News

Baldwin of the times: Hanson W. Baldwin, a military journalist’s life, 1903-1991 by MSUM professor of history emeritus Robert B. Davies is on the shelf in the Livingston Lord Library at PN4874.B26 D38 2011. Among Baldwin’s memorable scoops were the loss of three American cruisers at the battle of Savo Island, the real story behind the U-2 spy incident, and the clustering of Soviet ICBMs in 1962. His dispatches from Guadalcanal and the Western Pacific won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1943. Read the rest of this entry →

Sean Taylor, History, presented at a conference Oct. 29 in Dramen, Norway. His topic, “Critical thinking in the classroom, a lost art in American schools,” was presented at Contemporary Challenges in the US and the UK: The American Studies Association of Norway and British Politics Society. Taylor is in Norway this year as a Fulbright scholar, teaching American history to Norwegian college students and researching medicine, health and healthcare among Norwegian immigrants to the United States.

Women’s and Gender Studies is hosting two lectures by Dr. Judith Roy, History of Medicine Scholar. “19th Century Sexual Surgery: Silver Sutures, Cliterectomy and Beyond” is Thursday, October 13, 7:00pm in Lommen Hall, Room 203. “The History of Nursing” is Friday, October 14, 2:30pm in Hagen Hall, Room 325.

Steve Hoffbeck, History, wrote a nomination to get the Kegs Drive-In restaurant in Grand Forks, N.D., listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Read the full news release: Read the rest of this entry →

Paul Harris, History, presented a paper entitled “Exporting Uplift from Georgia to Liberia: Two Methodist Schools”, as part of the annual meeting of the Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity in New Haven, Conn. The paper grew out of an ongoing research project on racial politics in the northern branch of the Methodist Church, as it expanded into the South among both African Americans and whites after the Civil War. Read the rest of this entry →

Henry Chan, History, presented a paper titled “Propaganda by the Deed: A Study of George Fong’s Assassination Attempt on Prince Zaixun in California, 1910,” at the International Conference on the Centenary of China’s 1911 Revolution, in Hong Kong, May 6-7. He also attended the Twentieth Annual World History Association Conference hosted by Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, July 7-10.

History professor Sean Taylor, Fergus Falls, Minn., heads for Norway in August to study and teach for 10 months as a Fulbright scholar. The award covers all expenses and provides a stipend.

Taylor will teach American history to Norwegian college students at the University of Agder in Kristiansand. He speaks fluent Norwegian (most Fulbright scholars do not speak the language of the host country, Taylor says), and lived in Norway for three years while attending the University of Oslo. Read the rest of this entry →

MSUM will host the West Central Regional History Day, Tuesday, March 22 from 3 to 7 p.m. in the Comstock Memorial Union Ballroom. It’s free and open to the public.

History Day is a co-curricular program that encourages young people to explore an historical subject related to an annual theme, which this year is “Innovation in History: Impact and Change.”  Students make history come alive as their research leads to imaginative exhibits, original performances, media presentations and papers in junior and senior divisions in seven categories. Read the rest of this entry →

A Women’s Studies Colloquium on “Orgies and Goat Tales: the REAL Story of Valentine’s Day” will be presented by Annette Morrow, History/Honors Program Friday, February 11 at 11 a.m. in the Women’s Center, Bridges 154. Morrow’s lecture will trace the development of the Valentine’s Day holiday from antiquity through the present.

Steve Hoffbeck, History, gave a presentation on “The Pearl Harbor Attack, December 7, 1941, and Its Legacies,” on Tuesday, December 7, at 7 p.m. at the Historic Holmes Theatre in Detroit Lakes. Hoffbeck told of the impact of the attack and how Minnesotans responded to the onset of World War II, sending soldiers to the battlefronts and enduring shortages and rationing of vital materials, such as sugar and gasoline.  The program was sponsored by the Lake Agassiz Regional Libraries, the Becker County Historical Society and the Detroit Lakes Public Library, with funding from the Minnesota Arts and Heritage Legacy Program.

Sean Taylor, History, and Peter Quinn, Social Studies, presented a talk entitled “Playing Games in Class: Using Historical Simulations to Facilitate Critical Thinking in the Classroom” at a November conference on higher education in Minneapolis. The presentation included a re-enactment of the Boston Massacre to demonstrate active learning and game-playing pedagogy in a classroom run by students.

Major city tour open to public

Join Professor Annette Morrow, Department of History at MSUM as she leads a Spring Study Tour to the European Continent. The group leaves Monday, April 18, and returns Thursday, May 12. Participants will visit Paris, France; Florence, Rome, Ravenna, and Venice in Italy; Prague, Czech Republic; Rothenburg, Germany; and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The trip includes group tours, museum visits and time for individual exploration in each city.

