May 2009

garet Fuller: An American Romantic Life at the Concord Free Public Library. The large audience included descen- dants of some of the principal figures in his book as well as enthusiastic keepers of the Concord Transcenden- talist flame. Graduate student Jolanta Komor- nicka will give a paper at the Interna- tional Congress on Medieval Studies Professor Emerita Merle Goldman Zoryan Institute of Canada. at Kalamazoo (May 7-10) entitled reports: On April 1-3 I participated in In mid-April graduate student “King in Woman’s Clothing.” She has a conference on “Rising China” at Kathryn Brownell presented a paper also had her undergraduate thesis Principia University in southern Illi- at the British Association for Ameri- published by VDM Publishing: nois, on the Mississippi River just can Studies Annual Conference in “Shadowing the Other.” across from St. Louis. It focused on Nottingham, England: “A New Deal Graduate student Scott Marr pre- China’s history and traditions and in Entertainment: Franklin D. Roose- sented a paper on April 18 at the New what they may tell us about what kind velt and the Politicization of Ameri- England Historical Association’s of a power China will become in the can Celebrities.” spring conference, held at the Univer- 21st century. On April 25 I participated While on leave this past academic sity of Southern Maine. The title of in a workshop on “The Media in Chi- year, Professor Brooke Blower fin- the paper was “Religions and Com- nese Politics,” and May 1-3 I will be ished a draft of her book manuscript munity: Catholic-Huguenot Coexis- presenting a paper at a conference at on Americans in interwar Paris. She tence and Christian Morality in the the Fairbank Center for Chinese also presented work from this project Thought of Moise Amyraut.” Studies at Harvard on the “60th Anni- at several University forums, On April 19 in Nottingham, Eng- versary of the People’s Republic of including the interdisciplinary confer- land, graduate student François China” (my paper is on the changing ence on “American Studies in Global Lalonde delivered a paper titled “Re- role of the intellectuals in twentieth- Perspective” in October 2008 and the establishing the Transatlantic Diplo- century China). BU–Cambridge University–Princeton matic Dialogue: The Eisenhower Ad- Professor Simon Payaslian partici- University conference on liberalism in ministration and the Atlantic Com- pated in a panel entitled “Conse- March of this year. She reports that munity, 1957-1960” at the British Asso- quences of the Armenian Genocide she looks forward to returning to her ciation for American Studies annual on History, Literature, and Politics.” regular duties in the fall. conference. His talk covered the Armenian In June visiting faculty member Professor Eugenio Menegon pre- diasporan community in the US and Samuel Deese will deliver a paper at sented his recent research on Euro- the politics of genocide recognition the conference of the World History pean experts at the Manchu imperial both here at home and in bilateral re- Association in Salem on “From hunts at the Annual Meeting of the lations with Turkey. The event took Chipko to Wangari Maathai: Ecology Association for Asian Studies in Chi- place at York University, Toronto, on and Modernity in the Postcolonial cago on March 28, in a panel entitled April 23. The colloquium was co-spon- World.” “Missionaries at Leisure, or Not? sored by a number of Armenian stu- On March 19 Professor Charles Courtly and Transnational Networks dent associations in Ontario and the Capper gave a book talk on his Mar- at the Qing Court.” On April 3, as part of the inaugural conference “The spoke about her book when she was the featured guest on an Internet-based Idea of Asia” organized by the new “Civil War Talk Radio” show in April. BU Center for the Study of Asia, he On April 3 Professor Jon Roberts presented a lecture on “Social Darwinism commented as discussant on papers and Religion in America” at the School of Theology and the by BU colleagues in Archaeology Boston Theological Institute’s Darwin Anniverary Conference on “The Science (Robert Murowchick), Ethno- and Politics of Improving the Human Species: The Disastrous History of Social musicology (Brita Heimarck), Religion Darwinism and Eugenics.” On April 14 he served as a commentator on Dan (David Eckel), and History (Suzanne McKanan’s “Twin Heirs of the Social Gospel: The Socialist Party and the Fed- O’Brien), in a panel on “Cultural eral Council of Churches” at the North American Religion Colloquium at Har- Transmission and the Boundaries of vard. On April 24 he lectured on “Darwin’s Challenge to Religion” at a sympo- ‘Asia,’” covering the topics of archae- sium on “Darwin’s Impact in the United States” at the Boston Colloquium for ology and politics in China and Viet- the Philosophy of Science. nam, the diffusion of Indian music Professor William Keylor presented a paper at an international conference into Indonesia in medieval times, the in Beijing on April 16-18 (see article on page 4 of this issue). He also gave talks at sacred landscapes of Buddhist Asia, the Beijing University (Beida) and the Chinese People’s University (Renda) on and the conceptions of “Asia” among United States relations with Europe. On May 13-15 he will chair a session and Meiji Japanese intellectuals. On April present a paper at a conference on the French right-wing intellectual movement 18-19 he co-chaired a workshop at the “Action Française” in Metz, France. N Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, University of San A preliminary look at 2009 graduate admissions Francisco, reviewing with a panel of As of mid-April the Graduate Studies Committee had completed the consideration of all five international scholars a forthcom- 193 20 ing manuscript on the history of the applications to the graduate program. The number is down by about from the record number of the previous year. Of those applying for September 2009, approximately 100 were Chinese Rites Controversy, a politico- in the American field, 45 in the European, and 20 in the African, with the remainder in vari- theological battle between the Chi- ous other fields. nese emperor and the Catholic The committee admitted 78 students (40 percent of applicants, slightly higher than in Church in the seventeenth and eigh- most recent years), and to date, ten applicants have said they intend to enroll in September teenth centuries. (four are MA students, six are PhD). Full fellowships have been awarded to three of the in- Professor Houchang Chehabi at- coming students. tended a conference on “Beauty in the Worlds of Islam” at the University of Texas at Austin and presented a pa- per on “Persianate Elements in the Traditional Athletic Cultures of West and South Asia” on April 4. The paperback edition of Professor Andrew Bacevich’s book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exception- alism appeared in April. He also con- tributed an “Afterword” to the fiftieth anniversary edition of The Tragedy of American Diplomacy by William Appleman Williams, also recently published. On April 16 graduate student Robyn Metcalfe headed to Michigan State University to present a paper on “Necessary Cruelty? Meanings of Ani- mal Welfare in the 19th Century Land- scape.” Professor Nina Silber will be lec- turing on her recent book, Gender and the Sectional Conflict, at Western Con- Professor Allison Blakely made a presentation on “Black Civic Participation in Europe: Past and Present” at necticut State University on May 4 the “Black European Summit: Transatlantic Dialogue on Political Inclusion” meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels on April 16. He was part of a delegation from the US Congressional Commission on (and hence committing the unpardon- Security and Cooperation in Europe, led by Congressman Alcee Hastings. The delegation spent the next able sin of missing the Bacon lecture day in Paris in related meetings highlighted by a session (see photo above—Prof. Blakely is the fourth from and department dinner). She also the left) with State Minister for Human Rights Rama Yade.

