Center for Historical Studies

CCHS NEWS

A schedule of our 2011-2012 lectures and conferences is posted under EVENTS (please click on the banner).

We will start 2012 with a special event on Monday, January 30 at 4 p.m.,
Nicholas CANNY (Director of the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies at National University of Ireland, Galway and President of the Royal Irish Academy) will give a talk on

“Catholic or Protestant Atlantic? How Confessional Divisions Influenced Writing on the Natural History of the Atlantic World"

--FREE and OPEN to the PUBLIC (for details see EVENTS).

On Thursday, February 2 at 4 p.m. a faculty panel will address the topic: "Is history fiction by another name?"--FREE and OPEN to the PUBLIC (for details see EVENTS).

The CENTER FOR HISTORICAL STUDIES at Northwestern University was established in 2006.

In 2010 it was named the Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Historical Studies or CCHS. To read more on the naming of the Center, please click here.

The CCHS invites faculty members and graduate students who work with historical materials to participate in an ongoing conversation about the core concerns of the historical discipline. Through various lecture series and focused workshops, the Center explores shared problems related to theory, methodology, and evidence. These events attempt to reach out beyond the particular concerns of various sub-fields and examine common intellectual concerns that energize the practice of history. The Center organizes its programs in cooperation with the members of the NU history department. It also aspires to draw into its affairs a broader range of scholars and members of the Chicago community.

Each academic year CCHS hosts

five to eight lectures for the History Department and invited guests,
one to two public conferences (graduate student one-day conferences with an outside eminent historian as a keynote speaker),
international doctoral workshops at locations outside the USA, jointly sponsored with foreign institutions of higher learning,
a joint NU Library /CCHS public lecture on the History of the Book
other events, such as public lectures by eminent historians, public panel discussions on the role of history today, receptions honoring History Department authors of new books, and lectures especially designed to help graduate students deal with professional challenges. The Center also co-sponsors additional history activities on campus.

Upcoming CHS events can be viewed by clicking on EVENTS on the CHS banner.

The CHS has much to offer graduate students in History. Each year the Center selects two CCHS Graduate Fellows. Their fellowship includes organizing a one-day faculty and graduate student conference on a significant historical topic pertinent to their research, with an eminent keynote speaker from outside NU (see FELLOWSHIPS). An innovative program of international doctoral workshops was initiated by the CHS in 2008-2009 with events in Ireland and Germany (click on CONFERENCES for more details).

For undergraduates (both History majors and across the university) the

CCHS Leopold Fellowship program offers the opportunity and means to work closely with primary historical materials under the guidance of faculty, doing actual archival faculty research and learninghow to transform raw data into historical interpretation. The first group of ten undergraduate Leopold Fellows started work in 2008-2009. The number of applications rose to 40 for 9 spots in 2009-2010, attesting to the popularity of the program. Click on LEOPOLD FELLOWS to learn more.

Meeting of the Historical Society in Spring 2011, including co-chair Sarah Smierciak, Rhodes Scholarship recipient.

The CCHS has also sponsored the Historical Society, a gathering of undergrads from across the university who are interested in discussion of historians' work. Members, whose majors ranged from History and American Studies to Mechanical Engineering, attended the Fall 2010 CCHS lectures and later met with Director T.H. Breen to discuss the speakers' work and the challenges of doing history. In the winter and spring they met with several History professors to hear about their current research.

The Center is currently administered by a director (T.H. Breen), an assistant director (Elzbieta Foeller-Pituch), and a faculty advisory council. Click on PEOPLE to learn more. Questions can be directed via e-mail to chs@northwestern.edu.

The Center is located in HARRIS HALL at 1881 SHERIDAN RD.,

Suite L 27 (lower level).

The main CCHS telephone is 847-467-0885.

Mailing address:

CCHS, Northwestern University,

Harris Hall,

1881 Sheridan Road,

Evanston, IL 60208-2220.