Cathy Bao Bean
Author, Educational Consultant, retired philosophy professor
The Chopsticks-Fork Principle: A Setting for Diversity
With good humor participants are encouraged to realize, understand, and laugh about (!) how we all are at least bi-cultural (by ethnicity, gender, etc.) in a way that shatters stereotypes but explains the generalizations. Examining personal stories about ordinary events, extraordinary cultural questions are raised - like:
Can the Tooth Fairy survive the Melting Pot?
Can a Confucian have an Identity Crisis without a sub-conscious?
Can a "success" in one culture mean "failure" in another?
The "chopsticks-fork answers" are embedded in being a Chinese-American who then raised an American-Chinese.
Nancy C. Carnevale, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History, Montclair State University
No Italian Spoken for the Duration of the War: Italian Americans and the Second World War
This program looks at the little-known history of Italian Americans during the World War II years. Despite record numbers of enlistees, for a time Italian Americans were designated enemy aliens who were subject to curfews and other restrictions. A number of Italian Americans were relocated and some were sent to internment camps. This lecture describes the wartime atmosphere this group faced and considers the consequences of anti-Italian sentiment for Italian Americans in the postwar era. The stories of Italian American pop culure icons such as Louis Prima and Joe DiMaggio illustrate the possibilities and limitations of the time.
Nancy C. Carnevale, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History, Montclair State University
The Sweatshop: Past and Present
The New York City garment industry has always been a magnet for immigrants as well as for reformers. From the Jewish and Italian immigrants of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to today's Chinese and Dominican migrants, this lecture explores why the needle trades attract immigrants. Continuity and change in the industry over the years are considered in terms of the nature of the work and the attempts to reform the industry. This lecture also considers the impact specific immigrant groups have had on the garment industry.
Philip C. Dolce, Ph.D.
Chair of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Professor of History at Bergen Community College
Growing Up in the 1950s: The Hopes and Frustrations of a Prosperous Age
This presentation focuses on the conflicting currents of the 1950s. The prosperity of the age led many people to believe they could create a stable family life similar to the ones depicted in TV shows such as Ozzie and Harriett and in the Fun With Dick and Jane books they read in school. Good jobs, inexpensive suburban homes, affordable cars, food and entertainment, plus the middle class “acceptance” of assigned roles for men, women, and children reinforced the hopes of a generation. However, the Cold War, the exclusion of African-Americans, the women’s movement, rock and roll and the “discovery” of sex created a strong counter current to mainstream culture.
Kathleen Galop
Historic Preservation Consultant
Jacqueline Kennedy's Historic Preservation Legacy - 40 Years Later
The year 2006 marks the 40th anniversary of the enactment of the Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Great strides in historic preservation have occurred since then, but little has been written or told about the instrumental role played by Jacqueline Kennedy in creating the climate for the passage of that important legislation. This program presents an interesting look behind the scenes of how "Jackie" stopped the bulldozers and set the course for historic preservation. Take a step back in time and see how far we've come.
Stanton W. Green, Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology, Monmouth University
Baseball Parks and American Landscapes
Why do people have such strong feelings about the places where they have played and watched baseball - places that range from city streets to rural lots, from Little League Fields to multi-million dollar stadiums? Why is the baseball park such an important part of cities and towns across America? Part of the answer lies in the way baseball is embedded in American culture and history, and part lies in the way people become emotionally attached to the landscapes and cityscapes they share with their families and friends. Stanton Green's photographic tour of baseball parks examines the complex relationship between baseball as a key aspect of American culture and the places and landscapes in which it is played. The host organization must profide a DVD player and a projector for this presentation.
Stanton W. Green, Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology, Monmouth University
Becoming American: Baseball's place in the Assimilation of Immigrants
During the early twentieth century a series of immigrant groups largely from Europe found their place in America through baseball. On the streets of the lower east side first generation Americans played stickball while their parents spoke their native languages in the adjoining tenement buildings. In the ballparks, fans cheered for their countrymen - Italians, Jews, Irish, Polish players - who excelled on the field. And the tradition continues into the twenty-first century as American baseball becomes increasingly international through the recruitment of Latin American and Asian ballplayers. This multimedia presentation explores the intriguing role that baseball has played in assimilating the waves of immigrants to the U.S. The host organization must provide a DVD player and a projector for this presentation.
Susanne C. Hand
Historic Preservationist; Principal, Kinsey & Hand
It Never was Levittown: Postwar Suburban Housing in New Jersey
This presentation focuses on New Jersey suburban development from 1945 through the 1960s. It looks at the explosive growth of postwar suburbs and the role of planning, zoning, and government programs in promoting a new kind of suburb. It examines the postwar housing development industry and the single family house, relating marketable house products – the cape cod, ranch, split level, modernist, and colonial – traditional house forms and modern architecture.
Michael Aaron Rockland, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of American Studies, Rutgers University
Ethnicity in America
An examination of how various ethnic groups struggle to become American while simultaneously maintaining their identity and integrity. How the “melting pot” as a metaphor describing American life has been replaced by the “salad bowl” or “the mosaic.” A look at the extraordinary diversity of the country that has sometimes been called “the United Nations in miniature.”
Michael Aaron Rockland, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of American Studies, Rutgers University
Popular Culture: Or Why Study “Trash?”
A look at how popular culture illuminates the American character, examined through the books people really read and the films we really see. If we are what we eat, we are surely what we choose to read and view. Also, today’s popular culture is often tomorrow’s celebrated or elite culture. Shakespeare and Mozart were the popular entertainers of their day. Jazz was once a four-letter word in more ways than one.
Michael Aaron Rockland, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of American Studies, Rutgers University
What’s American About American Things?
A look at American artifacts and cultural productions of all kinds to see what is American about them. An examination of everything from American landscape painting to modern dance to the Constitution to soap operas and comic strips to jeans to fast food to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn to rock and roll and rap and the surprising discovery of what these disparate “things” share.
