I VALUE HUMANITIESbecause it is multidisciplinary and

transforming. It is the study of ourselves and the world we create.

We matter. We must come to understand ourselves.

I VALUE HUMANITIESbecause I value an education that

teaches the realities of the world and inspires change. I VALUE HUMANITIES

because I believe understanding other cultures and our past will make for a brighter tomorrow.

I VALUE HUMANITIES because the interdisciplinary nature of the program gives you so much

freedom to decide what you want to study.

Photo courtesy of University Archives

Humanities ProgramCelebrating our Past & our Future

Spring/Fall 2018

HUM 364/WGSS 364:PREGNANCY IN

MODERN LITERATUREFall 2018

Tues/Thurs 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m

Dr. Aimee WilsonAn examination of pregnancy, childbirth, and reproductive control as depicted in literature from various national traditions in the 20th and 21st centuries.

2 HUMANITIES NEWSLETTER

As incoming Director of the Humanities Program this past year has been very exciting! I want to start by thanking our faculty, staff, and students who have been extremely welcoming and open to new initiatives and change. Although I have only recently transferred half of my appointment from

KU’s Spanish Department to Humanities, it feels like I have been here forever. This is certainly due in large part to the support that I have received from our outgoing Director, Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, who skillfully managed to steer the Program through very turbulent waters, and from our Associate Director, Antha Cotten-Spreckelmeyer, who is a source of institutional memory and has been a fantastic help in advising me in all kinds of practical matters.

Another “new” faculty member joined the Humanities last year: Assistant Professor Sean Seyer. It’s on purpose that I write “new” here, as Sean has previously been attached to the Program as Program associate. Sean is a historian by training and his research focuses on the history of American aviation. I am very happy to announce that Marike Janzen has been promoted to Associate Professor. She was also awarded a Keeler Intrauniversity Professorship. Congratulations to both Sean and Marike!

Our office staff got a boost, too. Colleen Boley, office assistant and outreach coordinator, is doing a phenomenal job. With help from student assistants Phoenix Mandala and, after Phoenix’s graduation, Maddie York, Colleen not only manages to keep the Program up and running, but she is also instrumental in realizing the plethora of fantastic ideas and initiatives our faculty is generating.

As you can read elsewhere in this Newsletter, KU’s Humanities Program has a long and impressive tradition. From its very start it has been a highly innovative program. Change has always been key to Humanities

and has been very beneficial to its development. The present years are one more turning point in the history of Humanities at KU. As the “western civ” years definitely belong to the past, the Humanities Program is rebranding itself as a truly interdisciplinary program which strives to provide our students with tools that empower to make sense of the present-day world so that they will become engaged and informed global citizens. The excellent students who graduated this year are living illustrations of our goals.

In spite of the much-discussed “crisis of the Humanities,” our faculty retreat in October 2017 was extremely productive in generating ideas to attract students to our program. Streamlining of our courses, close collaboration with KU’s Honor’s Program, the Hall Center for the Humanities, and Kansas Humanities are all in the works. And so are plans for a high school feeder course and an absolutely exciting study abroad program during winter break.

There has been no lack of productivity among our faculty. Marike Janzen published her first book Writing to Change the World: Anna Seghers, Authorship, and International Solidarity in the Twentieth Century and Devon Mihesuah’s book Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero also came out this past year. Other faculty members – Chris Forth, Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, Aimee Wilson - published articles.

There have been many other highlights. In March of 2018, Shannon O’Lear (professor of Geography and Atmospheric Studies and Environmental Studies) gave the 30th James E. Seaver lecture.

During the lecture, held at the Hall Center, O’Lear provided an exciting overview of the human side of climate change.

Another exciting moment was our annual recognition ceremony, at the end of April. Not only did we say goodbye to our wonderful graduates, and four of our outstanding GTA’s (Amber Beasley, Hollie Hall, Michael Hayes and Jennifer Wegman-Gab),

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Margot Versteeg

3SPRING/FALL 2018

The Introduction to Humanities course encourages students to consider questions including: “What does it mean to be human? What have we done? Who can we become?” At the same time, students in our Western Civilization courses explore questions like “What s civilization? What is the future of the West?” These are important questions to the Humanities Program and to our students. The Humanities Program marked its 70th anniversary in 2017 and as a program, we are continuously asking: “Who are we as a program? What have we accomplished? What can the program become?”

Founded in 1947, the Humanities Program has served both as a forum for faculty who wanted to develop innovative courses transcending disciplinary boundaries, and as an individualized interdisciplinary major for students wanting to explore and integrate a variety of areas of study.

