HAW at the AHA
San Diego, January 7-10, 2010
Nominees for HAW Steering Committee
This year the voting for the HAW Steering Committee will be done entirely by email. To vote, you must be a member of HAW; check to see if your name is on the membership list, or you can join now at http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/statement.html. The candidates for the 20 Steering Committee slots are listed below. To vote, send the ballot to proxy@historiansagainstwar.org. The deadline for receiving ballots is Friday, February 19, 2010.
Name: Marc Becker
Institution: Truman State University
Position: Associate Professor of
History
Historical Specialization: Modern Latin American
history
Political Background: My political
consciousness was born (as Rigoberta Menchu would say) in 1980 with the
Carter Doctrine which reinstated draft registration in reaction to the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, I was 18 at the time, and coming to
the realization that I did not want to be used as a pawn for someone else's
foreign policy objectives led me to rethink completely my ideology. I
subsequently worked extensively with Central American solidarity groups,
including a stint with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua. More recently, I have
worked with Indigenous rights movements in the Americas and am a founder of
NativeWeb, the premier Internet site on Indigenous issues. Politically I
identify myself as a socialist in the tradition of José Carlos Mariátegui,
although I am not a member of any party. I am motivated by a desire for
social justice, and am a pacifist.
Reason for Running: I have been involved with
HAW since its founding at the AHA in January 2003, and for the last couple years I have served as co-chair of HAW's steering committee. My motivation for joining
HAW was to challenge imperialistic policies that run counter to our
interests. I have worked on HAW's web page and am interested and willing to
continue in that capacity.
Name: Matthew F. Bokovoy
Institution: University of Nebraska Press
Position: Acquisitions Editor, Native/Indigenous Studies, History of the American West and Southwest Borderlands, and Creative Nonfiction of the American West.
Historical Specialization: California, Western, and US-Mexico Borderlands History; History of Education; American and European Intellectual History; History of American Radicalism
Political Background: Registered Democrat; unaffiliated American Socialist. Last year, I participated in the HAW annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia through the encouragement of senior colleagues involved in the US antiwar movement. I had not been politically active since the period 1983-1995, when I had been involved in the Southern California anti-nuclear protest coalitions, the anti-racist/Nazi activism circles emerging from the left-wing formations in the underground punk rock movement, and the homeless advocacy groups based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (mainly the Kensington Welfare Rights Union). My employment in the historical profession took me to locales without strong progressive political organizations, and since that time became a "cash contributor" to many progressive organizations without any participation in community organizing or intergroup protest coordination.
Reason for Running: My main reason for joining HAW, like many members, was the Iraq War of 2003. Besides the disturbing webs of untruth emanating from the Bush Administration prior to the war, the martial sentiments pervading the US were very disruptive to my job and classes at Oklahoma State University. Unlike many of the more prestigious institutions that many of our colleagues teach at, I had high percentages of young men and women dropping from my courses to join the branches of the US military, in which I had to process the paperwork to release them from the university. When I noticed the names of some of my former students on the Iraq War death announcements in Oklahoma papers, I was moved to search for an organization that reflected my strong opposition to the war, and to armed aggression in any form. It was particularly sad and disturbing to me to read these, as one of the deceased soldiers had come to me for advice about joining the armed services. After a long conversation about it, they decided it was best for them to join. It was equally sad because they had so much potential to develop as a human being. As a result, my research interests and publishing acquisitions interests have changed profoundly to consider and search for work that explores the origins of violence, pacificism and antiwar protest, and human rights. HAW's program and its context offers an opportunity for me to work and assist an important antiwar and pacifist organization. In the end, my main reason for being involved in HAW is deeply personal. I believe my experience within the academic publishing establishment can be an asset and forum for HAW's program and concerns and reflect well upon the efforts of the organization within nonprofit publishing and other higher tiers of university administrative life.
Name: Carolyn
"Rusti" Eisenberg
Institution: Hofstra
University
Historical Specialization: 20th Century
US Foreign Policy, author of Drawing the Line: The American Decision to
Divide Germany, 1944-49 and completing a new book on Kissinger, Nixon
and the National Security State.
Position: Professor of
History
Political Background: Antiwar
activist, 1965-present. Co-Chair, Legislative Working Group. United for Peace
and Justice, Co-Founder Brooklyn for Peace.
