Historian and video archivist J. Fred MacDonald will discuss “The Death of History: Natural Causes or Murder?” in a lecture presented by Syracuse University Library Associates at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons of E.S. Bird Library.
Performing an “autopsy” on the traditional study of history, MacDonald contends that in the digital age primary documents—the raw materials essential to an understanding of the past—are easily, casually and regularly being relegated to the obscurity of basements around the world through online auctions. Most of these documents will be forever lost to public scholarship. MacDonald will discuss efforts to save the principal evidence of our past from amateur collectors, impulse buyers and ideological revisionists.
MacDonald is professor emeritus of history at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago and founder and president of MacDonald & Associates, whose holdings constitute one of the largest private repositories of films and television programs in the world. Clients of his archive include the BBC, NHK (Japan) and every major U.S. motion picture studio and television network. He is the author of six books and numerous articles on the history of American popular culture, available for free online reading at www.jfredmacdonald.com.
The event is free and open to the public; free event parking is available at Booth Garage, on the corner of Waverly and Comstock avenues, one block from Bird Library. For more information, visit library.syr.edu/libraryassociates.
Five online working sessions will be held between early October and mid-December for faculty members to obtain guidance on integrating the University’s Shared Competencies into their curriculum and to have support completing the course tagging process. The one-hour Zoom working…
The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) has announced that Heidi Hehnly, associate professor of biology, is the inaugural Renée Crown Professor in the Sciences and Mathematics and Karin Nisenbaum, assistant professor of philosophy, is the inaugural Renée Crown Professor…
Two final opportunities are available for faculty and staff to receive a free flu vaccine from Wegmans Pharmacy at convenient campus locations. Pharmacists will immunize with the quadrivalent flu vaccine to protect against four strains of influenza viruses, and there…
Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) has awarded two Faculty Fellows grants for the 2023-2024 academic year. LaVerne Gray, assistant professor in the School of Information Studies, and Julia White, associate professor in the Department of Teaching and…
Last year, a patchwork of states started passing laws mandating that college athletes were allowed to profit off their images. After asking Congress to pass a uniform set of rules (it didn’t), the NCAA threw up its hands and said…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
