History Participates in Liberal Arts Tournament Day, 2008

On April 17, 2008, the History Department -- together with the Political Science Department, the Art and Art History Department, and the Women's Studies Program (through the Art department)-- participated in the 12th annual Liberal Arts Tournament Day on the UAH campus.

350 high school students from 11 area high schools traveled to UAH, and 150 of these students -- from Johnson High School, Catholic High School, the Randolph School, Ardmore High School, Madison County High School, and the Covenent Christian Academy -- participated in the History competition (pictured). Three of these student groups came with the UAH History alums who are presently their teachers, Brad Lewis of Ardmore, Jeff Murphy of Randolph, and Ann Lawson of Catholic (pictured).

The winner of the U.S. History competition was David Grzybowski of the Randolph School, and the winner of the World History competition was Andrew Jones from Catholic High School.

Special thanks are due to History Department Senior Staff Assistant Bev Gentry for all of her work preparing the event, as well as History Department Student Assistant Matthew McDaniels.

Dr. Boucher's Final Class

On Monday April 21, Dr. Philip Boucher taught his final class at UAH. Pictured here see him presenting a study guide to his students in History 102, Western Civilization.

Dr. Boucher has now completed his post-retirement contract at UAH. During his successful tenure at UAH, he was appointed the first Distinguished Professor in the College of Liberal Arts, and he also inspired countless students in the many classes he taught over the years, concluding this spring with History 102 and a graduate course, Studies in Early Modern Europe.

The faculty and students of the History Department will miss Dr. B's presence in the classroom and in the hallways, but we wish him well as he enjoys many leisurely moments at his vacation home in Mentone, Alabama! (also pictured)

Congratulations to 2007-2008 Student Award Winners

At the Honors Convocation on April 8, 2008 five of our history majors received honors and awards. Emily Espenan won the "Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement" award for the history department; Chris Paysinger won the "Outstanding Graduate Achievement" award for the history department; Dillon Lee won the "National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Alabama History" award; and Jennifer Staton won the "Colonel Walter Aston Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the XVII Century History" award. In addition, history major Veronica Ferreira won the "Outstandung Undergraduate Achievement" award for the Women's Studies program.

Pictured here see Jennifer Staton with Mrs. Bonnie Turner (of the Colonial Dames); Dillon Lee and Emily Espenan; and Veronica Ferreira with Dr. Nancy Finley, the Director of Women's Studies.

Dr. Dunar at Cazenovia College -- with his first PowerPoint

Over spring break, Dr. Andrew J. Dunar, chair of the UAHuntsville Department of History, delivered the 8th annual Paul J. Schupf lecture at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, NY. His lecture title was "Fifty-Fifty: The 1950s Fifty Years Later," and for this lecture, he produced and presented his first PowerPoint show! The first image showed Harry Truman. During his visit, Dr. Dunar also gave a guest lecture in an upper-level U.S. history course for which students read his book America in the Fifties (Syracuse University, 2006).

Dr. Dunar is currently mulling over whether to drop using overhead projector slides (not "vu-graphs"!) in the classroom for what he calls "new-fangled" teaching technology. Meanwhile, he keeps muttering in the coffeeroom, "Williams, Gerberding--eat my dust."

Welcome John Kvach!

We are pleased to announce the hiring of John F. Kvach!

John's specialty is the Nineteenth-Century South and he is currently finishing his doctorate at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His dissertation, entitled Up, Up Ye Men of Capital: J. D. B. De Bow and the Antebellum Origins of the New South, shows how influential figures in the Old South promoted economic development and modernization. The work not only offers an intellectual biography of De Bow, the prominent Southern editor and journalist, but also provides a collective biography of the subscribers to his journal from across the region. John's work transcends some historiographical patterns which traditionally argue that the South opposed modernization. In contrast, he shows how De Bow's readers, while mostly slave-owners, called for internal improvements, economic diversification, urbanization, and cultural sophistication.

John taught several years at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland, and at UAH will teach courses on the US in the Nineteenth-Century, including the Old South and Civil War and Reconstruction. He also wants to teach the history of Alabama.

In addition, John has a passion for world history and public history. He has a master's degree in public history from West Virginia University and has worked as a public historian for the National Park Service, the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health, and West Virginia's Humanities Council and State Park System. John dreams of teaching a public history course on heritage tourism. Once again, welcome John!