ASHP Podcast

Maurie Mcinnis, University of Virginia CUNY Graduate Center, July 12, 2016In this presentation, Maurie Mcinnis discusses the development of anti-slavery art in England and walks through American anti/pro-slavery imagery. Mcinnis presents art created at various stages of the anti-slavery movement on both sides of the Atlantic weaving a narrative highlighting the important role women’s societies played in ending British slavery, the variety in illustrations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and how even fine art entered into the debates on slavery. This talk took place on July 12, 2016, as part of ASHP’s Visual Culture of the Civil War Summer Institute, an NEH professional development program for college and university faculty.

Kirk Savage, University of PittsburghCUNY Graduate Center, July 20, 2016In this highly relevant presentation, Kirk Savage speaks on the legacy of the Civil War and its continued impact on shaping American identity. Savage examines counter legacies by critiquing a Confederate statue in St. Louis, a monument to a Confederate Cherokee Legion in North Carolina, and the concept of “remembering those who have fallen for your freedom.” He closes by exemplifying the fact that there are stories we choose to forget and how that in itself is also a form of counter legacy.This talk took place on July 20, 2016, as part of ASHP’s Visual Culture of the Civil War Summer Institute, an NEH professional development program for college and university faculty.

Gregory Downs, UC Davis The Graduate Center, CUNY July 12, 2016In this talk, Gregory Downs discusses the development of slavery and anti-slavery in the United States. He positions the U.S. slave trade in a global context and examines the intricacies of the Second Middle Passage.  Downs analyzes rhetoric framing the North as a symbol of bourgeois modernity, and how it led to the development of the North v. South narratives.  He concludes with the question of why the Civil War occurred in a context where slavery was seen as embedded in the economies of both the North and the South. This talk took place on July 12, 2016, as part of ASHP’s Visual Culture of the Civil War Summer Institute, an NEH professional development program for college and university faculty.

Gregory Downs, UC Davis The Graduate Center, CUNY July 15, 2016In this talk, Gregory Downs presents the complexities of early Reconstruction in the post-bellum United States. Downs examines freedom in proximity to power by looking at the federal government’s implementation of U.S. laws and agencies in the South, specifically analyzing the tail end of Sherman’s March, the surrender at Appomattox, and the difficulties of enforcing the 13th amendment in rural southern areas. This talk took place on July 15, 2016, as part of ASHP’s Visual Culture of the Civil War Summer Institute, an NEH professional development program for college and university faculty.

Ari Kelman, Penn State The Graduate Center, CUNY July 18, 2016In this presentation, Ari Kelman examines the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado and the controversial opening of The Sand Creek Memorial in 2007. Kelman explores the complicated question of how politics and violence engaged on the American borderland, and the interpretation by some unionists that “civilizing Indians” was essential to preserving the Union. This talk took place on July 18, 2016, as part of ASHP’s Visual Culture of the Civil War Summer Institute, an NEH professional development program for college and university faculty.

Joshua Brown, ASHPThe Graduate Center, CUNYJuly 20, 2016In this presentation, Joshua Brown delves into how Gilded Age newspapers portrayed current events. He analyzes news illustrations of events including The Centennial Exposition, and The Panic of 1873, to analyze how media narratives based on physiognomies vilified African-Americans, working-class people, and immigrants.  This talk took place on July 20, 2016, as part of ASHP’s Visual Culture of the Civil War Summer Institute, an NEH professional development program for college and university faculty.

John Nieto-Phillips, Indiana University-BloomingtonCUNY Graduate Center (via Skype), December 6, 2013In this presentation, John Nieto-Phillips provides an overview of the ways that Latinos and Latinas figure into global Hispanism, or Hispanidad.  He explores the origins of a burgeoning language rights movement, focusing more particularly on New Mexico, and to a lesser extent, on New York City.  This talk was delivered via Skype, so the sound quality is less than optimal.

Cynthia Tobar, Bronx Community CollegeCUNY Graduate Center, April 9, 2014In this panel discussion moderated by Cynthia Tobar, activists and organizers discuss campus-based movements across CUNY that resisted city and state cutbacks. Hear how self-archiving efforts can ensure a more egaltarian CUNY history.

Stephen Brier, CUNY Graduate CenterCUNY Graduate Center, April 9, 2014In this panel discussion, moderated by Stephen Brier, former student and faculty activists who led the fight on CUNY campuses to open the University to all NYC high school graduates discuss this transformative historical moment.

In this panel presentation, scholars Sarah Burns (emerita, Indiana University), Josh Brown (CUNY Graduate Center), and Greg Downs (UC Davis) discuss the visual culture of the post-Civil War era in the fine arts and the illustrated press.