The OU History Club | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Student Life

The OU History Club

"They come for the memes and stay for the history." Get to know the University of Oklahoma's History Club and how you can join!

63
The OU History Club
unsplash.com

"They come for the memes and stay for the history," said Sally Johnson, an English-history major and vice president of OU's History Club. "History twitter is fire."

If you're active on Twitter, you may have seen one of the many notable memes from the University of Oklahoma's History Club. The twitter account is run by the club's Vice President Sally Johnson and I had a chance to sit down with her and the club's advisor, Sarah Olzawski, for an interview.

Founded in fall of 2018 by Paul Rolland and four other students, including current president, Allison Draheim, the OU History Club was created to provide a space for all students of all majors to share a common love of history. The environment that the club has made a "community and identity for students studying history on campus and to show that its a really cool thing to do," said Olzawski after opening up about her own experience as a OU history major.

The history club mainly consists of history majors, but also receives many English and some STEM students. "We get a lot of people who are interested in history but for reasons didn't choose to major in it so this gives them an outlet for their love of history here at OU," said Olzawski.

The club kicked off the new semester with a "make-your-own-meme" event where participants would write down captions on sticky notes for different memes that were posted around the room. "We get a surprising amount of people from the Twitter account to show up to our meetings," said Olzawski, "History club members are so funny."

The club's Twitter account recently had its first official meme week, featuring many memes that were created by members at the first meeting."I was blown away by how funny and historically accurate the memes were," said Olzawski. It was Sally's idea that I had also stolen from Twitter. I saw another university doing that. We try to interact with other history departments that are on twitter to see what they're doing, get ideas from them, and also build that community."

When asked further about the online collegiate history community, Olzawski and Johnson were enthusiastic with the national communication opportunity that they discovered through Twitter. "Something that's really important to us is accessibility to public history and I think the internet has given way to a really interesting conversation that has to do with digital history and accessibility," said Johnson. "When we are on Twitter we are getting to participate in a much larger digitally based historical conversation."

I asked about potential rivalries with schools like OSU and the University of Georgia that have had interactions with OU's Twitter in the past, but the relationship between the two Oklahoma universities' history clubs would be described as anything other than rivals. "With the OSU Twitter account we try to play it off as there was a little rivalry at first but we are so happy that they're there because now they can be a part of this bigger conversation. We also interact a lot with the University of Wisconsin," said Johnson. "Our professors are some of the most fun and engaging on campus and we feel like a lot of people don't know that and so we try to get that across and that's a platform where we can do that. A lot of universities and departments take part in this and it's fun! It's engaging and it's interesting which aren't words that people sometimes would associate with history departments. The fact that we have this outlet is really amazing for us."

The club aims to meet twice a month with their occasional trivia and movie nights, which always draw a large crowd, and anyone is welcome! Along with these meetings, the history club has one big event each semester. Last semester featured a Halloween party that donated all proceeds towards Norman Citizens for Racial Justice for the Norman People's Museum. This semester, University of Minnesota scholar Jason Herbert, creator of the Historians at the Movies hashtag on Twitter, will be stopping by for a live stream! Each week, a movie is chosen Sunday night that is easily accessible and all used of the hashtag will live tweet the movie. Herbert has taken his trend on the road and live streams from different universities and will collaborate with the OU History Club on April 12.

At the end of the month the history club will be hosting a career panel featuring OU history alumni discussing what they have done with their History BA degree. "I would encourage people from all majors to come because we have so many people from so many different backgrounds that will be on the panel," said Johnson. This event will be from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in Ellison Hall Room 132.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Entertainment

Disney magic for New Year!

The "Happiest Place on Earth" has a lot of characters with some pretty great advice.

4444
Disney magic kingdom castle on new years
StableDiffusion

Disney movies are well known and very popular in today's world. Although many people appreciate the plot and the storyline, not many people appreciate the wisdom these characters possess. Every Disney movie has unique advice that can be applied to everyday life. Here are 11 Disney quotes to help start your New Year off right:

Keep Reading...Show less
Lifestyle

40 Gift Ideas for the Indecisive

It's a time of love, family, memory-making, and gift-giving. But also a time of stressing over the perfect gift.

118857
Christmas gifts around a tree
StableDiffusion

It's officially December. There is less than a month of 2024, and I still feel like yesterday was summer. Now comes the merriest time of the year, the Christmas season.

Everyone has been waiting for this time of year since mid-October (which is way too early, in my opinion) or before. It's a time of love, family, memory-making, and gift-giving. A lot of times when I ask friends and family what they want, I get a lot of "I don't know" or "I don't care."

Keep Reading...Show less
Lifestyle

Bucket List To Live In The Now

Find excitement in your life and start exploring wherever you are right here, right now.

911
mu bucket list

I was sitting at my cubicle, now that I am an adult, looking at the rain pouring down on the windowsill, bumming on life, wishing for the rain to just stop for a full day.

There are moments where we count down the hours until work is over and how many more days till the weekend, and this many weeks until something exciting. Or something like that? Well, I was bumming because my next day off from work is not until Memorial Day weekend, which is not until the end of May. And since this is my first year out of college being a “real person,” I am totally missing the winter, spring and summer breaks. I am sure all of us have felt this way even if just for a hot minute…

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

11 Ways To Survive Finals As Told By Leslie Knope

Because you know you're going to be stressed out, and Leslie knows exactly how to survive.

669
Everything hurts and I'm dying

So finals are on their way. That's right everybody, finals are about to start.

But hey, don't panic. Start getting your affairs in order and prepare for a week of hell. Here's a few things Leslie Knope wants you to do to make your finals week just a little bit less stressful:

Keep Reading...Show less
Kent State University
Great Value Colleges

If you go to or went to Kent State, then more than likely you have done or will do some of these things.

1. You’ve slipped and fallen on the ice at least once.

The winters at Kent are brutal, and while the heated sidewalks and some great snow boots are always a help, there’s no chance you won’t bust it on the ice at least once in your four plus years at school.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments