The Academic Minute from 03.21 – 03.25
Monday, March 21st
Maurizio Valsania – University of Turin
First Among Men: George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity
Maurizio Valsania is professor of American history at the University of Turin, Italy. An expert on the Early American Republic, he analyzes the founders within their social, intellectual, and material context, especially through the lens of the 18th-century body. He is the author of The Limits of Optimism: Thomas Jefferson’s Dualistic Enlightenment (University of Virginia Press, 2011), Nature’s Man: Thomas Jefferson’s Philosophical Anthropology (University of Virginia Press, 2013), Jefferson’s Body: A Corporeal Biography (University of Virginia Press, 2017), and First Among Men: George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity (Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming 2022, a book represented by literary agent Scott Mendel of the Mendel Media Group). Valsania is the recipient of several fellowships from leading academic institutions, including the American Antiquarian Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Library Company, the John D. Rockefeller Library, the DAAD (Germany), the International Center for Jefferson Studies, and the George Washington’s Mount Vernon. He has written for the Oxford University Press’s Academic Insights for the Thinking World, for the Oxford Bibliographies Online, and has collaborated with the BBC World Service. He has also written several Op-Eds and articles that have appeared in major media outlets, such as the Chicago Tribune, Salon, the Wisconsin State Journal, Government Executive, Defense One, and the Conversation. He lives in Chapel Hill, NC.
Tuesday, March 22nd
Christoph Strobel – University of Massachusetts Lowell
A State Flag and the Violent History of Colonization
Christoph Strobel has published numerous books, most recently Native Americans of New England.
Wednesday, March 23rd
Lewis Eliot – University of Oklahoma
Checking Privilege: Competing Anti-Slavery Thought in the British Empire
Lewis Eliot is a historian of slavery and anti-slavery in the British Empire and Atlantic World. His research focuses on the ways that enslaved people influenced abolitionist ideologies through rebellion against slavery. He received his PhD from the University of South Carolina, MA from Queen’s University, Belfast, and BA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Thursday, March 24th
Julie Boland – University of Michigan
Your Brainwaves on Zoom
Julie E Boland, PhD is a Professor in Psychology, Linguistics, and Cognitive Science at the University of Michigan. Her research seeks to understand the mental processes that support language comprehension and conversation.
Dr. Boland earned her PhD in Psychology from the University of Rochester and her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Washington University in St Louis. She joined the University of Michigan in 2001 as an Associate Professor.
Friday, March 25th
Timothy Abraham – Utica College
Brain-Based Teaching to Improve Student Learning
Tim Abraham is an Assistant Professor of Physical Education, Exercise and Wellness Studies at Utica College. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois – Chicago, and his master’s degree in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign. Abraham served as Head Athletic Trainer of the Washington Nationals major league baseball team before coming to central New York to serve as Outreach Coordinator for a local orthopedic sports medicine practice and then an adjunct instructor at Utica College. He moved into academia full time in the Fall of 2017 where he now teaches courses in physical education, adventure programming, and exercise science. Tim’s scholarly interests lie in the effective teaching and learning practices, especially in non-traditional settings or using non-traditional methods.
