Stories

Nancy C. Unger gave the Presidential Address at the luncheon of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Los Angeles on March 31. Her address, dedicated to learning from past moral panics, was entitled “Legislating Morality in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: The ‘White Slave’ Case that Changed America,” which is the focus of her current book project. She also chaired the conference panel “Walter Nugent and the Broadening of U.S. History." On March 21st, Professor Unger was one of two panelists discussing "Is Today Like the 1890s?" as part of the Council on Foreign Relations virtual roundtable series "Threats to American Democracy." She also gave an illustrated virtual presentation "Surprising Reforms of the Gilded Age – Progressive Models for Today," on March 16 to the New York grassroots organization Let's Talk Democracy: Empowering Citizens Through Knowledge.

Mateo J. Carrillo organized a panel and presented a paper at the 2023 Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) Conference in Antigua, Guatemala. The title of the panel, which was held on Saturday, March 25, 2023, was "Transforming the Land, Building the State." Dr. Carrillo’s paper, “Revolutionizing Mobility: Rural Infrastructure and the Mexican State, 1925-1940,” explored how civil engineers deployed road and water technologies as well as modernist ideologies and nationalist propaganda to build the state in the years following the Mexican Revolution. He argues that in their drive to modernize rural landscapes and peoples via infrastructure these técnicos laid the groundwork for mass Mexican migration to the United States beginning in World War II. Dr. Carrillo was joined on the panel by María de los Ángeles Picone (Boston College), Sarah Hines (University of Oklahoma), and Carlos Dimas (University of Nevada-Las Vegas).

In March, Sonia Gomez presented at the Organization of American Historians conference held in Los Angeles. Gomez discussed the marginalization of Issei bachelors on a panel titled, "Sex Outside of the Household: State Power and Sexuality from Reconstruction to the Great Depression."

Meg Gudgeirsson participated in the student-organized panel on being a woman in academia on International Women’s Day, March 8: “Their Story, Their Truth.” Gudgeirsson, along with several other panelists, shared their experiences, both challenges and opportunities, with an audience of the SCU community.