WIU Department News

2012 Annual History Conference

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The WIU History Department's 37th Annual History Conference will be held on Saturday, March 24. The afternoon's Larry T. Balsamo Keynote Address will be given by Dr. Daniel Walker Howe, Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus at Oxford University and Professor Emeritus of History at UCLA. Dr. Howe's book, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, published by Oxford University Press, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for 2008.

Open to all interested in History, the Annual History Conference features concurrent presentations in the morning by members of the WIU History Department's faculty. Faculty presentations will include topics in American, European, Asian, and Middle Eastern history.

Illinois public school teachers in History and social studies may earn CPDUs for participating in the History Conference.

On the Friday evening preceding the Conference, the History Department will host a Pre-Conference Reception in the Sandburg Lounge for all those attending the conference.

For more information on the conference and to registers, see the link to the History Conference brochure in the box on this page or contact Dr. Barclay Key, Conference Organizer.

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Dr. Tim Roberts Leads NEH Program on Civil War at WIU

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

MACOMB, IL -- Under the leadership of Dr. Tim Roberts, the WIU Department of History will partner with the WIU Libraries to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) program, "Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the Civil War" (LTAI). In commemoration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial this year, this NEH-funded reading and discussion series, supported also by the American Library Association (ALA) will be held at WIU's Malpass Library in 2011-12.

Prof. Roberts will serve as the Project Scholar for the Department of History, and Marketing and Outreach Librarian Tammy Sayles will serve as the Project Director for the WIU Libraries. According to Lainie Castle, Project Director from the public programs office at ALA, the LTAI project "was a highly competitive grant application process, with more than 175 proposals received." In her award letter to Sayles, she noted, "We are very excited about your library's unique programming plans to stimulate exploration and discussion."

According to Ms. Sayles, the programs funded through the LTAI grant will not start until November, as the library project directors are required to attend an orientation workshop in October before implementation of the reading and discussion series. Ms. Sayles noted that her work with Dr. Roberts on this project stemmed from a collaborative project they implemented last year at the Leslie F. Malpass Library on the Macomb campus.

"Tim approached me and asked if I would be interested in partnering with him to apply for the LTAI grant," Ms. Sayles said. "We worked together on the 'Abraham Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,' a traveling exhibition for libraries, organized by the National Constitution Center and the ALA public program office and made possible through a grant by NEH. ALA and NEH indicated they liked our programming for that project, which we implemented last fall. For the LTAI grant application, we put a lot of thought into the discussion topics. The materials for the grant are exciting because they not only explore Civil War history, but also its legacy in America and include both historical and fictional readings," she added.

Dr. Roberts noted the programs made possible by the grant funding include a series of public conversations to be held on the WIU-Macomb campus in late 2011 and early 2012.

"The first conversation, which will be held December 8, will consider a collection of documents that help us understand why Americans supported either the North or the South," Dr. Roberts observed. "Some of these materials, such as the speeches of Frederick Douglass and Alexander Stephens, paint the issues of the war starkly and suggest it would have been easy for a northerner or southerner to choose sides at the war's outset. But other documents -- such as those of the Unionist southerner Chapman Stuart, Confederate General Robert E. Lee and even President Lincoln's first inaugural address -- show the complicated decisions and choices Americans faced. Supporting or opposing the Union, and even knowing what issues the Union and its opponents stood for, were hardly easy paths to follow," Dr. Roberts said.

Prof. Roberts added the second conversation (slated for January 19) will consider how the war impacted American society, through the story of Mr. March, the main character of Geraldine Brooks' March. In the novel, "March emerges as an idealistic chaplain in the little known backwaters of a war that will test his faith in himself and in the Union cause as he learns that his side, too, is capable of acts of barbarism and racism," notes Brooks' website description.

"In this case, the Union chaplain March has a relationship with the former slave Grace Clement, an interracial encounter that was taboo, though not impossible, in Victorian America," Dr. Roberts noted. "In our conversation about this book, we hope to consider some of the unusual social circumstances that the war created, for example how it created opportunities, but again called upon individuals to make their own choices, for crossing boundaries of race, section and morality."

