27 Friday Feb 2026
Posted in Events, Faculty News
What began in 2016 as an effort to make a history methods assignment more engaging has evolved into research on a difficult but important topic: the history of hazing in American universities.
Continue reading25 Wednesday Feb 2026
Posted in Department News
Department of History
Part-time Instructors (Adjuncts): Various Fields
Details: The Department of History at Bowling Green State University (http://www.bgsu.edu/arts-andsciences/history.html) seeks applicants for part-time teaching assignments in all areas of history, from the ancient to the modern world for Academic Year 2026-27 and the following summer. Successful applicants will teach introductory courses in US and World history, as well as upper-division topical courses as needed.
Qualifications: Candidates must have at least a master’s degree in History or equivalent. Evidence of successful teaching at the collegiate level is preferred.
Application: Applicants should submit: 1) letter of application, 2) full curriculum vita, 3) two current (dated within the past year), original letters of reference; 4) official transcripts indicating the highest degree earned. Finalists will also be required to authorize and pass a background check prior to offer of employment. Submit application materials to: Amílcar E. Challú, Chair, History Department, achallu@bgsu.edu, or 132 Williams Hall, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403.
Unless applicants request otherwise, applications will be kept on file for possible openings in the future.
Applications must be postmarked/received by April 27, 2026.
Bowling Green State University is an EEO/Vet employer. We encourage applications from all, regardless of sex, race, veteran status, disability, age, gender identity, genetic information, religion, or sexual orientation.
23 Monday Feb 2026
Posted in Events, Faculty News
This blog post is cross-posted from Dr. Challu’s blog, which you can find at blogs.bgsu.edu/achallu
Last week Heidi Nees, jenn stucker and I hosted Ciara Cotter and Chris Houk of the Wyandotte Nation Cultural Division. They came from Oklahoma to lead a program on Wyandotte storytelling, an event of the In The Round series.
Continue reading12 Thursday Feb 2026
Posted in Faculty News
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Earlier this winter, Bowling Green State University’s Department of History was well represented in the Great Decisions lecture series at the Wood County Senior Center, as two of our faculty brought historical insight to contemporary global issues.
In January, Dr. Amilcar Challu, History Professor, opened the 2026 series with a compelling talk on America’s changing role in the world. Drawing on his own experience from Argentina to the United States, Challu unpacked the concept of liberal internationalism, which is a post-World War II, rules-based order rooted in universal rights, multilateral cooperation, and cultural exchange. Through personal anecdotes, including how U.S. cultural diplomacy shaped his academic path, he illustrated how soft power underpinned U.S. global leadership for decades. Challu then contrasted this legacy with contemporary “America First” tendencies, urging citizens to reflect on the evolving international order and the importance of historical perspective in shaping future foreign policy.
Read more: Two history faculty speak in Great Decisions lecture seriesMore recently, Dr. Douglas Forsyth, Associate Professor of History, examined U.S. tariff policy and global economic strategy. Forsyth challenged the prevailing narrative that tariffs level the global playing field, arguing that indiscriminate tariffs against both allies and competitors represent a strategic failure. He noted that the United States continues to hold a dominant share of global GDP, undermining claims of exploitation by other nations, and highlighted how tariff-driven policies risk isolating the U.S. while strengthening China’s economic position. Forsyth also pointed to the regressive impact of tariffs on American consumers and cautioned about long-term economic vulnerabilities tied to sustained trade and budget deficits.
Together, these talks showcased our faculty’s deep engagement with pressing international questions and the value of historical analysis in public discussion. You can find out more about the other talks on the Wood County Committee on Aging’s Facebook page.
30 Friday Jan 2026
Posted in Alumni News
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This January, history was literally in the air at Maumee High School. In a creative twist on community engagement, sophomores in BGSU History alum Jamie Naragon’s College Credit Plus class conducted 28 oral interviews with local residents to explore how Maumee has changed over time. Her students crafted a performance that wove these interviews into a narrative of the city’s past, which included a slide show of historic photos and music that brought these stories to life.