Community members may apply through Admissions as non-degree seeking students.  Once admitted, community members can register for the one-credit course and select “audit” as the grading type. Former MSUM students must contact Ivy Thompson in the Records Office to be readmitted.

The application deadline is December 7. Space remains for seven people and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, contact Janet Haak, Director of Study Abroad, at 218-477-2996, or haak@mnstate.edu.

Steve Hoffbeck, History, delivered a presentation entitled “The Home Front In Minnesota in World War II” Monday, November 8 at the Fergus Falls Public Library; telling of rationing, practice blackouts in case enemy bombers hit Minnesota, and the sacrifices of soldiers and citizens during the war. The program was sponsored by the Minnesota Legacy Fund for Libraries, by the local library, and by the Otter Tail County Historical Society.

Allan Branstiter, an MSUM senior History major from Cooperstown, N.D., won the Society of Military History Prize for the best paper in history by an undergraduate student, and the First Division Association Prize at the Northern Great Plains Conference, held in Grand Forks, N.D., earlier this month.

Branstiter’s work about confederate diplomacy and the Palmerston government of Great Britain was extremely well received, according to Paul Harris, History. “We can be very proud of all three of the department’s students who presented—Allan, Spencer McGrew and Joel Drevlow,” Harris said. The three History students participated in a session on British Military History chaired by MSUM professor Margaret Sankey.

The University of North Dakota hosted the 45th annual regional history conference. The conference hosts scholars working in a variety of fields, including those interested in European, Asian, African, Canadian, and American history. The Society for Military History also met at the conference.

The $200 prize won by Branstiter was co-sponsored by the Cantigny First Division Museum in Wheaton, Ill.

Steve Hoffbeck, History, delivered a presentation entitled “The Barrels: Root Beer Stands of the Upper Midwest” at the Browns Valley Public Library Sept. 15. The illustrated talk explored the history of drive-in restaurants, both nationally and regionally, and focused on the story of the Barrels Drive-In restaurants which began in 1929 in Great Falls, Mont., and spread to eight locations in Minnesota and North Dakota during the decade of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Read the rest of this entry →

Which MSUM program leaves students saying: “Had the time of a lifetime—you’ll regret not going!”  And “I will never regret going…it was such an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat!”  And “I might just go again next year!”?

That program is MSUM’s Eurospring, which has been taking Dragons overseas for over 30 years. Students depart in March, and first spend five weeks in Oxford, England, studying at Wycliffe Hall. Then, they embark on a three-week tour of the European continent with visits to several major cities. This year’s itinerary includes Paris, Florence, Rome, Ravenna, Venice, Prague, Rothenburg, and Amsterdam. Many former participants feel that this is a fantastic opportunity to combine the living abroad experience with plenty of travel.

This year’s leader is Dr. Annette Morrow, History. Information sessions will be held at 9 PM on Tuesday, September 21 in CMU 208; at noon on Wednesday, September 22 in CMU 208; and at 4:30 PM on Wednesday, September 22 in CMU 207. Read the rest of this entry →

The University Honors Program invites everyone to the Fall 2010 lecture series. The schedule for the lectures are as follows:

September 23

Denise Gorsline

Dean of the MSUM University College

“Lady GaGa, Katy Perry, and Jersey Shore; What in the World do these have to

do with Your Future?”

7:30 p.m.

CB 109

Read the rest of this entry →

Which MSUM program leaves students saying: “Had the time of a lifetime—you’ll regret not going!”  And “I will never regret going…it was such an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat!”  And “I might just go again next year!”

That program is MSUM’s Eurospring, which has been taking Dragons overseas for over 30 years. Students depart in March, and first spend five weeks in Oxford, England, studying at Wycliffe Hall. Then, they embark on a three-week tour of the European continent with visits to several major cities. This year’s itinerary includes Paris, Florence, Rome, Ravenna, Venice, Prague, Rothenburg, and Amsterdam. Read the rest of this entry →

Decoding the Maze is the theme for the 35^th Annual Family History Workshop to be held Saturday, October 2 Minnesota State University Moorhead. The 2010 Family History Workshop features Stephen Morse the creator of the One-Step Website for which he has received both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society, first-ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists, and two awards that he cannot pronounce from Polish genealogical societies.

In his other life Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical engineering. He has held various research, development, and teaching positions, authored numerous technical papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today’s Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution 30 years ago. Read the rest of this entry →

Electronic formats of The Moorhead Normal School [1987] and Moorhead State Teachers College [1990] are now available online through University Archives. This two-volume history, written by Clarence [Soc] Glasrud, MSTC alum and Emeritus Professor of English of MSU, tells the history of MSUM from its beginnings through 1957.

http://www.mnstate.edu/archives/UniversityArchives/