Dr. Helgeson on His Summer History Adventures

While in Cooperstown for our son’s baseball tournament, we of course visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I’d been before, but hadn’t noticed Andy Warhol’s 1977 painting of one of my favorite pitchers, Tom Seaver.

We also went to the New York Farmers Museum, where we saw the state merry go round. This was not the first time I’d seen the ride’s hand-carved animals. When I was in middle school on Long Island in the mid-1980s, the merry go round’s founder Gerald Holzman visited our history class and told us all about the project, using this beaver as an exhibit of the intricate designs involved. The tour guide the museum, Patrick MacGregor, remembers our Museum Studies professor, Kate Betz, from her time as an intern there!

We then rode power-assist bikes on the rails of the Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley Railroad. And we got an impromptu private tour of the Leatherstocking Railway Historical Society and its trains—including a well-preserved 1923 commuter train that was based in Hoboken, New Jersey.     

Dr. McKiernan-Gonzalez on Cross-Regional Labor Organizing

In June 2023, I spent most of three weeks in two Stanford University Special Collection libraries, the Lane Medical History Center and the Special Collections and University Archives in the Green Library in Stanford. My general interest is Latinos, health care and social justice, so I decided to spend some extended time in the Ernesto Galarza papers.  What I found in the folders and papers linked to the National Farm Laborers Union troubled my regionally-bound assumptions regarding the source and inspiration of labor organizing.   The first hint that I might be remiss in my assumption that Latino farm labor organizing happened alongside the Pacific migration circuits connecting the western states of Nayarit, Jalisco and Michoacan to the U.S. Pacific Rim encompassing California, Oregon and Washington. You can see the importance of the U.S. and Mexico in the many of the photographs.  Ernesto Galarza himself makes this very clear in his autobiography, Barrio Boy, where he narrates his upbringing in rural Nayarit and his migration to the U.S. in the 1920s.[1]

I was a little remiss in my assumption regarding what side of the Pacific, and which migration.  NFLU organizer Hank Hasiwar told Donald Grubbs that he got involved in farm labor after his “armed service in Japan. There he had gained first hand knowledge of the land redistribution and peasant ownership program instituted by known reformer General Douglas Macarthur, whose Japanese Radicalism the NFLU hoped to transplant into the soil of California’s San Joaquin Valley.”[2] This is not the first time democracy movements at the edge of the U.S. empire helped shape reform movements in the United States, but the impact of seeing land transfer from landowners to peasants and migrant workers under U.S. occupation demonstrated that land reform “si se puede,” at least to that New Deal informed GI.  As much as the Great Depression drove Black, White and Mexican Southern families to California, World War II enabled the migration of young American men to Japan, where they learned that societies could be reshaped, giving voice to peasant families in what been an imperial monarchy.

WWII may have brought Galarza and Hasiwar together. The Ernesto Galarza Papers Collection also made it clear that the NFLU – both Galarza and Hasiwar – were in close contact with their parent organization, the Southern Tenant Farmer’s Union.  Galarza regularly reported to HL Mitchell; Congress regularly called HL Mitchell to task for the labor actions NFLU affiliates started taking in post-WWII rural California, most notably the secondary boycotts against the Di Giorgio Farm Corporation. It is here, in the folder titled “Spiders in the House,” TV Program KNBC Los Angeles Mounted Photos,” that materials from a 1940s publicity campaign by the Southern Tenant Farmer’s Union appeared. The jutting chin, the short-sleeves, the blurry clouds in the background, the angle from below and the undeniably charismatic model for the photograph titled “New Farmworker in the South” pointed to both the national aspiration and cross-regional impact of rural organizing in the Appalachians and the Tennessee River Valley.[3]  Historian Jeffrey Helgeson pointed out how this 1940s photo’s staging evoked painter, African American activist and labor exile  Charles White’s depiction of Black Southern life.[4] This even carried through to the Di Giorgio strike where – even though the NFLU stood for Mexican American and Asian American Civil rights, 90% of the 800 striking workers were white and with southern roots, making it hard for the NFLU claiming to strike a blow for civil rights in California. The “new Southern farmworker” may have represented the hope for the STFU and the NFLU.  Their success at negotiating as farmworkers contributed to the ensuing backlash from the California chapter of “Rancher Nation,” the Associated Farmers of California and their lawyer, Richard Milhouse Nixon.[5]

Maybe many of these workers had also been part of the occupation of Japan and maybe they too knew of the possibility of radical transformation alongside federal involvement. The NFLU and the STFU organized rural workers and rural communities, and they drew on as many organizing traditions to be successful, be they imperial and revolutionary, Mexican or Appalachian, rural and industrial. The success of the secondary boycott against Di Giorgio Produce in California contributed to a senate hearing on secondary boycotts’ which probably influenced those anti-boycott provisions in the Taft-Hartley Act. Farm workers and labor organizers like Hazimwar suffered the brunt of shifting national objectives, from imposing land transfers in Japan to imposing labor controls in the rural United States.

All this is to say – using photographs of meetings in Tijuana, Salinas and Memphis – is that an archive helps reveal the particular ways the world can be deeply entangled, and that labor organizing in central California drew from traditions in the United States, Mexico, the Philippines, Japan and even radical conservatives in the U.S. Arny central command.[6] It helps to read widely to recognize the cross-regional entanglements; it helps to have extended time to chew on the miscellanea in various folders across the archive, to read against your assumptions shaping your reading of the collection. I mean, I came to the Galarza archive to see whether specific medical issues facing farmworkers had been part of the organizing brief for NFLU labor organizers.  Instead, I learned of the broad cross-regional milieus shaping federal agricultural policy in the Western United States.

