Around the Courtyard | 2007

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  • 2007 News Archive

    • The Center for Texas Music History is pleased to announce a $5,000 donation from Dickson Productions of Austin. John Dickson, founder of Dickson Productions and a Texas State alumnus, has been an avid supporter of the Center for Texas Music History for several years and has helped raise tens of thousands of dollars to support the Center's programs.

      This $5,000 gift from Dickson Productions will be used to launch the Center for Texas Music History's new book series, The John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music, published in collaboration with Texas A&M University Press. The first book in the series, The History of Texas Music, is scheduled to be in print by March 2008.

      Our sincerest thanks to John and Robin and everyone else at Dickson Productions for their generous support and for their commitment to educating the public about the rich and complex history of Texas music.

       

    • Long-time History professor and graduate advisor Bill Liddle and his wife Lois have started an endowment to support graduate studies in history at Texas State University. Citing the absence of any departmental scholarship exclusive to graduate students, Bill and Lois, have committed to establishing a $50,000 endowment over the next five years. Students pursuing the M.A. in History will be eligible to apply for the fellowship, which will be renewable for one year.

       

    • In summer 2007, Dr. Lydia Garner traveled to England to participate in an Oxford Roundtable. Her essay on “State and Race in the Brazilian Empire” was selected for inclusion in the on-line journal of the program and appears in the Spring 2007 edition of the Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Roundtable.

      Dr. Garner is a scholar of 19th century Brazil and teaches courses on Latin American and World history. She is also a former president of the World History Association of Texas.

       

    • “Sniper ’66”, a documentary created by Texas State Public History graduate student Whitney Milam, was selected as the “Best Historical Documentary” by the Lone Star Emmy committee on October 27th. Milam’s documentary, which examines the Charles Whitman murders at the University of Texas Tower on August 1, 1966, was broadcast on KTBC-Fox 7 in Austin, KDFW-Fox 4 in Dallas, and KRIV-Fox 26 in Houston.

      “I am extremely proud to have been acknowledged by my peers and to have been nominated for this award,” Milam said. “The Public History program at Texas State has been instrumental in creating an environment in which my professional work and career may mature and grow. Let me also say that the support I receive from this History department, its faculty, as well as from Phi Alpha Theta and KTBC-Fox 7 continues to be instrumental in my success.”

      The Lone Star Chapter, created by the Board of Trustees of the National Television Academy in 2002, is dedicated to becoming the primary portal to connect professionals and students in Texas' television broadcast-related fields for networking and career development.

      The chapter serves all 19 television markets in Texas, and includes members from TV-related fields including: news and non-news broadcasting; production; post production; education; advertising; and public relations. It is committed to encouraging and recognizing high levels of professional achievement through the annual presentation of the prestigious regional EMMY Awards.

      “Sniper ‘66” was previously honored with a 2006 Telly Award for “Best Historical Documentary.”

      Currently, Whitney Milam is wrapping up production on a history of the French Legation in Austin. Commissioned and created for use by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, “A Glorious Opportunity: The French Legation in the Republic of Texas” is slated for release in October, 2007.

       

    • The History Club will be sponsoring an informal barbeque dinner at Taylor-Murphy Hall on Thursday, September 27, 5:00-6:30pm, in the courtyard and the Swinney Room (ground floor). We want to extend a special welcome to incoming freshmen and transfer students, as this will be a great opportunity to meet professors and other history majors. We will have great barbeque from one of San Marcos' finest, Kip's. Also pick up your free History Club t-shirt!

       

    • In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Department of History, in conjunction with Phi Alpha Theta, will host a lecture by Dr. Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra on Wednesday, September 26th, at 7:30pm. Dr. Cañizares-Esguerra is a Professor of History at The University of Texas at Austin and author of Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic.

      The title of his lecture will be "The Conquistador as Elizabethan Hero: The Hispanic Colonial Roots of Anglo America"

      Books will be available for purchase.
      Wednesday, September 26th, 7:30pm
      Taylor Murphy History 101

       

    • Congratulations to Dr. James E. McWilliams, whose book Building the Bay Colony: Local Economy and Culture in Early Massachusetts , has just been released on The University of Virginia Press.

      This book challenges the assumption that transatlantic trade and export of staples were the driving forces behind economic development in colonial America by showing how internal economic development, rather than exports that shareholders hoped would provide a handsome return on their investments, actually served as the backbone of the Massachusetts economy.

