Date:  Friday, August 27 (i.e., THIS Friday)
When:  5:30 PM – 8ish PM
Where:  Bridgewater Lounge in the Neal-Marshall Center

What:  Please join us for the Nth annual HGSA beginning-of-the-new-year, first-year-welcome, kick-off, no-holds-barred (Fn1) Potluck dinner on Friday, which will be held in the Bridgewater Lounge in the Neal-Marshall Center on campus.  The Center is located at 275 North Jordan Avenue – essentially on the southwest corner of the Jordan/7^th Street intersection.  For those arriving by car, there will not be valet service this year (budget cuts are hitting us all very hard), but convenient parking can be found in the Jordan Avenue parking garage, just south of, and across the street from, the Center.  While rumor has it that permit parking is not being enforced strictly before Monday, the Jordan Avenue garage is always free on the weekends, starting at 5:00 PM on Friday.

New students:  No need for you to bring anything; this one is on us.

Returning students:  Please bring a culinary treat to share with the rest of the HGSA.  Plates, utensils, cups, etc. will be provided.  Apparently there is a kitchenette for anyone who needs to warm a dish or plug in a crockpot.  Be creative (but safe)!

Fn1:       Unfortunately, we cannot serve alcohol at the event.  Sorry.

AFTER PARTY

When:  Immediately following the Dinner
Where:  The Vid (105 West 7^th Street)

What:  Also keeping with tradition, the party will migrate to the Vid following dinner.  Returning students surely know where it is by now, but for new students, the entrance is on Walnut (even though the address is 7^th street), just north of Brothers’, which is a slightly more ostentatious venue.  When you go through the unmarked door and up the narrow stairway, you will in fact be in the right place.  (Bad music would be another giveaway, but to each their own.)  For those driving, street and paid-garage parking are the rule here.  I personally have never paid to park in a Bloomington city parking garage – a few minutes of looking usually results in finding an open spot on the street.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email your friendly HGSA social coordinators, Mary Werden (mwerden@indiana.edu) and/or me, Scott Reynolds (screynol@indiana.edu).

HGSA General Meeting & Field Lunches: Wednesday, August 25, 10:00 am, Ballantine Hall 204. Professor Watts, our Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), will join us at 11:15 for a Q&A session. Field lunches will follow shortly thereafter.

HGSA Potluck and Happy Hour: Friday, August 27, 5:30 pm. Join us for a potluck in the Bridgewater Lounge at the Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center (275 N. Jordan Avenue). We’ll probably adjourn for drinks afterward at The Vid (The Video Saloon) or Nick’s.

DGS-hosted Mentor and Mentee Reception: Sunday, August 29, 3-6 pm, at the home of Professor Watts. Invitations will be sent directly to HGSA mentors.

HGSA General Meeting & Field Lunches: Wednesday, August 26, 10:30 am, History House. Professor Watts, our new Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), will join us at 11:15 for a Q&A session.

HGSA Potluck and Happy Hour: 5:30 potluck at History House followed by an HGSA happy hour at 7:30 at The Video Saloon.

DGS-hosted Mentor and Mentee Reception: Sunday, August 30, 3-6 pm, home of Professor Watts. Invitations will be sent directly to HGSA mentors.

We encourage you to browse our website using the links above. Don’t miss our calendar of HGSA and history-related events at IU on the right side of your screen. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at histgrad@indiana.edu.

Sept. 2008 Primary Source Contents

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A hearty welcome for the first-year grad students

Ladies and gentlemen of the HGSA, please give your first-year compatriots a rousing round of welcoming applause.

Individual bios and photos are available below for our incoming students (full bios are accessible only after logging in into the HGSA members-only forum). A few forwarded me to their relevant Wikipedia entries rather than writing bios, a revealing choice given their amazing celebrity pasts….

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History House Drama Update (from Profs. Clegg and Gamber)

Intrepid HGSA Treasurer Jim Seaver notified the HGSA board and the DGS regarding a press release from IU’s Hillel Center about their negotiations to take control of the History House property. Profs. Gamber and Clegg forwarded the following note:

Dear Graduate Students,

I hope that the semester is starting well for all of you. As some of you may have learned from recent newspaper reports, the University is in discussions with the Hillel Center about possibly moving the Center to the current location of the History House. I learned of this plan only about a week ago and have since contacted the Office of Space Management (OSM) to find out more. I have been told that the proposed relocation of the new Hillel Center is still open-ended and that it could take months before any final arrangements are made. I was also told that the OSM would work with the History department and the College of Arts & Sciences to identify a replacement space for History graduate students, if necessary.

Please be assured that the department intends to insist upon the need for the University to reserve suitable space for the various functions sponsored by History graduate students. While space is a very critical issue for the campus right now, we feel strongly that our students should have regular access to an area that serves the similar purposes as History House does. As developments unfold, we will keep you updated.

Both Professor Clegg and Professor Gamber have actively expressed their concern for our needs, and the HGSA board will continue to work with the department to ensure a dedicated meeting space that serves both as a social and a professional meeting space for the grad students.

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Online mini-CVs for all HGSA members

We took a quick poll at the first HGSA meeting that asked members to weigh in on the usefulness of an online CV. An overwhelming majority of students felt an online CV would be a useful tool for junior scholars, and the HGSA is responding.

The new HGSA forums now have spaces for publications & presentations, teaching experience, and service and professional memberships.

To edit your CV, log in to the HGSA forum, click on the “Edit Your HGSA Profile” link, and then select the “Profile” tab. Your CV will be displayed starting October 1 at http://www.indiana.edu/~hgsa/FirstName-LastName/ (obviously, you’ll use your real first name and last name, the way they’re entered in your HGSA forum profile).

If you’d prefer not to display a CV, there’s an option in the HGSA forum profile to turn your CV off.

We’ll also be adding examples of successful grant and fellowship applications, dissertation prospectus proposals and exam reading lists to the forums over the next few months as a resource for grad students at various stages of their careers at IU. If you have a particular request for documents you think need to be saved for later generations of history grad students, please contact Ben Nelson or Kalani Craig.

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