The University of Houston Department of History offers a challenging array of lectures, workshops, and other historical presentations for its students, faculty, the University, and the wider community. The department works with other campus organizations and local entities to bring distinguished historians and other well-known speakers to the University of Houston while simultaneously creating opportunities for our graduate students to share their exciting research.Since 2002, for example, the Department has hosted an annual Mexican American History Workshop in conjunction with the UH Center for Mexican American Studies. Gerald Horne, the Moores Professor of History and African American Studies, has sponsored a series of presentations by leading archivists. In 2005, the Department welcomed the 2005 meeting of the American Society for Environmental History that drew almost 400 scholars from around the world and launched the annual Houston Phi Alpha Theta Consortium with the initial meeting of graduate and undergraduate students from local institutions.
The Project for the Active Teaching of History (PATH), a collaboration between the Department of History, the UH College of Education, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Region IV Education Service Center, promotes increased historical understanding through summer seminars and public lectures. Recent speakers in this program have included historians Eric Foner and Howard Zinn, filmmaker Spike Lee, and noted singer and Civil Rights activist Odetta.
Inaugurated in 1986 and administered by the UH Center for Public History, the Tenneco Distinguished Lecture Series is made possible by grants from Tenneco, Inc. and the National Endowment for the Humanities. To support our teaching, research and outreach missions, the Tenneco Lecture Series has sponsored several symposia and conferences on issues as wide-ranging as “Houston in Search of Vision” and “Dumps, Landfills and the Neighborhood.” Past speakers in the Tenneco Lecture Series include Robert Caro, Henry Cisneros, Norman Cousins, David McCullough, Elie Wiesel, Cornel West, Daniel Yergin, Lynton Caldwell, and Alfred Kahn among others. A list of past Tenneco conferences, symposia, and speakers follows.
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RECENT EVENTS SPONSORED OR CO-SPONSORED BY THE UH DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, TENNECO LECTURE SERIES, AND PATH
May 2005
Fourth Annual Mexican-American History Workshop
April 2005
John Turtino Georgetown University
"New Spain, Mexico, and the United States: Rethinking the History of North America"
April 2005
William O. Walker III, University of Toronto
"Cuban Communists and Columbian Cocaine: The United States and Identity Formation in Latin America since 1960"
April 2005
Jay Rubenstein, University of New Mexico
"Chroniclers of the First Crusade: Stories of the Clash of Cultures at the End of Time"
April 2005
First Regional Conference for Graduate and Undergraduate Students, Phi Alpha Theta
March 2005
American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting
February 2005
James H. Jones, Author and Historian
"Science in the Bedroom: Alfred C. Kinsey and the Rise of Scientific Research on Human Sexuality"
February 2005
Odetta, Folk Music Legend and Civil Rights Activist
"Songs for Social Change"
October 2004: Tenneco Community Symposium: "Families in Crisis"
October 2004
Andrew Sandoval-Strausz, University of Mexico
"For the Accommodation of Strangers: the Invention of the American Hotel"
2004-2005: Are the Answers in the Archives?
Patricia Bozeman, University of Houston Library
Cathleen Baird, Conrad Hilton College, Library & Hospitality Industry Archives, University of Houston
William Gibbs, Indiana Historical Society
Phyllis Earles, Prairie View A&M University
Nurah-Rosalie Jeter, Schomburg Center
Will Howard, Houston Public Library
Lisa May, Diocese of Galveston-Houston
May 2004
Third American Mexican-American History Workshop
April 2004
Spike Lee, Filmmaker
November 2003
A Debate with Benjamin L. Hooks, Civil Rights Leader, and Linda Chaves, Center for Equal Opportunity
"Affirmative Action - Is it still needed?"
November 2003
Southern Historical Association Conference
October 2003
"Bringing Science to Life: Finding a Language for the Mind"
October 2003
Southwest Conference on Asian Studies
September 2003
Howard Zinn, Columbia University
"America Today and America Past"
May 2003
Mexican American History Workshop
April 2003
Kevin Phillips, author, Washington D.C.
"Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich"
April 2003
National Council on Public History Annual Meeting
April 2003: School of Theatre
Arnold Aronson, Columbia University of School of the Arts
"Looking Into the Abyss: Reflections on Scenographic Space"
Mary Henderson, author, New York
"Early 20th century American Scene Design"
February 2003: School of Music (co-sponsor)
Otis Murphy, alto saxophone, Indiana University
Recital and Master Class
William H. Street, saxophone, University of Alberta
Roger Admiral, piano, University of Alberta
Jean-Marie Londeix, saxophone
Recital, Master Class, Lecture
Michael Brecker, tenor saxophone
Texas Music Festival Jazz Project
February 2003
Roman de la Campa, SUNY at Stony Brook
Symposium: Building a Latin American Studies Program
February 2003: Department of Chemical Engineering (co-sponsor)
John Villadsen, National Technical University of Denmark
"The Impact of Chemical Engineering on Bio-Reaction Engineering"
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PAST TENNECO SPONSORED LECTURES, WORKSHOPS, AND CONFERENCES
1986-1991
1992-1997
1998-2002