Over the years, the Humanities Program has been unique in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. During 1992, a review of programs led to the Humanities Program statement that the program was unique in several ways. The first being that it was one of the only interdisciplinary programs solely within the Humanities division of the College. Second, the program existed with almost no budget and was staffed in part by volunteer faculty, “primarily because of the Humanities faculty’s commitment to 1 Schultz, E. (1992, January). Regents Program Review.

intellectual necessity, challenge, and excitement of interdisciplinary study.”1 The program also attracted distinguished faculty members to teach and students who ranked among the academic elite of their class. And finally, the Humanities Program was one of the only programs which allowed students, with guidance, to create their own plan of study.

In 1997, the Humanities Program joined with the Western Civilization Reading Program. According to Professor Emeritus James Woefel, “Western Civ gained a degree program and a number of courses listed under the Humanities rubric; Humanities gained a larger structure and faculty positions, more students, and greater visibility.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

CELEBRATING OUR HISTORY

Students in class in the 1960’s. Photo courtesy of University Archives.

A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTORCONTINUED FROM PAGE 2but we also awarded the Western Civilization Essay Contest Award and the Ted Johnson Award for the Interrelations of the Humanities and the Arts.

I would like to end this letter by thanking our alumni and donors for their support. Your donations allow us to award our students, attract speakers, and support our faculty’s research. We are extremely grateful for that support. If you are an alum of our Program or have some news or a story to share, I encourage you to email me at Versteeg@ku.edu. If you are in Lawrence, you are also welcome to stop by our offices in Bailey Hall.

We are always happy to hear from YOU!

4 HUMANITIES NEWSLETTER

CELEBRATING OUR HISTORYCONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

The union itself attracted more faculty and resources to what was now the Humanities & Western Civilization Program.”2 Though the program’s name changed, the name of the major was always simply “Humanities”.

In 2003, the Peace & Conflict Studies program was established. A dozen faculty from nine humanities and social sciences departments created this program, deciding to house it in the Humanities & Western Civilization Program. The Peace and Conflict Studies program celebrates its 15th year in 2018. Peace and Conflict Studies is a concentration with a major, a minor, and a graduate certificate.

In 2015, as the Western Civilization Program celebrated its 70th anniversary, the decision was made to return to the name Humanities. This was in large part due to development of the KU Core Goals with emphasis on Western Civilization courses as electives. While Western Civilization is no longer in the program title, Western Civilization I and II courses are still taught each semester and Contemporary Western Civilization is a regularly taught course.

In recognition of the Humanities Program’s 70th anniversary, the faculty and staff developed a new mission statement to encompass both the history of the program and the future:

2 Woelfel, J. (2016, February 11). A Brief History of the Humanities Program. Lecture presented at Humanities and KU: Traditions and New Directions, Lawrence. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from http://hum.ku.edu/brief-history-humanities-program

“The Humanities Program faculty at the University of Kansas consists of highly-engaged, (inter)nationally renowned teacher-scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including literature, history, philosophy, religious studies and gender studies. What brings us together is a desire to investigate big questions about what it means to be human, drawing from multiple disciplines in the pursuit of greater understanding. This approach results in cutting-edge, award-winning publications. We incorporate the insights from our research into the classroom, offering an exciting range of courses about relevant topics, both on campus and on-line. The Humanities Program curriculum stimulates students’ curiosity beyond the bounds of discipline by offering a flexible curriculum that allows students to take courses with experts in multiple disciplines rather than channeling them into a single area. We care about teaching and we are good at it. Our classes are small and intimate, and we strive to provide students with tools that empower them to arrive at nuanced answers and make sense of the present-day world. We make the students aware of their creative potential and practice analytical problem-solving so that they become critical thinkers. Our goal is to create engaged and informed global citizens, who are well-prepared for today’s workforce, graduate and professional schools, and any other endeavor they want to undertake in their lives.”

Students attend a lecture in Alderson Auditorium in 2001. Photo courtesy of University Archives.

GTA’s prepare for class in 1997. Photos courtesy of University Archives.

5SPRING/FALL 2018

VALUING HUMANITIES, VALUING YOUAs we celebrate 70 years of Humanities, we also want to celebrate 70 years of Humanities graduates.

The quotations on the cover of this newsletter are from a project completed last Spring by students in the Peace and Conflict Studies course, Classics of Peace Literature, where students were asked why they value Humanities. Their answers exemplify the diversity of backgrounds, goals and ideas that create the Humanities Program.

