Context

While the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, has become an iconic moment in Texas--and due to the influence of Hollywood in American history--it was only one event in a chain that began decades earlier in Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain and stretched through the American Civil War. The siege and battle of the Alamo is a good way, then, to examine how ethnic, racial, political, economic, and social tensions in the westering of the United States worked themselves out in the face of Mexican and indigenous interests in what was to become the American Southwest. Bio: Jesús F. “Frank” de la Teja is Regents’ Professor Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Texas State University in San Marcos. He obtained the Ph.D. in Latin American history from the University of Texas at Austin, and between 1985 and 1991 he worked in the Archives and Records Division of the Texas General Land Office. In 2018-2020 he served as Chief Executive Officer of the Texas State Historical Association. He has published extensively on Spanish, Mexican, and Republic-era Texas, including the award-winning San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain’s Northern Frontier, and most recently Faces of Béxar: Writings on Early San Antonio and Texas. He served as book review editor for the Southwestern Historical Quarterly from 1997 to 2014 and as managing editor of Catholic Southwest: A Journal of History and Culture from 1991 to 2005. Watch the video here.

24 Aug 20211h 1min

Ritualized festivals in Francophone Belgium (Wallonia) are focal points of civic pride and serve as vehicles for local expressions of historical commemoration. Numerous saint-military marches received UNESCO recognition as examples of “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in 2012. The annual processionals involve hundreds of marchers from local communities dressed in Napoleonic-era military uniforms, carrying authentic muskets and escorting a saint statue. Many of these marchers trace family involvement back multiple generations. The small town of Binche became renowned for its Carnival festivities, which included les Gilles – local men dressed in masks with enormous ostrich plume headdresses. In the cities of Mons and Ath, saint processionals transformed into large-scale ritualized celebrations which strayed from their roots as disciplined and formal manifestations of piety into carnivalesque celebrations centering on giant statues, (Ath) and mock combat with a dragon (Mons). These three festivals have also received UNESCO recognition: the Carnival of Binche in 2003 and Le Doudou of Mons and La Ducasse of Ath in 2005. All of these ritualized festivals, which date to the late-medieval and early modern eras, ceased during the French revolutionary regime. Commemoration only revived during the mid-19th century and multiple factors influenced the reconstruction of these festivals. This talk explores the 19th-century reinvention of Wallonian folkloric traditions, their evolution through the 20thcentury, and how these little-known local festivals became the cultural centerpieces of these communities in the present-day. Bio: Dr. Erik Hadley received his BA in History from the University of Montana and MA and PhD in History from University at Buffalo, with specializations in Early Modern Europe and the Atlantic World. He is a lecturer in the History Department at Boise State University, where he teaches classes on medieval and early modern Europe and oceanic histories of the Atlantic and Pacific Worlds. His research interests center on cultural history, particularly folkloric rituals, identity and popular commemoration, in both Western Europe and indigenous peoples in the Americas and Hawai’i. Dr. Hadley is the recipient of 2019-2020 Fulbright Research U.S. Scholar grant to Belgium to study the historical evolution, commemoration and public memory of UNESCO-recognized folkloric ritual festivals dating back the late Middle Ages and has authored numerous articles on historic cultural identity in French-speaking Belgium. Watch the video here.

27 Juli 202159min

The Fremont cultures of the northeastern Great Basin and northern Colorado Plateau are understood as the northernmost maize agriculturalists in the North American Southwest. Because of the relatively recent timing of the Fremont foraging-farming transition (AD 300-1300), we can learn a great deal about the subtle interplay between climatic conditions and social decisions leading to the intensification of farming, the formation of early agricultural villages, and the development of complex societies. The Cub Creek reach of Dinosaur National Monument in northeastern Utah is a case study in the socio-ecological dynamics of Fremont culture. Bio: Judson Finley is Associate Professor of Anthropology and is Department Head of Sociology and Anthropology at Utah State University. Judson has spent his life and career living and working in western Wyoming, southern Idaho, and northern Utah. He specializes in the intersection of archaeology and earth sciences and it relates to the region’s cultural and natural history. Watch the video here.

13 Juli 202156min

From 2008 to 2014 a team of archaeologists conducted a series of excavations in the north Idaho town of Sandpoint. Ultimately, the project proved to be one of the largest projects in the state’s history recovering several hundred thousand artifacts. There are multiple themes that came out of this project. In this talk Dr. Warner will talk about two of their findings: a broad question of Sandpoint’s early economic connections to the world and a local question that many don’t think about - namely the economics of prostitution in Sandpoint. Underlying this talk is a goal of sharing how archaeology of the recent past can contribute in unexpected ways to understanding (and sharing) the past. Bio: Mark Warner is an historical archaeologist with over thirty years of experience in archaeology. He has worked in many parts of the U.S. and conducted major excavations in Maryland, Oklahoma, and in the Inland Northwest. Recent work in the region included the Sandpoint Archaeology Project (the largest CRM project in the state’s history), and multiple public archaeology projects in Boise and Moscow, ID which were visited by approximately 3500 people. A native of Michigan, Warner did his Master’s work at the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. He has been teaching at the University of Idaho since 1998. While at Idaho, he has authored or edited four books, two thematic journal issues, multiple articles and generated over $900,000 in funding. He is the immediate past president of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Watch the video here.

