Ever wonder what history professors do over the summer break? Texas Wesleyan historians Brenda Matthews, Alistair Maeer and Christopher Ohan wrote, traveled and served over Summer 2018.

Dr. Brenda Matthews, A. M. Pate Professor of History, traveled to northeast Texas in June to complete research for her chapter, “The New Deal in Cass County” in an forthcoming book on the New Deal in Texas. She also traveled throughout New Mexico where she continues to study the Pueblo culture. This excerpt from her chapter introduces one of the murals used as part of her research:

“In Cass County, Texas, atop the postmaster’s door, The Last Crop mural topped off a decade of New Deal expenditures meant to address hunger, unemployment, poor health, and poverty caused by the Great Depression.  Painted on canvas in San Francisco and installed by the artist Victor Arnautoff in the new Linden post office in September 1939, The Last Crop depicted the final Black cotton pickers before automation supplanted their labor.”

Dr. Alistair Maeer traveled to England and presented a paper at the University of Exeter entitled “Instruments of Acquisition and Reflections of Desire: English Nautical charts and Islamic Shores, 1650-1700,” which is part of a forthcoming book chapter on English interactions with the Islamic world. He also presented “Fashioning an Expanding English World: The Italian Voyages of Edward Barlow,” at the University of Swansea in Wales.

In addition to conducting research in Exeter and Durham, thanks in part to a Sam Taylor Grant, he was fortunate enough to visit various sites, including Hadrian’s Wall, the Yorkshire Dales, and various ruined castles and abbeys.

Finally, Dr. Christopher Ohan traveled to Moldova to participate in a medical mission trip.  He also conducted a 4-day seminar entitled “Reformation: From Francis of Assisi to the Council of Trent” in Cupcini, Moldova.

Afterward, he traveled throughout western Turkey, visiting the ruins of Troy as well as the battlefields of Gallipoli, the site where Xerxes “bridged the Hellespont,” the Roman/Byzantine city of Nicaea, location of the first ecumenical council called by Roman Emperor Constantine in 325, and the city of Istanbul.