Abstracts

World History Theory and Practice: Gender, Technology, Culture
St. John’s University 2015

Conference Abstracts



“The Evolution of the Status of Women in the Italian Republic since 1947.”

Joseph A. Bongiorno, St. John’s University

Since the founding of the First Italian Republic in 1947, the status of women has changed in Italy.  The traditional roles and expectations of Italian women, as defined by men and male-dominated governing and social institutions before World War II have significantly changed.  The social and legal regimes created under both the Italian Constitution and the later European Union Constitution and associated Charter of Rights have carved new roles and opportunities for women.  Hence, the perceptions and status of Italian women have changed significantly from the days of monarchical rule and early twentieth century fascism.
     This paper will examine the evolution of the position of Italian women in society from various perspectives.  The first will look at the role of the Italian constitution and the legal treatment by the several Italian courts on the question of women’s rights.  As in any parliamentary democracy, in both proactive and advisory capacities, the Italian courts have been influential on the question, whether pertaining to the issues of hereditary rights or those associated with criminal acts of “feminincidio”.  In both instances are examples of legal treatment of Italian women and the consequential creation of a body of law defining the rights of Italian women both within Italy and the European Union legal regime as a whole.
     The second perspective concerns government and various political parties. Issues of abortion, divorce and labor rights have been dealt with by Italian political parties across the spectrum, whether by the Communist Party on the left to the Italian Social Movement on the right.  The Italian Chamber of Deputies, based on the several coalitions of a particular period, have authorized various popular referendums regarding women’s rights, notably the most important regarding the granting of a civil divorce.  The position of political parties and women’s memberships in these organizations has had an impact on the changing status of women.  Moreover, these institutions have served as a professional network in which it is no longer a rarity to see women holding important political positions either within government or associated organizations.
     The third perspective discusses a combination of elements in the private sector, those involving business and the social media.  Women’s rise in the several labor unions has enabled the same to gain more experience in companies and industry across Italy.  The internet and social media outlets such as cinema have also redefined the role of women in terms of presentation and perception.  For the Italian fashion industry, one observes that women are presented as potential leaders by how they dress and not just as beauty figures used to sell clothing.  In addition, both RAI (the state radio and television stations) and Mediaset (the telecommunications industry owned by the Silvio Berlusconi family) have also taken the lead in converting and redefining the role and general perception of Italian women.  Therefore, the technologies associated with these types of entities and mediums have had their own respective impact in this evolution.


“‘Interfaith Communities and the Boundaries of Mediterranean Identity’ – Digital Stories, Global Learning, and Student Experiential Learning in a Short-Term Study Abroad Program to Spain and Morocco.”

Daniel James Clasby, King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA

Growing student fascination with new media has challenged traditional pedagogical approaches in world history.  I recently led a short-term study abroad course to Spain and Morocco to study the religious diversity of medieval Muslim Iberia and North Africa.  The experience provided the perfect virtual classroom for experimenting with new media technology.  The course surveyed the Mediterranean world as one defined by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell’s “geography of religion” concept, which rests on the idea that Mediterranean history has been shaped by the changing social dimension of religious diversity.  In preparation I developed a digital storytelling assignment that allowed students to engage with the study site and connect with global communities in meaningful ways. This paper explores my course as a case study for using digital storytelling to help students create critical, personal, and dialogic encounters with others in a global landscape.  The project saw students bring together photography, the recorded voice, and music and other sounds into media representations of course material and travel experiences.  In this paper, I argue that digital storytelling allows the student to resist the tourist’s gaze and the cataloguing of guidebook sites to instead realize the shared experiences of global communities.  Digital stories revolve around a chosen theme and often contain a very specific viewpoint or perspective.  Short in duration, the stories include personal reflections on travel experiences, offer a more informed contemporary cultural understanding, and instruct audiences about global themes and issues. The appeal of using this mode of storytelling in a study abroad setting is that students struggling with culture shock can reassert their agency as they confront and critique their experiences, as well as reposition themselves against the backdrop of the contact communities and thus develop a deeper connection to global peoples and communities.

