Archivist and Deep Fakes

A piece from Gizmodo, How Archivists Could Stop Deepfakes from Rewriting History, is something that should interest our students who are taking methods and will take digital history and archival practices.

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. 

Oct 11 Meet and Greet

The history department is having a little get together for students on Oct 11 at 11:30 in P. 109.  Lots of pizza and cookies available!  Stop by.  You can meet the faculty.  Learn our plans and what classes we'll be offering.  Next semester we're offering two new classes, one on cyberwarfare and another on video gaming and history, plus the return of the class on the culture wars.  Learn about the history club and Phi Alpha Theta.  Make suggestions.  We're looking for ideas.

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. 

Spring 2019 Courses

We've just put together the schedule for the Spring 2019 semester.  We've got the usual array of quality surveys in World, European, and United States History.  We're excited that Dr. Henning is offering a course on Cyberwarfare and Dr. Pitt is offering a class on history and video gaming.  Dr. Payne will be offering Culture Wars:  The Politics of Memory.  These courses should give students a variety of ways to explore history. 

History 475 Changing things Up with Diplomacy

As a change of pace, we're playing Diplomacy in History 475:  World War II.  We're using a 1936 variant of the classic game to get at the contingencies that European leaders faced as the continent moved toward war.  When all is said and done, students are going to reflect on how learning the origins of the war through gaming differed from reading about it in Murray and Millet, A War to be Won, and other books.

U.S. News ranks St. Bonaventure No. 1 for value in New York, No. 2 in North

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., Sept. 10, 2018 — St. Bonaventure University is ranked No. 1 in New York and No. 2 in the North on U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 list of best regional university values.

The U.S. News’ “Great Schools, Great Prices” list of Best Regional Universities in the North includes colleges that offer a full range of master’s degree programs. Last year, St. Bonaventure was ranked No. 2 in New York and No. 5 in the North.

St. Bonaventure also ranked 22^nd out of 197 institutions on the magazine’s all-criteria ranking of Best Regional Universities in the North.

“We’ve always done very well on the U.S. News value rankings, but our decision to enhance our academic scholarships last year has taken us to the top,” said Dr. Dennis R. DePerro, now in his second year as university president.

“Welcoming the largest freshman class in a decade this fall affirms to me that people are taking notice that a St. Bonaventure education is a tremendous value, both professionally and personally,” he said.

The magazine determined the value ranking using three figures from 2017-18: ratio of academic quality to price, percentage of undergraduates receiving need-based aid and average discount.

Prospective students can calculate their scholarship eligibility at www.sbu.edu/calculator.  

The magazine’s annual rankings of “America’s Best Colleges” were released today. Complete rankings of nearly 1,600 schools nationwide are available at www.usnews.com/colleges.

They will also be published in this month’s issue of U.S. News & World Report, on newsstands starting today.  

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, we believe in the goodness of every person and in the ability of every person to do extraordinary things.  St. Bonaventure University cultivates graduates who are confident and creative communicators, collaborative leaders and team members, and innovative problem solvers who are respectful of themselves, others, and the diverse world around them. Named the #2 best college value in the North by U.S. News and World Report, we are establishing pathways to internships, graduate schools and careers in the context of our renowned liberal arts tradition.