Gerald H. Herman papers

Collection

Identifier: M168

Scope and Content Note

The collection documents the activities of Professor Gerald H. Herman as a faculty member and administrator at Northeastern University. The records focus on his involvement with University committees, particularly technology, telecommunications, and handbook revision groups, his role as special assistant to University Counsel, and on courses taught in the History Department, specifically a 1970's/1980's Western Civilization survey class titled To Know Thyself. Topics in the collection include planning for technological expansion, upgrades to University technology, issues surrounding Northeastern's Instructional Television Fixed Service distance learning program, Northeastern's student radio station WRBB, physical plant planning, the installation of Northeastern's NUnet online computer network, and the use of media (audio, video, CD-ROM) in the teaching of history. Also documented is Professor Herman's involvement with Roland Nadeau's long-running radio program A Note To You. The A Note To You records are of particular interest as they illustrate negotiations between Northeastern and WGBH over the future of the program. Records include correspondence, reports, memoranda, contracts, meeting minutes, teaching materials, newspaper clippings, audio and video recordings of history lectures, and annotated drafts of University policies on a wide range of issues. The latter provide insight into the University's evolving views on issues such as discrimination, faculty and student rights, and the use of technology in education, among other topics.

Dates

Creation: 1962-2010

Creator

Herman, Gerald H. (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Conditions Governing Access:

Records are restricted for 25 years from their date of creation, unless researchers have written permission from the creating office; the video lectures are unrestricted. Personnel and student records (boxes 2, 14, 16, 18) are restricted for 75 years from their date of creation.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use:

Biographical Note

Gerald H. Herman, professor and administrator at Northeastern University, was born in 1944 in Brooklyn, New York. He received his Bachelor's degree in 1965 from Hunter College and his Master's degree in 1967 from Northeastern University. He served as a United States Department of State Reserve Foreign Service Officer from 1965 to 1968 and was appointed to his first teaching position at Northeastern University in 1967 as an instructor in the History Department. His focus as a historian has been modern and contemporary European cultural and intellectual history, focusing on the relationships between the arts and sciences. He has also done work on twentieth century military history and history as seen through the media. Herman is the author of several publications, including The Media, the Academy, and the Law: Assessing the Truth from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to Holocaust Denial (2007). In the 1980's, he was a founding member of the Historians' Film Committee and contributed to the 1988 project Image as Artifact created by the American Historical Association and the Library of Congress.

Herman became a tenured Assistant Professor in the History Department in 1973, and has held several joint academic appointments throughout his career at Northeastern, including in Education (1999-2010) and Cinema Studies (2010-2011). Herman also served as Academic Director (Humanities and Social Sciences) for the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (2004-2009), and as Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (1999-2010).

In addition to his academic appointments at Northeastern, Herman held a variety of administrative positions, serving as special assistant to the Provost (1977-1987), special assistant to University Counsel (1987-2012), University Copyright Officer (1988-2012), and University Handbooks Coordinator (1991-2007). Herman provided leadership on a wide range of University initiatives throughout his time at Northeastern, most notably regarding the Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) programming broadcast by Network Northeastern in the 1980's and 1990's. ITFS was a group of microwave TV channels licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to educational institutions to broadcast instructional programming. In his capacity as special assistant to University Counsel, Herman acted as a point person on issues related to ITFS, negotiating contracts with local televisions providers and contributing to FCC petitions regarding changes to ITFS regulations.

Extent

23 cubic feet (25 containers)

Additional Description

Overview

Gerald H. Herman, professor and administrator at Northeastern University, was born in 1944 in Brooklyn, New York. He received his Bachelor's degree in 1965 from Hunter College and his Master's degree in 1967 from Northeastern University, and was appointed to his first teaching position at Northeastern in 1967 as an instructor in the History Department. His focus as a historian has been modern and contemporary European cultural and intellectual history, focusing on the relationships between the arts and sciences. He has also done work on twentieth century military history and history as seen through the media. Herman has held a variety of administrative positions at Northeastern, serving as special assistant to the Provost (1977-1987), special assistant to University Counsel (1987-2012), University Copyright Officer (1988-2012), and University Handbooks Coordinator (1991-2007).

Overview

System of Arrangement:

Organized into two series 1. Northeastern University Committees and Activities 2. Department of History

Physical Location

41/4, 56/2-3

Finding Aids:

Western Civilization course notes (A106); A Note to You recordings (A125); WRBB-FM records (A111); Faculty Senate records (A35)

Immediate Source of Acquisition:

The collection was donated to the Archives by Professor Gerald H. Herman in May 2004 and February 2014; the Western Civilization I and II video tapes were transferred to the Archives by Carol Poulliotte, Snell Library Media Center, in June 2007.

Accruals:

Further accruals are expected.

Bibliography

Northeastern University College of Social Sciences and Humanities. Gerald Herman. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://nuweb.neu.edu/cssh/faculty/gerald-herman/