The third and fourth conversations (to be held on February 9 and March 1, 2012) will, Prof. Roberts explained, "turn to how the Civil War affected African Americans, and how African Americans affected the war." And the final fifth conversation (April 5, 2012) will be devoted to the anthology of readings about the great Battle of Shiloh, memorable locally for the number of Illinois soldiers who fought in it, Roberts noted.

In addition to funding the project director's and project scholar's costs to attend the LTAI orientation workshop, the grant provides WIU with 25 copies each of March and Crossroads to Freedom: Antietam and 50 copies of the anthology America's War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries, which will also be read in the program.

For more information about "Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the Civil War," contact Dr. Tim Roberts at (309) 298-1053 or TM-Roberts@wiu.edu.

Adapted from: Teresa Koltzenburg, University Relations

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Irish Study Abroad Program in Summer 2012

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

WIU's new 3-week Summer 2012 Irish Study Abroad Program based at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland -- "WIU in Belfast" -- will take place in late July and early August 2012.

Led by Associate Professor of History Dr. Jennifer McNabb, this interdisciplinary program, for which undergraduate and graduate students will earn 6 hours of WIU credit, combines classroom instruction by Queen's University faculty with excursions around Belfast. Undergraduate students enrolled in this section of Hist 379 will fulfill the "Global Issues" requirement for their degree.

The final Interest Meeting for those wishing to learn more about the program will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 3:30 in 302 Morgan Hall.

Students from all majors may participate, and while programming will focus on the history, culture, and politics of Northern Ireland, coursework will allow students to develop their own interests on a wide range of topics and fields. For further information, contact Dr. McNabb.

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History Honors Thesis Award Established at WIU

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

WIU History Department Chair Virginia "Ginny" Boynton has established the Richard D. and Janet L. Boynton History Honors Thesis Award endowment in honor of her parents to recognize and reward an outstanding undergraduate honors thesis each semester.

"I wanted to attach my parents' names to something permanent and something they would be pleased to be associated with," said Dr. Boynton. "They were great and loving parents, always supportive of my educational endeavors. I regard this endowment as way to both pay tribute to my parents and reward an outstanding student in our department."

Richard Boynton and Janet Lincoln met during World War II and married in 1946. They both had completed bachelor's degrees in psychology, Richard from the University of Michigan and Janet from the University of Pittsburgh. After Richard completed his M.S. in psychology at the University of Michigan, he embarked on a career of nearly four decades as an industrial psychologist for General Motors. He and Janet raised their three children, Martha, Daniel, and Virginia, as well as twenty-one foster babies, whom they welcomed into their home and cared for as infants.

"I was very fortunate to have such remarkable individuals for parents," said Dr. Boynton. "They were devoted to my siblings and me, nurtured us, and taught us the value of education."

The Richard D. and Janet L. Boynton History Honors Thesis Award will provide a one-time $500 award each semester to the junior or senior level history major enrolled in the Centennial Honors College whose honors thesis is selected by the History faculty as the most outstanding one completed that semester.

"As I thought about what I would like to do to honor my parents' memories, I realized I would like to recognize upper-level History students for their perseverance and accomplishment, and nothing existed specifically for History honors students," Dr. Boynton explained. "I want to recognize the extra work these students do, and encourage them to continue on their academic paths."

"I've been contributing to History scholarships and various other areas at WIU since I came here as an Assistant Professor in 1995," she added. "My chair at the time, Dr. Gordon Kirk, came to my office with a payroll deduction card and told me about the departmental scholarships and how they are supported. Dr. Kirk and his successor, Dr. Larry Balsamo, managed the history endowments very well, and I wanted to give to an area that had yet to be addressed."

"I know how lucky I was to walk into a tenure track position here upon completion of my Ph.D.," Dr. Boynton continued. "I love my job, and I am just happy to be in a position to be able to give back."

