The event was presented by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation at their Jazz & Heritage Center as a part of the Foundation's Tom Dent Congo Square Lecture Series. The day following the symposium, the Foundation presented the third annual Congo Square Rhythms Festival in nearby Armstrong Park. Later in the month, Dr. Atkinson presented a paper, “Music in Tragedy’s Wake,” at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Photographs courtesy of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Festival photographs by Eric Simon. Panel photograph by Scott Aiges.

This volume focuses on "selling the Marshall Plan" both to skeptical Americans and Europeans in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Economic Cooperation Administration in Paris administered the distribution of American Marshall aid. It also directed the propaganda effort: 250 films were produced (newsreels, documentaries, feature and productivity films); traveling exhibits were organized that by train were shown all over Europe and by ship on Greek islands; and busses traveled to the remotest Austrian Alpine valleys to show films about how ERP-aid increased Austrian economic productivity. Every project financed by Marshall aid was documented in photos and films. In West Germany, Marshall Plan films and exhibits also aimed at reeducating and re-orienting the population after Nazism towards democracy and material plenty.”

For more about the book, please visit its companion website: marshallplanimages

Those who attended the opening reception include Ambassador Dr. Peter Moser, the 2009-10 Marshall Plan Chair and Diplomat in Residence at the University of New Orleans. For more about the exhibition, please visit the Center Austria website: centeraustria

Center Austria director Günter Bischof talks about the Cold War exhibit on WWNO, the NPR affiliate in New Orleans

On Wednesday, October 7th, the Louisiana Humanities Center (LHC) hosted the first of a bi-weekly series of panel discussions regarding the last seven mayors of New Orleans. Each panel  is dedicated to a different mayor, from deLesseps Morrison through Ray Nagin, with scholars, journalists, and former staffers exploring the elections, challenges, and legacies of these leaders. The events are free and open to the public.

Dr. Dupont moderated the deLesseps Morrison panel on October 7th. The entire series will be held at the the Louisiana Humanities Center, which is located in the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Building, 938 Lafayette Street in the Central Business District. For more information, please see the following: 

New Orleans Mayors

Audio from the panel session is available via the following link:

http://www.leh.org/html/podcast.html

Recent MA graduate Daniel Braud presented “Fulfilling the Drive:  Dutch Morial and the 1982 Mayoral Election,” which was based on his thesis research into the re-election campaign of New Orleans’ first African-American mayor: Ernest “Dutch” Morial.

James L. Conrad then presented “Three Strikes and We’re In:  Labor Unrest in the New Orleans Public School System 1966-1978,” which represents elements of his research into labor organization and strikes before and after the merger of the city’s two segregated teacher’s union locals.

Matthew B. Higgins then presented “A House Divided—The Evolution of the Superdome from a Divisive Concept into a Symbol of New Orleans.”

The “Come Together” panel was presented at the 27th annual Gulf South History and Humanities conference, which was held October 15-19 in Pensacola, Florida.

Photograph courtesy of Chanda Nunez

The orientation meeting for incoming graduate students was held on August 18th, from 9 am to 1 pm in the Liberal Arts Building Lounge. Organized by Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. Mary Niall Mitchell, the event began with an official welcome from Department Chair Dr. Madelon Powers.

Following Dr. Mitchell's overview of the graduate program, UNO Library History Research Specialist Connie Phelps explained the online and traditional resources available for their research needs. UNO Financial Aid Officer Ann Lockridge shared her expertise with the students. (Ms. Lockridge is also enrolled in the history graduate program.) UNO MA student Mary Jean Wallace helped to introduce the public history concentration.

Faculty and second year students joined the group at 12 noon to meet the new students and eat some traditional New Orleans foods: muffuletta and poor boy sandwiches.

The threat of German U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico during World War II was the topic of a June 30th Roundtable featuring C.J. Christ, U.S. Air Force veteran and author of WWII in the Gulf of Mexico.

Christ, who has written more than 100 articles, trained at the multi-engine school at Vance Air Force Base and completed heavy bombardment training at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, in 1951. He served a tour flying B-29s over North Korea before earning an English degree from McNeese State University. A native of Eunice, he founded Houma Aviation which operated at the Houma airport for 25 years. He is also a licensed offshore master of sail and power vessels. Christ has been a member of the Verband Deutscher U-Bootfahrer, an organization of German submarine veterans, since 1981.

For more information on the UNO Eisenhower Center for American Studies, visit http://ikecenter.uno.edu/.

Dr. Millett has already written or edited four books on the Korean War and a fifth is in production. 

For more information about Dr. Millett's work, please visit his faculty page: Dr. Millett

Panel #1 "Colonial and Civil War Period" 1:00 p.m.