       

    • Recognition of the Department of History's commitment to quality instruction came in the form of a sweep of the Presidential Excellence in Teaching awards for the 2006-2007 year. Assistant Professor Ana Romo, who teaches World Civilization and courses in Latin American history, won the award at the assistant professor/instructor level. Professor James Pohl, the most senior member of the History Department, won at the associate/full professor level.

       

    • The Department of History's partnership with Northside ISD (San Antonio) on a Teaching American History grant proposal, "Our Country 'tis of Thee: Northside ISD American History Collaborative," for the 2008-2010 cycle won approval from the U.S. Dept. of Education. This is the fourth TAH grant for the department and first with a school district outside the San Marcos vicinity. Unlike the three previous grants, the department will be conducting the institutes at Northside ISD rather than on campus. The institutes will take place on 5 Friday-Saturday dates throughout the academic year. The department will be subcontracting with the College of Education to provide the assessment. Ms. Trace Etienne-Gray, History Education Specialist, will be serving as program coordinator, and a number of American history faculty will be participating as instructors.

       

    • Dr. James McWilliams has been awarded a Bell Fellowship by the Forest History Society, which is affiliated with Duke University. It will provide travel money and a $1000 stipend to work for a week with transcribed oral histories of early twentieth century entomologists. Dr. McWilliams will be using the fellowship at some point this summer.

       

    • In April 2007 Scott began his current position as director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Museum of San Marcos.  Some of his primary duties include: formulating and drafting policies and procedures regarding museum operations; planning educational programs with schools and the general public; fundraising and membership management; collection development and reference guides for both museum artifacts and manuscript archives; assisting with board meetings and special events; devising outreach programs; and participating in publicity and public relations for the museum.

      Scott, a native Texan, obtained a Master of Arts degree in History with a concentration in Public History from Texas State University in May 2002.  Graduate coursework in material culture and museum studies, archives management, historic preservation, research methodology, and Texas history were invaluable career training for him.

      His previous employment experience includes four years with the Austin History Center, where he drafted, edited, and completed biographical guides to AHC archival resources, provided reference to patrons, wrote and edited on-line finding aids, managed the interlibrary loan program for microfilms, filed city government documents, among various other tasks.  He has also worked part-time for the French Legation Museum, giving tours of the historic house and artifacts, and basically being a de facto expert on Texas and French history, and any other subject matter, to anyone who asked (a public historian never really stops being a public historian!)

      For two years he worked at a direct-mail company as the support team manager and quality control supervisor.  This position allowed him to advance his computer skills, design forms and computer graphics, manage and oversee several company operations, write technical manuals, learn to be diplomatic with un-diplomatic people, and cross-train employees with various processes and procedures.

      As the director of the LBJ Museum, Scott has a number of goals: to improve the museum’s marketing capacity with signage and brochures; to develop educational programs for both students and the lay public; to develop collections with finding aids and acquire exhibits with more interactive displays; to provide workshop and intern opportunities for history students; and to make the museum facilities a place for community activity.

      The LBJ Museum can be reached at:
      LBJ Museum of San Marcos
      131 N. Guadalupe St.
      P.O. Box 3
      San Marcos, Texas 78667
      512.353.3300

       

    • Texas State Public History Graduate Student Whitney Milam’s film, “Sniper ‘66” received a Telly Award last week for “Outstanding Historical Television Documentary.” The 28th Annual Telly Awards selected this one-hour examination of the 1966 Charles Whitman murders for overall excellence and quality. This program initially aired on July 30, 2006, on KTBC-Fox 7. This documentary, utilizing many eye-witness accounts as well as reenactments filmed within Charles Whitman’s former home, marked the fortieth anniversary of the Austin, Texas, mass murder. The expanded “director’s cut” premiered in the Alkek Teaching Theatre at Texas State University in the Fall of 2006.

      The Telly Awards received over 13,000 entries representing all 50 states and many countries around the world. This award was conceived to honor TV commercials, film, and video of outstanding quality.

      Whitney Milam is currently working with Texas State Public History Graduate Stephanie Jarvis on a short documentary examining the rich history of the French Legation Museum in Austin.

