Around the Courtyard | 2015

Expand FAQ List

  • 2015 News Archive

    • Congratulations to Shannon Duffy!  Her 14 articles (listed below) appear in Imperialism and Expansionism in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection, ed. Chris J. Magoc and David Bernstein. 4 vols. Santa-Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2016.

      • The Seven Years’ War (1754-1763), 1:74-78
      • The Quebec Act (1774), 1:69-71
      • The Articles of Confederation, 1:11-13
      • The Citizen Gênet Affair (1793), 1: 19-21
      • The Jay Treaty (1794), 1:40-42
      • Pinckney’s Treaty (1796), 1:63-65
      • The XYZ Affair (1797-1798), 1:94-95
      • The Embargo Act (1807), 1:26-28
      • The War Hawks, 1:86-87
      • The War of 1812 (1812-1815), 1:87-91
      • The Battle of New Orleans (1815), 1:49-51
      • John Quincy Adams, 1:5-6
      • Adams-Onìs Treaty (1819), 1:117-118
      • The Republic of Texas, 1:198-200

      Congratulations to Shannon Duffy!  Her webpage on “The Revolutionary Crisis” is the featured article in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.

      Congratulations to Paul Hart, Ana Romo, Ron Johnson and Carrie Ritter!  All were granted REP grants.

      Congratulations to John Mckiernan-Gonzalez. The Journal of the West just published the article: ‘Everyday Disturbances: the Olympics, ‘Indian’ Marathon Runners, and the Practice of Medical Inspection, 1932,’ Journal of the West, 54:4 (Fall 2015), 12-21.

      Congratulations to Shannon Duffy!  She has been awarded the Nontenure Faculty Workload Release for Fall 2016.

      Congratulations to José Carlos de la Puente whose article “That Which Belongs to All…” was selected to receive this year’s Tibesar Prize, which recognizes the best article to appear in the previous volume year of The Americas.

      Congratulations to Deidre Lannon Albrecht (MA ’07 and Senior Lecturer) who passed her comprehensive exams at UT.  I was going to say that she passed with flying colors, but her committee members described her performance as “impressive” and “exceptional” so I will go with those.

      Congratulations to Heather Haley and her adviser Ellen Tillman. Her paper, "Ranch Hands and Orange Clouds: Herbicidal Warfare and Counterinsurgency Doctrine in the Vietnam War," won the "Top Paper Award" in the Master's Category in association with Texas State University's Seventh International Research Conference for Graduate Students.

      As some of you may have heard, the Halsey-Helgeson quest for a house became a part of the HGTV series “House Hunters.”  Their episode will air  as "Texas College Professor and Wife Debate Midcentury Modern vs. Victorian” on Tuesday, October 27th, at 9PM/c.

      Congratulations to Jimmy McWilliams who recently published an article in The Hedgehog Review on Thoreau.

      Congratulations to Peter Siegenthaler, whose extended review essay, “Urban Regeneration and Community Survival in Postwar Japan,” appears in History Workshop Journal 80.1: 259–268. 

      Congratulations to Nancy Berlage who hosted a wonderful conference on Saturday.  Participants from across the country presented papers that covered a various approaches to examining issues of immigration, migration and memory.

      Congratulations to Dan Utley.  His book, Echoes of Glory:  Historic Military Sites Across Texas, co-authored with Thomas E. Alexander, has been published by Texas A&M Press. 

      Congratulations to Deborah Law, MA from TX State ’05, successfully defended her dissertation at Johns Hopkins last Thursday!

      Congratulations to Jimmy McWilliams. His essay, Nature Writing Gets Personal, was published in The Hedgehog Review.

      Congratulations to Shannon Duffy who has eight articles published in The World of the American Revolution, ed. Merril D. Smith (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2015). 2 vols.

      Congratulations to Elizabeth Bishop. Her article, “‘Asia and Adjacent Areas,’ Mohammed Fadhel Jamali’s Cold War Experiences,” was published in Auto/Fiction journal during May 2015. 

      Congratulations to Bryan Glass. His anthology Scotland, empire and decolonisation in the twentieth century, co-edited with John MacKenzie, has just been published by Manchester University Press.

