Courses
US History Surveys Modern America: Freedom Dreams and Multiracial Democracy (US History Since 1865)US History Since 1893US History Since 1945US Cultural History, Civil War to the PresentUS...
View ArticleThe Utopian Moment of the Coronavirus Pandemic
covid-19 dares us to imagine a different future. It may sound counterintuitive, but the coronavirus pandemic is a utopian moment, maybe even a revolutionary one. In one fell swoop, the virus provided...
View ArticleRovings
april edition. Sounds Live @ National SawdustEES Quanrantine ConcertsZeena ParkinsIkue MoriClare ChaseOtis Redding, The SinglesTatsu Aoki and Friends, Hothouse GlobalJean Lambert-Wild, “Jazz...
View ArticleResounding Truth
two new podcasts remind us that while history involves longings for truth, not all historical longings are the same in the “post-truth” age. Two new podcasts, Wind of Change and The Last Archive,...
View ArticleLife During Covid-19 Digital Pop-Up Exhibition
student “reports from the field” of COVID-19’s early months in the US. My spring 2020 course HST 380: Digital Methods for Historical Projects shifted from our intended goal of creating oral histories,...
View ArticleShelter in Place
anna martine whitehead, questions of home @ pivot arts (un)touched – artists in quarantine, june 2020. Anna Martine Whitehead’s short dance video, Questions of Home, part of Pivot Arts’ (Un)Touched –...
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may 2020 edition. Sounds Keep Your Mind Free: Damon Locks, Tomeka Reid [videos by: Nzingha Kendall, Foolish Mortal and Lucie Romero], Nicole Mitchell, & Jeff ParkerBethany Ryker’s A440 /...
View ArticleFolk Songs Containing Multitudes
bob dylan as art song classical music composer. I wonder if the significance of Bob Dylan’s late career, say since the fittingly titled “Love and Theft” in 1997, is less the lyrics or Nobel Prizes or...
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Janis Joplin at the 1963 Monterey Folk Festival
the 1967 pop festival was not janis’s first time on stage at monterey, as this image from the berkeley folk music festival collection shows. Janis Joplin moved from local to national, and indeed...
View ArticleSyllabus: Situation Critical—Writing Arts & Cultural Criticism in the Digital...
Online @ Visual Studies Workshop, SUNY Brockport, 13-17 July 2020 Instructor Dr. Michael J. Kramer Overview Interested in writing more effectively about the arts and culture in multiple modes, from...
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Teaching Philosophy
My goal as a teacher is to help students develop skills of analysis and communication grounded in a deeper understanding of the past. I place questions of identity, social position, and power—of race,...
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Chuck Berry at the 1965 Berkeley Blues Festival
from the digital berkeley folk music festival collection. his heart’s beating rhythm and his soul keeps a-singing the blues. A few of the wonderful performance and portrait shots of Chuck Berry at the...
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june 2020 edition. Sounds The Californian Century, BBC Radio 4Nina, RadiolabThe Mekons, ExquisiteBob Dylan, Rough and Rowdy WaysChris Corsano, Everything About It Video (excerpt) (h/t Jesse...
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Talkin’ Folk Music—Panel Discussions @ the 1959 Berkeley Folk Music Festival
Jesse Fuller, Merritt Herring, Jimmy Driftwood, Sam Hinton, Shirley Collins, Alan Lomax, Jimmy Driftwood, Pete Seeger, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott talk folk music at the 1959 Berkeley Folk Music...
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Mance Lipscomb @ the 1961 Berkeley Folk Music Festival
From the berkeley folk music festival project. Mance Lipscomb @ the 1961 Berkeley Folk Music Festival Jubilee Concert in the Greek Amphitheater, University of California campus. Photograph: Cliff...
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