Page 2 NEWS From Professor Jon Roberts: Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America Barry Werth, Banquet at Delmonico’s: Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America Heather D. Curtis, Faith in the Great Phy- sician: Suffering and Divine Healing in Ameri- can Culture, 1860-1900 Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America With summer in view as this newsletter goes to print, we asked department personnel for Constance Areson Clark, God—or Go- some suggestions for reading during the more leisurely months. Here they are: rilla: Images of Evolution in the Jazz Age Bernard Lightman, Victorian Popularizers From Professor Simon Payaslian: of Science: Designing Nature for New Audi- John Beverley, Subalternity and Representation: Arguments in Cultural Theory (Durham, NC: ences Duke University Press, 1999) Ronald L. Numbers, ed., Galileo Goes to Paula Chakravartty and Yuezhi Zhao, eds., Global Communications: Toward a Transcultural Jail and Other Myths about Science and Reli- Political Economy (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008) gion Iain Chambers, Migrancy, Culture, Identity (London: Routledge, 1994) D. Graham Burnett, Trying Leviathan: Alfred B. Evans, Jr., Laura A. Henry, and Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, eds., Russian Civil Soci- The Nineteenth-Century New York Court Case ety: A Critical Assessment (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2006) That Put the Whale on Trial and Challenged Richard Howson and Kylie Smith, eds., Hegemony: Studies in Consensus and Coercion the Order of Nature (New York:Routledge, 2008) Fred Nadis, Wonder Shows: Performing Stephen Morton and Gayatri Spivak, Ethics, Subalternity and the Critique of Postcolonial Science, Magic, and Religion in America Reason (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2007) Richard Stites, Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia: The Pleasure and the Power From graduate student Scott Marr: (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) As time allows, I want to read another Elise Kimerling Wirtschafter, Russia’s Age of Serfdom, 1649-1861 (Malden, MA: Blackwell, volume or two in the “Fortune de France” 2008) series by Robert Merle. François Lalonde told me about this series a couple of years From Professor Samuel Deese: back, and I bought the first volume during For summer reading, I will limit myself to books by guys named Larry: First, Larry my last trip to France and got hooked. The Gonick’s Cartoon History of the Universe (whatever volumes I can get my hands on at The books (there are 13 in the series) recount Million Year Picnic in Cambridge);and, second, Larry Anderson’s wonderful biography of the adventures of a Protestant minor no- the conservationist Benton MacKaye, entitled Benton MacKaye: Conservationist, Planner, and bleman during the Wars of Religion. He Creator of the Appalachian Trail (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002). witnesses first-hand many of the key From Professor James McCann: events—the St. Batholomew’s Day massa- I recommend a return to yesteryear with a revisiting of Hemingway, Steinbeck, and cre in Paris, the assassination of the duke of other scenes of rural life in various parts of the world. Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle is a re- Guise—and meets many of the key person- markable view of past and current events in rural labor history. Think GM and Walmart. alities—he plays tennis with Charles IX, goes on espionage missions for Henri IV, From Professor Eugenio Menegon: discusses philosophy with Michel de Sugata Bose, A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (Cam- Montaigne—of sixteenth-century France. bridge: Press, 2006). This path-breaking book by eminent South Asia historian Sugata Bose (Department of History, Harvard) attempts to bridge the current From graduate student Sarah Westwood: gulf in historical knowledge between pre-colonial and colonial empires, by focusing on the Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body, Indian Ocean as a region connecting east Africa to southeast Asia in the 19th and 20th 1992. This is a beautifully written novel centuries. Written in an enticing and accessible style, and programmatic in its ambition and about the power of love to both heal and scope, this monograph distills years of reflection on the topic and can be profitably read by destroy, expressed through the lenses of graduate and undergraduate students alike, and anybody interested in understanding the desire and disease. modern world and early globalization from a new perspective. Anna Tsing, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection, 2004. Anthropologist From Professor Nina Silber: Anna Tsing establishes a nuanced frame- For anyone interested in a book that provides a kind of one-stop shopping experience work for understanding global interactions for the latest scholarship on Abraham Lincoln, a field even more overcrowded with books based on the concept of friction as op- during this bicentennial year, I suggest the book Our Lincoln, a collection of recent essays— posed to culture clash or conflict-based by scholars like Sean Wilentz, James Oakes, and David Blight—edited by Eric Foner. theory. Focusing on the environmentalist From Professor James Johnson: movement in Indonesia, Tsing studies how Marilynne Robinson, Home local actors use the language of what she James Whitman, The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial terms “universals” (abstract concepts like Karol Berger, Bach’s Cycle, Mozart’s Arrow: An Essay on the Origins of Musical Modernity rights, freedom, environment, etc.) to ex- Andrew Bacevich, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism Jed Perl, Antoine’s Alphabet See SUMMER READING, page 10