[1] Ed Frayne Photography, Salinas, California. “Farm Labor Union Meeting,” Collection 224, Ernesto Galarza papers, Box 65, Series V, Folder 8, Folder Title, Farm Labor Union Meeting, Salinas, California, circa 1948.

[2] Donald Grubbs, “The National Farm Labor Union in California: background to Cesar Chavez,” typescript, Folder 2Title Braceros, Living and Working Conditions, 1949-1957, Series V, Box 65, Collection 224 Ernesto Galarza papers. John Dower, noted historian of the relationship between Japan and the United States, emphasized the democratizing impact U.S. constitutional reforms had on working-class and rural Japan; I am confident few people have examined the democratizing impact these Japan-specific reforms may have had on U.S. soldiers.  John Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (NY: W.W. Norton, 1999)

[3] Southern Tenant Farmworkers Union, ”New Farm Worker of the South, n.d.” Box 65 Folder 10 “Southern Tenant Farmers Union, living and working conditions in the South, ca. 1940s,”

[4] Vanessa Cross, “African American Artist Charles W. White Jr.” American Artist Blogspot, http://american-biography.blogspot.com/2011/02/african-american-artist-charles-w-white.html Adapted from Vanessa Cross, “Charles White: the Art of a Chicago Son Beautifies Experiences of Common Black Folk,” Afrique June 1996.

[5] Ernesto Galarza, Spiders in the House and Workers on the Field (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970)

[6] Lori Flores, Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican immigrants and the California Farmworkers Movement (New haven: Yale University Press, 2018); Christian Paiz,The Strikers of Coachella: A rank-and-file history of the UFW movement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022). See also the first draft of this history in Ernesto Galarza, Spiders in the House and Workers in the Field (Notre dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970)

 

From TXST to NPR: Conversations with Executive Producer Erika Aguilar

Image of flyer with dates and times (included in text of blog entry)

Please join as we welcome Erika Aguilar, Executive Producer of NPR’s Morning Edition and Up First. A graduate of Texas State, majoring in History and Journalism, Aguilar leads the team that delivers the news that many of us listen to on our morning commutes. Aguilar will be visiting Texas State as part of the History in the Making Series and Mass Communication Week.

THURSDAY, 6 Oct. 2022

Reception, 5:30 PM
Taylor-Murphy Hall Courtyard (Food to be served)

Keynote/Q&A, 7 PM
Alkek Library Teaching Theater

FRIDAY, 7 Oct. 2022

Student Breakfast 10 AM Honors College Coffee Forum Lampasas

TV and Radio News Panel, 1:45 PM to 3 PM
Old Main 230

 

Sponsored by the Texas State Department of History, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Texas Center for Public History, the Center for the Study of the Southwest, KTSW, the College of Liberal Arts, the Honors College, the Office of the Provost, and The Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. If you require an accommodation due to a disability, contact Dr. Louie Dean Valencia at 512.245.2103 or at lvalencia@txstate.edu. Requests should be made at least 72 hours in advance of the program start time to ensure availability.

An Interview with Dr. Sara Damiano on her new book, ‘To Her Credit: Women, Finance, and the Law in Eighteenth-Century New England’

We took a minute to catch up with Dr. Sara Damiano on her new book, To Her Credit: Women, Finance, and the Law in Eighteenth-Century New England (Johns Hopkins University Press). Dr. Damiano’s book “uncovers free women’s centrality to the interrelated worlds of eighteenth-century finance and law. Focusing on everyday life in Boston, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island—two of the busiest port cities of this period—Damiano argues that colonial women’s skilled labor actively facilitated the growth of Atlantic ports and their legal systems. Mining vast troves of court records, Damiano reveals that married and unmarried women of all social classes forged new paths through the complexities of credit and debt, stabilizing credit networks amid demographic and economic turmoil. In turn, urban women mobilized sophisticated skills and strategies as borrowers, lenders, litigants, and witnesses.”

 

Congratulations! How does it feel to have your first book published?

Dr. Damiano: It feels great! I began using court records to study eighteenth-century women when I was an undergraduate, and continued that work for my PhD dissertation—so this book is the culmination of a very long process. I’m excited that my research can now more readily shape scholarly conversations about women’s relationship to economic and legal development in early British North America.

What is the general argument of your book and how do you see is speaking to other works in your field?

Dr. Damiano: To Her Credit argues that free white women’s financial and legal work was essential to economic and legal development in eighteenth-century New England. I focus on the region’s two largest port cities, Boston, MA and Newport, RI. In these place, men’s work often took them to sea, sometimes never to return, and women outnumbered men. Everyday practices therefore demanded that women become skilled users of credit and debt.

My work sits at the intersection of several subfields, including women’s and gender history, legal history, and the history of capitalism. By reconstructing everyday practices, we can more fully recognize women’s contributions eighteenth century financial networks and legal institutions. We can also see that specific roles—such as creditor, debtor, or witness—endowed women with situational forms of authority or vulnerability that broad frameworks like patriarchy and marriage law can obscure.

Can you tell our readers a bit about your research process, and the trajectory of the project more generally?

