PAST EVENTS
may 2023
Event Details
Join us on May 12th, 2023 for an evening and boat cruise around Manhattan with Professor Adam Tooze!
Event Details
Contact: historyboardofvisitors@columbia.edu
Time
(Friday) 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Location
Chelsea Piers
Event Details
HISTORY LAB Archives as Data An Institute for Advanced
Event Details
Digital history and archiving are thriving, but the increasing volume of digitized and “born digital” materials for historical research also presents new challenges for archivists and historians. Typically, the only way to explore these resources has been through keyword searching. More direct access to the data creates tremendous new research opportunities, but the barriers to entry can seem daunting.
This NEH-funded program will offer practical training for historians and archivists in processing and analyzing textual data. Participants in the Archiving Digital Records workshop, designed for archivists, will learn how to use new technology to improve the description and arrangement of digital or digitized records, especially PDFs, and provide users with new ways to access them. Participants in the Text-as-Data workshop, designed for historians, will learn how to organize and analyze large document collections and use new methods to formulate original arguments. All participants will come together in seminar-style discussions on the novel challenges posed by doing archival research in the age of “big data,” including issues related to community representation, protecting private information in online archives, and the professional and scholarly pitfalls in navigating this new terrain.
The Institute will be led by Matthew Connelly and Courtney Chartier, with co-teachers Ray Hicks and Ben Lis, who have extensive experience processing and analyzing textual data. It will also feature presentations from archivists, historians, and data scientists (see list below). All classes will be in-person to facilitate informal discussions, though week two of the Archiving Digital Records workshop can be done remotely. Attendance is free, and funding is available for those who need to travel to participate.
The Institute is a joint project of Columbia’s History Lab and Columbia Libraries, and is funded by the NEH Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities. Hands-on training will use textual data from the Freedom of Information Archive, a project that has aggregated the largest database of declassified government documents in the world. Here are the draft syllabi for the workshops.
When: May 22 – June 2, 2023. Sessions will be from 9am – 3pm each weekday. Another Institute is planned for May-June 2024. We hope to invite at least some workshop participants to a conference that will take place at Columbia at the same time the American Historical Association holds its annual meeting in NYC in January 2025.
Where: Columbia University Campus in New York City.
Eligibility: This workshop is open rank. Masters students through established scholars are encouraged to apply. Priority in the Text-as-Data workshop will be given to historians, while priority in the Archiving Digital Records workshop will be given to archivists. Others will be eligible to participate on a space-available basis.
Financial Support: We are happy to offer financial support for those workshop participants who need it for travel and accommodations. In your application, we will ask you to describe your budget and prospects for obtaining other funding. We will use the limited funds we have to ensure broad participation, including from under-resourced institutions.
How to Apply: Please use this form to apply. In addition to providing a CV, we will ask you to describe any previous experience or training in either processing digital collections (for archivists) or analyzing textual data (for historians). We will also ask you what motivates you to apply to the workshop and what you hope to gain from attending it. Feel free to contact us with questions.
Courtney Chartier is the director of Columbia’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. She has long-standing interest and experience in the archiving of electronic records, and was previously the Head of Research Services at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library at Emory University and taught at Georgia State University. Chartier is also the immediate past President of the Society of American Archivists.
Matthew Connelly is a professor of history at Columbia University. He received his B.A. from Columbia in 1990 and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1997. His publications include A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era, and Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population. His current book project, The Declassification Engine, will be published by Pantheon in 2023. He has taught courses on “Biopolitics in the 20th Century” and “The History and Future of Pandemic Threats and Global Public Health.” In 2011 he also co-directed (with Stephen Morse) a summer research program on “The History of the Next Pandemic.”
Raymond Hicks (Data Scientist) has been working with History Lab since 2017. Before starting at Columbia, he worked as the Statistical Programmer for the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University. His research has appeared in the Journal of Politics, International Organization, and the British Journal of Political Science, among other journals. He received his B.A. from The College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in political science from Emory University. He has taught a 2-week workshop on the introduction to text analysis for several different audiences, including economists, political scientists, and historians.
Benjamin Lis (Instructor – Archives Workshop) has been the History Lab’s data engineer since 2019, where he has developed some of the tools used in the workshop. He has also taught as an adjunct in the Applied Analytics department of Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, and co-taught “Hacking the Archive” with Connelly in spring 2020. He has a B.S. from Montclair State University and an M.S. from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Cameron Blevins, University of Colorado Denver
Merlin Chowkwanyun, Columbia University
Greg Eow, Center for Research Libraries
Jo Guldi, Southern Methodist University
Tim Hitchcock, University of Sussex
Maria Matienzo, Tome
Chris Prom, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Lara Putnam, University of Pittsburgh
Barbara Rockenbach, Yale University
Heidi Tworek, University of British Columbia
Time
May 22 (Monday) - June 2 (Friday)
june 2023
9jun9:00 am- 6:00 pmWriting the History of COVID-19: Lessons for the Next Pandemic
Event Details
Date: Friday, June 9th, 2023
Event Details
Date: Friday, June 9th, 2023
Time: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST
Location: Lehman Center for American History (420 W 118th Street, New York, NY 10027)
Register here.
