Ken Aslakson’s career has taken him from cowboy country to courts of law to the Union College campus.
Aslakson, associate professor of history, grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, named after the antebellum sugar plantation of Abner Jackson. The son of an engineer and an English teacher, he attended college at Southwestern University in Georgetown in his native state. He chose to teach history because he was inspired by one of his professors.
Ken Aslakson and his daughter, Poppy, in the Stockade during the recent solar eclipse.
“I took every class she offered and told myself I wanted to have the same impact on young adults someday that she had on me,” he recalled.
Aslakson received a law degree and a Ph.D. in history at the University of Texas at Austin. In between these advanced degrees, he practiced law for nearly six years in Dallas before joining Union in 2007 and fulfilling his dream to teach.
A social and cultural historian, Aslakson is particularly interested in the intersection of law and culture as it impacts African-Americans in the U. S. and shapes understandings and perceptions of race and gender. His research focus to date has been the use of the New Orleans court system by the city’s free people of color in the two decades straddling the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
It seems only fitting that a historian’s family has settled in Schenectady’s Stockade district.
Aslakson and his wife, Julia Hormes, a professor of clinical psychology and associate dean at the University at Albany, live in a house that dates to 1790. They have a daughter, Penelope (Poppy), soon to turn four.
“For me, this is a really fun age,” Aslakson said. “I love seeing Poppy develop her own personality.”
FIRST APP YOU LOOK AT IN THE MORNING:
It’s not the same every morning, but I look first at Apple News more than any other. I want to know if anything earth shattering happened overnight while I was sleeping.
GO-TO BREAKFAST:
Breakfast tacos (scrambled eggs, avocado, cheese, and salsa in a soft tortilla). It’s not what I have most often, but it is my favorite.
WHAT'S THE LAST GREAT BOOK YOU READ?:
Joyce Appleby’s “Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism.” It made a great impression on me.
BEST ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED:
When I was a practicing lawyer, I would get very nervous before appearing in court. One of the lawyers in my firm told me to “fight the nerves with preparation and then take two deep breaths because nervousness is two deep breaths away from excitement.” I began to realize that the preparation could make up for lack of experience.
FAVORITE PLACE TO VISIT:
New Orleans. It is the subject of my book and the city that brought my wife and me together.
WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING RIGHT NOW?:
“3 Body Problem” on Netflix. It’s an American science series bases on the award-winning Chinese novel by author Liu Cixin.
ONE SKILL YOU WISH YOU HAD:
Play the guitar. I admire those who can, and I love to listen to and sing along with singer songwriter types such as Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle. Actually, I wish I could play the guitar while singing. It would also make it much easier to write songs, of course.
3 DINNER PARTY GUESTS YOU'D LIKE TO HAVE (living or not):
I spent a lot of time thinking about this only to realize I could never narrow it down to three. You could ask me 10 times, and the answer would be completely different each time. But this time I’m going to say dancer Josephine Baker, poet and writer Dorothy Parker, and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois. They are close enough in era that they could relate to each other on some level. I have always admired DuBois's eloquence. Baker could entertain with her singing but she was also very knowledgeable and politically active. And Parker would add a lot of wit and humor.
FIRST CONCERT:
If I recall, it was The Kinks’ Low Budget tour in Houston in 1979.
LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT YOU:
I argued a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Our law firm represented Larry Mahan, seven-time all-around cowboy at the National Rodeo Championships. He was unhappy with his naming rights licensing agreement with a Western Wear company, and we were charged with finding a way to terminate the contract. We won a summary judgment in the federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The defendant appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. We won the appeal, as well.
