Geneseo History Major Involved in Major Digital Project on the Civil Rights Movement

For the past year, Geneseo Senior Todd Christensen has been working on the new online exhibit "One Person, One Vote: The Legacy of SNCC and the Fight for Voting Rights" through an internship with the SNCC Legacy Project based at Duke University. The website went live today and is full of valuable resources on the civil rights movement: http://onevotesncc.org/

Todd is from Cazenovia, New York, and has been working with Professor Emilye Crosby for the past four years.  His senior honors thesis, which focused on the Mississippi Freedom Schools, connected to the SNCC Legacy Project.  You can read more about Todd's work here.

Todd was also interviewed for the 15 March "Rochester in Focus" program on WHEC-TV 10.  The video of Todd's segment is available here.  

2015 Teachers' Day

Continuing the tradition begun with last year's Teachers' Day, the department hosted fifty social studies educators from more than twenty western New York for a day of programs on Friday, 13 March.  Participants attended a teaching workshop on Latin American history led by Professors Ryan Jones, a workshop on modern American environmental history led by Professor Jordan Kleiman, and a keynote on "Six Things New Yorkers Should Know About the American Civil War".  This program was made possible thanks to the generous support of Joe and Elaine Bucci, whose contributions to the department allows us to offer this program free of charge to participants.

You can read the college's press release and learn more about the Teachers' Day program here.

Professors Adams and Behrend on Local NPR Station

Professor Cathy Adams and Justin Behrend appeared this week on "Connections with Evan Dawson", a radio program airing on Rochester NPR affiliate WXXI, to discuss perspectives on African-American history.  Behrend's recently-published book, Reconstructing Democracy, was discussed extensively.  You can read more about the program and listen to the conversation here.

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.