“Fiscal Decisions Have Political Consequences:  Hosni Mubarak, Neoliberalism in Egypt, & The Arab Spring Revolution”

Christopher Cody, St. John’s University

Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt was a bastion of neoliberalism.  Mubarak, a long time ally of the United States, happily accepted the economic policies embodied within the Washington Consensus.  Politicians and economists in Washington D.C. cleared the way for Mubarak to receive a substantial loan from the International Monetary Fund in 1987.  In return for this largesse, Mubarak adjusted Egypt’s economic policy to favor neoliberalism’s core tenants like free trade and economic deregulation.  In the decades following the IMF loan to Egypt, the country has witnessed increasing social discontent and civil demonstrations.  There is a correlation between these neoliberal fiscal policies and the societal dissatisfaction that culminated in the Arab Spring Revolution of January 25, 2011.  Though much of that discontent was a response to political corruption and lack of civic freedom, there can be no doubt that a dearth of economic opportunity for the average Egyptian acted as primary catalyst for the revolution that led to Mubarak’s overthrow.  Indeed, so much did the gap between rich and poor expand, that Mubarak amassed a personal fortune estimated by some to be around $70 billion dollars, making him one of the wealthiest people in the world.  This is important because there is an ongoing debate as to what degree neoliberalism influenced civil unrest in Egypt and throughout the region of the Middle East.  Moreover, the future stability of the country and the region depend greatly on the economic choices made by Egypt’s current leader, President Al Sisi.

“World History Connections: Student Reflections on the Integration of the World History Survey and College Coursework”

Phyllis Conn, St. John’s University

University faculty who teach in the core curriculum face many challenges, but perhaps foremost is helping students understand and benefit from the basic intent of a core curriculum: helping students develop analytical thinking skills, communication skills, information literacy, global awareness, and other abilities that we believe are vital for all students regardless of major. In order to help students understand and benefit from the core, the first step might be asking students what connections they see among courses that they may perceive as stand-alone or one-off introductions to various disciplines.
     I asked thirty-five students in my world history survey course at St. John’s University in Fall 2014 to write brief reflections at mid-semester and at the end of the semester about what connections they saw between our course and their other college coursework in terms of topics, skills, readings, assignments, or other course aspects. This paper offers a summary and analysis of their responses. Based on these student reflections, it appears that some students (particularly those beyond the freshman year) do perceive connections within the core, but to a limited extent. This small study suggests that there is an opportunity for world history faculty to find ways to make those connections more explicit. This paper offers some suggestions about how world history faculty might help students build those connections.

“Overcoming the Copper Connection: The Democratization of Communications Technologies.”

Jonathan Coopersmith, Texas A&M University

The international diffusion of the telegraph, fax machine, and cellphone demonstrate the growing democratization of communication technologies and the concomitant changes in the communities they serve.  This paper focuses not on the technologies’ invention and development but their diffusion and local innovation.
     The telegraph was a visible sign of Western colonialism and technological superiority in the 19th century.  The actual technology was centralized, expensive to use (especially compared with a letter) which limited users to governments and businesses, and had few points of access.  Nonetheless, the ability to send messages at the speed of electricity revolutionized communications.
     In contrast, tens of millions of users had their personal as well as professional communication radically reshaped by the modern fax machine in the 1980s-90s.  Faxing’s rapid spread reflected not only the growth of government and business communications but also its attraction for non-traditional personal, social, and other uses.  Significantly, the fax machine offered decentralized, rapid, printed and visual communications with the ease of basic office skills.
     Fax machines, however, depended on telephone landlines.  Large segments of the world remained without telephone access and thus essentially without faxing.  Cellphones with their towers overcame the need for a copper connection and opened up the entire world to instant communications.  As important, cellphones offered lower barriers of entry to innovation on the micro-level and national level.  New products like Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile money are part of a larger trend of technologies and businesses emerging outside countries that industrialized earlier.

“Teaching the Mongols:  Using the Mongols/Eurasian nomads as a foil to Eurasian Development.”