Dr. Damiano: While my research uses many different kinds of manuscript and printed sources, I relied most heavily on county court records. In the absence of modern financial institutions like banks and collection agencies, the courts were a very important arena in which New Englanders enforced financial obligations. Of the hundreds of cases heard at each court term, more than 80 percent concerned debts. In other words, unlike today, going to court was a commonplace, routine activity. I used court records in three ways. First, I examined records from thousands of cases in order to quantify and compare women’s and men’s activities. Second, I reconstructed stories of individual women who waged extended legal battles. Third, I aggregated small details from routine cases in order to create a composite picture of women’s everyday practices. I wrote more about this third method in a recent blog post for JHU Press.

Is there a particular vignette that sticks out to you that you’d like to share from your book?

Dr. Damiano: As New England’s legal system developed during the eighteenth century, courts and laws increasingly favored creditors over debtors. As I explain in my book, this benefitted many women. White urban women were important lenders within their communities. Two-thirds of female litigants in debt suits were plaintiffs and creditors, and they overwhelmingly won their cases.

But, this same system disadvantaged female debtors, especially those who made legal errors or were saddled with extensive debt. One of these woman was Ann Maylem, the Newport, Rhode Island widow of an insolvent rum distiller. She spent six years battling her late husband’s former business partners, and took her cases to Rhode Island’s highest courts. In the course of her efforts, she also took the rare step of publishing a broadside (an eighteenth-century poster) outlining her side of the case. Her story contains elements of both persistence and tragedy. Read Chapter 5 of my book to learn more!

Where do you hope future projects will take you?

Dr. Damiano: I remain fascinated by eighteenth-century court records and the ways in which they provide windows onto the lives of marginalized individuals, especially women. In the course of researching To Her Credit, I’ve become interested with urban residents’ interactions with minor law enforcement officials—figures including sheriffs, constables, jailkeepers, and watchmen. For my next project, I’m planning on investigating the power dynamics at play during such interactions, and the skills that free and enslaved men and women used to protect their persons and property.

International Film Festival and Symposium on Consent

 

Screenings: 4-14 April 2022

Symposium: Friday, 15 April 2022  9-5 in Centennial Hall G02

 

Sponsors: University Lecturers Committee, Honors College, College of Liberal Arts, Departments of World Languages and Literatures, Anthropology, Geography, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Centers for Diversity and Gender Studies, International Studies, and the Center for the Study of the Southwest. 

Albertine Cinémathèque is a program of FACE Foundation and Villa Albertine in partnership with the French Embassy in the United States and with the support of the CNC (Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée) and the Fonds Culturel Franco-Américain. 

Week 1 

“Age of Consent & Abuse” / 3 films / Monday April 4 / 6-8 pm 

1) Online: Little Boy, by Roland Klick, 1968, German 

When the parents of a suburban, middle-class family go to a party, they leave Achim and his baby sister under the supervision of Monika, the neighbor’s daughter. Soon after the parents are gone, Monika ditches babysitting to go out with her boyfriend, and Achim murders the baby by means of suffocation. Roland Klick’s debut feature is a film that uses cinema as a means to comment on German society. Much of the film is spent in the aftermath of the crime with the parents and neighbors trying to figure out who is responsible with both Monika and Achim denying any involvement or taking any responsibility for their actions. 

Suggested and run by Dr. Lisa Haegele, Assistant Professor of German, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A 

2) On Campus (Centennial Hall G02): Slalom, by Charlène Favier, 2020, French 

This Cannes-selected #MeToo drama from debut filmmaker Charlène Favier follows the relationship between a teenage ski prodigy and her predatory instructor, played by Dardenne brothers’ collaborator Jérémie Renier. In a breakthrough role, Noée Abita plays 15-year-old Lyz, a high school student in the French Alps who has been accepted to an elite ski club known for producing some of the country’s top professional athletes. 

Run by Dr. Jennifer Forrest, Professor of French, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A 

3) In Community(Stellar Coffee co.): Little Girl, by Sébastien Lifshitz, 2020, French 

Petite Fille is the portrait of 7-year-old Sasha, who has always known that she is a girl. Sasha’s family has recently accepted her gender identity, embracing their daughter for who she truly is while working to confront outdated norms and find affirmation in a small community of rural France. 

Run by Dr. Carole Martin, Professor of French, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A


“Tales of Consent &Dissent” / 3 films/Wednesday April 6/ 6-8 pm

1) Online:Hyenas, by Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1992, Senegalese 

Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty sets an intriguing tale that speaks to the African continent’s complex place in the global order: his protagonist comes back to her hometown with a proposal to give its citizens an extraordinary amount of money, if they accept to kill their future mayor, who, she reveals, impregnated and abandoned her when she was a teenager. The vexed citizens initially reject her offer, but as the town’s debt accumulates in the face of a flood of consumer goods, the abuser begins to fear for his life. 

Run by Babacar Tall, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A

2) On Campus (Centennial Hall G02): Nights of Cabiria, by Federico Fellini, 1957, Italian 

Cabiria works as a prostitute, becoming entangled in a series of relationships that eschew “consent”, before falling in love and accepting to get married to Oscar, yet another embezzler who intends to kill her and steal her money.   Like other neo-realistic films, Le Notti di Cabiria is aimed toward the development of a theme. Its interest is not so much the conflicts that occur in the life of the heroine as the deep, underlying implications that the pattern of her life shows. 

Suggestedand run by Dr. Jessica Pliley, Associate Professor of the History of Women, Genders, and Sexualities, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A

3) In Community (San Marcos Public Library): Sisters of the Gion, by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936, Japanese Two geisha sisters lead a hard life in Kyoto’s Gion district. When one of them feels obliged to help a ruined businessman, the other sister cooks up various schemes to get rid of him. Whereas one sister embodies a very traditional discretion in expressing her emotions, the other flouts codes and morals. 

