Speaker Series
2011 - 2012
SPRING QUARTER 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Dr. Norman Naimark
"Stalin's Genocides"
4:10 p.m., Baker Center 242
Dr. Norman Naimark is a professor of history at Stanford University where he is the Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of East European Studies. He is an expert on modern East European, Balkan, and Russian history. He has served on the editorial boards of a series of leading professional journals, including The American Historical Review,The Journal of Modern History,Slavic Review, and East European Politics and Societies.
He is author of the critically acclaimed volumes:The Russians in Germany: The History of the Soviet Zone of Germany, 1945-1949,(Harvard 1995) and Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in 20th Century Europe (Harvard 2001). His research on the history of genocide in the 20th century and on postwar Soviet policy in Europe has resulted in his latest book, “Stalin’s Genocides” (Princeton University Press, 2010).
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Dr. Carolyn Lewis
"Showing Men the Love: Male Reproductive Health and Sexual Citizenship in Cold War America"
4:10 p.m., Baker Center 231
Dr. Carolyn Herbst Lewis is an Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana State University. She received her BA and MA , with a certificate in Contemporary History, from Ohio University, and her PhD in American History with a Women’t Studies Emphasis at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her book, “Presctiption for Heterosexuality: Sexual Citizenship in the Cold War Era”, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press) came out in October, 2010. She has written articles for the Journal of Women’s History, American Historical Review, and the Western Association of Women Historians, as well as reviews and chapters. Her current research focuses on obstetrics in the Chicago Maternity Center and Eisenhower-era youth culture and family life.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Dr. Brian McAllister Linn
"The American Way of War: Creating a Vision of Conflict"
4:10 p.m., Baker Center 242
Brian McAllister Linn is a professor of history at Texas A&M University. Linn grew up in Hawaii and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii. He earned his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University under the direction of Allan R. Millett.
His most recent book, The Echo of Battle: The Army’s Way of War (2007) has been described in a review as “the best and practically only book to explore the ‘intellectual underpinnings’ of a service branch.” In this book, Linn examines the competing philosophies between planning for war and the way a war would be fought. Linn completed the research and writing for this volume with assistance from a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.
Linn has served as a visiting professor at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, the U.S. Army War College, and also spent a semester at the National University in Singapore as a Fulbright Scholar. He has served on the Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee. He currently is working on two projects. One, “Elvis’ Army and the Cold War, 1946-1976,” explores the United States’ experience with a draftee military force. The other project, “Recovering From War,” studies the impact of six major conflicts upon the US armed forces.
WINTER QUARTER 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Dr. Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
"Lessons of Hiroshima, Past and Present"
Dr. Tsuyoshi Hasegawa is a professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Hasegawa is a specialist in modern Russian/Soviet history and the Cold War. Among his books are “Racing the Enemy: Truman and the Surrender of Japan (2005), which was selected as one of the best nonfiction books for 2005 by the Christian Science Monitor, and “Deadly Struggle: Stalin, Truman, and Japan’s Surrender (2006) which received the History & American Studies Award from the Association of American Publishers. He is currently working on several projects, one of which is a historical essay about two soldiers, one Japanese and one American, who encounter each other at the battle of Leyte. Dr. Hasegawa received his BA from Tokyo University and his MA and PhD from the University of Washington.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Dr. Pat Washburn and Dr. Mike Sweeney
"Aint Justice Wonderful? The Chicago Tribune, It's Battle of Midway Story, and the Government's Attempt at an Espionage Indictment in 1942"
Dr. Washburn and Dr. Sweeney will discuss the fight between the White House and one of the nation’s most powerful newspapers in World War II, the Republican Party standard-bearer Chicago Tribune. Tribune reporter Stanley Johnston wrote a story about the Battle of Midway based on information he picked up from naval sources in the Pacific. Any astute reader would have realized from the published story that it implied the U.S. Navy had broken the Japanese Imperial Naval Code, which allowed the U.S. Navy to prepare the proper defense for the attack at Midway and win a pivotal victory. However, the White House alleged that the story had revealed a national secret to the Japanese, and feared that the radio code would be changed as a result. The White House attempted to prosecute Johnston, other Tribune journalists, and the Tribune itself for violating the Espionage Act. The Tribune fought back in court – and won. Washburn and Sweeney will discuss why and how the White House tried to punish the Tribune, and the volatile relationship between the president and the press in wartime. Their research is based on multiple oral history interviews as well as the first examination of previously sealed Tribune legal documents in the Tribune archive at Cantigny, Chicago.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Dr. Christopher Loss
"Between Citizens and the State: The Politics of American Higher Education in the 20th Century"
Professor Christopher P. Loss specializes in twentieth-century American history with an emphasis on the social, political, and policy history of American higher education. His dissertation, "From Democracy to Diversity: The Politics of American Higher Education in the Twentieth Century" (University of Virginia, 2007) won the 2008 American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Dissertation Award (Division J - Higher Education) and the 2009 Politics of Education Association's Outstanding Dissertation Award. His first book, based on his dissertation and the subject of his talk, is entitled "Between Citizens and the State: The Politics of American Higher Education in the Twentieth Century". It was published in the Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America Series at Princeton University Press in 2011. Loss holds doctorates in higher education and in history from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University, Loss was a research fellow in the Governance Studies Program at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He also worked in academic administration for four years in the Office of the Vice President and Provost at the University of Virginia.
FALL QUARTER 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Dr. Arsen M Djatej
"Financing The Soviet War, 1941 - 1945"
Dr. Djatej, who is originally from the Caucasus Mountains of Southern Russia, worked in international agriculture for J.R. Simplot, a Boise, Idaho firm. While living in Idaho, he earned an MBA and a Master of Accountancy (Taxation) from Boise State University. In 2006 he earned an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Ohio University. His doctoral dissertation was titled, “Russian Financial Accounting.” Today he is an Associate Professor at Eastern Washington University. The published research of Professor Djatej includes articles in journals in Europe, the United States, and Australia. His research primarily involves international accounting and taxation with a special focus on the accounting and business issues of transition economies.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Dr. Beth Bailey
"Who Serves? Citizenship, the Marketplace, and the All-Volunteer Army"
Dr. Beth Bailey, professor of history at Temple University, is a social/cultural historian of the 20th century United States. Her research has focused on war and society, the military, and gender and sexuality in U.S. history, and has been supported by fellowships or grants from institutions including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Her most recent book is America’s Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force (Harvard University Press, 2009), which was recently awarded the Army Historical Foundation’s book prize for institutional history.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Prof. John Dinges
"Rebels & Assassins: The Condor Years in Latin America"
Since 1996, John Dinges has been the Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor of International Journalism as well as a visiting professor in the Columbia University program in Barcelona, lecturing in Spanish on investigative journalism and enterprise reporting.
In 2007 Dinges founded, and has been the chair and executive director of the Center for Investigation and Information (CIINFO) which promotes quality journalism abroad, especially independent investigative journalism projects in Latin America and elsewhere. He also helped found the National Writers Union, served on the National Executive Board, and is currently an Advisory Board member.
He has written several books, including Assassination on Embassy Row, co-written with Saul Landau, which was the investigative account of the 1976 murder in Washington, D.C., of former Chilean Foreign Minister Letelier, which was the recipient of the Edgar Allen Poe award for nonfiction suspense. He also wrote Our Man in Panama: The Shrewd Rise and Brutal Fall of Manuel Noriega which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and was selected as a New York Times notable book, and The Condor Years: How Pinochet and his Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents which was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also done work for film and television and has also lectured extensively in the United States and South America.