Annual Cabrini Day focuses on immig ration

MERCEDES DOTTER

KELLY MURPHY LAUREN SCHREIBER GUEST WRITERS

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Who traveled Africa in a truck, smuggled Mexicans over the border and went undercover to expose corrupt prison systems, with the goal to spread social awareness for the greater good?

This may sound like a mystery to you, but for distinguished author Ted Conover, these experiences have made up his journalistic life. This past Thursday, Nov. 11, Conover was the honored keynote speaker for Cabrini Day. “I really think most of the fear derives from misunderstanding,”

Historiography challenges minds in the history department

JILLIAN MILAM STAFF WRITER JGM726@CABRINI EDU

The word “historiography” is not only an unusual word in the English vocabulary, but it is the name of an unusual course offered here at Cabrini for junior and senior history or political science majors.

The main goal of historiography, also known as HIS 401, is to give history-interested upperclassmen the chance to experience a serious and intense writing course that will prepare them for graduate level studies.

“Before 1983, Cabrini didn’t have a class that stressed writing and researching. We needed to prepare people looking to go to graduate schools,” Dr. Jolyon Girard, history and political science professor, said. Therefore, when Girard took over the history department in 1983, historiography came into existence and has been offered every other year at Cabrini ever since.

Conover said when asked why people fear immigration.

Despite a quiet voice that was sometimes a little more than a heavy whisper that forced the audience to be silent in order to capture the essence of what he said, the impression Conover makes in telling his stories to his audience is incredibly deep.

One way to battle fear, specifically that of immigration, is through education. By participating in his subjects’lives, Conover, in his many articles and books, has educated readers through true accounts of hardship suffered. He has written about Africans to further research and education on AIDS, Mexicans by telling their story of achieving the

CABRINI DAY, page 4

Each student who participates in the class must select a major research topic. “It’s Cabrini’s capstone research course,” Girard said. In general, students pick a topic that revolves around the Roosevelt era due to the large selection of books in regards to this theme in the campus’s library.

“They must then pursue a reasonable graduate school writing project. Basically, it is a 15-page formal thesis with a directed conclusion,” Girard said.

The course is divided into two central parts. The first part of the class consists of proper research. The second part marks the beginning of the formal writing.

Furthermore, this demands students to learn appropriate grammar, how to construct sentences, and do outlines. They are introduced to the way lawyers write their briefs, according to Girard.