Reason for running: I am
interested in encouraging historians to engage issues of war and peace, and
to give greater emphasis to America's global role in scholarship, teaching
and political advocacy. I believe that historians can make a special
contribution to the urgently needed public debate over the militaristic
thrust of American foreign policy and the impact on our domestic
institutions, I have been a member of the Steering Committee since HAW's
beginning and have drafted statements, appeared on HAW panels, and helped to
organize a speaker's bureau for educational forums.
Name: John J. Fitzgerald
Institution: Longmeadow High School
(Retired)
Position: Former teacher and
department chair
Historical Specialization: Vietnam War - Co-author:
The Vietnam War: A History in Documents, Oxford University Press, 2002.
Political Background: Vietnam veteran. (1964 -
1968) Wounded in action. Bronze Star for Valor, Purple Heart, etc. Vietnam
Veterans Against the War, Eugene J. McCarthy campaign, Moratorium (1969),
Student Strike (UMass Amherst) 1970, McGovern campaign of 1972. Veterans
Education Project in Western Massachusetts and Veterans for Peace. I spent a
good part of 2008 working in support of the candidacy and election of Barack
Obama as President. I think he will need our support and encouragement to
stay on the progressive track in 2009 and beyond.
Reason for Running: I have been involved in
HAW since the summer of 2006. I have enjoyed working with the Steering
Committee and hope to continue to do so. I prepared the Teaching Guides for
"Teaching the Vietnam War" and for "Teaching the Iraq
War" which are now located on the HAW web site. I am a life member of
the OAH and The New England Historical Association. I am currently a member
of the Massachusetts Council of the Social Studies and Western Massachusetts
Jobs with Justice and the Center for Popular Economics in Amherst.
Name: Jerise (Jeri) Fogel
Institution: I trained as a classicist. I currently adjunct in Classics and General Humanities (my courses are cross-listed with History) at Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ. I am also a working artist (calligraphy, graphic design, painting).
Political Background: I belong to several peace and social justice organizations (e.g. Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Brit Tzedek, CCR, and some others) and I try to contribute time and energy especially to progressive and immigrants' rights issues. On the HAW Steering Committee, I have been secretary and on the 4-member Executive Committee for the past two years, and was a member of the working group for the Atlanta conference. I have also co-organized the HAW presence at the Left Forum in NYC for the last few years.
Reason for Running: I still believe that HAW does important work, and I'm still thrilled to have a part in it. I have enjoyed working on various projects (conference, newsletters, etc.) for the HAW-SC, and would love to continue to contribute, whether as an SC member or as a member of one of the Working Groups. I think it is especially important for academics and teachers to organize against the US war on and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq right now, as the public discussion on war has shifted dramatically and teachers have a chance to address it effectively, and possibly play a shaping role.
Name: Rich Gibson
Institution: San Diego State/Southwest College
Position: Emeritus professor of social studies at San Diego State, a lecturer at Southwest College in US History
Historical Specialization: Education professor
Political Background and Reason for Running: I am an incumbent member
of the HAW board. As an education professor, I think I bring two important
pieces to HAW. First, I am a bridge to the anti-war movement in k12
schooling. I am a cofounder of the Rouge Forum (www.rougeforum.org), an organization of
k12 school workers, professors, parents, community people and students active
for ten years now, opposing the empires wars as well as the regimentation of
curricula and racist high-stakes testing that parallels the promise of
perpetual war. Rouge Forum members publish research, engage in strategic
planning, and take direct action, seeking to connect reason to power in
schools and out. We have, for example, led mass walkouts of students and
school workers against the wars, boycotted high-stakes exams, and set up
concurrent freedom schools where teachers can actually teach, and students
learn. Secondly, since I spent most of my life as an organizer, I believe I
bring a perspective to HAW that urges a teaching project connected to
organizing: the development of class consciousness connected to action
against capitalism and its twin, imperialist war. I have published
extensively from books (most recently, "Neoliberalism and Education
Reform) to journalism (in Counterpunch, Z, Substance News, etc). I helped to
organize two of the biggest teach-ins in the US in 2008 and hope to join with
others in, not only teachins, but direct action.
Name: Van Gosse
Institution: Franklin and Marshall
College
Historical Specialization: 20th Century U.S.,
African American
Position: Associate Professor
Political Background: Antiwar and electoral
activism, 1969-76 (the usual); El Salvador solidarity, 1982-1995 (CISPES and
related organizations); Peace Action's Organizing Director, 1995-2000. Helped
found HAW and served on Steering Committee since then. Elected to United for
Peace and Justice’s Steering Committee three times to represent HAW. Member
of the Editorial Collective of the Radical History Review since 1990, chair
1994-2001.
