Author Archives: admin
Fredericksburg ghost stories
It’s spring break and almost daylight savings, and so maybe I should be thinking about spring cleaning. But since we’re still dipping down into the single digits, and looking at 3-5 inches of snow and ice and frozenish crud tomorrow, … Continue reading
Teaching research methods
This semester I’m teaching a section of History 298: History Practicum, the second half of a two-course methods sequence for our majors. In the first half of the sequence, we focused more on historiography, and students finished the semester by … Continue reading
Delaware Indians on Pennsylvania’s colonial roads
It seems that I promised way way back in the day (okay, February) that I’d share any updates on the Pennsylvania rivers/roads project, not just to provide more fodder for students to give me a hard time about how much … Continue reading
American slavery, Indian lands: on money and marginalization
This is not actually a post about slavery, or really about Ed Baptist‘s The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, though indeed that’s where this train of thought begins. Rather, it’s about the study … Continue reading
Rappahannock film premier
RAPPAHANNOCK 8×11 Friends of the Rappahannock, a local conservation organization in Fredericksburg, will be hosting the premier of a documentary by Oscar-nominated director Bayley Silleck at UMW’s Dodd Auditorium on Sunday, November 9, from 3-4 pm (you can grab the promotional … Continue reading
Cuisine as cultural resource
Teaching Native American history and trying to keep up with news about American Indians today, it seems like I see tons of stories like this one (and certainly this type of coverage is more visible to many of my … Continue reading
I don’t always read for pleasure…
…but when I do, it’s still about Indians. Sometimes, anyway, though the two most recent were. Sort of. If you haven’t read any of Sherman Alexie‘s work, get on it (or, better yet, listen to an audio version that he … Continue reading
Genius
The MacArthur Foundation announced its “genius grant” recipients earlier this week, and one of its choices strikes me as particularly inspired. Sarah Deer, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, MN, was recognized for her work … Continue reading
Celebrating Wilderness
A Facebook friend posted this reflection on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Wilderness Act, and naturally, the Wilderness Society is commemorating it as well. If you’re not especially familiar with the legislation, its background, or it consequences, … Continue reading
Take Note
I’m hardly the only one to have expended breath in unheeded arguments in favor of taking notes by hand, but it’s still nice to occasionally see something that better articulates and explains the rationale I try to share with students. I … Continue reading
