Kent State History Department

Have you ever wondered how gender affected women in the sciences in the late twentieth century? History major Alice Fox spent this summer researching the stories of ten individuals, five women and five men, who were affiliated with Kent State University’s Liquid Crystal Institute and how gender discrimination affected their lives and careers. She found that the women were heavily impacted by same-s*x mentorship, familial obligations, and internalized discrimination. These findings are available in the digital collection Women and Gender in the History of Liquid Crystals. These stories come from interviews conducted by associate professor of history Dr. Matthew Crawford as part of his ongoing Liquid Crystal Oral History Project, available through Kent State University Special Collections & Archives.

Digital collection: https://womenandliquidcrystals.omeka.net/items/show/39
Interviews: https://www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives/liquid-crystal-oral-history-project-records

Happy last-day-as-chair, Dr. Adams! Professor Kevin Adams will officially return as a faculty member on July 1st, finishing his appointment as the Chair of the Department of History. We will miss him as our fearless leader, but we wish him the best as he gets to dedicate more time to research, writing, and teaching! Thank you, Dr. Adams, for a job well done!!! 🥳🎉👏🏻

Historic moment for the department!
The first winning foosball team with the new table! Way to go, Dr. Ostrum & Melissa!

Thank you Dr. Crawford for your generous contribution to our department!

Come by the History department and play foosball to destress and have a laugh 🙂

Our student, Susan Ziki successfully defended her Ph.D dissertation and was hired in a tenure track assistant professor position teaching World History at Mercer University in Georgia. Congratulations, Dr. Ziki!

The KSU History Spring 2024 banquet was so much fun! Congratulations again to retirees, scholarship winners, and graduating students! Thank you everyone for coming and celebrating with us. 😊🎓📚

New History Department Sticker just dropped!
Stop by and grab one!

Congratulations are in order for Professor Hongshan Li, whose newest study, Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War, was just released by Columbia University Press. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/fighting-on-the-cultural-front/9780231207058

We've seen this work evolve over the past several years and are excited to see it in print!

Fighting on the Cultural Front | Columbia University Press The Cold War conflict between the United States and the People’s Republic of China did not only encompass political, military, diplomatic, and economic cla... | CUP

Congratulations on successful Master’s thesis defenses, Ropah and Rutendo!!!

Ropafadzo Hove’s thesis is “Christianity and the making of Gender and Sexuality Politics in Postcolonial Zimbabwe, 1980-present.”

Rutendo Rangisi’s thesis is “Gender and Land Reform: A Historical Analysis of the Marginalization of Women in Agriculture in Zimbabwe, 1930-2015.”

Here's a little tidbit from our recent research into the history of our department during the WWII era. Major General Smedley Butler, US Marine Corps, gave an anti-war presentation focused on events in Asia at Kent State in February of 1933. Butler, a Quaker who twice won the Medal of Honor, became an influential anti-war voice during the isolationist moment of the 1930s and was especially well-known for his book _War is a Racket_, which broadcast the then-popular argument that World War I stemmed from the machinations of munitions makers and unscrupulous politicians.

Priority registration starts today for Fall 2024!! Which history class are you most excited for???

Celebrating some of the women of the History Department for Women’s History Month! We are proud of our students, faculty, and alumni who are studying history and making history themselves! ✨

More Fall 2024 courses! Woo! Students can start enrolling for upper division History courses starting mid-March! 🥳

Fall 2024 Enrollment Starts in March! Check out some of the upper division History courses we are offering 🎉

🎉 Fall 2024 Enrollment starts soon! 🎉 Check out some of the exciting upper division History courses we are offering! 🍂🍁

Flashback to Flash!

At 1985 Homecoming, Kent State's new mascot, Flash the Golden Eagle, was unveiled.

History Graduate Students and Faculty!
Our first Graduate Student Lunch this semester is NEXT WEEK! TUESDAY February 20th from 11:30AM to 1PM! Bowman Room 217!
Hope to see you all there! :)

Mark your calendars!
The talk "Forging a Twenty-First Century Science: The Post-Cold War Origins of Astrobiology" by alumnus Ian Varga, PhD will be presented on February 27th starting at 2:30pm in Bowman Room 203!

