Social Sciences Newsblog

Two speakers are featured this weekend with the WWI symposium “Armistice and Aftermath.”

John Morrow, Jr. (University of Georgia) will present “African American Experience in WWI and Aftermath” from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday (Sept. 28)in the Rozsa Lobby. Lynn Dumenil (Occidental College) will present “Women and the Great War” from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 29) in the MUB Ballroom. Both talks are free and open to the public.

Morrow’s talk will address how African Americans understood and participated in the war effort on the home and fighting fronts and how white Americans responded to their efforts. He will explore how the war affected race relations and the conditions of African American life in the postwar United States.

Dumenil’s talk will focus on popular culture images of women in World War I, especially the attention given to how American women challenged gender conventions. She will explore claims that the war transformed traditional gender roles as well as the persistent power of expectations about women’s traditional roles.

Morrow Jr. and Dumenil will be on campus all day Friday (Sept. 28). If you are interested in meeting with either of them, email ww1cc@mtu.edu.

The visits have been supported by the Visiting Women and Minority Scholars program. The public lectures are part of “World War I in the Copper Country,” an extensive program of events and exhibits commemorating the WWI Armistice. Sponsors include Michigan Technological University Institutional Equity office, the Departments of Humanities, Social Sciences and Visual and Performing Arts, Finlandia University, the Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw and the Michigan Humanities Council.

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.

“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.