On January 30th, Professor Alexis Dudden took part in reflecting on the life of South Korean activist, Kim Bok-dong, who passed away at the age of 92. Having met Bok-dong, Professor Dudden describes her as a “force of nature” and discusses Bok-dong’s experience as a sex slave for the Japanese military during World War II.
The interview aired on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and can be found here.
For the summer of 2018, Luisa participated in the Smithsonian Latino Center’s Latino Museum Studies Program, which seeks out Latinx scholars whose scholarship connects the academy and museum’s work. With the objective of preparing the young scholars to work in museums that represent the Latino community and experience, the program places the graduate students in positions across the Smithsonian museums. Luisa worked directly with the Center and its Media Director, Melissa Carrillo, in a project called Latinos in the 21th Century: a Digital Experience. Luisa’s work involved: analyzing digital experiences and installations in D.C. museums to determine their public-engagement strategies; deconstructing the pre-phase of the Latino Gallery narrative content to unveil the ways in which it tells the Latino experience in the U.S; and developing a proposal for the entrance installation to the first Smithsonian Latino Gallery.
1) Could you describe what you observed in other installations and how the Smithsonian’s first Latino Gallery will compare?
The Smithsonian museums are attempting to engage more with their audiences while offering a more inclusive picture of the American nation. The National Portrait Gallery and the Museum of the American Indian represent, for me, the biggest efforts in that sense with exhibits such as UnSeen: Our Past in a New Light, Ken Gonzales-Day and Titus Kaphar and Americans, respectively. Nevertheless, I think the Latino Gallery will be pioneering the museum field when it comes to turning the audience from spectators to actors. By linking interactive installations with more inclusive museum practices, installations at the Latino Gallery will favor individuals as making-history agents whose history is worthy of being told within the museum space.
2) What skills from our doctoral program did you utilize during this internship?
Critical thinking. As a doctoral student, you are constantly asking yourself and your colleagues about the work you do, the role of human actors, and the importance of the historical context..
3) How did you hear about this opportunity?
My advisor, Mark Healey, sent to me an email about the Latino Museum Studies Program. Honestly, I thought it would be a long shot, but he was right. The program was perfect for me and I really loved the experience.
4) Could you expand upon your previous experience researching and/or working with underrepresented groups in Colombia’s national museum?
As a teenager, I worked with a UNESCO project that sought to facilitate the access of Afro-descendant people to historic places and monuments. My home city, Cartagena, is a touristic Caribbean center so being black and not having money really reduces your chances to enjoy the historic spaces that tourists can. However, while the project facilitated access, Afro-descendants and Indigenous were still not included in those stories or places. This experience impacted my undergraduate thesis on land legal cases between indigenous groups, white settlers, and the Spanish Crown prior to the Independence struggles of the 1820’s. I was interested in demonstrating how the lack of inclusion of indigenous groups within the national history is linked to their support of the Spanish Crown during that period.
At UConn, I have moved onto the representation of these groups – Afro-descendants, Indigenous, and women – within the National Museum in Colombia. I consider the objects and portraits introduced to the museum in 1880 and I argue that this process represents the simultaneous inclusion and exclusion of these groups. Many of the paintings have been visually modified to fit the image of the nation that the Colombian elites wished to portray. I seek to showcase that process so these groups, today, can understand how they have been pushed out of many places and stories, and maybe they would seek to regain them. Thus, my work has come full-circle from my teen years.
5) How did this opportunity impact the way you conceptualize your dissertation and/or future career? Would you be interested in working with the Smithsonian in the future?
The Latino Museum Studies Program helped me realize that there are spaces that are perfect for me in regards to what I want to do, both academically and personally. Specifically, I am interested in cultural work and public engagement, in reconnecting academy and community. I think that museums are perfect spaces for that. This is reflected in my dissertation that will utilize a comparative perspective to analyze the opening of the first gallery at the National Museum of American History to similar ones in Colombia. Regarding my future career, I would definitely consider working with the Smithsonian.
UPDATE: For The Daily Campus‘s review of the panel, click here.
On February 7, 2019, the UConn Department of History invites you to join a panel of leading experts in a timely discussion surrounding the seas of Northeast and Southeast Asia. Moderated by Ambassador (ret.) Kathleen Stephens who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2008-2011, the panel features distinguished speakers with specializations in security, history, law, and geography. Topics to discuss include: strategic and international law issues involving American and Chinese competition over the western Pacific, humanitarian concerns related to human trafficking, and troubling environmental problems, such as the depletion of fisheries.
Speakers and moderator include: Ambassador (ret.) Kathleen Stephens (CEO of Korea Economic Institute of America), Dr. James Kraska (Naval War College), Professor Lee Sung-Yoon (Tufts University), Professor Geoffrey Gresh (National Defense University), and Dr. Kevin Evringham (Department of Defense).