      Congratulations to Jimmy McWilliams (and Robert Fischer of Philosophy) on their op-ed piece which ran in the New York Times yesterday.

      Congratulations to Jose Carlos de la Puente on the publication of his article: “Choquecasa va a la audiencia: cronistas, litigantes y el debate sobre la autoría del Manuscrito Quechua de Huarochirí.” [“Choquecasa Goes to the Court: Chroniclers, Litigants, and the Debate on the Authorship of the Huarochirí Quechua Manuscript”] Histórica 39. 1: 139-158.

      Congratulations to Ken Margerison whose article, “French Visions of Empire:  Contesting British power in India after the Seven Years War,” appeared in June 2015 issue of  English Historical Review.  A copy is available on the table in Dr. Brennan's office.

      Congratulations to Nancy Berlage.  Her work on the Melvin Laird papers (while at the Historical Office of the Office of the Secretary of Defense) has come to fruition in Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military 199-1973.  The book is available on the table in my office.

      Congratulations to Jimmy McWilliams, whose article, “On the Value of Not Knowing Everything,” appeared in The Hedgehog Review.

      Congratulations to Elizabeth Bishop whose article "Petroleum, Labor, and Legislative Politics in Hashemite Iraq, 1953," appears in Al-Mawaqif no. 8 (2013).  A paper copy is available on the table in my office.

      Congratulations to Jason Mellard who appeared in a new documentary, Urban Cowboy: The Rise and Fall of Gilley's, by ten100tv, a production team probably best known for their Pony Excess doc on the SMU football scandal. The docoumentary aired over the weekend.

      The department of history is happy to to announce that it has offered Liddle Teaching Fellowships to six graduate students, all of whom have accepted the position. Ed Erdmann, Joseph Fox, and Chris Simons will be working with Dr. Jeffrey Helgeson. And John Aylesworth, Heather Haley, and Jacob Troublefield will be working with Dr. Ellen Tillman.

      Congratulations to Jimmy McWilliams, whose article on memory and truth, is the cover story in the current issue of The American Scholar.

      Congratulations to Allison Hughes Robinson, MA ’12, ABD at UH, who won the Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Prize for best graduate student submission for the 2015 Southern Association of Women Historians Conference.

      Congratulations to Jimmy McWilliams whose assessments of William Byrd II appear in Paris Review.

      Congratulations to Ellen Tillman whose article, “Militarizing Dollar Diplomacy in the Early Twentieth-Century Dominican Republic:  Centralization and Resistance,” appears in the May 2015 issue of The Hispanic American Historical Review. There is a copy on the table in my office for your viewing pleasure.

      Frank explains Cinco de Mayo to NBC News:  http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cinco-de-mayo-quintessentially-american-holiday-n353376

      Congratulations to Ron Johnson, whose op-ed piece on immigration appeared in Friday’s Austin-American Statesman. 

      Congratulations to Jimmy McWilliams who was interviewed on PRI's The World today for his pecan book. Here's the story.

      Congratulations to Jimmy McWilliams on the following two publications:

      Getting Meta about Mules: Faulkner and the Fine Art of Slowing Down
      Inside Big Ag: On the Dilemma of the Meat Industry

      Congratulations to Elizabeth Bishop and Bryan Glass who were awarded funds from the University Lecturers Series for their proposal, “Modern Piracy.”

      Congratulations to Frank, Elizabeth, and Shannon (as well as the colleagues who supported the requests) for receiving their library grants.

      Arte Publico Hispanic Historical Collection, Series 1  (Frank)
      Security Archive (Elizabeth)
      Evans Supplements (Shannon)

      In fact, of the 5 grants fulfilled, 3 were from history.

      Congratulations to Frank de la Teja whose article, “Texas in Mexico’s Constitutional Order, 1821-1836,” appeared in the spring issue of the online Journal of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. The article can be accessed directly from the title page.  Additionally, the new edition of Frank’s textbook, Texas: Crossroads of North America is out and available for viewing on the table in Dr. Brennan's office.

      Congratulations to Shannon Duffy, the recipient of the second Swinney Faculty Development Leave.  Shannon will be taking her leave this coming Fall.

      Congratulations to Jessica Pliley who won 2015 Outstanding Faculty Scholar Award from the Women and Gender Research Collaborative.  This award is given annually to one Texas State faculty who is engaged in scholarly research or community involvement in the area of women’s or gender studies.