Continue reading22 Thursday Jan 2026
Posted in Events, Faculty News
On a cold day in January, BGSU faculty convened a roundtable discussion examining the implications of U.S. intervention in Venezuela and what it reveals about today’s changing international system. The panel included History Chair and Faculty member, Dr. Amilcar Challu, Dr. Valeria Grinberg, Professor of Spanish and Director of the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, Dr. Michaela Domiano, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, Dr. Neal Jesse, Chair of the Department of Political Science, and Dr. Beatrice Guenther, Director of the International Studies program.
Dr. Challu argued that U.S. involvement in Venezuela fits a long historical pattern of intervention in Latin America and signals a shift away from the post–World War II, rules-based international order toward openly asserted strategic and economic interests. Using the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, Dr. Grinberg showed how interventions framed around democracy and human rights often obscure violent realities, warning that today’s discourse on Venezuela reflects a troubling erosion of even that rhetorical commitment.
Dr. Domiano focused on Venezuelan migration through the Darien Gap, highlighting the extreme dangers migrants face and emphasizing the crisis as a humanitarian catastrophe shaped by regional and global forces, while Dr. Jesse placed Venezuela within the broader collapse of the liberal international order. He argued that global politics is increasingly organized around spheres of influence and power competition rather than international norms and institutions.
Dr. Beatrice Guenther helped to moderate the conversation, and framed the discussion around Venezuela as both a regional crisis and a lens for understanding larger transformations in global politics, guiding the discussion across historical, political, and human dimensions. Together, the panelists offered a sobering assessment of the changing state of the world in respect to the newest developments of U.S. intervention in Venezuela.
15 Thursday Jan 2026
Posted in Graduate Student News, Student News and Updates
This post is guest authored by Garrett Lewis, where he tells of his recent research trip. The Department looks forward to his analysis and further development of his thesis.
From October 5th-8th, I traveled to the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign to visit their archives, as they hold the Avery Brundage collection. This collection is crucial to my thesis research, as I am writing about the early Cold War Olympics and the formation of the narrative of East-West conflict through sport. Avery Brundage, an alumni of the University of Illinois, served as the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1952-1972. This period not only saw the introduction of the Soviet Union to the Olympic Games, but also extended over a series of Cold War hot points. Brundage, himself, was a staunch Cold Warrior, and my project examines the role he and the IOC played in forming a narrative of East-West conflict. This is important because the Olympics were founded as a tool to bring international peace, and the assertion that these high-ranking officials could have been undermining this mission through their rhetoric and actions complicates a traditional narrative of the role of the IOC during the Cold War.
The Brundage collection at UIUC contains over 140 cubic feet of archival material (over 400 boxes), and I set out to look at 25-30% of the documents. I ultimately spent 4 days in Illinois researching at the archives, putting the poor archivists to work bringing me out cart after cart of boxes. I returned back to Bowling Green with thousands of pages of scanned items that are crucial to the completion of my thesis.
One of my assumptions going into the research trip was that Avery Brundage’s public comments about the growing rivalry between the East and West differed from the opinions and convictions he held in private. This was confirmed, to a degree, as I was able to see not only his private correspondence with other Olympic officials, but his personal notes from IOC meetings. Brundage also set out to write an autobiography, which was never published; however, the notes and unpublished manuscript chapters provide a valuable insight into his personal convictions and perceptions of his role in the establishment of a Cold War Olympic rivalry. Throughout his career as an international sport administrator presented himself as a neutral, apolitical figure trying to maintain the sanctity of the Olympic Games, yet his personal documents have revealed a more complicated narrative. In these documents, one can see a version of Avery Brundage that was staunchly opposed to communists and initially willing to bend rules to keep communist countries out of the Games.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to the BGSU History Department for helping to fund this trip, as well as the archivists for putting up with me while I was there.
21 Friday Nov 2025
Posted in Alumni News, Department News, Events, Faculty News
≈ Comments Off on Adjunct faculty and History alum highlights similarities between current farm stress and 1980s Farm Crisis
Back in September, one of our adjunct faculty and History alumni, Chase Fleece, offered a sobering historical perspective on today’s turmoil in agriculture in his public lecture at Carter Historic Farm. Set within this living history site operated by the Wood County Park District, Fleece linked modern financial stress for farmers to the infamous farm crisis of the 1980s. He described how farmers back then built their operations on massive debt, expanded recklessly, and ultimately suffered when land values collapsed, interest rates surged, and global conditions shifted.
