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2012

Dr. Melosi Publishes New Book on America in the Atomic Age

Holt photo

Dr. Martin Melosi's new book, Atomic Age America, was published by Pearson in November 2012.

Melosi's latest book explores the broad influence of atomic energy —focusing particularly on nuclear weapons and nuclear power—on the lives of Americans within a world context. Atomic Age America examines the social, political, diplomatic, environmental, and technical impacts of atomic energy on the 20th and 21st centuries, with a look back to the origins of atomic theory.

The Department of History Faculty congratulates Dr. Melosi on the publication of this important new work.

Dr. Holt Honored for Teaching and Research by International Association

Dr. Frank Holt was honored by the international Pan-Macedonian Association and the Houston Greek community for his career of teaching and publication.  The Association presented the award on October 27 at a Greek ceremony hosted by Kostas Hatzistefanidis, Supreme President of the Pan-Macedonian Association USA, and Peter Peropoulos, President of the Greater Houston chapter.

The Pan-Macedonian Association and its USA affiliates in Houston and other cities promote education about Macedonian history and culture.

Dr. Holt is one of the world’s leading authorities on Alexander the Great, Hellenistic Asia, and new research methodologies such as Cognitive Numismatics. He has published seven books and over sixty journal articles.  His most recent book, Lost World of the Golden King: In Search of Ancient Afghanistan, was published by the University of California Press in October 2012.

The history department congratulates Dr. Holt on this latest accomplishment.


Food for Thought Presents Gustavo Arrellano, November 15

Gustavo Arrellano, best-selling author and popular syndicated columnist (“Ask a Mexican!”) will discuss his new book Taco, USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America as part of the Food For Thought Speaker series on Thursday, November 15 at 5:00 pm in Roy G. Cullen Building, Room 104.  A book signing will follow the event.

Arellano’s new book details why the U.S. loves all things folded in a tortilla, how salsa overtook ketchup as the country’s favorite condiment in the 1990s, how nachos became the third-largest concession food after popcorn and soda, and how the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of tequila.  He addresses what constitutes “Mexican” food in the U.S. – what is “authentic” and what’s “Taco Bell,” and why does it matter?

Food for Thought is a speaker series promoting the scholarly study of food.  Presenters highlight the latest research on the multiple ways food shapes business and economy, nutrition and health, the environment, and social relations.  The goal of the series is to encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue and interdisciplinary collaboration through the examination of the food that sustains the cultural, economic, and physical lives of our diverse communities.

The lecture is sponsored by the El Paso Corporation Lecture Series, the Center for Public History, the Department of History, the Center for Mexican American Studies and Latin American Studies. The talk is free and open to the public.  Parking is available in the Welcome Center Parking Garage located on Calhoun Drive near Entrance 1.

A campus map and directions can be found at: http://www.uh.edu/maps/#map-directions

For more information, contact Todd Romero at tromero2@uh.edu or Monica Perales at mperales3@uh.edu.


History Department Announces Fall 2012 Graduate Research Colloquium

The University of Houston History Department, in conjunction with the Zeta Kappa Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the International Honor Society in History, announces the schedule of Graduate Research Colloquium meetings for the Fall 2012 semester.  Unless otherwise posted, all meetings will take place in Room 520 in Agnes Arnold Hall on the UH Central Campus on Thursday afternoons between 3 and 4:30 pm.  All members of the UH community, as well as members of the general public, are invited to attend these sessions featuring the research of some of the most advanced graduate students in history at the University of Houston.

The schedule is as follows:

September 27:
Anna Marie Anderson, “Jewish Women in the Holocaust: Resistance in the Concentration Camps of Ravensbruck and Auschwitz”
Faculty Commentator: Dr. Sarah Fishman
Andrew Joseph Pegoda, “An Epic Work of Art and Controversy: How D. W. Griffith’s ‘The Birth of a Nation’ Set the Standard for US Cinema”
Faculty Commentator: Dr. Linda Reed

October 25:
Dan LeClair, “The Boxer Fuse, the Shrapnel Shell, and the Invention of Modern Warfare”
Faculty Commentator: Dr. Karl Ittmann

