12th Annual History Graduate Student Conference, March 17-18

The History Graduate Student Association hosts the 12th Annual History Graduate Student Conference at Ohio University on March 17-18.

The program combines a keynote lecture with a series of panel presentations that showcase some of the cutting-edge, in-progress work of graduate students in the discipline of history from a variety of universities. The events are free and open to the public.

Keynote Address: Friday, March 17, at 4:30 p.m. in Galbreath Chapel

The conference opens on Friday, March 17, at 4:30 p.m. in Galbreath Chapel with a keynote address by Dr. John Earl Haynes, speaking on “Documents that Fall Out of the Sky: A Story of Luck, Accidents, and Opportunity in Historical Research.” Haynes held the post of 20th Century Political Historian in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress from 1987 until his retirement in 2012. He earned a Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Minnesota. He is the author or coauthor of 12 books, chiefly on American communism, anticommunism, and Soviet espionage, the most prominent of which are Spies: The Rise and Fall of The KGB in America (Yale University Press, 2009) and Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (Yale, 1999). He also has authored more than 100 historical articles and essays. Haynes also served on the staffs of two Minnesota governors, a U.S. senator, and a U.S. representative. He currently lives in Santa Fe, NM.

Session 1: Saturday, March 18, 9:30am-11:30 a.m.

Panel: Identity and Change in West Africa (Bentley 129)

Chair: Cameron Dunbar

Faculty Commentator: Dr. Assan Sarr, Assistant Professor of History at Ohio University

Participants:

• Macodou Fall (Ohio University): “Media in the Murid World: Analysis of Inscribed Faith and Religious Identity in Murid Agencies’ Media Approach”
• James Fisher and Lassane Ouedraogo (Ohio University): “Popular Music and National Identity in Contemporary Burkina Faso”
• Ablie Jabang (Ohio University): “Islamic Revolutions, Atlantic Slave Trade, and Slavery in The Greater Senegambian: Between Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries”
• Sana Saidykhan (Ohio University): “The Imposition of Chiefs on the People without Kings or Subjects: Resistance to Colonial Rule and Transformation of Jola Society in Foni District, 1893 -1923”

Lunch: Saturday, March 18, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Bentley 306)

Session 2: March 18, 12:40-2:10 p.m.

Panel 1 : The Cold War in Latin America  (Bentley 129)

Chair: Amanda Ward

Faculty Commentator: Dr. Patrick Barr-Melej, Associate Professor of History at Ohio University

Participants:

• Michael Fitzpatrick (Ohio University): “In Pursuit of Supremacy: Cold War Weapon’s Acquisition, A Case Study, 1963-1970”
• Heather Salazar (Ohio University): “Failing to Achieve Jointness: Operation Urgent Fury”
• William Weber (West Virginia University): “In Darker Shadows: CIA Analysts and the 1954 Guatemala Coup D’Etat”

Panel 2: Colonialism and Conflict in Asia (Bentley 136)

Chair: Luke Griffith

Faculty Commentator: Dr. Joshua Hill, Assistant Professor of History at Ohio University

Participants:

• Caitlin Bentley (Ohio University): “Linking Communications: GHQ SWPA’s Command Response to Human Intelligence and Signals Intelligence During World War II”
• P. Mike Rattanasengchanh (Ohio University): “South of the Border: The Role of Preah Vihear in Hun Sen’s Politics”
• Taoyu Yang (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign): “The 1874 and 1898 Siming Gongsuo Riots and the Modern Colonial Quandary”

Session 3: Saturday, March 18, 2:20-3:50 p.m.

Panel 1: Britain’s Eastern Empire (Bentley 129)

Chair: Julia Skow

Faculty Commentator: Dr. John Brobst, Associate Professor of History at Ohio University

Participants:

• Andrew Howard (Ohio University): “Competing Narratives in Eighteenth-Century India”
• Habibe Temizsu (Mimar Sinan University): “The Sistan-Arbitration and Henry Walter Bellew”
• Rob Venosa (Ohio University): “The Meaning of Manchuria: The Chatham House Assessment of Collective Security in the Wake of the Manchurian Crisis”

Panel 2: The Second World War (Bentley 136)

Chair: Kyle Balzer

Faculty Commentator: Dr. David Curp, Associate Professor of History at Ohio University

Participants:

• Paul Cook (Temple University): “The Enabling Experience: African American Soldiers in World War II, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”
• Fred Coventry (Ohio University): “MI-9 Operations in China and East Asia”
• Alex Lovelace (Ohio University): “The Pen being Mightier than the Sword: The Press Strategy of The Normandy Campaign”