THE CRITICISM OF POPULAR NARRATIVE: WHAT ARE THE STAKES?
Chris Messenger, University of Illinois at Chicago
Thursday, September 18, 2003
The criticism of popular narrative is often a difficult task that either destroys the work under discussion or condescends to it. How can teachers and critics offer a critical approach that honors a work's energies and importance but still preserves the idea of literary and asthetic value? Participants look at exerpts from the fiction of Mario Puzo and E.L. Doctorow, as well as a few film clips from "The Godfather" and "The Sopranos" as they consider this issue.
POLITICS, CLASS, AND NATION IN THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Charles Steinwedel, Northern Illinois University
Friday, October 3, 2003
From the beginning, the Russian Revolution of 1917 has been a controversial event. Some historians and scholars have argued that the Revolution was a conspiracy among a small group of Bokshevik political activists. Others have viewed the Revolution as a social movement carried out in the name of the working class. For others, the revolution was a moment of national liberation. This seminar examines how historians have used newly-available sources and new approaches to analyze the causes, nature, and legacy of one of the crucial events of the twentieth century.
AFRICAN DECOLONIZATION
James Searing, University of Illinois at Chicago
Thursday, October 9, 2003
Did Africans achieve independence and majority rule because of nationalist protests or because of changing attitudes toward Empire in Europe and the rest of the world? This seminar examines debates about the political changes that swept the continent since the end of World War II, focusing on citizenship, popular protest, and changes in the international world order.
GROWTH AND CHANGE IN AMERICAN CITIES
Colleen Doody, De Paul University
Friday, October 24, 2003
In this seminar, participants explore the history of American cities in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first portion of the seminar is a documents-based exercise in urban development. Through an exploration of census materials, the seminar introduces basic questions related to urban history: When and why did cities grow? What functions did cities play in the American economy? At what point did the majority of the nation's population reside in urban areas? Who lived in cities? How did urban populations change over time? In the second part of the seminar, participants discuss some of the recent historiography on the post-World War II urban crisis. This literature has argued that the urban decline that we often associate with the late 1960s and 1970s - white flight, deindustrialization, racial conflict, and urban budget crises - began in the 1950s. These newer studies have changed the way we understand and explain urban decline and suburbanization.
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: VISUALIZING THE SPACE OF SOCIAL LIFE
Patrick McHaffie, De Paul University
Friday, November 7, 2003
This seminar presents an introduction to ways of visualizing social geographies and connecting them to the daily experiences of students. Particular examples are taken from Chicago and the metropolitan area examining geographies of environmental justice, social welfare, crime, and education. Other examples are given of classroom activities that will build understanding of linkages between consumers and producers (in a spatially extensive economy), ways that culture can spatially structure the city, and how we construct mental maps to order our world.
JAPANESE COLONIALISM IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Taylor Atkins, Northern Illinois University
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
This seminar examines the expansion of the Japanese empire from the late nineteenth century until the Second World War, with particular attention to how Japanese colonialism conformed to and departed from colonial practices of other nation-states (e.g., Britain, Netherlands, USA, France). The seminar will briefly outline the chronology of Japanese incursions into East and Southeast Asia and the south Pacific, then proceed to discuss the empire's peculiar ideological, political, and economic characteristics. We will then devote some time to discussing the Japanese colonial administration of Korea and its effects on subsequent developments in the history of the East Asian region. The emphasis throughout will be comparative, so that the seminar will be most useful to teachers of world history and comparative civilizations.
SHAKESPEARE'S WITCHY WOMEN
Regina Buccola, Roosevelt University
Session I - Thursday, November 20, 2003
Session II - Thursday, December 11, 2003
Shakespeare revisits the subject of witchcraft with respect to women repeatedly in his plays. In this seminar, participants work from one of the most obvious manifestations of woman-centered magic in the corpus, Macbeth, to the less ominous magical universe of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and end with the ambiguity of All's Well That Ends Well. In each case, participants discuss early modern beliefs in magical forces and their relationship to gender-based stereotypes of women as they are alternately embraced and interrogated in Shakespeare's plays.
Note: This seminar also includes a special afternoon session consisting of a tour and discussion of the Exhibit "Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend" at the Newberry Library.