Joe Stoltz "The Louisiana Militia: Examining Loyalty in the Early National Period" &

Darryl Barthe "The Curious Circumstances of the Louisiana Native Guard"

Panel #2 "World War II" 2:30 p.m.

Thomas Nguyen Naquin "U-boats in the Gulf" &

Toni Kiser "Artifacts from Louisiana WWII Veterans"

The free event was presented by the UNO Eisenhower Center for American Studies, the National World War II Museum Research Department and the UNO Department of History.

Leo Gorman wins Southern Historical Association's Woodward Prize and the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) Award

The 2008 Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr. Prize for the best graduate student paper presented at the Latin American & Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association annual meeting in New Orleans last fall was presented to Leo B. Gorman, University of New Orleans MA 2009, for his paper titled “Immigrant Labor Strife and Solidarity in Post-Katrina New Orleans.”

2008 LACS-SHA Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr. Prize
Committee’s Comments: “The decision was not easy because of the high quality of papers received, but the committee decided in favor of Gorman for his creative use of source material, broad conception and ambitious nature of the topic, and the work's intellectual sophistication. Gorman has produced an excellent account based on extensive interviews, and a fine historical study of Honduran Latino community in New Orleans before the storm. We also felt that Gorman's presentation at the conference was excellent.”

Gorman also presented his thesis, "Crisis and Recovery in Post-Katrina New Orleans" at the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) during the  spring 2009 semester and won the top award for submitted graduate student papers. After defending his thesis in April, Leo has decided to pursue other projects before entering a graduate PhD program in the near future.

Dr. Nikki Brown, assistant professor of history, presented the historical background to the landmark legislation before fielding questions and leading a discussion regarding the significance of the act. In addition, a few audience members described their personal experiences during the segregated era as well as how society changed following the passage of the Civil Rights Act. In addition, the UNO Earl K. Long Library featured a display of books related to Civil Rights through July on the second floor.

Dr. Brown is the author of Private Politics and Public Voices: African American Women's Activism from World War I through the New Deal which was awarded the 2007 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize for the best book on African American women's history.

Her second book, Encyclopedia of Jim Crow, a three-volume reference work co-edited with Barry Stentiford of Grambling State University, was published by Greenwood Press in 2008. She is currently researching the past, present and future role of historically black colleges and universities in African American education. For more information about Dr. Brown, please visit her department webpage:

Dr. Brown

photo credit:
Photographer: Kimberly Edwards

 
The PBS series History Detectives aired a segment titled "Creole Poems" on Monday, June 29th. Earlier this year, producers of the program interviewed Associate Professor of History Dr. Mary Niall (Molly) Mitchell regarding her research into the Couvent School for free children of color in Antebellum New Orleans.

“In the antebellum period, the school was important because it served as a quasi-public school for free children of color at a time when only white children could attend the public schools in New Orleans,” Dr. Mitchell said. “All of the teachers were free people of color. … [The students] learned useful things like how to write a business letter to an associate, but they also had an awareness of the goings-on among free people of color in the rest of the Atlantic World, especially the Caribbean.”

The episode featuring Dr. Mitchell can be viewed via the following link:

Creole Poems

The National World War II Museum in New Orleans honored the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy with a weekend of commemorative events.

One highlight of the weekend was a gaterhing titled June 6: A Gathering of the Greatest Generation, a special “roll-call” ceremony when veterans from each of the 50 states stood together to be honored by the Museum. The ceremony also served as a tribute to those veterans who are now desceased.

Dr. Guenter Bischof, Marshall Plan Professor of History, led all three men in discussion before a large audience. Their lively stories of World War II exploits and memories proved to be a highlight of the 65th anniversary event. Panelists Tom Blakey and Jim Livaudais were both members of the 82nd Airborne division. Both landed in Nomandy on June 6, but Blakey parachuted into Normandy while Livaudais maneuvered a glider and landed near St. Mere Eglise. Mike Mervosh fought in Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima invasions and won three Purple Hearts in the process.

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Although helping a President is an especially dramatic example of the work of the Eisenhower Center, it is not the only public service the Center performs.  The mission of the Eisenhower Center is the study of the causes, conduct, and consequences of American national security policy and the use of force as an instrument of policy in the twentieth century.

Photograph courtesy of the Eisenhower Center.

The history department and the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies sponsored a screening of the award-winning documentary A Legend in the Classroom: The Life Story of Ms. Yvonne Busch

Saturday, May 16, 2009

1:00 pm

Education Building Room 203

The documentary was produced and directed by Leonard Smitth III, and it is based on the book Chord Changes on the Chalkboard: How Public School Teachers Shaped Jazz and the Music of New Orleans, by Dr. Al Kennedy, UNO history instructor and UNO Midlo Center Research Associate.

More information about the film can be found via this link: Legend in the Classroom.

