Congratulations to History Department alum Dr. Diego Javier Luis on receiving the American Historical Association’s Jerry Bentley Prize in World History for his first book,The First Asians in the Americas: A Transpacific History (Harvard University Press, 2024). This is the fourth prize for Luis’s work, following the 2024 Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize from Harvard UP, the 2025 Howard F. Cline Prize in Mexican History from the Latin American Studies Association, and the 2025 Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions Book Prize.
Luis’s acclaimed work offers “The definitive account of transpacific Asian movement through the Spanish empire—from Manila to Acapulco and beyond—and its implications for the history of race and colonization in the Americas.” In his review in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Rubén Carillo Martín describes the book as “a brilliant exercise of global microhistory and essential reading for anyone hoping to get a full picture of colonial Spanish America, Asian diaspora studies, or protoglobalization.”
Luis is Rohrbaugh Family Assistant Professor at The Johns Hopkins University. He graduated from Emory in 2014 with a double major in History with highest honors and English and Creative Writing, before pursuing his PhD at Brown University.
The Atlanta History Center (AHC) recently hosted Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham in conversation with Dr. Patrick Allitt of the Emory History Department. Meacham spoke about his new book, American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (Penguin Random House, 2026), which “unites centuries of essential American voices to understand our national debates and divisions from 1619 to the present.” David Plazas, opinion editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, published a piece about the AHC event (subscription required) here.
Dr. Benjamin P. Hein, a 2010 Emory History alum and now Assistant Professor at Brown University, has published his first book: The Migrant’s Spirit: How Industrial Modernity Came to the German Lands (Oxford UP, 2025). Weaving economic history and the history of financial institutions with immigration and cultural history, The Migrant’s Spirit locates the impetus for Germany’s industrial modernization in transatlantic exchanges between German society and the expanding German diaspora in nineteenth-century North America.
Hein completed honors in history working with Professors Astrid M. Eckert and Brian Vick. He was awarded the 2010 Matthew A. Carter Citizen-Scholar Award, given to a graduating student who displays high academic achievement and good works in the community. He received his PhD at Stanford University in 2018.
Read the full description of The Migrant’s Spirit:
When a process popularly known as the Industrial Revolution first took hold in Germany in the mid-nineteenth century, many contemporaries were stunned by the scale and ferocity of the transformation. While Germany had long been considered a promising place to industrialize, given its historic ties to New World markets, skilled and educated workforce, and deep pockets of wealth, progress had been slow due to persistent indifference and skepticism across society. That people should have suddenly dropped their reservations and simply embraced the new industrial modernity defied all explanation. Grasping for answers, some concluded that the Germans must have fallen under the spell of the “capitalist spirit.”
Benjamin P. Hein locates the impetus for the abrupt transformation of German society after ca. 1850 in its cultural exchange with the country’s burgeoning diaspora in North America, one of the largest in this century. In correspondence and other “news from America,” the emigrants conveyed to their families, communities, and business associates in Europe a different set of norms and ethics regarding work, entrepreneurship, and commerce. By making it socially acceptable and politically meaningful to frequently change professions or to organize businesses as joint-stock corporations, they inadvertently mobilized an otherwise reluctant population for a more centralized regime of production that served global market forces instead of local needs and corporatist norms. They also helped popularize key institutional pillars of the new economy, like the universal bank, and inspired innovative commercial reforms, most notably the “limited liability partnership” (LLP), or “G.m.b.H.” in German, which became the legal foundation of Germany’s particularly robust small-business economy.
While addressing global trends, The Migrant’s Spirit makes these phenomena comprehensible through the lives of individuals who faced painful choices and moral quandaries as they attempted to navigate a new social and economic order and began to trust countrymen abroad over local sources of guidance. By reconstructing their struggles, Hein sheds new light on the transatlantic dimensions of Germany’s path to industrial modernity.
Junior history major Rafi Escoto recently published a paper in the Central Europe Yearbook, an open-access journal promoting the study of Central Europe among undergraduate students. Titled “Everything Old is New Again: Border Rituals and the Return of History in ‘Green Border,’” Escoto’s paper analyses Agnieszka Holland’s 2023 film about refugees from the Middle East and Africa who attempt to reach the European Union, only to become caught up in a geopolitical crisis triggered by the Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko.
