Department of History 
Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts 
Patrick Manning, Director Designate 
Beimei Long, Coordinator 
Annual Report, June 1996 - May 1997

 Contents Brochure: Migration in Modern World History CD-ROM

Introduction and BackgroundThe World History Center is a uniquely comprehensive institution, supporting basic and applied research and curriculum development in world history. It is structured to bring about a synergistic combination of numerous activities in world history, and thereby to provoke the fundamental rethinking necessary to update our understanding of the world and its changes. The activities include advanced research, doctoral study, undergraduate study, outreach to college and secondary teachers, a program of lectures and publication, design and production of multimedia teaching materials, and development of communication, resources, and institutional structures in world history. The scope of world history, as defined at the Center, includes any historical studies beyond the national level, whether they be comparative, interactive or synthetic in analysis. 

The 1996-97 academic year has provided more activity and excitement than any other since the World History Center came into existence, in September 1994, as an informal center. Individual and project funding awarded and received for project activities in 1996-97 has totalled over $700,000. The beginning of work on the full-scale CD-ROM on Migration in Modern World History brought an outpouring of energy and imagination from the newly assembled project staff and from the graduate student researchers. The excellent initial work in conceptual and graphic design, plus the development of an enthusiastic team of researchers, brought positive reinforcement from colleagues in History and elsewhere at the university, from our consultants and advisors, and from The Annenberg/CPB Project. The distinct and active pedagogy of the CD-ROM has gained growing attention among historians. 

In addition, during the past year, the World History Seminar became solidly established, the NER-WHA electronic conference was a resounding success, the centerÕs web page grew steadily and gained wide approval, work in Teaching Resources made an excellent start at both local and national levels, and faculty associates have had a good year in winning research and curriculum grants.. Graduate students affiliated with the center gained campus attention with their presentation of the Migration project at the January poster session; they gained national attention as reviewers and commentators on the H-WORLD and NER-WHA discussion lists and as conference presenters of the Migration project (where they elicited a proposal for collaboration from a leading publisher). 

The center provided major bibliographic support to the National History Day organization in March 1997, and major conference sessions have been built around the centerÕs work at meetings in Cincinnati, East Lansing and Seattle. Project proposals are in preparation for submission to the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the American Historical Association, the Sloan Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and requests arrive frequently, asking for information on the center, on its research and curriculum work, and on graduate study in world history. Of particular note is the tentative agreement of the World History Association to hold its annual conference in June 2000 on the Northeastern campus, with the Center and the History Department as hosts for a meeting of over 250 delegates. 

Participants in center activities share the hope that the center will soon gain formal recognition from the university. The initial full proposal for the World History Center was developed in the Spring of 1994 and forwarded from the dean of Arts and Sciences to the provost. This led to Development Office support which helped win Annenberg/CPB funding of the Migration project in 1995. Meanwhile, as the university has been unable to act on establishing centers since 1994, the World History Center has carried on informally, and has periodically revised drafts of its proposal: the most recent draft was submitted to the dean of Arts and Sciences on April 15, 1997. 

Center Administration

The World History Center office remains in 231 Meserve Hall. This room holds center files and the Macintosh 5400 web server. In April 1997 the College of Arts and Sciences made available Room 320 Holmes for center use, and some center administration and Migration project activities moved to that room. In June 1997, it is anticipated that the adjoining rooms 339 and 341 Holmes will also become available for center use. 

Administrative work for the center has been performed on a volunteer basis by Director Designate Manning and by graduate students Whitney Howarth, Beimei Long, Patricia Slotter, and Dolly Wilson. The steady growth in the quantity and range of center activities means that the need for an administrative assistant at the professional staff level has become acute. Equally serious is the need for a network printer and photocopy machine dedicated to center use. Proposals for funding of these needs are in development. 