As we celebrate 70 years of Humanities, we want to celebrate all of the wonderful alumni that have touched our program throughout the years. We would like to hear from you about your experience in the Humanities Program. What did you value most? What is your favorite memory? What advice would you give students in the Humanities Program today?

In addition, we are also aware that alumni have a major impact in our ability to promote our program. Your stories about what Humanities at KU meant to you, the impact on your life or career, or just why Humanities continues to be a key component to life can help us to reach incoming students.

In addition to learning about what your experiences were in the Humanities, we also want to make sure that we stay in touch with you. Please take the time to fill out the enclosed information sheet so we can stay connected. If you’d rather fill this form out online, please visit www.hum.ku.edu/alumni-updates. Our hope going forward is to have a section in our newsletter with alumni news and to build a strong community of Humanities Alumni.

In March 2018, the Humanities Program held the 30th Annual Seaver Lecture. This lecture series named in honor of James E. Seaver, the long-time director of the Humanities and Western Civilization Program, provides an opportunity for KU faculty to

present their research related to “continuing issues in Western Civilization.”

The Seaver Lecture, co-sponsored by the Hall Center for the Humanities, was given by Dr. Shannon O’Lear, professor of Geography and Atmospheric Studies and Environmental Studies, Director of the Center for

Global and International Studies, and a member of the Peace and Conflict Studies Advisory Board. Dr. O’Lear discussed topics from her recently published book, Environmental Geopolitics which offers an interdisciplinary approach to climate change in the 21st Century.

Dr. O’Lear described the human side of this controversial phenomenon with reference to energy sources, food security, resource availability and waste management. She encouraged critical thinking about humans and the environment as well as the future of humans on the planet they inhabit.

30th ANNUAL JAMES E. SEAVER LECTURE

Dr. Shannon O’Lear

6 HUMANITIES NEWSLETTER

2018 HUMANITIES RECOGNITION CEREMONY

The Annual Humanities Recognition Ceremony was held at the end of April. This event gives the Humanities Program the chance to recognize students who have achieved outstanding academic performance during the year, and to recognize graduating seniors!

This year’s event took place in the Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union. The event was attended by students, friends, and family!

The Humanities Program awarded 67 students with the Program’s Certificate of Excellence. The Certificate of Excellence is an award given to students who display outstanding academic achievement each semester in a Humanities course. Students are nominated by their instructor.

In addition to the Certificates of Excellence, the Humanities Program also recognized the winners of the Western Civilization Essay Contest and the Ted Johnson Award for the Interrelations of the Humanities and the Arts.

The Western Civilization Essay Contest is open to students who have taken Western Civilization I or II or Contemporary Western Civilization during the Fall or Spring semester of the Academic Year. This year’s winner selected out of 26 entries was an essay entitled, “The Machine Solution to Humanity” written by Jack Swann.

The Ted Johnson Award for the Interrelations of the Humanities and the Arts is open to undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and provides support for undertaking an interdisciplinary project or course that explores the interrelation of the Humanities and the Arts. This year’s recipient was Marissa

Shell. Marissa is a MFA student in Visual Arts. She was given the award to help create sculptures conceptually based on ideas drawn from the French philosopher, Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space.

Dr. Chris Forth presents the Western Civilization Essay Contest Award to Jack Swann.

One of the sculptures from After E(c)o by Marissa Johnson.

Marissa Johnson’s previous sculpture project, After E(c)o, which was displayed in the Art & Design Gallery

7SPRING/FALL 2018

The Humanities Program would like to Congratulate the Class of 2018!

Humanities Majors

Not Pictured: Nicholas Franzitta - Peace & Conflict Studies Track

Danielle LondonPeace & Conflict

Studies Track

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2018!

Daisy CranePeace & Conflict

Studies Track

Daniel HullingsGlobal Humanities

Track

Peace and Conflict Studies Minors:• Danya Issawi• Tristan King• Sadie Kirkwood• Eric Marshall• Brett Warren

Humanities Minors: • Hannah Arbogast

Peace and Conflict Studies Graduate Certificates:• Jenna Swanson

Dr. Devon Mihesuah and Dr. Margot Versteeg present students with their Certificates of Excellence.

Dr. Sean Seyer presents GTA Michael Hayes with a Certificate of Recognition for his service and dedication to the Humanities Program.

Dr.Diane Fourny presents the Ted Johnson Award for the Interrelations of the Humanities and the Arts to Marisa Shell.

