History professors have homework, too
By Rachel Bruce
Skiff Staff

Research by professors in the history department may go unnoticed to a lot of TCU students who pass over it assuming it is boring. But, according to those involved with this research, it is important.

“History faculty research should matter to TCU students because it is important that their professors are leaders in their respective areas of expertise and are aware of changing interpretations and of historical trends,” said Ralph Lee Woodward Jr., a professor of Latin American studies. “What is important is that they have professors who are actively engaged in the extension of knowledge, not merely passing on old — and sometimes outdated — knowledge.”

Woodward currently is researching the history of merchant organizations in the Spanish world from the 13th through 19th centuries. His research has taken him to Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium, Central America, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, “as well as to various libraries in the United States,” Woodward said.

Assistant professor Claire Sanders is studying the lives of the first three women to serve in cabinet-level positions in the French national government. Through this research, she said, she is trying to figure out political and social issues that were important to French women in the early 1900s. Sanders agreed with Woodward that professors need to stay abreast of new information.

“The more I learn, the more information I have to share with students and the greater my insights,” Sanders said. “But also, the past, even the past in France, informs the present.”

Instructor Sara Sohmer, who is currently in London with the TCU London Centre, is studying Sir Everard im Thurn, the seventh governor of colonial Fiji. She said professors’ research efforts are important to the critical thinking that should be central to the university.

The research that professors are involved with is not only important. They say it’s fun.

“Another colleague of mine, a professor of Civil War history at Virginia Tech, once said that doing research is like having Christmas every day,” assistant professor Steven Woodworth said. “It’s like that when you go into an archive. Every dusty old box of crumbling papers you open up might just contain one of the gems you’re looking for — a plain, straightforward, descriptive account of what was seen, heard, felt and thought by a person who was an eyewitness to history.”

Sohmer said she recently experienced this enjoyment while working in the British Library.

“I found a couple of letters from (Sir Everard im Thurn) to a prominent anthropologist in a manuscript collection that no catalogue mentioned,” Sohmer said. “Exciting stuff for a historian. I had a hard time keeping quiet in the British Library.”

Woodward described his research as “digging through ancient documents in the archives of Spain and Latin America, finding documents that may not have been read since they were written centuries ago.”

Along with Woodward, Sanders, Sohmer and Woodworth, many other history professors are currently involved in research projects. Assistant professor Jodi Campbell is working on a book about theater and politics in 17th century Madrid. She said she has been researching Spanish archives to determine the popular plays.

Assistant professor Peter Worthing and history department chairman Clayton Brown are also working on research projects. Worthing said his study of an important Chinese general in Chiang Kai-shek’s government and army involves extensive research in Chinese-language materials. Brown’s research is for a manuscript he is writing for classroom use about Globalization and America since 1945.

Jan Fox, coordinator of research and sponsored projects, said research has always been important to the university and described the value of research.

“Faculty who are actively involved in research bring an added richness to the classroom and students who have the opportunity to learn not only what is in books but from what their professors have learned personally are very fortunate,” Fox said.

Rachel Bruce