Suggested and run by Dr. Maria-Luisa Gomez Ramirez, Senior Lecturer of French, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A


Thursday Nuit Blanche / April 7 

From “Tales of Consent & Dissent” to “Consent in Post-Modern/Post-Colonial Societies” 

7 films (3 double features + 1 community screening) 

1) Online Double Feature 1 (French): 

a) Beauty and the Beast, by Jean Cocteau, 1946 

A defining influence on filmmakers as different as Ingmar Bergman and François Truffaut, this adaptation of the classic fairy tale by iconoclastic novelist, playwright, artist, and filmmaker Jean Cocteau is a deeply ambiguous work about the foundational role of consent. 

b) Portrait of a Lady on Fire, by Céline Sciamma, 2019 

In the late eighteenth-century, Marianne, a female painter, travels to an island off the coast of Brittany to paint a portrait of Héloïse, a young woman whose mother has recently taken her out of a convent to marry her to an Italian nobleman whom she has never met. But Héloïse refuses to sit for a portrait she knows will be offered to her prospective husband. 

Run by Scarlett Cado, with surveys but no discussion/6-10 pm 

2) Online Double Feature 2 (German and South-Korean): 

a) The Edukators, by Hans Weingartner, 2004 

Young, anti-capitalist Berlin activists involved in a love triangle, invade upper-class houses, rearrange the furniture, and leave notes identifying themselves. Weingartner, a former activist, wrote the film based on his experiences and chose to use nonviolent characters. His work has now become a cult production of the “German New Wave”, and it has inspired real-life actions. 

b) Parasite, by Bong Joon-ho, 2019 

The film portrays the history of a family of two parents and two teenagers that lives in extreme poverty. They are trying to find a way to better their lives, while ending up lying and deceiving rich people. The issue it raises is: how far can human beings take their scams to become better versions of themselves, and how come they lived in such poverty? 

Run by Dr. Malgorzata Citko-DuPlantis, Lecturer of Japanese, with surveys but no discussion/6-10 pm 

3) On Campus Double Feature in Centennial Hall G02 (American and Mauritanian): 

a) The Story of a Three-Day Pass, by Melvin Van Peebles, 1967 

Channeling the exuberance of the French New Wave, Van Peebles creates an exploration of the psychology of an interracial relationship as well as a commentary on France’s contradictory attitudes about race that laid the foundation for the blaxploitation cinematic revolution he would unleash just a few years later with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. 

b) Soleil Ô, by Med Hondo, 1970 The late Mauritanian-French writer-director-producer Med Hondo was a trailblazer in making independent films that featured the lives of African immigrants in Europe and denounced all forms of oppression. His first feature Soleil Ô, self-financed and shot over three years in the aftermath of May 68, follows the fortunes of an African immigrant in Paris whose initial excitement about the capital of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” turns into a withering verdict on the effects of colonial history. Run by Carole Martin, with surveys but no discussion/6-10 pm 

4) In Community(Stellar Coffee co.): Caramel, by Nadine Labaki, 2007, Lebanese

Labaki, a Lebanese writer, director, and actress depicts the life of five Lebanese women who work in a beauty salon in Beirut, Lebanon. They struggle between their desire to live free and their obligation to tradition, religion, and family rules. The contradictions and the issues they have to deal with in their life are woven in an intriguing manner that illustrates both compliance and resistance to societal norms. 

Suggested and run by Noha Mohama-Akkari, Instructor of Arabic, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A/6-8 pm 


Week 2 

“Consent & Family Affairs” / 3 films / Monday April 11 / 6-8 pm 

1) Online: 35 Shots of Rum, by Claire Denis, 2009, French 

35 Rhums portrays a family of two’s extreme closeness (between a widowed father, Lionel, and his university-student daughter, Joséphine) while suggesting its potential for suffocation. 

Run by Dr. Moira DiMauro-Jackson, Senior Lecturer of French and Instructor of Italian, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A 

2) On Campus (Centennial Hall G02): Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom, by Pedro Almodóvar, 1980, Spanish 

Pepi is raped by the policeman who catches her growing marijuana in her apartment. She seeks revenge by getting his masochist wife to leave him. 

Suggested and run by Dr. Louie Valencia, Assistant Professor of History, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A 

3) In Community(Stellar Coffee co.): By the Grace of God, by François Ozon, 2019, French 

This dramatization of the events that exposed the most significant sex abuse scandal to date in the French Catholic church focuses on what happens to victims once they speak their truth. It is an important contribution to awareness of the global problem of sexual abuse in the Church and the general conversation in the era of #MeToo. 

Run by Dr. Miranda Sachs, Assistant Professor of History, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/after-film Q&A 


“Consent in Post-Modern/Post-Colonial Societies” / 3 films / Wednesday April 13 / 6-8 pm 

1) Online: Pan’s Labyrinth, by Guillermo del Toro, 2006, Mexican 

This is a film that deals with the Spanish Civil War, Francoist period, and the struggle against an overpowering state, in which identity and self-determination are challenged. Yet El laberinto del fauno’s imaginary world presents a radical and rewarding model to examine consent under totalitarian regimes. 