May 2009 Page 3 A Boston Yankee in the foreign powers, modern Chinese seem Mao’s economic policies caused a interested in preserving the memory famine that killed at least fourteen Empress Dowager’s of their past. million people), the Tiananmen “inci- Court An equally strong interest in the dent” as it is called in China, and country’s more recent history was evi- other such topics did not elicit mean- dent in the international conference ingful responses. The dark side of a by William R. Keylor that brought me to Beijing. country’s history is always difficult to Professor of History and Titled “Cooperative Security in acknowledge and address, as we know International Relations East and Southeast Asia: Learning from the Turkish attitude toward the from History to Meet Future Chal- Armenian genocide and the Japanese lenges,” this gathering was co-spon- attitude toward the Nanjing Massacre. sored by the Parallel History Project The Chinese people, at least the ones hile strolling (an international network based in whom I met last month, are no excep- through the Zurich and headed by Vojtech tion. grounds of Bei- Mastny, former professor of history jing’s “Forbidden and international relations at Boston City” (the old im- University) and the China Foreign Af- Wperial compound from which the fairs University (which trains the heads of the Ming and Xing dynasties country’s future diplomats). The par- Natalie Mettler wins ruled China for centuries), I asked my ticipants—all historians or political sci- graduate student guide if any of its entists—included three Americans, a research fellowship lavish imperial treasures had been de- contingent of Europeans, one Cana- stroyed or damaged during the Cul- dian, and a dozen scholars from the The Boston University Graduate tural Revolution that engulfed the leading Chinese universities. School has awarded Natalie Mettler a People’s Republic in the late 1960s. The objective of the undertaking Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship 2009-10 “No,” he replied. “Prime Minister was to evaluate the historical experi- for . She will head for the Afri- Zhou en-Lai ordered the police and ence of attempts at regional security can nation of Mali and to France and the army to protect our national heri- in other parts of the world during and Britain as well. tage from the red guards.” after the Cold War in order to elicit About her project, titled “The This exchange transpired last lessons for the future of regional secu- Kitchen Is Older Than the Mosque: month during my first visit to China. rity in East and Southeast Asia. Our Cooking and Plants in Bamanan Land- It highlighted one of the fascinating Chinese counterparts eagerly ab- scapes of Knowledge,” she says: “I will features of life in that country that is sorbed the lessons from the historical use food and cooking—in particular probably well known to Sinologists experience of security systems in the sauces, condiments, and iconic ingredi- but came as a surprise to an untutored West, such as the North Atlantic ents—as a lens through which to recon- visitor: For all the Chinese preoccupa- Treaty Organization, the Organiza- stitute Bamanan vernacular environ- tion with economic modernization tion for Security and Cooperation in mental knowledge. It is the condiments and technological innovation, as evi- Europe, and the European Union and sauces, and not the starch centers denced by the soaring skyscrapers, (with its Common Defense and Secu- of meals, that dominate studies of Afri- sprawling shopping malls, ubiquitous rity Policy). can nutrition, that perpetuate ethnic cell phones, and bumper-to-bumper We westerners were interested in identity and geographical specificity traffic of its capital city, the govern- learning the Chinese perspective on through taste and smell.” ment seems intent on preserving the Asia’s difficult experience during the Why Mali? “The Bamanan of Mali relics of its long and eventful history. Cold War and on the recent trends to- inhabit a region with an exceptionally The urban renewal campaign that ward peace and security in the region. long agricultural history and a land- bulldozed historic buildings during There were wide-ranging, candid ex- scape recounted in a rich body of oral China’s economic “takeoff” in the changes about the Korean War, the traditions, which is therefore an ideal last decade of the twentieth century Vietnam War, and Nixon’s historic site for which to reconstruct a land- 1972 and the early years of our own has ap- trip to China in . scape of meaning and knowledge in an parently been slowed down. The gov- But for all this spirited give-and- African context.” ernment has expressed the intention take, both at the conference table and Continuing on to Europe, Natalie to protect the remaining historic sites at meals, receptions, and chats in the will examine the paper trail on agricul- from the developers and their wreck- halls, our Chinese hosts revealed an tural and forestry policies and practices ing cranes. After long treating the his- acute reticence about addressing cer- in the African area she is studying, tory of China before 1949 as a sordid tain controversial issues of the past. food-related trade and taxation, and tale of exploitation by feudal mon- Discreet queries from westerners surveys of indigenous diets by geo- archs, brutal warlords, and rapacious about the Great Leap Forward (when political region.

