Southeastern to continue lecture series on Louisiana and World War II

Thursday, February 8, 2018
by: Tonya Lowentritt


     HAMMOND –Louisiana and World II: A Yearlong Lecture Series 2017-18 resumes for the spring semester this month and continues through April.
     Held in conjunction with The Pelican State Goes to War: Louisiana in World War II, a National World War II Museum special exhibit, the series incorporates all lectures sponsored by the Department of History and Political Science and supported by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Languages and Communication, and the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies.
     All lectures will be in the Student Union Theatre, unless otherwise indicated, are free and open to the public, and include the following:
     • Mark Bielski of Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours will discuss the D-Day invasion on
Thursday, Feb. 22, at 1 p.m. Bielski leads a variety of battlefield tours, including one in Normandy, hosts the weekly “History With Mark Bielski” podcast, and is the author of “Sons of the White Eagle in the American Civil War: Divided Poles in a Divided Nation.”
     • The following week on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 11 a.m., Southeastern’s Samantha Perez will
discuss the internment of Japanese prisoners of war in Louisiana during World War II. Assistant Professor of History and Graduate Coordinator for the Master of Arts in History program, Perez has published on Louisiana history, including her book “The Isleños of Louisiana: On the Water’s Edge.”
     • On Tuesday, March 6, at 1 p.m., Nell Calloway, curator of the Chennault Aviation and
Military Museum in Monroe, will deliver a lecture titled “‘It is possible for men to fight against great odds and win’: General Claire Lee Chennault.” Calloway is the granddaughter of the legendary General Chennault, a Louisiana native who founded the Flying Tigers in World War II.
     • Kimberly Guise of the National World War II Museum will discuss women and
ship building in New Orleans during World War II on Wednesday, March 14, at 11 a.m. Guise is curator and assistant director of collections at the museum.
     • On Tuesday, March 20, at 11 a.m., Southeastern’s Professor Margaret Gonzalez-Perez
will discuss General Francisco Franco’s Spain and neutrality during World War II. Professor of Political Science, Gonzalez-Perez is the author of “Literature of Protest: The Franco Years” and “Women and Terrorism: Female Activity in International and Domestic Terrorist Groups.”
     • The following week on Wednesday, March 28, at 1 p.m., Southeastern’s Samantha
Cavell will deliver a lecture titled “How the Women of Bletchley Park Cracked Enigma and Sank the Bismarck.” Visiting Professor of History, Cavell is the author of “Midshipmen and Quarterdeck Boys in the British Navy, 1771-1831.”
     • Professor Paul Wilson of Nicholls State University will deliver a lecture titled
“Perspectives on the German Army in World War II” on Wednesday, April 11, at 1 p.m. Head of the Department of History and Geography at Nicholls, Wilson conducts a study abroad program in Normandy.
     • Next up on Thursday, April 19, at 11 a.m., independent scholar Jerry Strahan will deliver
a lecture drawing upon his book “Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II.”
     • The spring lectures will culminate on Monday, April 24, at 1 p.m., when Southeastern’s
Craig Saucier will deliver the annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Lecture at a location to be determined. Saucier was a 2017 Fellow of the Twenty-Second Annual Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization, sponsored by the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University in Chicago, and is working on a book about Anglo-American diplomatic relations during World War II.
     For more information, contact the Department of History and Political Science at 985-549-2109.




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