Run by Carole Martin, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/short after-film Q&A 

2) On Campus (Centennial Hall G02): The Society of the Spectacle, by Guy Debord, 1974, French 

Six years after the publication of his Situationist classic La Société du Spectacle, Guy Debord released this essay-film adaptation, using the technique of “détournement” (think pre-digital remixing). He overlays a dizzying array of still and film images with text from the book to provide a sharp commentary on a world dominated by image and power. 

Run by Dr. Ron Haas, Honors College Director of Research and Writing, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/ after-film Q&A 

3) In Community(San Marcos Public Library): Night of the Kings, by Philippe Lacôte, 2020, Ivorian 

A young man is sent to “La Maca,” a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes, with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new “Roman”—or “Scheherazade”—and must tell a story for his life to be spared. He begins to narrate the life of the legendary outlaw named “Zama King” to the other prisoners. 

Run by Kenny Anagbogu, with short intro/pre-symposium survey/short after-film Q&A 


Thursday Nuit Blanche / April 14 / 6-8 pm 

2 pre-symposium screenings 

Online Double Feature: 

a) Becky’s Journey, by Sine Plambech, 2015 

Becky’s Journey provides rare insight into the hopes and fears of high-risk migration and human trafficking from a woman’s perspective. It documents Becky’s attempts to travel across the Mediterranean and tells the story of the many migrants that never reach Europe’s shores. 

b) The Rape of Recy Taylor, by Nancy Buirski, 2017 

Mrs. Recy Taylor was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Unbroken, she spoke up and fought for justice with help from Rosa Parks and legions of women. 

Run by Maria-Luisa Gomez Ramirez, with surveys but no discussion 


Friday Symposium / April 15 / Centennial Hall G02 

AM/9:30-10:50—Opening guest lectures with short intro and Q&A moderated by Dr. Jessica Pliley 

Dr. Sine Plambech, Danish Institute for International Studies, on filming Becky’s Journey 

Ms. Piper Nelson, The SAFE Alliance, Austin, Texas, “Stopping the Cycle of Violence in Central Texas” 

11 AM-1:50 PM–Students meet in survey-generated discussion groups (4 running concurrently from 11-12:20 and 4 from 12-30-1:50) with 8 moderators (Kenny Anagbogu, Moira DiMauro-Jackson, Maria-Luisa Gomez Ramirez, Lisa Haegele, Mona Mansard, Carole Martin, Noha Mohama-Akkari, and Babacar Tall) 

PM/2-3:20—Afternoon guest lectures with short intro and Q&A moderated by Dr. Louie Valencia 

Dr. Ourida Mostefai, Brown University, on consent in Beauty and the Beast 

Dr. Danielle McGuire, “Recy Taylor and the Roots of the Civil Rights Movement” 

PM/3:30-5–Roundtable with guests, moderated by Dr. Carole Martin, and Q&A with organizers, Drs. DiMauro-Jackson, Forrest, Gomez Ramirez, Haas, Haegele, Sachs, and Ms. Mohama-Akkari, Texas State students, and public. 

In memoriam Dr. Elizabeth Makowski (1951-2021)

Photo of Liz Makowski
  • Funeral Mass at 12:30pm on Friday, September 17th at Our Lady of Wisdom University Parish, 100 Concho St, San Marcos, TX 78666.
  • Vigil Rosary/Memorial Service at 7:00pm on Thursday, September 16th at Our Lady of Wisdom University Parish, 100 Concho St, San Marcos, TX 78666.

Remembering Liz Makowski

With the passing of Dr. Elizabeth Makowski on September 7, 2021, the Department of History at Texas State University lost a valued colleague and friend, a superb scholar, and an inspiring teacher beloved by her students.  Liz made a strong impression on the history faculty from the first day of her on-campus job interview.  She delivered her job talk in Dennis Dunn’s living room while holding her young daughter Maggie, who was less than 6 months old at the time and still nursing.  We were all impressed with Liz’s devotion to her daughter and her sang-froid as she calmly and expertly delivered her job talk.  Liz’s on-campus interview is the only one on record that required a trip to the store to buy diapers.  After Liz joined the department, a number of faculty members enjoyed Maggie’s visits to their offices when she accompanied her mother to the university.  Just as in her job talk, Liz remained unflappable over the course of her career whatever happy occasion, crisis, or misfortune might develop, a trait that resulted in an impressive scholarly output and a consistently excellent reputation as a great teacher.

As a scholar, Liz focused exclusively on medieval nuns and their various challenges.  Her first book, Canon Law and Cloistered Women: Periculoso and Its Commentators, 1298-1545 (1997) dealt with the papal directive that nuns remain cloistered and unable to leave the convents. In her review in Church History (Dec. 1998, 774-76), Helen Hills (University of Manchester) explains that Makowski’s book is “the first thorough study” of this important directive and its influence on the female monastic establishments.  Hills describes the book as a close study of canon law which reveals much about “the relationships between religious practice, institutional organization, belief systems, and gender.”  Hills points out that one of Liz’s achievements is revealing how Periculoso created greater distance between monks and nuns, since monks were not subject to the same rules.  Another strong feature of the study was its attempt to determine how completely the directive was followed which resulted in Liz’s assertions that many nuns did not adhere to Periculoso.