Page 4 NEWS Scholar rebuts myths about Charles Darwin

On April 3 John van Wyhe, Bye Fel- low at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and director of the Darwin-on-Line project headquartered at Cambridge, addressed a packed classroom on “Charles Darwin: The True Story,” a broadside attack on myths about Dar- win that have grown up comparatively recently, in the mid-twentieth century, and for which evidence is lacking. Among the myths exploded were:

I that Darwin’s mother’s death left him emotionally scarred (no evi- John van Wyhe and Thomas Glick dence) I that he studied theology at Cam- bridge (he studied for an ordinary the time he got the idea for natural selection in 1839 to the publication of Origin of BA degree) Species in 1859. The “delay” has been interpreted as indicative, again, of Darwin’s I that he sailed on the Beagle as an “un- supposed fear of punishment were his “secret” to be found out. Van Wyhe’s argu- paid naturalist,” intimating that he ment is that neither Darwin nor any of his contemporaries ever referred to a “de- had no fixed status (he was ap- lay”; that Darwin had lined up or contracted for various books and could not have pointed officially by the Admiralty) gotten around to Origin until the others had been completed, in order. In his auto- biography Darwin says “I gained much by my delay”—where delay could mean ei- I that what he saw on the Galapagos ther conscious postponement or simply years allowed to lapse. He also told people gave him the key to evolution (he that he worked with extreme care and attention to detail, and was always slow to hadn’t realized the finches were of publish. different species until he returned to Professor Thomas Glick and Jon Roberts, two department faculty involved in England, and there was other con- the study of Darwin’s place in the history of science, squared off on this issue in the tributing evidence as well) Q&A following the talk, the former seconding the speaker, the latter defending the I that the dream he reported of a man received view. The lecture was sponsored by the Boston University Charles Darwin being hanged revealed his fear of Bicentennial Committee. punishment for his ideas (recent bi- ographers have overdetermined the meaning; Darwin himself describes the dream as “witty,” that is, jocular) I that only a few insiders knew Darwin was working on evolution (Darwin GRADUATE STUDENT MILESTONES himself says that he had spoken with “very many naturalists” on evolu- tion) These students had research papers approved for the degree: Darcy Pratt Jacobsen, “The Bastard in Medieval English Society and Law: 1066- I that he converted on his deathbed 1300” (no evidence; also no evidence he Christopher Seely, “Away from Consensus: Reagan’s Battle Against Sandi- was an atheist, as is frequently nistas, Congress, and Public Opinion” claimed) Sarah Westwood, “Controlled Violence: Tactics and Organization in Sierra Le- 1898 The most controversial target of van one’s ” Wyhe’s mythbusting campaign, and the one that has attracted the fire of Seth Blumenthal’s dissertation prospectus was approved: “Bridging the Gap: Rich- 1972 Darwin biographers, has to do with the ard Nixon’s Culture War and the First Youth Vote, .” The first reader will be alleged twenty-year gap, or delay, from Professor Bruce Schulman, and the second will be Professor Brooke Blower.

May 2009 Page 5 FACULTY next book on terrorism. This one com- ference at St. Anne’s College, Oxford, bines all my previous research on Rus- on the eighteenth-century French artist Betty Anderson: At the beginning sia, but at the same time takes me far Charles Germain de Saint-Aubin. I will of the summer, I plan to spend three away from it—establishing connections spend time in Paris looking for the judi- weeks in the Middle East. For the first between violence in the tsarist empire a cial archives of an impostor I am cur- time in many years, I won’t be doing hundred years ago to terrorist practices rently writing about. He escaped prison any research; I’m going for vacation. In that takes place in the Middle East (and during the French Revolution, traveled Jordan, I will be spending time with elsewhere) today. The experience will to Spain where he assumed the identity friends, relaxing and lounging by the be...well, quite real, because, while liv- of a French émigré nobleman, fought Dead Sea; in Syria, I plan to visit a cou- ing in Jerusalem, I will be spending part first against and then with the French ple of my students, one of whom is of the time in Sderot, a southern Israeli Napoleonic armies, earned officer sta- working with a German NGO rebuild- town that for the past nine years has tus, was unmasked while serving as ing the Old City of Damascus; and in been especially hard-hit by constant commander of King Louis XVIII’s Beirut, I’m meeting with the first class terrorist operations. As a specialist in army garrison, and died in prison still of BU students participating in an ex- psycho-history, I can assure everyone insisting that he was an aristocrat. change program with the American that my summer activities are not a James McCann: I will have a peripa- University of Beirut. I then have to form of masochism: I also have exten- tetic summer. In late May and June I come back and finish my book, hope- sive plans for traveling, learning He- will be in residence at the University of fully inspired by my vacation. brew, and other—more conventional— Padova as part of the BU-Padova Fac- Houchang Chehabi: My summer enjoyment. ulty Exchange. Che bella cosa! I will work plans include presenting papers at aca- Thomas Glick: On May 6 I will lec- on the history of malaria in the region demic conferences in Lund, Marburg, ture to Boston University alumni in and continue writing my book on and Yerevan. London on the subject “Darwin’s Bos- “Landscape of Prosperity, Landscape of Barbara Diefendorf: I will deliver tonian Friends and the Early Reception Disease” that traces changes in a rural an invited lecture entitled “Rites of Re- of Darwinism.” The following two days landscape over a 200-year period. At pair: Restoring Community in the I will attend a meeting at the Thomas the tail end of that visit I will conduct French Wars of Religion” at University More Center in London on Catholic research in Edinburgh and Geneva on College Dublin on April 30. I will then evolutionism, where I will contribute a the history of disease and human re- lead a graduate/post-graduate seminar paper on “The Darwinian Current in sponse. In July and August I will travel on recent research on the Catholic Ref- Teilhard de Chardin’s Approach to Pa- into the teeth of the rainy season in ormation on May 1 before proceeding leontology and Evolutionary Theory.” highland Ethiopia to lead a Rockefeller on to Paris, where I will spend the Upon my return I will teach a course on workshop on malaria and landscape month of May as the Alphonse “The Darwinian Revolution” at Har- change. In the downtime during these Dupront Visiting Professor at the Uni- vard Summer School. At the Interna- travels I will review page proofs from versity of Paris–Sorbonne (Paris IV). tional History of Science Congress in my new book, Stirring the Pot: Cuisine Whether I will actually deliver the lec- Budapest (July 28-August 1) I have orga- and Global Change in Africa, 1500-2000, tures I have spent the semester prepar- nized a symposium on “The Reception scheduled for the fall 2009.Onmyway ing is at this point uncertain—the uni- of Darwinism at the Subnational Level: to Ethiopia in July I have been invited versity has been on strike for two Cities,” at which I will read a paper on to the University of Sussex as a Senior months now—but I am planning to go Darwinism in nineteenth-century Resource Commentator for a planning anyway so as to complete some re- Boston. workshop on the past and future of search. I return to Boston on May 31 James Johnson: My summer plans seeds in Africa. The meeting will take and, except for a week in Santa Fe, will include delivering a paper at the Uni- place on the Brighton seafront with a spend the summer at home in Maine. versity of Oslo, “Ritual Killing and view of the Seven Sisters, fried rock Anna Geifman: In the summer I Civic Identity in Early Modern Ven- cod, and Knickerbocker Glories. will be in Israel, hopefully finishing my ice,” and participating in a small con- Eugenio Menegon: I will travel to

