Third Friday Series 2020-2021

In the 2020-2021 academic year, the history department inaugurated a series of student faculty discussions of contemporary issues in historical context that meets the third Friday of each block. The topics and resources for these discussions are listed below.

Block 6: National Memory and Forgetting in Late 20th and Early 21st Century Europe

• Constant Méheut, “France Eases Access, a Little, to Its Secrets”, New York Times, 9 March 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/world/europe/france-declassification-algerian-war-archives.html
• Eliza Apperly, “‘Stumbling Stones’: A Different Vision of Holocaust Remembrance,” The Gaurdian, 18 February 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/18/stumbling-stones-a-different-vision-of-holocaust-remembrance
• Masha Gessen, “Poland’s Ruling Party Puts an Extraordinary Museum of Polish-Jewish History into Limbo,” The New Yorker, 23 September 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/18/stumbling-stones-a-different-vision-of-holocaust-remembrance

Block 5: The Capitol Insurrection, White Nationalism, and Its Historical Precedents

• Revolutions Podcast: “The Capitol Siege and American Revolution” (4 Feb. 2021): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vox-conversations/id1081584611?i=1000507688086
• Rosa Lyster, “The Rise and Fall of South Africa’s Far-Right,” The Outline (30 Oct. 2017): https://theoutline.com/post/2433/the-rise-and-fall-of-south-africa-s-far-right
• Bill Keller, “White Separatists Storm South African Negotiations,” The New York Times, (26 Jun. 1993), https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/26/world/white-separatists-storm-south-african-negotiations.html.
• “1993 Storming of Kempton Park World Trade Centre,” SA History Collectors (25 Jan. 2019): https://www.facebook.com/historyofcolour/videos/1993-storming-of-kempton-park-world-trade-centre/2264041607143002/.

Block 4: The Invention and Meaning of Thanksgiving 

• Dr. Sandy Grande, University of Connecticut (23 Nov. 2017): “‘America is a Myth and the United States is on Stolen Land’: Three Ways to Focus on Indigenous Struggles on Thanksgiving”: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1797268060304676
• · Dr. Philip Deloria, The New Yorker (25 Nov. 2019): “The Invention of Thanksgiving: Massacres, Myths, and the Making of the Great November Holiday”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/25/the-invention-of-thanksgiving

Block 3: History, Historiography and Politics

• Dissent podcast: Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler Bell with Jamelle Bouie, “Know Your Enemy: Not Even Past” (15 Sep. 2020): https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-your-enemy-not-even-past-with-jamelle-bouie

Block 2: Sinophobia and Anti-Asian Racism

• “Brainwashed: The Legacies and Perils of American Sinophobia,” October 9, 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTxZYXqEsgU&feature=emb_title
• Annie Anlin Cheng, “What This Wave of Anti-Asian Violence Reveals about America,” New York Times, 21 Feb 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/21/opinion/anti-asian-violence.html
• House Passes Meng Resolution to Denounce Anti-Asian Sentiment: https://meng.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-passes-meng-resolution-to-denounce-anti-asian-sentiment-related-to
• Stop AAPI Hate: https://stopaapihate.org/
• Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center: http://www.asianpacificpolicyandplanningcouncil.org/stop-aapi-hate/
• United States Sinophobia Tracker: https://supchina.com/sinophobia/
• “China and the Political Myth of ‘Brainwashing’ https://madeinchinajournal.com/2019/10/08/china-and-the-political-myth-of-brainwashing/
• Gerald Roche, “The Epidemiology of Sinophobia,” Made in China Journal, https://madeinchinajournal.com/2020/02/17/the-epidemiology-of-sinophobia/

Block 1: Caste & America: The Work of Isabel Wilkerson 

• Isabel Wilkerson, “America’s Enduring Caste System,” New York Times Magazine: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/magazine/isabel-wilkerson-caste.html
• Isabel Wilkerson, “America’s Untouchables: The Silent Power of the Caste System,” The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/28/untouchables-caste-system-us-race-martin-luther-king-india
• Lawrence Wu, NPR Throughline, “America’s Caste System” https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/898918916/americas-caste-system