Around the Courtyard | 2010

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  • 2010 News Archive

    • By Alec Jennings
      University News Service
      November 4, 2010

      Jesús F. de la Teja, professor and chair of the department of history at Texas State University, has been unanimously selected by Humanities Texas to serve on its board of directors.

      Formerly the Texas Council for the Humanities, Humanities Texas is the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It conducts and supports public programs in history, literature, philosophy and other humanities disciplines. De la Teja said he looks forward to serving Humanities Texas as a representative of his discipline.

      "I'm honored to be asked. There are people there I highly respect," De la Teja said. "It encourages me that Humanities Texas values the field I represent."

      De la Teja's primary areas of research and expertise focus on the northeastern frontier of Spanish colonial Mexico. He said he believes his discipline is especially significant today due to the increasing Hispanic representation in the state and that his study can contribute to the organization's goals of promoting the humanities statewide.

      "I believe I bring a perspective on early Texas history that is increasingly relevant to the shifting demographics of the state," De la Teja said.

      De la Teja is the author of San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain’s Northern Frontier (1995), co-author of Texas: Crossroads of North America (2004), a college-level survey of the state’s history and most recently he edited Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas (2010). In addition to his research activities he has served as a consultant on development of the Texas State History Museum and serves as book review editor of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.

       

    • Dan K. Utley
      The Texas Oral History Association is pleased to announce Dan K. Utley as the eighth recipient of the Thomas L. Charlton Lifetime Achievement Award.

      A native of Lufkin who spent his formative years in Woodville, Dan received his BA in history from the University of Texas at Austin, teacher certification from Lamar University, and the MA in history from Sam Houston State University. As he worked toward his own education, he participated in the education of young people through his teaching in Woodville and Cypress-Fairbanks schools and through his executive position with the Alamo Area Council of Boy Scouts of America in San Antonio. In later years, Dan taught or lectured at Austin Community College and Baylor University. He is currently an adjunct faculty member in the public history program at Texas State University, where he teaches graduate courses in oral history theory and practice.

      In 1979, Dan began a long-term relationship with the Texas Historical Commission, where he served several roles that placed him at the center of action for historic site preservation in the state. He served as assistant director of research from 1979 to 1983, with the primary responsibility for drafting and editing inscriptions for the informative markers that dot the Texas landscape with reminders of the significance of places, people, and events in the state's past. From 1983 to 1985, Dan was director of research, a position which included oversight for the state historical marker program, but also carried him on visits and public speaking occasions through the entire state. As THC's liaison with state agencies, legislative committees, preservation groups, and county historical commissions, he came to know people from all walks of life across Texas, and they came to know Dan as their partner in making the past live for future generations.

      Dan enjoyed being out and about the state, so in 1985 he left THC to become a contract historian/cultural resources manager, work he continues to the present. Contracting principally with the University of Texas at Austin, Lower Colorado River Authority, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, he researches and writes state and federal cultural resource management reports for projects in all regions of Texas, always utilizing oral history where he can. He has conducted architectural and historical surveys and prepared nominations for the National Register of Historic Places and Recorded Texas Landmark designation. Along with projects contributing to cemetery preservation and historical archeology, he consults with Texans doing oral history.

      From 1991 to 1993, Dan was Oral Historian/Editor and Lecturer for the Baylor University Institute for Oral History. During those years and subsequently, he has contributed 102 interviews to Baylor's oral history collection. He initiated the Historic Preservation in Texas project for Baylor by conducting interviews with innovators, practitioners, and advocates of the historic preservation movement in the state, and also spearheaded an extensive series on cotton farming in the Burton area of Washington County. Additionally, while at Baylor, Dan conducted oral history workshops across the state.

