Department of History Washburn University

Fall 2016—What We did on our Summer Vacations

Message from Dr. Tom Prasch, chair

On a Saturday in mid- Austin Harris had just was now talking about the September, I found myself finished delivering a Reverend Billy Sunday’s sitting at a table in front of masterful analysis of civil career; it was the subject of one of Henderson’s large religion in Woodrow her just-finished dissertation, lecture halls. It’s not Wilson’s presidency. In the but, having read that work as usually someplace I’d pick audience, alumna Cara each chapter was drafted, I to spend a weekend Burnidge was listening recognized that this was new afternoon, but what was particularly intently, but that material, outtakes as it were, going on made it worth was no surprise: she had crafted specially for the the extra day in the consulted closely with Harris conference. Looking out over classroom: we were in the when he was working up a the classroom, I could see midst of “’Endowed by longer version of his paper a colleagues from the Their Creator’: Historical semester earlier in Alan department, students (some Perspectives on Civil Bearman’s course on civil who would be presenting Religion,” a one-day pop- religion and the American that afternoon, others just up conference we had put presidency, and her own there to hear their peers), together when we had book on Wilson, A Peaceful and some of the senior realized that a certain Conquest: Woodrow Wilson, auditors who regularly critical mass of our Religion, and the New World showed up in history classes. students, faculty, and Order, had just come out (she alumni were engaged would be giving us work And what struck me most with studies connecting to from that in our lunch-hour about this moment was not the ways in which religion keynote address). Jennifer how well our students were and political ideology Wiard, a graduate (class of carrying themselves in this intertwined in American 2006) who had returned to sort of public forum history. Washburn to adjunct for us (although they were

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handling themselves amazingly well), or how those who had gone through our In Memoriam program (like Cara and Jennifer) were still engaged with “doing history” (our program’s motto), or even how good the Phil Morse (BA History, new work my colleagues were producing ’63) passed away after a was. Rather, it was the deep collegiality of long illness. He was the the moment: how students, faculty, father of Kim Morse. alumni, and interested constituents had all Though Phil never gathered on that afternoon to share their made money as a research, exchange views, and explore historian, he was, in his history together. It’s the sort of event that heart of hearts, a makes me certain that we are doing historian. He knew that in order to know who you something right in the Department of are you have to know where you came from. In the History. last twenty years he was able to become a historian, writing first a fine history of Topeka’s That was early in the semester, and much first decades. He then tackled, with wife Lona, his has happened since then. A month or so magnum opus, a massive, thoroughly researched later, Alan Bearman would shepherd three of the students who had presented at our family history that traces Morse and Shreffler lines pop-up conference (Chloe Mooradian and to their beginnings in the colonies. As Phil made is Mallory Lutz as well as Austin) to Virginia career in real estate, he and Lona traveled Beach to present their work at the biennial thousands of miles to dozens of county courthouses national Conference on Faith and History. to trace land records. They then had to locate the Later in the semester, we brought Cara land, and, if possible, burial locations where Lona used her emergency cemetery supplies. No one is back to campus for a well-timed and illuminating forum on Islamophobia. I ever forgotten. Phil read copiously to understand spent some time later in the term the context in which the families people lived and compiling our once-every-five-year the forces that shaped their lives and the Program Review, finding much to brag communities in which they lived. All of that is in about in our last half decade’s work the book. Even after his illness robbed him of the (including an outstanding record of ability to type he spoke his writing into special innovative courses, like the one Alan software to continue the work with an urgency of a Bearman created that fed so well into our man who knew time was his enemy. So much of conference). who Phil was is in that book, what he valued, what defined him. Much more is in the offing: new courses

like Kelly Erby’s sing-along (not really, but you can hum quietly) “Alexander Phil lived a life defined by educated, well- Hamilton,” or Kerry Wynn and Tom researched, thoughtful community service. In his Averill’s “Digital Storytelling” course, or last productive years the History Department was Rachel Goossen’s new offering fortunate that he shared his time, skills, and “Remembering Vietnam”; more students wisdom with us as judge for the paper competition presenting their work at conferences; a for History Day. When his disease did not allow slate of new activities by our Phi Alpha him to serve anymore he endowed the Phil Morse Theta chapter. Keep up with our doings Scholarship to be awarded to the winner of the by keeping connected: follow us on paper competition. Phil believed deeply in the FaceBook, keep us updated on address value of a liberal arts education as the core of a life changes, or just stop by the department to well lived, service performed with integrity, so it visit. was logical to provide History Day students with help down that path.

