Departmental News and Events
Please click here for Departmental Event Photos, or scroll down this page for news.
Click on any of the Calendar links on each History web page to view upcoming history-related events. If you would like to have an event posted to the Departmental Calendar, click here for guidance. If you have news appropriate for inclusion on this page, please submit such items to the webmaster in "press release" form, modeled after the stories below, including story source where relevant. Photos accompanying news submissions are welcome.
The most recent issue of the History Department Newsletter (Fall 2007) is now on-line in .pdf format. Archived History Department Newsletters from 2000 to the present are also available for browsing.
News
| 2008 | 2007 |
| August 2008 | December 2007 |
| July 2008 | November 2007 |
| June 2008 | October 2007 |
| March 2008 | September 2007 |
| February 2008 | August 2007 |
| January 2008 | June 2007 |
| April 2007 | |
| January 2007 | |
Click here for Archived News from May 2002 to December 2006.
| August 2008 |
August 12 , 2008
Essah Named Director of Africana Studies Program
Dr. Patience Essah has been named the director of Auburn University's Africana Studies Program, which generates and distributes new knowledge on people of African origin, both Continental Africans and African Diaspora, especially those in the United States and the other nations of the Americas. The history department has several members, past and present, who have offered courses either directly in or cross-listed with Africana Studies. Dr. Essah has long been a contributor to this program and is obviously a great choice to lead it. She will continue to offer classes in history and Africana Studies in addition to her administrative responsibilities. Our best wishes to Dr. Essah in this endeavor!
Carter Is New Graduate Program Officer
Dr. David Carter has accepted the post of Graduate Program Officer for the Department of History. He is succeeding Dr. Patience Essah, who has been GPO for the previous three years; she is leaving the position to assume the position of Director of the Africana Studies Program. Dr. Carter has worked with many graduate students in their coursework, theses, and dissertations, as well as in his lengthy and successful tenure as the faculty advisor to Phi Alpha Theta. He will be working closely with existing graduate students as well as helping the department to further evaluate, develop, and publicize the work of graduate education in history. Dr. Carey negotiated this appointment before his departure, but the new dpeartment chair, Dr. Charles Israel, adds his thanks to Dr. Carter for his willingness to serve.
| July 2008 |
July 22, 2008
Jakeman Recognized by College of Liberal Arts
The Engaged Scholar Program in the College of Liberal Arts has selected the first recipients of the new Engaged Scholar Professorships. They are Barb Bondy, Art; Brigitta Brunner, Communication and Journalism; Jeff Jakeman, History; Jim Johnston, Psychology; and Carole Zugazaga, Sociology. The program is designed to support superior faculty in the college, and, through the quality of the recipients' work, to strengthen student and faculty engagement in the local community as well as nationally and internationally. Each chosen faculty member will hold the title of CLA Engaged Scholar for a three-year appointment and will receive an annual supplement of $5,000. A committee selected the five recipients based on exemplary professional citizenship and participation in promoting the college's commitment to civic engagement.
Dr. Charles Israel, incoming head of the History department, said "My congratulations to Jeff Jakeman. . . . We have many faculty doing great work in outreach, and I hope this is
just the beginning of recognition for our colleagues and department."
July 18, 2008
Kick Back with Kicklighter
Please join the History department and the College of Liberal Arts at the Wynlakes Golf and Country Club in Montgomery on Wednesday, August 6, 5-7 pm. We will be celebrating Joeseph A. Kicklighter, a remarkable scholar, teacher, and friend, and supporting the establishment of the Joseph A. Kicklighter Endowed Professorship in History. The event is hosted by Troy Teel ('92), Sara Hitchcock Beck ('82), and Alex Carothers ('02).
