History Happenings
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History Happenings A Message From the Department of History... In This Issue... A New Year with New Beginnings A New Year with New Beginnings Greetings! Cover Welcome to the inaugural issue of our new History Department newsletter. We are very excited about the possibilities for keeping our entire University of Memphis History Community in touch with one Musings from a another and up to date on what our students, faculty and alumni are Former Chair doing. page 2 This is your newsletter. Please send us your triumphs, your announcements, your personal stories. We plan to publish every fall TCH Annual and plan to send it out via e-mail and snail mail to everyone we can find Meeting Recap with a connection to The University of Memphis Department of History. page 3 It has been a very busy fall in the History Department. As the semester ended last spring, everyone had to pack up all of their belongings . Piles of boxes, filing cabinets, desks, chairs, computers and much miscellany were moved to the fourth floor of Mitchell On the Hall. Over the summer, dozens of workmen purged the rooms of the lower two floors of asbestos Calendar and other ancient debris. page 3 (sidebar) Then, just before the start of the fall semester, the move was reversed amid last minute painting, waxing, and general repair. By now, I believe most of the faculty have their boxes emptied and books returned to shelves. All this chaos was disruptive, but it was an excellent time Faculty to purge yellowing lecture notes, old textbooks, and student papers held since the 1970s. As a Happenings result of the move, the graduate assistants and part-time instructors have more private office pages 4-6 space. The Faculty Lounge has been moved across the hall to Room 100, the space once occupied by the History Office. The History Office is now on the second floor in the old Dean's Complex, 219 Mitchell Hall. In a few months, we expect to spruce up the lounge with paint, window Graduate Student treatments, colorful artwork, and new furniture. Happenings In August 2004, Dr. F. Jack Hurley, who had been with this department for some 38 years, page 7 retired. On October 2, he married Suzanne Cameron Linder and began a new life in North Carolina. When he left, I assumed my new position as Chair, and with every day I gain more respect for the difficult and often invisible work Dr. Hurley did for this department. My new office Graduate once belonged to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who moved to another building, Students' Digest and it is just as grand as the title indicates. When you are on campus, drop by and see me. page 8 Two new faculty joined us this semester, and both are very active scholars. Dr. Robert Gudmestad, who specializes in southern history, published A Troublesome Commerce: The Phi Alpha Theta Transformation of the Interstate Slave Trade in 2003, and has a new project in the works concerning Happenings steamboats. Dr. Aram Goudsouzian, a 20th Century African American history specialist, pub- page 8 lished Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon last year and is now immersed in a new project on African Americans in basketball. Currently, we are in the midst of a search for a new faculty member who will specialize in the Modern Middle East. We hope to have her/him on board by August 2005. Alumni Digest - Our faculty and graduate students, who are among the best in the country, continue to Where Are They bring us honor and acclaim. Be sure to review their accomplishments, showcased in Faculty Now? Happenings, Graduate Student Happenings, and Alumni Digest, located on pages 4 through 10 pages 9-10 in this newsletter. -Janann Sherman Chair, Department of History Musings from a Former Chair Janann M. Sherman In the 38 years that I served the History In recent years, a number of retirements (including my own) have opened up Chair Department at The University of Memphis, opportunities for the department to rethink its James Blythe I watched the University change from a strong orientation toward undergraduate education, directions and bring in exciting new people who Graduate Coordinator with little emphasis on research, to a combine the best of teaching and research. In Beverly Bond full-service research oriented university, and this my opinion, one of our most successful recent Walter R. (Bob) hires (recent by history department standards, Brown change impacted the History Department in ways that were more positive than negative. that is) is our new chairperson, Dr. Janann Director, Undergraduate Studies With few exceptions, our undergraduate Sherman. Dr. Sherman has already established Margaret M. teachers have also been active researchers who herself as a national force with her major Caffrey enjoyed sharing their biography on Senator James Chumney findings with colleagues Margaret Chase Smith, and Charles W. around the country has influenced the