Penn State Department of History faculty members (from left) Matthew Restall, Ellen Stroud and Tony Frazier participated in a panel discussion at the "America 250: Let's Talk History!" program.  Credit: Kate Kenealy . All Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — On Sept. 15, Penn State’s Department of History held the "America 250: Let’s Talk History!" program, a day-long series of panel discussions and presentations reflecting on the country’s unique and complex origin story.

The event presented the American experience from a number of vantage points by History Department faculty, students and alumna Liz Covart. Cathleen D. Cahill, professor of history and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and Walter L. Ferree and Helen P. Ferree Professor in Middle-American History, coordinated the program.

“These anniversaries — centennials and semiquincentennials, etc. — are moments to reflect where we have been, but also on where we are going,” said Cahill, acting director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center. “As the History Department at the flagship institution for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it seemed incredibly important for us to mark this anniversary and talk about its relevance.”

Cahill said it was important to get a broad representation of history faculty to participate in the event, both U.S. history specialists and those who focus on other geographic areas.

“That also gave us a chance to talk about the themes of democracy more broadly as well as to discuss the wider context of the age of revolutions within which the United States was formed and which the American Revolution helped shape,” she said.

Indeed, the day was a varied affair, beginning with the first panel, “Why History Matters for the America 250 Anniversary?” which was moderated by Alex Lubin, professor of African American studies and history, and featured diverse insights on the topic by Tony Frazier, assistant professor of history; Matthew Restall, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of colonial Latin American history, anthropology, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies; and Ellen Stroud, associate professor of history.

Cahill said she was especially proud of the second panel, “Working in Public History,” made up of undergraduate history majors Delaney Florence, Thomas Flexer, Kylie Hickoff, Barbara Price and Paige Rishel, and moderated by Covart, a 2003 Penn State history graduate who is the founding director of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios and creator/host of the award-winning podcast, “Ben Franklin’s World.” On Sept. 14, Covart gave a talk as part of the Penn State Forum Speaker Series.

During the talk, the students shared their experiences working as interns during the past year at such renowned historical sites as Gettysburg National Military Park, the Library of Congress’ John W. Kluge Center, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and the Benjamin Franklin House in London.

Cahill praised Covart’s interviewing skills, noting she did “a great job of making everyone feel comfortable and asking questions that allowed the students to shine.”

“The students were really thoughtful and articulate about this anniversary moment, but also offered real debate over what our public history institutions should be doing and how that impacted their internships,” Cahill said. “They also highlighted their gratitude for the resources available at Penn State through the History Department and the Richards Civil War Era Center that made those opportunities possible. It definitely felt good to hear one student say that she was working with students from other elite institutions who had many fewer resources from their schools than she did from Penn State.”

A good portion of the day was devoted to 15-minute “lighting round” presentations by History faculty members on the theme, “Reflections on the Revolutionary Era and Its Reverberations.” They included:

• “Native American Treaties with the United States as Founding Documents”: Christina Snyder, McCabe Greer Professor of History
• “Revolutionary Atlantic Bonds: Somerset v. Stewart’s (1772) Influence on American Slavery”: Frazier
• “The British Foundation of American Institutions”: Benjamin Hudson, professor of history and medieval studies
• “George Washington, the Jewish Community of Newport, R.I., and the First Amendment”: Tobias Brinkmann, Malvin and Lea Bank Professor of Jewish studies and history
• “From the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution: Figuring out How to Govern the New Nation”: Hope McCaffrey, assistant research professor of history
• “The Abolitionist Movement in Pennsylvania During the Revolutionary Era”: Lucien Holness, assistant professor of history
• “How George Washington’s Inaugural Tours Set the Tone for the American Presidency”: A.K. Sandoval-Strausz, professor of history
• “The Maritime Slave Trade on the Eve of Revolutions”: Hayley Rucker, assistant professor of history
• “After the Revolution: The United States in the Early Republic”: Amy Greenberg, head of the Department of History, George Winfree Professor of American History, Ph.D.
• “The Inka American Revolution: Túpac Amaru II and the 1780 Peruvian War Against the Spanish”: Christopher Heaney, associate professor of Latin American history
• “What Post-World War II Japan Can Teach Us About American Democracy at 250”: Jessamyn Abel, professor of Asian studies and history
• “What the History of UFOs Reveals About Conspiracy Theories in U.S. Politics”: Greg Eghigian, professor of history and bioethics
• “Why the History of the Fall of Rome Hits Differently in the United States”: Michael Kulikowski, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of history and classics
• “Woman’s Suffrage and the Centennial of 1876: Finding Inspiration in the Declaration of Independence”: Cahill

The program ended with a final panel featuring Prakash Kumar, professor of history and Asian studies; Mary E. Mendoza, assistant professor of history; Kathryn Salzer, associate professor of history, Gorman-McCourtney Early Career Professor in Medieval History, and Rick and Sue Barry Paterno Fellows program director; and Lior Sternfeld, William J. and Charlotte K. Duddy University Endowed Fellow in the Humanities and associate professor of history and Jewish studies.

Cahill said the department received funding from the College of the Liberal Arts to put on the event, which was specifically held in the HUB-Robeson Center to make it easily accessible for students.

“We designed it to be easy to drop in to catch different portions of the programming without needing to be there all day long,” she said. “All in all, I think it was a very successful event. It may have been tough to attend on a Tuesday during the day, but we did have a number of undergraduates drop in. It won't be the last time we do something like this, so folks should stay tuned.”