Affiliated Faculty and Students

Faculty Associates (participants are listed with their regional and topical specializations within world history): 

    Research Fellows
    Campbell, Ballard (United States; comparative political) 
    Fowler, William M., Jr. (United States; maritime and early national) 
    Frader, Laura Levine (modern France; labor and gender) 
    Hall, Robert (African-American and African; religion, culture) 
    Manning, Patrick (Africa and Atlantic; social, economic) 
    McShane, Clay (United States; urban, social) 
    Shaffer, Lynda N. (Tufts University--World; social and political) 

    Curriculum Fellows

    Fraser, James (United States; education) 
    Gilmartin, Christina (modern China; gender and politics) 
    Herman, Gerald (modern Europe; culture, technology) 
    Matos-Rodríguez, Felix (Caribbean, Latin America; gender) 

Student Associates
    Doctoral Student Fellows
    Brooks, Pamela (United States and World) 
    Cheng, Yinghong (World) 
    Evans, Desirée (on leave) 
    Howarth, Whitney (World) 
    James, Parker (Tufts University--World) 
    Kalivas, David (World) 
    Martin, Eric (World) 
    Sommers, Jeffrey (World) 
    Swedberg, Sarah (United States) 
    Master's Student Fellows
    Aron, Eric 
    Bernardo, Celeste 
    Cooney, Tara 
    Gauthier, Julie 
    Kinkela, David 
    Long, Beimei 
    Rist, Eric 
    Wilson, Dolly
     
     

Research and Curriculum DevelopmentFaculty Research in World History

Ballard C. Campbell gained support for research on Cycles and Structures in American History" from a 1997 RSDF grant from Northeastern. William M. Fowler also won a 1997 RSDF grant, for work on "The French and Indian War." Laura L. Frader continued work on her project, "Women in Interwar French Automobile Production," with 1996 support from the Whiting Foundation. Robert L. Hall's project on "Cultural History of the Atlantic Slave Trade," supported by a 1990-91 grant from the Smithsonian Foundation, gained additional support from a 1997-98 grant by the American Council of Learned Societies. Gerald H. Herman's Historians' Guide to Media is soon to appear with Greenwood-Praeger Publishers. Patrick Manning continued work on "Africans in French, Spanish, and Early American Louisiana, 1720-1820," in collaboration with Gwendolyn M. Hall, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (1993-96). Manning also conducted research on "Demographic Simulation of Migration," earlier supported by the Northeastern University Research Council (1994), and supported in 1995-97 by The Annenberg/CPB Project (1995-97). Clay McShane launched work on "The Horse in World History" on his own resources. 

Doctoral Research in World History

Pamela Brooks gained approval in July 1996 for dissertation work on the topic of "Boycotts, Buses, and Passes: Black Women's Resistance in Montgomery, Alabama and Johannesburg, South Africa, 1946-1960." Yinghong Cheng, in June 1995, gained approval for dissertation work on the topic of "Western Intellectuals and Eastern "New People" -- Western Left-Wing Intellectuals' Response to the Emergence of the Communist "New Man". 

Curriculum Development

Christina Gilmartin conducted work on undergraduate curriculum revision in history, to expand the world history focus. Gerald Herman won a 1997 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education for a History/Social Science Summer Content Institute, conducted through the History-Social Studies Schools-College Alliance. Felix Matos-Rodriguez conducted work on undergraduate curriculum revision in history, to expand its world history focus. Patrick Manning continued work funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (1994-96) on "Mainstreaming Methodology and World History for Undergraduates in History," by editing and submitting to Northeastern University Press a resource book based on project activities, entitled "The College History Curriculum." 

Migration.

In the largest curriculum development activity of the center, Patrick Manning directed the full-scale design, research and production of the "Migration in Modern World History CD-ROM," funded by The Annenberg/CPB Project (1995-97). A staff of almost twenty worked on the project, with loads ranging from one-tenth time to full time. Staff members were as follows: 

