Pflaum Lecture Series
Our departmental lecture series, begun during the 1971-72 academic year, is named in honor of John C. Pflaum (1904-1975), a member of the history faculty from 1946 to 1972. Thanks to the generosity of his former students and colleagues, each spring a distinguished scholar is invited to campus to speak on a significant issue in history.
About John C. Pflaum
John C. Pflaum (1904-1975) was a professor of history with special interests in the Civil War, the European origins of the First World War, and early Carlisle. He held the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in recognition of his popularity with students during his Dickinson tenure which began in 1946. He received his master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he also taught for three years after spending six years on the faculty of Temple University. During his lifetime, he was a most voracious reader–especially a devourer of history, memoirs, biography, and prose literature. Above all, John Pflaum was a born teacher who inspired fanatical devotion in several generations of Dickinsonians. His teaching placed an emphasis upon precision and fact and evidenced love of conventional art and literature. His enthusiasm and dedication are best described in his own words, “The sheer pleasure of teaching, the fun I’ve had in the average class--this is what I remember more than anything else. My heart is in the lecture room. It’s almost a shame to take the money.”
2025-26 Pflaum Lecture: Wed., October 15, 6:30 PM in the Stern Great Room (Doors open at 6PM for light refreshments before the talk)
"Myths, Memory, and Indigenous Survival in the Gulf South" by Prof. Elizabeth Ellis, Associate Professor of History, Princeton University
Southern lore is full of tales of indigenous haunting. Local myths speak of the demise of Native nations and their fabled ancient pasts. Alongside these legends, contemporary Native nations endure in their southern homelands. This lecture will investigate the dissonance between stories of historic Native demise and modern indigenous survival.
About the speaker: Prof. Elizabeth Ellis, Associate Professor of History at Princeton University, will present the 2025-26 Pflaum Lecture on Wednesday, October 15 at 6PM in the Stern Great Room. Prof. Ellis teaches early American and Native American history as well as Indigenous Studies. She is a scholar of early North America with a focus on diplomacy, borderlands, cross cultural exchange, and Indigenous politics. Her first book, The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South, examined the formation of Native American nations in the Lower Mississippi Valley. In addition to her work on early American history, Liz also writes about contemporary Indigenous issues and politics. She is committed to tribally engaged historical work and collaborative research practices that support Native self-determination. She is Peewaalia and an enrolled citizen of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, and currently serves as the Tribal History Liaison for her nation.
Click here for a full list of previous years' Pflaum Lecturers - names of lecturers and titles of lectures
Bell Lecture Series
This lecture series, begun in Fall 2010, honors Whitfield Bell, Jr., class of 1935, author and pioneer in historical editing. Bell was the Boyd Lee Spahr Chair of American History. Each fall, in October or November, the current History Majors Committee invites a faculty member in the Dickinson History Department to present a public lecture on a subject of their choice related to their research. Below is a list of the Bell lectures that have been delivered to date.
Bell Lectures, Fall 2010 - present
2010 - "Joan of Arc and Napoleon in French Public Memory," Prof. Regina Sweeney
2011 - "Indians, Empires, and Violence in the Northeast North America, 1600-1763," Prof. Chris Bilodeau
2012 - "Eleventh-Century France to Twentieth-Century Hollywood: An Unusual Journey," Prof. Stephen Weinberger
2013 - "Alexander the Great in Late Medieval and Early Modern Persian Historiography: How the world conquerer and his trusty sidekick, Aristotle, toured Iran and accidentally founded a city that became the center of the world," Prof. Derek Mancini-Lander
2014 - "Stalin's Niños: Raising Spanish Civil War Refugees in the Soviet Union, 1937-1951," Prof. Karl Qualls
2015 - "Their Side of the Story: Black Women's Workplace Resistances in Civil Rights Era Milwaukee," Prof. Crystal Moten
2016 - "Sustenance, Poison, and Cure: The Role of Food in Caring for the Sick in Early Modern Japan," Prof. W. Evan Young
2017 - "Apocalypse 1979: Prelude to the Siege of Mecca," Prof. David Commins
2018 - "Black Power and the Myth of White Ejection," Prof. Say Burgin
2019 - "Cross Cultural Encounters: Botanical Knowledge and Scientific Networks in Nineteenth-Century Angola," Prof. Jeremy Ball
2020-21 - Cancelled Due to Covid-19
2022 - "Lincoln’s Secession Crisis, and Ours," Prof. Matthew Pinsker
2023 - "The Search for Order: English, French, and Indian Responses to Everyday Frontier Violence in the Gulf of Maine, 1620-1670," Prof. Christopher Bilodeau
2024 - "Leaving Home, Longing for Home: Nostalgia and the Migrant Experience," Prof. Marcelo Borges
2025 - "Virtuous Healing: Medical Knowledge in Women’s Educational Literature in Early Modern Japan," Prof. Evan Young