Talking History

Making Race, Minting Guineas: Why Four Countries Share a Name

John Ramming Chappell In September 2021, a military coup unseated Alpha Condé, Guinea’s president since 2010. The same month, the United States renewed efforts to capture Antonio Indjai, an ex-general and drug-trafficking suspect living in Guinea Bissau. Meanwhile, the U.S. government announced that $27 million seized from Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue, Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, would be used to buy COVID-19 vaccines for the … Continue reading Making Race, Minting Guineas: Why Four Countries Share a Name

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Making History

The History of Masculinity in China

Zhanhao Zhang In 2020, during the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, committee member Si Zefu  criticized male teenagers for being too “feminine.” The Ministry of Education responded by promoting physical education and research on the influence of popular culture on the “feminization of male adolescents.” Suddenly, the concept of masculinity (阳刚之气) and its traditional meanings became a hot topic on Chinese social media. Many people, … Continue reading The History of Masculinity in China

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Talking History

Finish That Riff: A History of Musical Borrowing in Three Quarter Notes

Casey Donahue Tap your feet to the tempo of a brisk walk—about 110 beats-per-minute, depending on your gait. Now count out measures of four. Next, imagine the warm staccato thud of a bass guitar punctuating the first three quarter notes of each measure. If you loop that beat in your head, you may start to hear something familiar. What you hear is not a test, … Continue reading Finish That Riff: A History of Musical Borrowing in Three Quarter Notes

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Making History

On Decolonizing Academia

Mariam Aiyad On April 9, 2015, the University of Cape Town removed a statue of Cecil Rhodes from its campus. Since then, the debate about the need to “decolonize academia” has flooded the international scene. Student movements at the University of Cape Town and the University of Oxford, under the hashtag #RhodesMustFall, used their demands for the removal of statues of the British colonialist from … Continue reading On Decolonizing Academia

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Talking History

We Said, They Sed: Accents and When We Spell Them Out

Casey Donahue Accents are identities, and everybody’s got one.  With pinched vowels or dropped consonants, we give hints to each other about our home, heritage, class, gender, and age. But how would you spell your accent? Do your trademark pronunciations sound as the dictionary says they should? If not, do you ever spell your shibboleths differently, changing get to git or smart to smaht when … Continue reading We Said, They Sed: Accents and When We Spell Them Out

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Talking History

“Heed Their Words”: Using the WPA Slave Narratives to Address Challenging Sources

Victoria Lewis Rachel Sullivan walked up the steps of her front porch, kicked off her shoes, and plopped down in her rocker. In her eighties, she just didn’t get around like she used to. As she sat on the porch of that two-room house on Reynolds Street, Rachel could not help but reflect on her life: her early years on the plantation of Governor Pickens … Continue reading “Heed Their Words”: Using the WPA Slave Narratives to Address Challenging Sources

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Writing History

Steering Past “The Ivory Tower”

Devinie Lye-Ukwattage Ivory Tower: “an impractical often escapist attitude marked by aloof lack of concern with or interest in practical matters or urgent problems” The term Ivory Tower has an unusually long history. Dating back to antiquity, the phrase has been associated with everything from saints and poets to giant white buildings (surprise!). Today, the Ivory Tower is a metaphor that describes an unaffordable, inherently … Continue reading Steering Past “The Ivory Tower”

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Making History

A Conversation on Equity, Inclusion, and History at Georgetown University: PART II – Doing Diversity Work at Georgetown

Casey Donahue At the end of March, I spoke with leaders from the diversity and equity initiatives in Georgetown’s History and Foreign Service departments. The goal of the discussion was to learn how these graduate students understand diversity work in the context of their academic discipline, and how they leverage the study of history in their respective approaches. Joining me from the School of Foreign … Continue reading A Conversation on Equity, Inclusion, and History at Georgetown University: PART II – Doing Diversity Work at Georgetown

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Making History

A Conversation on Equity, Inclusion, and History at Georgetown University: PART I – How do Diversity Advocates Think About History?

Casey Donahue At the end of March, I spoke with leaders from the diversity and equity initiatives in Georgetown’s History and Foreign Service departments. The goal of the discussion was to learn how these graduate students understand diversity work in the context of their academic discipline, and how they leverage the study of history in their respective approaches. Joining me from the School of Foreign … Continue reading A Conversation on Equity, Inclusion, and History at Georgetown University: PART I – How do Diversity Advocates Think About History?

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