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The Department of History
Alumni Newsletter
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 | The History Department’s annual McClellan Symposium, discussing “Soviets, Sans-Culottes, and Zapatistas: Revolutions in the Modern World" | |
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| Andrew R.L. Cayton, a much beloved History professor at Miami University, died on December 17, 2015 following a long illness. To honor his legacy, the Department of History has established the Andrew R.L. Cayton Memorial Fund.
The fund commemorates Professor Cayton’s profound impact as an instructor, advisor, and mentor of generations of students in the History Department and at Miami University. The fund will support History students’ research, internships, and other opportunities to expand their education and to prepare them for a wide range of careers.
Donations can be made by clicking the red button below. Please reference “Andrew R.L. Cayton Memorial Fund” in the memo section.
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| Dear Alumni and Friends: Graduation ceremonies are fading into memory, most students have moved out, and summer weather has arrived in Oxford. So it seems to be a good moment to reflect on an exciting and successful Spring semester in Miami’s History Department.
One obvious highlight was the department’s McClellan Symposium, which brought together three major scholars to discuss revolutions in modern history. The centenaries of the Russian Revolutions and a major event in the Mexican Revolution—the passing of the 1917 Constitution—offered an occasion to examine and compare profound historical upheavals and their long-term repercussions, a theme as relevant now as it has ever been. Organized by three History colleagues, who simultaneously taught semester-long courses on the French, Mexican, and Russian Revolutions, the symposium highlighted once more the importance of historical perspective and reflection, even (perhaps especially) in the midst of rapid transformations in our own, contemporary world.
Besides this initiative, the Newsletter details other collaborative efforts that have occupied History faculty and students both in and outside our classrooms. At the end of the Spring semester, we attended the annual History Honors Symposium, a by now established opportunity for our departmental Honors students to showcase the results of their more than year-long research projects. This year was also noteworthy for a new partnership with an important regional institution, the Cincinnati Museum Center. We are proud of the contributions History faculty and graduate students made to several exhibition events, and hope to pursue similar collaborations in the future.
Last but not least, I draw your attention to the individual accomplishments of our students and faculty, several of them recognized by honors and awards. I am particularly pleased that the Department has been able to make the first award, to History major Kaylie Schunk, from the new Andrew R.L. Cayton Fund. Below you will find a description of her project. I end by offering my congratulations to the 47 History majors who graduated this year. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors. We hope to stay in touch with you as we do with all our alumni and friends.
All good wishes on behalf of the History Department!
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(R to L) Drs. David Bell, Mark Steinberg, William Beezley, and Elena Albarrán |
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Revolutions in Modern History
This spring, the 1917 centennial of the Russian Revolutions and the Mexican Constitution inspired a semester-long exploration of revolutions in the modern world. Three classes, taught by Drs. Will Brown, Elena Albarrán, and Stephen Norris, focused on the French, Mexican, and Russian Revolutions, respectively. The courses culminated in the History Department’s annual McClellan Symposium.
On March 30, three major scholars, David Bell (Princeton University), William Beezley (University of Arizona), and Mark Steinberg (University of Illinois) engaged with a large audience of students and faculty in a broad-ranging conversation about “Soviets, Sans-Culottes, and Zapatistas: Revolutions in the Modern World."
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The Cincinnati Museum Center and the Department of History
This year faculty and students participated in special programming events accompanying the Cincinnati Museum Center’s special exhibits, Da Vinci: The Genius and Vikings: Beyond the Legend. Coordinated by History professor and Associate Dean P. Renée Baernstein, this collaboration resulted in gallery talks and presentations by History faculty (Drs. Baernstein and Daniel Prior) and graduate students (Margaret Breidenbaugh and Leigh Winstead). These events drew large audiences, including many Miami University alumni.
At the time of the Vikings event, Elizabeth Pierce, president and CEO of Cincinnati Museum Center, praised this partnership with Miami University as a way to “utilize experts in our own backyard to expand on the lessons and revelations that Vikings: Beyond the Legend presents.” In turn, Dr. Baernstein emphasized the exhibition’s ability to make the distant past come alive: “it invites the public to feel, hear and imagine how the people we call Vikings lived everyday life: how they ate, farmed, worked, wrote, sang and dreamed.”
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Teaching Spotlights
History Honors Presentations
Dr. Andrew Offenberger greets students, their parents and friends, and faculty to the second day of the Department’s Honors Symposium (April 26-27, 2017). Students in the History Honors track complete a three-semester sequence of coursework culminating in an independent thesis project based on intensive research and writing. This year, topics included a comparison between German and American university systems after World War II, the failed leadership of Jefferson Davis of the southern Confederacy, the 1968 Mexican Student Movement and Tlatelolco Massacre, and the 1605 Gunpowder Plot in England.
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L to R: Erica Edwards, Grace Francour, Aleah Sexton, Jacob Bruggeman, Mary Jane Fischer |
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Propaganda Takes Over! History Students Create a Soviet-style Propaganda Room and Emigré Club
Students in Dr. Stephen Norris’s Introduction to Russian and East European Studies gave one of the Department’s seminar rooms a makeover.
