History Department’s 2011 Distinguished Alumni Event

Dr. Rebecca Pulju presented a lecture entitled, "The Good Buyer: Women, Consumption, and the Making of Postwar France," on October 18, in the OEC Auditorium.  Dr. Pulju spoke on the following. In the wake of the Second World War, French society set about the process of rebuilding, and within decades had developed a prosperous mass consumer economy.  The moment of the liberation was also a turning point for women, who, after decades of agitation for the vote, were finally granted full citizenship.  This talk explores how, in this context, the role of the citizen consumer served to balance women's traditional responsibilities with their new rights.  It also addresses how women,as consumers, shaped understandings of taste, necessity, value, and thrift; changes that were necessary for becoming a mass consumer society.
Dr. Pulju is a 1997 alumna of UST and now assistant professor of history at Kent State University, where she specializes in the history of modern France, women and gender, and consumer culture.  Dr. Patricia Howe was a mentor to Dr. Pulju.

2011 Edwin H. Simmons Memorial Service Award

Dr. Joe Fitzharris was selected to receive the 2011 Edwin H. Simmons Memorial Service Award for particularly outstanding service to the Society for Military History. He will receive the award June 10 at the society’s annual meeting and awards luncheon. Fitzharris serves as Great Plains Regional Coordinator and as SMH conference coordinator for the Northern Great Plains History Conference.

      Congratulations and Best Wishes to Our Retirees,            
Dr. Joseph C. Fitzharris and C. Winston Chrislock

The History Department sends congratulations and best wishes on their retirement to two of its faculty members who together have given nearly 80 years of academic service to the University of  St. Thomas.

Dr. Joe Fitzharris came to the University, then known as the College of St. Thomas, in the fall of 1971. Having completed his Ph.D. in economic history from the University of Wisconsin Madison, he soon expanded his research areas to include American military history, for which he has received many accolades over the years. He has taught a wide range of courses at UST including survey courses in American history and at least fourteen different upper-level courses for majors and minors, including American military history, colonial and revolutionary America, the Civil War, 19th century U.S., and World War II. Dr. Fitzharris has given countless hours to mentoring the History Club, the history department peer tutors, and students who were preparing to do presentations at professional conferences. He has received a number of academic and service awards during his career, most recently the University's Faculty Award for Undergraduate Research (2010).

Dr. Winston Chrislock came to the University of St. Thomas in the spring of 1972, after completing his doctoral degree in European history from Indiana University. Long considered an expert in Czech history and culture, he quickly expanded his teaching fields to include survey courses in American and world history and upper-level courses in Eastern Europe since 1700, modern Europe, European intellectual tradition, European nationalism, U.S. foreign policy, the Cold War, immigration history, and Eastern European literature and film. Dr. Chrislock has received several important awards over the years including a Fulbright Research award to work in Czechoslovakia (1986-1987) and the Presidential Medal from Vàclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic, for the advancement
of Czech culture (1999). He even starred in a film, “Nebeští Jezdci" (Sky Riders), produced by Barrondov Studios, Prague, Czechoslovakia (1968).

Dr. Fitzharris and Dr. Chrislock look forward to continuing their work on various academic projects and serving the wider community through teaching and consulting. We wish them all the best in their new endeavors.