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Category Archives: European History
Professor Kassow and Who Will Write Our History?
By Brendan W. Clark ’21
Editor; History Major
Samuel Kassow, the Charles H. Northam Professor of History and a member of the Trinity College History Department since 1972 is presently involved in seeing his book Who Will Write Our History? materialize as a documentary film directed by Robert Grossman and executively produced by Nancy Spielberg. In September of 2017, Adrian Brody signed on to serve as the voice of Ringelblum in the documentary.
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The Life of Yergeny Yevfushenko
By: Dylan Hebert (History ’17)
One of the great Russian poets of the twentieth century, Yevgeny Yevtushenko died in Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 1st of this year at the age of eighty-three. A descendent of the deported leaders of a peasant rebellion, Yevtushenko was born in a small town stationed along the Trans-Siberian railway in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. In a town called Zima, or in English, “winter,” the climate of Zima is harsh even by Siberian standards, with temperatures ranging from -55 degrees in the winter to +100 degrees in the summer. In 1937 at the age of five, Yevtushenko’s family experienced great turmoil with the official declaration of both his grandfather’s as enemies of the people and their subsequent arrest in Stalin’s purges.
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Study Away: Studying History at Irkutsk State University
By: Dylan Hebert (History ’17)
Studying abroad in Irkutsk, a small industrial city in Eastern Siberia, one of my greatest and most rewarding challenges, was taking a mainstream history class with Russian students at Irkutsk State University (ISU). While everyone has different objectives when they study abroad, for those who want to get as much as they can out of the experience, I wholeheartedly recommend that they take a regular class from their host university. Studying abroad through the Middlebury International Language Program, I had taken history and other subjects in Russian with ISU professors before, but my other classmates were also English speaking Americans from the Middlebury program. Taking a mainstream Russian history class with ISU students was much more intimidating.
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Visiting Lenin in Red Square
By: Dylan Hebert (History ’17)
Vladimir Lenin may have died on January 21st, 1924, but to this day, his body remains on display in the Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square. Lenin himself wanted to be buried at St. Petersburg’s Volkovskoye Cemetery alongside his mother, two sisters, and brother in law, but his request was not granted. The decision of whether or not to bury Lenin has frequently resurfaced in years since.
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Belgorod, Russia: Visiting the Battle of Kursk Museum
From February 16-23rd I was part of a USA hip hop delegation (‘Under the Curtain’) to Russia due to my role as a faculty advisor to the Trinity Chapter of Temple of Hip and the annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival. Sponsored by the United States Embassy in Moscow, I accompanied Trinity undergraduate student Cam Clarke (Philosophy and Human Rights), three Hartford-based hip hop artists, and one hip hop organizer from World Hip Hop Market. We visited Moscow, Belgorod and Togliatti. Although our days were mostly filled with travel, lectures, and workshops, we did get the chance to tour each city and learn about their respective local histories.
History Department’s Senior Thesis Presentations 2016-2017
This academic year, the History Department has nine honor thesis writers. Elizabeth, Sedona, Callie, Dylan, Elm, Chelsey, Eleanor, Seth and Andrew will be presenting on their research on Wednesday, May 3, 2017. The presentations will take place at Seabury Hall 215 (Trinity College), starting at 9:00 a.m. History Thesis Writers, History Majors, members of the History Department, and members of the Trinity and Hartford community are invited and encouraged to attend this special event. A five minute Q+A will follow each presentation. For the full schedule, continue reading….
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“My Senior Thesis and its Portrayal in Pop Culture”
Chelsey Crabbe ‘17
I am a senior Thesis writer whose topic has been portrayed within a Hollywood movie, a scenario that even clouded my own judgment after watching the film. I am researching the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA), a military unit attributed with protecting and salvaging Europe’s greatest cultural treasures against the Nazi regime during World War II. My focus is on the subsequent cultural restitution, or return, that occurred after the war as the Allies found themselves with troves of Nazi loot. I found this topic to be quite fascinating since I am passionate about cultural heritage, a fan of Art History, and a student needing to satisfy her European interests with a topic that had some sources in English. Therefore, I chose to tell the story of the Monuments Men, the full story, and not just the one that would attract moviegoers.
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The Future is Female! Profiles of the Women Senior Thesis Writers of 2017
Written by: Chelsea Crabbe (History, 2017)
In honor of Women History Month, I’ve decided to write a little bit about our female thesis writers, including myself. As Viginia Woolf insightfully claimed, “for most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” Now, not only are topics of gender becoming valued areas of research within the historical field, at Trinity, five women are exerting their talents within this area of study at the highest of calibers. I have always found some subjects to be gendered. For instance, math and the sciences have been predominantly a male-dominated field, for whatever reason. However, I have also categorized the subject of History as being historically male and with good reason. For centuries and centuries, our histories were written by men and, during this resurgence of women’s rights activism today, I am proud to say that we have five females writing not only histories, but challenging the field, a field that oftentimes can be rigid and traditional. Although our topics may be starkly different, we share a common bond as women within the field of History. While I am obsessing over lost paintings, Sedona is spending hours analyzing the movement of cows and Elizabeth is testing her limits by deciphering colonial manuscripts. Elly is encapsulated by her powerful women who love power and parties and Callie is wrapping her head around what do with a convicted Nazi. We’re committed to our topics and wouldn’t be in the library at all hours if we didn’t love history. I’m sure that my fellow peers would agree that we are history nerds and we’re proud! And you can be sure that our theses will certainly not be signed anonymous.
Spring Break in Iceland
Written by: James Barrett (IDP, History, Class of 2017)
Spring Break trips take many forms. Many Trinity students opt to escape the dreary March weather for a tropical paradise. Some head North to Vermont or West to Colorado to find snowy mountains for a ski vacation. In recent years, the small island nation of Iceland has seen a massive tourism increase, and not just in Spring Breakers. While Iceland certainly does not fall into the category of tropical paradise, especially in March, the totally unique landscape can make a person feel like they’re walking on a different planet. During Spring Break 2016, my girlfriend Elyssa, and I were fortunate enough to go to Iceland for a very brief trip. We flew out of Boston on a Monday night and returned Friday afternoon. Since Iceland’s tourism increase began, roughly in 2008, Icelandic citizens seem to have become used to discussing much of the history of the country.
Guten Tag, Wein! Studying Abroad in Vienna
Written by: Callie Prince (History, Class of 2017)
I was in High School when I decided that I wanted to study abroad. I had just returned from a Holocaust Study Tour, a trip that still inspires me today when I knew I had to travel again when I finally got to college. I wanted to climb to the top of the Acropolis, to walk around the Colosseum, and to even take a picture on the garden in front of the Eifel Tower. It was not until I arrived in Vienna International Airport, however, with my life fit into three bags, that I suddenly realized I had not thought about what it would be like to really live in Vienna for five months. I had taken the biggest leap of my life and that I didn’t even know how to say leap in German. I had chosen Vienna for my study abroad because of its culture, the size of the Trinity program and the history of the city. I had pictured myself sitting at cafés with international friends discussing art, culture, and politics. I planned to travel every weekend if I could, believing that constantly moving would really make the experience worthwhile. Yet, I had not predicted how much getting to know Vienna would be the best adventure from the classroom to the city.
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