Page 6 NEWS my native Italy in late May to attend summer course on the Armenian quite catchy) as we watch a big cowhide two conferences. The first, organized Genocide for Summer TermII. In addi- ball, almost fifteen feet in diameter, be- by the Network of Italian Scholars tion, I plan on writing chapters for my ing rolled into town all the way from Abroad and the Istituto di Scienze next two books. The first surveys the Cleveland, by supporters of the new Umane on the theme “The Future of history of human rights as experienced party (John and I are quite optimistic Democracy,” will be held in pictur- by Armenians in the Ottoman, Persian, about the election!). I plan a return to esque Castel dell’Ovo on the Bay of and Russian empires and the current the present sometime in November, Naples, May 20-24, with presentations situation in the post-Soviet republic of 2009. by Italian professors from institutions Armenia. The second book examines Beth Forrest: I will present the pa- in the USA, Canada, and Europe. After the evolution of the Armenian dias- per “Drunk of Desire: Reform Move- lecturing at the University of Rome “La poran community in the United States ments in Spain, 1750-1850” at the annual Sapienza” in the seminar on the “His- and its efforts to influence American Association for the Study of Food and tory of Orientalism in Rome,” I will foreign policy. Also, Arpi and I hope to Society, held this year at Penn State proceed to Venice, and will sleep, for set aside some free time to visit Wash- University, May 29-31. This summer, I the first time in my life, in the city ington, DC, Bar Harbor in Maine, will be finding my roots (Get it? Last where I went to college in the late 1980s Montreal, and Quebec City. name is Forrest) traveling to Poland. I (back then, I commuted every time by Nina Silber: I will spend most of my am particularly excited to visit the train from my town on the mainland)! summer working on my new research Wieliczka salt mines and eat pierogi for The “Giorgio Cini” Foundation, lo- project on “The Civil War in American ten days straight. cated in a splendid former Benedictine Life, 1929-1941”—probably reading some Katherine Jewell: This summer I monastery on San Giorgio Island, op- Carl Sandburg, Margaret Mitchell, and plan to welcome an addition to my posite St. Mark Square, will host an in- other lesser-known authors who helped family—my husband (Conor Hansen) ternational symposium on “China and shape the landscape of Civil War mem- and I are expecting the arrival of Leo the West Today: Lessons from Matteo ory in the 1930s. In June I’ll make a Prichard Hansen on the appropriately- Ricci” on May 27-30. I will deliver a pa- quick trip to Berkeley (mainly to see history-themed due date of June 6.Iam per on the tradition of memento mori family) and a slightly longer trip to a re- hoping Leo has good editing skills, as and the art of dying imported by mis- mote corner of Maine in August. my plans also include continuing my sionaries to China in the seventeenth dissertation on the Southern States In- century and contextualize it within the dustrial Council. Chinese traditions of Buddhism, GRADUATE STUDENTS Jolanta Komornicka: I will be going Daoism and Neo-Confucianism. After to Paris for three months this summer David Atkinson: I’m going to go a few days of rest in my native Castel- to conduct my dissertation research in out on a limb and declare my intention franco Veneto,the town of Renaissance the archives. to finish my dissertation this summer. painter Giorgione, I will fly to Beijing, Kathryn Lamontagne: I will be giv- It’s an off-year for major international where I will spend the month of June as ing a paper at the “Spaces and Places” soccer tournaments, after all, and the a BU exchange scholar at the Institute Conference at the Institute of Histori- lure of the fall job market is so enticing. of History of the Chinese Academy of cal Research at the University of Lon- Please feel free to publicly berate me on Social Sciences, collecting materials for don in June. My topic is Kilmainham Bay State Road in September if it turns my project on the Qing court and giv- Gaol and Museum in Dublin. I will re- out that I didn’t accomplish this goal. ing a talk at the Institute’s Qing semi- main in London for the summer, com- Andrew Black: Until I complete my nar. July and August will be spent en- pleting research and preparing for oral dissertation, I won’t be visiting any ex- joying the Boston summer and com- exams. otic locations. No archive time in the pleting the final copy-editing for my Robyn Metcalfe: My summer Langue d’Oc, no interviews with forthcoming book, Ancestors, Virgins plans? Write, write, write my disserta- campesinos in Chiapas. Unless, of and Friars (Harvard Asia Center and tion, and take a breather (!) in early Sep- course, you include the streets of Balti- Harvard University Press). tember to run the Transalpine Race more in the 1830s and 40s. There, I will Cathal Nolan: I will travel to the (http://www.transalpine-run.com/ be strolling with my friend John Normandy beaches and Falaise, and to alps_cross_start.htm), retracing Hanni- Pendleton Kennedy (the subject of my Verdun, Agincourt, and other nearby bal’s steps as he brought his elephants dissertation), having our craniums felt sites on a “Battlefields” fellowship from across the Alps. up in a newly opened phrenology shop the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foun- Scott Marr: I will be in Boston for (all the rage now) and standing in line dation. After finishing Summer Term I most of the summer, working diligently to see Chang and Eng Bunker, on tour teaching, I will start work on my next on my dissertation. I have two trips as the “Siamese Twins” (Barnum’s new- book, “The Allure of Battle: Delusions planned, one to Missouri in June to est media offering). During July of 1840, of Victory, 1700-1945,” which is under visit my sister and her family (she is John and I will sing Whig campaign contract with Oxford University Press. having her third baby) and one to Cali- songs (the tune of “Old Tip” is really Simon Payaslian: I will be offering a fornia in August for Anne [Blaschke]’s

