This letter is a response to a column by Matt Farmer that appeared in the Feb. 17 edition of The Post under the headline "OU's history curriculum could use some diversity." You can read that column here.
Recent faculty hires by the history department in the areas of East Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa to some have signaled that a laggard department at last has recognized the importance of history other than that of Europe and the United States. Not so. As early as the late 1940s, the department hired John Cady, one of Ohio University’s first Distinguished Professors and the creator of Southeast Asian history in the United States; Cornell University later borrowed him for a year to set up its well-known program in this area. In the mid-1950s, a Middle Eastern historian joined our faculty; in 1960, a Latin American historian; so, in the mid-1960s, did Sub-Saharan African and East Asian experts. Despite retirements and departures for other universities, the department, intent on keeping a global scope, managed to swiftly fill vacant slots in all of these areas until after 2000 when OU’s financial situation dictated a somewhat slower pace. The effort to make replacements, however, has never slackened. The College of Arts and Sciences and OU’s higher administration have recognized the cogency of the arguments of successive history chairs for the global approach. And the four replacement hires of academic years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 are the result.
Bruce E. Steiner was the chair of the Ohio University Department of
History from 1987 to 2000.