Please RSVP by August 1. For more information, call (334) 844-1483 or e-mail libart1@auburn.edu.
| June 2008 |
June 19 , 2008
Beckwith Named an "Outstanding Teacher"
Dr. Guy V. Beckwith has been inducted into the Academy of Teaching and Outstanding Teachers. He has been a member of Auburn's faculty for over 28 years, having joined Auburn's History Department on the tenure track in 1980. Dr. Beckwith helped create the university honors program, now the Honors College, and the curriculum for the innovative, team-taught Human Odyssey series (a science-humanities team-taught sequence focusing on the shifts in human perception resulting from discovery and invention). He played a major role in the development of Auburn's nationally recognized undergraduate and graduate programs in Technology and Civilization. His publications include articles and reviews in such journals as The South Atlantic Quarterly, Technology and Culture, Issues in Integrative Studies, and Science, Technology & Human Values, and an anthology of readings in the history of technology, currently in its fourth edition. One of his lectures, on the role of mythology in ancient societies, was videotaped and broadcast to national audiences on The History Channel. In 1992, he spent a year as Visiting Honors Professor at the University of Central Florida, and received the Honors Medallion. In 1996, Dr. Beckwith was chosen for one of Auburn's Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Awards, and in 2003 he received the College of Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence Award in the Humanities. |
 |
| March 2008 |
March 26, 2008
Kicklighter to Deliver Inaurugral "Final Lecture"
On Thursday, April 3 at 4 p.m. in the Foy Ballroom, Dr. Joseph Kicklighter will deliver the inaugural "The Final Lecture." The Student Government Association, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Mortar Board are sponsoring this event as an opportunity for the Class of 2008 to recognize Dr. Kicklighter as the professor they feel is the most outstanding teacher at Auburn University. Student academic and campus leaders narrowed down a wide pool of nominees to five outstanding professors, then juniors and seniors across campus voted Dr. Kicklighter to deliver the inaugural lecture in this new program.
Dr. Kicklighter will deliver this commencement-style address open to all students, faculty, and administrators. In his address, Dr. Kicklighter will include words of advice and inspiration for students who just began their college career as well as those who are preparing to leave Auburn University for the final time.
The Final Lecture program was created to give all students the opportunity to participate in a teaching award given on behalf of the student body. For a professor to be nominated and voted on by students as the top professor at Auburn University is one of the highest honor students can bestow on a faculty member. In the future, it is our hope that receiving this distinction and delivering “The Final Lecture” will become a goal that all incoming faculty members strive to attain.
For more information, contact Andy Newton at newtoat@auburn.edu or the SGA office at 844-4240.
| February 2008 |
February 27, 2008
AU Alumnus and Author of Book on George Wallace to Speak
Dr. Jeff Frederick, Auburn alumnus and assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, will discuss his new book Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace, on Tuesday, March 4, at 3 p.m. in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library at Auburn University. George Wallace governed for nearly a quarter-century at a time when change was sweeping across the South. While previous historians have focused on Wallace's resistance to civil rights or his presidential campaigns, Frederick offer the most comprehensive assessment of Wallace's effect on the state of Alabama. Frederick earned a PhD in history from Auburn University and specializes in the relationship between politics and society. He has published on a variety of topics including interest groups, female support for conservative politicians, NASCAR, southern governors during the civil rights era, and party politics in the South. The lecture is sponsored by the Auburn University History Department, AU Libraries, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, and the AU Bookstore. A reception will follow the program, and copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. For more information on the program, contact the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center at 334-844-4946. |
 |
February 19, 2008
Ramga and Burke Participate in PAT Conference
Congratulations to graduate students David Burke and Rochelle Ramga on their presentations at the Phi Alpha Theta regional conference in Birmingham on February 9. Burke's paper, titled "'Between Prohibition and Bootlegging': The Challenge of Covert Nuclear Test Detection," and Ramga's paper, titled "Deep Roots: Two Young Ohioans," were well received by moderators and audience alike. For presenting their papers, David and Rochelle both received one year membership to the Alabama Association of Historians.