      In 1997, Dan returned to the Texas Historical Commission, this time as Special Projects Coordinator, supervising site-based programs associated with historic courthouses and Texas military history. In 1999, he became administrator of the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program, a multimillion dollar matching grant initiative. In 2001, Dan moved to the History Programs Division, first as assistant director, a job that well utilized his experience. He coordinated the Official Texas Historical Marker Program and supervised programs related to cemetery preservation, a World War II initiative, the oral history program, and the military sites program. In 2004, he became THC's chief historian. Through that position, he participated in a wide range of projects related to heritage tourism, museums, agency archives, historic sites, diversity efforts, research, workshops, and publications. Again he served as liaison to county historical commissions, nonprofit preservation groups, and state agencies.

      Upon his retirement from THC in 2007, in addition to spending more time with Debby, his childhood sweetheart and wife of 39 years, Dan continued his work as contract historian/cultural resource manager and public historian. He continues to consult on oral history projects and is also an author and editor. In addition to a long list of journal and magazine articles, scholarly papers, speeches, and talks, he is author, co-author, and/or editor of several books: Sentimental Journey: A Guide to the Architectural Heritage of Georgetown, Texas (1989); Sacred Soil: Preserving Texas Military Sites of the Nineteenth Century (1997); From Can See to Can't: Texas Cotton Farmers on the Southern Prairies (with Thad Sitton, 1997; recognized with the Best Book Award by the San Antonio Conservation Society in 1998); Guided with a Steady Hand: The Cultural Landscape of a Rural Texas Park (with James W. Steely, 1998); and History Ahead: Stories beyond the Texas Roadside Markers (with Cynthia J. Beeman, 2010). He is currently working on volume two of History Ahead, researching materials for a book on military sites in Texas, 1845-1945, and awaiting publication of a major book on the state's past historians for which he was a contributor.

      The list of state boards and committees on which Dan has served is long, but dear to our hearts is his record of service for Texas Oral History Association. TOHA welcomed him as member in 1986 and immediately put him to work. From 1987 to 1992, he did his part as a member of the TOHA board of directors, taking on the offices of vice president (1990-1991) and president (1991-1992). He has also served since 1995 on the editorial board of the TOHA journal, Sound Historian. He has carried oral history best practices throughout the state as leader or co-leader of more than thirty workshops.

      Dan's prolific work has been honored by the Texas State Historical Association, which named him Fellow in 2008, and by the East Texas Historical Association, with its Best of East Texas Award in 2008 and its Ralph W. Steen Award in 2009. It is fitting that the Texas Oral History Association now recognize Dan K. Utley's outstanding service to the Lone Star State through his career as historic preservationist and oral historian by bestowing on him the Thomas L. Charlton Lifetime Achievement Award.

       

    • Having completed his M.S.I.S. from UT in May, Beau Steenken (M.A. 2008) accepted a tenure-track position as a member of the law library faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Law beginning September 15th, pending University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approval. In addition to providing reference services in the law library, he will be teaching formal courses on legal research. The legal research course is part of the required research and writing curriculum for law students at UK. Beau will also have the opportunity to pursue his own research interests, including locating and providing access to historical sources of law. His research will take both the form of traditional written scholarship and that of digitization projects. With regard to his Texas State experience, Beau commented, “I think my time in the history program at Texas State was extremely helpful in acquiring this position, both in terms of aiding me in identifying well-defined research interests and in terms of providing me with experience in front of students as an IA.”

       

    • Congratulations to Tom Alter, who completed a thesis on “E. O. Meitzen: Agrarian Radical in Texas, 1855-1906” under the direction of Prof. Gregg Andrews in 2008 and is taking over as editorial coordinator for Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, the official journal for the Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA). As editorial coordinator Tom will be the "gatekeeper" and lynchpin of the journal. Except for book reviews and accepting or rejecting manuscript, most editorial matters will go through him first. He will be responsible  for acceptance and rejection letters, getting the manuscripts out to reviewers, providing reviewer comments to the authors, getting the edits to authors, and going over the page proofs before printing. Also, he will represent the journal at academic conferences related to labor history. Tom is currently carrying out doctoral studies in labor history at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