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This past summer, Dr. Rachel Goossen was awarded a Sweet Sabbatical for a travel and study trip to Vietnam and South Korea. A historian focusing on U.S. twentieth-century history, she regularly teaches courses on the Cold War. Her visit to these countries in May/June 2016 focused on memorialization of the Vietnam and Korean Wars, including visits to museums, cemeteries, and historic sites, as well as conversations with family members of soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War (from both north and south); and in the Korean War (from both north and south). She traveled to the former demilitarized zone in Vietnam, as well as to the current DMZ at Camp Bonifas along the South Korean border with North Korea.

Emerging from one of the Cu Chi Tunnels, a wartime center that now serves as a tourist destination outside Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Since returning to Washburn, Goossen has been developing a new upper-division history course, “Remembering Vietnam,” which she’ll teach in the spring of 2017.

In October, Phi Alpha Theta and the Department of History sponsored her illustrated lecture, “Vietnam in 2016: Four Decades After War’s End.” Goossen’s summertime conversations with young Vietnamese —whose parents had supplied the Ho Chi Minh Trail and fought in the late 1960s and early ‘70s—framed her campus presentation about how Vietnamese citizens regard the legacies of what they refer to as “the American War.”

Goossen presenting a seminar in Chuncheon, South Korea,

Goossen is also a scholar of Anabaptist history, and in these east Asian settings, she gathered teaching materials on the development and history of Mennonite and Anabaptist congregations. At the invitation of Anabaptist leaders in Chuncheon, South Korea, on June 3rd she presented an afternoon-long seminar at the Korean Anabaptist Center (KAC), titled "John Howard Yoder's Life and Theology." Theologians, graduate students, church administrators, and book publishers from Seoul and Chuncheon attended her presentation on this renowned 20th-century American theologian and ethicist, whose legacy includes decades of sexual abuse of women. Goossen's seminar on Yoder was translated from English into South Korean by KAC's executive director, BockKi Kim.

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Undergraduate Mallory Lutz researches Black Resistance to School Desegregation

In August I began researching African American resistance to desegregation in Topeka leading up to the Brown case as part of an internship I am completing with the National Park Service at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. My essay, “Separate is Unequal, but not Unwelcome: African American Attitudes Toward Desegregation Before and After Brown v. Board of Education,” focuses on black Topeka in the first half of the twentieth century, examining how some black teachers, administrators, and families hesitated to desegregate the public schools in their city. I find that many black Topekans feared desegregation because they believed it would harm their children not only physically, but emotionally as well. Some of them also believed desegregation discouraged racial pride and forced children into environments where they were “merely tolerated.” A number of black teachers further emphasized the unique perspective they brought to their classrooms, stating that they were better able to connect and empathize with their students during the era of Jim and Jane Crow. White teachers, they argued, were unable to understand the everyday experiences of black children and black working-class families. Because teaching was one of the only professional positions open to blacks during this era, teachers and administrators enjoyed significant prestige and leadership in the Topeka community. Desegregation thus also risked the possibility of job loss or demotion for black teachers.

While I include some evidence of black families who did indeed wish for their children to attend white

schools, most of my research focuses on black families who were content with their own schools and teachers. My sources include letters written by black administrators and teachers in Kansas and the surrounding area who expressed their concerns about desegregation and how it would have negative consequences for their communities. I spent many hours at the Kansas State Historical Society Archives looking through governors’ files, court cases, and the papers of Mamie Williams, an African American teacher in Topeka during desegregation. A portion of my paper focuses on Williams and her fears about desegregation, especially her fear of losing her job. My other primary sources include several articles from Topeka newspapers in the early twentieth century. I even reference territorial newspapers that dealt with the issue of separate schools for the races. The stories in these newspapers describe African Americans’ efforts at preventing desegregation and their reasons for doing so. With their schools, teachers, and livelihoods at stake, a significant number of blacks in Topeka and around the country were unwilling to let white school boards and lawyers take their communities away from them. In 1954, however, the Supreme Court ruled that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” Desegregation was a long, arduous, and contested journey and one that continues to affect students, communities, and the field of education over half a century later.