May 2009 Page 7 birthday. history major. For instance, if a student cles. I hope you all have a wonderful, Sarah Westwood: This summer I has taken hi 101 and 102 (the two halves relaxing vacation! will begin a part-time position in re- of WesternCiv), the audit may assign hi Grace Hoffman: I plan on spending search and writing at Harvard Business 101 to the European category (the most of the summer in my hometown, School’s Baker Library. I will be work- course also carries premodern credit); New York City. I am returning to my ing with the Department of Historical when it considers hi 102, it “sees” that old high school job as a cashier and Collections on a variety of upcoming the European category is satisfied, and waitress at Tossed, a made-to-order exhibits. I will be traveling twice to my so hi 102 may go into the “Extra salad bar in the city. In June I’ll have a hometown, Evanston, Illinois, to see Courses” section, with a warning that nice break from work—I plan to road my sister graduate from university and the student still needs a premodern trip with a few friends to the Bonnaroo attend a friend’s wedding. Also, I am class. Instead, hi 101 could be placed in music festival in Tennessee, where hoping to improve my extremely lim- the premodern slot, with hi 102 in the some great bands are playing. Then it’s ited Wolof language skills in prepara- European. As I have worked on a com- back to Boston in August to move into tion for a directed study on Ajami script puter program that can solve this prob- my first apartment! in the fall. I will hopefully do most of lem, I have come to appreciate how Kimera Nielsen: This summer I will this studying, and my summer reading, complex an audit really is. And every be working at the Caldwell Municipal at the free outdoor pool in my neigh- time I thought I had a program that Pool in Caldwell, Idaho. Thus I will borhood. I’ll be the one with all the worked and then tested it on an actual spend my days roasting in the sun try- books on African colonial armies. student record, I found more complica- ing to convince countless children not tions. But as of late April, I believe an to run on the pool deck. With the re- audit for the general history major (Op- mainder of my time I will be trying to STAFF tion A) is working properly. So the sum- get ahead on studies by taking an 8- mer will be spent doing the same for week calculus course and otherwise just James Dutton: After heading to Vir- the other seven tracks of the major, spending my time in the Idaho sun- ginia for a brief visit in late May to help then—with Carrie Mountain’s help— shine. oversee the auction of items from my testing and debugging the programs. Maria Wallace: This summer I plan parents’ home and to prepare the house The goal is not to replace the University on returning home to Pittsburgh. I will for future sale, I will—unless something audit (which works very well with the be working with a program that pro- exciting comes along—be in Boston for basic requirements of the BA degree) vides support for inner city kids and the summer. I have a major project in but to have the capability of producing waitressing on the side to save up mind for the office that will consume a printout that will, in simple language, money to backpack through Europe many hours: devising an internal de- inform advisors and students what re- next summer. I also plan on taking a gree audit for the history major. As mains to be completed in the major. trip to the Muskoka Lakes in Ontario to some students have discovered, the We hope this will help solve the prob- fish with my family. N University’s degree audit does not al- lem of having seniors arrive at gradua- ways assign a student’s courses cor- tion with requirements unfulfilled. rectly to the categories of the revised Carrie Mountain: I will spend my summer working in the department. I hope to find a course or two to take, if I can find something that fits with my NEWS schedule. My friends and I will hope- fully spend our weekends doing all the of the History Department warm-weather things we dreamed at Boston University about all winter long: trips to the beach, is published monthly September picnics in the park, camping in Maine. through May at the department office, I’d really love to find a way to travel in 226 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215. Europe for a bit this summer, but we’ll see how things go. (Donations to the Telephone: 617-353-2551 E-mail: [email protected] “Send Carrie to Europe Fund” are al- Website: www.bu.edu/history ways welcome.) Jennifer Covino: I will be moving Editor: James T. Dutton, Depart- ment Administrator into a new apartment with two friends this summer and I hope we will have a Items of interest for publication and barbecue or two or ten. I’d also like to Graduate student Darcy Pratt Jacobsen gave birth changes of address should be sent to finish a long and treacherous journey to her daughter on April 17. Her name is Eleanor the editor. before me: alphabetically organizing Pauline Marie Jacobsen, but the parents plan to Professor Anderson’s collection of arti- call her Nell (a good medieval name, of course).

