The Revolution Today

 

We will be wrapping up our series on America at 250 with an open panel Monday night. Chris Mackowski will moderate as the SBU speakers will discuss the American Revolution today.

Link: https://sbu.zoom.us/j/99443892210  

Description: 

As America looks ahead to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this summer, St. Bonaventure University would like to invite members of the public and the campus community to come together to discuss what “independence” means.

Since mid-March, St. Bonaventure’s “America’s 250 Series” has explored various facets of the American Revolution. To conclude the series, our historians will gather for a final panel discussion and open Q&A with the audience.

The program, “The Revolution Today,” will be held on Monday, April 27 at 7:00 p.m. in Walsh Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

What themes have emerged from our series? What questions have the Founders raised for us? What does the American Revolution mean to us today? What is our own role in remembering America’s 250th birthday?

George Washington's Shadow Talk by Phillip Payne

 

Here is my talk on way Americans have thought about George Washington's legacy. I also try to draw the differences and connections between academic history and social memory. The video isn't great, apologies. This might be one you should listen to and not so much watch.

St. Bonaventure History Series to Commemorate America’s 250th Birthday

 

 

By original: w:Second Continental Congress; reproduction: William Stone - numerous, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=621811

To help celebrate America’s 250th birthday this year, St. Bonaventure University’s History Department will present a series of public programs through March and April. From John Adams and Revolutionary-era Boston to George Washington’s long shadow, presenters will invite audiences to reconsider how we remember the Revolution today.

“July Fourth this year will mark 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was finalized,” says Dr. Phillip Payne, chair of the history department. “We wanted to invite members of the community to join us in commemorating that event. It’s a question we can all think about: what does the American Founding mean to us today?”

The programs, which are free and open to the public, will each begin at 7:00 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. The programs will also be available to watch via Zoom.

Wednesday, March 18: “Atlas of Independence: John Adams and the American Revolution,” Dr. Chris Mackowski

Location: The Great Room, McGinley-Carney Center for Franciscan Ministries Center

When the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, no one doubted who was responsible. “The man to whom the country is most indebted for the great measure of independence is Mr. John Adams,” said one delegate. “I call him the Atlas of American independence.” Born of humble means outside Boston, Massachusetts, Adams’s work ethic led him to become one of the colony’s most successful attorneys. Yet he burned with a powerful ambition and yearned for more. “I never shall shine, till some animating Occasion calls forth all my Powers,” he fretted. Festering tensions with Great Britain provided the occasion Adam longed for, and soon he found himself at the center of the storm, thrust onto the national stage where all his “Powers” transformed him into the intellectual architect of American independence. Perhaps more than any other American, he rose to the historical moment, urging his contemporaries into the unknown future.

Mackowski is a writing professor in St. Bonaventure’s Jandoli School of Communication and the author of the new book Atlas of Independence: John Adams and the American Revolution.

Monday, March 23: “Everyday Voices and Revolution,” student research panel moderated by Prof. Christopher Dalton

Location: Walsh Auditorium

This student research panel turns to the Revolution as it was actually lived. What did resistance sound like? How did politics enter the home? One student explores the world of sailors’ and commoners’ poetry and popular songs, showing how music at sea helped shape identity, protest, and revolutionary feeling. Another examines the daily realities faced by Loyalist and Patriot women, revealing how domestic labor, family loyalty, and survival became deeply political. By bringing together sound and household life, this panel invites us to reconsider the American Revolution not simply as a political rupture, but as a transformation of ordinary experience.

The panel will feature presenter Alex Payne speaking on “The Record of Thought of Oppressed People During the Age of Revolution” and Kayla Krupski, speaking on “Maintaining the Chaos: The Complexities of Domestic Life for Loyalist and Patriot Women Amidst the American Revolution – 1752-1789.”

Dalton, a senior lecturer in St. Bonaventure’s history department, supervises student work in the Historical Methods and Historiography class.

Krupski is a junior history major from Hamburg, NY, with a minor in classics.

Payne is a junior Theology and Franciscan Studies and History double-major from Shinglehouse, PA, with a minor in classics.