Beginning at 4 pm, the panel will take place at the Konover Auditorium in the Thomas J. Dodd Center. All are welcome to attend the reception that will follow. To RSVP, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/asia-maritime-panel-tickets-55340739642
The University of Connecticut Department of History is grateful for the generous sponsorship of the CLAS Humanities Institute, the Office of the Dean, the Office of the Provost, the Department of Geography, the Asian and Asian-American Studies Institute, and the Asian American Cultural Center.
Professor Fakhreddin Azimi was recently awarded the Mahteb Mirzaei Memorial Prize for his article, “An exploration and historical contextualization of the declassified CIA/US Government documents on Iran, 1952-54”, published in the summer 2017 issue of Negah-e Nou, the premier Tehran-based Persian language quarterly. This marks the third time his Persian language scholarship has won this award. Professor Azimi’s brother was on hand in Tehran to accept the award on his behalf on November 29, 2018. In addition to multiple monographs, articles, and chapters on the politics, society, and culture of modern Iran, Professor Azimi teaches courses in medieval and modern Middle Eastern history, and graduate seminars on history and theory in the UConn History Department. Congratulations, Professor Azimi!
This week’s UConn Today features Professor Fiona Vernal discussing research on the West Indian community, which is – according to the US Census – the largest immigrant population in Connecticut.
In the latest issue,
UConn Magazine talks to Professor Manisha Sinha about history lessons that tell the truth about slavery in the U.S. and more.
Doctoral student Erik Freeman has won the Communal Studies Association’s 2018 publications award for “Best Article.” His article, “‘True Christianity’: The Flowering and Fading of Mormonism and Romantic Socialism in Nineteenth-Century France” appeared in the April 2018 issue of The Journal of Mormon History. Erik’s work was praised for demonstrating “the groundbreaking connections between socialism and the LDS movement.” He will receive the award at the Association’s annual meeting in October. Congratulations, Erik!
The National Humanities Alliance showcases the range of work being done by higher education institutions through articles on their site “Humanities for All.” Recently they included an article on “The Encounter Series,” a collaboration between the UConn Humanities Institute and the Hartford Public Library, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Amistad Center for Art & Culture, coordinated by Brendan Kane:
“The Encounters Series grew out of a desire to build connections between a land-grant university and its state, Brendan Kane of UConn explains. “We wanted to move beyond the kind of typical mode of interaction, which is the lecture or the panel,” Kane says. “I love lectures and panels, but we wanted to do things that were more active. We wanted to get UConn faculty more out into the world, making a research university that’s state-supported more accessible to the people in the communities that we serve.” With this in mind, Kane began exploring models of conflict resolution and public conversations.”
To access the full article, visit: https://humanitiesforall.org/projects/encounters
Emiliana (Liliana to family) was a professor of Italian history, whose career paved a path for the recognition and promotion of future generations of female scholars. After receiving her Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 1948, Professor Noether taught Italian history at New York University, Rutgers University, Regis College, Simmons College and the University of Connecticut, where the Emiliana Pasca Noether Chair in Modern Italian History was established in her honor upon her retirement in 1987. Following her retirement, she continued to share her learning by teaching in various elder education programs.
Professor Noether was appointed twice as a Senior Fulbright Research Scholar – in 1964-65 and in 1982 – to further her scholarship in Italian historical studies. She was among the first group of fellows at Radcliffe College’s Bunting Institute when it was founded in 1961 to promote women scholars, an experience that she described as “a second chance…after having been relegated to the professional dustbin” for taking time off to be a parent. She went on to serve as president of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and the New England Historical Association, and to chair the American Historical Association’s Committees on Italian-American Historical Relations and Women Historians. She authored nearly 100 professional articles and books on Italian history and cultural and intellectual ties between Italy and the English-speaking world, and mentored many graduate students – both women and men – over her long career.
Liliana was born in Naples, Italy and emigrated to the United States as a young child. She grew up in New York City in a family of Italian musicians and teachers. In 1942, she married Gottfried (Friedel) E. Noether (1915-1991), a statistician and refugee from Nazi Germany, with whom she shared a passion for music, the arts, and worldwide travel. She is survived by her daughter, Monica Noether, and two grandchildren, Braden and Shannon Harvey.
We are delighted to report that the UConn Humanities Institute awarded three dissertation fellowships for 2018-19, two of which will go to graduate students in History: Aimee Loiselle and Amy Sopcack-Joseph.
Aimee Loiselle has been awarded a UCHI Fellowship for her project “Creating Norma Rae: The Erasure of Puerto Rican Needleworkers and Southern Labor Activists in the Making of a Neoliberal Icon.”
Amy Sopcak-Joseph, who will receive a UCHI-Draper Fellowship to work on “Fashioning American Women: Godey’s Lady’s Book, Female Consumers, and Periodical Publishing in the Nineteenth Century.”