Join us at Westside Bowl at 6:30 pm for the conclusion of our speaker series “Labor: Then and Now.” Our expert panel will discuss the ways in which Ohio’s labor market is tilting in favor of workers. They will share their insights on how Ohioans can continue to create a state where all workers thrive.
Speaker Bios: Dr. AJ Sumell, Professor and Lead Negotiator for YSU-OEA
Michael Shields, Senior Researcher and Economist at Policy Matters Ohio
Dr. Tanisha Pruitt, Education Research at Policy Matters Ohio
This event is free and open to the public. Come early for food, stay late for games!
Mark your calendars for the inaugural event of the 2023 Reeder Speaker Series: “Better Understood by History Than by Logic: Federal Indian Policy and the Pokagon’s Experience”
This event is free and open to the public. It will be held November 2 at 6:00 pm, at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor.
Dr. Alex Wesaw is a citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians (federally recognized in Michigan and Indiana), where he serves as the elected Treasurer of the Tribal Council, Treasurer of the Tribe’s gaming enterprise (Four Winds Casino Resorts), and is the Chairman of the Pokagon Development Authority, an economic development arm of the Band. Dr. Wesaw serves nationally as a board member of the Indian Gaming Association, a board member of the National Indian Child Welfare Association, and a delegate to the National Congress of American Indians. In 2022, Dr. Wesaw was recognized as one of 40 leaders under 40 years old in the United States by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.
Additionally, Dr. Wesaw is also the Director of the American Indian Relations Division at the Ohio History Connection managing the relationships between the organization and more than 45 federally recognized tribes with connection to the lands now known as Ohio.
Finally, Alex holds a PhD in City & Regional Planning from The Ohio State University, a master’s degree in public administration from Ohio University, and a bachelor’s degree in communication also from Ohio University.
Dr. Amy Laurel Fluker was among 20 college and university educators named a Visiting Research Scholar by the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was selected to participate in the Summer Institute on the Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath, hosted by the City University of New York Graduate Center in New York City, July 9-21, 2023. The Institute focused on how visual media expressed and shaped popular views on the Civil War, before, during, and after the conflict. It included seminars led by noted historians, art historians, archivists, and museum curators, as well as hands-on workshops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, and the New York Historical Society. During the Institute, Dr. Fluker refined her forthcoming article on the Civil War paintings of George Caleb Bingham.
My deepest appreciation goes to the Reeder Family, the YSU Foundation, and Dean Howell for renewing my appointment as the Robert W. Reeder I Memorial Endowed Professor of History for another three-year term. Read the announcement here.
Mark your calendars! The YSU history program is proud to welcome Dr. Jonathan S. Jones to deliver the 2023 Distinguished Lecture in Nineteenth Century History on April 27, 2023. More details to come in the New Year!
Dr. Jones is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the Virginia Military Institute. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters exploring the history of Civil War veterans’ struggles with addiction. His forthcoming manuscript, Opium Slavery: The Civil War, Veterans, and America’s First Opioid Crisis will appear in 2023 from the University of North Carolina Press. His lecture will be drawn from his second book project, tentatively titled “A Great American Fraud: The Civil War and the Development of Medical Capitalism.”
The YSU History Program, the Center for Working Class Studies, and the Youngstown Solidarity Network warmly invite you to attend a roundtable discussion on Labor and the Working Class in U.S. History. The roundtable will feature Dr. Kenneth Bindas (Kent State University), Dr. Stephanie Shaw (The Ohio State University), and Dr. Gregory S. Wilson (University of Akron). These experts will share their insights into the history of labor and activism in working class communities in the United States, the links between scholarship and activism, and the relevance of these subjects to our region.
This event is free and open to the public. It will be held November 18 at 6:00 pm, at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor.
Speaker Bios:
Dr. Kenneth Bindas is a Professor of History at Kent State University. Being born and raised into a working-class family in Youngstown and witness to the decline of steel encouraged Dr. Bindas to study the negotiation of power between governments, business, and the people. His research focuses on the Depression era and the 1960s, exploring how the people redefined themselves, their government, and society in this era of change. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Modernity and the Great Depression: The Transformation of American Society (Kansas Press, 2017).
Dr. Stephanie Shaw is a Professor of History at The Ohio State University. Her research and teaching fields focus on women and Black Americans. She is an award-winning author of numerous publications, including What a Woman ought to Be and Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era (University of Chicago Press, 1996) and W.E.B. DuBois and The Souls of Black Folk (University of North Carolina Press, 2015). She is currently completing a book tentatively titled “Grandmothers, Granny Women, and Old Aunts: Rethinking Slave Families and Communities in the Nineteenth Century South.”
Dr. Gregory S. Wilson is a Professor of History at the University of Akron. His research and teaching interests include modern U.S. history, especially public history, political economy, environmental history, Ohio history, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Along with various articles, he is the author of Above the Shots: An Oral History of The Kent State Shootings (Kent State University Press, 2016), Communities Left Behind: The Area Redevelopment Administration, 1945-1965 (University of Tennessee Press, 2009) and the co-author of Ohio: A History of the Buckeye State (Wiley, 2013).
We’re excited to present the preliminary program for the upcoming Reeder Symposium, October 26-28 at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor. Check it out under the “Symposium” tab above. All events are free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!
The Sutliff Museum interprets the history of the antislavery movement and the Victorian era from the perspective of the Sutliff family. Arriving in Trumbull County as pioneers, the Sutliffs rose to local, state, and national prominence. They were activists, educators, and politicians who made remarkable contributions to American history and especially to the antislavery movement.
Melissa Karman is the Director of the Sutliff Museum in Warren, Ohio, and serves as the Region 4 Representative of the Ohio Local History Alliance. She received her MA degree in Applied History from YSU (2011).
“History Happened Here” is an ongoing series that explores subjects in local and regional history, highlighting the contributions of Ohio and Ohioans at important moments in national and world history. For more information, contact alfluker@ysu.edu
