Staff Writer- Evangelyn Hill
This upcoming Tuesday, Nov. 18th, the Gustavus History Department will be hosting a visiting professor for a lecture open to all students. Titled “Agitate, Agitate, Agitate: Music, Art, and Economics in the History Classroom,” it will take place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the Heritage Room.
The speaker will be Dr. Walter Greason, a professor of history at Macalester College. His lecture will cover some of his recent interdisciplinary research, which spans African-American history, hip-hop and graphic arts, and more.
Kate Aguilar, a professor of history at Gustavus and one of the people behind Greason’s invitation, emphasized that his broad range of research makes this talk accessible to all students, especially at a liberal arts university that celebrates interdisciplinary studies.
“Sometimes people can feel like, oh that’s just for a history major. But come if you’re interested in any field,” Aguilar said.
Kathleen Keller, another Gustavus history professor who helped to set up Greason’s talk, also encouraged all students to come. “I hope that they see how exciting and dynamic history is,” Keller said.
Keller added an additional important detail: “Also, there will be refreshments.”
Dr. Greason, whose formal title is the DeWitt Wallace Professor of History at Macalester College, teaches a variety of subjects.
“My main teaching areas are the United States since 1877, African American history since 1450, and African History (Medieval and Early Modern),” Greason explained.
His areas of individual research are much broader and more interdisciplinary, including Black architecture and Afrofuturist designs, art history, race, and economics.
The upcoming lecture at Gustavus will focus on reparations, graphic history, and its impact in the classroom.
Aguilar mentioned that Greason had recently published a graphic-novel-style book about the history of hip-hop, titled The Graphic History of Hip-Hop. Concepts from the book will be featured in the upcoming lecture.
The topic is an area of interest for Aguilar, as well, who teaches a history class about hip-hop in the 80s and how it intersects with Reagan’s presidency.
Aguilar helped to organize Dr. Greason’s lecture, and their intersecting areas of research were one reason she suggested him as an option for a visiting lecture. She explained that she wants campus lectures and other events to speak to things students are currently exploring.
She also hopes “Agitate, Agitate, Agitate” will help students “look at the experts in [their] own backyard,” as Greason is from Macalester College (a university in the Twin Cities area).
Aguilar is intrigued by Greason’s interdisciplinary work. In her opinion, it helps to show “how our scholarship can cross boundaries… show [the] diversity of scholarship that’s out there.”
Her own work is similarly interdisciplinary. She has blended the study of hip hop art and music with research on sports in the 1980s.
Aguilar pointed out that while some students assume history has to be far in the past, many researchers, including Aguilar and Greason, focus on more recent periods of history. She is excited about the opportunity this lecture provides for students to be exposed to research like this.
“Sometimes people think it has to be a hundred years ago to be history… but the 1980s is a rich period that informs what’s happening today,” Aguilar said.
Greason echoed Aguilar when explaining the importance of his work.
“[O]ther audiences around the world have found great value in this content. For most of them, the opportunity to see new ways to apply historical context to decision-making in the present can add a sense of purpose to their lives.”
For Greason, the most exciting part of his work is the opportunity to impact people’s lives and further research in a rapidly changing world.
Gustavus professors recognized that impact. Keller, who invited Greason to speak after being impressed by his research at a 2022 Gustavus panel discussion, said, “Walter does so much… He’s got a lot of breadth to his work.”