February 11, 2008
History Department Participates in Alexander Hamilton Symposium
Dr. Anthony Carey, Dr. Kathryn Braund, Dr. Abigail Swingen, and graduate student Jennifer Newman will present talks at Alexander Hamilton: A Symposium on Friday, March 7, at 1:00 p.m. The symposium opens the exhibit "Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America," which will be on display in Special Collections and Archives at the Ralph Brown Draughon Library from March 7 to April 15. The exhibit features some of the historical objects and documents connected with Alexander Hamilton and the Founding era.
The Hamilton exhibit is a national traveling exhibition organized by the New York Historical Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and the American Library Association. It is being cosponsored by the Auburn University Libraries, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, and is funded in part by the Alabama Humanities Foundation, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The exhibit and the symposium are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Special Collections at 844-1732.
| January 2008 |
January 16, 2008
Chili Cookoff to Benefit Kicklighter Endowed Professorship
The Department of History will host its first chili cookoff competition at 7 p.m. Friday at the Olde Auburn Ale House. It will benefit the Joseph A. Kicklighter Endowed Professorship in History. The number of cooks is limited to the first 30 who submit a completed entry form and $10 entry fee. Entry forms and fees can be turned in to the Department of History's main office (310 Thach Hall) in the mail box of Adrianne Hodgin. Please place forms and fees in an envelope. The chili tasting will begin at 7:30 p.m. and the judging is at 8 p.m. Admission is $7 per adult and $5 for kids under 12 years old. The price of admission includes a generous taste of each chili, chips, soft drinks, and a ballot card for the competition. The event is sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta. For more information, contact Adrianne Lee Hodgin at hodgial@auburn.edu.
| December 2007 |
December 21, 2007:
Dr. Angela Lakwete to Give Lecture on the Cotton Gin
Dr. Angela Lakwete, associate professor of history at Auburn University and author of Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America, will speak at 3 p.m. on Feb. 12 in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library. Lakwete explores the myths surrounding Eli Whitney's cotton gin and shows that gins existed for centuries before his 1794 invention. Lakwete's compelling and revisionist book on the cotton gin is a major contribution to the history of Southern technology, notes Pete Daniel of the National Museum of American History. Inventing the Cotton Gin won the prestigious Edelstein Prize from the Society of the History of Technology in 2004.
The Discover Auburn series is cosponsored by the Auburn University Libraries, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and the Auburn University Bookstore. A reception will follow the program, with copies of the book available for purchase and signing. For more information, contact the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center at 844-4946.
December 11, 2007:
Dr. Carter and Dr. Gerber to Give Public Lectures
Two of our faculty members will be giving public lectures at the Ralph Brown Draughon Library in January. Both are sponsored by the AU Libraries and the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities.
Dr. David Carter will commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. week with his talk "'Oh My God ... I Wish He Was There Now': Lyndon Johnson and Civil Rights." The lecture will take place on Monday, January 14, 2008, at the Special Collections and Archives room of the RBD Library. The program starts at 3:00 p.m. and will be followed with refreshments. In addition to essays and articles on grassroots Civil Rights movements in North Carolina and Mississippi and on noted activists Andrew Young and Julian Bond, Carter is the author of a forthcoming study from the University of North Carolina Press examining shifting relationships between the presidency of Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights movement in the three years following passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
Dr. Larry Gerber will participate in Discover Auburn: A Lecture Series by discussing his new book, The Irony of State Intervention: American Industrial Relations Policy in Comparative Perspective, 1914-1939. The lecture will take place on Thursday, January 17, 2008, at the Special Collections and Archives room of the RBD Library. The program starts at 3:00 p.m. and will be followed with refreshments. “An important and unduplicated contribution to the historical literature on U.S. industrial relations,” according to one reviewer, The Irony of State Intervention compares the labor histories of Great Britain and the United States between World War I and the Great Depression and argues that in the development of industrial relations policies, ideology was secondary to economic realities.
For more information, call (334) 844-4946.