Editor’s Note: Mallory will present her research findings at the annual statewide Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol on the morning of February 15. 5

Cynthia heath (B.A. ‘71) Wins Annual Clio Award Save the Date

The Clio Society, the Department of History’s alumni organization, awarded its second annual Clio Award honoring an outstanding alumnus to Cynthia Heath. As an undergraduate at Washburn, Cynthia majored in history and was a member of Delta Gamma,

Join us for the annual Lincoln Harmon Lecture, honoring Washburn’s legacy as Lincoln College. This year, Dr. Don Doyle of the University of South Carolina will Cynthia Health with Faculty member Kelly Erby give an address entitled “Viva

Lincoln!” examining the response to NONOSO, Spirit Squad, Angel Flight, the Gymnastics team and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln Student Government. around the world and how it helped After graduating from Washburn, she taught at her alma mater spark an international resurgence of high school Topeka West and then earned her M.Ed. from Kansas State University and her J.D. from Washington University in St. republicanism and emancipation. Louis. She practiced law in St. Louis and eventually became Vice Professor Doyle received his Ph.D. President of Emerson Electric Company. from Northwestern University. He is

Cynthia has served as a Washburn University Foundation Trustee the author of several books, including since 2007 and a Director since 2009. She is currently the The Cause of All Nations: An Chairperson of the Board. She serves on the Executive, Finance, International History of the American Development and Compensation committees and also served several years as the Chair of the Development Committee. Civil War and Nations Divided: America, Cynthia was one of the founders of the Women’s Venture Partners Italy, and the Southern Question. at Washburn and has served as its chair. She received the Alumni Association’s 2013 Monroe Award and was inducted into the February 1, 2017 7 PM Washburn Hall of Fame in 2013. The WU Department of History is particularly grateful to Cynthia for the generous support she has Bradbury Thompson Alumni shown to its faculty and students. Center Lorem Ipsum

Congratulations to our successful History Secondary Education Student Teachers

History Secondary Education majors and current student teachers Brit Dewey, Jacob O’Byrne, and Brad Gourley were honored at a reception in December, along with mentor Rachel Goossen (above).

Jacob O’Bryne receiving A special congratulations to Jacob his award. O’Byrne, who received Washburn

University’s Outstanding Student Teacher Award for Secondary Education 7

Summer Camp for Historians; or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Digital History by Dr. Kerry wynn

This summer I went back to school. For two weeks, I spent my days (and I mean all day) in a classroom with 24 fellow historians, discussing our homework, feverishly taking notes on lectures, and conferring on group work. We were all there for different purposes—to solve a vexing research question, to improve a course, to launch a community project—but we all believed that the tools of digital history could help us reach these goals. That’s how we ended up at “Doing Digital History 2016,” a workshop organized by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. I applied to the workshop because I had become increasingly intrigued by the possibility of the internet and mobile devices to transform learning. I wanted to show my students different ways to imagine history: to conceptualize space in a fundamentally different way than they experienced it in the twenty-first century lives or to conceive of history as a dispersed set of points rather than the linear narrative that many traditional texts impose. The education I received in those two weeks moved me toward this goal and much, much more.

When I arrived in Washington, D.C., for “Doing Digital History 2016,” I was truly what the organizers call a “digital novice.” Although I attended graduate school at an institution that played a key role in the development of the internet (I’m not pulling an Al Gore here—I can substantiate these claims), I had never been trained to use digital tools to do history. I also possessed a Twitter phobia and completely lacked a language for computer programming. After an incredibly intense two weeks, all that has changed. Well, not all of it. I’m still a bit skeptical about Twitter.