Fleece warned that the problems of the ’80s were not just a moment in time, but the beginning of chronic instability in farming. He pointed out that many of the vulnerabilities of that era—debt reliance, volatile commodity prices, and shaky faith in government support—are resurfacing today. Although today’s farmers have more protective measures like loan programs and crop insurance, Fleece argues that the legacy of past crises still shapes present-day agricultural challenges.
His research, which stretches beyond U.S. borders to examine similar crises in Canada and Europe, underscores a critical lesson: agricultural instability isn’t isolated—it’s deeply interconnected across time and place. As Fleece continues to shed light on the patterns linking past and present, his work highlights not only the financial but also the human stakes in understanding how historic farm policies still echo through rural communities today.
Chase Fleece has presented research about the 1980’s Farm Crisis in other contexts, which has won him the George S. Sulzner Memorial Award. We would like to congratulate Chase on being offered a full-time position in Wood County Parks as a historical specialist/interpreter. You can read more about his talk in September at BG Independent News, and you can hear his next public lecture on November 23rd.
14 Friday Nov 2025
Posted in Department News, Undergraduate Student News
≈ Comments Off on Internship Spotlight: Lauren Carmen
This summer, Lauren Carmen, a history undergraduate student, had the opportunity to intern at the Eisenhower National Historic Site just outside of the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. In her younger years, she often visited historic sites with her family, including several trips to Gettysburg. However, one year, her family trip included a stop just outside of the infamous battleground national park to see the the historic site of the farm of the 34th President of the United States. It was then that she knew she wanted to be a part of such a historic part of our nations past.
Lauren spent the summer of 2025 as a park intern at the Eisenhower National Historic Site, where she dove deep into the history of the property where Ike and his family spent many a weekend. Over the summer, she developed programs, gave tours of the historic farm, answered visitor questions and learned a lot. “The connections you make are huge, and you never know what doors will open,” she said, as we discussed her internship experience.
As a part of the internship, she worked with several other interns from colleges around the country, including Penn State, Gettysburg College, and Hobart and William Smith College. Lauren was also taught by park rangers, some of whom ended up becoming close friends. Each day was filled with historical Park Service research, talking with visitors, and thematic guided tours, which she was able to curate based on her interests and background research.
Lauren loved the experience because it taught her about how to make history matter to the public. The Park Rangers and other interns pushed her to think and grow in new ways. Throughout the summer, she grew in her public speaking skills, as well as research and analysis. However, her infectious style was on full display when she was spouting off random historical facts about the Eisenhower property. She shared several images that documented her experience there, several of which she has showcased in this document that she put together.
Lauren would like to thank and acknowledge the Eisenhower National Historic Site staff as well as the BGSU History Department for allowing her this opportunity to grow and learn. She is looking forward to other potential historic park internships before her time at BGSU is complete.
07 Friday Nov 2025
Posted in Department News, Events
≈ Comments Off on History faculty joins colleagues on panel at inaugural Great Lakes AI Week Conference
Dr. Savitri Kunze, Associate Professor of History, recently joined colleagues from across campus for a lively interdisciplinary panel titled “Human-Centered Creativity in an AI World.” Moderated by Rob Green from the Department of Computer Science, the conversation brought together faculty from diverse creative fields: Lucas Ostrowski, (Department of Theatre and Film), Divya S (School of Media and Communication), and Charles Tucker (School of Art) in addition to Dr. Kunze and Dr. Rob Green. Talking to a full room in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union, panelists explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping the creative process, from accelerating learning and offering new tools to collaborating as a “co-creator” in artistic and scholarly work. Yet, they also raised thoughtful concerns about AI’s potential to manipulate truth, produce “hallucinated” results, and overshadow the human element of creativity.
Despite these challenges, the panelists agreed that AI cannot replace the soul, lived experience, and “unexpected, messy” aspects that define human creativity. Each discipline brought its own historical relationship to tools and innovation. The various faculty members emphasized that while AI can simplify tasks like writing or brainstorming, it remains just one instrument among many. The discussion encouraged participants to engage critically with AI—acknowledging its contributions without stigmatizing its use—and to continue nurturing the human spark that drives discovery and art at BGSU.