November 29:
Caroline Nilsen, “No Norwegian for Sale’? Evaluating Resistance Activities in Nazi-Occupied Norway”
Faculty Commentator: Dr. Hannah Decker

Any questions concerning the Graduate Research Colloquium can be addressed to Dr. Bailey Stone, Phi Alpha Theta faculty advisor, at 713—743-3115, or at bstone@uh.edu


Dr. Holt Publishes New Book on Ancient Afghanistan

Holt photo

Dr. Frank Holt's new book, Lost World of the Golden King: In Search of Ancient Afghanistan, will be released by the University of California Press in October 2012.

Holt's latest book draws on historical writings and newly unearthed archaeological evidence to rediscover the ancient civilization of Bactria. According to the press website, "In a gripping narrative informed by the author’s deep knowledge of his subject, this book covers two centuries of Bactria’s history, from its colonization by remnants of Alexander the Great’s army to the kingdom’s collapse at the time of a devastating series of nomadic invasions. Beginning with the few tantalizing traces left behind when the ‘empire of a thousand cities’ vanished, Holt takes up that trail and follows the remarkable and sometimes perilous journey of rediscovery."

The Department of History Faculty congratulates Dr. Holt on the publication of this important new work.


Dr. Romero Wins UH Teaching Excellence Award

Romero photo

Dr. Todd Romero was recently named a 2011-2012 recipient of a University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award.  The Teaching Excellence Awards are the highest form of recognition for teaching at the University of Houston, and reflect the University’s continuing commitment to excellence in teaching. Dr. Romero was recognized for excellence in teaching University Undergraduate Core Curriculum courses. His nominating letter declared, “Teaching by example, Romero models for students how to live the life of the mind. He engages students with penetrating and provocative questions related to both the historiography of the topics being taught and the original sources that can be used to study a past that is often all too remote. . . . [H]is lectures to the large survey courses are dynamic and interactive while his small seminars—undergraduate and graduate—build from sophisticated conversations about texts and sources read in common.”

The award will be presented at a ceremony on April 26, 2012 at the Hilton on the University of Houston Campus.

Dr. Romero teaches the first half of the American history survey as well as undergraduate and graduate courses on colonial American, Native American, Atlantic world, and public history.

The Department of History Faculty congratulates Dr. Romero for this accomplishment.


Food for Thought presents Dr. Rebecca Sharpless, April 5

Dr. Rebecca Sharpless, Associate Professor of History at Texas Christian University, will discuss "Southern Fusion: African American Women and an Evolving Regional Cuisine" as part of the Food For Thought Speaker series on Thursday, April 5 at 3:00 pm in Michael J. Cemo Hall, room 109.

Southern cooking has long been an evolving fusion of Native, African, and European foodways. After the Civil War, expanding markets provided even greater choices of foodstuffs to southerners. New types of food changed the ways that African American cooks prepared meals for their employers and their families. Some cooks resisted change and others embraced it, but it affected almost all of them and the families that they fed at home and at work.

"Food for Thought" is a speaker series promoting the scholarly study of food.  Presenters highlight the latest research on the multiple ways food shapes business and economy, nutrition and health, the environment, and social relations.  Our aim is to encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue and interdisciplinary collaboration through the examination of the food that sustains the cultural, economic, and physical lives of our diverse communities.

 The series is sponsored by the El Paso Corporation Lecture Series, the Center for Public History, and the Department of History. The talk is free and open to the public.  Parking is available in the Welcome Center Parking Garage located on Calhoun Drive near Entrance 1.

For a campus map, visit: http://campusmap.uh.edu/cgi-bin/campusmap

For directions to campus, visit: http://www.uh.edu/visit/directions/index.php


Cohn Wins Dissertation Completion Grant

Julie Cohn, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History, has been named the recipient of a CLASS Dissertation Completion Grant for the 2012-2013 Academic year.  The grant is awarded to outstanding Ph.D. students in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences who have made timely progress toward the completion of their degrees.  The grant provides financial support and a release from teaching responsibilities in the last two semesters of doctoral study, allowing the recipient to focus attention on the completion of the dissertation.