Michelle DenBeste, California State University Fresno

One of the traditional tropes of Russian history has been the idea that the Mongols, by invading and conquering medieval Russia, stymied Russian development for at least a century and prevented Russia from developing in the same manner as Western Europe.  Although scholarly works have largely dispelled this simplistic view of barbarian invaders vs. civilized peoples, popular notions of the Mongol impact remain much less nuanced.  Foregrounding the Mongols in a traditional Russian history survey course and including the Golden Horde and Central Asia in a world history course can lead to many fruitful discussions throughout the semester and provides a model for including Eurasia in world history.  Typically Russian history is all but forgotten in a world history survey course.  While the Mongols may be introduced as a bridge between Kievan Rus and Muscovy, the Golden Horde is all too frequently left out altogether with coverage given instead to Yuan China.  The empires that remain after the demise of the Golden Horde are barely discussed (since both scholars and laymen argue that the Mongols came, destroyed, and then left with barely a trace).  If students read the Primary Chronicle accounts and other Bookmen’s accounts and contrast them with contemporaries descriptions of the region, the Mongols (or Tatars) can become a lens through which many other important issues such as nomadic vs. sedentary technologies, nomadic vs. European military techniques, cultural diffusion along trade routes and cultural appropriation of such things as religion, writing systems, and governmental systems are discussed throughout the semester.    This paper will discuss the ways in which these themes can be fruitfully examined in a Eurasian or World History course.

“The Impact of Culture and Technology on Modern Genocide.”

Rita Scher Dytell, College of Mount Saint Vincent

The focus is on the cultural climate describing Stage 1 of a five-stage generic model of modern genocide. The assumption is that there are underlying commonalities shared by all genocides. One fundamental cultural precondition is that potential victims are always defined as less than  human and perpetrators organize a campaign that redefines the victim group as worthless, a threat to society, subhuman.  This ideology justifies and gives direction to discrimination against those not considered to be one of “us”, and incapable of assimilation into “us” and become the “other’. Such a campaign of vilification/dehumanization of the other requires coercion and control, which necessitates a state with a high degree of centralized authority. It is dependent on a citizenry who are sensitive to social influence and have a long history of obedience to authority. This centralized state incites public hostility toward the victim group; it projects through the use of propaganda the sorts of evil that would be done to victims. This hostile ideology is also prompted by a national crisis, some economic, social and/or political upheaval. The victim group is used as a “scapegoat” for the nation’s troubles and/or deflecting attention from mismanagement of the ruling regime. Just-world thinking leads people to believe that the suffering of victims is deserved and justifiable   Ottoman/Turkish, Holocaust, and Rwandan genocides will be examined to provide illustrations of these processes.

“Procreative Knowledge, Gender Roles, and Beliefs: Past and Present Parallels”

René Hirsch, Independent researcher based in the Netherlands

This paper aims at highlighting the correlation between the way we have understood procreation, and the gender roles, worldview and beliefs at specific moments in time.
Our procreative knowledge can be divided into three main phases: the primitive, the patriarchal, and the contemporary phase.
     In the primitive understanding of procreation, the relationship between sex and pregnancy was not established. All procreative attributes were in the hands of women. Introducing spirits as the cause of pregnancies gave procreation its first comprehensive explanation. Moreover, their intervention granted men with a decisive role, somewhat compensating for the bias nature seemed to have for the feminine.
     With the discovery of the purpose of sex, and, therefore, of biological paternity, a new concept of procreation emerged in which man acquired a seminal role. It was his seeds that determined the characteristics of the child. The woman’s role, in contrast, was reduced to that of soil that had to nourish the embryo deposited in her. The patriarchal perception reached its climax when Father Creator replaced Mother Nature at the summit of the creation.
     The discovery of the fertilization process in the nineteenth century saw the onset of the contemporary phase. The introduction of new reproductive technologies during the 20th and 21st centuries has further led to a complete reappraisal of the relationships between genders. At the same time, the values and beliefs associated with the previous phase have lost ground, while human relationship to nature is reassessed.                                            

“Does Edward Said still remain vital to comprehend the political activities of USA, with its "War on Terror", in Asia?”

