Social Sciences Newsblog

Author: Heather Powers

Heather Powers is a Associate Director of Digital Content in University Marketing and Communications (UMC) at Michigan Technological University. Powers is responsible for all content aspects of UMC's recruitment and reputation web properties and proactively improves and maintains quality, benchmarks, and tests to innovate key sites and pages to meet integrated marketing, brand awareness and reputation, and recruitment goals.

Armistice and Aftermath Symposium

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WW1CC logo with Quincy Mine

The WWI Armistice and Aftermath Symposium is a two-day event, Friday and Saturday (Sept. 28 and 29) that includes presentations, a film and concert, most on the Michigan Tech campus.

Armistice Day 2018 marks the centenary end of World War I. This symposium explores the conditions and impacts of the Great War as experienced during and afterward.

All events are open to the public and admission is free. The full program is available online. A box supper on Friday and a buffet lunch on Saturday are available for $5 and must be reserved in advance by no later than noon Wednesday (Sept. 26).

Friday’s events:

  • 4-5 p.m.: Sue Collins (HU) “Local Theaters, Propaganda and WWI.” Orpheum Theater, Hancock
  • 6-7 p.m.: Superior Wind Symphony, “Europe, America, and the World: An Outdoor Concert.” On Walker lawn if weather permits; otherwise McArdle Theatre
  • 7:30-8:30 p.m.: John Morrow Jr. (University of Georgia), “African American Experience in WWI and Aftermath.” Rozsa Lobby

Saturday’s events:

  • 8:45 a.m.: Symposium Committee Welcome, MUB Ballroom
  • 9-11:15 a.m.: Symposium Panels (see full program online)
  • 12-1 p.m.: Lynn Dumenil (Occidental College), “Women and the Great War.” MUB Ballroom
  • 1:15-3:45 p.m.: Symposium Panels
  • 7:30-9 p.m.: “Copper Country at the Silver Screen in 1918,” Rozsa Theater. A silent film program featuring a 1918 Charlie Chaplin film, film shorts, newsreel, and Four Minute-Man performance; music performed by Jay Warren, Chicago’s foremost Photoplay organist.
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Volunteers Needed to Finish WWI Trench

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WW1CC logo with Quincy MineOne more push over the top—a hard-working crew of about a dozen people got the WWI Trench at the corner of US-41 and MacInnes about 80 percent completed last Saturday and we’d like volunteers from 2 to 5 p.m. today (Sept. 12) to help finish it off.

We need a bit more help with sandbagging, fence construction, ‘barbed wire’ (mock) installation and landscaping. Drop in to help for 15 minutes or three hours, and wear close-toed shoes. All other equipment provided. Help Michigan Tech make history while remembering history.

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WWI Trench Construction Starts Today

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WW1CC logo with Quincy MineThe next phase in the construction of the World War I immersive firing trench takes place over the next two days. The 100-foot-long, five-foot-deep trench will open Monday, Sept. 24. The trench is part of “World War I & the Copper Country,” a community-wide commemoration of the Copper Country’s involvement in the First World War.

The actual digging of the trench will begin this morning. Organizers say the contractor is expected to arrive at around 8:30 a.m. with the digging to begin sometime later.

Volunteers are needed for the construction of the firing trench tomorrow (Sept. 8). Last month, the Michigan Tech football team filled about 2,500 burlap sandbags that will be used for the trench.

Those willing to volunteer should come to the trench site near the intersection of U.S. 41 and MacInnes Drive at 10 a.m. tomorrow or check http://ww1cc.mtu.edu/2018/09/trench-updates for the latest information.  Spread the word.

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Two Exhibits Open Concurrently at the Rozsa Center Gallery Friday

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WW1CC logo with Quincy Mine“American and French Propaganda Posters” and “Shell-Shocked: Footage & Sounds of the Front,” are two separate exhibits that are meant to be seen together.

Both are part of the community-wide centennial commemoration of the “Great War, World War I & the Copper Country,” running through Nov. 11.

During the gallery opening reception, Stefka Hristova (HU) will give a talk entitled, “Iconography & War.” World War I called for broad public participation through multiple avenues: joining the military, buying liberty bonds or saving stamps, conserving food, taking up a public job. Everyone was expected to do their part, and new modes of propaganda were key to ensuring society’s “total mobilization.”

“American and French Propaganda Posters,” reflects numerous appeals to mass mobilization, resulting in some iconic images from the American campaign, for example, James Montgomery Flagg’s “Uncle Sam” and A.E. Foringer’s “Greatest Mother in the World” for the American Red Cross.

Hristova’s talk will take a closer look at the posters to reveal patterns of representations of men, women and children that tie into changing norms of social propriety.

In contrast to the patriotic rhetoric of propaganda posters, the immersive multimedia display of “Shell-Shocked” brings to life the reality of soldiers who fought the war, inviting visitors to experience soldiers’ journey from training to combat, from life at the front to demobilization and return home, if they survived the war’s abuses.

An installation space featuring a custom circular steel truss equipped with six 40” screens, twelve loudspeakers and 6,000 watts of available amplified power, “Shell-Shocked” recreates the sounds to accompany historic silent film footage of the war.

The installation was crafted by Kent Cyr (VPA) and Christopher Plummer (VPA) with sound-design assistance from students Luke Johnson, Brendan Espinosa and Noah Budd from the Visual and Performing Arts Department, Sound Design-BA program.

“American and French Propaganda Posters” are on loan from the permanent collection of the Marquette Regional History Center. The exhibits are made possible in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council (MHC), an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the WW1CC program do not necessarily reflect those of the NEH or MHC.

Light refreshments will be served at the opening reception, 5-7 p.m. Friday (Sept. 7). The exhibits will run until Oct. 2, during gallery hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday – Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. Saturday.

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On the Road

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Angie CarterAngie Carter presented at the Rural Sociological Society annual meeting in Portland, Oregon on July 27 and July 28th.

Carter also presented “Photovoice and Community Development: Women in Agriculture and the Transformation of Rural Spaces,” with her collaborator Claudia M. Prado-Meza (Universidad de Colima) and facilitated a panel “Putting the Sociological Imagination into Practice: Place, Power, and Praxis” with collaborators Ahna Kruzic (Pesticide Action Network North America,Oakland, California) and Gabrielle Roesch-McNally (USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, Oregon).

She also took part in a book reading and author talk about activism on July 30th at the Corvallis Public Library in Corvallis, Oregon with co-authors Kruzic and Roesch-McNally. Carter read her essay, “Homecoming,” about Iowans’ resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline, included in the recently published edited volume “We Rise to Resist: Voices from a New Era in Women’s Political Action” (McFarland 2018).

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Lankton to Give Presentation on Quincy History

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Larry LanktonLocal historian, educator and author Larry Lankton (Emeritus SS) will present the latest in the Quincy Mine Hoist Association’s “History on the Hill” series at 7 p.m. Thursday (July 26) at the Quincy Mine 1894 Hoist House.

Lankton’s presentation is titled, “The National Park Service Arrives on Quincy Hill, 1978.” In the summer of 1978 a team from the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a part of the National Park Service, conducted a 10-week study of the social history of the Quincy Mining Company.

Lankton led the HAER team in 1978 and moved to the Keweenaw three years later to continue his research and write about the local copper industry. Find out more about Lankton’s presentation.

History on the Hill presentations are free and open to the public.

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