Welcome to the History Department

"A historian has many duties . . . The first is not to slander; the second is not to bore." -Voltaire

As a field of study, History provides students wtih many of the necessary skills for a productive professional career and an intellectually fulfilling life.Toward these ends, the History major aims to provide students with the ability to think and read critically and analytically, to form sound opinions and support them with logical arguments based on documentary evidence, to communicate ideas effectively, and to conduct historical research.  The History major further attempts to provide students with a body of historical knowledge that will enable them to understand contemporary events of local, national, and global importance, as well as to understand and appreciate various cultures and civilizations that make up the world community.  Above all, the History   major helps to provide students with the means for lifelong learning. Learning Outcomes.   

The KSC History Department is known for its diverse and challenging courses.  In addition we offer two innovative programs of special opportunities, an Honors Program and an Internship Program.

KSC History majors are prepared for graduate programs.  Our alumni have gained admissions to prestigious programs and earned a range of advanced degrees in the humanities, business, divinity school, and law. History Department Fact Sheet.

 

Christopher Cameron (BA in History. Class of '06) completed his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Congratulations!

Norman Murray (BA in History. Class of '09) will attend Law School at Suffolk University.  Norman was awarded a full scholarship from Suffolk University.

Emma Fogg (BA in History. Class of '09) BA in History. Class of '08) was awarded an internship for the fall 2008 at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.. This internship is with Katherine Ott in the division of Medicine and Science. Emma will work on topics and artifacts related to the history of disability. The main project is an exhibit on the history of disability that is planned for 2010, the twentieth anniversary of the ADA.    

                                   

            Photo credit:Ryan McKernan.

    

For more information please contact:

Shawna-Lee Perrin, Administrative Assistant

603 358 2965

sperrin@keene.edu

History Department

Morrison Hall

Keene State College

Keene, New Hampshire 03435

 

 

Photo credit:  Annie Card.

Department News

 

History majors make news! Keene State College seniors -- Kyle Larrabee, Alanna Griffin-Bales, Laura Ruttle, Kevin McNair, and Michelle Davy -- work as interns to the history department transcribing an 18th century surveyor ledger that tells the story of how Southwestern New Hampshire in the Archives and Special Collections room in the college's Mason Library.  See the April 2013 article in the Union Leader.

Based on his work on German orientalism, Professor Nick Germana was invited to participate in the Advanced Seminar on East Asian Studies at Dartmouth College on March 4, 2013.  The seminar focused in recent work by Lkhamsuren Munkh-Erdene, a George Kennan Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at Princeton University.  Prof. Germana’s essay “Herder’s India: The Morgenland in Mythology and Anthropology” (2007) was included in the seminar materials.  

History majors Laura Ruttle, Alanna Griffin-Bales, Samantha Blake, Kyle Larrabe, and Kevin McNair are working with Keene State College archivist Rodney G. Obien on an eighteenth century provincial ledger. They are preparing the ledger for publication.  Written by Capt. Joseph Blanchard, a land surveyor, the book contains property records of the province of New Hampshire from roughly 1734 to 1756.  See the February 2013 story in the Keene Sentinel.

Be sure to check out the new minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, an interdisciplinary program with course offerings in the departments of Art, History, and English. Click here for more details.

Professor Susan Wade's article "Gertrude's Tonsure: An Examination of Hair as a Symbol of Gender, Family, and Authority in the Seventh-Century Vita of Gertrude of Nivelles" will be published in the Journal of Medieval History September 2013.  Dr. Wade will also be addressing the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 9-12 2013 in Kalamazoo MI.  Her paper is titled, “ ‘Let them have equal love’: Defining the Boundaries between Blood Kin and Monastic Familia in the early to Central Middle Ages."

Professor C. Paul Vincent's essay "The Voyage of the St. Louis Revisited," was published in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 25 (Fall 2011):  252-289. 

 

Associate Professor Nick Germana's book, The Orient of Europe: The Mythical Image of India and Competing Images of German National Identity, was published in 2009 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.  He is also the author of two articles: "Self-Othering in German Orientalism: The Case of Friedrich Schlegel" (The Comparatist); and "The Beauty of Enervation: Woman, India, and the Anxiety of System in Hegel's Philosophy" (German Studies Review).

Assistant Professor Graham Warder served on the editorial board for the Encyclopedia of American Disability History.  Professor Warder also led a one-day Teaching American History Workshop at the Hampshire Education Collaborative in Northampton, Massachusetts on March 21, 2009.  His talk was entitled "Helen Keller: Identity, Disability and American History."

Professor Andrew Wilson's essay "The Unity of Physics and Poetry: H.C. Orsted and the Aesthetics of Force," was published in the Journal of the History of Ideas 69.4 (October 2008).

Lecturer John Lund's essay, "The Contested Will of  'Goodman Penn': Anglo-New England Politics, Cultures, and Legalities, 1688 - 1716," appears in volume 27:3 (Fall 2009) of the Law and History Review.

 

Professor Matthew Crocker's essay "The Missouri Compromise, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Southern Strategy," is included in the 2008 edition of Major Problems in the Early Republic,1787 - 1848.

Associate Professor Nicholas Germana addresses the German Studies Association annual conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. October 2008.  www.thegsa.org

Assistant Professor Graham Warder addresses the "Disability History: Theory and Practice" conference at San Francisco State University and present his work on a panel called “Referencing Disability: The Encyclopedia of American Disability History Project.” July/August 2008. Disability

Professor Greg Knouff addresses the 14th Annual Omohundro Insitute of Early American History and Culture Conference, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts.June 2008 Program

Lecturer John Lund addresses The Historical Society’s 2008 Conference, "Migration, Diaspora, Ethnicity, & Nationalism in History," Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. June 2008. Program

         

NEH Grant for Helen Keller Project
The department is pleased to announce that in May 2007 the College received a grant of $199,740 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a project entitled "Helen Keller in Her Times." Assistant Professor of History Graham Warder is the project director. The project addresses several themes, including the historically rooted experiences of disability, class, and gender; how models of language acquisition have changed over time; Keller's use of and manipulation by various media as an international celebrity; and her efforts as a human rights activist. Over the next three years, a partnership between Keene State, the Collaborative for Educational Services, and the Disability History Museum will develop curriculum materials for secondary and higher education that will place the life and legacy of Helen Keller in historical context.

The institutional grant administrator is Mary-Ellen Fortini. All materials financed by the grant will be made publicly available on both the Disability History Museum and PBS websites.

The work is connected with the ongoing production of a documentary film, Becoming Helen Keller, produced by Laurie Block and tentatively scheduled to be broadcast nationally by PBS in 2013-2014. Through the grant, primary sources about Helen Keller from various archives will be collected, digitized, and annotated for classroom use. Background essays by scholars from across the nation will also be produced, and classroom activities will be outlined and piloted.