December 7, 2007:
Dr. Guy Beckwith to be Inducted Into CLA Academy of Teaching and Outstanding
Teachers
Dr. Guy Beckwith has been selected for induction into the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) Academy of Teaching and Outstanding Teachers. The honoree could not be more deserving, and he has once again reflected honor upon the department. Please plan to join us for the awards ceremony, which will take place at the Jule Collins Smith Museum on April 17, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. The CLA established the Academy in 2002 to recognize those individuals who have made outstanding or otherwise significant contributions of lasting impact to the undergraduate teaching mission of the CLA and Auburn University. More information about the Academy and other CLA awards can be found here. |
 |
| November 2007 |
November 19, 2007:
David Lewis Memorial Service to be Held Nov. 28
Auburn University will hold a memorial service at 4 p.m. Nov. 28 in the University Chapel for W. David Lewis, Distinguished University Professor, who died Sept. 28. Lewis served for 35 years in Auburn University's Department of History, where he founded an internationally recognized program in the history of technology. Lewis played the leading role in building the Auburn University Libraries' history of flight collection.
| October 2007 |
October 2, 2007:
|
Dr. W. David Lewis |
Dr. W. David Lewis passed away on September 28, 2007.
He was born on June 24, 1931, in Towanda, Pennsylvania. He took his BA and MA degrees from the Pennsylvania State University, and he completed his PhD at Cornell University in 1961. He was never slow to point out the glories, past and present, of the Keystone State.
Dr. Lewis came to Auburn in 1971 as the Hudson Professor of History & Engineering. He founded Auburn's History of Technology program and pioneered the teaching of Technology & Civilization in the core curriculum. He also helped found what became the Human Odyssey program, and he was instrumental in the creation of an Honors program that has grown into an Honors College. It is to Dr. Lewis, more than any other single person, that the department owes its excellence today in the History of Technology. He was since 1994 a Distinguished University Professor. Over several decades, David played a critical role in hiring department heads and faculty who have led History and built its reputation. As Athletic Director Emeritus David Housel wrote, "David was a good man, and I have always thought that in many ways he revolutionized the teaching of history at Auburn."
Dr. Lewis authored, coauthored, or edited thirteen books and published dozens of smaller pieces, as well as giving scores of talks around the globe. Among his best-known books were acclaimed studies of New York prisons in the early nineteenth century, of Delta Airlines, of Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, and of aviator Eddie Rickenbacker. His honors and awards are too numerous to mention in full. He was the Charles A. Lindbergh Professor of Aerospace History at the National Air and Space Museum, and he won the Leonardo da Vinci Medal from the Society for the History of Technology.
Saying that David was enthusiastic about his work is like saying that Mount Everest is high. He once said that he became involved in the History of Technology through "serendipity," because it did not exist as an organized field at the time he attended graduate school. Early in his career he associated with giants such as Alfred D. Chandler and Melvin Kranzberg, the former a famous historian of business and the latter the recognized founder of the field of the History of Technology. Whatever research or teaching David was doing at the moment was the most exciting project ever undertaken. His friends vividly recall papers that he delivered thirty or forty years ago; they describe him jumping up and down, gesticulating broadly, and generally acting like a man who had discovered the best stories ever and could not wait to tell them.
His friends and colleagues will miss many things about David, but probably his energy and devotion to history most of all. He remains an example to us all. Our thoughts are with his wife, Pat, and all of the family.
| September 2007 |
September 19, 2007:
Reception to Honor Kicklighter Scheduled for Saturday
A reception to honor Joseph Kicklighter, professor of History and History Department undergraduate program officer in the College of Liberal Arts, is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 22, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Alumni Center (317 South College Street). Kicklighter has been teaching at Auburn since 1975. All alumni, faculty and staff are invited to attend to honor Kicklighter and support the Dr. Joseph Kicklighter Endowed Professorship in History. The endowment was established in 2006 to ensure that future generations of AU students experience the ideals of student service and a passion for learning that Kicklighter embodies. For more information, contact Olivia Davis at (844) 1483 or oad0001@auburn.edu.
| August 2007 |
August 20, 2007:
AU Alum David Alsobrook Becomes Director Mobile's History Museum
David Alsobrook (PhD '83) has said goodbye to a long career serving former presidents at their libraries in order to become the director of the Museum of Mobile, the port city's history museum. Alsobrook has worked with Presidents Jimmy Carter, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Bill Clinton to create and shape their presidential libraries, and spent the last three years as the director of Clinton's $165 million presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. He had been director of the Clinton Presidential Materials Project, processing millions of documents prior to the opening of the library.
