Indiana State University

                        Indiana State University
      The History Department's
             Annual Newsletter

Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809. 1996-1997

You can visit our web page at http://web.indstate.edu:80/history/ Suggestions for improvements are welcome.

The administrative responsibility for the Social Studies Education Program was fully transferred to the Department of History in 1996. A new office in Stalker Hall 106 is being organized as a Social Science Education Center. The number of undergraduate Social Studies Education majors rose to 122 and the number of Liberal Arts History majors in the Department rose from 35 to 51.

Professor Herbert Rissler organized two more successful one-day on-campus Teacher Conferences during the year on Friday, September 20, 1996 and Thursday, February 13, 1997. He plans to continue such meetings in the forthcoming academic year.

Wilson Warren was appointed Assistant Professor of History effective August 1997. Dr. Warren has a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. He has published a book entitled The Greater Beneficial Union of Pittsburgh: The Changing Dimensions of a Fraternal Enterprise, 1892-1992. He will teach courses in labor history and social science education methods.

History enrollments for Fall 1996 rose to near record levels. They rose by 5.1% as compared with Fall 1995 (7.1% when we add the Social Studies Education classes), and were just 1.0% below our record enrollment figure in Fall 1994. Our enrollments for Spring 1997, however, declined by 4.7% as compared to Spring 1996.

Melissa Mauntel was elected President of the ISU chapter of Phi Alpha Theta. Julie Wagner is Vice-President and Van Hutchison is Secretary/Treasurer.

The newly formed SSSA elected Heather Stompor as President, Tina Baier as Vice President, and Leah Stephensen as Secretary/Treasurer. Tina Baier also organized a student mentor system with the following as mentors: Shannon Jones, Paul O'Dell, Heather Kumpf, and Justin Warnick.

Michele Howard assumed duties as part-time Senior Secretary, Department of History on March 3,1997.

Seventeen part-time and full-time students are enrolled in our Graduate (M.A. and M.S.) programs. A full list of graduate students and the colleges and universities they came from, appear at the end of this newsletter. Five of them completed M.A. or M.S. degrees in 1996. Two students sought and obtained admission to History PhD programs: Jan Doolittle (SUNY, Binghampton) and Joel Vessels (SUNY, Stony Brook).

Joel Vessels, Ralph Leck, Nancy Latta, Mike Lunsford, and Pete Ciancone worked as adjunct professors for us during the year. Rhonda Packer was appointed Visiting Professor of History.

The department's proposal for a Specialization in History within the PhD program of the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Media Technology, in the School of Education, was accepted, and the first student in the program began to register for courses in 1997.

The Don Scheick Award for Teaching Excellence, presented annually to an outstanding teacher in Indiana, was won this year by Bob Bilslands of Terre Haute South High School.

The History Department Seminar, started in 1991, has continued to be active. Papers were presented by Drs. Ann Rider (Historical Memory and the Construction of National Identity: Helga Schultz's Vom Glanz der Elbe [The Brilliance of the Elbe] and German Unification) and Richard Schneirov (The Rise of the Urban Working Class in the Civil War/Reconstruction Era). Among the distinguished visitors sponsored by the Department were Gerald Larson, Rabindranath Tagore Professor of Indian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington who delivered a lecture on India's Agony Over Religion and David Haberman of the Department of Religion at the same university who spoke about religion and the environment in Cycling for the Goddess: Environmental Ethics and Natural Theology in India.

Bruce Dickerson and Sean Snyder won the Charles Roll Awards as the outstanding graduate students, and John Abner won the Marion H. Biel Scholarship for proficiency in US history.

The Richard and Margaret Gemmecke Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Tina Baier and Jamie Stefanski, while the Fort Harrison Chapter of the DAR Scholarship went to Brandon Smith. Nathan Freed received the Nellie Margreta Harr award as the best junior student.

Our Fall Welcome Back Party for faculty and graduate students was held at the Layton residence on Friday, August 23. There was a pizza party to welcome back all History and Social Science Education majors on Wednesday, September 4. The History Club organized a number of student/faculty meetings/picnics.

1996 was a good year in terms of publications for the Department, with four new books, three republications of books, thirteen articles or chapters in books, twenty-seven encyclopedia articles, and sixteen conference papers produced by the History faculty at ISU. Gale Christianson's article on "The Night the Universe Changed Forever" has been awarded First Prize for 1997 by Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California and will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Griffith Observer.

John Bartlett retired in December 1996 after 35 years of service with Indiana State University.