THE HUMANITIES RECOGNITION CEREMONY

8 HUMANITIES NEWSLETTER

Over the past year we have reviewed many historical documents of the program in order to prepare for our 70th anniversary. One of the recurring themes that many of these documents reflect is that the program ‘exists with almost no budget.’ For years, the Humanities Program was largely staffed primarily by volunteer faculty because of the lack of budget. These faculty were committed to the program’s mission of providing an interdisciplinary education to students. While the Humanities Program no longer relies on volunteer faculty, the Program still exists on a small budget and relies on the generosity of our alumni and donors. As many of you now, the University is cutting budgets over the coming years. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where our Program is housed, expects a budget cut of about $6.3 million in the near future. These new challenges provide an added hurdle for the Humanities Program and make our alumni support even more vital.Alumni support has many facets and can provide help for individual students, faculty and the Program as a whole. Your support may enable one of our students to attend a life-changing study abroad program. It could enable our faculty to focus on research or attend a conference to enhance the classroom experience for their students. And, ultimately, however you chose to support the Humanities Program, you will enable the Program to keep providing KU students with a stellar interdisciplinary educational experience which we all know is critical in the world today. The Humanities Program celebrates 70 years, and with your support we can look forward to a bright future.If you are interested in supporting the Humanities Program, we have a fund to which you can donate to the Humanities Program fund provides overall support to the faculty and staff and enables the Program to provide students with a strong educational experience at KU. You may give online by visiting www.hum.ku.edu/giving or if you would prefer to send a donation by mail, please send it to: Humanities Program The University of Kansas 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Bailey Hall 308 Lawrence, KS 66045-7574

GIVING OPPORTUNITIES

The Humanities Program is excited to announce a new Winter Break Study Abroad Program. The program called “Global Migration Studies in Rome” will focus on the ethical, political, social, and economic implications of the European Migrant Crisis. The program will begin in Rome and will have an excursion to Naples. While in Italy, students will have the opportunity to interact with non-governmental organizations, filmmakers, activists, and immigrants. They will also visit neighborhood initiatives, housing projects, local cooperatives, and museums to engage with both the positive and negative

impacts of migration. The Humanities Program is excited to be able to offer this new opportunity to students to explore a topic of vital importance in the current global context.

NEW STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM

9SPRING/FALL 2018

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

Christopher Forth published an article in June of 2018 in Food, Culture & Society entitled “France and the Fattened American: Animality, Consumption, and the Logic of Gavage.”

Marike Janzen had her book Writing to Change the World: Anna Seghers, Authorship, and International Solidarity in the Twentieth Century published in February of 2018. She also contributed a chapter to the book Berlin’s International Literature Festival: Globalizing the Bildungsbürger edited by Karin Bauer and Jennifer Ruth Hosek.

Devon Mihesuah recently published her book Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero with the University of Oklahoma Press. She has an article coming out in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal entitled “Historical Research and Diabetes in Indian Territory: Revisiting Kelly M. West’s Theory of 1940”.

Margot Versteeg published Approaches to Teaching the Writings of Emilia Pardo Bazán (Approaches to Teaching World Literature) which she co-edited with Susan Walter.

Aimee Wilson has an article that will be published in the forthcoming edition of the Space Between: Literature and Culture, 1914-1945 entitled “Faulkner’s Queer Pregnancies: Creation and Procreation in Interwar America.” She also had a chapter published in Popular Modernism and Its Legacies entitled “A Century of Reading Time: From Modernist Novels to Contemporary Comics”, which was edited by Scott Ortolano.

Sandra Zimdars-Swartz published “Lipa Comes to Necedah: Personal Experiences, Signs, and a Confluence of Imagery at an American Cold War Apparition,” in Novo Religio in November of 2017. She also published a chapter entitled “Fatima and the Politics of Devotion,” in the book Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America which was edited by Roberto de Stefano and Francisco Javier Ramón Solans.

10 HUMANITIES NEWSLETTER

HUMANITIES HIGHLIGHTS: GTA’s

Michael Hayes has taught Western Civilization I for the past three years. According to Michael, “The best part of the program is the constant re-exploration of the great ideas of western thought. Each semester, I get to engage in yet another dialogue with Moses, Sophocles, Plato, Virgil, St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Chaucer, Machiavelli and Luther. At the same time, I get to introduce new students to this ongoing dialogue, so that they too may participate in the constant intellectual search for beauty, truth, and goodness. Watching students grow to appreciate the wisdom of these great thinkers—even if they ultimately disagree with them—is a delight year after year.” Michael plans to spend next year finishing his law degree as well as his dissertation in the Philosophy department. After graduation, Michael will serve as a law clerk for Judge Steven Grasz of the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

Hollie Hall has taught Kansas Environment and Culture for the past three years, a course for students in the Academic Accelerator Program in the Humanities Program. Her favorite part of teaching in the Humanities Program has been the relationships that she has built with both her students and peers. She has also enjoyed “contributing to the education of my fellow international students and

welcoming them to KU with a fun and interesting class!” Hollie’s next step is to work or teach at KU because “I love this university and what it has to offer students and staff alike.”

