Fordham College at Lincoln Center hosted the New York Military Affairs Symposium (NYMAS) in the 12th-floor lounge of the Lowenstein building on Friday, Nov. 7. The main portion of the event was a lecture by David Hamlin, Ph.D., a professor of history at Fordham University.
Audience members included Dean of Arts and Sciences Jessica Lang, Ph.D., members of the NYMAS and faculty from Fordham’s history department.
Hamlin has been at Fordham for over 20 years and has taught several classes during that time.
“I’ve been here since 2004,” Hamlin said in a Zoom interview. “I teach HIST1000, Hitler’s Germany, War and Imperialism, the history of literature and film of World War II and occasionally other history classes as well.”
Hamlin is well known for his expertise in German history and has published several works, including “The German Empire in the East: Germans and Romania in an Era of Globalization and Total War” and “Work and Play: The Production and Consumption of Toys in Germany, 1880-1914,” which were both mentioned in the introduction of the event prior to Hamlin taking the stage.
During his lecture, Hamlin presented on the German occupation of Eastern Europe during World War I. He emphasized the ways in which Germany deviated from, yet still sought to work within, the frameworks of international law at the time.
Hamlin explained how the event engaged Fordham students and the broader New York City community.
“The event was intended to be for anyone who wanted to come,” he said in an email. “This included Fordham graduate and undergraduate students, as well as the New York City community at large.”
Hamlin then went on to discuss the importance of the event in relation to Fordham’s mission of veteran and military support.
“The talk was an important element of our continuing support of veterans and our outreach to members of the New York and wider Fordham community,” he said in an email. “As Fordham says, New York is our campus.”
The event was coordinated in partnership with the NYMAS, whose mission is devoted to increasing public knowledge and understanding about various topics related to military affairs.
Hamlin discussed why the partnership between Fordham and NYMAS is important.
“The history of war and its many consequences are central to the work of many of the historians at Fordham,” he said in an email. “It is obviously something I work on a great deal, but so does Nick Paul, Chris Dietrich, recently Silvana Patriarca and Cooper Wingert.”
