History

Abstract: Two big earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria on February 6. Thousands of buildings collapsed, and hundreds of thousands became trapped under the rubble. So far more than 21,000 lost their lives, and many more are injured. The death toll is estimated to reach 200,000 as more bodies are recovered. Entire cities and villages have been destroyed. With more than 10 million people left homeless, some doubly by war and now natural disaster, the earthquake stands as one of the biggest humanitarian crises of this century.

Benjamin Madley is an historian of Native America, the United States, and colonialism in world history. Educated at Yale and Oxford, he is Associate Professor of History and a member of the American Indian Studies Program at UCLA. He has authored or co-authored twenty journal articles and book chapters. His essays have appeared in journals ranging from The American Historical Review, California History, European History Quarterly, and the Journal of British Studies to the Journal of Genocide Research, Pacific Historical Review, and The Western Historical Quarterly.

Midd.Data welcomes historian Dan Bouk, Associate Professor and Chair of History, Colgate. to speak on Democracy’s Data: The Hidden Stories of the U.S. Census and How to Read Them (Macmillan, 2022).

 Dr. Jeremy Greene, MD, PhD, will discuss his latest book The Doctor who Wasn’t There: Technology, History, and the Limits of Telehealth (University of Chicago Press, 2022) which traces the long arc of enthusiasm for—and skepticism of—electronic media in health and medicine. This lecture also celebrates the launch of the new History of Science, Medicine, and Technology (HSMT) major at Middlebury.

Dr. Jeremy Greene, MD, PhD, will discuss how Humanities majors provide a critical and much-needed pathway to those seeking careers in the healthcare profession and/or in attending medical school. Lunch will be served at 12:15 PM.

Matthew Rojansky will discuss the current state of the war in Ukraine and take questions from the audience.

Matthew Rojansky, the President and CEO of the U.S. Russia Foundation and a Distinguished Fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, is as much a regular at Congressional briefings and on prime-time news shows as he is on the streets of Moscow, Kyiv, or Berlin. One of the country’s leading analysts of US relations with Russia, Ukraine, and the region, he has advised governments and international organizations and leads track two diplomacy on Eurasian conflicts.

Pizza Lunch with the History Department - Come have some pizza and talk with the History Department faculty about the major.

The Vermont Humanities Council and the Ilsley Library present Michael Puett, professor of Chinese history at Harvard, and journalist Christine Gross-Loh, who will speak about their new book, The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life. Hosted by the East Asian Studies program, the History Department, and the Religion Department.