HIST | Great Minds at Work

Jeff McClurken, associate professor and department chair of history and American studies, is an expert on American history, the Civil War and digital history. He makes connections between the old and the new and blends history and technology in his teaching.

Students rule in Jeffrey McClurken’s history classes. His creative and tech-savvy charges have a say in everything from the syllabus to assignments and provide insight on the new and innovative courses taught by the associate professor and chair in the Department of History and American Studies. McClurken, an expert in Civil War history and a sought-after presenter on digital learning, says the experience is just as beneficial for him as it is for the students. “I am inspired by and driven by those interactions with students,” said McClurken. That’s just what happened in a seminar two years ago. When students questioned the technology behind communications and how the Internet affects the way they think and learn, McClurken put them to work designing a History of the Information Age course. They co-wrote the course syllabus with McClurken, even providing input on assignments and topic areas to cover. “We not only learned the content, we also learned how … [Read more...]

Some might say Professor of History Bruce O’Brien is stuck in the Middle Ages – he might thank you for the compliment in Old English. O’Brien is leading an international collaborative effort called the Early English Laws Project, which aims to re-edit and translate all 150 of the early English laws issued between 600 to 1225 and make them accessible to the public through an online database. In light of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, the project takes a new resonance. “This will make early law codes accessible to anyone,” he said, noting that laws like the Magna Carta have influenced some of the most important legal documents in history, including the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. O’Brien is the academic lead of the project, a collaboration between the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London and the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London. The initial launch of the project in … [Read more...]

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