On September 19, 2008, Fr. David Orique, O.P., a Ph.D. student in Latin American History at the University of Oregon and a native of Kingsburg, CA, spoke at the first History Forum of the 2008-2009 academic year. His talk, “The Unheard Voice of Law from the Often Heard Text: A New Rendition of Bartolomé de Las Casas’ Brevísima Relación de la Destruición de las Indias,” examined the life and career of Las Casas, a controversial sixteenth-century cleric famous for his defense of the indigenous peoples of the New World and for his many influential writings. Fr. Orique’s engaging talk, which he delivered before a packed house in the Albertson Room, generated many questions and much discussion from the audience. An appreciative History Department hosted a faculty reception and dinner for Fr. Orique following the Forum.
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Annual Conference of the California Council for the Promotion of History
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On October 25, 2008, CSUB History graduate student Elise Palos and UC Santa Barbara History Ph.D. candidate Oliver Rosales, who earned an MA in History from CSUB in 2005, delivered papers in San Luis Obispo at the 28th Annual Conference of the California Council for the Promotion of History. A third student, UCSB grad student Alicia Rivera, rounded out the panel titled, “Faith, Race, and Labor in the San Joaquin Valley.” Professor Alicia Rodriquez served as the panel’s moderator and commentator. Elise’s paper explored the Mexican-American Generation East High School student club La Tolteca and the Chicano-Generation Era murals painted at the school thanks to the club’s lobbying, while Oliver’s paper examined racial liberalism and the career of former Bakersfield Chief of Police Robert B. Powers. The students spoke before an appreciative full house. At last year’s CCPH conference, CSUB graduate student Robert Price delivered a paper on the history of country music in Bakersfield and Professor Rodriquez spoke on the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Kern County. Graduate students who have presented at CCPH in the past include Katy Freeland (MA ’03) and Nancy Nichols (MA ‘02). Click here to read Oliver Rosales’ thoughts on the conference.
STUDENT BLOOPER
"The Ancient Near Eastern [sic] had God's [sic] that made laws for the rulers. Like, Exodus wrote "The Ten Commandments" which is God's moral laws."
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CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR DECEMBER GRADUATES!
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Photo (left to right): Matt McCoy, Catherine Rodriguez, Jason Friedly, Jennifer Wiltsey, Matt Rhoades, Mystie McNaughton
| Jennifer Wiltsey |
Jason Friedly |
Jodie Hare (MA) |
| Robert Hernandez |
Matthew McCoy |
Mystie McNaugton |
| Matthew Rhoades |
Catherine Rodriguez |
Rachel Widgren |
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Why Sign up for a Seagoing Cruise?
By John Maynard
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Why sign up for a seagoing cruise, especially if what you’re interested in is seeing old and intriguing things on land? I have to admit I was a skeptic—and a snob. It was an important year at our house, with two graduations (Liberty High and Washington State University), no National History Day finals (in Maryland) and, for the first time in ten years, no summer school for me at CSUB. So it was now or probably never for the four of us, and there was no question that we were going to Europe. Lori had gone there as a graduation present from college; I had been there several times, but always on someone else’s nickel and fulfilling someone else’s agenda. I was too old to hitchhike now, and while I preferred the idea of going to one or two places and staying long enough to really get to know them, there was something to be said for seeing a lot of places in a more or less organized fashion.
 It was the mental image of a cruise ship that I couldn’t quite handle—a gigantic floating skyscraper traveling on its side and pausing every day or two to disgorge its cargo of three thousand turistas for just long enough to give a selective pump to the local economy. That’s where being a snob came in. I didn’t particularly want to shop, much less have my picture taken with some character in plastic Roman armor outside the Colosseum. I wanted to take my own pictures and turn my imagination loose, but Lori persuaded me that the right guided tour would actually encourage that freedom to happen rather than cutting it off or boxing it in. The key, of course, was to line up the right tours long in advance, and that was what she did—spending hours more on the Web than I would ever have had the patience to do. (For complete story, click here.)
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