      Congratulations to Lynn Denton who was inaugurated last night as president of the Texas State Historical Association!

      Congratulations to Ron Johnson, Liberal Arts nominee for Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, to Shannon Duffy, Liberal Arts nominee for Presidential Award for Excellence in Service, Paul Hart, Liberal Arts nominee for the Mariel Muir Award!

      After a long battle with cancer, Kent Finlay, musician, songwriter, and former History faculty, passed away March 2nd.  He will be sorely missed by those who have benefitted from his musical gifts.

      Congratulations to Jeff Helgeson whose article, “Beyond a Long Civil Rights Movement,” appeared in Journal of African American History 99:4 (Fall 2014), 442-455.

      Congratulations to Jose Carlos de la Puente whose article, “That which Belongs to All: Khipus, Community, and Indigenous Legal Activism in the Early Colonial Andes,” appeared in The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History, 72, pp 19-54 doi:10.1017/tam.2014.4.

      Congratulations to Frank de la Teja whose chapter, “’Buena gana tenia de ir a jugar’; The Recreational World of Early San Antonio, Texas, 1718-1845,” appears in More Than Just Peloteros:  Sport and US Latino Communities, edited  Jorge Iber (Lubbock:  Texas Tech University Press, 2014). 

      Congratulations to Margaret Menninger who has been named the NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities for 2015-2018!

      Congratulations to Elizabeth Bishop who recently learned that her article “‘Lofty and Precipitous Chains,’ The Roles of the Zagros Mountain Region During the Cold War,” had appeared in Tunisian-Mediterranean Review of Historical, Social and Economic Studies (Béja, Tunisia) (May 2013), pp. 27-67.

      Congratulations to Joaquin Rivaya-Martinez on the publication  of his chapter,  “La expansión comanche en la frontera norte de Nueva España durante el siglo XVIII.” In La frontera en el mundo hispánico: Tierras de convivencia y espacios de confrontación (siglos XV-XVIII), edited by Porfirio Sanz Camañes and David Rex Galindo, pp. 339-369. Quito: Abya Yala, 2014.

      Congratulations to Angie Murphy whose book, The Jerry Rescue, has been released by Oxford University Press.

      Congratulations to Joseph Yick whose article, “'Pre-Collaboration': The Political Activity and Influence of Chen Bijun in Wartime China, January 1938-May 1940,” appeared in the Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Volume 36 (2014): 58-74.

       

    • Dr. James Pohl, Faculty PhotoProfessor James W. Pohl, who served on the history faculty from 1963 to 2011, passed away November 9th.  He will be missed by his family, his history community, and the countless students he has taught and mentored over his many years of service.

      When Professor James W. Pohl retired in August 2011, he left behind a remarkable legacy.  He established the field of military history at Texas State and made it into one of the major areas of study at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.  At the graduate level he directed more M.A. theses than any other professor in the Department of History.  In a fitting tribute to his teaching skills, in 2007 Dr. Pohl received the university’s highest honor, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching.  As a scholar, he had a long list of publications, papers presented, and invited lectures.  He was a frequent contributor to the annual Civil War History Symposium held at Hill College.  His scholarship was instrumental in the transformation of the department’s faculty from one primarily focused on teaching to one seriously engaged in historical research as well as teaching.  His scholarly reputation was such that in 1998 he was invited to serve as Senior Visiting Professor at the School for Advanced Military Studies, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  Jim’s career also had a strong service component.  In the late 1960s, he was instrumental in reorganizing and expanding the department’s graduate program and served as its director from 1968 to 1995. At Texas State he was chair of the Faculty Senate from 1974-1977.  He was also director of the Texas State Historical Association from 1985-86, during which time he served as editor-in-chief of the New Handbook of Texas project, and president from 1987-1988.  In sum, Jim Pohl contributed greatly to the development of the teaching and scholarly reputation of the Department of History at Texas State University and brought state and national recognition to the university.  His 46 years of dedication to his profession, his students, his department and this university earned him the designation of Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2012.

       

    • Dr, Menninger, Faculty PhotoMargaret Menninger, associate professor of history, has been appointed Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities at Texas State University for 2015-2018.