Page 8 NEWS for teaching jobs in hopes that I will have my own classroom (between grades 1 and 6)! Alexandra Drolette: I plan to pur- sue a Master’s in Education and to one day be a high school history teacher. Ian Eder: Following graduation I will be a US Army 2nd lieutenant. I will be going to training schools at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and Ft. Knox, Georgia, and eventually taking charge of a Cavalry Platoon of the 3rd Infantry Division (in Audie Murphy’s Brigade) at Ft. Ben- ning, Georgia. Robert Elliott: After a two-week eurotrip and a summer off, I will be at- tending Brooklyn Law School, with a focus in Intellectual Property Law. Joe Gels: I plan on teaching high Each year we ask the department’s graduating seniors to let our readers know what school history in the Boston area. they plan after commencement, and the responses always run a wide gamut. Alex Gontar: My plans at the mo- ment are very tentative, but I have been considering going into public policy. Rose Anderson: After a summer spent uprooting my life once more, I will be- Emily Grimes: I will be commis- gin pursuing my JD at George Mason Law School in Arlington, Virginia, this fall. sioning in May as a 2nd lieutenant in Chris Bacarella: I will be navigating the labyrinthine political hierarchy known the Army. I received an educational de- as Hollywood, trying to work my way into television writing. I’ll make sure to al- lay to attend Hofstra Law School and lude to Soviet agricultural policy and puritan dating habits as much as my po- will enter the Army JAG corps after lice/lawyer/medical procedural will allow. graduating from law school. Alex Berman: After graduation I intend to spend a few weeks backpacking in Allison Hartnett: As the recipient Utah and California. As for the fall, I’ve decided to enroll at Simmons College pur- of a Critical Language Scholarship suing a double master’s in Archives Management and History. from the State Department, I will be Emily Berman: I will be joining Teach For America as a corps member. I will be continuing my study of Arabic in teaching elementary school in the area for the next two years. My Amman, Jordan, over the summer. Af- long-term plans are to stay in education and pursue school/district leadership. ter that I will be applying to graduate Javier Bermudez: I am going abroad this fall to teach English in France for schools. about nine months. After that I am not sure what I will do, but I am looking into ei- Stephen Henrick: I will be attend- ther doing Peace Corps, or going into IR grad school. ing this coming Christine Bertoglio: I will be doing a master’s program in Medieval Studies at fall. the University of York in England. Devin Kelly: After graduation, I will Matt Brothers: Aside from graduating with a degree in history, I will also be cer- be commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in tified in secondary social studies education after student teaching this semester. I the United States Marine Corps aboard am currently looking for high school teaching positions, and I hope to be in the the historic USS Constitution in Boston classroom in September. Over the summer, I will be relaxing and catching up on Harbor at 1700, 17 May. Following grad- the many hours of sleep I missed while student teaching. I am taking a trip to Aruba uation, I will report to The Basic with my girlfriend in July, and I may go on a road trip with my friends to make my- School, Quantico, Virginia, for training self believe I’m still a college kid. Other than that, I will be working and enjoying as a provisional rifle platoon com- baseball and the beach. I will also spend some of my free time over the summer pre- mander. After completion of this paring for what I hope is my first year of teaching starting in September. school, I have orders to attend Flight Lauren Bruaski: After graduation, I plan on staying in Boston working through School at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, the summer. After that I plan on spending a few months backpacking in Europe, Florida, and will begin training as a na- then starting the process of grad school. val aviator. In the future, I plan to pilot Elizabeth Buckley: Soon after graduation I will be taking a paralegal course and helicopters for the Marine Corps, spe- then spending the next year or two working as a paralegal here in Boston. In the cifically the UH-1 Huey helicopter. meantime I will be preparing for the LSATsand then later applying to law schools. Rebecca Levant: After graduation, I Sarah Dimock: I am a BUCOP student from SED, so in May I’ll be graduating have plans to join the Peace Corps. At with a BA in History and a BS in Elementary Education. I am currently applying this time I do not know where I am go-

May 2009 Page 9 ing, but I will probably be training level. teachers as well as teaching English. Mallory Rott: I will continue to Evan Lowry: My plans are tentative work at my undergraduate job full-time for the next two years. Currently I’m in for the summer, and then will start law the process of applying to work for school at Law Boston in Americorps, either in Teach for Amer- the fall. ica or Peace Corps. Apparently the ap- Andrew Ruisi: I’ll be commission- plication process is more competitive ing as an Ensign in the US Navy. I will than in previous years, but I’m confi- report to Naval Air Station Pensacola as dent I’ll have a fair shot at being ac- a Student Naval Aviator. cepted. After that I will be applying for Kendrick Sledge: After graduation I graduate programs in European his- will be moving to New Mexico to teach tory. elementary school with Teach For Reesa Miles: I plan to attend Co- America. lumbia Teachers College for my mas- Jessica Stah: I will be moving home ter’s in Education Policy. to upstate New York to work for a year Nicole Norton: After graduation, I before returning to graduate school to Kathryn Lamontagne am working as a Project Manager for C. pursue a degree in education. Spirito in Weymouth. As far as further Brandon Swab: My immediate education, hopefully I will be accepted plans are to continue working in the into the Master’s Program in Manage- real estate office here in Boston where I ment with a concentration in Project have worked for the past three years. Kathryn Lamontagne Management with Boston University’s More long term, I look forward to trav- Metropolitan College. I will also con- eling as much as possible in the next named to teaching tinue to volunteer as a mentor with the two years, and I’m going to look for a fellow prize Boston Mayor’s YouthCouncil and ref- graduate program for journalism eree high school basketball as a certified and/or writing. I want to live in an area The departmental Graduate Studies IAABO official. of the country or world I haven’t been Committee has selected third-year PhD Shelby Patton: I have been ac- to or lived in before and never stop ex- student Kathryn Lamontagne as the cepted in the JET (Japanese Exchange ploring and learning. winner of this year’s Teaching Fellow and Teaching) Program and will be Nicole Thalheimer: After gradua- Prize, awarded by the Graduate School moving to Japan on August 1st. This tion I will be taking a year off before to the student who has “demonstrated program is one year long (with the op- graduate school. I received an intern- the greatest skill, enthusiasm, and dedi- tion of renewing for five years) and will ship in Israel and come September will cation in his or her teaching during the place me in a Japanese junior high or be moving there for about five months. current academic year.” high school where I will be an English Hopefully I will be starting graduate Kathryn has been a TF in a variety of teacher. The program typically places school in September of 2010 to get my courses, from the second half of the people in semi-rural or rural areas, so I doctorate in clinical psychology. Western Civ survey to twentieth-cen- am looking forward to living in a small Brian Toye: I will be studying for tury European history to the history of Japanese town and practicing my Japa- my PhD in History at the University of international relations. nese. After this program, I would like to Minnesota in the fall. She is preparing to take her qualify- go to graduate school and continue Brian Walsh: After I graduate I will ing oral exam and is working with Pro- studying Japanese history. be a teaching assistant in Rennes, fessor Charles Dellheim as her advisor. Rachel Pomeroy: I’ll be graduating France, teaching English to mid- with a degree in history and minor in dle/high school French students. I will biology. I will be moving to Nor- be in France until next May, and upon folk/Virginia Beach, Virginia, in August my return I plan on going to grad SUMMER READING (cont. from page 3) and attending Eastern Virginia Medical school for a doctorate in history. School’s Physician Assistant master’s Lauren Williams: I will be attend- press and legitimize their own particular program. ing Cardozo Law School in the fall. interests in a globalized world. Kyle Pronko: I plan to work as an Agatha Wozniak: I am teaching From office assistant Jennifer Covino: EMT and learn Russian for a year or English in Poland for the summer, then I highly recommend The Unbearable two to strengthen my résumé for either attending graduate school in the fall. Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera for light Russian history graduate school or Not sure where yet, either here or in reading. I myself hope to read Noam medical school. Syracuse, New York. N Chomsky’s Necessary Illusions and Jonathan Megan Rigo: I plan to pursue teach- Safran Foer’s novel Everything Is Illuminated. ing social studies at the high school N