       

    • Congratulations to Jennifer Paul on receiving a Texas Scholarship from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Texas to attend the 2010 National Preservation Conference. Jenny earned a BA in History from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009 with a 4.0 gpa, and is in her first year in the Public History program at Texas State. She has a long-time interest in the area of historical reenactment, having been a member of the 35th Texas Cavalry/15th Texas Infantry Living History Association since 2003. Her Texas Scholar scholarship is made possible in part by generous donations from the Texas Historical Commission and the Houston Endowment. The National Preservation Conference is the nation’s premier conference for professionals and individuals passionate about preservation, and is an important opportunity to gain exposure to the latest trends in historic preservation as well as meeting professionals and employers in the field.

       

    • Assistant Professor Angela Murphy's American Slavery, Irish Freedom: Abolition, Immigrant Citizenship, and the Transatlantic Movement for Irish Repeal (Louisiana State University Press, 2010) is the first book-length study of the relationship between the Irish independence movement in the United States and American Slavery. It focuses on the dilemma of Irish Americans as they negotiated their identity and adapted to the duties of citizenship within a slaveholding republic.

       

    • Congratulations to long-time History professor and former department chairman Ken Margerison, who has been honored with Texas State University’s Mariel M. Muir Excellence in Mentoring Award. The 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. The award is named for the former Dean of the College of Science because of her passion for ensuring the success of students, faculty, and staff through mentoring.

      Prof. Margerison has long been a mentor to junior faculty and students and a leader in departmental governance. His help in preparing grant proposals and manuscripts has been instrumental in Department of History faculty obtaining numerous research grants, the successful submission of book and article manuscripts for publication, and the preparation of tenure and promotion portfolios. Undergraduate and graduate students have benefited from his nurturing attention to their graduate program aspirations. History department chairs, both before and after his tenure, have been the beneficiaries of his extensive experience and wise counsel.

       

    • Dr. Lydia Garner, who came to the Department of History at Texas State in 1992 after completing the Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University, died in Austin on 6 May 2010 after a short illness. Dr. Garner, an expert in nineteenth-century Brazilian history, helped develop the World History courses at Texas State and taught courses in the economic and political history of Latin America until her retirement in spring 2009. A conscientious and dedicated teacher, she was also published scholar in her native Brazil. In 2005 she was elected a corresponding member of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro. From 2002 to 2005 she served as president of the World History Association of Texas. She retired from her position at Texas State in May 2009 and will be fondly remembered by colleagues and students.

       

    • This summer, Texas State University Public History students can be found interpreting Civil War battlefield history, studying historic house furnishings, cataloging textiles and costumes, researching park histories, and assisting with programs at state agencies as part of their internship course requirements. Student Jennifer Paul will complete an internship as a National Park Service interpreter at Vicksburg National Historic Battlefield. Ashley Castillo will be conducting research at Caprock Canyon State Park , Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept. Jamie Martin Alter will intern in the historic Texas Fashion Collection, University of North Texas. Noel Harris Freeze will join a collections project underway for the Texas Governor’s Mansion, and has been admitted to the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts Summer Institute, Winston-Salem, N.C. as well as the Architectural Restoration Field School at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forrest site in Virginia. Kate Koebbe has been awarded a 2010 Preservation Fellowship with the Texas Historical Commission where she will work with several agency divisions.

      Congratulations to each of these students on their internships and what promises to be both exciting and educational public history experiences.

       

    • Dr. Ana Romo, assistant professor in the Department of History, has just published her first book, Brazil’s Living Museum: Race, Reform, and Tradition in Bahia, with the University of North Carolina Press. The book explores the construction of race, specifically the role of Afro-Brazilian culture, in the development of Bahian identity from the late nineteenth century to military coup of 1964.

       

    • MAL Award in Denton, TexasTwenty-one Texas State students and a History Department faculty member returned from Model Arab League (MAL) with distinctions. At a competition organized by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, delegates debated in five councils: Social Affairs, Joint Defense, Political Affairs, Environmental Affairs, and Palestinian Affairs. Three groups from San Marcos represented Jordan, Lebanon and Libya at an event hosted by the University of North Texas.

      Alana Torrez received an "honorable mention" for her representation of Jordan on the Environmental council. Daniel Burrow and Rebecca Grothaus were recognized as "outstanding delegates," representing Jordan on the Political Affairs council. Andrew Cotton was awarded "outstanding delegate" for his representation of Jordan on the Joint Defense council. On top of this, the entire Jordanian delegation was recognized as the competition's "outstanding delegation."

      Participating in MAL, students learn about the Arab world's political priorities, as well as sharpening their skills in diplomacy and public speech. A total of nine universities took part in the Denton event, which took place 22-24 April 2010. Dr. Elizabeth Bishop, member of the Department of History, serves Texas State's MAL as its faculty mentor. The History Department, Department of Political Science, the Center for International Studies, and College of Liberal Arts, support the MAL program.

      In addition, the MAL has received support of the Permanent Mission of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the United Nations, and a personal gift from the H.E. Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, Saudi ambassador to the United States. For more information on the MAL, contact Dr. Bishop at 512.245.3747 or eb26@txstate.edu.

       

    • MAL Award in College Station, TXSixteen Texas State students and a History Department faculty member returned from Model Arab League (MAL) with awards. At events organized by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, delegates debate in five councils: Social Affairs, Joint Defense, Political Affairs, Environmental Affairs, and Palestinian Affairs. Participating in MAL, students learn about the Arab world's political priorities, as well as sharpening their skills in diplomacy and public speech. Two groups from San Marcos represented Lebanon and Libya at an event hosted by Texas A & M. A total of eight universities took part in the College Station competition, which took place 9-10 April 2010.

      Allie Hamilton was recognized as "outstanding delegate," representing Libya on the Social Affairs council. Joshua Parsons and Alana Torrez received an "honorable mention" for their representation of Lebanon on the Joint Defense council. Jennifer Cooke and Andrew Nelson were awarded "Outstanding delegates" for their representation of Lebanon, and Walter Couser received an "honorable mention" for representing Libya, all on the Political Affairs council. Rebecca Grothaus and Guadalupe Flores received an "honorable mention" for representing Libya on the Environmental Affairs council. MAL president Andrew Cotton was recognized as "outstanding delegate" for his representation of Libya on the Palestinian Affairs council. In addition, the entire Libyan delegation was recognized as the competition's "outstanding delegation."

      Texas State University's MAL is under the faculty mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Bishop, a member of the Department of History, which along with the Department of Political Science, the Center for International Studies, and College of Liberal Arts, support the MAL program. For more information on the MAL, contact Dr. Bishop at 512.245.3747 or eb26@txstate.edu. 

       

    • Department of History faculty member Professor Elizabeth Makowski has been named the inaugural Ingram Professor of History for 2010-2013. During her tenure in the position, she will be working on a book project to be titled Justice by Proxy: English Cloistered Nuns and the Lawyers, 1293-1540. The work concerns the efforts of English nuns to protect their rights and property through litigation at the dawn of the medieval legal profession. The Ingram Professorship carries with it a $10,000 research stipend from the Ingram Family Endowed Professorship in History as well as other amenities.

      Professor Makowski is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and three previous books, including “A Pernicious Sort of Woman”: Quasi-Religious Women and Canon Lawyers in the Later Middle Ages, published by the Catholic University of America Press in 2005, and winner of the Distinguished Book Award from the History of Women Religious Conference. She has been a member of the faculty at Texas State since 1993, where she teaches Medieval and Church history in the Department of History and Honors Program.
      .
      The Ingram Family Endowed Professorship in History was originally established in 1990 by Mrs. Callie Ingram and family both to recognize a faculty member’s scholarly contribution to the discipline of history and to advance further the study of history at Texas State University. The Department of History is honored to have its first endowed professorship named for a family that has been such an important supporter of the university.

