HISTORY FORUM (Winter 2008)

 Dr. Thomas Meyer spoke to a packed History Forum audience on February 29.  Indeed, many left disappointed because they could not get into the crowded room.  Dr. Meyer spoke about his father, Karl Meyer, a photo-journalist in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.  Karl Meyer’s skills in capturing everyday life in rural and small-town Germany (and elsewhere) earned him the name “Mr. Lens” (in German), and he was greeted with great excitement when he arrived to take his pictures.  Dr. Meyer’s several examples of his father’s beautiful photographs brought the Bakersfield audience, composed of community members, faculty and many students, into a world which looked deceptively normal and peaceful.  This in itself would be an interesting story.  However, there was a more serious element to Dr. Meyer’s presentation. (For more, click here.)

WINNERS OF THE FOURTHEENTH ANNUAL (2008) J.R. WONDERLY MEMORIAL PRIZE

First Place: Josh Dixon, The Origins of the Ku Klux Klan in Taft, California

Second Place: Daniel Tierney, Failure of the Confederate Invasion of New Mexico

Congratulations, Josh and Daniel!

CONGRATULATIONS!

JANUARY WAS BABY MONTH IN THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT!

On January 21, Drs. Douglas Dodd and Alicia Rodriquez welcomed their daughter (and second child), Emily Christina Dodd, into the world. Weighing 7 lbs. 14  oz., Emily was 20" long.

Ten days later, on January 31, Brett Schmoll and his wife, Rocio, had a baby boy, Nicolas Alexander Schmoll-Garcia . He was 7 lbs., 5 oz. and 20" long.

Best wishes to these families responsible for a baby boomlet in the department!

PROF. JEANNE HARRIE

A Faculty Profile

by Miriam Raub Vivian 

As the incoming department chair, Prof. Jeanne Harrie is the perfect focus for this edition of our periodic Faculty Profile. Prof. Rink’s semi-retirement—he will teach two terms per year—will make Prof. Harrie the senior-most full-time member of our department come September. She has been the department’s Early Modern European historian since her arrival here in 1976. She also covers the High and Late European Middle Ages. She has served the department faithfully in many ways over the years, and this will be at least her second stint as department chair. She has also long been the university’s Social Science Coordinator. (For more, click here.)

CSUB students' book reviews

Josh Dixon, Weber's Peasants into Frenchmen and Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class as Modernist Studies of Nationalism

Fernando Jara, Hubris: A Review of Europe's Last Summer (by David Fromkin)

FROM THE CHAIR

History majors needing senior seminar next year should be aware that budget constraints and understaffing will likely force us to eliminate the winter senior seminar course. We expect to be able to offer only two senior seminar courses next year: HIST 490 in fall (MW eve.); and HIST 492 in spring (TR early afternoon). It is thus critical for seniors to plan ahead. If you expect to graduate in March, you will need to see the department chair to be added to the fall seminar. Anyone enrolling in senior seminar must be near graduation, have the approval of the chair, and file an Add Slip with the Records Office bearing the signature of (first) the chair and (second) the course instructor.

In general, our schedule for next year is still in flux. You should thus regard our published schedule for next year as tentative.