29 Juni 20211h

Stonewall National Monument is a new national park unit located in Christopher Park, part of New York City's Historic Greenwich Village. It is a park in progress with limited services, and in the coming years services will be added to the park in cooperation with our partners. The monument sits across the street from The Stonewall Inn, a National Historic Landmark known for its involvement in the beginning of the modern struggle for civil rights of gay and lesbian Americans. The Stonewall Innexists as a private establishment and working bar. Stonewall was a milestone for LGBTQ civil rights that provided momentum for a movement. In the early hours of June 28, 1969, a police raid on the Stonewall Inn provoked a spontaneous act of resistance that earned a place alongside landmarks in American self-determination such as Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights (1848) and the Selma to Montgomery Marchfor African American voting rights (1965). Demonstrations continued over the next several nights at Christopher Park across from the Stonewall Inn and in the surrounding neighborhood. When asked to describe the difference that Stonewall had made, journalist Eric Marcus observed that before Stonewall, “For most people, there was no out, there was just in.” Watch the video here.

17 Juni 202146min

Since Godzilla's first appearance nearly 70 years ago in the classic Gojira, the King of the Monsters has become a cinematic icon and a globally recognized symbol of Japan. But what can a giant, fire-breathing movie monster tell us about Japanese culture and Japan's national experience from the mushroom clouds of 1945 through the current global pandemic? This talk will explore how the 33 Godzilla films can help us understand Japan’s resilience in the face of disasters, the global popularity of Japanese creature features, and the ways we all address our fears of invisible threats, radioactive or viral. Bios: Bill Tsutsui is a specialist in the economic, environmental, and cultural history of modern Japan. Educated at Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton Universities, he is the author or editor of eight books, including Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan, Banking Policy in Japan, and Japanese Popular Culture and Globalization. His 2004 book Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters was called a “cult classic” by the New York Times and a Japanese translation was published by Chūkō sōsho. He has received Fulbright, ACLS, and Marshall Fellowships, and was awarded the John Whitney Hall Prize of the Association for Asian Studies in 2000 and the William Rockhill Nelson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2005. He currently serves on the boards of directors of the Association for Asian Studies, the US-Japan Council, and the Federation of State Humanities Councils, and was appointed to the Japan-United States Friendship Commission in 2020. Tsutsui taught for seventeen years at the University of Kansas before becoming Dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at Southern Methodist University in 2010. From 2014 to 2019 he served as President of Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where he is currently Professor Emeritus of History. His ongoing research focuses on the environmental and business history of the Japanese fishing industry and on Japanese popular culture. Professor Lisa M. Brady joined Boise State University’s History faculty in fall 2003. She teaches courses in global, Asian, and environmental history and historical methodology. Her research examines the ways military activities—during peace time and in times of conflict—shape and are shaped by the natural environment. Her first book, War upon the Land: Military Strategy and the Transformation of Southern Landscapes during the American Civil War, was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2012. She is currently working on a volume on global war and environment for the Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University Press and on a book exploring the environmental history of the Korean War. Brady served as the editor-in-chief for the scholarly journal Environmental History from 2013 through 2019 and will be the History Department chair beginning Fall 2021. Watch the video here.

18 Maj 202158min

This presentation will explore the circumstances that allowed for the development of women’s clubs in the United States between the early 1800s and early 1900s and the underlying ideologies and sentiments that spurred the growth of activism and organizing during Progressive Era. With this foundation the presentation will then explore the emergence of women’s clubs in Idaho, the specific work of these clubs, and the impact that these clubs had in their communities. The work of club women at the turn of the century supported various facets of the community, including health, education, the arts and humanities, and political and civic engagement. The presentation will end with an exploration of how some of these clubs adapted and continued to serve their community well into the 20th and 21st centuries, and how, thanks to the record keeping of these organizations, we (with the help of historians) can learn from the women leaders of the past. Bio: HannaLore graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in History and Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder and received a Western American Studies certificate from the Center of the American West. She has a M.A. in Applied Historical Research from Boise State University. HannaLore has served on the Boise State Alumni Association Board of Directors since May 2016 and is also heavily involved with The Junior League of Boise, Inc. She has served on the Tango Boise, Inc. Board of Directors and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Center of the American West. Watch the video here.

3 Maj 202159min

Humanity struggled to contain infectious diseases long before the concept of microscopic germs emerged. The histories of smallpox, polio, and covid-19 illustrate how vaccine development has changed—and in some ways, not changed—in the last 300 years. Bio: Laura Jenski is a retired university professor and vice-president for research. She received her PhD in oncology and postdoctoral training in immunology from the University of Wisconsin and bachelor's and master's degrees in biology from Northern Illinois University After decades of authoring original scientific research articles, Laura now writes what she loves to read—serious mysteries and farces—for her independent publishing company, Snowbound Stories LLC. Watch the video here.

20 Apr 202158min