Her second bookA Pernicious Sort of Woman: Quasi-Religious Women and Canon Lawyers in the Later Middle Ages (2005) won the History of Women Religious, Distinguished Book Award, from Notre Dame University in 2007.  Sean Field (University of Vermont) wrote in his review in Speculum, (Jan., 2007, 207-09), that this is “an insightful study of the way canon lawyers wrote about semireligious women’s communities. . . .“

Liz’s third book, English Nuns and the Law in the Middle Ages: Cloistered Nuns and Their Lawyers (2012) once again focused on a particular problem faced by women religious—attempts to seize the endowments of their orders by relatives of their benefactors.  Henrietta Leyser, (St. Peter’s College, Oxford) praised Liz’s revealing study of English nuns’ tenacity in defending the endowments of their houses through reliance on lawyers and the English courts (English Historical Review, April 2015, 543).

The last historical study that Liz wrote, Apostate Nuns in the Later Middle Ages (2019), examined the cases of women who left their convents despite the Church’s insistence that their vows bound them to the monastic life until death.  In her study Liz examines the cases of women who left their convents for various reasons including an insistence that they had not willingly taken the vows or had never even taken the vows yet were charged with apostasy.  In her review of the book in Speculum (April 2021, 533) Tanya Stabler Miller (Loyola University Chicago) wrote, “Engrossing and informative, Makowski’s book is a wonderful addition to her already impressive body of work on women, agency, and the law.”

These historical studies were preceded by a literary study that she co-authored with Katharina Wilson, Wykked Wyves and the Woes of Marriage: Misogamous Literature from Juvenal to Chaucer. (1989).  After publishing her last historical study of nuns, canon law, and lawyers, Liz turned to writing fiction and completed The Case of the Reluctant Novice: A Mother Phillipa Mystery, a novel was published by Amazon on August 29, 2021.

Liz Makowski was a remarkable teacher of the history Medieval Europe, who endeared herself to her students and earned the respect of her colleagues for her excellent teaching.  In nominating her for the Alumni Association Teaching Award of Honor, her colleague Ron Brown emphasized that Liz had the task of bringing to life a society and culture vastly different from that of the modern world in which our students live.  Liz described herself as a “guide to students in a foreign land.”  She proved to be very effective in carrying out this mission.  Michelle Seiler-Godfrey, who worked under Liz as an undergraduate and graduate student, recalled “her energy and how infectious it was.  I think she could get just about anyone excited about anything.”  Francisco Javier Rodriguez-Arroyo was also struck by “the sheer passion” with which Liz delivered her lectures.  According to Francisco “no other word” than passion “can truly describe Dr. Makowski’s attitude toward the discipline of history.”  Liz offered her students challenging courses.  Bryan Mann, one of her graduate students and later a colleague in the Department of History, praised her demanding graduate historiography class which had served him as an excellent introduction to the graduate program in history.

Liz loved assisting students improve their understanding and investigation of history.  Describing the efforts Liz exerted to improve his approach toward history, Francisco asserted that “Dr. Makowski has single-handedly done more to help me improve as a student than any educator I have had the pleasure of studying under. . . .”  Louie Valencia, one of Liz’s undergraduate students and subsequently her colleague in the Department of History, recounts how Liz helped him prepare his first conference paper:  Liz “encouraged me to apply to my first conference when I was an undergrad. In preparation, she read drafts of my paper on representations of Liberty and the Virgin Mary—written originally for her Honors class, “Inventing the Dark Ages.” I still remember her giving me a big thumbs up at the conference, encouraging me despite my stage fright.”

Liz also provided encouragement and assistance to both undergraduate and graduate students interested in entering Ph.D. programs at other universities.  Michelle Seiler-Godfrey explained how, during her M.A. studies, Liz had taken on the task of teaching her Latin, which was not taught at Texas State but knowledge of which was essential for research in the Middle Ages.  Michelle with her newly acquired knowledge of Latin, subsequently went on to the University of Iowa where she earned a Ph.D. in Medieval History.  Louie Valencia credits Liz with encouraging him to consider earning a Ph.D. in European history at Fordham University and helping him prepare the materials he needed for a successful application.  After completing his Ph.D. and joining the history faculty at Texas State, Liz continued to serve as a mentor to Louie.  Bryan Mann also considers Liz as a mentor after earning his Ph.D. and joining the history faculty at Texas State.

These heart-warming testimonials from students regarding Liz’s approach to teaching and mentoring her students are reflected in the comments from her colleagues which poured into Jeff Helgeson’s mailbox after he announced Liz’s passing.  A number of colleagues commented on Liz’s kindness, gentle nature, and eagerness to assist her fellow faculty and staff (Leah Renold, Dwight Watson, Peter Siegenthaler, Gary Hartman, Roberta Ruiz). Other colleagues made reference to Liz’s wit and sense of humor (Leah Renold, Ana Romo, Elizabeth Bishop, Jeff Helgeson). Both Debra Law and Jeremy Roethler recalled Liz’s visits to their classrooms and her interest in providing an assessment that would reassure them of the quality of their teaching.  Jeremy said “She wrote an extraordinary teaching evaluation for me. Not the obligatory one-paragraph memo, but a full-page letter. So thoughtful. I didn’t even know who she was before that day and of course she didn’t know me either.”  Debra explained “My first semester teaching here, Liz was assigned to sit in during my 2311 class for my very first review. She came up and said that she had fun…and that has hardly ever happened. (You can picture her face and the quiet way that she critiqued things.)”  Before earning her Ph.D., Debra had been an M.A. student of Lydia Garner in our department.  At the conclusion of Debra’s class, Liz “put her arm around me and said, ‘Lydia [Garner] would be so proud of you.’”