Gail E. Chrisitianson's book Isaac Newton and the Scientific Revolution, New York: Oxford University Press, was published this year. Two of his books, Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (paperback edition--originally published in 1995 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton and His Times, Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press (fifth printing--originally published in 1984) were also republished in 1996. He made the following presentations "Edwin Hubble," Department of Physics Colloquium, Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis, February 6; "Edwin Hubble, Mariner of the Nebulae," Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, March 14; "Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae," Indiana Astronomical Society, The Link Observatory, September 14; and "Edwin Powell Hubble at Yerkes Observatory: The Making of an Astronomer," Northern Great Plains History Conference Session "Science and Religion," University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, September 19. He served as the advisor for the Social Science Education Club, and also chaired the General Education Subcommittee on Historical Studies.

Richard M. Clokey chaired the Founders' Day Planning Committee for this year, as well as being a member of the General Education Council and the General Education Committee on Mathematics Competency.

Robert G. Clouse continued to serve on the following: Faculty Senate; Executive Committee, Faculty Senate; Board of Directors, Friends of Cunningham Memorial Library; Health Benefits Review Committee; Faculty Economic Benefits Committee; and Secretary, Faculty Club; Director, Eugene V. Debs Foundation; Director, Central Renaissance Conference; and Director, Conference on Faith and History. He published "Evangelicalism before and after the Scopes Trial" Creation of an Evolving Controversy: A Symposium on the 70th Anniversary of the Scopes Evolution Trial, Dayton, TN: Bryan College, 1996, pp. 11-16 and "Wealth and Eternity, Is it OK for Christians to be Wealthy" Decision, Vol. 37, No. 3, March 1996, pp. 31-36. He also published two encyclopedia articles, one on "Ignatius Few" and the other on "Robert Williams" in The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, ed. D.M. Lewis, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd. 1996, pp. 384, 385, 1195, and four encyclopedia articles: "William J. Bryan", "Eugene V. Debs", "Martin Luther King Jr." and "A. Philip Randolph" in American Justice, 1996, pp. 94, 95, 246, 445-447, 657. He read the following conference paper "Millennial Motivations for Communal Groups" Center of Communal Studies Lecture Series, New Harmony, IN, November. Dr. Clouse also won a research award of $2,685 from ISU to work on "Baptism and Religious Freedom in Seventeenth Century England."

Gary W. Daily served as acting director for Women's Studies at Indiana State University, and served on the Women's Studies Advisory Board, the Women's Studies 20th Anniversary Committee, and the Academic Computing Advisory Committee. He presented "The Many Lives of a Photograph," at 1996 Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference, Indianapolis, IN, April. He also received a Faculty Computing Resource Grant from Indiana State University in the amount of $1,000.

Chandra R. de Silva continued to serve as Chair, Department of History and Chair, Debs Fellowship Committee. He continues to serve as the President of the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies. He published two articles: "Historical Introduction to Antonio Bocarro's Description of Ceylon" Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, Vol. XXXIX, pp. xii-xxvi and "The Monks and the Pontiff: Reflections on Religious Tensions in Contemporary Sri Lanka" South Asia, Special Issue. Asia and Europe, Commerce, Colonialism and Cultures, Vol. XIX, 1996, pp. 233-244. He made two conference presentations: "The State and Religion in Sri Lanka: Buddhism, Secularism, and Other Perspectives," The 1996 Edmund F. Perry Lecture, Department of Religion, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, April and "Perspectives on Secularism: State and Religion in Sri Lanka," India Studies Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, November. He received two grants. The first was one he co-wrote for American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, from United States Information Agency totaling $60,000. The other was a research grant from Indiana State University totaling $2,850.

Helen Dunstan started a two year sabbatical leave in December to serve as chair of the Chinese Studies Department at the University of Sydney. She published a book entitled Conflicting Counsels to Confuse the Age: A Documentary Study of Political Economy in Qing China, 1644-1840, Ann Harbor: University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies. She served as Vice-chair, Graduate Council and Co-chair, Academic Affairs Committee of the College of Arts and Sciences.

William W. Giffin continued to serve as a member of the Debs Fellowship Committee and as member of the Executive Council of the Indiana Association of Historians. He published "Irish" Peopling Indiana: The Ethnic Experience, ed. by Robert M. Taylor, Jr. and Connie A. McBirney, Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society, pp. 244-273. He presented "Migration and Community Formation: Lowland Scots and Argyle, Illinois," to the Center for Communal Studies, New Harmony, IN, August.

Donald L. Layton continued to be active in the Vigo County Historical Society, and also served as a member of the University Speaker's Committee and the General Education in Action Subcommittee, besides being faculty advisor to the Roller Hockey Club. Among his many other activities he presented "World War II" to Terre Haute North High School, Spring 1996.