       

    • James McWilliams, winner of the 2009 Texas State University Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship, will present the 2010 Presidential Seminar at 12:30 p.m. on 9 April 2010, in Flowers Hall 230. The title of his lecture is "Distorting the Past to Idealize the Future: Eating Ethically in the 21st Century."

      Dr. McWilliams will also be signing copies of his award-winning new book, Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly (Little Brown, 2009). The book was recently honored by the 14th Annual Books for a Better Life Awards in the “Green” category. In addition, his work studying sustainability from a humanities perspective was recently recognized with the Hiett Prize in the Humanities by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.

      The Presidential Seminar will begin with a light refreshment reception and book signing opportunity at 12 p.m., followed by the lecture at 12:30 p.m. Copies of Dr. McWilliams book will be available for purchase courtesy of the university bookstore.

       

    • Retired professor Victoria Bynum’s In The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies continues her exploration of Southerners who resisted and, sometimes, fought against the Confederacy in three representative regions: North Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas. In this new work she challenges the myths of monolithic Southern support for the Confederate cause, examining a broad range for actors, from Southern Unionists, to defiant women, to free blacks.

      History Department Chair Jesús F. de la Teja has edited an anthology tracking the careers of eleven prominent Tejanos who helped make Texas history from the dawn of Mexican independence to the Republic’s annexation to the United States. Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas emphasizes how Tejanos exercised leadership roles and participated in both the political and military affairs of Texas, promoting Anglo American settlement and defending local interests.

       

    • Richard J. M. Blackett | Andrew Jackson Professor of History,
      Vanderbilt University
      Escaping Massa: Slaves and their Quest for Freedom in the Decade before the Civil War

      Texas State University, Flowers Hall-230
      Thursday, February 18, 2010 6:30-8:00 pm

      In celebration of African American History Month, Richard J. M. Blackett will be giving a talk at Texas State University on African American reactions to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Professor Blackett’s talk will highlight the ways in which American slave escapes influenced the politics of slavery in the United States in the years before the Civil War. The topic is of particular interest at this time, as Americans have spent the last year celebrating the Abraham Lincoln Sesquicentennial and have discussed Lincoln’s emancipationist legacy in numerous venues. Professor Blackett’s work reminds us of the importance of African American actions in the debates that took place concerning slavery and emancipation in the years preceding the Civil War.

      Professor Blackett, who currently serves as the Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is a prominent historian of the American abolition movement. In particular, his work has been significant in highlighting the transatlantic connections and the roles African Americans played in the movement to abolish slavery. He has written and edited numerous works, including Building an Antislavery Wall: Black Americans in the Atlantic Abolitionist Movement, 1830-1860 (1983); Beating Against the Barriers: Biographical Essays in Nineteenth-Century Afro-American History (1986); Thomas Morris Chester: Black Civil War Correspondent (1989); Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War (2001); and Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery (1999). He currently is working on a study of the ways in which communities on both sides of the North-South divide organized to support or resist enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and the ways that slaves, by escaping, influenced antebellum debates concerning slavery.

      The event is sponsored by the Texas State University History Department and the Texas State Equity & Access Committee. A reception with light refreshments will follow the talk.

       

    • Eddie Durham Jazz Celebration
      A concert and lecture featuring NEA Jazz Masters Joe Wilder and Dan Morgenstern.

      San Marcos, TX – On February 5, the Eddie Durham Jazz Celebration will be held in Evans Auditorium at Texas State University. Named for jazz guitar pioneer and San Marcos native Eddie Durham, this program features Texas State student ensembles and a guest combo performing music composed, arranged, and influenced by Durham. This year’s event welcomes legendary trumpeter Joe Wilder, and noted jazz scholar Dan Morgenstern, both of whom were named “NEA Jazz Master” by the National Endowment of the Arts. This event is free, and open to students, faculty, and the general public. A part of the Hill Country Jazz Festival, the event is presented by the Department of Jazz Studies in the Texas State School of Music, and the Center for Texas Music History in the Department of History.

