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  An Unhealthy Obsession: Understanding Russian Views of Ukraine

  Faith Hillis

  Faith Hillis is Professor of Russian History at the University of Chicago. She is particularly interested in nineteenth and twentieth century politics, culture, and ideas. She is the author of Children of Rus’: Right Bank Ukraine and the Invention of a Russian Nation (Cornell, 2013) and Utopia’s Discontents: Russian Exiles and the Quest for Freedom, 1830 1930 (Oxford, 2021). The latter work was awarded the 2022 Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize from ASEEES, which recognizes the most important contribution in any discipline of Slavic studies. The recipient of research fellowships at Columbia, Harvard, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, her research has been funded by ACLS, IREX, Fulbright Hays, and the NEH, among others.

  What is behind Russia’s apparent obsession with Ukraine? This talk explores why Russians see Ukraine as an integral part of their territory and history, on the one hand, and as an existential and irreconcilable threat, on the other. Showing that this contradictory mode of thinking is not merely a function of current events, but is deeply rooted in history, it argues that altering this mindset will prove necessary to restore peace to Ukraine.

  Rondel Davidson Endowed Lecture

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  Gender, Slavery, and the Archives in the Caribbean

  Marisa J. Fuentes

  Rutgers University Professor Marisa Fuentes, an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, will deliver a live virtual presentation on "Gender, Slavery, and the Archive" as part of the Rondel Davidson Endowed Lecture Series.
  
  Fuentes’ scholarship brings together critical historiography, historical geography, and black feminist theory to examine gender, sexuality, and slavery in the early modern Atlantic World.

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  Gender, Slavery, and the Archives in the Caribbean with American Sign Language

  Marisa J. Fuentes

  Rutgers University Professor Marisa Fuentes, an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, will deliver a live virtual presentation on "Gender, Slavery, and the Archive" as part of the Rondel Davidson Endowed Lecture Series.
  
  Fuentes’ scholarship brings together critical historiography, historical geography, and black feminist theory to examine gender, sexuality, and slavery in the early modern Atlantic World.

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  Two Suns of the Southwest: Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater, and the 1964 Battle between Liberalism and Conservatism

  Nancy Beck Young

  Professor Nancy Beck Young, professor of history at the University of Houston, presents her talk “Two Suns of the Southwest: Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater, and the 1964 Battle between Liberalism and Conservatism”.

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  La Malinche according to the Indians

  Camilla A. Townsend

  La Malinche has long been cast as a traitor to her people in the Spanish conquest of Mexico. More recently we have been reminded that her life was hard and her choices few, and that she owed no loyalty to the Aztecs, who were her people’s enemy. It is more than time that we translate and analyze the Nahuatl-language comments made by Indians and for Indians in the 1500s. What did they think of la Malinche?

  Rondel Davidson Endowed Lecture given by Dr. Camilla D. Townsend, Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers.

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  The Failure of Interwar Democracy and Current Implications

  Christopher Browning

  From the AP website: "EDINBURG — A renowned Holocaust scholar, Christopher Browning was on-hand Thursday at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus as part of the UTRGV Rondel Davidson Lecture Series..."

  Abstract of lecture:

  Allied victory in World War I was proclaimed as making the world safe for democracy, yet the interwar period witnessed widespread democratic failure. Most important, democratic failure in Italy and Germany resulted in fascist dictatorships, war, and--in the case of Nazi Germany--genocide. In 1989, as earlier in 1919, democracy seemed triumphant, but in many countries democracy is now in retreat. What insights does the widespread democratic failure of the interwar period offer to better understand the current crisis of democracy?

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  The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I

  Lynne Dumenil

  From the book publisher, "In tracing the rise of the modern idea of the American “new woman,” Lynn Dumenil examines World War I’s surprising impact on women and, in turn, women’s impact on the war. Telling the stories of a diverse group of women, including African Americans, dissidents, pacifists, reformers, and industrial workers, Dumenil analyzes both the roadblocks and opportunities they faced...Dumenil shows how women activists staked their claim to loyal citizenship by framing their war work as homefront volunteers, overseas nurses, factory laborers, and support personnel as “the second line of defense...”

  Rondel Davidson Endowed Lecture by Lynn Dumenil, who is the Robert Glass Cleland Professor Emerita of American History at Occidental College. She specializes in U.S. cultural and social history since the Civil War.

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  Muhammad Ali and the rise of professional sports in 1960s Houston

  Frank Guridy

  The Department of History at UTPA along with the Rondel Davison Endowed Lecture Series invited guest speaker Frank Guridy to present a lecture on Muhammad Ali and the rise of professional sports such as boxing, baseball and football in 1960s Houston at the Engineering Building Auditorium November 3. Reported by Naja Wade.

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  Tippecanoe: Tecumseh's Turning Point

  R. David Edmunds

  Dr. R. David Edmunds, Professor of History at the University of Texas at Dallas, speaks at the annual Rondel V. Davidson Endowment lecture sponsored by the Endowment and the University of Texas-Pan American History Program. The lecture was given on February 23, 2012 at the UTPA Library Auditorium, in Edinburg, Texas.