Jean-Enrico L. Joseph, St. John’s University

If we watch the news we do not see the big pictures. We only see a small picture of the big screen. Consequently, it is fundamental that we speak about certain elements that will allow us to measure intellectually the violent realities of the current geopolitics of the Westerners, Asians, and the Africans. We know what is going on: let’s grab other people’s property… Yes, indeed, economics is at the heart of this analysis.  But what I care about is the interpretation of the Western discourse on international affairs. For this reason, I would like to do a presentation on the relevancy of Edward Said for the contemporary analysis of the Western discourse on Western foreign policies. Is the Western world still an imperialist? Ideologically, how did Said perceive the Western conduct of politics? Finally, is Said still important for those who are thrilled by the idea of analyzing contemporary politics. Is Said talking to all the Westerners? Or, is he talking to the Asians? About the African and South Americans, should they be concerned with his ideas on “Culture and Imperialism”? Are we still in the cultural frame of “post-colonialism”, or are we beyond that?

“Complicating Emperor Irene: A Reassessment of Sources and Byzantine Religious, Political and Gender Polarities”

Daniel Kelley, St. John’s University

Quite apart from her gender, representations of Irene in contemporary and later sources are so bound up with the Iconoclasm controversy and other political intrigues, including the blinding of her son, that any attempt to try to get at the real ‘historical’ Irene seems doomed to selecting one side or the other from polarizing accounts. That does not mean, however, that there is not a lot to gained from analyzing the complexities of different representations of Irene, as long as we firmly eschew any attempt to categorize her as one thing or another — certainly feminized polarities such as ‘pawn or player’ or ‘victim or virago’ do not seem to apply to Irene, but the reductive opposites often used for male rulers, such as ‘saint or sinner’,  ‘innovator or traditionalist’, or even simply ‘success or failure’, are also unhelpful.  This paper will, thus, re-examine some well-mined sources for Irene’s reign, as well as exploring ways in which we can incorporate previously unvalued sources, such as hagiography and Arabic accounts; while thinking also about how polarizing sources have affected the historiography regarding Irene, which in turn has led to some of the wider trends of the period, such as the Byzantine economic recovery, not being credited to Irene’s influence, as they probably would have been for a male ruler. Irene was a complicated ruler, living in complicated times, dealing with a whole slew of really complicated issues; being female is, of course, a crucial facet in all representations of her, but while it cannot be dealt with in isolation from the rest of the biases that imbue accounts of her reign, it can sometimes act as a lens through which we can see those biases in greater relief.

“Neoliberalism With Chinese Characteristics: A Success Story?”

Lou LaRusso, Plainedge Public Schools

Neoliberalism is a political and economic philosophy that holds that free markets, free trade, and the free flow of capital is the most efficient way to produce the greatest social, political, and economic good. It argues for reduced taxation and regulation, and minimal government involvement in the economy, including the privatization of health benefits and the opening of the economy and foreign competition. Like all other philosophies there are many who speak of the benefits of neoliberalism while many others doom it as a failed practice. When touting the successes of neoliberal theory, most commonly scholars look to China in the years following Mao Zedong’s rule when Deng Xiaoping began implementing neoliberal policies into the previously secluded China. Due to the reforms put in place by Deng in 1978 China’s economic development moved forward so quickly it left social progress in the past. Deng allowed foreign direct investment that played a huge role in China’s economic reform and success. By 1992 all of China was opened up under the watchful eyes of the of the Chinese Communist Party, completing the opening up desired by neoliberal ideology but also shutting out a fundamental pillar of no government intervention. Due to the nature of China’s economic growth it has become one of the world’s most unequal societies. As a common side effect of neoliberalism, urban residents and government officials enjoy the benefits of economic growth while the rural poor have been left behind.

