Twice Born, a musical group that features Wake Forest staffer Laura Gammons, will play on Thursday, March 29, in front of the bookstore on campus. The event will run from 2-4 p.m. and is free and open to the public. A “meet and greet” with the band will follow.

The group released the CD “On Track” earlier this month, and it will be on sale, along with t-shirts. The band will play music from the CD, as well as cover tunes from past and present Top 40 praise groups. Refreshments will be served.

Gammons has been the administrative coordinator for the department of history since 2005. She has been named Employee of the Year and is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Society. Continue reading »

Register now for the Fellows & Friends Engaged Teaching Luncheon Series, which is led by inspired faculty. The next event will be Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 11 a.m. in 301 Reynolda Hall. Lunch will be provided.

The Institute for Public Engagement promotes engaged teaching that fosters critical thinking, gives each student a voice, and encourages students to engage with issues affecting the Wake Forest community and the community beyond. Within the broader concept of engaged teaching is the recognized pedagogy of service-learning, usually involving direct service to meet community needs. Other forms of engaged teaching may not involve such service but nevertheless engage students in the process of identifying and understanding community issues.

The purpose of this discussion series is to afford faculty the opportunity to share their ideas and gain inspiration for engaged teaching in an enjoyable, informal setting. Faculty are invited to enjoy lunch, highlight their work, share ideas, and gain inspiration. Featured faculty will speak for about 20 minutes followed by open conversation.

Tuesday, Jan. 24 (11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.): Innovative Ideas for Engaged Teaching

• Featured Faculty: David Finn (Art), Mary Pendergraft (Classics), Cindy Gendrich (Theatre), Phoebe Zerwick (English)

Tuesday, Feb. 28 (11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.): Navigating Engaged Teaching in a Global Context

• Featured Faculty: Steve Virgil (Law – Nicaragua Nexus), Ananda Mitra (Communications – India Study Abroad), Betina Wilkinson (PS – Latino Political Behavior and Public Opinion)

Monday, March 26 (11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.): Assessment in Engaged Teaching

• Featured Faculty: Michele Gillespie (History), Adam Friedman (Education), Andrew Allwine (Classics -Latin poetry)

Jing Wei (right), husband Yaochun Zhang (center) and their son, Ben

Jing Wei, an employee at Wake Forest, was snorkeling with her husband and several friends Dec. 23 in a lagoon in Aruba when she drowned in an accident that is still a mystery to her husband.

Wei, 48, received a master’s degree in chemical engineering at N.C. A&T. She worked as a technician at the School of Medicine before she landed a job as an instructional technology consultant on the Reynolda campus.

“We are all devastated,” said Simone Caron, the chairman of the history department. Wei maintained that department’s website. “Our department will never be the same without her.”

Read more in the Winston-Salem Journal »

A memorial service for Wei will be held at 2 p.m. on Jan. 15 in Brendle Recital Hall. A reception will follow in the lobby of Brendle Hall.

Noted Southern historian Paul Escott, Reynolds Professor of History at Wake Forest University, received the Christopher Crittenden Memorial Award for contributions to North Carolina history at the annual joint meeting of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association and the Federation of Historical Societies on Nov. 18.

Escott is the author of 13 books, including “North Carolinians in the Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction” (University of North Carolina Press, 2008).

He has twice won the Mayflower Cup, an award for the best non-fiction book written in North Carolina for his books, “Slavery Remembered” and “Many Excellent People.” Continue reading »

Michele Gillespie, the Kahle Associate Professor in History, collaborated with two professors from other schools to edit Southern Society and Its Transformations. The book challenges conventional perceptions of the antebellum South as an economically static region compared to the North. Continue reading »

Nine professors — in art, counseling, divinity, economics, history, religion, journalism, classical languages and East Asian languages — are retiring this year, after leaving an indelible mark on generations of students dating back to the 1970s. Continue reading »

Senior Rebecca Hinson interviews academic advisor Tiffany Waddell.

Students in Michele Gillespie’s history class took a closer look at the work of Wake Forest staff and faculty this semester as part of their study of the history of work in America.

For an oral-history project called “Wake at Work,” students interviewed about 20 staff members and professors about their backgrounds and jobs and how their jobs influenced their perception of the American dream. Transcripts of the interviews are now available on the Z. Smith Reynolds Library website. Audio recordings of many of the interviews are also available at the same website.

Using the University as an example of the contemporary workplace exposed students to a variety of jobs before they began their journey back to colonial days to trace how work — individually and collectively — has shaped American history and expectations about the American Dream today, Gillespie said. Continue reading »

Senior Rebecca Hinson, at left, interviews academic advisor Tiffany Waddell for her Wake at Work oral history project.

Students in Michele Gillespie’s history class are studying the history of work in America by starting with those who make Wake Forest work: staff and faculty.

Using the University as an example of the contemporary workplace exposes students to a variety of jobs before they begin their journey back to colonial days to trace how work — individually and collectively — has shaped American history and expectations about the American Dream today, Gillespie said.

“It gives us a starting point for talking about the impact of 400 years of seismic economic and political shifts of occupations and opportunities in the American experience, and how the vestiges of those changes continue to play out today,” said Gillespie, the Kahle Associate Professor of History. “The project also helps students understand the variety of work taking place at Wake Forest on a daily basis that makes the mission of the University possible. And I hope it will build more meaningful face-to-face relationships between students and employees.” Continue reading »

On the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Reynolds Professor of History Paul Escott offers some provocative arguments that challenge what we thought we knew about Abraham Lincoln in his book, “ ‘What Shall We Do with the Negro?’: Lincoln, White Racism, and Civil War America” (2009, University of Virginia Press). Escott, who joined the faculty in 1988, argues that Lincoln was a complex politician of his time, with often conflicting attitudes and policies toward black Americans, rather than an enlightened Great Emancipator who worked for equality. Continue reading »

As with most empires of the Early Modern Era (1500-1800), the Ottomans mobilized human and material resources for war-making on a vast and unprecedented scale. A new book by Assistant Professor of History Charles L. Wilkins examines how the constant warfare challenged and reshaped one city’s social and political order. “I would say that this book offers a valuable historical perspective on our (Western) conception of Muslim society,” he said. Read more.