Amy-Elizabeth Manlapas

This week I’ve been spending some time in the University of Missouri’s archives of Saint Louis at the 1904 World’s Fair and have found some interesting materials about the exhibition dedicated to the Philippines.  They range from maps of the reconstructed villages and photographs of people from the Philippines who participated in the exhibition. Overall, it’s a strange, fascinating group of materials that I am incredibly excited to work with!

This semester I’ve been taking a class about historical methods and our main assignment is to find primary sources and try out two of the methods that we’ve discussed in class with our chosen documents. When looking at these materials, my first instinct is to try out an ethnographic approach – much like Clifford Geertz‘s methods. I’m also tempted to try out Marx or Foucault, but I know that neither is for the faint of heart! My thinking is that if I try out one of these methods, I’d move out of my intellectual comfort zone and while working in a different paradigm, I could really grow as a writer. We’ll see how it goes!

How do you try to challenge and grow yourself as a writer?

Spring 2011, my professor assigned Into the Breach by Robert Bain, a fantastic article about how to deal with the gap between secondary education and higher education. Since reading this article, I keep promising to actually take Bain’s advice and write about my thoughts about my graduate studies outside of class assignments. Judging from how rarely I update my site, this hasn’t quite happened yet – but I swear it will!  So, to help me out I’ve made a list of blog topics that I am going to work on over Spring Break.

1. Hayden White 

I read Hayden White’s book Tropics of Discourse, which really gave me some intellectual fits. I read this book in January, and I am still obsessing about it.

2. Ursula K. Le Guin

I’m a huge sci-fi fan and I was so excited to see that my professor had assigned Le Guin’s essay It Was a Dark and Stormy Night; or, Why Are We Huddling about the Campfire. Her essay has provoked interesting thoughts about the role of the historian as a narrator and the historian’s relationship with death. Yes, our relationship with death. If you read the essay, I promise that it makes sense.

3. Project Based Learning

My school is totally awesome and has been experimenting with project based learning. I’ve been teaching college prep World History and Advanced Placement World History with a World Literature teacher to tenth grade students. My students have been producing really cool work – lots of 3D games using 3Ds Max, videos and photography. At some point, I am going to reflect on the benefits of PBL and why educators should think about trying a “backwards classroom” next fall.

4. Karl Marx

How do you approach Marxism while teaching teenagers? I have some ideas, but I need to refine them and keep working towards something more polished for next year.

How is it Spring 2012? I am embarrassed that I have been so remiss in updating this! However, I have been busy with teaching and research. I am currently in a reading course with one of my professors. We’re working on American Imperialism, and I have to say, that I have been having a fascinating and really fun time reading all these new books. How did I go from the Middle Ages to the late nineteenth century? Ahhh. How research and reading takes you to the coolest places.

Spring 2012 American Imperialism Reading List

Adas, Michael – From Settler Colony to Global Hegemon

Bender, Thomas – A Nation Among Nations

Kaplan, Amy – Left Alone with America

Kramer, Paul – The Blood of Government

Guernari, Carl – America in the World

Hunt, Michael – The American Ascendancy

McCoy, Alfred – Colonial Crucible

McCoy, Alfred – Policing America’s Empire

Stoler, Ann Laura – Haunted by Empire

Stephanson – Manifest Destiny and the Empire Right

Titles I found while reading through footnotes

Anderson, Warwick – Colonial Pathologies (footnote 86)

Bender, Thomas – “The Need for Synthesis in American History” (footnote 47)

Bender, Thomas – Rethinking American History in a Global AgeI (footnote 47)

Brody, David – Visualizing American Empire: Orientalism and Imperialism

Choy, Catherine – Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (footnote 95)

Delmendo, Susan – The Star-Entangled Banner: 100 Years of America in the Philippines (footnote 44)

Foster, Anne L. and Go, Julian – The American Colonial State in the Philippines: Global Perspectives

Foster -Projections of Power: The United States and Europe in Colonial Southeast Asia 1919-1941 (footnote 37)

Fujita-Rony, Dorothy – American Workers Colonial Power: Philippine Seattle and the Transpacific West (footnote 22)

Hoganson, Kristin – Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and American Philippine Wars (footnote 44)

Go, Julian – American Imperialism and the Politics of Meaning Elite Political Cultures in the Philippines and Puerto Rico During US Colonialism (footnote 86)

Jones, Gareth Stedman – “The Specificity of US Imperialism” (footnote 39)

Mack, John – “Rethinking Turner and the American West” (footnote 34)

McCoy – Alfred W. – “The Philippines: Independence without Decolonization” from The Winning of Independence

Miller, Perry – Errand into the Wilderness (footnote 46)

Rafael – White Love and Other Events in Filipino History (footnote 86)

Rodgers, Daniel T. – “Exceptionalism” from Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret the Past (footnote 26)

Rydell, Robert W. – All the World’s A Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions (footnote 24)