EUROPEAN REPRESENTATIONS OF THE NEW WORLD
David Buisseret, University of Texas at Arlington
Thursday, December 4, 2003
David Buisseret, Garrett Professor of the History of Cartography and Southwestern Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington, leads this seminar, which focuses on the question of how various groups of Europeans made images of what was, for them, a "New World." Most examples are chosen in part for their accessibility for classroom use. Buisseret, editor of the leading journal in the history of discoveries, Terrae Incognitae, has extensive publications in European and North American political and colonial history, historical geography, the history of cartography, and his work also includes aids to the interpretation and use of historic maps as sources.
AN AUTOPSY AND AN OBITUARY FOR SOVIET COMMUNISM
Richard Farkas, DePaul University
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
This analysis examines three broad dimensions of the political system as it existed under Communism: values, structures, and leadership. The discussion is structured as a physician's evaluation of a patient (in comparative and forward-facing perspective). The post-Stalin political system is also discussed as the system inherited by Gorbachev. Gorbachev's perspective and initiatives are reviewed and his fateful choices examined in the context of the times. The pressures and circumstances of change frame the conclusions about what caused the demise of the system. Yeltsin's link to these events and the heritage he leaves to Putin form the conclusion of the analysis.
THINGS ADD UP, THINGS FALL APART: WHAT WE CAN SAY ABOUT THE MACROECONOMY
Mark Witte, Northwestern University
Friday, December 12, 2003
What does it mean for the economy to be in equilibrium, or out of equilibrium? When is equilibrium bad? Why have things been so poor for workers over the past three years and what could have been done about it? Dr. Witte will try to make sense of the exogenous and endogenous processes that shape our economy.
OF SPIES AND SPIN: COLD WAR POLITICS AND COMMUNIST ESPIONAGE
Dave Krugler, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Friday, January 16, 2004
It is well-known that Senator Joe McCarthy's infamous list did not identify a single communist in the State Department, even though for years dozens of American agents had passed on sensitive, classified documents to Soviet handlers. However, almost all of this espionage occurred before McCarthy announced his list in February 1950, and the ensuing Red Scare smeared far more innocent people than it uncovered real spies. Why? This seminar reviews scholarship detailing the extent of communist espionage in the United States and explores the reasons that most spies went undetected. At the same time, participants investigate how Cold War-era Democrats and Republicans often reduced the complex issues surrounding communist espionage to simplistic, partisan terms.
THE INVISIBLE MAN
Kenneth Warren, University of Chicago
Friday, January 23, 2004
How are issues of identity and status treated in Ellison's classic exploration of racism in America? To what extent do the conclusions of the novel still hold true? Participants in this seminar discuss how Ellison himself envisioned the development of the work and how critics have responded to it since.
POLITICS AND THE MEDIA
Alan Gitelson, Loyola University
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
This seminar serves as an overview of the role that the media plays in the political and governmental process. After an historical overview, the focus is on the political socialization role that the media plays in the United States and in the anti-politics bias in the media.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Alexis Papadopoulos, DePaul University
Friday, January 30, 2004
Historically the United States has had international relations that were defined by periods of significant isolation from the politics of international security, and period of intensive and systematic involvement in world affairs. Following the end of WWII, the United States has been unwaveringly and hegemonically involved in the promotion of international politics that have served its vision of a stable international system. After "9/11" it has become very clear that the American homeland is not impervious to the externalities of international politics. It is essential that we bring to students of all levels a sophisticated understanding of the role and actions of the United States in international politics.
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Martha Biondi, Northwestern University
Thursday, February 19, 2004
The popular narrative of the Civil Rights Movement - that Martin Luther King and a dedicated cadre of non-violent, Christian Black southerners, aided by strong allies in the federal government, broke the back of Jim Crow and led America into a new era of enlightenment and racial justice - has proven remarkably enduring. But for over a decade historians have been challenging fundamental assumptions of this narrative and have produced a wave of new scholarship that offers a dramatically different portrait of the Civil Rights Movement and the postwar United States. This seminar explores the contours of this shift and assesses the political and intellectual currents that have shaped the current generation of civil rights historians. Participants examine how the end of the Cold War, the feminist and gay rights movements, and the rise of the right have shaped the approach of contemporary scholars.
