Department of
History

Shifting Boundaries in the Frontier Zones of South China and Southeast Asia

How do borders get defined, and who defines them?   As recently as the 1960s, China’s Yunnan province has been a transnational crossroads; in one case in Ruili County a village was sliced right in half with one part in China and the other in Myanmar. Eli Alberts explores a unified nation composed of 55 ethnic minorities, specifically the Yao people and how they have been identified and grouped since the 12th century. 

Spring 2021

Together, we research and conserve

In the Department of History, together we conserve, research, engage, and understand. From sharing stories of WWII survivors to the architectural history of Windsor, Colo., from working in the Smithsonian to working at Rocky Mountain National Park, history students and faculty explore our past in order to understand our present.

Winter 2020

Surviving an Invasion during a Pandemic in the 14th Century

The people of Provence were undergoing multiple crises of war, famine, and plague in 1360. Their stories about a miracle woman, collected during an inquest considering her for sainthood in the Catholic church, helped them understand what was happening, and gave them ideas for how to recover from these devastating issues.  

Winter 2019/Spring 2020

Something You Won’t Find in the Archives

Most of us are looking for the wildlife, admiring the foliage, and navigating trails when we visit Rocky Mountain National Park. But for a group of CSU students in the Parks as Portals to Learning program, they’ve been challenged to look for – and document –  the park’s history.

Spring 2019

Building Maps of the Past with New Technologies

Robert Ower (’18) uses the research skills from history classes to build maps and create ‘mappable data’ for high tech industries. Ower’s path from work to college to a meaningful career reflects the maps that he makes with ArcGIS. Layers of skills, research, patience, effort and luck are the mappable data. His emerging career is a world of his own creation.

Winter 2018

Sharing the Lessons Learned during the 2013 Colorado Flood

What can a historian do in response to life-threatening flooding like we’ve seen in Northern Colorado? Quite a lot it turns out. By documenting the communication, cooperation, and activity of  disaster responders, historians capture the knowledge and information-sharing process that is so crucial to future response and recovery.

Spring 2018

Family, Culture, and French Immersion in Cajun Country

A new documentary film, Theo’s Choice/Le Choix de Theo, by assistant professor Thomas Cauvin takes viewers into French immersion classrooms of southwest Louisiana and explores the complex history of French in the Cajun culture.