A Response to the 2017 Wassong Lecture: “Trigger Crimes & Social Progress: The Tragedy-Outrage-Reform Dynamic in America”
By Callie Prince (History ’17)
This past week I attended the 2017 Wassong Lecture in European and American Art, Culture, and History, a lecture organized every year by the interdisciplinary studies department. I was excited to hear the lecture from Paul H. Robinson who is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His long list of accomplishments would extend beyond the length of this post, as he has been prolific and diversified in his work. The topic of his lecture was “Trigger Crimes & Social Progress: The Tragedy-Outrage-Reform Dynamic in America”. A brief synopsis written by Robinson describing the work behind his lecture, posed the main question as, “Why do some tragedies produce broad outrage while others, often of a very similar nature, do not? Why do some outrages produce reform while others, often with greater claims to outrageousness, do not?”
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Friday Night With the Yard Goats
By: James Barrett (IDP, History ’17)
Hartford Yard Goat drama has been well documented in the past few years. The issues stemmed from many missed construction deadlines, as well as the stadium being nearly 10 million dollars over budget. It was, and in many cases continues to be a major headache for the city. In a way, the stadium drama is the perfect metaphor for a city that is trying extremely hard to get out of its own way. But Hartford has potential and if what I saw at Dunkin Donuts Park on Friday night is any indication, the Yard Goats will be loved by the city and the suburbs for many years to come.
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History and Property Values: Charlestown, Mass
By: James Barrett (IDP, History ’17)
Last weekend my girlfriend and I spent the weekend in Boston. We stayed with her mom who has just recently moved to Charlestown and on Sunday morning we decided to take a walk around the town. There are a two main things I notice when walking through Charlestown: the narrow, one-way streets and the physical proximity to historical landmarks. Charlestown, throughout most of the 20th Century was a gritty working class neighborhood. Ben Affleck’s 2010 bank robbery movie The Town, captured Charlestown’s former essence, but also in many ways painted it with broad strokes. Now just seven years after The Town came out, Affleck’s depiction seems outdated.
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History, Identity, and Traveling: A Reflection on 2017’s McGill Lecturer, Santiago Gamboa
Chelsey Crabbe (History ‘17)
In his lecture, “The Art of Narration and Travel Writing (a Latin American Writer in India)”,weaved an inspiring tale about the realities of his profession as both an individual and a Latin American writer by specifically focusing on his tales of living in India. Gamboa has written eight novels amongst other works, mostly in Spanish and translated into a variety of languages. The writer has also acted a Columbia diplomat at UNESCO in Paris as well as to the Columbian Embassy in India. Obviously well-accomplished, Santiago Gamboa impressed me not only with his accolades but his grip on the pulse of the world, understanding the humanity within each individual, no matter their country of origin.
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Introducing History Faculty Member Lauren Caldwell
I’m Lauren Caldwell, new faculty member in History and Classics. Some of you may know me from my course this spring, HIST 116, Rise and Fall of Roman Empire. I also teach language courses (ancient Greek and Latin) in the Classics department. In Fall, 2017, I’ll be offering HIST, 115, History of the Greek World (MWF 9:00-9:50) and HIST 334, Provinces of the Roman Empire (T, TR 2:55-4:10) , and LATN 319, Virtus: Masculinity (T 6:30-9:10 p.m.). I’m a big believer in the value of interactive lectures and student discussion and would love for you to be a part of one of my courses next year. If you’d like to know more, email me at lauren.caldwell@trincoll.edu; I’m always happy to meet and talk and hear your ideas! Thanks- Lauren
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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Student Major Profile: Interview with Seth Browner
By Chelsey Crabbe (History, ‘17)
This week, I wanted to spend some time getting to know our fellow a little better hoping that I could give some much-deserved publicity to a well-respected peer of mine to the rest of the Trinity community. Therefore, I decided to ask him a few history-related questions playing to the common theme of being a History major.
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So You Majored in History?: A Personal Reflection
By: Callie Prince (History ’17)
I knew I wanted to be a History major in college before I had even decided which school to attend. I pictured myself taking classes only relating to my favorite subject, 20th century Europe, and simply memorizing dates, names, and battlefields. I assumed that I would graduate with a complete knowledge of that time period and would ultimately be the perfect candidate for Jeopardy if they ever did a show simply on World War II. Alex Trebek would commend me on my extensive knowledge after naming me the winner. Yet, to this day after an almost completed major in History at Trinity, I would not call myself an expert of anything, even my thesis. I have only taken one history class that was directly related to World War II and I feel as if I am leaving Trinity with even more questions than when I entered. And I could not be more thrilled to say so.
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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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Job Hunting With a Trinity History Degree
By: James Barrett (IDP, History, ’17)
Job hunting is the worst. I don’t think it is going too far out on a limb to say that there is nothing good about it (other than the possible euphoria one feels when they actually get a job, I’ll let you know if that’s the case when I get there.) For the last several months I have been applying for full-time teaching jobs at independent high schools. Writing cover letters, personal statements, and teaching philosophies have become second nature at this point. While the education field and different schools, in general, have their own application procedures, there are certain skills that I have learned through being a Trinity history student that have helped me immensely (I can’t say they have helped me land a teaching job yet, but I remain confident they will eventually.)
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