So what did I learn about digital history, and how will it benefit the History Department? First, digital tools, including social media, software for mapping and data analysis, and resources for audio editing, are more than supplements to the historical stories we tell. They can fundamentally shift these stories. When we learned about sound editing, I was confronted with the realization that I never tried to engage my students in thinking about what the past sounded like, and the exciting possibility that I could actually do that. Second, digital tools can help students market themselves as historians to future employers in ways that clearly convey the benefits of a history degree. Finally, although it is not always easy, it is important for students, as historians, to speak to the public outside of our campus, and we can help facilitate that.

What’s next? Tom Averill, Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence, and I are teaching our first digital history class this spring: “Digital Storytelling: Kansas History and Literature.” This course is the beginning of an exciting new project to guide students in building a digital portal into the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection, an outstanding collection of books about Kansas housed at Mabee Library. With this project, we set the model for digital history at Washburn—student historians using primary sources and solid research to tell unique and compelling stories to a global audience. The WU Foundation has selected our project, "Digital Storytelling: Kansas Stories for the 21st Century" as one of their first crowd-funding opportunities. See the description here: https://impact.givetowashburn.org

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SPRING 2017 UPPER-DIVISION COURSE OFFERINGS

the story of America’s founding to HI 300A : Ancient Near East— like the Angevin Empire and its loss, Henry weigh in on twenty-first century This lecture/discussion course surveys VIII and the English Reformation, the wild debates on race relations, the history and culture of Ancient opening up of British society during the Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, immigration, the power of Wall Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, the Street, and the political process. Phoenicia, and Persia from earliest Victorian age and imperial expansions, and Finally, we will take seriously the times to the Hellenistic period. The twentieth-century loss of empire and tagline of the show—“Who lives, who course will explore the political, declining power (but with some pop stars to military, cultural, religious, dies, who tells your story”—as we make everyone feel better about it). Course contemplate whose stories are intellectual, and social development of requirements will include three tests on preserved, how people in the past these major civilizations. Students lecture and text materials, three short shape their legacies, and the work should expect midterm and final papers on primary sources, and one research exams, intensive analysis of primary historians do. Taught by Kelly Erby paper and presentation at the end of the (10-11 MWF) source material, essay writing, semester. Taught by Tom Prasch (1:00-2:15 research, and a creative project. MW) Taught by Tony Silvestri (2:30-3:45 HI 300D: Digital

MW) Storytelling— Use digital tools to HI 334A: The European explore Kansas history and literature! Using the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Reformation— A survey of the history HI 300B: Remembering Studies Collection at Mabee Library, and theology of the Magisterial, Radical, and Roman Catholic Reformation movements of Vienam— Four decades have students will conduct primary source the early sixteenth century, with particular passed since the end of the Vietnam research to produce an original emphasis on the religious ideas and practices War, which Americans continue to project. The course will teach students of leading reformers such as Luther, memorialize via historical works, digital tools appropriate to their own Zwingli, Calvin, and Ignatius Loyola. films, novels, art, and popular culture. storytelling strategy. This may include Reformation ideas will be examined within How significantly do those U.S.-based tools/software for publishing, crafting the context of the experiences of these representations differ from the ways in a digital repository, data and geo- principal figures and of the public they which the Vietnamese view the war’s spatial mapping, photo manipulation, addressed and by whom they were legacies on their society, culture, and audio editing. Students will interpreted. The reformation will be politics, developing economy, and exhibit their projects as websites. considered in relation to the cultural, social, changing demographics? This course Taught by Kerry Wynn and Tom economic, and political changes of the early focuses on ways in which the war Averill (1:00-2:15 TR) modern period. Taught by Alan Bearman continues to be memorialized, both in (9:00-9:50 MWF) Southeast Asia and in western societies. Course components include HI 322A: Kansas History— A guest presentations, lectures, fiction comprehensive survey beginning with