Monday, March 30: “George Washington’s Shadow: Remembering and Contesting the Revolution,” Dr. Phillip Payne

Location: Walsh Auditorium

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we are reminded that there are political stakes beyond the simple pleasures of the Fourth of July with its emphasis on picnics, fireworks, and hot dogs. From such ideological distant perspectives as Constitutional originalism and the 1619 Project, Americans live in the shadow of the founding moment. For a generation (if not more), George Washington stood as an exemplar of republican virtue, but our recent culture wars have fractured the meaning and legacy of the Revolution. This, as we will learn, is nothing new.

Payne is a professor of history and the chair of St. Bonaventure’s History Department. One of his primary areas of interest is in the ways in which Americans remember their own history.

 

Monday, April 13: “Winning the War: Why American Victory was So Remarkable,” panel discussion with historians from Emerging Revolutionary War

Location: 201 Plassmann Hall (note the different location from other programs in the series)

American victory in the Revolution seems inevitable to us now, but at the time and on the battlefields, victory seemed anything but assured. How did America overcome the odds, particularly after several decisive defeats? Join a panel of historians from the award-winning digital history platform Emerging Revolutionary War (ERW) for an interactive discussion about key military moments that kept the dream of independence alive. Panelist include:

Phill Greenwalt, author of The Winter that Won the War: The Winter Encampment at Valley Forge, co-author of A Single Blow: The Battles of Lexington and Concord, and co-author of the forthcoming A Hard-Bought Victory: The Battle of Bunker Hill

Mark Maloy, author of Victory or Death: The Battles of Trenton and Princeton, To the Last Extremity: The Battles for Charleston, and a forthcoming book on the battles for New York City

Rob Orrison, co-author of All That Can Be Expected: The Battle of Camden and A Single Blow: The Battles of Lexington and Concord

Greenwalt and Maloy are both historians with the National Park Service, and Orrison serves as ERW’s chief historian.

Monday, April 20: “Why Boston? A New Economic Interpretation of the American Revolution,” Dr. Steven Pitt

Location: Walsh Auditorium

The sparks of revolution swirled in Boston, and the language of liberty coursed through its streets in the decade leading up to the Declaration of Independence. The Stamp Act Crisis, Townshend Acts boycotts and riots, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Intolerable Acts reinforced and compounded grievances over economic decline, taxation, Navigations Acts enforcement, impressment, and imperial overreach. The port became the epicenter of resistance with the rise of the Sons of Liberty and eventual converts like John Adams. But why Boston? Why not Philadelphia, New York, or Charleston, SC? The answer lies in Boston’s unique and complex religious, political, military, and economic trajectory that promised opportunity but led to frequent disillusionment. At every turn, Bostonians from all classes tried to escape rigged economic systems (sometimes even systems they created), but conflicting internal desires and external forces thwarted their plans and shifted economic power to neighboring ports. By 1775, economic self-preservation propelled Bostonians onto the revolutionary path.

Pitt is an associate professor of history at St. Bonaventure, focusing on colonial and Revolution-era America.

Monday, April 27: “The Revolution Today,” open panel discussion

Location: Walsh Auditorium


After spending five weeks exploring the American Revolution, our historians will gather for a final panel discussion and open Q&A with the audience. What themes have emerged from our series? What questions have the Founders raised for us? What does the American Revolution mean to us today? What is our own role in remembering America’s 250th birthday? Join us to take part in the conversation.

St. Bonaventure University’s America 250 Series is sponsored by the History Department, the Jandoli School ofCommunication, and Emerging Revolutionary War. For more information, contact Dr. Phil Payne at ppayne@sbu.edu.

Details of the Civil War Trip

 

Friday April 4

Departs from campus via a bus between noon and 1 p.m. for Harrisburg, PA. That evening you can join the Harrisburg Civil War Roundtable . Chris Mackowski will give a talk on Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs.

Saturday April 5

Tour of the Gettysburg National Military Park with the museum and  behind the scenes tour of the cyclorama depicting the battle. The American Battlefield Trust has an animated map of the battle that will help you understand the lay of the land. The battlefield and museum are both large so spending an the day is appropriate.

Sunday April 6

Sunday morning we will depart for Harpers Ferry, featuring the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park - the site of John Brown's Raid and numerous battles.

After lunch we will visit the Antietam National Battlefield. This is one of the critical battles of the war. The American Battlefield Trust has an over of the battle on YouTube. Around 5 p.m. we will depart to return to campus. 

