From Normandy to Baja, our students and faculty traveled the globe and did amazing things this summer.
Undergraduate Students Visit WWII Sites for Research
Dr. Mike Mansfield led a group of CSU undergraduates to France and England for the 2018 “WWII in Europe” course. History undergraduate students included Charlotte Cerveny, one of the College of Engineering’s Summertime Standout Students. Cerveny, a History and Engineering double major, shared her engineering expertise with the group in a presentation on the materials and construction of German bunkers on the Atlantic Ocean.
Graduate Student, Natalie Walker, Develops a Korean War Exhibit for the Truman Library
Natalie Walker accepted a job at The Truman Library in Kansas City, where she will help curate and develop exhibits concerning the Korean War. She will focus on an influx of artifacts acquired when the Korean War National Museum closed in 2017. She will also be part of the team working on The Truman Library’s 2019 renovation. According to Walker, the library’s presentation of the Korean War will expand from mostly policy to include medicine, technology, and desegregation. To read more, see Jeff Fox’s June 26 article in The Examiner.
Dr. Ann Little Appears on TLC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” Season 2018 Finale
Dr. Ann Little, an expert on colonial history in North America, helped actress Jean Smart trace her ancestry back to the 1692 Salem witch trials. Little and Smart analyzed family and public records, discovering that Smart’s eighth-great-grandmother had been accused of witchcraft. This was Dr. Little’s second appearance on the show. In 2015, she helped Tom Bergeron find out that his ninth-great-grandmother had been one of the Filles du Roi – some of the earliest French women to immigrate to North America. To read more, see Erin Udell’s article in the Aug. 8, 2018 edition of the Fort Collins Coloradoan.
Graduate Students Head to Rocky Mountain National Park for “Parks as Portals to Learning”
We know that millions of people visit US national parks each year. But students in “Parks as Portals to Learning” used repeat photography to explore trends in how people visit RMNP. Using historical and present-day photos of the park’s visitor centers and other elements of the cultural landscape of the park, they are working to tell the story of a century of tourism. The course is a collaborative effort of the Public Lands History Center, the CSU History Department, and Rocky Mountain National Park. The goal is to create usable materials and media for RMNP professionals and visitors.
Dr. Jared Orsi Chosen for the First-Ever State Historians Council
History Colorado has chosen a group of five historians to act as the official State Historians Council. Dr. Orsi joins historians from throughout the state to “preserve, interpret, and share Colorado’s past,” according to Brooke Gladstone, Communications Manager for History Colorado. The council will expand the role of State Historian, previously held by Patty Limerick.
Graduate Student, Rose Gorrell, is a CLA Summertime Standout
Rose Gorrell interned at the National Wildlife Research Center where she created Arc GIS Story Maps to help the program better share their wildlife disease surveillance and research. Gorrell also updated the research poster collection in the NWRC’s digital archives.
Dr. Ruth Alexander Visits CSU’s Todos Santos Center to Prepare for Fall 2019 Class
Dr. Alexander traveled to Baja California with other CSU faculty to meet with local residents and community organizers in Todos Santos. She’s preparing for the first ever round of College of Liberal Arts classes to be offered CSU’s Todos Santos Center. She deeply appreciated the time and interest of local students and community groups. A local environmental group shared sustainable, energy-saving technology hacks like the bike blender and an energy-saving oven.
Graduate Student, Kim Selinske, Interning at the Reagan Library, Helps Out during a Brushfire
When the Olsen Fire in Southern California threatened The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Kim Selinske volunteered to transport national archival materials to safety if needed. Firefighters controlled the blaze before it reached the library, but it made for some tense days for the archivists and staff!
Dr. Thomas Cauvin Gives Keynote Lecture at the Public History Summer School in Wroclaw, Poland
What is public history and how should it be done? Students, post-graduates, and faculty explored the many answers to these questions at the University of Wroclaw this summer. Dr. Cauvin got the ball rolling with his opening keynote lecture, “Internationalizing Public History” in which he explored the development of the field of public history and how it is done in different parts of the world.
CSU Student, Razan Kanjo, creates video of Her Family’s Immigration Story
Razan Kanjo described the experiences of her family as immigrants from Syria. Her work was chosen to appear on the Minnesota’s Immigrants website.