Amber Beasley has taught Western Civilization I & Introduction to Humanities for the past three years. When her classes are reading fables, folk tales, short stories, they visit Hillcrest Elementary to read stories with local third-graders. When reading the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, rabbis, priests, and members of each faith are invited to class to answer questions. When studying the poetry of Rumi, students are encouraged to attend readings of local poets. Amber says that “Collaborating with scholars across academic disciplines brings the texts alive. It pushes students (and me) to see connections of the past and make connections for the future.” After graduation, Amber will purse a job in international education.

Jennifer Wegmann-Gabbhas taught both Western Civilization II & Kansas Environment and Culture for the past three years. She observes that the most rewarding aspect of teaching in the Humanities Program is “when a student comes up to me after class to thank me for a lesson or discussion that helped them better understand

a current event or political issue.” From a pedagogical perspective, Jennifer has “really appreciated the freedom to craft a Western Civilization course based on interests and strength.” After graduation, she will continue to teach as well as work on a long-term blog cataloging public art in the Chicago-area. This project was inspired by the Humanities Program’s Digital Humanities course taken in her final semester.Follow Jennifer at travelingmedievalist.wordpress.com or @travelnmedieval.

Graduate Teaching Assistant’s (GTA’s) are an integral part of the Humanities Program. The four GTA’s highlighted below will be moving on from their current positions in the Humanities Program. As they leave the Humanities Program, we have asked them to share what they have enjoyed and where they are headed next.

11SPRING/FALL 2018

HUMANITIES HIGHLIGHTS: GTA’sWhile we have said goodbye to four of our GTA’s at the end of the Spring semester, we are welcoming two new GTA’s.

Jordan BloomAfter finishing my undergraduate degree at the College of William and Mary, I worked for about five years in journalism positions in DC, in both print and online media. As an undergraduate, I majored in music and

anthropology. I ended up at Kansas because I wanted to do research in the Wilcox Collection at the Spencer library.Currently I’m seeking a Master of Urban Planning and an MA in American Studies as part of one of the university’s dual degree programs. My research is

focused for the moment on informants in extremist groups and domestic political intelligence in general, by both governments and other organizations, and the implications of these sorts of activities for justice and civil liberty. For example, there are two remarkably similar instances of municipal political intelligence files ending up in the hands of watchdog organizations on both sides of the political spectrum, first in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, when the LAPD’s files on subversives ended up in the hands of the Western Goals Foundation, a Reaganite anticommunist foundation, and second in the early 1990s, when San Francisco’s political intelligence files ended up in the hands of an Anti-Defamation League fact-finder. I’m excited to be teaching HUM 175: Kansas Environment and Culture because I think local history is important.

Gwyn BourlakovI am a graduate of Sterling College with a Bachelor’s degree in History and Government (1989), and completed my Master’s degree in Soviet and East European Studies at the University of

Kansas in 1992. After completing my MA I accepted a position at the US Consulate in Leningrad/St. Petersburg, Russia. I have served nearly 20 years as a commissioned officer in the US Army, and in 2012 I returned to KU to pursue a second career as a Historian. I am a PhD candidate in the Department of History working with Dr. Eve Levin studying early modern Russia and Eastern Europe. My research interests span the geographical spaces of Russia and Siberia in the 16th to 18th centuries. I study the ways in which gender and empire intersect in the study of Russian imperial

expansion. I am also interested in Slavic manuscript studies and material culture. I have served as an online and classroom instructor, and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of History and the Humanities Program, since 2012. In 2015-2016 academic year I traveled to Russia on a Fulbright Research Fellowship conducting archival research for my PhD dissertation project on “Convergence of Gender and Empire: Women in 17th and 18th- Century Siberia.” I also had the opportunity to complete a fellowship with the Oakridge Institute of Science and Education (ORISE) for seven months in 2017 where I worked as a Disinterment Historian for the DoD POW/MIA Accounting Agency researching unidentified service members who were lost in the China-Burma-India Theater during the Second World War.I am pleased to return to the Humanities Program where I will be teaching HUM 304: World Literature I, and the online version of HUM 205: Western Civilization II.

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