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TITLE: West African History and Culture

PRESENTER: Michael Deliz

DESCRIPTION: For over 500 years West African societies have contributed to the cultural and social development of all Atlantic societies. West African origins of  modern American music and southern food, are but the tip of an iceberg of cultural transfer that began with the transatlantic slave trade.  This course will look at the history and culture of West Africa and their everyday manifestations across the Americas. 

DATES: Wednesday, February 3, 10, 17, 24 from 10:00am – 11:30am

LOCATION: TBA

UPDATE: This course will be postponed for a later date.

During the month of February 2016, I will present a series of lectures at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida focused on the cultural history of Puerto Rico and its people.  The series will be part of the Rollins College Lifelong Learning program for senior citizens.

TITLE: Cultural History of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans

PRESENTER: Michael Deliz – Doctoral Candidate, Transatlantic History Ph.D. Program at The University of Texas at Arlington.

DESCRIPTON: Puerto Ricans are Central Florida’s fastest growing demographic and major contributors to the region’s development over the last three decades. This course will utilize music, film, food, and documents to bring to life the story of the island of Puerto Rico, as well as the centuries of cultural and social development of its people.

DATES: Tuesday, February 2, 9, 16, 23 from 9:00am – 10:30am

LOCATION: TBA

For historians doing world history, or any form of transnational history, language translation and interpretation are two of the most useful skills in their research toolbox.  Unfortunately, as important as these skills are to our research, historians are often on the outskirts of language research and language technologies.  Google’s  Translator Toolkit is one such technology that seems to have flown over the head of most historians.  In the last three years since I began using the program, I have yet to hear it mentioned by a single historian.  In the video above I take you through a small tutorial of the Toolkit’s abilities and maybe, just maybe, you’ll find it as useful as I have.

Scapple is at its most basic a mind-mapping program.  I use the program as a quick and easy brain-dump platform to just get things out of my head, but by its simple nature I believe the program could be used by students to take notes and by historical researchers to organize their data and arguments.   I have found Scapple to be very useful and worth the $15 purchase.

To download a free trial visit: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scapple.php