Arvid H. Perez continued to serve as Coordinator, Arts and Sciences Seminar and Coordinator, History Department Seminar. His is faculty advisor to Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Richard V. Pierard served on the following: Program Review Committee, Graduate Council; AAC Budget Advisory Subcommittee; and Faculty Senate. He is also faculty advisor to the American Baptist Students Association. He published a book this year entitled The Revolution of the Candles: Christians in the Revolution of the German Democratic Republic, Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. He also published "World War I, the Western Allies, and German Protestant Missions" Missionsgeschichte--Kirchengeschichte--Weltgeschichte: Christliche Missionen im Kontext nationaler Entwicklungen in Afrika, Asien, und Ozeanien, ed. by Ulrich van der Heyden and Heike Liebau, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 361-72; "The Contributions of British-Israelism in Antisemitism within Conservative Protestantism" Holocaust and Church Struggle: Religion, Power and the Politics of Resistance, ed. by Hubert G. Locke and Marcia Sachs Littell, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, pp. 45-68; "Natural Law or God's Law? A Historian's Perspective" Ex Auditu: An International Journal of Theological Interpretation of Scripture, Vol. 11, pp. 129-144; and "Civil Religion" Christian Ethics Today: A Journal of Christian Ethics, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 1996, pp. 4-10. The following encyclopedia articles were published: "William James Deerr," "Ernest Droese," "Johann Philipp Fabricius," "Peter Fjellstedt," " Christian Wilhelm Gericke," "Christian Theophilus Hoernle," Ludwig Sigismund Jacoby," Charles Benjamin Leupolt," "Jane Chambers Leupolt," " Christoph Gottlob Müller," "John James Müller," "William Nast," "Ludwig Nippert," "Johann Friedrich Peter," "C.T.E. Rhenius," "William Tobias Ringeltaube," "John Christian Schnarre," "William Smith," and "John James Weitbrecht," in The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography 1730-1860 ed. by Donald M. Lewis, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 1996. He presented the following papers: "The World in 1846," "On Remembering," and "Christianity and Politics," Taylor University, Upland, IN, January; "Pietism and Confessionalism in German Protestant Missions in South Africa," Annual Meeting of the Church History Society of Southern Africa, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, January; "Globalization Theory and Christian Missions," Colloquium of the Research Enablement Program in Mission Studies of the Pew Charitable Trusts, Scaritt-Bennett Center, Nashville, TN, June; "How Did Baptists Go Astray on the Separation of Church and State?" 60th Anniversary Conference of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, Washington DC, October; "The Moravian Communities in South Africa and America: Genadendal and Bethlehem," USI Center for Communal Studies Lecture Series, New Harmony, IN, October; and "Holocaust and History," 26th Annual Scholar's Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, Minneapolis, MN, March. Also, he received a travel grant from African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin in the amount of $375.

Herbert J. Rissler continued to be Graduate Advisor in the Department; member, Presidential Scholars Interview Committee; chair, University Archives Committee; vice-chair, University Administrative Affairs Committee; and member, Grievance Committee, College of Arts and Sciences. He published an encyclopedia article entitled "Freemasonry in the United States", USA Lexicon, eds. Wersich and Christadler, Berlin, Erich Schmidt, 1996, pp. 298-299. He coordinated two Social Studies Teachers' Conferences at Indiana State University, He also spoke at the In-Service Social Studies Workshop at Terre Haute South High School, Terre Haute, IN, March, besides presenting at Van Buren Elementary and North Clay Middle Schools.

Richard S. Schneirov served as a member of the Debs Fellowship Committee and faculty advisor to the History Club and SEAL (Students for Environmental Awareness and Leadership), as well as a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Indiana Magazine of History. He published an encyclopedia entry "Strikes" in Encyclopedia of Chicago History.

Rebecca S. Shoemaker was a member of the following: Program Committee for the 1996 Annual Meeting, Indiana Association of Historians; Local Arrangements Advisory Committee for 1988 meeting of Organization of American Historians; and Committee for the Study of the History of the Federal Courts in Indiana. She also served on the College of Arts and Sciences' Promotion and Tenure Committee. Her article on "James D. Williams" was published in Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Vol. 8, No. 4, Fall 1996, pp. 26-30.

Thomas Siefert continued to serve full-time as Associate Dean of the School of Graduate Studies.

Edward K. Spann's book Designing Modern America, Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press was published this year. He also published "Union Green--The New York Irish and the Civil War" The New York Irish Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1996, pp. 193-209 and "Indiana's First Congresswoman, Virginia E. Jencks" Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 1996, pp. 235-253.

John H. Williams' book A Great and Shining Road. The Epic of the Transcontinental Railroad, was re-published by Bison Books (Previously published in 1988 by Times Books/Random House). He published an article entitled "Desert Battle of Abu Klea" Military History, Vol. XIII, No. 4, October 1996, pp. 46-52. He served on the Selection Committee for the 1996 Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences.