Fredonia will join and host scholars from China, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other SUNY campuses, along with those from other parts of the United States, at a conference, “Biography Again: A New Look at History’s Oldest Discipline,” on Friday and Saturday, April 8 and 9, at Williams Center Room S204.
All sessions of the conference, hosted by the Department of History, are free and open to the public.
Michael Oberg, SUNY Distinguished Professor of History at SUNY Geneseo and an internationally renowned scholar of Native American studies, will deliver the keynote address, “The Three Faces of Eleazer Williams,” on Friday, 5 p.m. in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room. Dr. Oberg is the author of, “Professional Indian: The American Odyssey of Eleazer Williams.”
Topics to be explored during individual sessions, with the respective speakers and papers each will present on Friday, include:
Creating Stability out of Turmoil, 12:30 to 1:50 p.m.
• Dr. Jeffrey Bloodworth, “Heartland Liberal: The Life and Times of Carl Albert”
• Jon O’Brian, “Hammer of Thor: Samuel A. Carlson and Building the Progressive Community, Jamestown, N.Y., 1908-1921
• Dr. Irit Youngerman, “Composing Biography: The Music of Heinrich Jacoby as a Story of Immigration and Adjustment
Educating through Biography, 2 to 3:20 p.m.
• Dr. Edward Janak, “Assembling the Narrative Quilt: Enriching Educational History through Educational Biography”
• Dr. John Staples, “‘Nobody Teaches that Anymore’ – Reflections on Reintroducing Historical Biography to the Curriculum”
• Dr. Ana Maria Klein, “Personal Diaspora: Canada via Hungary and Venezuela.”
Not Just Sequoyah or Principal Chief John Ross: Cherokee History through Biography, 3:30 to 4:50 p.m.
• Julie Reed, assistant professor, University of Tennessee, and students Christine Dano-Johnson, Katie Myers and Jacob Ottinger.
Fredonia students enrolled in HIST 495 Capstone Seminar will give poster presentations on Friday morning.
Topics to be explored during individual sessions, with the respective speakers and papers each will present on Saturday, include:
Recovering Past Leaders through Biography, 8:30 to 9:50 a.m.
• Dr. Xin Fan, author of “Remembering Lei Haizong: Authenticity and Biographical Writing in China Today”
• Dr. Jennifer Hildebrand, “The Quiet Leadership of Roland Hayes, African American Tenor”
• Virginia Summey, “Writing the Bar: Judge Elreta Alexander and Civil Rights Advocacy in Greensboro, North Carolina”
Crossing Borders and Boundaries, 10 to 11:20 a.m.
• Dr. John Arnold, “Visit My Mountain, or How to Write a Biography of an Angel”
• Dr. Markus Vink, “Founding Father, Butcher or Evil Genius? Imaging ‘Iron Jan’ Pieters Coen (1587-1629)
• Justin Masucci, “An Old Way to Tell New Stories: The Biographical Approach to Transnational Histories.”
Lunch and screening of the documentary short “Priscilla’s Legacy,” 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., followed by a panel discussion with Fredonia faculty including filmmaker Roslin Smith and Drs. Ted Schwalbe, Laura Johnson, Shannon McRae and Susan McNamara.
Constructing a Military Identity,” 1 to 2:50 p.m.
• Dr. Tze-Ki Hon, of SUNY Geneseo, discussant.
Writing Gender, 3 to 4:20 p.m.
• Dr. Mary Beth Sievens, discussant
• Dr. Karen Dunak, “Of the Same Time and Place: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Second Wave Feminism”
• Seokyung Han, “Role of the Female Biographies across East Asia”
• Dr. Jeffry Iovannone, “Hell Hath No Fury Like a Drag Queen Scorned: Sylvia Rivera and the Search for Transgender Activists.”
The Biographers’ Sources and Techniques, 4:30 to 6 p.m.
• Song Chen, “Marking Up’ and ‘Meshing Up’: ‘Reading’ and ‘Writing’ Biographies in the Digital Age”
• Adrianne Zahner, “Biography in Stone: Contemporary American Gravemarkers, 1990-2014”
• Dr. Lorna Gibb, “A Post Modern Biography.”