“Woodblock Prints as a Lens to Japanese Modernity”

Sean McManamon, Brooklyn Technical High School  

The Tokugawa era in Japan is often referred to as “feudal” and “backward.” Yet by 1800 Japan had many of the antecedents of modernization. The popular art of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) is one lens through which to see these modernizing forces at work. Long the domain of art historians, this commercial product has been largely ignored by historians, except merely as an illustration of the pre-industrial era. A micro-study of ukiyo-e “[asks] large questions in small places,” showing how in the production, distribution, consumption, and development of national culture, Japan was already well into the transitional stages of modernization.
     Production of woodblock prints relied on a clear division of labor in a “domestic system” not unlike those in 18th century England. Technological advances in color printing and paper making allowed for a novel item that could now be mass produced. The distribution of woodblock prints was through networks of specialty shops and travelling salesmen. The consumption of ukiyo-e was for sophisticated urbanites who indulged in purchasing the latest images of geisha, sumo wrestlers, and popular actors of the day. The guiding hand of the Tokugawa state can also be seen in the use of censors and trademark stamps. Japanese woodblock prints show the development of a national culture in images such as Mt. Fuji and landscapes by revered artists like Hiroshige and Hokusai. Finally, ukiyo-e also contributed to a shared culture by defining Japanese-ness through depicting images of foreigners.

“Fundamentalist Revolution: What Really Happened in 1979?”

Alexander Mirkovic, Eastern Michigan University

This paper is a call to re-evaluation the role of religious fundamentalism in the context of globalization. Ever since William McNeill wrote The Rise of the West: A History of Global Community in 1963, world historians took globalization as the main unifying theme of world history. Here, I make an argument that globalization has always been followed by religious fundamentalism. Thus fundamentalism is not only the phenomenon of Third World reacting to globalization, but actually a predominantly a Western phenomenon that has been successfully exported and mimicked all over the world.
     In particular I look at the latest phase of globalization, the phase of ideological free market capitalism and argue that it is much more than an economic theory, but actually a cultural system. Thus, as we in the West perceive globalization largely as a value neutral, the dominant ideology actually creates fundamentalists both here in the West and in the rest of the world. I would date current era of Fundamentalism with the year 1979 when simultaneously Margaret Thatcher formulated the Anglo-American fundamentalist discourse. While focusing mostly on the contemporary fundamentalism, I compare it with historical forms of fundamentalism that emerged, for example, in the Roman world, when it encountered the East, and with the Western world during the age of exploration. I argue that these globalizing encounters create two parallel ideological systems, the first is based on the comparison of cultures, and advocates enlightened inclusiveness. This is always followed by the other side of the same coin, the ideology of uniqueness and exclusion that I would call fundamentalism.

“From Mexican Chocolate to Sri Lankan Cinnamon: a Model for Understanding and Teaching World History”

Thomas Mounkhall, SUNY Ulster

This presentation will focus on two important and related skills in the overall process of understanding and teaching World History. The initial section will illustrate the use of a Mexican chocolate recipe as a vehicle for learning some of the core thematic understandings of the discipline. Following the Oaxacan chocolate segment, the presentation will model the use of the developed World History concepts as tools for the selection of content to be taught in one fifty-minute, secondary World History lesson on the Early Modern Dutch East Indies Company.

“Crisis of Confidence: Culture, Power, & Carter’s Energy Speech”

Christopher Pataky, St. John’s University

After his July 15th, 1979 speech entitled “Energy and National Goals,” President Carter endured much criticism for what some saw as a talking-down to the nation rather than an observation meant to inspire the nation to do better.  In many ways, America’s “crisis of confidence” has been interpreted as a lack of confidence in President Carter and liberalism in general, which allowed the ascendency of President Reagan and the populist Right.  This paper, however, will argue that President Carter’s words really did reflect the feelings the American public faced by the late 1970’s:  the United States really did have a crisis of confidence.  Carter had to deal with a concrete economic crisis within the “crisis” of confidence (particularly concerning gas prices, unemployment, and inflation).  He gave a soul searching, moralizing speech that people saw as putting blame for both the crisis of confidence and the crisis within the crisis on the American people.  Many Americans, therefore, blamed Carter for not solving either the perceived spiritual crisis or the real economic crisis.  Given the culture of skepticism regarding American power and its uses, the long and traumatic effects of the Vietnam War, high unemployment, stagflation, as well as urban decay in the northeast that plagued the United States from the early to late 70s, it is hard to see how the “crisis of confidence” Jimmy Carter spoke of in his July 15th speech was not real.  The circumstances that brought Carter to the White House in 1976 certainly overwhelmed his administration and made Jimmy Carter a victim of the country’s environment rather than a savior.  There is little doubt that Carter’s energy speech translated into a lack of confidence in him, but it is wrong to assume that his speech did not also accurately capture America at the time.