       

    • Dr. Mary Brennan, Associate Professor and Graduate Advisor for the History Department, wins the 2007 Mariel M. Muir Excellence in Mentoring Award.

      This award is given annually to one faculty member and one staff member who provide exceptional support of and show exceptional commitment to assisting less experienced individuals in becoming more proficient in their professional activities.

       

    • On April 19, at 6:30 pm, historian James H. Jones will be speaking in the LBJ teaching theater (4-16.1) as part of the Taylor Lecture Series (in participation with Phi Alpha Theta).  Jones is the author of Alfred C. Kinsey: A Life, a book that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography and the basis for the movie “Kinsey.”  Jones also wrote Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. His talk will be about Kinsey, sex, and social science. It is officially titled “Alfred C. Kinsey: The Scientist as Social reformer.”

       

    • The Center for Texas Music History (CTMH) presented the 7th Annual Texas Music History Unplugged concert, featuring Marcia Ball, Ruben Ramos, Barbara Lynn, Randy Rogers and Colin Brooks. The concert was held at the LBJ Student Center Ballroom on Tuesday, April 24, 2007, and started at 8:00 p.m. Admission was free, and seating is limited to the first arrivals.

      About the Artists
      Marcia Ball has built a prolific and eclectic career that spans country, blues, zydeco, R&B, and boogie woogie. She has recorded several critically-acclaimed albums, won the prestigious W.C. Handy Blues Award twice, and toured throughout North America and Europe.

      Nicknamed “El Gato Negro” (The Black Cat), Ruben Ramos’s band, the Texas Revolution, helped establish him as a pioneer of the emerging "Tejano" musical genre. Ramos has won several Tejano Music Awards, as well as a Grammy, and was inducted into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame.

      Barbara Lynn's self-penned hit “You'll Lose A Good Thing,” reached Number One on the charts in 1962, and performed throughout the world, including at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem and on the TV show American Bandstand.

      Randy Rogers, a Texas State alumnus, was encouraged by Kent Finlay, whose Cheatham Street Warehouse became his home base while writing songs, recording albums, and increasing his acclaim. Recently, Rogers signed a multi-album deal with Mercury Record.

      Colin Brooks first gained national recognition as a winner at the 2003 Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk songwriter competition. Brooks also won the 2002 Songwriters Hall Of Fame Abe Olman Scholarship, and his own group, the Band of Heathens, won the Austin Music Award for Best New Band of 2007.

      Texas Music History Unplugged is an ongoing lecture series sponsored by the CTMH, the Department of History, and several other campus organizations. Prominent Texas musicians share the stage in an intimate semi-circle. They perform together and discuss how Texas music reflects the rich history and tremendous cultural diversity of the American Southwest.

      If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Deirdre Lannon at 245-2185 or via e-mail at dl24@txstate.edu or feel free to visit http://txstate.edu/ctmh for more information.

      Tuesday, April 24, 2007­ 8:00 P.M.
      LBJ Student Center Ballroom
      Free admission ­ limited seating

       

    • Dr. Greg Andrews will be one of the featured guests to perform on Brigitte London's "Spirit of the Outlaws All-Star Showdown" on Thursday, April 5th at 8pm.

      This monthly show is devoted to featuring new songwriters who embody the outlaw spirit made popular by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi, Colter, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, and others.

      Dr. Andrews will perform two of his songs-- "Night Train from Pecos," and "T Bird Fly," --and three additional songs with former members of Waylon Jennings' band at the legendary Douglas Corner Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee.

       

    • Free State of JonesUniversal Pictures has bought the rights to Victoria Bynum’s book, THE FREE STATE OF JONES: MISSISSIPPI’S LONGEST CIVIL WAR, from the University of North Carolina Press. The studio has confirmed that it plans to produce a movie tentatively entitled THE KINGDOM OF JONES, and that Dr. Bynum’s book will be a valuable resource for the writing of the movie’s screenplay. Dr. Bynum will also serve as a consultant for the film.

       

    • Frank de la TejaAUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry appointed Jesús F. de la Teja of Austin as Texas State Historian, pursuant to Senate Bill 1787 of the 78th Legislature. He retains this designation for two years from the date of the ceremony.

