Online Course Begins | Whose History Gets Saved?

whose history gets saved graphic

WRHS Online Course | Whose History Gets Saved?

Course Description:

Our knowledge of the past, of history, depends on a number of things, including the historians, authors, filmmakers, and museum staff who create a narrative about a person, a time, a place, or an event. But ultimately those narratives rest on the evidence available to them – among them, documents, objects, oral histories, and increasingly digitized data. This three-week online class will focus on those sources and raise a number of questions as to how they survive and come to be used.

It is not a simple story, but one resting on the ability to create a source, the serendipity of its survival, the biases and viewpoints that lead to its preservation, and the manner in which individuals choose to interpret it. This is not a simple story, but one that raises many questions: questions about authority, intent, capacity, politics, funding, and changing viewpoints about the past. This course will be both lecture and discussion – indeed, discussion will be critical to debating and understanding how we come to know history.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Wednesdays, March 31; April 7 and 14

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: John Grabowski, PhD, Krieger Mueller Chief Historian

Pricing:

Course Registration | $60

WRHS Member Registration | $50

How to Register:

To register, please see below. This course will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, your confirmation will include a link that will allow you to join the course, as well as all necessary login information and instructions.

Online Course Begins | Black Agency and Black Activism: Cleveland, Ohio, c. 1820-2020

Black Agency and Activism in Cleveland

WRHS Online Course | Black Agency and Black Activism: Cleveland, Ohio, c. 1820-2020

Course Description:

In recent decades, educators, journalists, authors, and elected officials have frequently joined others in struggling to understand citizens’ growing activism and public protests against police violence, inadequate health care, political disfranchisement, and violations of the economic and civil rights of Black citizens. Many of these same individuals have also enjoyed some measure of success in helping to address these concerns. While the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and related Twitter feeds are relatively new, in Cleveland, Ohio the aforementioned struggles have a long and carefully documented history. This online course will provide participants with opportunities to consider the long view of Black Agency and Black Activism, from the Antebellum Era to the 21st Century (c. 1820 – 2020). Course activities will focus on the work of John Malvin, Charles W. Chesnutt, Mary Brown Martin, L. Pearl Mitchell, Carl Stokes, Sarah J. Harper, Black Lives Matter (Cleveland), leaders of area churches, and other groups and individuals.

This four-session course is designed to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration of the African American Archives Auxiliary (“Quad A”) of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Master teachers and Quad A members Beverly Lloyd and Margaret Peacock have agreed to give brief presentations on Kwanzaa during the session focusing on Black Cultural Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. The list of suggested readings will include works by Samuel W. Black, Regennia N. Williams, Marvin A. McMickle, Todd Michney, A. Grace Lee Mims, Leonard Moore, Nishani Frazier, and other scholars and artists whose published works are based in part on materials in the African American Archives.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Thursdays, April 29; May 6, 13, and 20

Time: 6:00-7:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: Regennia N. Williams, PhD, WRHS Distinguished Scholar of African American History and Culture; and other guest presenters.

Pricing:

Course Registration | $60

WRHS Member Registration | $50

How to Register:

To register, please see below. This course will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, your confirmation will include a link that will allow you to join the course, as well as all necessary login information and instructions.

Registration will close at 12:00pm on Thurs., April 29. If you need to sign up after registration closes, please email Whitney Stalnaker, Public Programs Manager, at wstalnaker@wrhs.org

 

Online Course Begins – Golden Doors & Border Walls: An Overview of Immigration to the United States

Course Information

Title: Golden Doors & Border Walls: An Overview of Immigration to the United States

Course Description:

We often refer to ourselves as a “nation of immigrants,” yet the question of who should come to America and who is capable of becoming an “American” has often clouded that more hopeful characterization of our nation.

This six-session course will examine the history of immigration and migration to what is now the United States from the time of the first peoples to the present. Students will examine the shifting patterns of global immigration and migration to North America, and particularly Northeast Ohio, over time and examine, in detail, the historical issues and events that created those patterns. Central to this examination will be a focus on the evolution of laws and policies, both within and outside of the U.S., that sought to regulate or stop the flow of immigrants and which also challenged the right of those already in the U.S. to become citizens.

Xenophobia, the fear of the stranger, has been ever present in this history. How and why it occurred at different times is central to understanding American immigration history. Equally present over time was the conception of the United States as a “refuge” – a place welcoming all who sought safety, liberty, and opportunity. One session of the course will be fully devoted to the way we have come to remember and to celebrate this aspect of the national experience. The core purpose of this course is to challenge the participant to consider whether this concept reflects reality – either then or now.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Thursdays, July 9, 16, 23, and 30; Aug. 6 and 13

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: John Grabowski, PhD, WRHS Senior Vice President of Research & Publications and Krieger Mueller Historian

Pricing:

Course Registration | $75

WRHS Member Registration | $65

How to Register:

To register, please see below. This course will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, we will email you a link that will allow you to join the course, as well as all necessary login information and instructions.

Online Course Begins – Cleveland: The Evolution of a City

Course Information

Title: Cleveland: The Evolution of a City 

Course Description:

Books, blogs, and websites relating to Cleveland’s history seem to be increasing every day. Many are focused on topics that have wide appeal because they are already embedded in the public consciousness or link to popular memory. Millionaires Row, the triumphs and fiascos of local sports teams, and the multiple heritages that make up our cosmopolitan region are good topics and enjoy a good market. They certainly are not unimportant historically, but all too often their deeper complexities are overlooked.

This four-session course is designed to provide an overview of Cleveland’s history that places many of its iconic moments, places, and people into a broader and more complex context, a context that is revealed in professional scholarship relating to Cleveland.   Here too, the number of works by both local and national scholars is increasing and serve as an important complement to the “usual” history of our community.   New books by Mark Souther, Todd Michney, Jonathan Wlasiuk, and Nishani Frazier provide important new perspectives on issues ranging from race and urban decline to suburbanization and nineteenth century environmental degradation.  This course will introduce you to them and to a city with a history that has consequence well beyond its boundaries and our shared memories.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Thursdays, June 4, 11, 18, and 25

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: John Grabowski, PhD, WRHS Senior Vice President of Research & Publications and Krieger Mueller Historian

Pricing:

Course Registration | $60

WRHS Member Registration | $50

How to Register:

To register, please see below. This course will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, we will email you a link that will allow you to join the course, as well as all necessary login information and instructions.