The entire faculty recognized that Liz was a superb scholar whose publications made a significant contribution to the history of women religious and the European Middle Ages in general.  This judgment is firmly supported by the scholarly reviews of her work discussed above and in the comments of many faculty members (Jimmy McWilliams, Louie Valencia, Leah Renold, Ana Romo, Dennis Dunn, Bryan Glass).

Her scholarship was rewarded in 2010 when she was named Ingram Professor of History.  In 2013 she presented the Ingram Lecture entitled “The Curious Case of Mary Felton,” an account of one of her runaway nuns.  One can access this interesting lecture at this web address:  https://www.txstate.edu/history/news-events/speakers/makowski.html.

Mary Brennan, who was serving as chair of the department at the time of the lecture suggests that this event was representative of Liz’s career and contribution to history, the Department of History at Texas State, and the students to whom Liz was so dedicated:  “I can hear her during her Ingram Lecture, talking about her recalcitrant nuns.  That lecture was typical Liz: smart, intellectual, witty, and yet understandable to non-specialists. I think that was why she was such a successful teacher.  She was able to take complex ideas and distill them in such a way that undergraduates ‘get it.’”

-Ken Margerison

A Note from the Chair on the Fall 2020 Semester

Photo of Dr. Jeffrey Helgeson

Every semester begins with a sense of possibility, bringing both anxiety and excitement for what will come. This year, our anticipation mixes dramatically with an experience of rupture, a loss of the kind of certainty about habits and continuity that generally provide us with a foundation on which we bring some order to our semesters. This year, then, we are all working harder. We—as students, as teachers, as workers who keep our classrooms and offices running—face exponentially more difficult challenges as we get back to workNonetheless, I return this fall confirmed in my belief that the people in this department face disruption head-on and forge new paths out of difficult days.  

Teaching and learning in the contemporary university are always challenging. Limited resourcesalong with inequities, injustices, anti-intellectualism, and divisions in the society at large—impinge on the classroom. We always have to work to build and maintain the space where we can come together to study. Yet we do create that space.  

We all have known those moments when the university fulfills its promise. We see it in the light of realization in a student’s eyes, we hear it in the laughter of people working together to solve a problem, we can sense it in the air when professors and students are locked in mutual concentration on a difficult question. These satisfactions, and our memories of them, are what make the return to school such a time of promise.  

This year, the obstacles in our path can seem nearly insurmountable. Much of the extra labor we are doing can feel incomplete, frustrating, and even at times distractingly prosaic. A global pandemic, an economic calamitythe exhausting work of anti-racism in a time of surging bigotry and violence—these crises have revealed with painful clarity the structural inequities and divisions that threaten our communities. These challenges also threaten the energy and opportunity to engage in the study of history—even as that work has never seemed more important. 

To help our students enter into the study of history, the department is building on its recent growth. Four new faculty members add to the great energy in our public history and European history offerings. Students can choose from several new courses, including African American and Mexican American history surveys, which count toward core curriculum requirementsa course on creating podcasts that lift up unsung voices in historythe history of 20th-century social movements in the U.S.; and the history of childhood in EuropeStudents can also visit the new library guide for researching #BlackLivesMatter, developed by Dr. Casey Nichols and subject librarian Margaret Vaverek. The department will be collaborating on public programs and courses with people across campus, including the history faculty leading the Center for Texas Music History, the Center for Texas Public History, the Center for the Study of the Southwest, and the Center for International StudiesThe TXST chapter of Phi Alpha Theta and the student-led History Club (open to all Bobcats) are organizing regular events—from film screenings to an academic conference—that will provide opportunities to connect and outlets for graduate and undergraduate student research. There is so much going on…follow it all on the department’s FacebookTwitter, and Instagram feeds. 

 To move through tribulation in a way that seeks not just the familiar but the possible requires persistent support for each other and our studentsWriting in the shadows of Nazism on the risethe historian Walter Benjamin declared that the struggle for a just world “is a fight for the crude and material things without which no refined and spiritual things could exist.” This phrase has been ringing in my ears as I have been working with the faculty, staff, and students in the history department to make Zoom work, to welcome our new faculty and students, to learn how to foster group discussions that are simultaneously inperson and virtualand to figure out how to clear the algae from the fountain in our courtyard and order the coffee that will keep the department running. It can make for days that sometimes seem distressingly fragmented. Yet it is in working with the people in this department that I am reminded of the other half of Benjamin’s point: that the “spiritual things” we win out of the struggle come not as “spoils,” but “as courage, humor, cunning, and fortitude.”  

Dr. Jeff Helgeson

Chair and Associate Professor
Department of History
Texas State University

Congrats to the 2020-21 Awardees of the Margerison Graduate Fellowship in History!

Photos of Margerison Fellowship awardees

The Texas State University Department of History is proud to announce this year’s awardees of the Kenneth and Patricia Margerison Graduate Research Fellowship in History. The Fellowship provides support to full-time graduate students enrolled in the master’s degree program in history. Recipients are awarded funds to fully cover graduate tuition and fees for the spring and fall semesters as well as research support—qualifying for in-state tuition. The Graduate Studies Committee considers all first-year students as well as continuing students who demonstrate great promise as historians. In addition to the fellowship, students may also be offered a graduate Instructional Assistantship (IA), which includes a monthly salary.

Please visit the History Department Scholarships website for specific details and requirements.

