Events
- Annual Convention
- Great Teaching Round-up
- Leading from the middle
- fall conference for faculty leaders
- The Texas Network
"I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision."
Events: 2011 History Schedule
History Summary
Friday, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
"The Silver Lining in the Great Recession: The Revival of Frugality and Simplicity"
Speaker: David Shi, Former President, Furman University
Friday, 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.
“Sexual Revolutions: Europe and the U.S.”
Speaker: Judith Coffin, Assosciate Professor of History, University of Texas
Saturday, 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
"The Gilded Age, or America's Capitalist Revolution"
Speaker: HW Brands, Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History, University of Texas
Friday, January 28th, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
"The Silver Lining in the Great Recession: The Revival of Frugality and Simplicity"
Speaker: David Shi, Former President, Furman University
The onset of the Great Recession in 2009 not only triggered a stock market meltdown, millions of layoffs and unprecedented federal intervention, it also has spawned a revival of public interest in frugality and simplicity. Dr. David Shi, the former president of Furman University and a prominent historian, has written two books about the "simple life" as a perennial ideal in the American experience. His presentation will survey the shifts in public behavior in recent years and gauge the staying power and cultural significance of large numbers of Americans adopting "simpler" lifestyles in the 21st century.
Biography:
Dr. David E. Shi will retire as Furman University’s 10th president on June 30, 2010 after a highly successful 16-year tenure. A 1973 Furman graduate, he joined the university administration in 1993 as vice president for academic affairs and dean. He was named president in 1994.
Shi came to Furman from Davidson College, where he taught for 17 years and was the Frontis W. Johnston Professor of History. He won the Distinguished Teaching Award and also served as chair of the history department from 1987 to 1992.
A native of Atlanta, Shi graduated magna cum laude from Furman with a degree in political science. He was a member of the Paladin football team and was named to the All-Southern Conference team after his sophomore and junior years. After graduating from Furman, Shi earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history at the University of Virginia.
He is the author of several books, including The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture (1985), which was a History Book Club selection. Two other books were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the co-author with the late George B. Tindall of the best-selling textbook, America: a Narrative History, now in its eighth edition.
President Shi is a prolific newspaper essayist, writing regular columns for The Greenville News, many of which have been published in other outlets such as The Christian Science Monitor, The Charlotte Observer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. His columns and essays are also heard on South Carolina Educational Radio. He is author of The Bell Tower and Beyond: Reflections on Learning and Life, a collection of his speeches, essays and columns.
Shi has been named Greenville (S.C.) Magazine Business Person of the Year, and Furman was awarded a $150,000 Presidential Leadership Award grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in recognition of his leadership. He and his wife, Susan, are recipients of the Whitney M. Young, Jr., Humanitarian Award, and both were named among Greenville’s “Top 25 Leaders” in a community poll conducted by the Greenville News. In 2010, he and wife were honored by the Community Foundation of Greenville and G—The Magazine of Greenville as recipients of the Lifetime of Giving Back Award.
Friday, January 28th, 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.
“Sexual Revolutions: Europe and the U.S.”
Speaker: Judith Coffin, Assosciate Professor of History, University of Texas
Biography:
Judith G. Coffin is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. She teaches modern European history: Western Civ., The French Revolution, World Wars 1 and 2, Postwar Europe as well as courses on gender, sexuality, the history of radio, and other subjects. She co-authored with Robert Stacey three editions of W.W. Norton’s Western Civilizations (New York, 2002, 2005, and 2008). She has written The Politics of Women’s Work: The Paris Garment Trades (Princeton, N.J., 1996) and she is working on “Simone de Beauvoir and Mid-Century Sex." Her recent articles include “Beauvoir, Kinsey, and Mid-Century Sex,” French Politics, Culture, and Society 28,2 (summer, 2010); “Opinion and Desire: Polling Women in Postwar France” in Kerstin Bruckweh, ed. The Voice of the Citizen Consumer (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) and "Sex, Love, and Letters: Writing Simone de Beauvoir," American Historical Review October, 2010.
She lived three years in Paris, got her PhD at Yale, taught at Harvard and UC Riverside; she's been a fellow at NYU and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; her husband is Professor and Dean for Research at the UT School of Law; her children are in their twenties, and she is happiest in the winter in Austin and when visiting the Hill Country.
Saturday, January 29th, 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
"The Gilded Age, or America's Capitalist Revolution"
Speaker: HW Brands, Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History, University of Texas
During the final third of the nineteenth century American capitalism came into its own. New techniques and technologies, friendly government and courts, and a self-confidence born of demonstrated success allowed the corporate sector to race past the public sector in the continuing contest between capitalism and democracy. Never had America been more capitalistic than it was at the end of the nineteenth century (and never would it be that capitalistic again).
Biography:
Henry William Brands was born in Oregon, went to college in California, sold cutlery across the American West, and earned graduate degrees in mathematics and history in Oregon and Texas. He taught at Vanderbilt University and Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History. He writes on American history and politics, with books including Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, The First American, and TR. Several of his books have been bestsellers; two, Traitor to His Class and The First American, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He lectures frequently on historical and current events, and can be seen and heard on national and international television and radio programs. His writings have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
History Section Co-chair:
Blanche Brick, Blinn College and
Brandon Franke, Blinn College