Adapted from news release by Julie Murphy, WIU Foundation, University Relations

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WIU History Major Joel Koch Completes Adams County Historical Society Internship

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

From the 19 November 2011 Quincy Herald-Whig:

A key piece of Adams County's educational heritage is being preserved for future generations.

Joel Koch, an intern with the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County, has compiled a database of nearly 200 rural schools that once operated in the county.

All these schools ceased operations in 1948 or earlier, and most of them have disappeared from the landscape. But the database provides information on where each school was located -- right down to the township section number so the site can be pinpointed on a plat map.

Koch also has been gathering photos of the former schools and is hoping to find even more of them with assistance from the public.

The goal is to preserve some basic information about the buildings so people researching family histories will be able to find at least something about the schools that their ancestors attended.

"That's why I wanted to make a list -- so people would still remember where their parents or grandparents went to school," said Koch, a senior majoring in history at Western Illinois University. "It's kind of nice to know that kind of thing, especially when you're out in the county."

At last count, the database contained listings for 188 schools in 22 of Adams County's 23 townships. Koch purposely did not focus on Quincy Township because there is already a significant stockpile of information about the various schools that have existed in Quincy through the years.

But information about rural schools is sparse, and memories of those schools are disappearing as the schools' former students get older, move away or die.

"There's a lot of people who went to these schools, and many of them have died already," Koch said. "If their children or grandchildren are doing family research and they run across a reference that they went to a certain school but don't know where it was, they can refer to our list and get that information."

Koch said many of the schools listed in the database were built in the 1800s, with at least one dating to 1854.

Koch said many rural schools went out of existence in 1948 after legislation led to the formation of unit school districts throughout the state. Small rural schools were closed, and students attended the nearest unit district.

Koch noted that although many of the old schools have been torn down, many others still exist.

"A lot of times they were bought by families and renovated into houses or sheds or something," he said.

Koch, a 2006 graduate of Quincy High School, is now majoring in history at WIU and hopes to get into some sort of history-related career, possibly at a museum or in research. He decided to take a history-related internship this fall "to get some hands-on experience."

That's when he hooked up with the Historical Society and decided, at the urging of local historian Jean Kay, to take on the school-database project "to show my adviser I actually did something worthwhile."

Koch had some help in putting the database together. When he started on the project in late September, he looked through as many sources of information as he could find. This included a listing of many former schools in the Historical Society's archives. He also consulted the Adams County Retired Teachers Association, which also had a partial list of country schools. He even consulted the Great River Genealogical Society, former regional superintendent James Steinman and longtime Quincy educator Fred Bloss.

Koch also started compiling photos of the old schools. He dipped into the Historical Society's archives and even consulted the Four Star Library in Mendon, which shared many photos collected by historian Floyd J. Edmonson.

"We're still looking for pictures to add to the database," said Reg Ankrom, executive director of the Historical Society, who commended Koch for his work in establishing the database.

Koch said he already has photos for nearly half the schools, but he hopes the public will share others from family archives. Anyone with a photo of a former Adams County rural school can bring it to the Historical Society headquarters in the John Wood Mansion Visitors Center at 12th and State in Quincy. The photo will be digitally scanned and returned to the owner. The center is open 10 from a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. The phone number is 222-1835.

The database is already available online through the Historical Society's website -- www.adamscohistory.org. Pictures are not yet posted as part of the database, but school-database project intern Joel Koch said the goal is to give the public online access to all of the photos eventually.

By EDWARD HUSAR, Herald-Whig Staff Writer
Posted: Quincy Herald-Whig, Nov 19, 2011 5:29 PM CST
Updated: Nov 21, 2011 12:18 PM CST

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Kaitlin Benson Named 2011-12 Dykstra Graduate History Scholar

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Kaitlin Benson, originally from Rockford, Illinois, has been named the recipient of the Western Illinois University (WIU) Department of History’s Darrell and Virginia Dykstra Graduate History Scholarship for 2012-12. The Dykstra Scholarship is awarded each year to an outstanding History Department graduate student at WIU.