This talk examines the history of astrobiology, the scientific study of extraterrestrial life, within the context of post-Cold War American politics and science. Based on a series of primary sources at NASA archives, as well as oral history interviews with veteran astrobiologists, it argues that the creation of the current field of astrobiology was a product of political crises and historical transitions both at the federal and agency level in the mid-1990s, when astrobiology and its NASA institute were created. While the science of extraterrestrial life has existed in many forms, astrobiology today has particular roots in post-Cold War American politics and was thus a political creation rather than a scientific one as often portrayed. Astrobiology was invented as a means for scientists, particularly at the Ames Research Center, to adapt to a new push to privatize and downsize NASA by devising a more productive, cost effective, and innovative science. Boosted by later scientific discoveries, such as the 1996 Martian meteorite, the field helped resolve NASA's political crisis and simultaneously created a new, twenty-first-century science. This history of astrobiology demonstrates how scientists and their disciplines adapt to shifting and critical new political demands.

Ian Varga completed his PhD in history at Florida State University in 2022 and his MA in history at Kent State University in 2016. Most recently, he was a visting professor at Wofford College. He specializes in twentieth-century American science and the history of space science.

The Women's Center is hosting its 4th annual Elect Her Program on Saturday, February 3rd, 2024! This daylong workshop shares why more women and marginalized populations are needed in student government (and beyond) and provides them with the skills to run successful student body campaigns!

Use the QR code or the link in our bio to sign up! Hope to see you there!

Department of History Alum, Dr. Aaron Pride, has published his first book! Congratulations, Dr. Pride!

In "Apocalyptic Rhetoric and the Black Protest Movement," Pride argues that the Black civil rights movement in early twentieth century Boston drew on radical millenarian beliefs and visions of Armageddon to mobilize African Americans to undertake political protest to resist radical oppression and violence.

Aaron Pride, PhD, graduated with his doctorate in History in 2018, with Dr. Smith-Pryor serving as his advisor.

The Office of Global Education will be hosting I ❤ Travel Week from February 12 - 16, 2024. There are many fun and informational events, both virtual and in-person, being planned for the campus community throughout the week. The I ❤ Travel Week event calendar will be updated periodically as new events are submitted.

Stay tuned for new activities promoting travel and study abroad 😊

The History of the History Department Continues!
Our writing intern, David Lein, has completed the second article on the Early Days of the Kent State University History Department. This time, Lein focuses in on the 1930s - a difficult, or depressing, time for the University, the Department, and the nation.

Read the whole article here: https://www.kent.edu/history/history-history-department-1930s

Pictured below: a group photo during the 1936 Kent State commencement and the "Bachelor Hall" that was used by students during the Great Depression.

The faculty of the Kent State History Department in 1956. Of particular note are long-time chair Henry Whitney (second from right), a recently-hired Larry Kaplan (3rd from left) and Kent State's first tenure-track female historian, Gertrude Lawrence (far right), who taught in department between 1935 and 1963, and whose 330 page dissertation on the history of the Sinn Fein movement (Ohio State, 1929) nearly exceeds the combined length of the three dissertations written by the tenure-track male historians hired in the 1930s.

(Credit: KSU Special Collections, https://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/129)

How does someone go from being a physicist and conducting research in late Soviet-era Ukraine to becoming the director of a world renown liquid crystal research center?
Find out in the new Liquid Crystal Oral History Project interview published and available online! This interview was conducted by Dr. Matthew Crawford, associate professor of history, and features Dr. Oleg Lavrentovich, Trustees Research Professor at Kent State University. Dr. Lavrentovich has held numerous positions at the Liquid Crystal Institute, including Senior Research Fellow and Director. Throughout his interview, Dr. Lavrentovich discusses the role the LCI plays with the creation of spinoff companies from the Center of Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials’ (ALCOM) Industrial Partnership Program.
The interviews and other project records are housed in the Kent State University Special Collections & Archives. This interview was funded in part by the Ohio History Fund, a grant program of the Ohio History Connection. Your donations to the Ohio History Fund make this program possible. www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund
Interview: https://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/11161