The Museum of Mobile seeks to interpret the cultural, social, economic, and political history of the Mobile Bay area and Southwest Alabama , and its diverse population through the collection, exhibition, research, and conservation of artifacts, from pre-history to the present and through related educational programs. It is housed in the 1857 Southern Market/Old City Hall.
"I was ready to go on to something new and different," Alsobrook says. "This (museum) is a whole different set of challenges (that) involves taking an older museum already established and trying to see what we do next with it."
For a feature-length article from the Mobile Press-Register on Alsobrook's move to Mobile, visit al.com.
(back to top)
August 20, 2007:
AU Alum Christian Gelzer at NASA's Dryden Center
Christian Gelzer (PhD '98) serves as chief historian at The Dryden Flight Research Center, NASA's primary center for atmospheric flight research and operations. NASA Dryden is critical in carrying out the agency's missions of space exploration, space operations, scientific discovery, and aeronautical research and development. |
 Photo by Tom Tschida. NASA Dryden historian Christian Gelzer explains functions of the high-altitude pressure suit he is wearing to (left to right) Brandon Blankenship and Garrett Clay of Lancaster and Eddie Patterson of Tehachapi during Take Your Children to Work Day activities at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center June 22. |
(back to top)
| June 2007 |
June 1, 2007 [from the AU Daily]:
Historian and AU Alumna Atkins Elected to Alabama Academy of Honor
The Alabama Academy of Honor has elected Birmingham native and Auburn University alumna Leah Rawls Atkins as one of four new members for 2007. AU professor emeritus of history Wayne Flynt, who nominated Atkins for membership in the Academy, paid tribute to her contributions and achievements as an educator, historian and world-class athlete. Flynt cites her work in establishing the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in AU’s College of Liberal Arts as her greatest contribution to the state. A public induction ceremony will be held August 20 in the old House chambers of the Alabama Capitol. For more information, click here.
The State Legislature created the Alabama Academy of Honor on October 29, 1965, to bestow honor and recognition upon living Alabamians for their outstanding accomplishments and service. Persons elected to membership are distinguished citizens of Alabama whose accomplishments and service have greatly benefitted or reflected great credit on the State.
Recent inductees have included U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Ambassador William J. Cabaniss, Senator Richard Shelby, Rosa Parks, and Harper Lee.
| April 2007 |
Jennifer Newman Wins AHA Research Grant
Graduate student Jennifer Newman was awarded the Alabama Historical Association's Clinton Jackson and Evelyn Coley Research Grant Fund at the AHA's sixtieth annual meeting. The $400 grant is open to any graduate student conducting research on an Alabama-related topic. This marks the second time an Auburn graduate student has received the Jackson-Coley grant. Jennifer's topic is "religious beliefs and identity of Alabama and Georgia women during the Civil War."
| January 2007 |
January 23, 2007 [from the AU Daily]:
AU PROFESSOR'S BOOK ON NEIL ARMSTRONG HONORED BY CHOICE MAGAZINE
Professor James R. Hansen's book, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, has been named by Choice magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic Books of 2006. Choice, the publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, listed Hansen's book in its January issue among the top 10 percent of more than 7,000 works reviewed last year. It spent two weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and has also won the Gardner-Lasser Aerospace Literature Award, presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauts, and the Eugene M. Emme Prize in Astronautical Literature, awarded by the American Astronautical Society. Choice magazine editors selected its Outstanding Academic Books based on a variety of criteria, including overall excellence in presentation and scholarship, value to undergraduate students, and importance in building undergraduate library collections. |
 James Hansen, biographer of astronaut Neil Armstrong. |
Last updated August 12, 2008.