Ms. Benson is currently in the second and final year of her M.A. degree program at Western Illinois University. She was first awarded a History Department Graduate Assistantship (GA) in Fall 2010 and is currently serving the History Department as a GA for a second year. She is also writing a Master’s thesis, "Before the Compromise: Slave Labor in Territorial Missouri, 1804-1821," under the direction of Dr. Virginia Jelatis, Associate Professor of History. Her research focuses on slave labor in five Missouri counties, from the Louisiana Purchase to Missouri’s statehood. Ms. Benson was recently named as the recipient of a Graduate Student Research and Professional Fund Award from the WIU School of Graduate Studies, and was awarded a College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Research and Professional Development Grant; this grant funding will help support her thesis research in archival collections in Missouri.

Ms. Benson has also been building her professional qualifications by working as the Fall 2011 intern for Macomb’s Western Illinois Museum. In that capacity she has been given the opportunity to curate the "Civil War at Home" exhibit that will open at the Museum in February 2012. In addition, WIU’s Phi Alpha Theta chapter appointed her as a 2011-12 co-editor of the Western Illinois Historical Review, the journal of outstanding student research published on-line by the History Department. She is also involved in the formation of a new abolitionist group at WIU, Western Against Slavery, which is working to raise awareness about the global issue of human trafficking.

Prior to coming to WIU, Ms. Benson’s academic abilities and commitment to excellence in the field of History were already being recognized with a number of scholarships and awards. As an undergraduate student at Rock Valley College, Ms. Benson won the History Department’s “Excellence in History Award” in both 2006 and 2007. After her transfer to Northern Illinois University (NIU), she was awarded membership in both the Phi Alpha Theta and Golden Key national honors societies in 2009. Upon her graduation from NIU in 2010 with her B.A. in History, she was awarded NIU’s "Golden Key Award" in History.

Ms. Benson joins previous Dykstra Scholars Abby Lagemann and Austin Schwartz as recipients of the History Department’s only graduate scholarship. The Darrell and Virginia Dykstra Graduate History Scholarship was established by Virginia Dykstra in November 2006 in memory of her husband, the late Professor Darrell Dykstra. Professor Dykstra earned his BA from Harvard in 1967; held a fellowship from the American Research Center in Egypt from 1971-1973, and received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan in 1977. He was Professor of Middle East History at WIU from 1977 to 2006 and was the History Department’s Graduate Advisor from 1987 to 2005.

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History Alum Nancy Paridy Named CAS Distinguished Alumna

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Nancy Paridy, J.D., LL.M., Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Government Affairs/Corporate Secretary of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), has been named the College of Arts and Sciences 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient at her undergraduate alma mater, Western Illinois University.

Ms. Paridy was honored at the College of Arts and Sciences Fifth Annual Scholarship Dinner on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at Western Illinois University.

Ms. Paridy was a History major and a member of Western's Centennial Honors College, graduating, in three years, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and with Honors in 1980. She completed legal training at Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1983 at the age of 22, and was admitted to practice law in Illinois that same year. She began her legal career at Ungaretti and Harris LLP, where she worked on the controversial case of Green v. Cook County Hospital. From 1985–1995, Ms. Paridy worked for Dykema, Gossett PLLC.

Ms. Paridy earned her LL.M. (Master of Laws degree) in health law from Loyola University Law School. In 1995, she joined RIC, which U.S. News & World Reports has listed as the "No. 1 Rehabilitation Hospital in America" each year since 1991. An RIC executive team member, Ms. Paridy directs the institute’s litigation, employment law, joint venture relationships and management agreements, tax, fraud and abuse, regulatory interpretation and guidance, intellectual property, research, operations, governments, corporate compliance and corporate governance legal services.

Ms. Paridy is affiliated with the American Bar Association Litigation Section, the Chicago Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys and Illinois Hospital Association Advocacy Council. She also sits on the Alliance for the Advancement of Not-for-Profit Health Care and the Corporate Counsel Roundtable. She is a member of the Trial Bar for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the United States of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Ms. Paridy, who has lectured and written extensively on health care, received Western Illinois University’s Alumni Achievement Award (1995), the Outstanding History Alumni Award (1991) and was the Keynote Speaker for Western’s 2010 Pre-Law Symposium.

