Plague Time Essay Contest

Plague Time

An Essay Contest Sponsored by the Department of History and Political Science

Topic:

We are living in profoundly uncertain times. The COVID-19 epidemic has disrupted all of our lives in ways that contemporary Westerners have never experienced. As college students and faculty, we have seen our semester abruptly transformed. But we are, in a sense, the lucky ones. All around us are citizens who have lost jobs or seen their businesses shut down, friends and neighbors who do not know how they will provide for themselves and their families in the months ahead. Nor do we yet know how high the numbers of the infected--or the dead--might rise. Our societies have come to a grinding halt. The most powerful and richest societies know to human history have been brought to a standstill by an enemy we cannot even see.

How should we think about this startling situation? What does it mean for us now, and what will it mean in the future? Students are invited to submit essays reflecting upon the significance--moral, political, social, or cultural--of the coronavirus epidemic. The topic is broad in order to solicit responses from a variety of perspectives: historical, political, economic, sociological, theological. Students may wish to engage in historical comparison, or policy analysis, or moral reflection. Any and all approaches are welcome. We seek essays that help us understand the present moment.

Eligibility and Guidelines:

1. The competition is open to students who have declared a major or minor in at least one of the following areas: History, Political Science, Augmented History, Humanities, or German Studies.

2. Submissions should be 3000-4000 words long and are due by midnight on April 30, 2020. They should be sent to peter.meilaender@houghton.edu.

3. Professors Meilaender and Esh will judge the submissions and select a winning essay, with the winner to be announced by May 15, 2020.

4. The winner will receive (a) public esteem and recognition, (b) an achievement to add to your resume, and (c) a small prize awarded by the department.

Comments

New History Professor!

I am very excited to announce that the college has hired a new history professor! Dr. Francesca Silano will be joining our department next fall. Dr. Silano , who has her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, specializes in Imperial and Soviet Russia. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Miami of Ohio. She will strengthen our ability to offer coursework in European and non-Western history. Next fall, in addition to teaching in the general education Humanities sequence, she will offer courses on Russian history and on modern Europe. We are looking forward to welcoming her to the department.

Rabbits and Wrens

I didn't have 15 of them, to be sure. But when I looked out the front window after getting dressed this morning, I saw not one, but two rabbits out on the front lawn. They weren't very large, so I assume they were still young. But I saw them do something I don't think I've ever seen before: play with each other. They would run toward each other, and then one would hop over the other, bouncing off its back as it sailed over and while they made a kind of squeaking noise. It was really quite funny. After a minute of that, they stopped and went back to eating dandelions, not fresh yellow ones, but old ones that had gone to seed, the kind you used to blow the heads off when you were a kid. They bit them off at the base, so that the stems were sticking straight out of their mouths like a straw, with the heads at the end. And then, phwoosh, in they went, nibbled right up--like a person sucking in a spaghetti noodle. (Not that any of us would...

Summer Vacation

Let the summer begin! I finally finished off my grading yesterday. Now the summer opens up before me. Well, not exactly. I do have a few random independent study papers hiding in my inbox, which has been overflowing for the past week. But I can get them taken care of. And a handful of students still owe me late work, which will come in over the next few days. I'm also teaching a couple of online courses; the first exams from one of those come in next Monday. At noon today I have a committee meeting, a group pulled together to work on curricular planning for next fall in the face of continuing uncertainty. And this afternoon all faculty have to attend the first of several Zoom sessions devoted to online teaching, to help us prepare for all eventualities moving forward. Hmmm.... And oh, yes, I just remembered -- rats! -- that today is the deadline for reviewing the department's catalog copy for next year. There is also that long o...

Plague Time

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