As we mark the centenary of the First World War, this epochal event is usually remembered as a bloody conflict between rival alliances of nations. But from 1914 to 1918 there was another struggle: between those who regarded the war as a noble and necessary crusade and a brave minority who felt it was tragic […]
From the Bronze Age to the era of petroleum, the Middle East has experienced asuccession of energy profi les that helps to explain its political and cultural effl orescences and stagnations. This presentation will discuss the ways in which chariots, camels, and crude oil have shaped the region and distinguished it from the surrounding lands […]
Sunday, 22 June 1941, was arguably the most significant day of the 20th century. For on that day Adolf Hitler’s armies stormed into the Soviet Union, launching a surprise attack which, despite ending in Germany’s defeat and the eradication of the Hitler’s Third Reich, changed our world forever. By virtue of any yardstick, the war […]
Professor Steven Salaita is at the center of an international protest against academic censorship and the silencing of dissent. During the summer of 2014, he tweeted about Israel's assault on Gaza. As a result, he was “de-hired” from his position as tenured professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois on the basis […]
"Sub Conscious" is a rather sardonic recounting of filmmaker Mel Halbach's experiences aboard a nuclear missile submarine in the 1970s. Halbach himself will be present, and he will engage in a brief colloquy with the audience after the film screening. Drawing on personal experience, Halbach takes us on a journey through a Cold War underworld--aboard […]
On September 26 and 27, 2014, municipal police agents opened fire on students of the teacher training school Isidro Burgos of Ayotzinapa. The students were traveling in buses they commandeered in the city of Iguala, in the southern Mexican sate of Guerrero. The police assassinated six people, three of them students. One student remained in […]
In 1839, a twice-divorced temple daughter from a small village in Echigo ran away to Edo. In a letter home, she wrote that she wanted to enter a daimyo's service and learn "the conduct and manners of the upper class." Her brothers, scandalized, demanded that she return immediately. Instead, she made a life for herself […]
How did the citizens of Italian communes learn to trust one another, trust one another enough to build the fundamental institutions of a civil society in which citizens enjoyed participatory politics, elected officials to administer the laws, and adjudicated disputes according to legal statutes? The answer to this question points to a peculiar paradox of […]
“Gateway to Freedom liberates the history of the underground railroad from the twin plagues of mythology and cynicism. For anyone who still wonders what was at stake in the Civil War, there is no better place to begin than Gateway to Freedom.”—James Oakes, author of Freedom National, winner of the Lincoln Prize A deeply entrenched […]
Ying HuAssociate Professor, East Asian Languages & Literature University of California, Irvine About the Talk: This talk examines two cases of martyr-making, that of Qiu Jin (1875-1907), an anti-Qing revolutionary and beheaded for her involvement in armed uprising, and that of Liangbi (1877-1912), Manchu loyalist, commander of the Qing Palace Guard, whose assassination in January […]