    Project Director: Patrick Manning 
    Assistant Director: Patricia Slotter 
    Producer: Ted Sicker,WGBH 
    Media Director: Gerald Herman 
    Production Director: Kathy White 
    Design Coordinator: Kristina Wronski 
    Graphic Design Consultant: Julia Whitney, WGBH 
    Narrative Director: John Saillant, Western Michigan 
    Guide Director: Steven Mintz, University of Houston 
    Project Manager: Peter Holloran 
    Graduate researchers: Whitney Howarth, David Kalivas, Eric Martin, Jeffrey Sommers, Dolly Smith Wilson 
    Programmers: Rixin Liao, Alex Mechnikov,Yansong Wang 
    Program Officer: Pete Neal,The Annenberg/CPB Project 
    Advisory Board: 
    Kim Butler, Department of Africana Studies, Rutgers University 
    Leslie Page Moch, Department of History, Michigan State Univ. 
    Gary Nash, Department of History, UCLA 
    Kevin Reilly, Raritan Valley Community College 
    Lynda Shaffer, Department of History, Tufts University 
    Anand Yang, Department of History, University of Utah 
Production and Testing. Project staff completed work, in February, on a prototype CD-ROM including the Introduction and Unit 1 of the 13 total units. This prototype has been presented to several audiences, and has undergone formative evaluation by students at Lesley College and U Mass Lowell. The results of this testing will bring improvements in the next CD-ROM, which will be presented to the project Advisory Board in June. Initial research is now complete; follow-up research will take place in summer 1997. Writing of the analyses and narratives is taking place along with assembly and annotation of the evidence. Programming work will take place in summer 1997, followed by field testing of the full CD-ROM in fall 1997. Then final revisions will be implemented before release in 1998. Public presentations of the Migration project, 1995-97:
  • World History Association, California Polytechnic State University at Pomona, June 22, 1996. Presented by Patrick Manning. Attendance: 40.
  • Atlantic History Seminar, Harvard University, September 7, 1996. Presented by Patrick Manning and John D. Saillant. Attendance: 30.
  • Department of History, Tufts University, October 7, 1996. Presented by Patrick Manning. Attendance: 18.
  • Department of History, Fitchburg State College, November 1996. Presented by Patrick Manning. Attendance: 35.
  • American Historical Association, New York, January 3, 1997. Presented by Patrick Manning and Gerald Herman at a session sponsored by the World History Association. Attendance: 50.
  • Northeastern University Poster Session on Student Research, in the Egan Research Center, January 22, 1997. Attendance: several hundred.
  • Showcase of the CD-ROM Prototype, in the Raytheon Room of the Egan Research Center, Northeastern University, Boston, February 21, 1997. Attendance: 60.
  • Educational Technology Conference, University of Cincinnati, May 2, 1997. Presented by Patricia Slotter and Dolly Wilson. Attendance: 40.
  • World History Association, Pamplona, Spain, June 21, 1997. Presented by Eric Martin and Jeffrey Sommers.
  • Association for History and Computing, Glasgow, Scotland, July 1, 1997. Presented by Dolly Wilson.
Publication Plans.The Migration project staff spent much time working with Houghton Mifflin Co., but have not yet been able to agree on a formula for publishing the Migration CD-ROM and the others in the thematic series in world history. Other discussions are being pursued with Prentice Hall, Addison Wesley, Norton, and Westview. 

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Reference Materials in World History

In association with Joseph C. Miller of the University of Virginia, editor of the annual "Bibliography of Slavery and Slave Trade in World History," the center will prepare an electronic version of this bibliography beginning in 1998. Discussion on publication of a reference CD-ROM has begun with Ashgate Publishers in England. 

Current Proposals Curriculum.

Technology in World History CD-ROM: To pursue the series begun with the Migration CD-ROM, the center is preparing to approach the Sloan Foundation for support of a CD-ROM on Technology in World History. 
Data Base of World History Documentary Modules: Simon and Schuster Custom Publishing has contacted the World History Center to explore a contract for developing a data base of world history documents, to be prepared by the center in association with colleagues at Ohio State University. Work could begin as early as Fall 1997. 
College - Secondary Partnership in Teaching World History. In association with the Rocky Mountain World History Association, the Southeast World History Association, and the New England Regional World History Association, the center has applied to the Woodrow Wilson Foundation for funding of a three-year project in which college and secondary teachers will collaborate in developing and disseminating a new secondary course on world history since 1850. 

Reference Material. "Data Structures in World History." In association with the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia, the World History Center is preparing to submit a proposal to the American Historical Association for support of research into the defining of multimedia data structures in world history. 

Academic Programs

Ph.D. program
Students who have passed all requirements but the dissertation: 

  • Pamela Brooks (entered 1994; MA, U-Mass Amherst)
  • Yinghong Cheng (entered 1994; MA, Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing)
     
    Students expected to pass exams in 1997: Beauchesne, James (entered 1995; MA, Northeastern Univ.)Corvi, Steven (entered 1995; MA, Salem State Univ.)Kalivas, David (entered 1996; MA, Suffolk University)Martin, Eric (entered 1995; MA, Univ. of Texas - Arlington)Sommers, Jeffrey (entered 1996; MA, Univ. of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)Swedberg, Sarah (entered 1994; MA, Northeastern Univ.)