If you are interested email Phillip Payne (ppayne@sbu.edu) or Chris Mackowski (cmackows@sbu.edu). 

Phillip Payne on panel examining the 2024 election

 

St. Bonaventure faculty will discuss presidential election on TV and radio this weekend

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., Oct. 30, 2024 — Buffalo Toronto Public Media will broadcast a forum that features St. Bonaventure University faculty unpacking the issues in the presidential election.

 The 90-minute program will air on WNED-TV, a PBS member television station in Buffalo, on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 5 p.m. and 88.7 FM WBFO Monday, Nov. 4, at 8 p.m.

 

“This program was a tremendous collaborative effort among students, faculty, staff and alumni,” said Aaron Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School of Communication. “I am proud of the efforts of everyone involved to produce a timely and important discussion of the issues at stake in the election, and I appreciate our local public media making this engaging broadcast available to a wider audience.”

 

The forum, “Policy Palooza at SBU: How the Presidential Election Will Affect the Lives of Today’s College Students,” was recorded on Tuesday, Oct. 22, on the St. Bonaventure campus.

Jandoli School Professor Richard Lee, a former political reporter and press secretary, and student Sydney Labayewski, an SBU-TV news anchor and reporter, moderated the session. Panelists included several St. Bonaventure faculty members, as well as SBU alumnus Bob McCarthy, ’76, a veteran political reporter and analyst.

 

Lee and Jandoli School faculty member Scott Sackett worked as partners to develop and produce the program.

 

“Our goal was to bring together journalists, policy experts, students and the university community for insightful conversations,” Lee said.

 

Panelists discussed the economy, health care, foreign policy, immigration, cybersecurity and other issues. St. Bonaventure students staffed the production.

 

“I’ve heard from many of my students that they don’t follow news or politics, and I wondered whether giving them a safe space for civil discourse might change how they feel,” Sackett said. “I was inspired by ‘Firing Line,’ ‘The McLaughlin Group’ and ‘Geoffrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals’ — the current affairs programs I enjoyed watching when I was their age.”

 

The project was funded by the Jandoli School and by a grant from the Leo E. Keenan Jr. Faculty Development Endowment at St. Bonaventure.

 

 

______________

 

 

About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #6 for value and #14 for innovation by U.S. News and World Report (2024).

 

Hybrid Journalism Article

 

Jandoli Institute Publishes Payne/Moritz Hybrid Article The second article in Round 2 of the Jandoli Institute's Hybrid Journalism project was published today.  The article, History, Here and Now: The Issue of Presentism and Relevance, is a collaboration between Phillip Payne, Chair of the Department of History, and Brian Moritz, director of the Jandoli School of Communication's online M.A. programs in sports journalism and digital journalism.  In the article, the authors explore two contradictory trends in American society - the decline of history in the nation's educational system and an explosion of popular history across various mediums.

 

History Class works with Eldred World War II Museum

 

Eldred World War II Museum

Students in History 419: Digital History and Archival Practices are starting new projects working with the Eldred World War II Museum located in Eldred, PA. Over the next few weeks, they will be working with museum staff to build a digital complement for an exhibit in the museum. Stay tuned as we work on these cool projects.

History Department and Adolescent Education Program receives Prestigious NEH Grant

 Dr. Phillip Payne and Dr. Gabriel Swarts led a successful grant application for a Connections Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Faculty from History and Adolescent Education will work with community partners to explore ways to develop innovative projects for students.

The official SBU press release: 

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., July 15, 2022 — St. Bonaventure University has been awarded one of only 18 Humanities Connections Planning Grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The $34,924 NEH grant will support a project titled “Collaborative Pathways for Inquiry-Based Education: Piloting a Humanities Education Partnership.”

One of just 18 Connections grants awarded to universities and colleges in the country, the project will initially focus on collaborations between the Department of History and the School of Education, said Dr. Phillip Payne, professor and Department of History chair.

Payne and Dr. Gabriel Swarts from the School of Education developed the project proposal. Swarts, who was named associate dean of education at Baldwin Wallace University in May, will continue to serve as a consultant on the project.

The pilot phase of the Collaborative Pathways project will promote student engagement with two community partners — the Seneca Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca and Cuba Circulating Library in Cuba, New York — with inquiry-based experiential learning supported by technology in both history and education courses.