      During her three-year appointment, Menninger will implement “Humanities and Music: Consonance and Dissonance,” a project that integrates history, musical traditions and cross-cultural communications. Events will include conferences, panels, performances, lectures and faculty seminars.

      Menninger joined the Texas State faculty in 2000. She holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University and is author of numerous international publications. Frequently recognized for her teaching excellence, she has taught a wide range of courses in both history and honors.

      The Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

      Originally Posted by Jayme Blaschke
      University News Service
      August 21, 2015

       

    • Jose Carlos de la PuenteCongratulations to José Carlos de la Puente whose article “That Which Belongs to All…” was selected to receive this year’s Tibesar Prize, which recognizes the best article to appear in the previous volume year of The Americas.

       

    • The family of Lois Barton Liddle invites you to celebrate her life.  Visitation will be this Monday, June 22, 5:00-7:00pm at the First Presbyterian Church-San Marcos, 410 W. Hutchison St., San Marcos.  The memorial service will be held at the First Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, June 23 at 11:00 am, with a reception following the service.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the First Presbyterian Church-San Marcos.

       

    • Alfredo González-Benítez is currently a Legal Caseworker at American Gateways. He graduated from Texas State summa cum laude (class of 2012); in Model Arab League, he and Samuel Hillhouse were recognized as "outstanding" for representing Saudi interests in the Political Affairs council at the Bilateral University Model Arab League competition in Houston TX (March 2012).  William H. Gates Public Service Law Program is at the University of Washington School of Law; it's a great honor to have an alum as a Gates PSL Scholar.

       

    • Model Arab LeagueFour Texas State students and a faculty member returned from Washington DC, where the Model Arab League team took part in the National University Model Arab League event (NUMAL, 10-12 April 2015), where Texas State joined two other universities in representing the Indian Ocean nation of the Comoros. On the competition's eve the Comoros' Ambassador at the United Nations, His Excellency Mr. Kaambi Roubani briefed the combined teams. These briefings rank high in a list of the Model's pedagogical benefits.

      Texas State advanced to the national-level competition with two University of Houston teams, representing the Clear Lake campus, and the Honors College. In Washington DC, a total of twenty-four institutions of higher education qualified for the competition, among them the American University in Cairo (Egypt), Bringham Young University, George Mason University, George Washington University, Northwestern University, the Université Internationale de Rabat (Morocco), the University of Arkansas/Little Rock, and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point.

      Of their experience on the Arab Youth council, International Studies major Meghan Blizinski and Daisy Jaimez (also majoring in International Studies) reflected: "for the topic creating opportunities for Arab youth to peacefully participate in government, civil society, and political processes, Comoros sponsored a resolution that authorizes the reinstatement of the youth forum previously set forth by the League of Arab States in 2007 in collaboration with United Nations Development Program, for the purpose of engaging youth in constructive political dialogue."

      @StrictlyHooper tweeted a selfie, with Meghan and Daisy on his left. During the debates, Meghan's cell phone rang--it was His Excellency the Comoros' Ambassador. Of the call, she said: "I felt very excited but surprised at the same time; it was very thoughtful for him to call me and check up on us to see how we did in council. Not all ambassadors would take the time to do that!"

      Bobcats Ayat Kamel (Communications Studies) and Mohammad al-Rousan (Biology) represented the Comoros on the Palestinian Affairs council.  Ayat explains: "for the topic devising methods to strengthen and encourage the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, Comoros sponsored a resolution that established the Arab Economic Independence Commission (AEIC) to oversee investment in Arab and Palestinian products, to replace Israeli products and services.” Of his experience, Mohammad says: "Good job to our fellow MALers-- loved how passionate everyone was in Palestinian Affairs and I can't wait to experience it again!"

      The MAL program acknowledges support from the Dean of Students’ office, the College of Liberal Arts, and the History Department, and Student Government's Rising STAR Travel Grants. Dr. Elizabeth Bishop, of the Department of History, mentors Texas State University's program; you can email her at eb26@txstate.edu for more information.