First Chair, a legal organization, most recently named Ms. Paridy “Top General Counsel.” Nightingale’s Healthcare News, a professional newsletter, named her as one of the top 10 “Outstanding In-house Counsels to Hospitals/Healthcare systems.”

Ms. Paridy joins three previous alumni who have received the WIU College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award. They include Dr. Norman C. Teeter (B.S. ’67, Psychology), the late Roland P. Burke (B.A. ’68, Political Science) and Richard W. Crain (B.A. ’56, Chemistry).

Adapted from: WIU, University Relations

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New Archival Collection on 19th-Century Hancock County at WIU Archives

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Western Illinois University alumna Barbara Shave has donated a collection of documents featuring first-person perspectives of 19th-century historical events in Hancock County, Illinois to the local history collection in the University Libraries' Archives and Special Collections Unit. Ms. Shave, a 1963 graduate of WIU who now lives in British Columbia, Canada, has donated the "My Dear Aunt Martha Collection," a collection of letters, poems and other documents exchanged between Scots-Irish settlers of Hancock County spanning the years 1811-1893.

University Libraries celebrated the donation and launch the publication of Shave's book, My Dear Aunt Martha: A 19th Century American Epic from the Letters of Those Who Lived It, with a reception and book-signing event during Homecoming Weekend on the WIU-Macomb campus.

According to Jeff Hancks, Archives and Special Collections Unit Coordinator at University Libraries, the "My Dear Aunt Martha Collection" provides first-person perspectives of significant events in 19th-century American history, as they played out in Hancock County. The content of the letters reflect pioneering and community building, the Mormon uprising, Mississippi riverboats, gold rushes and the Civil War in the voices of the people who lived through it, he added.

"These letters are a wonderful addition to our local history collection," Hancks said. "They offer insight into 19th-century life in Hancock County. I am honored that Ms. Shave has selected Western Illinois University Libraries as the depository."

For more information about the "My Dear Aunt Martha Collection," contact Jeff Hancks at (309) 298-3298 or JL-Hancks@wiu.edu.

Adapted from Tammy Sayles, University Libraries

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Istanbul Study-Abroad Spring Break Course

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Timothy Roberts of WIU's History Department will teach a special course on "The U.S. in the World: The Crossroads of Turkey" in Spring 2012 that will culminate with 10 days of travel in Istanbul and other Turkish locations over Spring Break 2012. Open to both undergraduates (Hist 379) and graduate students (Hist 679), this 3-credit course will provide insights into Americans' relationships with people around the world, with a special focus on Turkey.

Students from any major may enroll in the course, which will meet on campus during the first half of the Spring semester and will conclude with Spring Break in Istanbul and other sites in the Republic of Turkey.

The application deadline is Tuesday, November 1; travel grant applications are also due that day. A $600 deposit is due by December 1, with the balance due early in 2012. Program costs are currently estimated at $2,600 per person, based on 10 students participating. That includes round-trip flight, lodging in Turkey, transportation between cities, guest lectures, entrance fees to required site visits, and some meals. WIU tuition, WIU health insurance, passport, other meals, and personal expenses are separate.

Applications for the course and for the travel grants are available on the course website, "U.S.in the World: Crossroads of Turkey." These should be submitted directly to the Study Abroad office, 344 Memorial, to ensure prompt processing.

For further information on the course, see the attached Program Information Sheet or contact Dr. Roberts.

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Study Skills Workshops for History Students

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Two Study Skills Workshops will be offered early this Fall for students in History classes. The History Department's Graduate Assistants will offer workshops on note-taking, study skills, textbook and primary source reading, test-taking skills, and writing. The workshops will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 7 and Thursday, Sept. 8, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Morgan 320.

Come learn the tricks of the trade from the experts!

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