Page 10 NEWS Department enlarges choices for PhD major field

The faculty of the department have recently decided, as a direct result of difficulties some doctoral students have experienced in defining the major field for the qualifying oral examina- tion, to make an addition to how a ma- jor field is determined. The goal is to make the major field correspond more closely to what the student is actually studying. The relevant paragraph will now read:

Definition of Major Field. The definition of the scope of the major At the British Association for American Studies Annual Conference in Nottingham, England, in mid-April field is primarily the responsibility some past and current participants in the exchange between Cambridge University and BU gathered. From of the examining faculty, in consul- left, Charlotte Carrington, François Lalonde, Katie Brownell, and Robin Vandome. Katie writes, “We met for tation with the student and the drinks last night and took a picture that is evidence of the success of the graduate exchange program.” Graduate Studies Committee. The major field will ordinarily be the field within which a dissertation topic is chosen. The fields of spe- New class added for fall tered—or failed to alter—patterns of racial cialization are: Africa, the United and class inequality over the course of the States, Europe (medieval; early 20 A new course has recently been added th century. modern, 1500 to 1815; or modern, 378 to the fall schedule: cas hi (“History 1789 to present). It is also possible, in of the Civil Rights Movement”). The in- consultation with the faculty advisor structor will be Professor Julia Rabig, who and the Director of Graduate Studies, holds a one-year appointment in the Afri- to define a field that is not geographi- can American Studies Program. Dr. Rabig cally specific and would allow for the News of the BU-Cambridge exchange outlines the course content: exploration of a particular theme, or The civil rights movement unleashed Professor Bruce Schulman, director of the themes, in a transnational context. cataclysmic changes in US political, so- American Political History Institute, has an- Within the European fields there cial, and cultural life. In this class, we will nounced that David Mislin has been se- is the option of the following na- draw on an exciting range of primary lected as the BU student who will be going tional emphases: France, Britain, sources—films, organizational records, to Cambridge University in spring 2010. Germany, Russia, or Spain, or a top- memoirs, manifestos—as well as new his- ical emphasis such as social, intel- tories of the “long 1960s” to chart the tra- lectual, or economic. The major jectory of the civil rights movement, pay- field in African history requires re- ing close attention to the groundwork gional specialization plus knowl- laid by diverse activists in the 1920s and edge of a related discipline, such as 1930s, as well as the variety of black power Commencement: a reminder anthropology or economics. advocates who attempted to institution- The main commencement for the univer- alize the movement in the 1970s and be- sity will be held at Nickerson Field at 1 p.m. The change (in bold italics above) yond. We’ll assess the movement’s pro- on Sunday, May 17. The History Depart- means that students will be able to take found consequences for political orga- ment convocation is at 4 p.m. that day in Ja- their orals in fields that do not fit neatly nizing, studying the process through cob Sleeper Hall in the College of General into the department’s traditional three which other movements of the 1960s and 871 Studies, Commonwealth Avenue. The categories of American, European, or 1970s—antiwar, feminism, gay and lesbian faculty speaker will be Professor Brendan liberation, neighborhood rights, ethnic McConville. The ceremony (at which diplo- African. nationalism, and even grassroots conser- mas are given out) will last approximately The additional sentence will be vatism—laid claim to the rhetoric and tac- one hour, after which a reception is held, added to the Graduate School bulletin, tics of the civil rights movement. We’ll also in CGS. Graduates must call the de- the departmental website, and the conclude by assessing major civil rights– partment office (353-2551) to let the staff Graduate Handbook. era legislation and consider how it al- know if they are attending the convocation.

May 2009 Page 11 Department of History 226 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215