A Commitment to Advocacy: A Profile of Laura Lockwood and WGRAC at Trinity College
Written by: Caille Prince (History, Class of 2017)
March and April are important months for WGRAC. The Women Gender and Resource Action Center wears many hats on campus but is known as a safe space for all. The leader of this incredible resource for students is Laura Lockwood. As the director of WGRAC, Laura is known for being an advocate, a leader and a friend. Her presence is felt throughout the year, as she is involved all over campus through different outlets. Laura’s job extends far beyond her office and lounge located behind the Washington Room in Mather. Not only does she assist the Title IX Coordinator, but she is also the coordinator of the Sexual Assault Response Team. Ultimately WGRAC is an important part of educating the campus and ensuring that everyone feels welcome and supported at Trinity.
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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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Members of Trinity Community Travel to Russia for Hip-Hop Cultural Exchange Program
Written by: Molly Thoms ’17
Hartford, Connecticut, March 20, 2017 – This year will mark the 12th annual Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival, an event that brings to campus hip-hop artists from around the world and seeks to educate members of the Trinity and Hartford communities about hip-hop culture. In preparation for the festival, which will take place from April 7 to 9 and will feature headliner MC Lyte, two members of the Trinity community involved in planning the festival recently visited Russia for a week-long program called “Under the Curtain: USA-Russia Hip-Hop Cultural Exchange,” sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Camryn Clarke ’17 and Seth Markle, an associate professor of history and international studies who teaches a global hip-hop cultures class and serves as faculty advisor to the Hip-Hop Festival, spent a week in February visiting the cities of Moscow, Belgorod, and Togliatti. They were accompanied by four other delegates from the United States: Khaiim Kelly ’02, aka Self Suffice the Rapoet, a hip-hop emcee, author, educator, and consultant for Trinity Chapter of Temple of Hip-Hop/Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival; John Manselle-Young, aka Tang Sauce, a Hartford hip-hop artist and musician who served as the host of the 11th Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival in 2016; Tiger Luangpraseuth, aka B-Boy Tiger, a hip-hop artist and world renowned breakdancer and educator from East Hartford; and Greg Schick, executive director of World Hip-Hop Market and coordinator of Nomadic Wax.
Read of the rest of this article HERE
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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My European Experience
Written by: Tyler Wren (History, Class of 2019)
I am ever so grateful to the history department for the opportunity to travel to and study in Europe. Their sponsoring of my attendance in the new J-term course offered in Paris, POLS-209, and also providing an additional $1,000 for travel expenses, this allowed me to not only travel to Paris but also enabled me to travel more broadly within Europe itself. For example, giving me a cheaper and faster route to also visit London. Going to both London and Paris were crucial experiences for my upcoming research paper on Brexit and its implications on Europe that I will be writing with Professor Regan-Lefebvre.
Beginning with Professor Lefebvre’s class provided the perfect precursor for me on Brexit. What I learned from the primary source analyses and big-picture observances will definitely be relevant in the paper. Meeting with the media coordinator of the Delegation of the European Union was a crucial experience, providing insight into the national inner workings of the EU in France.
Project 1917
Written by: Dylan Hebert (History, Class of 2017)
“1917. Free History” is a project that presents the events of 1917 in the form of social media. The stated goal of the project is to “enable participants to find out about the history of 1917 from those who lived during this defining moment of twentieth century history.” A Russian project, the site is focused mostly on Russian history. The year of both the February and October Revolutions as well as a major year in World War I, 1917 is a landmark year in Russian history.
Highway Problems?: A Brief History of The I-84 Project
Written by: James Barrett (History, IDP, Class of 2017)
It is a difficult task to imagine a world without highways. Every city, big and small, has multiple routes in and out. This is nothing new of course, most people have experience with highways whether they commute everyday to go to work or just drive on them once or twice a year. But it is also possible to view highways as a recent development, especially in the United States. The 1939 New York World’s Fair had a great deal to do with the development of the highways. General Motors, in a mission to sell more cars, presented their “Futurama” exhibit which depicted “modernized expressways speeding traffic through great skyscraper cities at one hundred miles per hour.” Looking back, it is easy to see how this display impressed attendees of the World’s Fair. With that said however, it is also easy to see that the relationship between highways, cars, and cities did not exactly pan out the way General Motors thought it would.
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