entire Crawford through papers read at “I believe that the History State of Tennessee with her Director, Oral History professional meetings, Department at The University work on National History Research Office articles published in of Memphis is strong, Day. I believe and hope that Maurice Crouse national and regional genuinely diverse, and deeply under Dr. Sherman, the Douglas W. journals, and books. It is committed to serving its tradition of collegiality that Cupples this interchange with oth- mission...” we have worked so hard to Guiomar Duenas- ers that keeps us mentally create in the department will Vargas alive and growing, and continue to strengthen. James E. Fickle that makes for good teaching, too. I believe that the History Robert Frankle The graduate program has allowed Department at The University of Memphis is Aram Goudsouzian faculty members the pleasure and responsibil- strong, genuinely diverse and deeply commit- Robert Gudmestad ity of working with both M.A. and Ph.D. ted to its mission of serving a large urban area Joseph Hawes students, and watching many of those students in both undergraduate and graduate education. Jonathan Judaken go on to establish themselves in their academic I think it is a better department than I joined in Abraham D. careers. The History Department would be 1966, and I believe that it will continue to Kriegel much poorer without its graduate students, but improve. I look forward to following this Dennis Laumann graduate programs bring with them a unique progress from my retirement perch in North Kell Mitchell, Jr. set of challenges. The department will have to Carolina. D'Ann Penner continue to fight for funding to maintain a -F. Jack Hurley Professor Emeritus C. Edward Skeen library that will support the kind of work we do. Arwin Smallwood Stephen Stein Lung-Kee Sun Daniel Unowsky Graduate Coordinator (Fall 2004) Department of History Staff A Season of New Beginnings...Professor Emeritus F. Jack Hurley cutting the cake with his wife, Suzanne, at their wedding Karen Bradley reception in October 2004 in Davidson, North Carolina. Senior Administrative Secretary/Office Manager Amanda Sanders Office Assistant Ronnie Biggs Secretary, History/ OHRO TCH Annual Meeting Held at The University On the Calendar... December 2004 of Memphis in Fall 2004 12/1 Winter 2004 The Department of History served as host for the Commencement 2004 annual meeting of the Tennessee Conference of rehearsal Historians on September 17-18, 2004. Comprised (FedEx Forum) mainly of historians from colleges and universities throughout Tennessee, the Conference held its first 12/8 meeting in 20 years in Memphis. The opening night reception, usually scheduled Classes End at a campus location, was held on a riverboat of the Memphis Queen Line, featuring a Mississippi River 12/9 tour, catered dinner, and live music by a Memphis Study Day band on Friday evening, September 17th. All reports confirm the success of this year's TCH meeting. With total attendance approaching 300, 12/10-16 including both program participants and guests, all Final Exams sessions were well-attended. Our success already has next year's host, The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, asking how we did it. 12/18 Papers covered a variety of topics, from regional to European history, attracting scholars Winter 2004 from several institutions. The conference's opening session was an introduction to Memphis historical sites, as presented by Jim Johnson of the Memphis-Shelby County Public Library, Doug Commencement Cupples from The University of Memphis, Tim Huebner of Rhodes College, Marius Carriere of (FedEx Forum) Christian Brothers University, Ron Walter, President and General Manager of WREG-TV and member of the Tennessee Historical Commission, and Charles Crawford of The University of January 2005 Memphis. Other panels provided informative reviews on such topics as Tennessee's death 1/1 penalty debate, Civil Rights, African American history, Women's Studies and Memphis history. At the luncheon program held Saturday, September 18, 2004, the featured speaker was New Year's Day former Tennessee governor, and former student of The University of Memphis, Winfield Dunn , (University Holiday) who was introduced by Shirley Raines, President of The University of Memphis. An audience of 150 heard his firsthand account of the Election of 1970, a pivotal point in Tennessee History - 1/17 when the State's 100-year participation in the Solid South ended, and Tennessee became a two- Martin Luther King, party state. The Conference was organized by a local arrangements committee of nine members. Duties Jr. Holiday at the meeting were handled by a conference staff of 14, consisting mainly of graduate students from the Department of History. Dean Henry Kurtz of the College of Arts and Sciences, 1/18 Department Chair Janann Sherman, and corporate friends of the Department of History provided First Day of Classes, funding for this year's conference.