Utopian Communities

The Professionalization Workshop for Secondary Teachers

Global Utopias / The Center for Historical Interpretation
The Department of History of the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign
April 30, 2016
Illini Union Room 210 (General Lounge)
Schedule of Events
9:00-9:15 Welcome Orientation and Introductions by Mark
Steinberg and Deirdre Ruscitti Harshman
9:15-9:45 Introduction of the Theme by Mark Steinberg
9:45-10:00 Break
10:00-11:00 Industrial Utopias in the Early Twentieth Century:
Contested Visions of Landscapes Planned for the Common
Welfare
Presenter: Professor Kathryn Oberdeck, Department of History,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, a number of
industrialists and reformers sought to form industrial communities that
would improve upon the dystopian conditions often associated with
urban neighborhoods inhabited by industrial workers. This session
looks at three examples of such efforts: the company town of Pullman,
Illinois, founded in the 1880s; the reformist proposals for decentralized
industrial communities advocated by Ebenezer Howard put forward in
the 1890s, and the company town of Kohler, Wisconsin, developed in
the 1910s. Primary sources allow students to consider the similarities
and differences in these efforts to provide practical utopian
alternatives to urban crowding and poverty, and the wider debates
over economic, social, and cultural relationships implied by these
distinctive efforts and the reactions from workers they elicited.
11:00-12:00 The Problem of Constructing Socialist Cities:
Urban Utopianism in the Soviet Union
Presenter: Deirdre Ruscitti Harshman, Doctoral Candidate,
Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
When we think of utopian communities, often what first comes to mind
are small groups composed of members who chose to join and build a
community together. In the case of the Soviet Union, while these small

groups of utopian-minded participants did exist, there was also a wider

movement to change the nature of the society, particularly within
cities and urban spaces. This presentation examines that Soviet project
of transforming entire cities into utopian projects. While many Soviet
thinkers would have fought back against the label utopia (a concept
many of them conflated with fanciful dreams and a lack of actual
results), looking at these cities through the label of utopia allows us to
better understand what changes these planners envisioned, and how
the transformation of cities actually took place. For students,
understanding a form of urban life deliberately designed to be different
than that in capitalist societies (such as in the U.S.) will allow them to
better contextualize and analyze their own experiences and
understanding of what a city can and should do.
12:00-12:45 Lunch
12:45-1:45 Experiences Of Political Reconciliation In South
Africa
Presenter: Professor Teresa Barnes, Departments of History,
Gender and Womens Studies, Center for African Studies, LAS
Global Studies and Center for Global Studies, University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Peace is often thought of as a utopian goal. A long period of intense
civil/military conflict in South Africa ended with a negotiated
settlement and sets of political and economic compromises in 1994,
and there were great hopes for peace. One key element of these hopes
was the institutionalization of political reconciliation. We will look at
specific examples of how South Africans tried to mold techniques of
conflict resolution and concepts of transitional justice into lasting
political reconciliation between former bitter enemies.
1:45-2:00 Break
2:00-3:00 Presentation Title T.B.A.
Presenter: Professor Dorothee Schneider, Departments of History,
Sociology, Center for Global Studies, and European Union Center,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Description T.B.A.
3:00-4:00 The Internet as Historical Utopia: Helping Students
Create New Ways of Publishing the Past
Presenter: Professor John Randolph, Departments of History and
the Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
In this presentation, Professor John Randolph will discuss a new digital
Open Educational Resource initiative being sponsored by the

Department of History at Illinois. Called SourceLab, this curriculumbased digital publishing program teaches students how to create webbased critical editions of historical materials, for use in teaching and
research. The Internet is transforming the historical record: every day
millions of new kinds of historical artifacts are made available, in a
wonderful variety of new formats, including film, images, sound as well
as text. But all too often these objects are presented without the
context students need to use them responsibly, for history. Where did
they come from? What right do we have to use them? Will they be
there tomorrow? By creating reliable editions of digital resourcesas
well as creating an open-source platform encouraging students of all
institutions to engage in the practiceSourceLab seeks to help bring
critical publishing practices into history education. This presentation
will outline our efforts; compare SourceLab's work with that of
commonly-used databases of Primary Sources (used in education and
for DBQ's, etc.); and seek your feedback on how we can make our
editions and editorial practices most useful for secondary education.
We're also interested in sharing our curriculum and collaborating so
that you can set up 'source labs' in your classrooms, should you like.
4:00-4:30 Wrap Up and Fill Out Evaluations