Spaces of Calculation: Street Addressing and the Making of a Geo-coded World Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/27/2009 - 18:43
Description

According to the Library of Congress website, "Street addressing is one of the most basic strategies employed by governmental authorities to tax, police, manage, and monitor the spatial whereabouts of individuals within a population. Despite the central importance of the street address as a "political technology," few scholars have examined the historical and contemporary practice of street addressing with respect to its broader social, political, and ontological implications. When, where, and why did the technique of house numbering historically emerge as a mechanism of spatial ordering? How did it come to be so taken for granted as part of everyday life in post-industrial societies?

In this presentation, Kluge Fellow Reuben Rose-Redwood explores the cultural and political history of street addressing in the United States, from the late 18th century to the present, including the recent shift from rural route and box numbering systems to 911 addresses."

Empires, Multiculturalisms and Borrowed Heartsongs: What Does it Mean to Sing Russian/Mennonite Songs?

Description

According to the Library of Congress website, "As "colonists" in 19th-century Russia, Mennonites sang German diasporic choral music and borrowed Russian choral music; when war drove many to North America, Mennonites drew on this repertoire and borrowed new repertoires to forge links to a new elite: North American classical choral singing circles. In this webcast, Jonathan Duek, an ethnomusicologist and visiting assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Music, traces this story not as a linear narrative, but as genealogical fragments, beginning with the resonances of particular songs for present-day Mennonite writers, historians, and singers; and then exploring past moments of the production and reception of these songs in Russia and North America."

Teaching Lincoln with Political Cartoons of His Time

Description

Eighth grade American history educator Eric Langhorst discusses two books—The Political Cartoons of the Whispering Gallery by the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and The Lines are Drawn: Political Cartoons of the Civil War, edited by Kristen M. Smith—that he uses to give students an understanding that Abraham Lincoln was viewed in many different lights during his own time.

Enhancing Historical Biography Through Digital Storytelling

Description

Christy Keeler of Clark County School District, NV, discusses the creation and use of digital stories in history classrooms. She presents an example of digital storytelling, "At Lincoln's Hand"; and looks at how students can use primary sources and research combined with emotive narration, music, and sound effects to craft effective digital stories.

Dig Deep into Historical Understanding: The U.S.-Mexican War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Description

According to Constitutional Connections, Dr. Marie E. Montoya of New York University focuses "on the collision of legal regimes regarding property rights that followed the U.S.-Mexican War. She guides viewers through interrogation of primary documents, looking at two versions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Taking as its starting point the fictionalized account projected by the American Girl doll Josefina Montoya, she discusses both the benefits and challenges of many children's first engagement with that history: One which takes place in an idyllic age, uncomplicated by questions of contingency and enamored with the myth of progress."