“Shipping and Imperial Policy in the Age of Steam and Iron”

Jonathan Quann, Princeton University

The last decade has seen a surge in the interest of world history concerning the decades surrounding the turn into the twentieth century. In what is frequently referred to as the first era of globalization, recent periodizations of global history emphasize a sharp break around 1870 when the growth of economic output and international trade accelerated and the linkages between regions and empires intensified until the outbreak of the First World War. A vital component in the commercial infrastructure of this unprecedented capitalist expansion was the network of oceangoing steamships carrying the raw materials and manufactured products between colonial regions and imperial centers. Moreover, European and North American powers of the nineteenth century considered strong mercantile fleets a necessary geopolitical aspect of international commerce and prestige, taking an aggressive role in their promotion through a variety of state policies. This paper examines how the notion of a large merchant fleet became tethered to states’ commercial and imperial concerns. The paper shows that the national politics of shipping promotion were, through exchange and imitation, part of an international network of policy ideas among the increasingly assertive powers of Europe and the United States.
     But the transmission of these new global policy ideas are unthinkable in the absence of the transformation in basic transportation technologies. The revolution in steam and iron gradually reconfigured the world order and separated those who could adapt to the new age of steam and iron from those stuck in the age of sail and wood. This paper puts nineteenth­century technological revolution in world historical terms, asking how we can research and teach the connections between a private, technology­driven world economy and the growth of modern states.

“The Rise in Significance of the Individual as a Function of Technological Revolution in the Premodern World”

Peter F. Schadler, College of Charleston

The technological revolution of the written word made possible a number of advances that prior to it were impossible. This paper will argue that among these was a single human being as a significant focal point in the premodern world, something which I further argue did not occur in the large majority of cases (if not all) until the first five centuries of the Common Era. Confucius and Siddhartha Gautama, although now recognized as crucial figures in World History, do not achieve notoriety until several hundred years after they lived, and indeed could not have done so without the technological revolution of the written word. Neither still would Abraham, Jesus, or Muhammad, have approached “multi-culture notoriety” until the written word appeared in multiple places and languages as a crucial vehicle of transmission of information. Thus, the rise of the person as a figure of world historical significance should be understood as a function of the technological advance of the written word, prior to which, the utility of particular objects, local materials or inventions should retain our primary attention in the classroom, and after which they must necessarily share it with specific individuals as loci of world impact.

“Gender Work: Local Appropriation of Computing Technology in West Germany”

Corinna Schlombs, Rochester Institute of Technology

This paper examines gender implications in the local appropriation of American computing technology in West Germany. In the 1950s, American automation proponents like John Diebold promised that computerization would free employees from tedious routine tasks for more intellectually engaging work. But when office managers in Germany and elsewhere began to install computers, they soon discovered that data occurred in many different forms, and first needed to be entered into the computer before it could be processed. In West Germany, part-time female employees soon filled the rapidly increasing number of data entry positions. While West Germany’s conservative family policy had initially discouraged women from seeking salaried employment, by the 1960s, it became acceptable for women to take on part-time employment that would allow them to combine work with their duties as housewives and mothers. The new women part-time employees relieved the data entry bottleneck. This local solution to the global data entry problem can only be understood in the context of postwar German ideas about women and their work.  Based on archival sources, this paper focuses on two case studies of computerization in the German banking and insurance sectors. It builds on the work of Slava Gerovitch and Eden Medina whose studies of computing in the Soviet Union and Chile have begun to show that computing was shaped by local conditions and needs and in turn shaped local technology, business and politics. Likewise, this paper shows that German gender roles shaped data entry processes and in turn were shaped by computerization.

