Frank Cafarella (Class of 2001) to Receive National Teaching Award

Geneseo alumnus Frank Cafarella (class of 2001) has been named as the winner of the 2015 Mark K. Bonsteel Tachau Teacher of the Year by the Organization of American Historians.  Frank is currently a social studies teacher with the Spencerport (NY) Central School District.  As a History major, he completed an honors thesis under the direction of Professor Emilye Crosby.  This is a truly exceptional honor, and the department congratulates Frank.

Professor Oberg Publishes His New Book on Eleazer Williams

We have another publication to celebrate - Michael Oberg's Professional Indian:  The American Odyssey of Eleazer Williams has now been published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.  This is Oberg's sixth major book and will be followed later this year by a monograph on the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua.

Professor Oberg has been at the college since 1998 and has won several awards, including a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003, the James and Julia Lockhart Professor for Research and Creative Endeavors from 2005-2008, and a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2013.

More information on Professional Indian can be found here.

Professor Justin Behrend Publishes New Book on Reconstruction

The department congratulates Professor Justin Behrend on the publication of here.
his book, Reconstructing Democracy:  Grassroots Black Politics in the Deep South after the Civil War.  Focusing on the lives of African-Americans in the Natchez District of Mississippi, Behrend's work reconstructs the ways that ex-slaves involved themselves in democratic actions in the years after the civil war.  Behrend's book is available from the University of Georgia Press, and more information can be found here.

Justin is Associate Professor of History at the College and has been at Geneseo since 2007.  He teaches courses on the Civil War era and African-American history.  In 2013, he was honored with a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching

Emilye Crosby: Ten Things You Should Know About Selma

Emilye Crosby's essay on the historical background to the new film Selma has been featured in a number of different places this month.  With commemorations of the Selma to Montgomery March and the 1964 Voting Rights Act coming up later this year, Emilye's work serves as a good critical introduction to the key issues and the ways that the civil rights movement is represented in contemporary American culture.

A short version of her essay, "Ten Things You Should Know About Selma Before You See the Film" is available here, and a longer discussion with curriculum materials and other resources for teachers in available here.

Campus Visit by Tom Ingrassia (Class of 1974)

Geneseo was fortunate to have alumnus Tom Ingrassia back on campus for a week as part of a writer-in-residence program.  He made several campus presentations, including a reading of his book One Door Closes:  Overcoming Adversity by Following Your Dreams and a class visit with students from Professor Cathy Adams's African-American History since 1877 course.  Tom spoke with the students about "Motown and the Civil Rights Movement", drawing on his personal experiences as former Creative Director and Executive Assistant for Mary Wilson of the Supremes.  His visit to campus was profiled in this article from the Genesee Sun.

Professor Michael Oberg has been featured in a number of recent events in connection with two major forthcoming research projects on the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua and the 19th century missionary Eleazer Williams.  This past week, Oberg was one of the featured panelists on "WXXI Connections with Evan Dawson", a local program that airs on Rochester's NPR affiliate.  You can listen to his discussion of the Treaty of Canandaigua here.  Earlier this fall, Oberg also wrote an editorial about the controversy centering around the problematic stereotypes associated with the Washington Redskins nickname for the Albany Times-Union.  His essay can be read here.

Professor Tze-ki Hon's New Book: Teaching the I Ching (Book of Changes)

The department congratulates Professor Tze-ki Hon on the publication of his new book Teaching the I Ching (Book of Changes).  The book is co-authored by Geoffrey Raymond and is available from Oxford University Press, with more detail available here.

Professor Hon is one of the department's most active scholars, and has been honored on several occasions by the College for his work.  This includes a 2002 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and a 2011 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities.  He has also held international appointments at the Modern East Asia Research Center at the University of Leiden and at the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.