Take Nothing for Granted: Reflections on the Freedom Project

James Marten is Chair of the history department and Director of the Freedom Project, a year-long commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War that explored the many meanings and histories of emancipation and freedom in the United States and beyond.

As the 2012-2013 academic year comes to a close, so, too, does the Freedom Project, Marquette University’s com- memoration of the 150^th Anniversary of the Civil War.  Many colleagues at Marquette contributed to a very suc- cessful year, including William Welburn in the Office for Diversity and Inclusion in the Office of the Provost, who helped fund the initiative; the faculty and staffs of the Performing Arts Department and the Haggerty Museum of Art who mounted an entire theatrical season and three separate exhibits as part of the project; Dean Janice Welburn, Eric Kowalik, and many others at the Raynor Memorial Libraries, which hosted and maintained our website and created several exhibitions; members in the Office of Marketing and Communication, who designed our logo and publicity materials; and the Law School, English Department, and Women’s and Gender Studies Program, which, respectively, sponsored a poetry reading by A. Vann Jordan, a lecture by Columbia University historian Eric Foner, and a talk by Jeanne Theoharis, biographer of the civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.  In the History Department, Kristen Foster organized the Mellon Grant-funded symposia on antebellum emancipation in the fall and on domestic surveillance in the twentieth century in the spring, and Andrew Kahrl administered our monthly brown bag discussion of notions of freedom in the U. S. and beyond (speakers included Laura Matthew, Dan Meissner, Alison Efford, Sarah Bond, Julius Ruff, and Chima Korieh).

My Search for Thomas Paine

John Turek is graduating from Marquette University with a degree in history this spring.  Associate professor of early American history Kristen Foster writes: “I worked with Jack when he was a Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellow in fall 2012.  He chose a research project comparing the radical thought of Jefferson, Adams and Paine. Jack visited my office hours every couple of weeks, and we discussed what he read. He worked with the political thought of John Adams and the early Virginia writings of Jefferson. He got completely lost in the best way, though, when he began to explore Paine’s ideas on socialism. He used his Mellon funding to take a trip to Philadelphia over fall break. He spent his time at the American Philosophical Society, and much to my delight, the magic of REAL documents captured his imagination. He loved the research in ways that he never expected. I asked him to write a blog about it.”

This past fall semester I was lucky enough to have an Undergraduate Mellon Research Fellowship under the guidance of Dr. Foster.  Influenced by taking her class on the early American republic and her seminar on American Freedom, I decided to focus my area of study on early American thinkers who helped shape the path of this country.  I examined Thomas Paine, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson–men who are held in the pantheon of the Founding Fathers but who appeared to hold very different ideas about what being free in America meant and how the federal government should be established and run.  I went into the project wanting to examine each man’s beliefs about freedom and how these ideas influenced their interpretations of what a federal government should do to protect that freedom.  As I started my research, I found that my reading brought up other questions that I had not considered before starting the project.  Instead of picking and choosing material that answered my original question, I now found that my research was taking control of the project, bringing up new questions and answers to those questions that I had not considered before.  Although I enjoyed reading secondary and primary materials printed in books, I felt that the research experience would not be complete unless I held the actual, physical documents.

I took the opportunity to use the money allotted for travel to go to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.  I stayed at a local hostel that was within walking distance of the many historical markers and sites that seem to be marked on every street.  The American Philosophical Society is located on a cobble-stone street and boasts a large statue of Benjamin Franklin on its roof.  I had never done any sort of professional research before and was intimidated about going into the Society.  The secretary helped me sign up for their check-out program and I received a badge ID with the title “Researcher,” allowing me access to their study room/library.  The library had two large tables in the center for researchers surrounded by book cases, busts of Franklin, and an open-aired second floor with more book cases.  I was not entirely sure what I was looking for or what I would find so I requested both boxes of Thomas Paine’s papers.  The librarian brought them out and as soon as I opened them I felt like I was doing something special.

The More Things Change…

Laura Matthew, associate professor of Latin American history, checks in from Spain, where she is conducting research with the support of a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, and shares her thoughts on how a recent archival discovery sheds new light on the historical relationship between racial discrimination and mass incarceration.

National Public Radio recently published this article on the high proportion of black males in jail in Wisconsin – the highest in the nation by far, a statistic that is primarily driven by Milwaukee.

That same week, I stumbled across a handwritten letter in the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla, Spain. It treats neither the century nor the themes of my current research. But its description of the discrimination facing people of African descent in late colonial Guatemala was so eloquent – and sadly, modern – that I transcribed it in full. (What follows is a somewhat free translation of parts of the letter into English. The full Spanish transcription will be published in the forthcoming volume of the academic journal Mesoamérica.)

A little context: at the beginning of the nineteenth century in Guatemala, slavery persisted but most people of African descent were free and had been for generations. Some had stopped paying the extra taxes demanded of free people of color, usually by serving in the military. Some had moved into positions of local political power, or were practicing professions like medicine, engineering, and law.

