and teaching teachers, both in time at the International Olympic 1947.” The first reader will be Professor history and in English. I work with Committee archives at the Olympic Jon Roberts, and the second will be Pro- Boston’s Actors’ Shakespeare Project, a Studies Centre in Lausanne, Switzer- fessor Bruce Schulman.

December 2008 Page 3 Department of History 226 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215

Religion faculty member to join History Department NEWS of the History Department In November the department faculty voted to recommend to the administration at that Deeana Klepper, Associate Professor of Religion, also be appointed Associate Professor of History. If approved, the joint appointment will begin January 1, 2009. is published monthly September through May at the department office, Since 2004 Professor Klepper has been teaching two courses crosslisted in His- 226 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215. tory and Religion: “Magic, Science, and Religion” and “Topicsin Medieval Religious Telephone: 617-353-2551 Culture.” She has also done directed studies with history students and was first E-mail: [email protected] reader for Brenda Gardenour’s PhD dissertation last year. Website: www.bu.edu/history Professor Klepper will introduce herself to newsletter readers in a future issue. Editor: James T. Dutton, Depart- ment Administrator Commencement 2009: a preliminary announcement Items of interest for publication and changes of address should be sent to the Changes are in store for commencement: The main ceremony at Nickerson Field editor. will take place on Sunday, May 17,at 1 p.m. (rather than the former 11 a.m.). Depart- mental convocations will be spread over the weekend; History’s will be held in the College of General Studies at 4 p.m. on Sunday. More details will follow.