Hi Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and Friends,
While I’ve been posting to this blog recently, this will serve as my official welcome to the 2014-2015 Academic Year. The history department is back in full swing. Faculty and students have returned from productive and interesting summers. Many members of our highly productive faculty traveled over the past few months to deliver papers, conduct archival research, and teach in study abroad programs. Among the countries visited were Poland, Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Nepal, Turkey, and Canada. Of course, those members of the faculty who work on the history of the United States also visited archives and libraries in New York, Boston, Montpelier, and Washington D.C. Those of us who teach in the department were not the only ones to rack up frequent flyer points this summer. Students in the department traveled around the globe to study languages, conduct research, and perform community service.
During the fall semester the department is offering its usual broad array of courses on topics ranging from the history of China and Japan and environmental history at the introductory level to advanced seminars on slavery in western societies and France under German occupation. As always, these classes are not only full of interesting and innovative content but also focused on providing students with broadly applicable critical thinking and reading skills as well as specific guidance on approaches to research and writing.
Over the coming weeks and months, you should look to this blog for postings about upcoming events in the history department but also for information about careers for historians, interesting articles about the discipline and world events, and reminders about important milestones in the academic year.
Additionally, content on this blog will also include:
–Faculty and Student Profiles
–Featured Documents, Images, and Films
–Interesting Archival Finds
–Faculty and Student Research
–Community Events
As chair of the department, I am also interested in hearing your thoughts about what kind of content you’d like to see on our website. Feel free to e-mail me at paul.deslandes@uvm.edu or at history@uvm.edu.
Best wishes to you all for a productive and enjoyable fall.
Paul R. Deslandes (History Department Chair)
