Trygve Has-Ellison reports from Texas on publications and presentations

Dr Trygve Has-Ellison received his Ph.D. in history from The University of Memphis in 2004. His dissertation, written under the direction of Dr Daniel Unowsky, was "'True Art is Always an Aristocratic Matter': Nobles and the Fine Arts in Turn-of-the-Century Bavaria, 1890-1094." The following is taken from an email message to the editor of Memphis Historians on the Go:


I was inspired by glancing at the History blog page to write in about my current activities.

Since I graduated (Fall, 2004) I have been feverishly working at making a career out of history. Often I think I should have stuck to the music business, but I'm old and in too deep now.

I have been teaching primarily at the University of Texas at Dallas where my current title is Lecturer in European History.

I was a sabbatical replacement at University of Texas Arlington last year for Dr. Thomas Adam, while he was in Leipzig doing research for his latest book.

On the research front, I gave four papers this last year: In October, I was in Sigmaringen for the Tagung "Adel im Wandel". I gave a presentation on the writer Emanuel Baron von Bodman that was well received - with plenty of pointed questions and stimulating (liquid) conversation with Georg Schmidt, Eckart Conze, Peter Blickle, Mark Hengerer, Wolfgang Wüst, Ewald Frie etc. Why can't American conferences be more like this? Out of this conference, my paper on Bodman was published in a volume edited by Mark Hengerer and Peter Blickle. My first big publication!

In March, I presented a paper on the Free Imperial Knights and the reception of Nietzsche at the European Social Science Conference, Division Elites, in Amsterdam. I know what you're thinking. To be honest, I won't present at this conference again, the conference fees were highway robbery- particularly on an adjunct's budget.

This last July, I presented at Cambridge University, Magdalene College, for the conference "Internationalism and the Arts in the Fin-de-Siècle". Naturally, my topic was German nobles and the reception of International art. This was a brilliant three days, hosted and paid for my the British Academy - the atmosphere was particularly collegial with many art historians (who like to have fun) as opposed to other disciplines I could write about. There will be a publication with Cambridge coming out in the future.

Two days later I gave a paper at the Conference "History and Memory" atNorwich University on German nobles, Memory, and Modernism. I shared the panel with Maiken Umbach from Manchester University (co-editor of the journal German History). This came about because my article on "Nobles, Modernism, and Fin-de-Siècle Munich" was accepted by German History - a
real coup for me. Umbach liked my work enough to ask me to sit on this panel - and possibly collaborate on future projects.

I have more stuff going on - but until it is finally confirmed - mums the word.

Lisa is doing well in her position as assistant to the chief curator at the Dallas Museum of Art. She curated her first show at the museum this last winter with a series of Mexican Prints from the Twentieth Century. She is currently re-installing the Latin American permanent collection.

I don't miss the humidity in Memphis, but it's great to read how everyone is doing.

Sincerely,

Trygve Has-Ellison
jxh058000@utdallas.edu
jhasllsn@eaze.net