Meet Yale historians, learn how the past was shaped, and learn how this affects the world you live in. Over three Saturdays, you will have a chance to explore a variety of history topics ranging from the potato, Brazilian dictators, Rome’s first African emperor, medicine and the slave trade, the uprising in Ukraine just seven years ago, and the American Revolution - brought to you by experts who can bring the past alive and teach you to use it to change your future.
Open to students in grades 8-12.
Register at: https://onha.yale.edu/HistorySuperpower
March 5th Presentations | Revolutions in the past and present! Revolutions in the future?
What Does the Declaration of Independence Mean Today?
Two hundred and forty-six years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote a sentence that began “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” and we’re still fighting over what it means. In this class, we’ll explore how the Declaration of Independence is being used, abused, reinterpreted, and refashioned today.
“Revolution with a Woman’s Face”: The Case of Belarus
“Our society is not ready to vote for a woman,” Aliaksandr Lukashenko, dictator of Belarus for over a quarter-century, declared before the August 2020 elections. He was wrong. When he lost the presidential election to a woman named Sviatlana Tsikahnouskaya, Lukashenko falsified the results and declared himself the winner. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians protested the falsified results. Lukashenko’s security police, wearing balaclavas to hide their faces, brutally beat the protestors. Then tens of thousands of women, dressed in white and carrying flowers, came out into the streets. They unmasked the policemen, and watching the fear the officers had of exposing their faces, made the philosopher Olga Shparaga wonder: who was really afraid of whom here?