Tag Archives: Roger Louis

Sixth International Seminar on Decolonization Participants Announced

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Participants for the Sixth International Seminar on Decolonization have been chosen.  The seminar, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and hosted by the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, brings together fifteen scholars at the beginning of their careers to Washington, DC for the summer.  The four-week program consists of class meetings, public lectures, informal gatherings, and research in the Washington area on decolonization in the twentieth century.  It begins in mid-July and runs through the first week of August and has become an important stage is many young historians’ career.

This year, the seminar is directed by Wm. Roger Louis (University of Texas at Austin), with leadership help from  John Darwin (Nuffield College, University of Oxford), Philippa Levine (University of Texas at Austin), Jason Parker (Texas A & M University), and Pillarisetti Sudhir (American Historical Association).

The 2011 participants and topics are:

Amanda Behm, Ph.D. candidate, British and imperial history, Yale University (degree expected 2012).
“The Third British Empire: history, theory and reality”

Eveline Buchheim (Ph.D., Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, 2009), Researcher, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, The Netherlands.
“Passion and Purpose: Intimacies of Decolonization”

Paul Chamberlin (Ph.D., Diplomatic / International History, the Ohio State University, 2009), Assistant Professor of History, University of Kentucky.
“New Imperial Frontiers: The End of the Cold War and the Struggle for the Middle East, 1972-1982”

Jessica Chapman (Ph.D., History, University of California–Santa Barbara, 2006), Assistant Professor of History, Williams College, Massachusetts.
“From Disorder to Dictatorship: The Domestic and International History of Ngo Dinh Diem’s Construction of South Vietnam, 1953-1956”

Mads Clausen (Ph.D., English, U. of Copenhagen, 2010), Assistant Professor of British and American Politics and History, Aarhus University, Denmark.
“Out of the Ashcan of History: Decolonisation, Regional Engagement and Australian Post-Imperial Nationhood, 1956-1972”

Chris Dietrich, Ph.D. candidate, History, University of Texas–Austin (expected 2011).
“In the Wake of Withdrawal: British Decolonization and the International Energy Politics, 1967-1971”

Matthew Heaton (Ph.D., History, University of Texas–Austin, 2008), Assistant Professor of History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
“The Decolonization of Psychiatry in the British Empire, 1945-1979”

Jon Howlett, Ph.D. candidate, History, Bristol University, UK (expected 2011).
“‘Decolonising Shanghai:’ the American experience of the takeover of Shanghai and the purge of foreign influence in the city”

Su Lin Lewis (Ph.D., History, University of Cambridge, 2010), Past and Present Post-doctoral Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, UK.
“Cultural International and Civil Society Networks in 1950s Southeast Asia”

Moritz Mihatsch, D.Phil. candidate, History, Nuffield College, University of Oxford (expected 2012).
“Colonialism, Neocolonialism and the United States: How the Sudanese Political Parties dealt with Aid and Technical Assistance”

Lata Parwani, Ph.D. candidate, Modern South Asia History, Tufts University (expected 2012).
“From Homeland to Motherland: Reflecting on the Sindhi Hindu Exodus, 1947-49”

Justin Pearce, D.Phil candidate, Politics, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford (expected 2011),
“Decolonisation in Angola and the roots of civil war”

Muhammad Ali Raza, D.Phil candidate, Modern South Asian History, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford (expected 2011).
“Yearning for Freedom and Revolution: Indian Radicals in Moscow during the Interwar Period”

Anne-Isabelle Richard (Ph.D., History, Gonville and Caius College, Univeristy of Cambridge, 2010), Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute.
“How Europe needed Africa: The influence of decolonization in Asia on Eurafrican projects in France, 1945-1954”

Matthew Stanard (Ph.D., Modern European History, Indiana University, 2006), Assistant Professor of History, Berry College, Georgia.
“Belgium’s pro-empire propaganda and official U.S. views of decolonization in the Belgian Congo, 1955-1961”

National History Center Introduces a Weekly History Seminar

History News, Washington History Seminar, , ,

The National History Center and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars will launch a weekly history seminar to be held in Washington, DC, beginning in January 2010. The purpose of the seminar is to promote discussion of ongoing and significant historical research.

The seminars will be co-chaired by Wm. Roger Louis, Director of the National History Center, and Christian Ostermann, Director of the History and Public Policy Program at the Wilson Center. Each seminar will take place weekly on Mondays at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilson Center, located at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC.

The seminar is open to the public, but reservations are required because of limited space.

The National History Center is dedicated to the advancement of historical knowledge at all times and in all places, ancient and medieval as well as modern—and not only in colleges and universities, but also in government, journalism, and the public at large. The aim is to foster worldwide understanding of the present in light of the past.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the national memorial honoring President Woodrow Wilson. It provides an essential link between the world of ideas and public policy. The Wilson Center fosters relevant research and dialogue to enhance the capabilities and knowledge of leaders, citizens, and institutions worldwide. Created by an act of Congress, the Center is a non-partisan institution.

For further information or to make a reservation, contact: Miriam Cunningham, assistant director of the National History Center, at 202-544-2422 ext 103 or mcunningham [at] historians [dot] org.

Please note that the schedule is subject to change.  Check back with the National History Center for the most up-to-date information.

Schedule for the Weekly History Seminar
Click on the schedule to view larger

Center Receives $1.457 Million from Mellon For Continued Decolonization Seminar

Decolonization Seminar, History News, ,

The National History Center has received an additional $1.457 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to continue its highly successful international summer seminars focusing on decolonization in the Twentieth Century. These seminars have been instrumental in creating a new international field of knowledge. This targeted study of the dissolution of the colonial empires and the lasting effects of their transformations has resulted in intensive scholarly exchange from among the participants, the leaders, and has produced a new body of scholarship devoted to the subject matter. The continued support from the Mellon Foundation sustains the historical analysis on this important subject as well as the work and careers of the young historians.

The seminars will continue to be held in Washington, D.C. in July 2011–2015 and to bring international historians at the beginning of their careers to the Library of Congress to examine the global phenomena of the collapse of the empires and colonial system.

Having just completed the fourth seminar, which ran July 5 through August 1st, Roger Louis, founding director of the Center and leader of the decolonization seminars, stated “The renewal of Mellon Foundation grant is an exhilarating vote of confidence for those who have worked very hard over the last four years to make the decolonization seminar a success, above all the seminar participants themselves.  The National History Center is proud to have helped the research and writing of young historians working in an emerging field of historical knowledge.”