Upcoming Events

February 28, 2019: Brown Bag: Applying for Funding

Noon in Park 545

Ever wonder how to apply for a grant, a fellowship, or any form of external funding? Join Professor David Herzberg as he gives tips and advice on how to write a successful funding application. 

March 8-9, 2019: 28th Annual Milton Plesur Graduate History Conference

Keynote: Katherine Ott, National Museum of American History

March 25, 2019: "Small Islands and Plantations that Never Were: On Re-thinking the Caribbean Beyond Sugar and Slaves": Talk by Ernesto Bassi Arevalo

2:00-3:30 pm Park 532

The still dominant definition of the Caribbean understands the region as a societal area characterized by its lowland, subtropical, insular economy, a history of European colonialism that resulted in the swift extirpation of the region’s native population, the development of export-oriented agricultural productive units, the massive introduction of foreign populations (mostly African slaves, but also Asian laborers), the persistence of colonialism, and the emergence of what Caribbeanists called a fragmented nationalism. This definition, while valid, is also greatly limiting. In this talk, I propose two vantage points from which to re-think the Caribbean beyond the dominance of plantation societies. First, I propose to see the Caribbean from the perspective of small islands and, second, I offer a vantage point from places that sought to develop into plantation societies but failed in their efforts. What emerges from these two perspectives is a multidimensional Caribbean, whose inhabitants’ lived experiences were clearly influenced but not completely dominated by the development of sugar plantations worked by enslaved human beings.

Dr. Ernesto Bassi Arevalo is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University.

March 26, 2019:  “Mass Violence and New Media: Psychological Responses in France, 1550-1880”

The Early Modern Research Workshop presents Howard G. Brown, Binghamton University (SUNY)

2:00-3:00pm, Park 545:  Conversation with Graduate Students
3:30-5:00pm, Park 280:  “Mass Violence and New Media: Psychological Responses in France, 1550-1880”

Abstract: New visual and textual media, ranging from pamphlets and woodblock prints in the sixteenth century to illustrated newspapers and collodion photography in the nineteenth century, depicted personal suffering caused by various episodes of mass violence in France between the French Wars of Religion and the Paris Commune. These increasingly effective means of representation helped both to provoke repeated collective traumas and to foster the psychological processes of the modern self.

Howard G. Brown, Professor of History at Binghamton University (SUNY), is the author of the prize-winning Ending the French Revolution: Violence, Justice, and Repression from the Terror to Napoleon (2006), and Mass Violence and the Self: From the French Wars of Religion to the Paris Commune (2019).

March 28, 2019: Brown Bag: The Key to Publishing 
Noon in Park 545

What does it take to be published?  Doctoral candidate Marissa Rhodes and Professor Sarah Handley-Cousins discuss the tips for publishing your work, both as a graduate student and after you defend.

April 13, 2019: Phi Alpha Theta Conference

Open to undergraduate and MA students, UB is hosting this year's PAT  Western/Central New York Regional Meeting and Conference. Students may present research on any historical topic.  Papers should be no more than 10-12 double-spaced pages exclusive of footnotes, to be read in a maximum of 20-25 minutes.  See the Call for Papers for more information. 

April 26, 2019: Brown Bag: Non-Academic Careers
Noon in Park 545

Not all historians go into (or stay in) academia.  Join Professor Emeritus Mike Frisch as he discusses jobs outside of the academy. Professor Frisch’s  consulting firm Randforce Associates LLC focuses on digital indexing for oral history media; he is also co-founder of Talking Pictures LLC, developer of the new mobile app PixStori.