Reason for Running: Continue to aid HAW as treasurer.
Name: Martin Halpern
Institution: Henderson State University
Position: Professor of History
Historical Specialization: twentieth century U.S. labor history and presidential politics
Political Background: I have been active in the civil rights, anti-war, and labor movements since the 1960s. Most recently I organized two teach-ins on the Iraq War and a symposium on the Employee Free Choice Act at my institution. My op eds on labor, peace, and politics have appeared in the Japan Times, the Arkansas Times, and other publications and online on the History News Network, Common Dreams, and the History News Service.
Reason for Running: The continuation of foreign and defense policies designed to secure the political and economic domination by the U.S. over other countries is causing immense human harm around the globe. Such policies also make it much more difficult for members of the U.S. polity to successfully address continuing social and economic injustices within our country. Like other left-minded historians, I contribute to efforts to strengthen grass roots peace and social change efforts both as a citizen-activist and as a scholar with expert knowledge about the historical underpinnings of past and present policy choices. My focus as a scholar has been on understanding the development of and challenges faced by left-center coalitions. My focus as an activist has been on contributing to the development of effective left-center coalitions that can shift U.S. policies toward peace and social justice at home and abroad. I’d like to help HAW to contribute to a coalition that develops the clout to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and shifts foreign and defense policies toward peace-making and effective contributions to social justice at home and abroad.
Name: Mark Hatlie
Institution: UMUC Europe / www.hatlie.de
Position: adjunct
Historical Specialization: Latvia, Russia, collective memory, military history
Reason for Running: I have been on the SC the past two years. I live abroad and remain concerned with my country's overly militarized foreign policy. If I am elected to serve again, my top priority will be working with other members of the SC on HAW's internet presentation.
Name: Julia Liss
Institution: Scripps College, Claremont, CA
Position: Professor of History
Historical Specialization: US intellectual and cultural, 19th and 20th centuries
Political Background:
Reason for Running: This organization connects my professional interests and personal beliefs. I would like to contribute to HAW in a more formal way than I have because I am committed to educating about war and empire and because I would like to make a professional commitment to this position. I have never sought election for the AHA, OAH, or other professional organization, but this issue stands out to me as worthwhile. I have been teaching a course on "War, Empire and Society in the US, 1898-Present" for about 23 years. A new research project, that in part comes out of this course, involves the uses of history in wartime discourse. I am currently Senior Fulbright Lecturer in US History and International Relations at the University of Bologna and will return to the U.S. in mid-June.
Name: Staughton Lynd
Institution: Workers’ Solidarity Club
of Youngstown
Historical Specialization: Period of American
Revolution, history of nonviolence, oral history and US Labor history
Position: retired (but still
practicing) attorney. Author of several books, including Lucasville: The
Untold Story of a Prison Uprising (2004).
Political Background: An unaffiliated Marxist
and Quaker; Chairperson of the first march against the Vietnam War in
Washington, DC in April 1965. Left academia after being blacklisted in
late '60s due to prominent role in anti-war movement (including
trip to North Vietnam with Tom Hayden and Herbert Aptheker in December 1965).
Reason for running: continue work on veterans issues; member of HAW-SC since its inception.
Name: Edrene McKay
Institution: OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology (Fayetteville, Arkansas). I also teach history for several academic institutions on a contract basis, principally at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. (The “NorthWest” is not a grammatical error. Despite what we all know about good English, the Board of Trustees wants it that way.)
Position: Adjunct Professor
Historical Specialization: Contemporary History
Political Background: Limited
Reason for Running: I would like to encourage the academic community to be more visible in its endorsement of the peace movement.
I organized a teach-in about the War on Terrorism in 2006. The focus of the event, which took place on October 17-19, was “Separating Fact from Fiction” regarding three issues related to the war (civil liberties, human rights, and war profiteering) and included a showing of Robert Greenwald’s “Iraq for Sale.” We have continued to promote peace at the college by starting a student chapter of the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology. These are our objectives:
* To provide opportunities for the campus and community to address issues related to peace, justice, and ecology (including environmental protection and sustainability).
*
To envision and to inspire creation of a world dominated by a culture of peace.
*To enable, empower, and energize the campus and community to help bring about constructive change in these areas.
Name: Elizabeth (Beth) McKillen
Institution: University of Maine
Position: Professor of History
Historical Specialization: U.S. labor and international affairs, especially grass-roots labor opponents of U.S.empire; the immigrant left; the international labor movement. Author of Chicago Labor and the Quest for a Democratic Diplomacy: 1914-1924.