and non-fiction, visual arts, class the land itself and its earliest HI 383A: Film and History— This discussions, and research projects. inhabitants and ending with an course focuses on the relationship between Taught by Rachel Goossen(9:30-10:45 overview of the state today. Political history and film in modern Latin America. TR) and economic aspects of the state’s Through the study of film, the course development are covered, but there is examines how filmmakers used this medium HI 300C: Alexander also an emphasis on social and cultural to reflect and interpret the meaning of Hamilton— Who would have history. Analysis of the evolutionary history and society. The course will also guessed that a Broadway musical—a and dramatic changes in agriculture, assess moments in history when film became rap musical no less—about Alexander education, transportation, part of the historical process, and historical Hamilton—one of America’s least manufacturing, and the social fabric moments that produced significant shifts in iconic founding fathers—would prove lead to a better understanding of the Latin American film. In addition to viewing to be so wildly popular? After all the state’s history. Several papers and and analyzing film in class, students will be Tonys, the Grammy, the MacArthur essay exams. Taught by Bruce required to view at least two additional Genius Grant, and the Pulitzer, Mactavish (11:00-12:15 TR) films to produce their own short analyses, #WhatComesNext? A history course and also a more substantive research paper of course! #Work! This course will centered on a film, a filmmaker or someone use Hamilton the musical as a diving HI 336A: History of else associated with the film industry, or board into exploring Hamilton’s life England— This course will survey another topic pertinent to course content. within the context of the revolutionary the full chronology of British history, Taught by Kim Morse and Miguel Gonzales- and early national periods in American from Celtic settlement and Roman Abellas (1:00-3:30 M) history. We will also consider the conquest through Brexit, with stops musical itself and the way it frames along the way at popular destinations 9

This summer, History Secondary Education major Jordan Callison accompanied Political Science Professor Bob Beatty to both the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jordan received a press pass to take photographs at the convention. This is just a tiny sampling of the images he captured. Lorem Ipsum

Fall 2016 Phi Alpha Theta Inductees This fall, Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honorary Society, was pleased to induct the following students: Danielle Hall, Gabriel Hillebert, Deanna Toenjes, Analeigh Vanderpool, and Krystal Wall. Students are inducted into Phi Alpha Theta after completing a minimum of 12 semester hours in History and earning at least a 3.1 GPA., demonstrating excellence in the history coursework.

This fall Professor Rachel Goossen served as a consultant for the New York– based podcast program RadioLab. In a special election-eve segment focused on Ginette Aley, adjunct professor, utilized the historic moments when one vote made a summer 2016 months to shift her focus from heavy difference, Dr. Goossen provided historical teaching to her research areas. Aley attended the background regarding the razor-thin Conference on Policy History in Nashville, at passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to Vanderbilt, the first week of June. This was an the U.S. Constitution that gave women the opportunity to see some of the recent work done in right to vote. As explained in the podcast, nineteenth-century land, agriculture, and Indian the amendment was ratified by just one policies. Later, Aley joined another scholar for a vote in the Tennessee Legislature. Readers week of research at the Nebraska State Historical can listen to the story here: Society in early August. Her focus here was on her http://www.radiolab.org/story/one-vote/ ongoing research on Midwest and Great Plains agrarian women. Aley also continued her work with ETS and scoring of the AP U.S. History In August, the Exam, University of her 6th Minnesota Press year. published Kelly Erby’s book Restaurant Republic, which examines how the new trend of commercial dining both A statue on the reflected and campus of Vanderbilt helped shape honoring economic, women’s racial, gender, teaching contributions to and ethnic the university. relationships in the early Republic.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FALL 2016 GRADUATES: Logan Brooks, Kyler Douglas Cook, Brit Dewey, Ryan Hansen, Landon Hay, Chloe Mooradian (with honors), Jacob O’Byrne (with honors), Jessica Ramsdell (with honors), Justin Sanders (with honors), Analeigh Vanderpool Good luck in your future endeavors! Stay in touch! ******

Attention Alumni & Friends! Keep us current on your activities and contact information! Complete this form and send it to Dr. Kelly Erby, Department of History, Washburn University, 1700 SW College Ave, Topeka, KS 66621 Did you know the Name:______Washburn Department

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General donations to the Department of History are always welcome to further the activities of students, faculty, and general program needs. Checks can be made payable to “Washburn University Foundation— History Department” and mailed to 1729 SW MacVicar Ave Topeka, KS, 66604. We appreciate your support!