    Other Ph.D. students: Evans, Desirée (entered 1995; BA, Bard College)Howarth, Whitney (entered 1997; BA, Moravian College)Johnston, Deborah (entered 1997; MA, Columbia University)Melo, Hector (entered 1997; MA, Columbia University)


    M.A. program
    Students completing MA program with a focus in world history Cooney, TaraHowarth, WhitneyRist, EricWilson, Dolly


    MAT program
    Students pursuing MAT program with a focus in world history Gauthier, JulieLong, Beimei 
     (Note: all MAT students take a required course in Approaches to World History) BA/BS program
    History Department faculty members continue the work of developing upper level courses in global history, to give a stronger global emphasis at all levels of the History major.

World History SeminarTwelve biweekly presentations were made during the 1996-97 academic year. They were delivered Friday afternoons from 3:00 to 4:30 in Room 420 of the Classroom Building, to an audience averaging twelve people. The presentations were as follows: 

    • October 18, 1996 Alfred Andrea, University of Vermont

      • "The Crusades in global perspective" 
    • November 15, 1996 Maghan Keita, Villanova University

      • "Africa in world history" 
    • November 22, 1996 Richard Rath, Brandeis University

      • "Creolization as a way to do global history at a local level" 
    • December 6, 1996 Suzanne Blier, Harvard University

      • "African Amazons and art in late-19th-century world popular culture" 
    • January 24, 1997 Hector Melo, Northeastern University

      • "Population, territory, and state: Latin America in the 20th century" 
    • February 7, 1997 Christine Ward Gailey, Northeastern University

      • "Gender and State Formation" 
    • February 21, 1997 William Green, College of the Holy Cross

      • "The intersection of world history and environmental history" 
    • March 7, 1997 Pamela Brooks, Northeastern University

      • "Black women's postwar resistance in South Africa and the U.S. South" 
    • March 28, 1997 Eric Martin, Northeastern University

      • "Global responses to British imperialism" 
    • April 4, 1997 Yinghong Cheng, Northeastern University

      • "'New People.' Communist experiments in reshaping human beings: the Russian and Chinese revolutions as examples." 
    • April 18, 1997 David Northrup, Boston College

      • "The nineteenth-century indentured labor trade: a new slavery or forgotten immigrants?" 
    • May 2, 1997 Jean-Marie Makang, Frostburg State College

      • "Cheikh-Anta Diop on revolutions in history and African revolution" 
The 1997-98 World History Seminar includes such speakers as Noam Chomsky, Sergei Khrushchev, Heidi Roupp (president of the World History Association), and Andre Gunder Frank. 

Web Page

The World History Center web page was created in its first draft in December 1996, and in a revised draft in March 1997. It is housed on the centerÕs web server in 231 Meserve, and its address is http://www.whc.neu.edu. The web page includes a full set of materials on the Migration project and on plans for other multimedia instructional materials in world history. The web page also includes substantial sections on Research and Curriculum Development, on Teaching Resources, on Academic Programs, on Affiliations, on the World History Seminar, and on the World History Center itself. The web page includes links to the Northeastern History Department and to other major sites in world history. The center staff looks forward to being able to link this web page to the Northeastern University web page. 

Teaching Resources

Beginning in Summer 1997, a portion of Room 320 Holmes will serve as the World History Center Teaching Resources space. It will house materials for circulation to college and secondary teachers of world history, and serve as a space for small meetings on curriculum planning. Activities in World History Center Teaching Resources include: 

Consultation. Faculty curriculum associates and graduate students have set up plans for consulting with area secondary teachers in the teaching of world history. Ties are strongest at Boston Latin School (Walter Lambert, History Department chair) and Lexington High School (John Papadonas, History Department chair). 

Lesson Plans. Students in Northeastern graduate courses in world history will write lesson plans for secondary school students in world history beginning Winter 1998, and will make these available to teachers through World History Center Teaching Resources. 

Syllabi. Three graduate syllabi in world history have been posted on the center's web page. 

Teaching Bibliography. Several bibliographies addressing themes in world history have been posted on the centerÕs web page. Further bibliographies will be added periodically. 

