TED Talks

I love TED talks! This Sunday morning as I sipped my tea and ate my bagel I listened to a talk by Neil MacGregor on the Cyrus Cylinder.

http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_macgregor_2600_years_of_history_in_one_object.html

In 18 minutes, MacGregor beautifully links World History I and II together. According to the cylinder, Cyrus, the first emperor of Persia, was led by God (spoiler alert: which God is in dispute) to restore the Jews to their homeland and allow people in the Persian empire to worship freely whomever they desired. MacGregor threads this artifact through 2600 years of Persian/Iranian history. He highlights not only Cyrus himself, but Alexander the Great's conquest, the Balfour Declaration, the Shah as Western puppet, the Iran/Iraq war, and the Islamic Republic.

What a great way to start a Sunday!

Kara Kaufman

Patterns of World History Text

At the other campus where I teach world civ we used Von Sivers, et al. and right now we are regretting the decision. The text does not facilitate synthesis and interpretation and students are having a difficult time understanding how to organize topics found in each chapter. The concept maps are inconsistent, some of which look like path analyses without a clear explanation or a call-out box detailing how the paths are conceptualized (not even in the instructor manual), so I had to second-guess the authors or just skip that diagram altogether because I had no clue why it was drawn in the manner chosen. Then there is their attempt to 'shoehorn' all civilizations into a fiscal-military state theme that may work for western civilizations but it is questionable for East Asian civlizations. I ended up having to consult several other texts and relied much more heavily on primary source documents to help students develop topics for essays. In all my years teaching world civ I have never found it so difficult to get students involved in class discussions.  It was clear to me their understanding of the text was minimal.  They couldn't even recall sufficient details when I probe some of their isolated comments to help them interpret the facts.  Patterns as is definitely is not appropriate for 2-year colleges.

Racism: A History

Hi everyone. I thought I'd share a documentary that I show in my World History II courses. It's called "Racism: A History".

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/racism-history/

There are three parts to it, and I show the second part called "Fatal Impact". This hour-long episode traces the history of the British Empire from the early 1800s to the middle 1900s. The film shows how the ideology of race went from White Man's Burden, to Social Darwinism, to scientific racism (phrenology and Eugenics). Students like it very much because it gets into events that are usually not covered in high school, such as: colonization of Tasmania and the subsequent annihilation of the indigenous peoples there; famines in British India that were made worse by colonization, and the British justification of allowing millions of Indians to starve to death; the German execution of Namibian people on Shark Island; the forced sterilization or "race hygiene" committed by Americans and Europeans during the Eugenics movement; etc.

The first unit in my course deals with the debate among world historians regarding the nature of the West--was the rise of the West inevitable, should we even label it the 'rise of the West', why does our modern world look so Western, is there something better about Western culture over others, etc.? We discuss Eurocentrism and how it is used as a perspective to tell the story of the modern world. This documentary fits in well because it shows how the West developed Eurocentric attitudes and the consequences of the same.

Kara Kaufman

Rwandan Genocide Survivors Project (SSU & NSCC)

Salem State University recently opened a new Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center. The Center is the result of nearly a decade of planning on behalf of history professor Chris Mauriello and social work professor Rob McAndrews (and other dedicated university faculty). Chris told me that he expects the Center to have a physical location on campus in either 2014 or 2015. 

What this development means for NSCC faculty, staff and students: the Center will host credit courses, trips, lectures and other events for the community, and Chris and Rob are expecting to include NSCC in the development of the Center. With that in mind, NSCC faculty are participating in the Rwandan Genocide Survivors Project, which is the outcome of a four-year grant. The grant will fund the main goal of collecting the stories of men and women who survived the 1994 genocide. The Center will preserve these stories in a digital format for use by scholars, teachers and the community at large. 

In addition, the Center will host (in conjunction with NSCC), a Rwanda Culture Day (tentative title) that is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, June 15. 

The day will highlight Rwandan culture (dance, music, food) and will include workshops designed to provide advice for Rwandans who wish to attend NSCC or SSU. There will also be a poster/multimedia session that highlights the history of the Rwandan genocide. I hope to see may NSCC faculty, staff and students there!

I am proud to report that the following faculty members have volunteered their time to be a part of this exciting project: Jessica Burt, Kara Kaufman, Kristin Erbetta, Paul Nelson and Beth Kontos.

If you are interested in joining the planning committee for this event, or wish to know more about the new Center, feel free to email me at ldavis@northshore.edu.

Larry Davis