Doing History in Public

Alison Clark Efford, assistant professor of US immigration history, discusses her experiences teaching the history of German immigrants in Milwaukee to the public and shares her thoughts on the challenges academic historians face when engaging with public audiences.

Some historians spend considerable time regretting that members of our profession do not do more to reach out to the public. I must confess to finding the kvetching somewhat bewildering.

I look around and see many of my colleagues doing impressive history in public. We could start with the writing. To my eye, many historians write accessibly and sometime even powerfully. I think of all the blogging—here of course, but also on sites such as the New York Times. Check out the NYT Civil War blog, for example. And take a look at the books coming out of presses such as the University of North Carolina Press and Harvard University Press these days. You might be surprised by the work that scholars are doing to communicate to a wider audience.

I am perfectly content with the fact that we history professors also write densely footnoted tomes that sit on library shelves for years. Eventually, someone usually comes along to popularize an historian’s insight. I value the tome and appreciate the popularizer. The public depends on both for access to high-quality history. I have a personal stake in the historical profession—I love my job. Even if I did not, however, I would still want to live in a society where some people engaged in seriously researching history without thinking about book sales.

“Engaging Islam and Muslims: Interdisciplinary Perspectives” Conference

Phillip Naylor, our professor of North African and Middle Eastern history, provides a recap of an interdisciplinary conference recently held at Marquette.

I collaborated with Professors Irfan Omar (Theology), Richard Taylor (Philosophy), and Louise Cainkar (Social and Cultural Sciences) and organized a conference on 19-20 March titled “Engaging Islam and Muslims: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.” It was funded by a Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences “Multidisciplinary Development Grant.” The conference showcased Marquette students and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) faculty. The grant allowed us to invite the participation of Dr. Aminah Beverly McCloud, Director of the Islamic World Studies Program and Professor of Islamic Studies at DePaul University, and Dr. John P. Entelis, the Chair of the Political Science Department and Director of the Middle East Studies Program at Fordham University. Entelis is also the president of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS). Marquette is an institutional member of AIMS and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA).

Death and Humility: Richard III and the Historical Desecration of Corpses

Ancient and Early Medieval historian Sarah Bond shares her thoughts on the recent discovery of the skeletal remains of Richard III

The story of the English King found underneath a car park has captured the world, it seems. Following his death at the hands of Henry Tudor’s troops at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, it was widely reported that Richard III’s bones were interred at Greyfriars church in Leicester. It would be half a millennium later, with the careful excavation and examination of bones exhumed by the University of Leicester in September 2012, that the king’s body would be found. The discovery of the king’s remains confirmed that he had died after “one of two significant wounds to the back of the skull — possibly caused by a sword and a halberd.” This fact is consistent with the accounts of his death; however, the skeleton also reveals a number of other injuries given to the ribs, pelvis, and head. Accounts of the battle do hint at degradation of his body, noting that he was stripped naked, then placed on the back of a horse after his death. The injury to the pelvis shows an even greater degree assault, since it likely came from a posthumous thrust through his right buttock. These injuries, scientists suggest, are “humiliation injuries.”

Admittedly, folks, I am an ancient and early medieval historian. Yet, when I heard about these injuries, I was not altogether surprised. The desecration of corpses is not a new or even remotely innovative assault, I am afraid.

AMWRRI: Documenting the Lives of Arab and Muslim Women

Today we offer a blog written by Enaya Othman, who received her PhD in American history in 2009.  She wrote her dissertation, “The American Friends Mission in Ramallah, Palestine: A Case Study of American-Arab Encounter, 1869-1948” under the direction of Steve Avella.  Enaya is currently an adjunct professor of Arabic language and literature at Marquette.  She is also Director of the Arab Muslim & Women Research & Resources Institute, which seeks to document lives of American Muslim and Arab women through its oral history project and to disseminate information about their histories and experiences through educational programming and exhibits.  One of their projects seeks to understand how dress helps Arab and Muslim Women immigrants in the Greater Milwaukee Area create and maintain their identities.  Her blog explains the mission of the AMWRRI and the ways in which the stories of these women have been gathered, often by students at Marquette and elsewhere. Find out more about the AMWRRI at http://amwrri.org/aboutUs.htm. 

 

The oral histories of Arab and Muslim women show that their identity is a complex and a significant process inside and outside their domestic, familial lives. In particular, events in the Middle East and North Africa, such as the rise of Arab nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s, the Gulf War, 9/11, the prolonged Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the American invasion of Iraq, among others, have played roles in the perception as well as assertion of identity.

These testimonies reveal that women’s identities and perceptions are multifaceted; they also speak of an array of determinants that influence the degree to which integration and acculturation shapes identity. These factors include the level of education, time of immigration, the consistency of keeping ties with the homeland, the geographical region from where they migrated (village, refugee camp, city, and country), their contribution to family economy, and the level of interactions with members outside their ethnic and religious group. Consequently, as each of the stories addresses its multiplicities and uniqueness, simultaneously it shares communality and general pattern that connect them to their group’s history.

The Arab Muslim & Women Research & Resources Institute contends that clothing serves as a multifaceted metaphor in this rich history.