Center for Idaho History and Politics Lassoes Some Grants

Todd Shallat reports that the Center for Idaho History and Politics heard back on a couple of successful grants last week. One, for $5,000.00, comes from the Library of Congress to create a workshop to train Boise school teachers to use historical documents that relate to Idaho history. The other, for $3,500.00, is from the Idaho Humanities Council. John Bieter and Nancy Tacke wrote the application, and will fund the placement of ceramic and cast-iron historical markers at some "ethnic landmarks," notably the all-Basque chapel, now a law office on Idaho Street.

Masters Defenses Coming Up

There are a number of masters defenses coming up in the next couple of weeks. They are open to the public:

Alissa Peterson, "Traditions in Transition: Basques in America" (Schackel) March 18, 2009, Wednesday, 3:30 pm, Library 170, Sociology Conference Room

Karen Wadley, "The King and His Council" (Odahl) March 20, Friday, 1:30 - 3:00 pm, Library 194, History Conference Room

Josh Bernard, "History and Beauty: The History of the Idaho State Parks" (Shallat) March 30, Monday, 2:00 - 4:00 pm, Library 170, Sociology Conference Room

Kelly Orgill, "Bequeathment: How the Hardships of Idaho's Settlers Have Shaped Idahoan Identity" (Brady) March 31, Tuesday, 3:00 - 5:00 pm, Library 170, Sociology Conference Room

Olivia Umphrey, "From Screen to Page: Japanese Film as a Historical Document, 1931-1959" (Woods) April 3, Friday, 12:30- 2:00 pm, Library 194, History Conference Room

Patty Pierose (II)

Part II of an interview with Patty Pierose, who tells us about one of those moments in class when you say to yourself, "Aha!":

"Holy Cow Moments...the one that leaps to mind happened in Todd Shallat’s class. I was researching the Oakland fire in the early 90’s, and I was stunned to find out that Proposition 13 came into play. A cap on taxing of the especially valuable homes in the foothills left fire services woefully underfunded. Then the wealthy homeowners turned on the city for not protecting them. So, in the aftermath, a great number of changes came into play; insurance prices rose, which meant everyone had to pay for the wealthy to have left their cities in disastrous shape. Also, the 1989 earthquake had an enormous impact on homes in lower income areas, but no one rushed to help them out (of course). Jill Gill is fond of pointing out that the sin of greed is mentioned more times in the Bible than any other one. I mean the thing is, I would not have picked the topic as near and dear to me, but I ended up teaching myself so much about a relatively recent event…"

MAHR Student News

Todd Shallat reports that many of our students in the Master of Applied Historical Research program have gotten jobs or fellowships "doing what they love:

-- Patrick Taylor has a real job with the National Park Service

-- Alissa Petersen has a cool museum fellowship in Maine

-- Don Anderson got money from Canyon County to do a film of Celebration Park for their new museum

-- Marc Frisk has a job with the Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge, where he is building an interpretive trail

-- Susan Whipple is producing a tourism book for the Snake River Scenic Byway, working via the City of Caldwell and Planmakers, Inc

-- Tully Gerlach has developed some art-history tours, and you can see him on the city streets with mobs of school children

-- Chris Blanchard has been hired as the "production editor" for the new online version of Idaho Yesterdays, working with ISU and the Idaho State Historical Soceity

-- Amber Beierle is now the state's historical librarian in the state historical society

-- Ann Felton has been appointed to the graduate faculty at BSU and will be teaching local history workshops, including a workshop on the past and future of the railroad in Boise, part of an effort to get AMTRACK back."

Whew. More better details as I get them.

2007: A Good Year for the History Department

Since you asked, in 2007:

-- Joanne Klein's article "Traffic, Telephones and Police Boxes: The Deterioration of Beat Policing in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester between the World Wars" appeared in Policing Interwar Europe: Continuity, Change, and Crisis, 1918-1940, edited by Gerald Blaney for Palgrave-MacMillan.

-- John Bieter published "Lorenzo's Letters: A Basque Immigrant's Story in the American West," in Judy Li, editor, A Sense of Place: Cultural Ecology in the American West (Oregon State University Press).

-- We hired a new Latin Americanist, Nicanor Dominguez, who received his doctorate from the University of Illinois and writes about seventeenth-century Peru. He will teach courses on a wide range of topics in Latin American history. He is also, and almost as importantly, a film lover.

-- Lisa Brady's article "Negotiating The Thin Red Line" appeared in April in Environmental History.

-- a Romanian edition of Charles Odahl's Constantine and the Christian Empire (originally published in 2004 by Routledge) was published. Odahl continues work on his study of Cicero.

-- Lynn Lubamersky published her article "The Status of Idaho Women Lawyers Today," in the The Advocate, the official publication of the Idaho State Bar.

-- Todd Shallat's Ethnic Landmarks, which examines Boise's multiethnic past, was published, as was Mobile Home Living In Boise, which was the product of a task force headed by Shallat.

-- Lisa McClain's article “’They have taken away my Lord’: Mary Magdalene, Christ’s Missing Body, and the Mass in Reformation England” was published in Sixteenth Century Journal XXXVIII/1 (2007): 77-96.

-- Nick Miller's The Nonconformists: Culture, Politics, and Nationalism in a Serbian Intellectual Circle, 1944-1991 (by Central European University Press) appeared; Miller also testified at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in September in the trial of Jadranko Prlic, et al.

Todd Shallat: In the News

Today's Idaho Statesman has a front page report on the decline of trailer-park living in Idaho; the report draws on the research of a BSU team headed by professor of history Todd Shallat. If you are interested in a copy of their report, which is not the usual dry-as-dust policy stuff, give Shallat a call at 426-3701.