“Modern technology will allow us to build bridges to experiment and build on existing strengths. Working with our community partners allows our students to work on real-world history projects that they can use in their careers. Working with new technologies and techniques that are grounded in old-fashioned historical archival work is exciting, and a process that will prove extremely valuable to future educators,” Payne said.   

“The curricular innovations introduced through this project will strengthen history faculty members’ understanding of the needs of education students, train both history and education faculty members to incorporate inquiry-based experiential learning activities and assignments into their courses, and better prepare education students to teach history in the K-12 classroom,” Payne said.

The grant was a “natural fit” for St. Bonaventure, Swarts said.

“We are incredibly excited to elevate the amazing work that students and faculty are already doing with technology and their respective disciplines,” Swarts said. “With the collaboration between history and the humanities and education already strong, this grant will strengthen student experiences and our relationships with community partners.”

If the pilot project is successful, the university will scale up the project to incorporate additional humanities disciplines and multiple institutions, Payne said.

The project planning team included Dr. Steven Pitt and Dr. Lori Henning, assistant professors of history; Chris Dalton, history lecturer; Dr. Tracy Schrems, assistant professor of adolescence education; and Bethanne Chimbel, visiting assistant professor of adolescence education.

The planning team will participate in professional development workshops and meet regularly to explore ways to work together and use technology to facilitate inquiry-based experiential learning in history and advance cooperation between faculty in history and education. In the upcoming academic year, a history course and education course will be paired in a virtual learning community to complete a shared project with a community partner.

The project will feature a technology-rich Humanities Hub to link project participants, curriculum resources, and collaborative work and provide a platform for shared research, analysis, and scholarship.

History was identified as the pilot academic program to partner with the School of Education because approximately two-thirds of SBU’s education majors choose a concentration in social studies education, which requires taking multiple history courses. Payne said.

“Despite a large number of cross-enrollments in history and education courses, we’ve historically had little collaboration between history and education faculty,” Payne said. “History faculty members lack understanding of the education curriculum and pedagogical training that future teachers receive. At the same time, humanities education needs to be integrated more intentionally into education courses with a focus on how historians work.”

Additional goals of the year-long project include:

• developing at least seven stand-alone classroom activities or assignments that incorporate the use of technology to promote inquiry;
• offering two professional development workshops for faculty led by visiting scholars on how to teach digital history and use technology to develop experiential learning projects for courses.

By the end of the project period, Payne said, the team will develop recommended strategies for scaling up the curricular model and implementing it more broadly across humanities disciplines and the School of Education.

 

______________

 

 

About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. St. Bonaventure was named the #5 regional university value in the North in U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 college rankings edition.

 

Different Games are a Fun Type of Learning

Andrew Kruszka, adolescent education and history major, has an opinion piece in the opion section of the March 18 of The Bona Venture. Check out Different Games are Fun a Fun Type of Learning In History 206: Introduction to Pubic History we are using games to explore how one designs history for different audiences and, also the Civil War. If you want to explore more of the local history of the Civil War, check out the Friedsam Library Civil War Collection.

Jandoli Institute taps experts for project on speeches

Phillip Payne contributed to this fine effort by our colleagues at the Jandoli Institute.

 

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., March 31, 2021 — The Jandoli Institute has launched a new project that identifies the qualities of good speeches.

 “We reached out to people who deliver speeches, people who write speeches, people who cover speeches and people who study speeches,” said Richard Lee, the institute’s executive director.

 The project, “Figures in Speech,” features written comments and videos from 11 individuals with expertise on speeches. All suggestions are posted on the institute website at jandoli.net.

 Among those who provided the institute with their ideas for good speeches were U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Buffalo News political reporter Robert McCarthy, Robert H. Jackson Center president Kristan McMahon, presidential scholar Michael Riccards and former U.S. Rep. James Walsh.

 Starting next week, the institute will highlight one participant’s suggestions on a weekly basis.

 Lee said the institute developed the project to provide an alternative to the partisan responses that generally follow major speeches such as the State of the Union address.

 “Reactions to political speeches are predictable, so we decided it would be more valuable to tap experts and share their advice,” he said. “Our goal is to provide a resource for those who write and deliver speeches.”

 The Jandoli Institute serves as a forum for academic research, creative ideas and discussion on the intersection between media and democracy. The institute, accessible at jandoli.net, is part of the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University.