ORIENTAL INSTITUTE MUSEUM
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Tour the newly reopened Mesopotamian Gallery, as well as the Egyptian and Persian Galleries. Highlights of the collection include a 40-ton human-headed winged Assyrian bull from the palace of King Sargon II, striding lions from Babylon, Sumerian temple statues, a 3000 year-old statue of King Tutankhamun, pottery from the early Islamic period, and colossal sculptures from the palace at ancient Persepolis (Iran). Participants in this NTC field trip also have the opportunity to view a film about the ancient Near East, "Mesopotamia: I Have Conquered the River," showing how civilizations sprouted up along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and to see the Institute's materials and services available to teachers, including curriculum guides, loan materials, tour program, and on-line Teacher Resource Center.
CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Participants participate in an in-depth, behind the scenes tour of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST), which includes a discussion of early modern theater history and how that history applies to the work of the CST today. NTC members visit the CST's Teacher Resource Center and receive an introduction to extensive collections of related resources, with time allowed for exploration of the Center. Field Trip participants also take part in a text-based workshop conducted by a CST Theater Artist.
LINCOLN AND THE CIVIL WAR
Margaret Storey, DePaul University
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
As historian Richard Carwardine has noted, "To study Lincoln involves peering through a veil of myth and iconography." This is perhaps most true when exploring Lincoln's ideas and actions regarding three areas of considerable controversy during the Civil War: secession, slavery, and civil liberties. In this seminar, participants address the complexities of each of these issues by reading closely and analyzing a number of Lincoln's own writings, as well as two short historical pieces representing divergent scholarly opinion on the question of emancipation.
THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Chris Boyer, University of Illinois at Chicago
Thursday, May 13, 2004
What were the primary causes and outcomes of the 1910-1920 revolution in Mexico? Historians have debated these questions from the moment the dust settled from the final battles against Pancho Villa until today. This seminar explores the meaning of the Mexican revolution, both for Mexicans who fought in it and for a subsequent generation of Mexicans leaders who responded to the popular demands that the Revolution produced. Participants discuss the sorts of dynamics that produced the revolutionary outburst in 1910, the course of the revolution, and its legacy. Also, since the Mexican Revolution is often called the first social revolution of the twentieth century, teachers briefly consider its importance in the rest of Latin America and pay particular attention to its status as a model (to be emulated or avoided) in other Latin American revolutions, such as Cuba and Nicaragua.
REDISTRICTING AND ELECTIONS
John Pelissero, Loyola University
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
This seminar will focus on reviewing recent demographic changes in states and cities and how these have shaped representation of minority groups in Congress, state legislatures and city councils. The role of the judiciary in resolving the political conflicts over redistricting and equitable representation in elected positions in government will also be addressed.
GETTING CRUSADED: THE CRUSADES THROUGH MIDDLE EASTERN EYES
Paul Cobb, University of Notre Dame
Thursday, May 20, 2002
What did it feel like to be on the business end of a Crusade? This seminar views the relatively familiar story of medieval European Christendom's crusading movements from the point of view of the medieval Muslims, Jews, and Christians of the Middle East who lived through them. By closely reading primary sources together, participants appreciate the very different impacts that the crusades had upon the very different native populations of the Middle East, and are in a better position to evaluate the significance of the Crusades, far removed from the usual characterizations of "heroic" or "demonic" that these movements have tended to attract.
NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE
Ann Brigham, Roosevelt University
Friday, May 21, 2004
In 1968, Kiowa writer N. Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel House Made of Dawn. That moment is often understood as the start of what is known as the Native American Renaissance. Characterized by a broad interest in American Indian peoples and cultures (brought on partly by empowerment movements such as the American Indian Movement), this period was marked by the publication of powerful writings by Native writers. This seminar examines this period, looking at a range of Native American literature written in the last thirty years. Participants pay particular attention to the theme of the power of language and stories, focusing on short fiction, poetry, and prose, as well as how writers engage with other related themes such as imagination, self-determination (both personal and communal), authenticity, humor, and landscape.
For additional information about the availability of a seminar, or to register to attend, call Victoria Murphy at 312-255-3714 or e-mail murphyv@newberry.org