Category Archives: The Past Alive: Teaching History

Historians Criticize “1776 Report”

“Historians responded with dismay and anger Monday after the White House’s ‘1776 Commission’ released a report that it said would help Americans better understand the nation’s history by ‘restoring patriotic education.’” “It’s a hack job. It’s not a work of … Continue reading

Posted in Atlantic World, Digital Humanities, Early Modern World, Globalization, History of Race and Racism, History of Violence, Human Rights, Humanities Education, Political Culture, The Past Alive: Teaching History, United States History and Society | Leave a comment

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement

It is more important than ever to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year and to remember his vital work for racial equality and social justice. The killing of George Floyd and so many other African Americans over the … Continue reading

Posted in Crowd Studies, Digital Humanities, History of Race and Racism, Human Rights, Museums and Historical Memory, Political Culture, The Past Alive: Teaching History | 1 Comment

Conference on Illinois History

The annual Conference on Illinois History is currently being held at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois from 5-9 October 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the conference is a virtual event this year, allowing interested … Continue reading

Posted in Careers in History, Conferences, History in the Media, Humanities Education, Illinois History and Society, The Past Alive: Teaching History | Leave a comment

Black Lives Matter at Northern Illinois University

Northern Illinois University students, faculty, and staff are actively involved in the Black Lives Matter movement in Illinois. The Center for Black Studies at Northern Illinois University is responding with creativity and activism to a recent racist vandalism attack on … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, History of Violence, Human Rights, Humanities Education, Northern Illinois University, Political Culture, The Past Alive: Teaching History | Leave a comment

New Italian Paleography Website

The Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library has created a new Italian paleography website and digital resource. This resource will be incredibly useful resource for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers in Renaissance studies. Here is the … Continue reading

Posted in Archival Research, Court Studies, Digital Humanities, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, Graduate Work in History, Italian History, Mediterranean World, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, The Past Alive: Teaching History | Leave a comment

Frank Valadez AHA Spotlight

Frank Valadez, my friend and fellow UIUC graduate History alum, is featured in an American Historical Association spotlight today! Frank is an amazingly flexible history thinker and practitioner who currently serves as  Director of the Division for Public Education at … Continue reading

Posted in Careers in History, Education Policy, History in the Media, Humanities Education, The Past Alive: Teaching History | Leave a comment

Ken Burns Defends the Humanities

Historical filmmaker Ken Burns delivered the Jefferson Lecture at the National Endowment for the Humanities on 9 May 2016. Inside Higher Ed reports that “Ken Burns, the documentary maker who brought the Civil War, the histories of baseball and jazz, … Continue reading

Posted in Cultural History, Digital Humanities, Historical Film, History in the Media, Humanities Education, Museums and Historical Memory, The Past Alive: Teaching History, War and Society, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

American Historical Association 2015

The American Historical Association 2015 Annual Meeting opens in New York City today.  Thousands of professors, instructors, independent researchers, research librarians, and graduate students in history will be attending the largest historical conference in North America over the next several … Continue reading

Posted in Conferences, Graduate Work in History, Historiography and Social Theory, History in the Media, The Past Alive: Teaching History | Leave a comment

The Problem with Bill Gates and ‘Big History’

When Bill Gates heads to the gym, he gets big ideas. One day at the gym, Bill Gates was watching a DVD on Big History by Professor David Christian. “As Gates sweated away on his treadmill, he found himself marveling … Continue reading

Posted in Academic Freedom, Digital Humanities, Education Policy, Humanities Education, The Past Alive: Teaching History, Undergraduate Work in History | 2 Comments

H.G. Wells and the History of Wargames

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of H.G. Wells’s Little Wars, which created modern wargaming. Long before shooter and strategic video games, model lead soldiers were used to simulate battles in miniature wargames. In 1913, just before … Continue reading

Posted in History in the Media, History of Violence, Museums and Historical Memory, The Past Alive: Teaching History, Undergraduate Work in History, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment