UM-Flint focuses on Poland with Student Travel & Lecture Series

University of Michigan-Flint history students now have a unique opportunity to take their studies abroad thanks to the generosity of one of the founding faculty. An endowment by Dorothea Wyatt, Ph.D. will also bring celebrated scholars to campus for a "Guest Lecture Series."

Dr. Wyatt was one of the original 16 faculty members of the Flint College of the University of Michigan when it was founded in 1956. She was the first chair of the Department of History.

She was a tireless advocate for the humanities and women's issues and a university leadership award for women is named in her honor.

Her extraordinary gift was made to further develop and improve the program in history at

UM-Flint. The Wyatt Exploration Program is one of the ways the history department responded to that request.

"Each year, this program will provide a unique and exciting opportunity for students and faculty to join together in intellectual exploration of the human past," said John Ellis, Ph.D., chair of the history department. "The program will focus on the history and culture of a specific place or on a particular historical topic. This theme will change on an annual basis."

Wyatt Travel Expedition

Poland has been selected as the first country to be the focus of the new program. The selection of the estimated 15 history students, who will travel to Poland in the spring or summer, will be based on a variety of criteria, including participation in upcoming events. Students will be given a special 'passport' that will be stamped at each event. Most travel expenses will be fully funded through the Wyatt Exploration Program. Associate Professor Theodosia Robertson, whose field of expertise is Polish literature and history, is organizing all aspects of this year's exploration and will be leading the student trip to Poland.

Guest Lecture Series

A central part of the Wyatt Exploration Program is the Guest Lecture Series. During the course

of the fall and winter semesters, the program will bring celebrated scholars from around the

nation and world to campus to speak on that year's theme. This is an opportunity to

meet and learn from acknowledged experts in their field. Participation in the Guest Lecture Series is expected of all potential candidates for the travel expedition.

For 2009-2010

Keely Stauter-Halsted (Friday, October 16, 2009)

Keely Stauter-Halsted is Associate Professor History at Michigan State University and

Associate Chair of the Department of History.

John J. Bukowczyk (Friday, December 4, 2009)

John J. Bukowczyk is Professor of History at Wayne State University and specialist in

Polish immigration and ethnic history.

Brian Porter-Szücs (Friday, January 15, 2010)

Brian Porter-Szücs is Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan-

Ann Arbor, where he specializes in the history of Poland and modern Roman

Catholicism.

Henryk Grynberg (Friday, March 26, 2010)

Henryk Grynberg is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, and essayist. He

has written more than twenty books exploring the fate of the Polish Jews in the

Holocaust and the trauma after.

The bequest by Dorothea Wyatt will also allow the Department of History to expand in the near future by providing for hiring a new professor. Further, it will benefit students through the establishment of several new scholarships for those who want to study history.