Thompson, Winfred Lee- The Introduction of American Law in the Philippines and Puerto Rico 1898-1905 (footnote 55)

Turner, Frederick Jackson – Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: The Significance of the Frontier in American History and other Essays (footnote 34)

Salaman, Michael – The Embarrassment of Slavery: Controversies of Bondage and Nationalism in the American Colonial Philippines (footnote 86)

Sewell, William – Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation (footnote 88)

Vergara, Benito M. – Displaying Filipinos: Photography and Colonialism in Early 20th Century Philippines (footnote 44)

Wexler, Laura – Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism (footnote 44)

Williams, William Appleman – The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (footnote 1359)

Young, Marylin – “The Age of Global Power” from Rethinking American History in a Global Age (footnote 14)

It seems like it was just June. June in my planner was called, “The Month of Meetings.”  When I said month of meetings to myself, I’d pretend that I was hearing the “Game of Thrones” theme music. This past June, I attended an amazing PBL seminar with Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss (buy their book here) then started summer semester, then went to the four-day AP World History training at Kennesaw State presented by Patrick Whelan. The next week, I attended a three-day county training session where I heard Brad Fogo from Stanford University  present their fabulous  Read Like a Historian program. I can honestly say that I was impressed by all of these seminars. If you have time to do any kind of professional development at your school, I highly recommend getting any of these wonderful educators to come speak.

July was almost totally dedicated to graduate seminars and AP planning with my teammate Roger. I took two classes this summer, Issues and Interpretations in American History and Issues and Interpretations in European History. Believe it or not, these classes were actually really helpful. My American history class got me thinking how a trans-national and global approach to American history would really add strength and meaning to U.S. History. We read several books on the subject, but my two favorites were Thomas Bender’s A Nation Among Nations and America on the World Stage. America on the World Stagewas particularly cool since it also includes sections on how high school teachers can apply these fairly hip, new approaches in their classrooms right away. I think that’s a definite must-read for any American history teacher. European history  had me reading some really hardcore, intellectual books that stretched me intellectually and got me thinking about my own historiographical interpretations of history. My favorite of the course was Claudia Verhoeven’s The Odd Man Karakozov: Imperial Russia, Modernity, and the Birth of Terrorism  which dissects the attempted assassination of Tsar Alexander II. I am highly impressed with her writing, organization and talent as a scholar. I left that book not only knowing more about the subject, but also inspired to “level up” my own scholarly work after reading such an excellent book.

I also ended up writing my Margarets paper, about the anthropologists Margaret Mead and Margaret Murray, which would have NEVER been possible without JSTOR or my friend Ness who assured me that my topic was not entirely crazy. I can’t imagine trying to locate book reviews from 1890-1930 ten years ago without some kind of panic attack.

As for my thesis, I’ve been plowing through secondary works on a weekly basis, but I remain torn on my topic. I love the idea of writing about the history of science education (particularly race) but I am also intrigued by the idea of studying ladies fashion in the Philippines under American rule. There is always my interest in religion too. Gaah.  So many things I want to study and write about, but so little time! I have 520 days from today to research, write and defend my thesis. There’s also the small matter of learning to read Spanish and pass my language exam in the next 520 days. Can you tell I like deadlines?

So, that’s where my summer went. It wasn’t entirely restful but I have been so inspired by everything I learned, I don’t really mind my busy summer.  Now, I need to get my house and wardrobe ready for back to school. Tomorrow I’ll be back to post my first post about teacher survival.

via MoleskineUS.com

Spring Semester 2011 I took some good advice from  Cal Newport and starting doing a Sunday ritual to help me get my brain ready for the week ahead. Between graduate school, teaching school and running a few extracurricular  activities, I felt busier than James Franco. After a particularly awful week at the end of Fall 2010, I talked with my friend and fellow graduate student, Lauren about my troubles and she sent me to Cal Newport’s blog, Study Hacks.

Study Hacks has some really awesome ideas on how to get work finished, make excellent grades while still maintaining a life outside graduate school. The best idea that I have borrowed from there is the idea of maintaining a Sunday Ritual . Every Sunday, I wake up, get my calendars and begin planning out my week. It takes me about an hour to do, but it ensures that I know what is supposed to happen each day – including sending emails, backing up files and various engagements.

I also do this on a smaller scale each morning at my kitchen table, making sure that I am running on schedule for the week. I highly recommend watching Chalene Johnson’s 30 Day Push. For thirty days Chalene takes you through goal setting, list making and how to maintain a life/work balance. Knowing my goals and why they are meaningful to me, really helps me decide which projects will move me towards my goals. It works – trust me!

Useful Things

Epic Win iPhone App: To-Do List in a World of Warcraft/MMO setting

HomeRoutines by Wunderbear: Breaks up chores into manageable zones done on a daily basis

Moleskine Color a Month Planners: 12 different colored mini planners good for journaling or scribbling in places where smart phones aren’t quite welcome.

Fisher Space Pen