Later this month, Frank’s Kraut will officially name Omaha “The Home of the Reuben Sandwich.” While this title may seem like a humorous footnote in the city’s story, I would suggest it is indicative of the changing nature of Midwestern cities’ identities. Omaha’s first identity was as one of the Gateways to the West. The [...]
Value of the Humanities
by Brian Sarnacki on February 27, 2013 in Academia
I’m glad to see the AHA has taken to rounding up links to articles that defend the humanities. As budgets get crunched, humanists must assert their position and reaffirm their importance in modern society. It’s a work in progress, so I hope this blog post looks laughably outdated in a short amount of time. But [...]
The Art and Craft of History
by Brian Sarnacki on February 24, 2013 in Academia
A while back, probably months at this point, I tore a bit of an article out about the artist Ken Price. What struck me was his quote, “A craftsman knows what he’s going to make, and an artist doesn’t know what he’s going to make.” The craftsman part of the quote stuck with me because [...]
DH Forum
by Brian Sarnacki on February 12, 2013 in Digital Humanities
Attending part of UNL’s Digital Humanities Forum last Friday, a rather simple concept struck me as deeply important. As scholars, how certain are we of our conclusions? What percentage? Using a specific measurement, can we express our certainty? In a sense, historical arguments are mostly circumstantial. Historians use sources to describe societies, ideas, and events, [...]
BRB
by Brian Sarnacki on December 19, 2012 in Housekeeping
I’m currently working on not failing my comprehensive exams. Be back in February 2013. Hopefully….
Does size matter?
by Brian Sarnacki on October 31, 2012 in Urban
How big exactly is a small city? This came up at my panel at the Urban History Conference (and rightfully so, it was organized around the theme of small cities). Being a notion central to my research, I have thought a bit about what exactly it means, making some notes about what other sources have [...]
Stuff Good Teachers Like
by Brian Sarnacki on October 15, 2012 in Teaching
I have been fortunate enough to participate in UNL’s Preparing Future Faculty program this summer and fall. Throughout the process I have reflected numerous times on teaching, specifically my own thoughts on teaching and my experiences in the classroom (as an undergraduate and graduate student in addition to as a teaching assistant). I am lucky [...]
Where am I from?
by Brian Sarnacki on October 8, 2012 in Urban
Where are you from? A simple question, well sort of. Even though it is a seemingly innocuous question, asking where some one “comes from” actually looks to discover the initial impressions of a person by situating them culturally as well as geographically. There are plenty of social stereotypes centered around geographical location. Like it or [...]
Is DH Hipster?
by Brian Sarnacki on October 3, 2012 in Digital Humanities
As a self-described digital humanist with admittedly hipster tendencies (I have a record player after all) this question may be entirely self-serving. However, I’m not the first person to put the two together, so I thought I would throw the comparison out there. Hipsters like organic and local. DHers like open access and open source. [...]
Saying Goodbye to Facebook
by Brian Sarnacki on October 2, 2012 in Academia
About a month ago I shut down my Facebook account after over six years of use. Before doing so, I downloaded all my posts and had to smile when I read my first post on Facebook, given I had just shut the account down. happy fuckers? i’ve conformed to a necessary evil. (Apologies for the [...]