 ______________

 About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. In 2020, St. Bonaventure was named the #2 regional university value in New York and #3 in the North by U.S. News and World Report.

 

The Great Depression - then and now?

In 2019, the pandemic crashed the economy creating a great deal of uncertainty about the future.  HOw long would it last?  What would be the long-term consequences?  Would the recovery be V shaped, K shaped or something else?  The crisis didn't hit all parts of society equally; social justice issues already being debated intensified.

How should our leadership respond?  What is the role of the government?  Economic Stimulus?  Calling for sacrifice?  Try something new?  Deficit spending?  Modern Monetary Theory?  Universal Basic Income?

We've had these debates before.  During the Great Depressions Americans debated how to respond to an economic collapse accompanied by other disasters.  The details differ, but many of the big themes remain.  Economic orthodoxy of Keynesian economics? Raise tariffs?  Stay on the gold standard?  Provide economic relief?  

Like now, the crisis changed society and brought existing conditions into the light.  Families were under stress.  Jim Crow segregation presented a real challenge to recovery efforts.

The Great Depression changed American politics, economics, and society.  What lessons can we learn for today?  Take the special topics course, the Great Depression taught by Phillip Payne.

  

1920 Election

The folks at the Jandoli School of Communication are doing good work.  Check out the Jandoli Institute.  The published two essays of mine comparing the 1920 and 2020 elections, America First:  Make America Nostalgic Again and Like Writing History with Lightning: The Politics of Nostalgia and the New Media.

History 206: Introduction to Public History

MWF 11:30 to 12:20 -- Dr. Phillip Payne

Like the Civil War?  Like to get your hands dirty?  Thinking about a career in museums, archives, or an education-related field?  History 206 is the class for you!

What is public history?  It’s history all around us.  It’s about how people create, experience, and use history.  It’s on the web, in museums, in archives, in parks and all sort of places.

How will we do it?  Students in the Public History class actively create.  You will convert research into games, among other things.  Along the way, students learn:

• Original Research
• Presentation for the public
• Gamification
• Design Principles   

What is the American Story? Dr. Andrew Roth to Speak on the American Story

April 3, 4 p.m.  Walsh Auditorium, St. Bonaventure University

Dr. Andrew Roth, past-interim president of St. Bonaventure University, former president of Notre Dame College, and currently a scholar in residence at the Jefferson Educational Society, will speak on “The American Story:  What Binds us Together as Americans.”  Dr. Roth will explore the current divisions found in today’s political culture wars and the role of the American story in creating a common ground as citizens.

As recent elections have shown, the United States is a deeply divided nation.  Some speculate we might be on the verge of a second civil war, that we are more divided now than at any other time since the 1860s.  Others speculate we are in a cultural civil war, that red and blue America are irreconcilably divided. If true, how did this cultural war begin and what are its lines of discord?

In a nation with an electorate deeply polarized along partisan political lines and cultural/tribal lines, is there an American story that we can agree upon?  Is there an understanding of the American experience that provides a common ground for civil life?  Does such a story continue to exist?  Did it ever exist?  Or as, Dr. Roth asks, “Is there more than one ‘American Story’? Is it possible that the ‘American Story’ is actually a tapestry composed of many threads with 2-3 dominant motifs”?

Roth believes that America, founded on several essential beliefs, is actually an existential nation in a perpetual state of becoming as, even now in 2019, Americans seek to answer Hector St. John Crevecouer’s more than 200-year-old question “What then is the American, this new person (sic)”?

Explore this fascinating topic with Dr. Roth at St. Bonaventure University.  All are welcome.  Refreshments will be served.

Earlier in the day, Dr. Roth will meet with students in Dr. Payne’s History 417:  Culture Wars:   The Politics of Memory to present “1968:  The Far Side of the Moon and the Birth of the Culture Wars,” his research and interest in the intersection between generational politics, culture wars, and historical narrative.

Sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences and the Department of History, St. Bonaventure University.  For more information, contact Dr. Phillip Payne, Department of History at ppayne@sbu.edu.

Summer Study in Japan

Professor Dalton is organizing a summer class that includes a trip to Japan.  You can see the details here.  Information sessions will be

5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 26
11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4
Room 203 Swan Business Center

History 417: Culture Wars: The Politics of Memory

Dr. Payne, History Department

Spring 2019

MWF 1:30 to 2:20

The culture wars are back (did they ever go away?)