“Writing Women into the Secondary School Global History Curriculum”

Alan Singer, Hofstra University

At the start of the most recent millennium, a number of sources published lists of the most influential events and people in World history. Life magazine’s list (http://www.dlmark.net/hundlife.htm) of the 100 most influential people of the previous millennium (1000 AD to 2000 AD) included only two women in the top fifty, Mary Wollstonecraft (26) and Florence Nightingdale (41) and another six women in the second fifty, Joan of Arc (54), Jane Addams (66), Simone de Beauvoir (72), Marie Curie (75), Susan B. Anthony (83), Helen Keller (85), Queen Elizabeth I (88), and Catherine de Medicis (97). Most individuals who made the list, the same people who dominate the history texts, were rulers and warriors with a smattering of scientists and humanists. This workshop focuses on ways to explore with secondary school students why women were left off of these lists. It offers a case study and social history approaches to global history with intensive examination of specific transitional periods that makes possible the inclusion of more women in the standard curriculum. Document-based lessons and activities feature Jeanne D’Arc, Ban Zhao, Benazir Bhutto, Tjut Njak Dien, Indira Gandhi, Dolores Ibárruri, Janet Jagan, Malalai Joya, Aung San Suu Kyi, Rigoberta Menchu, Sarashina Nikki, Marina Silva, Sophocles, Tzu Hsi, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Wu Zetian.

“Technology and religion in world historical perspective”

Timothy Stoneman, Georgia Tech Lorraine, Metz, France

International radio broadcasting by American evangelicals illustrates how the combination of religion and communication technology influenced twentieth-century history. “Missionary radio” began at the dawn of the radio age with the first station in Latin America (HCJB, 1931). Following the postwar expansion of American global power and the withdrawal of commercial radio networks from overseas, evangelical missionary broadcasters expanded their activities rapidly in all the major regions of the world – most notably, Far East Broadcasting Company in the Philippines (1948), Station ELWA in Liberia (1954), and Trans World Radio in Tangiers and Monaco (1954). Fusing sectarian evangelical religion with the American system of broadcasting, evangelicals became the single largest component of transnational radio, easily outpacing private broadcasters and competing effectively with government services. The case of missionary radio presents an intriguing challenge for the world historian. On the one hand, the story of missionary radio must be told as global history; common programs, personnel, and hardware, underwritten by a unified vision and framework, forged a single global evangelical radio project. At the same time, the missionary radio enterprise demonstrated key variations between the world regions of the global south and Europe. Most “developing” countries where American evangelicals worked experienced a dire shortage of radio receivers after WWII; the primary concern of missionary broadcasters here was producing the physical means of reception. By contrast, in the mature radio markets and crowded frequency spectrum of industrial Europe, transmission rights rather than reception became evangelicals’ over-riding political concern. The tale of international religious radio must therefore balance unitary (global) and differentiated (world) historical perspectives.  

“Qutb and the Rise of Islamic Radicalism”

Syed S. Uddin-Ahmed, St. John’s University

I am interested to explore the impact of Qutb on the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.   How did his experiences in Egypt and his struggles against Nasser’s authoritarian government enable Qutb to become a model theorist for Islamic radicals throughout Egypt and the Islamic World? I will investigate the teaching/ideology of Syed Qutb and his impact on extremist activity.  Qutb was a political activist who, ironically, before returning back home to Egypt traveled to the United States.  He studied in Colorado, and before his own radicalization later in life could hardly be considered a Salaafi.  He was much more liberal than radical; however, his experiences in the United States seem to have been quite traumatizing and what led to his ideological shift towards a more radical interpretation of Islam.   This radicalization led to his being imprisoned by the Nasser government.
In this project I would like to address: What kind of impact did the prison years have upon Qutb’s radicalization and his produce his seminal Milestones text?  The project will explore the realities of his experiences which have been used historical to justify violence in the name of faith.