      Joe Wilder was born in Colwyn, Pennsylvania in 1922, and his first performances took place on the radio program, "Parisian Tailor's Colored Kiddies of the Air," backed up by such illustrious bands as Duke Ellington's and Louis Armstrong's. He joined his first touring big band, Les Hite's band, in 1941. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Wilder talents were featured in the orchestras of Jimmie Lunceford, Herbie Fields, Sam Donahue, Lucky Millinder, Noble Sissle, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie. In addition to a successful solo recording career, he became a favorite with vocalists including Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Johnny Mathis, Harry Belafonte, Eileen Farrell, Tony Bennett, and many others.

      Wilder returned to school in the 1950s, earning a bachelor's degree at the Manhattan School of Music where he was also principal trumpet with the school's symphony orchestra under conductor Jonel Perlea. At that time, he performed on several occasions with the New York Philharmonic under Andre Kostolanitz and Pierre Boulez. He is the only surviving member of the Count Basie All-Star Orchestra that appeared in the classic 1959 film The Sound of Jazz.

      Dan Morgenstern is a Grammy-winning jazz writer and archivist. Born in Germany, he moved to the United States in 1947 – a vibrant era for jazz music. After attending Brandeis University, he launched his career as a jazz music journalist in 1958. He went on to write and edit for some of the premier jazz publications in America, including Metronome, Jazz, and Down Beat. He is the author of the books Jazz People and Living with Jazz. In 1976 he was named director of Rutgers University's Institute of Jazz Studies, where he helped build a world-class collection of jazz documents, recordings, and memorabilia. Morgenstern is widely known as a prolific writer of comprehensive, authoritative liner notes, a sideline that has garnered him seven Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes since 1973.

      Eddie Durham was born in San Marcos, Texas, on August 19, 1906, and died on March 6, 1987. A prolific composer, arranger, and instrumentalist, Durham is widely credited with being a pioneer of amplified guitar, influencing fellow Texan Charlie Christian, who became one of the most important guitarists in jazz history. Durham worked with iconic Swing Era bands including the Blue Devils, Bennie Moten, Count Basie, and Jimmie Lunceford. The tunes Durham composed or arranged for these bands include such classics as "Moten Swing," "Swinging the Blues," "Topsy," "One O'Clock Jump," "Jumpin' at the Woodside" In addition, he arranged music for Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller, including one of Miller's greatest and most famous hits, "In the Mood." For more information: www.EddieDurhamJazz.webs.com

      Eddie Durham Celebration
      Featuring Joe Wilder, Dan Morgenstern, and the Texas State Jazz Ensemble
      7:00 PM, Friday, February 5, 2009
      Evans Auditorium, Texas State University
      Admission is free, but seating is limited

       

    • The Center for Texas Music History and the PSH Foundation Present
      Music from the Heart: An 80th Birthday Tribute to Rod Kennedy

      featuring

      Robert Earl Keen, the Flatlanders, Marcia Ball, Ray Benson, Ruthie Foster, Eliza Gilkyson, Jimmy LaFave, Terri Hendrix, Lloyd Maines, Randy Rogers, Brady Black, Joel Guzman, John Inmon, Paul Glasse, Bobby Bridger,
      & other special guests

      Tuesday, February 2, 2010 7-10 PM

      Paramount Theatre
      713 Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas

      Tickets: 1-866-9PROTIX or 512-472-5470 or www.AustinTheatre.org

      (Private reception for donors and VIP guests 5-6:30PM. For information on
      donations or sponsorship, please email: gh08@txstate.edu)

      Proceeds benefit

      The Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University