Political Background: I have been active in local antiwar, labor, and social justice movements for many years. Most recently, I have been especially active in helping to create the Worker’s Rights Board of Eastern Maine and in the activities of Food and Medicine, a local group created to help laid-off mill workers. As a member of the HAW Steering Committee since 2007, my major activities have included helping to plan the 2008 HAW conference, organizing teach-ins and educational efforts, and collaborating with members of U.S. Labor Against the War in publishing and video projects.
Reason for Running: I am especially interested in continuing to promote and plan HAW’s educational activities and in encouraging linkages between antiwar labor groups and HAW.
Name: Carl Mirra
Institution: Adelphi University
Position: Associate Professor of
Social Studies
Historical Specialization: 20th Century US foreign
policy and Peace Education
Political Background: Former marine who refused
to fight in the first Gulf War, worked with the War Resister's League and
currently a representative of IAUP/UN Commission on Disarmament Education,
Conflict Resolution and Peace.
Reason for Running: contributed HAW pamphlet,
JOIN US, which has now been expanded into a book (SOLDIERS AND
CITIZENS: AN ORAL HISTORY OF OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM FROM THE BATTLEFIELD TO
THE PENTAGON. Palgrave).
I wish to continue developing conferences/pamphlets on veteran antiwar
activity or related materials for the education working group.
Name: Thomas K. Murphy
Institution: University of Maryland / European Division
Position: Professor of History and Government
Historical Specialization: US and Modern European Intellectual History
Political Background: Thomas K. Murphy was born and raised in Washington, DC. He worked for
WACARD (Washington Area Coalition Against Registration and the Draft)
1979; Intern, Congressman Thomas Downey (D-NY) 1982; Intern, Columbus
Community (poverty)Legal Services, Washington, DC, 1983; Presidential
Campaign volunteer, US Sen. Gary Hart (D-CO) 1984, Washington DC;
Campaign volunteer, Walter Mondale, 1984, Washington, DC office; Staff,
US Congressman Michael Barnes, (D-MD), 1986, social security work;
Staff, US Sen Paul Simon, (D-IL), 1987, immigration work; Cabrini Green
Tutoring Program, Chicago, Il, 1987-1992; Library of Congress/
Congressional Research Service (CRS), Office of Research Inquiry, Office
of Special Programs, 1994-95; University of Maryland, Faculty Advisory
Council (FAC),(elected position, representing all faculty worldwide),
2005-2007.
Reason for Running: 'War Without End' has become a subtle theme in US
politics and rhetoric, among both parties, and we need to put an end to
this theme. US activities abroad must be justified by law, principle,
and intelligent application of policy. Our current endeavors fail in all
three of these categories. I live and teach amidst the US military
mission in Europe, and I have a very clear conception of our presence
here, as well as the various means by which this presence is continually
justified.
Name: Jim O'Brien
Institution: University of
Massachusetts Boston (sort-of)
Position: I used to teach
history and writing as a contract faculty member in the College of Public and
Community Service at UMass, but at present my only involvement on the campus
is volunteer teaching in the learning-in-retirement program. Myself, I'm not
retired - for income I do freelance editing and book indexing.
Historical Specialization: US radicalism
Political Background: Have been active off and
on since being part of the radical student movement in the 1960s. Was an
editor of Radical America magazine till 1984, active in the Central America
movement 1983-96, co-editor of Radical Historians Newsletter 1970 till it
stopped publishing a few years ago; on HAW Steering Committee the last five
years (as treasurer for a year, then as co-chair for the past three years).
Reason for Running: I enjoy working
with the other people on the Steering Committee. I've played an especially
active role in preparations for our two conferences (Austin in February 2006
and Atlanta in April 2008). I've been glad to feel useful in a cause that
seems important to me.
Name: Margaret Power
Institution: Illinois Institute of
Technology
Historical Specialization: Latin America, Chile,
Puerto Rico, gender, and women.
Political Background: active in anti-war
movements (Viet Nam, Central America, and Middle East) since 1970s. Also very
active in the women's movement. Iwork very closely with the Puerto Rican community and with HAW.
Reason for Running: I served as co—chair
of HAW for three years and I have really enjoyed working with other
historians against the war. I think HAW is a great group.