Cohn will complete work on her dissertation project titled, "Biography of a Technology: North America's Power Grid Through the Twentieth Century."

"All of our Dissertation Completion Fellows are outstanding students working on significant research or creative projects in their disciplines," said Dr. Catherine Patterson, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in CLASS.  "Only the most highly qualified students from a department may be nominated for these awards, so the application pool is highly competitive."

Cohn is one of six students selected to receive this grant.

The History Department congratulates Cohn on this achievement. 


History Department, Phi Alpha Theta to host 8th Annual Houston-Area History Consortium, April 14, 2012

The University of Houston History Department, in conjunction with the Zeta Kappa chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the international honor society in History, will host the Eighth Annual Houston-Area History Consortium on Saturday, April 14, 2012.  The Consortium will take place in the University Center Underground on the UH Central Campus. For a campus map, please click here.  All sessions are open to the public. 

Outstanding graduate and undergraduate students from the UH-Central Campus, UH-Clear Lake, Rice University, Houston Baptist University, Sam Houston State University, and Texas Southern University, will present scholarly papers covering a wide range of topics, geographic regions, and historical eras.  Please click here for a detailed schedule and list of presentations.

For more information, please contact Dr. Bailey Stone at bstone@uh.edu or 713-743-3115.


Dr. Young's Book Featured on White House Historical Association Website

Guidotti Hernandez Cover

Dr. Nancy Beck Young’s book, Lou Henry Hoover: Activist First Lady (University Press of Kansas, 2004), has been excerpted for a new webpage that the White House Historical Association compiled.  “‘A Tempest in a Teapot’:  The Racial Politics of First Lady Lou Hoover’s Invitation of Jessie DePriest to a White House Tea” can be accessed at http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_shows/depriest-tea-incident/index.html

Hoover was a modern first lady operating in traditional Washington, D.C.  Among her duties was the hosting of a tea for congressional wives.  Because an African American, Oscar Stanton DePriest, had been elected to Congress from a Chicago, Illinois district, the first time an African American had held such a post since 1901, questions arose about how Hoover should handle her responsibility for entertaining the congressional spouses. 

Instead of hosting one large affair, as was the norm, Hoover divided the guest list so as to protect DePriest from the racial fulminations of congressional wives with racist sentiments.  Hoover also used the tea to make a statement about the importance of racial justice and to support her husband’s political efforts to realign southern politics along class not race lines.  In the aftermath of the tea, criticism from across the country revealed the racist thinking in the United States in the late 1920s.  The controversy over the tea exposes just how difficult it was to challenge racial and gendered norms.

The University of Houston History Department faculty congratulates Dr. Young on this latest recognition.


Violence on the U.S.Mexico Borderlands Talk, January 23

Guidotti Hernandez Cover

Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, will speak about her new book Unspeakable Violence: Remapping U.S. and Mexican National Imaginaries on Monday, January 23, at 2:30pm in Agnes Arnold Hall 108. 

Unspeakable Violence addresses the epistemic and physical violence inflicted on racialized and gendered subjects in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth. Arguing that this violence was fundamental to U.S., Mexican, and Chicana/o nationalisms, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández examines the lynching of a Mexican woman in California in 1851, the Camp Grant Indian Massacre of 1871, the racism evident in the work of the anthropologist Jovita González, and the attempted genocide, between 1876 and 1907, of the Yaqui Indians in the Arizona–Sonora borderlands. Guidotti-Hernández shows that these events have been told and retold in ways that have produced particular versions of nationhood and effaced other issues. Scrutinizing stories of victimization and resistance, and celebratory narratives of mestizaje and hybridity in Chicana/o, Latina/o, and borderlands studies, she contends that by not acknowledging the racialized violence perpetrated by Mexicans, Chicanas/os, and indigenous peoples, as well as Anglos, narratives of mestizaje and resistance inadvertently privilege certain brown bodies over others. Unspeakable Violence calls for a new, transnational feminist approach to violence, gender, sexuality, race, and citizenship in the borderlands.

The talk is made possible through the generous support of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Latin American Studies Programs.