Have you ever wondered why many PhD graduates from the Liquid Crystal Institute go on to have careers in university administration?
A new Liquid Crystal Oral History Project interview answers this question and is available online! This interview was conducted by Dr. Matthew Crawford, associate professor of history, and features Dr. Renate Crawford, University Ambassador and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics at Miami University, who earned her PhD in Physics from Kent State. Dr. Crawford began working at the Liquid Crystal Insitute as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. John West’s lab. She discusses the jobs that she held after graduation, such as becoming a postdoctoral researcher at the Naval Research Laboratory and at Standford University. She later held positions in university administration at the University of Notre Dame and at Miami University.
The interviews and other project records are housed in the Kent State University Special Collections & Archives. This interview was funded in part by the Ohio History Fund, a grant program of the Ohio History Connection. Your donations to the Ohio History Fund make this program possible. www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund
Interview: https://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/11167

History Majors & Minors, come learn about study abroad and eat pizza!
On Monday, December 4th from 3:30pm to 5pm, there will be an exclusive event for just History students presented in the Study Abroad office, Bowman Hall, Room 124.
Come eat pizza and learn what the College of Arts & Sciences Study Abroad has to offer!

Would you ever imagine that your childhood school bus driver contributed to the development of the liquid crystal displays that we all have on our phones, computers, and TVs?
To learn more, listen to an interview with Carol Kanters from the Liquid Crystal Oral History Project! This interview was conducted by Dr. Matthew Crawford, associate professor of history, and features Carol Kanters, a retired school bus driver and former undergraduate laboratory assistant at the Liquid Crystal Institute. Kanters worked under Dr. Mary Neubert and discusses what it was like to be a part of her organic synthesis lab group.
The interviews and other project records are housed in the Kent State University Special Collections & Archives. This interview was funded in part by the Ohio History Fund, a grant program of the Ohio History Connection. Your donations to the Ohio History Fund make this program possible. www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund

Interview: https://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/10882

The History of the Kent State History Department!
Writing intern, David Lein, has finished his article, "Kent State: The Early Years, Part 1: The 'Roaring 20's." Way to go, David! 😀

Read the article and learn all about our department! It is available now on our website here: https://www.kent.edu/history/history-history-department

Pictures: John Edward McGilvrey (1925), History courses in the 1920s, Kent's Women League in 1930, and Kent's wrestling team in 1929.

Have you ever wondered who makes the instruments and materials needed for scientific research?
To find out, listen to this newly available interview from the Liquid Crystal Oral History Project! This interview was conducted by Dr. Matthew Crawford, associate professor of history, and features Merrill Groom, Research Engineer at the Liquid Crystal Institute since 1999. Groom talks about his career at the LCI, which began in 1986 as an Instrument Technician, and discusses how his work in repairing and installing instruments proved vital to conducting research. The interviews and other project records are housed in the Kent State University Special Collections & Archives.
This interview was funded in part by the Ohio History Fund, a grant program of the Ohio History Connection. Your donations to the Ohio History Fund make this program possible. www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund
Interview: https://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/10682

Who knew that being the business administrator of a research institute at Kent State could lead to world travel!
To learn more, check out a new Liquid Crystal Oral History Project interview with Elaine Landry! This interview was conducted by Dr. Matthew Crawford, associate professor of history, and features Elaine Landry, business manager at the Liquid Crystal Institute between 1983 and 2002. Throughout her interview, Landry discusses her career at the LCI, from working with Dr. J. William Doane to form closer ties between the LCI and industry to editing and problem-solving elements of grant proposals for LCI scientists. The interviews and other project records are housed in Kent State University Special Collections & Archives.
This interview was funded in part by a Grant-In-Aid from the Center for the History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics and in part by the Ohio History Fund, a grant program of the Ohio History Connection. The Ohio History Fund is a grant program of the Ohio History Connection. Your donations to the Ohio History Fund make this program possible. www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund.
Interview: https://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/10778