Learn more about Railey Tassin (top photo) and Madison Otte (bottom photo), this year’s recipients of this prestigious fellowship:


Railey Tassin is a first-year Texas State graduate student pursuing a Master’s in Public History. Railey graduated summa cum laude from Texas Christian University in May 2020 with a B.A. in History, minor in French, and emphasis in Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies. She has experience interning at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and studying abroad in Toulouse, France. After completing her degree, Railey would love to work in a museum dedicated to documenting diversity and engaging the general public with the history of underrepresented groups. 

How do you see this Margerison Fellowship helping you in your studies?

Railey: The financial aid provided by the Margerison Fellowship guarantees that I will be able to begin my graduate education completely focused on excelling in my personal studies and my duties as an Instructional Assistant. As a first-generation student, I strongly recognize the significance of generous financial support in helping students reach their highest potential. Receiving this fellowship has ensured that I feel supported and valued as a student at Texas State even before having officially entered.

As an undergraduate at Texas Christian University, you studied History, and French with an emphasis in Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies, can you tell us more about your research interests, and what got you interested in it in the first place?

Railey: Since a young age, I have been fascinated by studying the actions and words of those who came before us as a way to better understand the present. I began studying French in high school to feel a closer connection to my ancestry, and I loved the idea of having a wider range of writings/sources available to me in college by knowing a second language. Taking CRES classes gave me additional knowledge in analyzing race and ethnicity and inspired me to focus my historical research on traditionally marginalized/underrepresented groups. My senior History thesis focused on the works of three Black women, Paulette Nardal, Jessie Fauset, and Gwendolyn Bennett, whose France-inspired writings contributed to a rise in race consciousness across the African diaspora throughout the twentieth century. This project allowed me to combine theories learned from CRES, French primary sources, and my historical research interests.

What are you looking forward to the most about your graduate studies at Texas State?

Railey: I am most looking forward to making meaningful connections with professors and fellow students – all of us dedicated to continuous learning and working together to adapt during this abnormal semester. I can already sense that the Texas State community will be fully encouraging and helpful in all of my endeavors and will strive to make each student feel supported. I believe the study of history is meant to be shared with others, and I am eager to have the opportunity to engage in collaborative efforts to do so during my time at Texas State.


Madison Otte is a first-year graduate student, but is not new to the Texas State campus. Madison received her bachelor’s degree in History from Texas State University with a minor in Spanish and single-field teaching certification in History for grades 7-12. Madison is working towards her master’s degree in History, and plans to write a thesis about Early Modern Spanish and Colonial History. Madison is also an Instructional Assistant, and looks forward to merging her love of History and teaching to help students this semester. After finishing her degree, Madison hopes to continue her education and one day become a professor at the university level.

How do you see this Margerison Fellowship helping you in your studies?

Madison: The recognition of my hard work through the Margerison Fellowship makes me feel even more strongly motivated to succeed in my endeavors in graduate school. I am very thankful to be able to focus on my thesis wholeheartedly, without the stress of an extra job to juggle with my courses and research.

You are interested in Early Modern Spanish and Colonial History, can you tell us more about your research interests, and what got you interested in it in the first place?

Madison: I am interested in researching the changes that occurred in the Spanish colonies in Latin America after the start of the Counter-Reformation. I am especially interested in the way this changed interactions between Spanish missionaries and the Native people they wished to convert to Catholicism. I have always been interested in Colonial History because the effects the has Old World on the New World that can still be seen today are fascinating to me. I became particularly interested in the religious effects on colonialism in the Americas during my undergraduate studies here at Texas State.

What are you looking forward to the most about your graduate studies at Texas State?

Madison: I am most looking forward to growing more as a writer as I construct my thesis. I also look forward to working with the professors in the History Department both on my research and as an Instructional Assistant. I really enjoy working with other students and using the skills I gained in my undergraduate degree as a candidate for teaching certification.

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter Image

The Department of History at Texas State University affirms that #BlackLivesMatter. We study, teach, and strive to understand the historical continuum of racisms in this country. We recognize the many ways that racism is intertwined with deep and constantly evolving structures and cultures of inequity, domination, exclusion, and exploitation in the United States and across the globe, throughout the long expanse of modern history. We have learned from this history that, in order to advance the cause of anti-racism, we must identify the many forms of violence that sustain racial injustice and affirm both the dignity of Black lives and the interdependence of all human beings.

We stand in solidarity with our Black students, colleagues, and their families, and we are grieving and committed to act against racial injustice with you.

Signed: 
Dr. Thomas Alter
Dr. Gregory Andrews
Dr. Nancy Berlage
Dr. Elizabeth Bishop
Dr. Ronald Brown
Dr. Victoria Bynum
Adam Clark
Dr. Sarah Coleman
Dr. Sara Damiano
Dr. Peter Dedek
Dr. José Carlos de la Puente
Dr. Shannon Duffy
Trace Etienne
Dr. Bryan Glass
Dr. Dwonna Goldstone
Dr. Jeff Helgeson
Dr. Debra Law
Dr. Deirdre E. Lannon
Dr. Bryan N. Mann
Dr. Kenneth Margerison
Dr. John Mckiernan-González
Dr. James McWilliams
Dr. Jason Mellard
Dr. Margaret Menninger
Dr. Rebecca Montgomery
Dr. Angela Murphy
Dr. Joshua Paddison
Madelyn Patlan
Dr. Jessica Pliley
Dr. Leah Renold
Dr. Caroline Ritter
Dr. Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez
Dr. Allison Robinson
Dr. Anadelia Romo
Roberta Ruiz
Katie Salzmann
Dr. Ellen Tillman
Dan K. Utley
Dr. Louie Dean Valencia-García
Dr. Joseph Yick