      De la Teja is a professor and chair of the Department of History at Texas State University.  He previously served as director of archives and records at the Texas General Land Office and he assisted novelist James A. Michener with research. He authored a catalog of books, journal and reference articles, reviews and scripts. De la Teja is a member of the East Texas History Association, the Western History Association, and the Texas Institute of Letters. He also serves as president of the Texas State History Association.

      De la Teja received a bachelor's degree in political science from Seton Hall University and a doctoral degree in history from the University of Texas at Austin.

       

    • A Pernicious Sort of WomanProf. Elizabeth Makowski is the 2007 winner of the History of Women Religious's Distinguished Book Award, given for an outstanding book on any aspect of the history of women religious since the organization's 2004 conference. According to the chair of the awards committee, "The committee found your work on 'Pernicious Women' deserving of recognition for its scholarship and importance of topic. The committee's decision was unanimous and enthusiastic." The book, "A Pernicious Sort of Woman": Quasi-religious Women and Canon Lawyers in the Later Middle Ages (Catholic University of America, 2005), is her third.

       

    • Dr. James McWilliams has received a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University for the academic year 2007-2008. Dr. McWilliams will take up residence in New Haven at the end of the summer. Dr. McWilliams has received national coverage of his book A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America (Columbia University Press, 2005) and currently is completing a book tracing the history of pest control in the United States since colonial times.

       

    • Ms. Irene Hindson, senior lecturer in History, has won the 2007 Faculty Advisor of the Year award from the Texas Academic Advising Network.

      After university-wide changes to academic advising a few years back, Irene became the sole provider of History advising until Dean Ann Marie Ellis and Liberal Arts Advising Center director Yvette Morales decided last year to assign a full time advisor, Christina Fleuriet, to the department. Before that, Ms. Hindson had been seeing hundreds of students in the course of the year and doing all summer orientation sessions by herself. Aside from her advising duties, Ms. Hindson represents the department at Bobcat Days and other student recruiting and orientation activities.

       

    • Bitter HarvestCongratulations to Dr. Paul Hart, winner of the 2007 Southwest Council of Latin American Studies' Harvey Johnson Book Award for  Bitter Harvest: The Social Transformation of Morelos, Mexico, and the Origins of the Zapatista Revolution, 1840-1910 (New Mexico, 2006) . The award recognizes the best book published during the previous year on a Latin American topic.

      Dr. Hart is currently at work on a comparative history of economic development in 19th-century Japan and Mexico.

       

    • Dr. Angela Murphy's article, "Daniel O'Connell and the 'American Eagle' in 1845: Slavery, Diplomacy, Nativism, and the Collapse of America's First Irish Nationalist Movement," has appeared in the Journal of America Ethnic History 26, 2 (2007): 3-26. Dr. Murphy is working on a book-length treatment of the intersection between abolitionism and Antebellum Irish nationalist movements in the U.S.

       

    • Graduate student Kerry Chandler along with graduate alumnus William McWhorter will be part of a panel discussion titled, "Military Aviation in West Texas during World War II" at the 2007 West Texas Historical Association's Annual Conference. This year's conference is held at Hardin-Simmons University in Abiliene, Texas.

      Chandler is in the process of finishing his thesis on the effects of miltary base closures on local communites. His research includes community studies on several West Texas towns. McWhorter, who graduated with his M.A. in 2005, is the Military Sites Coordinator for the the Texas Historical Commission. He is heavily involved in their "Texas in World War II" Project.

      Presentation Details-
      Friday, March 30, 2007 at 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
      Skiles Social Science Building, Room 114
      Hardin-Simmons University
      Abilene, Texas

       

    • Dr. Ana Romo's first article, "Rethinking Race and Culture in Brazil's First Afro-Brazilian Congress of 1934," has appeared in the latest issue of the Journal of Latin American Studies (vol. 39, 2007, pp. 31-54). Research on the article was partly funded by a Texas State Research Enhancement Grant. JLAS is one of the premier journals in the area of Latin American studies and is published Cambridge University Press.

       

    • Ms. Amy Canon, a graduate student working on a Master's thesis tracing the history of San Antonio's Joske's Department Store, has won graduate paper competition of the John W. Stormont Lectures on South Texas at the Victoria College. The title of her paper is "Family Roots to Corporate Ownership: Joske's of Texas, 1869-1938." The paper will be published in this spring's issue of South Texas Studies, and Ms. Canon will receive a $400 prize and a plaque.