The last few days were a series of graduations on campus, and today were the 148th Commencement Exercises at my alma mater, Vassar College. This time of year always brings to mind a poem by Nancy Willard, from A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for innocent and Experienced Travelers. It’s a book I particularly associate…… Continue reading A Poem for Graduates and Soon-to-be-students
Author: Megan
New Cities and New Civilizations
One of the things I love about (the idea of) attending conferences is getting to cities or parts of the country you might not visit otherwise. Admittedly, I’ve only been to a handful of conferences prior to this one, and only one was in a city I had never visited (VAM, AASLH in Richmond; SIHC…… Continue reading New Cities and New Civilizations
My Oldest Friend
My oldest friend, by which I mean the friend I have known the longest, leaves the country today. She is off on her first posting as an employee of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and over the next twenty or thirty years she will get to live in all sorts of interesting places.…… Continue reading My Oldest Friend
Historical Hypochondria
I have begun to wonder if historians, or at least history students, don’t suffer from a similar problem to that experienced by medical students. Medical students often start to self-diagnose with various ailments during the course of their studies, especially when confronted with list after list of symptoms. They find themselves ticking off symptoms and…… Continue reading Historical Hypochondria
Iterations
One of the comments we sometimes hear about living in the “digital age” is that texts are in a state of constant revision. For better or for worse, website content can change from one day to the next, and unless there is some sort of tracking in place (as on Wikipedia), the user won’t know…… Continue reading Iterations
How do we shuffle our cards?
Over the past few months I’ve had a quote, more of an idea really, rattling around in my head. The artist James C. Christensen wrote about how he thinks about creativity and new ideas using the metaphor of a library’s card catalog. I never knew card catalogs, so in time the cards in the metaphor…… Continue reading How do we shuffle our cards?
Heard on the radio
As I was running errands today, I had my radio tuned to the local NPR station, listening to This American Life. Today’s program was about the new Alabama immigration laws and how they have, in addition to whatever else, increased the racism experienced by/targeted at the Latino population. An instance mention by the reporter involved…… Continue reading Heard on the radio
Everyday History
I’ve met a number of people for whom history is apparently something in the classroom or textbook, a dry (possibly dusty) academic subject. I don’t blame them for thinking these things, any more than I would blame people who likewise relegate chemistry, physics, math or literature to the school building. But just as we encounter…… Continue reading Everyday History
What you save
I declared my undergraduate major in History on the first day of classes of my sophomore year of college, September 2001. A handful of days later, what might have been an ordinary Tuesday became a historic event. I knew it was going to be what children in the next generation would ask me about, saying…… Continue reading What you save
Quick thought: accessibility and angles
On Sunday I went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum out at Dulles with my parents, a friend, and the friend’s two sons aged almost-5 and just-6. Due to recent knee problems, my dad opted to use a wheelchair for the day. As a result, his eye level was roughly equal with the boys’.…… Continue reading Quick thought: accessibility and angles