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.

US Entered WW I today

Today is the anniversary of the United States joining World War I.  If you are interested in it, especially a local perspective check out Dr. Schaeper's book Somewhere in France: The World War I Letters and Journal of Private Frederick A. Kittleman.

Internship Opportunities

https://sbu-csm.symplicity.com/

Public History Game Design is back for the Fall

Is it fun?  Are games fun?  What is fun?  Should we play?  Here are some thoughts...

Next fall we will be doing the game design assignment again in History 206:  Introduction to Public History.  Prepping for that Dennis Frank send us a link to a collection of Ted Talks on Board Game Geek about board games.

While we're at it, let's check out video games in the classroom with Classroom Game Design.

Escape Room Camp - this summer

This summer we're hosting an escape room camp.  Escape Rooms are popping up all over the place.  In an escape room, your group has to get out (escape) by solving puzzles and mysteries around a theme.  If you like games, puzzles, and working together, they can be super fun.  The video (above) better explains what an escape room is.  If you search on YouTube, you will find lots of videos of people playing escape rooms.

Our camp is doing something a little different.  Campers will build the escape room and invite friends and family to play.  Campers will work in groups, pick a theme, select and build the puzzles, and put it all together in an escape room.

Liberal Arts and Jobs...

This piece, "Liberal Arts Majors Have Plenty of Job Prospects, if They have some Specific Skills, Too," in the Chronicle of Higher Education points out the value of a liberal arts education when combined with managerial and technical skills.  This is certainly a message we've been preaching in the digital and public history courses.

From the article:

"Employers really value soft skills that are the bedrock of a liberal-arts education," he says. But many employers are also looking for applicants with additional, specific skills, such as knowledge of Java or other programming languages, or proficiency with graphic-design tools like InDesign or Adobe Creative Cloud. "It’s not a matter of shutting down the classics department and turning it into a business degree," he says.
...
The company identified skills in eight fields, and then found an additional 863,000 entry-level jobs for graduates with skills in one or more of those fields. For example, the analysis found an additional 137,000 entry-level jobs for liberal-arts graduates who had data-analysis or management skills. It also found that such data-analysis jobs paid an average of $12,700 above the average salary for jobs traditionally open to liberal-arts graduates without such skills.

Somewhere in France

The Buffalo News has a nice article on Dr. Schaeper's Somewhere in France.  It begins....

"Professor of history Thomas J. Schaeper of Saint Bonaventure University has achieved a stellar place in the annals of writing about the history of war. He does this with his excellent book “Somewhere In France” which shows that all war is, in the end,  a story of the "quick and the dead," the personal and local."

Check out the story and the book.