Textbook Reviews. Eight reviews of college textbooks in world history, written by Northeastern University graduate students, have been posted on the center's web page and on the H-WORLD web page. 

Affiliations

The World History Center maintains affiliations with several other grouping with emphases in world history. Some of these are physically located fully or partially at Northeastern; others are based elsewhere. 

H-WORLD. H-WORLD, the electronic discussion list in world history, is an affiliate of H-Net (Humanities On-Line), and works from a server at Michigan State University. Patrick Manning has been co-editor of H-WORLD since its founding in August 1994, and moderates daily discussion on the list for half the year. Whitney Howarth of Northeastern University has now been nominated as a second co-editor, and will take up one third of the work of moderating. 

H-WORLD subscriptions rose during 1996-97 from 650 to 850. The average number of postings was four per weekday. 

The H-WORLD web page (http://h-net.msu.edu/~world) was expanded substantially in 1996-97, thanks to work by Whitney Howarth, Tara Cooney, and Yansong Wang of Northeastern, as well as Melanie Shell and David Halstead of Michigan State. 

Among the substantial discussion threads on H-WORLD have been "Eurocentrism vs. Euro-dominance," "Maps for Class," "world history of piracy," "nomad history," "the Conquest and Creation of the Modern World," "what to expect in a world history job search," and discussion of major recent books in world history. 

New England Regional World History Association (NER-WHA). 
This association, a regional affiliate of the World History Association, has its headquarters at Northeastern University. Officers are President Patrick Manning, Vice President Gerald Herman, and Newsletter Editor Beimei Long, all of Northeastern. 

Three issues of the association's Bulletin were published in 1996-97, numbers 6, 7, and 8 -- roughly 200 copies were mailed to subscribers, most of whom are in New England. The NER-WHA electronic conference on "The West in the World" was held from March 31 through April 6, 1997, on the NER-WHA list (operated from the Division of Academic Computing's Majordomo program). In this innovative conference, one hundred subscribers received comments by three major historians, then responses by two teachers, after which the discussion was opened up to all for five days. A full transcript of the debate is available on the World History Center web site, at http://www.whc.neu.edu/ner-wha. 

Symposium. On September 20, 1997, NER-WHA will hold its first Symposium at Keene State College in New Hampshire. This one-day conference, chaired by Wilfred Bisson of Keene State, will draw world historians from all over New England. Massachusetts teachers will be able to get up to six PDP credits for their participation. 

History-Social Studies Schools-College Alliance. 
This organization, co-chaired by Gerald Herman of Northeastern and John Papadonis, the Head of the History-Social Studies Department at Lexington High School (and past president of the New England Regional Council on the Social Studies), links high school and college teachers in curriculum development. The organization specializes in in-service training in world history, and has recently received funding from the Massachusetts Department of Education. 

Studies in the World History of Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation (SWHSAE). This electronic journal, edited by Patrick Manning (Northeastern), John Saillant (Western Michigan University), and Anthony Henderson-Whyte (Princeton), is housed on the H-Net server at Michigan State, at http://h-net.msu.edu/~slavery. Its first issue, in Spring 1996, was trilingual in French, Spanish, and English. Its second issue appeared in Winter 1997. 

World History Association.
The World History Center works closely with the World History Association, which is headquartered at Drexel University. 

World History Association Annual Meeting, 2000. The World History Center has proposed that Northeastern University be the site of the World History Association annual meeting, June 22-24, 2000. This major meeting would bring at least 250 delegates to a conference for which meetings would be held in the Classroom Building and in the Curry Center, in the week following commencement. The WHA is ready to approve this proposal at its June 1997 board meeting, pending further details from Northeastern on campus facilities, on the availability of hotel space, and on the means of providing guarantees to hotels for the rooms to be reserved. 

Globalizing Regional Histories Initiative. Patrick Manning is one of five members of a committee headed by Sandria Freitag, Executive Director of the American Historical Association, which has pursued since 1994 the initiative of linking historians who work in various area-studies traditions, hoping to achieve a broad cross-fertilization of ideas among historians. The specific activities of the initiative involve arranging multi-regional panels at meetings of the various area studies associations and of the AHA itself. 

Report completed May 27, 1997 
Patrick Manning