Conference on Asian History Sponsors Special Roundtable

A special roundtable, "History and Human Rights in China and America," sponsored by the Conference on Asian History, will be held during the 115th annual meeting of the AHA at Boston, on January 5, 2001 from 2:30p.m. to 4:30 p.m., in the Wellesley Room of the Boston Marriott Copley Place.

Wang Dan, who was a history major in Beijing University in the 1980s and who played a leading role in the Tienanmen protests, will take part in the session. Also on the panel are Merle Goldman, who is writing a book on citizenship in China, Wang Xi, who has written a book on race and suffrage in 19th-century America and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, acting editor of the AHR and coeditor of Human Rights and Revolutions (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000). The session will be chaired by Michael Ignatieff, Carr Visiting Professor of Human Rights Practice at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and author of the recent publication, Virtual War, a study of the moral dimensions of the war in Kosovo.

FCHS Announces Book Prize

The French Colonial Historical Society has awarded its Alf Andrew Heggoy Book Prize for 2000 to Joe Lunn for the book, Memoirs of the Maelstrom: A Senegalese Oral History of the First World War (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1999). The book explores the war's impact on West Africans who were recruited between 1914 and 1918, focusing on the oral testimony of 85 Senegalese soldiers, and utilizing archival documents. The book provides insights into the prewar colonial order, the impact of the recruitment drives on Africans and the ways in which the experience altered the soldiers' perception of their society and the French. The prize committee considered the book an authoritative and engaging account of colonialism as seen by the colonized.

CCWH Announces Scholarship

The Coordinating Council for Women in History has announced the fourth Catherine Prelinger Award Scholarship competition. Named in honor of Catherine Prelinger, former CCWH president, the award is intended to enhance the work of a contemporary scholar whose academic career has not followed the traditional path of uninterrupted study. Applicants must be members of the CCWH and have the PhD degree (or the ABD status). For details, scholars may contact Marguerite Renner, History Department, Glendale Community College, 1500 North Verdugo Road, Glendale, CA 91208.