For more information about UNO's Eisenhower Center, please visit their website: Ike Center. More information about the publication can be found via America in World War II magazine.

History major Neil Chatelain presented his research into Confederate naval history during the 2009 Regional Meeting for Louisiana Chapters of Phi Alpha Theta, an international honors society for history students.  Held in conjunction with the Louisiana Historical Association, the conference took place in Monroe, Louisiana, on March 19-21, 2009.

Titled “Her Deck was a Perfect Shambles:” The History of the Confederate Gunboat McRae," Chatelain's paper was based on research conducted while enrolled in the History of New Orleans course. 

Graduate student Mark J. Duvall also presented a paper at the Louisiana Historical Association.   Based on his MA thesis research, his paper was titled "Emergence of the New 'Southern Belles: 'New Orleans Poydras Home Re-defines Gender Roles."

Kateřina Králová
Lecturer, Charles University, Prague
Fulbright Scholar, Yale University.

"Czech(oslovak) – American Relations in the Twentieth Century"
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 in
Dr. Bischof’s U.S. Diplomacy Course

Dr. Kravola presented a second lecture on the same day:

"The Destiny of German War Criminals in Greece
and the Unresolved Issue of Postwar Reparations"

Katerina Kralova is a lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University of Prague and a Fulbright scholar at Yale University in 2008/2009. She has lectured on Czech history in the UNO Summer Prague Seminars in Prague for many summers.

For more information visit:
www.centeraustria.org

Dr. Bischof presents his latest book at Austrian Embassy. Guenter Bischof (middle) presented his new book New Perspectives on Austrians in World War II (Contemporary Austrian Studies XVII) at the Austrian Embassy on February 25.

Titled “Mardi Gras from the Inside,” the event featured Mardi Gras cultural history recorded by those who know it from the inside: UNO history students. The presentations ended with a kingcake party in the Liberal Arts building lounge.

Featured Presentations included:

• Interview with Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief Alfred Doucette; recorded by his cousin Richon Saunders
• History of the New Orleans Mint, the company that makes doubloons for Rex, Bacchus & many other krewes; presented by Jeff Ferguson
• Short video documentary regarding the Mistick Krewe of Comus; produced by Nicholas Cassara
• Gentilly neighborhood roots of the Krewe that reshaped Mardi Gras: Endymion; Marjorie Muniz interviewed her father and Endymion founder Ed Muniz; History graduate student Joseph Stoltz discussed the role his grandfather’s bar played in forming plans for the krewe
  

To view some of the presentations, please see: New Orleans research

Ursula Mathis-Moser and Günter Bischof, eds.

Acadians and Cajuns: The Politics and Culture of French Minorities in North America

Acadiens et Cajuns: Politique et culture de minorites francophones en Amerique du Nord.

For more details and the Flyer Click here

East Indies, 1910-1929" was published in the February 2009 issue of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, a journal published by Cambridge University Press. In his article, Dr. Goss examines the creation of institutions and agendas of pure science in colonial Indonesia, and their relationship to the Dutch civilizing mission. The following link provides more information about the article: Southeast Asian Studies

Dr. Jeffrey Wilson published “Environmental Chauvinism in the Prussian East: Forestry as a Civilizing Mission on the Ethnic Frontier, 1871-1914” in Central European History.

Dr. Michael Mizell-Nelson recently published a review essay “(Batista-era) Havana on the Bayou” in Reviews in American History.

Dr. Brown earned her PhD from Yale University and has taught at Kent State University and Grambling State University. Her research interests include U.S. Women, African American Women, American intellectual, and African American intellectual history as well as Black Comedy as Social Commentary. Dr. Browne was interviewed for a New York Times article published the day following the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Please select the following link to read the article: NYT 1/21/09

Director of the Eisenhower Center and Professor of History at UNO. Commander of the Royal Military Academy, Major General HarryVindivogel, stated the following regarding Dr. Millett: “You are indeed an outstanding professor specialized in military history.  Several of your books are worldwide known.  As former colonel of the U.S. Marine Corps you understand the military world.  You have a lifelong contact with several members of our academic community.  Your research has received the highest praise in our Faculty.”  The ceremony will be held at the Academy in March. 

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He also gave papers on "The Anatomy of the Prague Spring and the Invasion of Czechoslovakia and the American Response" at Harvard, Mississippi State, Nicholls State and Tulane Universities. He attended a Boltzmann Institute for the Study of the Consequences of War workshop on "The Vienna Summit of 1961" in Graz Austria, where he also lectured on "The Americanization of Austria" at the University. In October and November he was busy commenting on the Presidential Election and the Obama victory in various Austrian media. He also began service on the scholarly advisory board of the "Institute for Austrian-American Studies" of the Botstiber Foundation of Philadelphia.