       

    • De la Teja Presidential SeminarHistory professor and Director of the Center for the Study of the Southwest, Frank de la Teja delivered the Presidential Seminar address to a packed house on Wednesday, April 15th.    His talk, entitled "What is a Tejano?" provided a historical understanding of the way in which Texas Mexican Americans were defined, defined themselves, and in the late 20th century have sought to establish non-hyphenated identities that serve their own understanding of Texas’s Mexican heritage.

       

    • CongSam Almazon Student Worker Employee of the year dinnerratulations to Sam!  He was one of 18 student workers (out of 3000 across the university) to be honored at a reception last evening as a Student Worker of the Year.

       

    • Nine Texas State students and a faculty member returned from Houston, where the Model Arab League team took part in the Bilateral U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce Regional University Model Arab League (20-21 February 2015), with both delegation and team awards.  Texas State’s entire delegation received an “Honorable Mention” for its representation of the Gulf country Qatar.

      Chief Delegate Lily Lowder and Daisy Jaimez were also awarded Outstanding Delegation for their contributions to Political Affairs. Lowder (Political Science major, Political Communication and Mass Communication minor) and Jaimez (International Business major) explained that over the weekend: “we drafted a tripartite resolution that consisted of humanitarian aid, infrastructure initiatives, microeconomic investment from the international community of NGOs, and supported the development of Small Medium Enterprises and then gained the support of Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine by adapting the resolution to the underdeveloped Arab countries' economic growth and infrastructure needs.”

      The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations organizes events where students debate in five councils: Economic Affairs, Joint Defense, Palestinian Affairs, Political Affairs, and Social Affairs. At these competitions, students sharpened their skills in diplomacy and public speech. Hosted by the University of Houston Honors College, ten universities (from as far away as the Atlantic seaboard) were represented - among them, the University of Arkansas Little Rock, Texas A & M, Louisiana State University, and High Point University.

      Under the gavel of Texas State alumnus Daniel Burrow, the entire Joint Defense council was awarded the Bilateral’s unique award for Outstanding Council.  Representing Qatar, Meghan Blizinski and Zena Haddad observed, “Joint Defense Council focused mainly on how member states explored means to neutralize armed extremist groups in the MENA region. We drafted a resolution that outlined an Anti-Extremism Advisory committee that first, defined what terrorism is, second, crated a framework on how the committee should be made up and lastly, how and what executive action should be taken to nullify these radical bodies.”

      "Elton Kulak and Mohammad Al-Rousan received an Honorable Mention for representation of Qatar on  Social Affairs. Of their contribution to that council’s work, History major (Communication Studies minor) Kulak and Biology major (with Exercise Sports and Science minor), Al-Rousan added: “we created a fund that incentivized the creation of Arab art and donated money towards refugees from Palestine, Syria, and Iraq for the purposes of food, water, sanitation, and education.”

      "Ben Swenson-Weiner (Political Science and Philosophy double major with an Honors minor) and Max Jaklich (major in Social Work) also received an Honorable Mention award. Representing Qatar on Economic Affairs, where assembled delegations debated on four topics, Swenson-Weiner reported: "From microfinance to opening dialog about foreign investment with Latin America, our delegation helped create resolutions that all countries were eager to pass."

      "Texas State’s Model Arab League thanks to Reference/Faculty Outreach Librarian Margaret Vaverek at Alkek Library, and Her Excellency Sheikha Alya Bint Ahmed Bin Saif Al Thani, Ambassador (Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations) for their support. The MAL program also acknowledges the support of the Dean of Students’ office, the College of Liberal Arts, and the History Department. Dr. Elizabeth Bishop, of the Department of History, mentors Texas State University's program, and you can email her at eb26@txstate.edu for more information."

       

    • The History Department is hosting the Rural Women's Studies Association Triennial Conference, “The Local is Global”: Gender and Rural Connections across Time and Place 12-15 February, 2015.

       

    • Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, distinguished professor of the humanities at Columbia University, will speak at noon Feb. 2 in the Wittliff Gallery at Texas State University as part of the Taylor Lecture Series.

      The lecture is free and open to the public.

      The event is sponsored by the Taylor Lecture Series, Department of History, Office of Equity and Access, Center for Texas Music History, Office of Diversity Studies, Department of Modern Languages, National Endowment for the Humanities, Fund for Religious Studies in Philosophy and the Department of Philosophy.