As part of the course, students explored the ways in which the Soviet Union used visual imagery and messaging to express political ideology. The group project also highlighted the communal and social dimensions of political activity.
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Student Spotlights: Kaylie Schunk and Jacob Bruggeman
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Kaylie Schunk Receives First Andrew R.L. Cayton Award
Kaylie Schunk, an undergraduate honors student enrolled in the Department’s BA/MA Program, is the first recipient of research support from the Andrew R.L. Cayton Fund. The History Department established this fund last year to celebrate the memory of its long-time colleague, and beloved professor of the history of early North America, Dr. Andrew Cayton. “I was honored to receive the funding,” Kaylie said, “especially given that it honors someone of such importance to Miami."
Kaylie’s project examines understandings of nation and identity of the Myaamia (Miami) and the U.S. Federal Government from the late eighteenth century to the aftermath of the War of 1812. In particular, she is investigating how the United States and the Myaamia both sought to assert their positions as legitimate states, and how factors of environment, allegiance, leadership, spirituality, and culture divided the United States and the Myaamia, while causing the two groups to form their own perceptions of who they were. Both internal dynamics and conflict led the Miami and the United States to discover and assert their national identities.
With support of the Cayton Fund, Kaylie will travel to Chicago to consult the Newberry Library’s renowned Edward E. Ayer Collection in American Indian and Indigenous history. This will allow her to expand her primary source base on the Miami Tribe, which is essential to reconstruct the Native American perspective. Kaylie also intends to use her award to travel to the Miami reservation in Oklahoma next January to meet with members of the Myaamia nation.
Thanks to the generosity of former students, colleagues, and friends of Drew Cayton, this inaugural award will enable Kaylie the unique opportunity, as she put it, "to be a practicing historian prior to graduation."
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Jacob Bruggeman Receives Gilder Lehrman History Scholar Award Jacob Bruggeman, an honors History and Political Science major, was one of fifteen students nationwide to receive a 2017 Gilder Lehrman History Scholar Award. The award recognizes collegiate scholars "who have demonstrated academic excellence in American history or American studies as well as a commitment to public service, leadership, and community involvement.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute brings all recipients to New York City for a week-long stay in June, and it enables recipients to meet eminent scholars and get behind-the-scenes tour of rare archival holdings.
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History award winners (L to R): Adam Cloch, Rachel Wydra, Caroline Godard, Madison Scott, Alissa Johnson, Jacob Bruggeman | |
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Spencer Aitken, Class of 2017, received the prestigious President’s Distinguished Service Award. Spencer, an honors student with four majors (History, Classical Humanities, Classical Languages, and Biology), has been deeply involved in student organizations that better campus life for everyone. His History honors thesis was entitled, “The Fifth of November, 1605: The Political and Cultural Creation of the Gunpowder Plot” (advisor, Dr. P. Renée Baernstein). Spencer is headed off to the masters program in Classics at Boston College.
Five History majors received Dean’s Scholar awards: Jacob Bruggeman (advisor Aaron Cavin), Adam Cloch (Erik Jensen), Alissa Johnson (Tammy Brown), Madison Scott (Andrew Offenburger), and Rachel Wydra (Elena Albarrán). Two students were named University Summer Scholars: Caroline Godard (Wietse de Boer) and Matthew Kline (Stephen Norris).
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Dr. Dewitt S. (Sam) Chandler, professor of colonial Latin American history, is retiring from the Department of History after forty-four years of teaching at Miami University. Dr. Chandler, the author of multiple books, and known for his inquisitive mind and personal kindness, was also an affiliate of the Latin American, Latino/a, and Caribbean Studies Program at Miami. Dr. Nishani Frazier published her monograph, Harambee City: The Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland and the Rise of Black Power Populism (University of Arkansas Press, 2017). Dr. Dan Prior published: “Afterword: Arthur Hatto, Ethnopoetics, and Epic Moments,” in A. T. Hatto, The World of the Khanty Epic Hero-princes: An Exploration of a Siberian Oral Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 2016), 227-232; “Fastening the Buckle: A Strand of Xiongnu-era Narrative in a Recent Kirghiz Epic Poem,” The Silk Road 14 (2016), 186-195; and (with Trudy S. Kawami and Robert S. Wicks), “A Gift of Steppe Bronzes From the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation to the Miami University Art Museum,” The Silk Road 14 (2016), 175-185.
Dr. Lindsay Schakenbach Regele co-founded an interdisciplinary faculty workshop "Political Economy" with Youn Ki (Political Science) on the Oxford campus. She also published an essay on the popular historical webnews site, Common-place.org, "Early National Bro Culture in Daniel Parker's War Department."
Dr. Robert Thurston, Professor Emeritus, talked with a local news show about the challenges faced by the global coffee industry. Listen to the 21-minute conversation. Dr. Thurston operates the popular Oxford Coffee Company.
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| College of Arts and Science at Miami University 254 Upham Hall
100 Bishop Circle
Oxford, OH 45056
Phone: 513-529-5121
Email: history@MiamiOH.edu
© 2017 Miami University. All rights reserved.
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