On April 5^th, for its second History Conversation of the Spring 2019 term, the History Department hosted an event for current students wanting to learn more about where a history degree can lead. The event featured four recent Colgate History alumni, Carrie Blackmore (class of 2008), Morgan Nevins (2010), Sohee Ryuk (2015), and Jack Schnettler (2015). These alumni returned to Colgate to share their experiences and insights into where a history degree has taken them. Each gave a short talk about their careers and how a history degree has (or has not) been relevant to the paths they chose.

Each of the alumni provided interesting perspectives for current History students, stressing the value of the writing, verbal presentation, and organizational skills they developed as History majors. Carrie Blackmore (’08) founded a thriving business, Good Nature Brewing, in the years after graduation. While one may not immediately come to the conclusion that a history degree and brewery entrepreneurship would go hand in hand, Carrie explained that the skills she developed studying history have truly helped her to navigate the complexities of being a business owner. The rigorous coursework and skills she developed during her time at Colgate have helped her with everything from writing a business plan proposal, to the day to day challenges of entrepreneurship.

Shortly after graduation, Morgan Nevins (‘10) joined the Peace Corps and worked as a community health volunteer in Mozambique. Upon returning from the Peace Corps, she worked as a program officer in a global nonprofit international health care organization. Morgan learned, both during her time abroad and in the workforce, that being able to analyze current details while also the larger historical context is essential to tackling current issues. With an interest in social justice and humanitarian aid, Morgan is currently studying at Columbia University, where she is a dual degree master’s candidate in Social Work and International Relations.

Sohee Ryuk (’15) who double majored in History and Psychology, shared that History has continued to be a driving force in her life after Colgate. After graduation, she was awarded a Watson Fellowship, and spent a year traveling Eastern Europe and Central Asia, exploring how ethnic identity was expressed in areas of oppression, and the policies surrounding these ethnic minority groups. From the time of her London History Study group, Sohee knew that she was interested in exploring these themes. After her Watson fellowship she spent some time working in educational consulting, but ultimately decided to get back to her passion for history, and is currently a PhD candidate in History at Columbia University.

Since his graduation, Jack Schnettler (’15) worked as an intern, and later staff assistant in Washington, D.C. for two U.S. Senators, and is currently getting a degree in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Jack stressed the importance of writing and communication skills in the workforce. He explained that learning how to synthesize information, and write compelling arguments during his history studies has been essential to the successes in his professional life.

While these four alumni have had very different experiences, it was clear that the foundations they built during their time as History majors at Colgate have allowed them to excel in their career paths and pursuits.

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On Monday, April 1^st, the Colgate History Department hosted a lecture titled “Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History” by author Yunte Huang, Professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Huang is a Guggenheim fellow, one of the highest scholarly honors, and author of Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History. This talk focused on the incredible story of Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese twins who triumphed over extraordinary odds in the 19th century and went on to become two of the most popular entertainers of their time. Huang details their fascinating story in his new book titled Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History and was kind enough to share it with the Colgate community.

Professor Graham Hodges introduced Huang, noting that he is not only an academic, but a distinguished poet and author as well. Professor Hodges is currently teaching a class about slavery and abolitionism, which interestingly enough intersects with Huang’s work as the twins owned slaves in the antebellum South. The talk began with a showing of the CBS Sunday Morning program on the twins, in which Huang was recently featured as an expert. The clip showed a Bunker family reunion in which Chang and Eng’s descendants got together and discussed which side of the family they were from: the Chang or the Eng side. Huang described how the pair was born in 1811 in Siam, now known as Thailand, and were discovered by a traveling Scottish businessman named Robert Hunter who brought them to America in 1829. They took the country by storm, touring with carnivals and presenting themselves as a curiosity, a modern form of entertainment at the time. The twins declared themselves free from their owner at age 21 and began running their own show. Eventually, tired from traveling the world as entertainers, they bought land and settled down in South Carolina and retired as incredibly wealthy world-travelers at the age of 28. However, the story did not end there. Chang and Eng did not escape from view, as they went on to court and marry sisters Adelaide and Sarah Yates, daughters of a respected local landowner, in 1843. Collectively, the twins had 21 children.

Complex ideas about race intertwined throughout the lecture. The twins were essentially bought as slaves when they were first brought to America and were regarded as Asian “freaks” throughout their lives, yet married two white Southern Christian ladies and owned 32 slaves themselves, even sending sons to fight on the side of the Confederacy when the Civil War broke out. Furthermore, the popular freak shows that Chang and Eng were on the forefront of eventually turned into blackface and minstrel shows. Thus, Chang and Eng were a big part of the history of American entertainment and the racial prejudices that it was marked by. Huang emphasized throughout the lecture that although the twins were first regarded as “freaks,” they were truly “amazing, resourceful and inventive, and never gave up even though the odds were against them,” going on to live a wonderful life. In describing his work, Huang said, “I’m not a historian, I’m mostly a writer. How I tell the story is my major concern.”

Article and photograph by Karrie Spychalski ‘19.

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