Name: Maia Ramnath
Institution: New York University
Position: Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in Global Histories, Draper Interdisciplinary MA Program in Humanities and Social Thought
Historical Specialization: Modern South Asia and World; research and teaching focus on anti-colonial radical movements, particularly South Asian participation in transnational networks; imperialism and structures of global capitalism, colonialism and resistance
Political Background: Over the course of my academic life I've been continuously involved in anti-war and labor solidarity organizing on campus, as well as organizing in the off-campus community. Affiliations during graduate school at NYU and UC-Santa Cruz have included the Free Radio Santa Cruz collective, International Solidarity Movement, the Bluestockings Women's Bookstore collective, UCSC Student-Worker Coalition, Students United For Peace, UAW 2865, Grad Student Solidarity Network, several "research clusters" on anarchism, anti-capitalisms, and Women of Color in Collaboration and Conflict; and mobilizations against war and/or neoliberal economic institutions under a variety of acronyms. Since relocating to NY this fall I have been involved in the Asia Pacific Forum radio collective, Anarchist People of Color, Desis RIsing Up and Moving, and the NYC Anarchist Book Fair working group.
Reason for Running: First, because I was invited to to do so by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. But I accepted the invitation because I believe very strongly in the importance of narrowing the gap between active political work and academic work, and in putting teaching and research in the service of social justice and a more substantively democratic society. I would hope that regardless of a new administration, and whether US troops are redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan or brought home, HAW will maintain its long-term relevance through speaking not just to any particular conflict but to the underlying systemic causes of war and the pervasive implications of an imperialist society-- such as our schools' role in the military-industrial-research complex; the neoliberal corporatization of the academy; defense of free speech and academic freedom, including the silencing of scholars and scholarship related to West Asia; and fair and equal access to education, vis a vis the economic draft and on-campus military recruitment.
Name: Robert Shaffer
Institution: Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
Position: Associate Professor of History
Historical Specialization: US Foreign Relations (esp. US-Asia relations, mid-20th century); War and Society (esp. World War II); Social Studies Education
Political Background: I have been involved in a range of anti-war/anti-intervention movements since the early 1970s, and have been at various times an active member of such groups as the New American Movement, Democratic Socialists of America, and Democracy for America. I am currently on the executive board of the Peace History Society, and I edited a special issue (July 2009) of Peace & Change (the scholarly journal of the PHS) on the Iraq War. I had an article in the AHA's Perspectives on History (Jan. 2009) on teaching about the Iraq War, and I have published articles on a variety of topics in a range of journals: Pacific Historical Review, Radical History Review, Journal of Women's History, The Historian, Socialist Review, New York History, Reviews in American History, and others. I am on the local executive council and the statewide Legislative Committee of my union (Association of Pennsylvania State College & University Faculty), and I was previously an officer of a local of the American Federation of Teachers. At Shippensburg I presented the antiwar position on three different occasions on joint panel discussions of university faculty and students from the nearby Army War College.
Reason for Running: I have been a member of HAW since its inception. I have attended several HAW business meetings at AHA conventions as well as the 2008 Atlanta HAW conference. I believe that I can contribute to a revival of interest in the organization in the wider historical profession, and I would like to participate in the necessary rethinking as HAW and the broader anti-war movement face a changed environment, as the war in Afghanistan takes center stage.
Name: Francis Shor
Institution: Wayne State University
Position: Professor
Historical Specialization: 20th century social-cultural US
Political Background: Vietnam War draft resister, active in left, peace, justice, and international solidarity movements from the sixties through today
Reason for Running: In this era of declining empire, I want to participate in this professionally-related organization to scrutinize and strategize about understanding and ending "empire as a way of life."
Name: Andor Skotnes
Institution: The Sage Colleges, Troy,
New York
Position: Professor of History of
the Americas
Historical Specialization: Recent United States
social movements—emphasis on social class, racial ethnicity, gender
Political Background: I became part of the
Civil Rights Movement in 1965 and was involved in a range of 60s and 70s
social movements. I was also involved for a number of years in organizing a
local socialist collective in Southern California, and I worked as a
rank-and-file activist in factory organizing. In recent years I have focused
on intellectual and ideological work (including Radical History Review),
teaching, labor support (SAWSJ), and faculty unionism. I was a founder
and a first co-chair of HAW.
Reason for Running: I want to continue to
work with the HAW SC because I feel that mobilizing historians (broadly
defined) and left intellectuals against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
against imperialist war, and against the US empire continues to be of crucial
importance, especially in the current context of severe global economic
crisis. In fact, I believe a key task for HAW is to educate our
constituency on the close relationship between the economic crisis and the
wars for empire.