BGSU Department of History master’s student, Oluwatimilehin Fatoki, had interned and researched in the South Carolina’s Oyotunji African Village, writing on the significance of the “spirital ecosystem” and the significance of cultural resilience and preservation of African culture in the United States. Below is his thesis, titled “The Yoruba Gods in Oyotunji, South Carolina: a Case Study of Religio-Cultural Africanisms in the Americas”.
Emily Shaver Kay and Peter Limbert, students in the History M.A. program, presented a poster about the Eclipsing History podcast in the National Council for Public History annual conference in Salt Lake City.
The poster gathered good attention and multiple attendees scanned the QR code to open up the season! Those who engaged with the presenters and the poster commented on how innovative the class which constructed the podcast sounded and that it covers perspectives and topics usually left behind in the history field, like Indigenous knowledge and contribution to American history and Western scientific thought. There was also great interest in the digital history skills that students learned. Congratulations on the presenters and everyone in the class for this success!
≈ Comments Off on Past BGSU Student Jo Enger Arthur, Story, Legacy, and Study Abroad Scholarship
The Jo Enger Arthur Scholarship for Study Abroad encompasses a love of history, Europe and European language, and international studies, along with a strong passion for travel. This scholarship commemorates Jo Arthur, her life, legacy, and love of family and learning, especially about other people and their cultures.
A few weeks ago we featured a crossword by Tim Beatty, a retired teacher and alum. Tim Beatty grew up in Swanton, Ohio, forty minutes northwest of Bowling Green. He attended Bowling Green State University (BGSU) between 1969 and 1976, earning both his Bachelor’s and his Master’s in history and American Culture Studies. He remembers fondly Robert Twyman as one of his history professors, enjoying the courses he taught.
≈ Comments Off on BGSU History Students, Alum at the 2024 Ohio Academy of History!
BGSU history faculty, students, and alumni attended the Ohio Academy of History Meeting last Friday and Saturday.
Dr. Mancuso and Dr. Martin attended to support grad students giving papers (Dr. Mancuso also gave an interesting paper on the history of hazing at BGSU). Chase Fleece, Chloe Kozal, McKade Schultz, and Andrea Freimuth (ACS) all gave excellent papers, as did Sara Butler-Tongate (University Archives). It was also good to see department alums attending and presenting papers. Don Eberle (PhD) and Jacob Mach (ABD, Purdue) gave well-received papers, and we also ran into Chris Blubaugh (MA).
Let’s look forward to next year’s OAH at Kent State!
The Theater of Marcellus. Photograph courtesy of fellow Roma Aeterna student Ian Small, May 2023.
Within the Campus Martius in the northern area of Rome in the former Circus Flaminius lies the Theater of Marcellus. Construction on the theater was begun by Gaius Julius Caesar as a rival to the Theater of Pompey in the southern section of the Campus Martius, but it was not completed until 13 BCE by his successor and adopted son, Augustus. Augustus dedicated the massive structure to his nephew and son-in-law Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who had been his heir until his unfortunate death at the age of 19 in 23 BCE. On the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Deeds of the Divine Augustus), the official autobiography carved into columns that Augustus had built that proclaims all of his victories and projects for the people of Rome, it says, “I built the theater adjacent to the temple of Apollo on ground in large bought from private owners, and provided that it should be called after Marcus Marcellus, my son-in-law” (Augustus and Bushnell 1998, 21). In order to build such a massive amphitheater, the Temple of Apollo Sosianus was moved several meters away from its original location. The theater is estimated to be able to hold anywhere from 11,000 to 40,000 people, and was in a prime location between the Circus Flaminius and the temple, making it one of the most important amphitheaters in Rome (Claridge et al 2010, 243). It would hold games and festivals for the people, including the Secular Games, which was one of the ludi (Roman celebrations) that involved games and sacrifices. These games were annual, and were held in the amphitheater several years before it had been officially inaugurated. Another of the ludi, the Ludi Apollinares, was held at the nearby Temple of Apollo Sosianus.
By: Hope London, BGSU Roma Aeterna Summer 2023 Student
HIST 3445: Ancient Rome, taught by Dr. Casey Stark, focused on the rise, and fall of the Roman Empire while studying abroad in Italy. For three weeks, we were centrally located in Rome and had the opportunity to learn more about Ancient Rome while seeing the history first-hand. During my time in Rome, I was able to learn more about the geography, important landmarks, and the layout of the city. Throughout this time, I saw how almost every large location was interconnected to something else or the role of religion and the God(s). Tiber Island was a location that we visited twice and passed several times while walking to other places in Rome. This island is near Trastevere and connected to the mainland of Rome through two bridges: Ponte Fabricio and Ponte Cestio. As we explored in our class, we learned more about how the original avoidance of the island drastically shifted during the plague of 293 BCE when Tiber Island became a center of medicine and religion, associations that the island continues to hold today.
By: Dr. Casey Stark, BGSU Associate Teaching Professor, Roma Aeterna Summer 2023 Instructor
This experience began several years ago with BGSU’s encouragement of faculty to lead short education abroad programs, and the idea, “Why not study Roman history in Rome?”.
As a historian of Ancient Rome, I’m fully cognizant of how difficult it is to wrap our heads around the history and geography of a city that was founded – at least according to the Romans – in 753 BCE and over the centuries grew to a capital of approximately one million people and the center of an empire. With the increase in digital technologies, it has become easier to provide students with a more comprehensive idea of the evolution of the city’s development, expansion and building projects, and what living in ancient Rome would have been like, but this education abroad experience took things up a level (or two or three).
BGSU Professor Dr. Art Lewandowski works with Casey Feldstein and Susie Huffman, history teachers at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo, OH.
Last Saturday, social studies teachers from Northwest Ohio traveled to BGSU for a professional development workshop: “Histories of Disease, Health, and Medicine.” Through speakers and discussion groups, teachers both broadened their knowledge of medical history and explored challenges and opportunities for applying this knowledge in the classroom.