While the Covid-19 crisis is still unfolding, it has already revealed much about the history of our time, and left lessons that will be important to study before the next pandemic. But much depends on gaining a sense of perspective, and preserving information that might otherwise be lost. Even before it began, archivists and scholars were struggling to develop new methods to record and analyze history in the age of “big data.” Resource constraints and fights over access to information have only intensified because of pressures on public budgets and the partisan politics that surround any attempt at retrospective analysis.
Our plan is to assemble historians, journalists, archivists and public health experts to take stock of the first efforts to record and report this global crisis, identify the most important questions for new research, and in that way set priorities for long-term preservation.
Please see below our schedule for our event.
8:30-9:30: Coffee/Breakfast
9:30-10:00: Opening Remarks and Welcome
10:00-11:45: Panel I – Prevision
How do we assess efforts to predict and plan for pandemics, and how did they prepare us for Covid-19 (or leave us unprepared)? What was expected and what was unexpected about how events unfolded? And how do we assess the use of different modes of prevision to inform policy choices and educate the public once the pandemic was underway?
Moderator: Matthew Connelly, Columbia University, Professor of International and Global history, Co-Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP)
Caitlin Rivers, John Hopkins, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Gaia Dempsey, Metaculus, CEO
Jeff Shaman, Columbia University, Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Director of the Climate and Health Program at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
12:00-1:00: Lunch
1:00-2:45: Panel II – Policy
There is a growing demand for understanding of how different scientific recommendations, political choices, and community responses shaped the course of the pandemic. Considering past pandemics, what are we likely to learn, and what questions may remain unanswerable?
Moderator: Wilmot James, Brown University, Senior Advisor to the Brown Pandemic Center, Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice
Stephen Hilgartner, Cornell University, Frederic J. Whiton Professor of Science & Technology Studies
Lawrence Stanberry, Columbia University, Associate Dean for International Programs and Director of the Programs in Global Health at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Jennifer Nuzzo, Brown University, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health
3:00-4:45: Panel III – History
How do we place the pandemic in the longer history of emerging infectious diseases and structural trends that are making outbreaks more common, including encroachment on natural habitats and international travel? How do we connect and compare it to other events that may define our time, such as the recrudescence of authoritarianism and growing resistance to racial and social inequality?
Moderator: Steve Morse, Columbia University, Professor of Epidemiology at CUMC
Tom Ewing, Virginia Tech, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research and Professor of History
David Rosner, Columbia University, Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Professor of History, Co-Director, Center for the History & Ethics of Public Health
James Colgrove, Columbia University, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
5:00-6:00: Roundtable with Matthew Connelly, Wilmot James, and Steve Morse
This event is sponsored by ISERP.
Time
(Friday) 9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Location
Lehman Center (406 IAB, 420 West 118th Street)
Lehman Center (406 IAB, 420 West 118th Street)
july 2023
No Events
august 2023
No Events
TILE VIEW
september, 2023
12sep5:00 pm- 7:00 pmEli and the Octopus Book Talk with Matt Garcia and Karl Jacoby
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, September 12th Time: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, September 12th
Time: 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Location: Room 406 (Herbert Lehman Suite) International Affairs Building, 420 W. 118th Street, New York, NY 10027.
Register here.
Join the Lehman Center for American History and the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies for a book talk and discussion with Matt Garcia about his new work, Eli and the Octopus: The CEO Who Tried to Reform One of the World’s Most Notorious Corporations.
Matt Garcia is Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of History, Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies, and Human Relations at Dartmouth College.
Karl Jacoby specializes in environmental, borderlands, and Native American history, and is the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University.
Event Contact Information:
Thai Jones
tsj2001@columbia.edu
Time
(Tuesday) 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Location
International Affairs Building, 420 W. 118 St., New York, NY 10027 Lehman Suite, IAB Room 406
19sep5:00 pm- 7:00 pmLow Library: The Columbia University Opium Connection
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, September 19th, 2023 Time: 5:30 PM
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, September 19th, 2023
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: 108 Jerome L. Greene Hall (435 W 116th St, New York, NY 10027)
Register here. Registration is required for this event.
Join author Amitav Ghosh for a discussion of his new book, Smoke and Ashes, as he explores the effects of the opium trade on Britain, China, and India and Columbia University’s own connection to the opium trade.
This event is sponsored by the Columbia University and Slavery Seminar, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and the Department of History.
Time
(Tuesday) 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Location
Jerome Green Hall
Event Details
Date: Thursday, September 21, 2023 Time: 5:00 - 6:30 PM (reception following) Location:
Event Details
Date: Thursday, September 21, 2023
Time: 5:00 – 6:30 PM (reception following)
Location: 411 Fayerweather Hall (1180 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NU 10027)
Last June, the Supreme Court opened a chasm in the longstanding legal settlement between the First Amendment and anti-discrimination law. In 303 Creative v. Elenis, the Court ruled that public accommodations may deny service to same-sex couples under certain circumstances. This talk traces the new right to exclude back to the Christian Right movement lawyers who first advanced it in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Beyond explaining how market discrimination became protected speech, this historical genealogy helps locate lawyers for the New Christian Right in the broader history of the conservative legal movement.
Kate Redburn is an Academic Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. They are completing a JD-PhD in History and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale.
Time
(Thursday) 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Event Details
Date: Wednesday, September 27th, 2023 Time: 4:10 PM
Time
(Wednesday) 4:10 pm - 6:00 pm
Location
Knox Hall - Room 207
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