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EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
SPRING 2005
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ENC HISTORY MAJORS PARTICPATE IN SPRING 2005 
PHI ALPHA THETA CONFERENCE
Three students capably represented ENC'S History Department at the spring 2005 Phi Alpha Theta regional conference: Heather Warmuth (junior, Plattsburgh, NY), Rachel Jester (junior, Seaford, DE), and Jen Ibanez (senior, Baltimore, MD).  Their well-researched papers ranged widely—from Latino identity and the origins of the American civil rights movement, to modern European political and cultural history. . .  read more
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PROFESSOR YERXA LECTURES AT NORTHWEST 
NAZARENE UNIVERSITY
On March 29, Donald Yerxa and ENC physics professor Karl Giberson gave tandem lectures on "Issues in the Science and Religion Interface" at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. Yerxa's lecture, entitled "The Evolving Debate that Probably Shouldn't Go Away--At Least Not Right Now," argued that victory by either side in the current evolution wars might sacrifice greater understanding of the origins of life. He also wondered whether a constructive dialogue could begin if both sides toned down the heated rhetoric and avoided making hyperbolic claims. Approximately four hundred people attended the lectures.
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ENC HISTORY MAJORS SPEND FALL AT 
OXFORD UNIVERSITY 
ENC history majors Charla Corwin and Jennifer Ibanez spent the Fall 2004 semester at Oxford University.  Both participated in the Scholars' Semester program sponsored by the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities.  This competitive program offers top ENC students in the humanities a chance to study at one of the world's oldest, most prestigious universities under a range of distinguished scholars and professors. For Jennifer Ibanez's account of her semester abroad, click here.
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ENC HISTORY PROFESSOR INTERVIEWS BRITISH AUTHOR; PLANS TO INTERVIEW PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
On December 1, 2004, Donald Yerxa interviewed Sir Max Hastings for Books & Culture and Historically Speaking in the Boston offices of the Historical Society. The occasion for the interview was the publication of Hastings' new book, Armageddon (Knopf, 2004), an impressive and disturbing account of the defeat of Germany from September 1944 to May 1945. Hastings was an award-winning foreign correspondent for many years, reporting from more than sixty countries for BBC TV and the London Evening Standard. He has presented historical documentaries for BBC TV, including most recently (2003) on Churchill and his generals. He has written eighteen books on military history and current events, including Bomber Command (which won the Somerset Maugham Prize for nonfiction), The Battle for the Falklands, and Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy. He was editor-in-chief of the British Daily Telegraph and Evening Standard from which he retired in 2002. 

In Spring 2005, Yerxa plans to interview Jared Diamond, UCLA evolutionary biologist and Pulitzer Prize winner (for his Guns, Germs, & Steel), for Historically Speaking.  Diamond has a new book, Collapse, coming out at the end of December that explores how societies choose to fail or succeed. Yerxa, who is a contributing editor for Books & Culture and co-editor of Historically Speaking, has had over thirty-five interviews published in the last decade.
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FIELD TRIP FOR J-TERM CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY COURSE
Over the January term, professor Randall Stephens taught a discussion seminar on the history of the civil rights movement (course syllabus).  Students read widely from primary source documents and engaged some of the critical historiographic debates of the relatively new field of civil rights history.  The class grappled with serious questions concerning social justice, race and equality, and the role of faith as an agent for progressive change.  One of the highlights of the course was a morning sojourn to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, a short distance from the ENC campus.  The museum featured an exhibit on the 1960 presidential campaign, which included intriguing material on the Kennedy administration’s relationship with key civil rights leaders.  During the last week of the course, Phil Harris (class of ‘06) made a return visit to the JFK library to complete an extra credit assignment. Click here for Harris’s description of a Martin Luther King Day event held at the JFK Library and Museum. 
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The new issue of the Journal of Southern Religion (Vol. VII), of which history professor Randall Stephens is assistant editor, is now online.  The JSR is a scholarly journal devoted to the study of religion in the American South. The publication "is a fully peer-reviewed academic journal reflecting the best traditions of objective and critical scholarship in the study of religion."  The latest issue contains articles by Steven P. Miller, "From Politics to Reconciliation: Katallagete, Biblicism, and Southern Liberalism," and J. Michael Raley, "'On the Same Basis as the Men': The Campaign to Reinstate Women as Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, 1885-1918."  In addition Vol. VII features a number of book reviews, including African-American theologian James H. Cone's review of Ring Out Freedom!: The Voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement. 
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YERXA'S SABBATICAL YIELDS TWO REVIEW ESSAYS
History professor Donald Yerxa has been on sabbatical leave from ENC during the Fall 2004 semester. He used this time to begin preliminary research on a new book that Greenwood/Praeger has contracted him to write (tentative title: Soldiers of the American Empire) and to continue to work on another book, History on a Large Scale, for London-based Reaktion Books. He also wrote two review essays on two very differnet topics during his sabbatical. One was a book roundup for Science and Spirit on the intelligent design movement. The other was a historiographical essay for Books & Culture on the pivotal battle in the War for the Pacific, Guadalcanal, which will appear later in 2005.
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PROFESSOR STEPHENS TO BECOME ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
Randall Stephens will join Donald Yerxa on the editorial staff of Historically Speaking to become the publication's part-time associate editor. Stephens will be responsible for layout and production of the publication. In announcing Stephens's appointment, Boston University professor Louis Ferleger, executive director of the Historical Society, praised Stephens for his scholarship and creativity and ENC for the strength of its history faculty. 
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Past ENC History Department Lectures