Are we destroying history?

As a society, what do we decide to honor?  What do we decide to forget?  Who gets to decide? What is the difference between history and commemoration?

What does it mean to be American? 

Who Decides?

We’ll look at the issues that divide America along the lines of region, race, religion, gender, generations, and others.

We’ll place many of the current culture wars topics in historical context.  How did we react to black athletes protesting in the past?  Previous debates over immigration?

What happens when the nation’s demographics change?  Does technology bring us together or split us apart?

We’ll look at previous culture wars – prohibition, Scopes Monkey Trial – and some ongoing hot topics – immigration, urban/rural split, race relations. 

History Majors at the Bucknell Digital Scholarship Conference

Joe Aldridge and Isaac Ryss presenting at the Bucknell Digital Scholars Conference with Dennis Frank (pictured) and Phillip Payne.

The presentation, "We Built and App:  Exploring New Assignments in a History Class," was about the student, archivist, and faculty perspective in introducing a new assignment building an app to host our digital map of the St. Bonaventure Cemetery.  This is the sort of assignment that brought together the History Department, Friedsam Memorial Library, and the St. Bonaventure Android App Development club.

This being a digital scholarship conference, participants were active on Twitter so here are some Tweets about the presentation.

The conference had a lot of really cool examples of people working across disciplines and unites.  We came back with a lot of ideas for new, fun, assignments. 

Podcast: Presidential Legacies with Dr. Phillip Payne

Turns out that TAP into Greater Olean has a podcast and who doesn't love a good podcast.  Dr. Payne recently appeared on it to discuss Warren G. Harding, presidential politics, legacy, and papers.  Check it out at Podcast: Presidential Legacies with Dr. Phillip Payne

Connecting the dots between liberal arts and careers

It may be to the outsider that some of the things on appearing on the blog don't add up - what's up with a history department and GIS, THATCamp, Escape Rooms, Game Design, and other stuff.  Yes, we still teach history. Students read books and write papers.  That's not going away.  In fact, the bulk of what we do falls into those categories.  The ability to deeply read a text, write a clear paper, and use content knowledge to place events in context has never been more important.

However, we're also adding some spice to how things have been done in a history class.  Some of it, frankly, is experimentation with the goal of having fun.  Why not?  Fun is a powerful thing when it comes to learning.

 But as you can tell from other postings, we're giving serious thought to the relationship between the liberal arts and careers.  For starters, reading, writing, and content are important for life and work, but we also live in an age when things are changing rapidly and much of that change is driven by technology and data.  For those of you who graduated pre-internet, think about how much our work, entertainment, and lives have changed.  Frankly, there are now many careers that didn't exist 20 years ago and who knows what will exist 20 years from now.

There is a lot being written about this topic.  We're urged to "adapt and survive" and to "race with the machine."

Fair enough.  How?

This brings us back to the innovations we've been introducing to history classes.  There is one word you need on your resume today, and that is digital and so you see our work in digital history.  This is why we're working in GIS, website creation, podcast, and such.  Students should have digital on their resumes in a concrete and professional way.

We're also giving some serious thought to how design fits into this - hence the game design and gamification.

We've been working with Bill Bechdel of XPhobia and Jennifer Pulver of SBU's events office to create an escape room summer camp.  Don't know what an escape room is?  Check out the Olean Times Herald story on Bill's room.  According to Bill, “It’s like stepping into a movie — you’re a part of the action,” he said. “My idea is to bring as much immersion to this as possible.”  For participants, it is an authentic, immersive experience.  

For educators, it's a chance to blend content with design in the curriculum.  It's a chance for educators and students alike to learn.  The next step is to take the ideas we develop with the escape room camp and bring them into classes.  That, it seems, is the key to adapting - and having fun.

Innovation

SBU is having its reception and luncheon for recipients of Keenan and Martini Grants.  A Keenan Grant funded the THATCamp, so we are happy to acknowledge the support.  SBU's Office of Events and Conferences really helped with putting the camp together and Jennifer Pulver not only did a great job with the event but also turned our poster into something really cool.  Sometimes you shouldn't let historians do graphic design.