“A Fight Without A Winner: Neoliberalism Versus Socialism In Viet Nam, 1993-2001”

Tuan A. To, St. John’s University

Tuan A. To’s paper looks at policies of Viet Nam and lending programs by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to argue that neither neoliberalism characterized by strong private rights, free trade, and free markets, nor socialism, which aims to keep state control over the economy and promote social equality, could promote development for Viet Nam. In the early 1990s, successive collapses of communist countries seemed to show that neoliberalism win globally over socialism. However, a fierce fight between the IMF, the biggest international institution advocating neoliberalism, and a war-torn Viet Nam, which insisted on keeping its socialist orientation in carrying out neoliberal policies, shows that although neoliberal policies can enable economic growth, they create social and environmental problems while socialism compensates those shortcomings by helping to maintain social stability. The fight started from 1993 when the IMF began its suport to Viet Nam’s economic reforms and only ended in 2001 when the two side found a compromise of both accelerating economic reforms and maintaining social equity. At the climax of this fight, the IMF in 1998 even suspended its support to pressure Viet Nam while the country stubbornly carried out its socialist policies and survived the Asian financial crisis (1997-1999), but suffered greatly from slow structural reforms. The paper provides an interesting case study for the strengths and weaknesses of neoliberalism and socialism, two major theories that have influenced the world history over past decades.

“Face to face with the enemy. Interrogation and questioning in war – a cultural perspective.”

Simona Tobia, University of Reading

With American and British involvement in the war on terror and their interrogation methods publicly discussed, in the last few years there has been a renewed attention for the collection of human intelligence. Despite this current public interest and its overwhelming importance, interrogation and questioning in conflict, and especially in WWII, is still a largely unresearched theme. This is therefore a suitable time to study this phenomenon not only as a military event, but also as a cultural experience.
     This paper will consider cultural issues in relation to the collection of human intelligence (interrogation, interviewing and questioning) in conflict (particularly in WWII) not simply from the point of view of its relevance to military and security studies, but – drawing on war and memory studies – it will aim to focus on its impact on the people involved. The wider aim of this research is to offer a broader understanding of how culture has informed historical research, and how war studies and memory studies have shaped public history and contributed to the wider discourse on the theory and practice of World History, in particular by offering different approaches than military history to the historical study of war and conflict, and by narrowing the gaps between the study of military, intelligence and security history, and that of cultural history.
The paper is part of a wider project which received funding by the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and it is based on sources from the National Archives, London, the Imperial War Museum, London, the Library of Congress, Washington DC and the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, USA, among others.

“Crafting the Culture of Queenship: Elizabeth, Empire and Tales of Oriana”

Amanda Wallace, St. John’s University

During the reign of Elizabeth I, the queen faced unique challenges on the international stage with respect to her self-image. As a female monarch whose power was constantly at threat from abroad, most notably from Spain, and whose gender challenged the status quo, Elizabeth faced significant challenges with respect to her popular image. My paper argues that in order to stand strong against threats both foreign and domestic and maintain control over England’s global empire, Elizabeth had to achieve a delicate balance with respect to her self- representation. It was necessary for her to appear feminine, but strong, pious and devoted, and to substitute traditional marriage and the production of an heir with an image of a maternal figure that would be a mother to her people.
I argue that in order to create a successful popular image, Elizabeth relied heavily upon the Greco-Roman models that were central to the Italian Renaissance as well as biblical imagery. My paper focuses upon the Elizabethan madrigal, a style of choral music sung in multiple parts that had originated in Italy in the 1520s. These madrigals serve as a reflection of the queen’s carefully cultivated popular image, and were brought to their greatest level of achievement at Elizabeth’s court.
Ultimately, the madrigals composed during the Elizabethan era are an important representation of English Renaissance culture and a musical celebration of the achievements of the Elizabethan age, ultimately representing the triumph of Elizabeth I.

“Teaching History as Mystery”

Jack Zevin, Queens College

We seek to take advantage of the potential for ‘mystery’ in history, exploring primary sources anew and building multiple connections across time and place. A major way of teaching about the world is to view events as open to competing interpretations, as mysteries to be solved by struggling with evidence that may be fragmented, ambiguous, and conflicted. The commitment is to raising issues, showing history as detective work, rather than as providing ready-made answers.
Therefore we propose offering an introduction to the technique of ‘teaching history as mystery’ using two mysteries, one theoretical and one practical, the first The Story of the Crusades as an historiography problem that needs sorting out to make sense of events, and second, the mystery of the rise of Secret Societies in many parts of the world that invite comparison. Each activity will invite participation by examining primary and secondary documents, historical interpretations and raw materials, to create or recreate an understanding of connections in world history.