This paper argues that Green Border (2023), directed by Agnieszka Holland, transforms the Polish-Belarusian border into a site of moral ritual, where sacred violence replaces humanitarian law. Using Durkheim’s theories, Eastern European memory studies, and analyses of populism and asylum policy, the paper interprets the film as a historical recurrence rather than a modern crisis. Drawing on scholars like Törnquist-Plewa, Exeler, and Krastev, the analysis reveals how Europe’s border politics ritualize exclusion and revive authoritarian patterns under democratic guise. Methods include close film analysis and engagement with secondary literature on EU identity, populism, and the symbolic politics of migration.
Dr. Debjani Bhattacharyya, a 2014 doctoral program alum, was recently awarded a competitive, multi-year grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the project, “Climate Risk Management: A Historical Perspective.” The project investigates the role of financial institutions in the making of climate science, including by engaging financial institutions’ archives from the 18th century onward, and addresses the fundamental question, “Why have we overwhelmingly turned to the market to tackle the climate crisis?” The full abstract of the project follows:
This project explores why market-based tools – such as carbon trading, weather derivatives, parametric insurance, and catastrophe bonds – have become central to managing climate risk. Examining insurance archives from the eighteenth century onward, it analyzes how financial institutions shaped meteorological knowledge, risk measurement tools, underwriting policies and enforcement mechanisms. The research aims to explain how the business of risk management influenced evolving conceptions of climate and why market mechanisms, rather than regulation, dominate current climate-risk governance.
Bhattacharyya is Professor of the History of the Anthropocene at the University of Zürich. She is the author of Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta(Cambridge University Press, 2018), which won the 2019 honorable mention for the best book in Urban History. She completed her doctorate under the advisement of Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History.
Emory News recently featured history and business double major Leah Wang among a select group of Emory’s exceptional student-athletes. Wrapping up her junior year at Emory, Wang has been a leader on the pitch, throughout campus, and beyond. She testified before the U.S. congress about Title IX, was selected for the NCAA Division III Student Immersion Program, and served as the founder and president of the Asian and Pacific Islander Student-Athlete group. Find a quote from the feature about Wang below, and read the all the profiles of the featured student-athletes: “How Emory athletes find the Eagle Edge.”
“Balancing my commitments and social life has been challenging, but I’ve been able to maintain strong academic performance, continue to grow as an athlete and build meaningful friendships along the way,” Wang says. “It’s still a work in progress, but I’ve learned to stay grounded and appreciate the opportunities I have.”
In December the U.S. Senate passed a bill to extend by four years the work of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board. The nonpartisan group is appointed by the U.S. president and dedicated to investigate and release federal records relating to unsolved, racially-motivated murders from the civil rights era (1940-1979). With bipartisan support, the bill now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The cold cases project has strong ties to Emory College and the Emory History Department. Professor Hank Klibanoff, Associated Faculty in History, is co-chair of the review board. Klibanoff directs the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project (to which multiple History students have contributed) and is the creator and host of the award-winning podcast Buried Truths.
“What we are doing is simply trying to, you know, excavate the records and get them released, review them, review them with the FBI, review them with the Department of Justice, review them with the National Archive,” said Emory University Professor Hank Klibanoff, a co-chair for the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board.
The Emory History Department mourns the death of Rosalyn Page, who served as the department administrator for more than 25 years before her retirement in 2008. Becky Herring, current department administrator, writes that Rosalyn was “not only a patient and encouraging mentor, she was also a loyal and supportive friend. Her fun-loving spirit, joyful nature, and kind heart will be greatly missed by her loving family and cherished friends.” A funeral service will be held on Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 1:30 pm in Glenn Memorial UMC’s Little Chapel at Emory University in Atlanta. In remembrance, consider a donation to WABE or Friends of Disabled Adults and Children.
Rosalyn’s obituary, chronicling her rich life and character, follows:
Rosalyn Florence Page, beloved mother, sister, aunt and cherished friend, passed away peacefully in Tucker, Georgia, on February 16, 2026, at the age of 82, surrounded by her family and those she held dear.
Born on April 25, 1943, in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, Rosalyn was the first daughter of Joe E. Page and Cora Jane Page. She spent her childhood in Bristow, Oklahoma, and later in Englewood, Colorado, where she developed the curiosity, independence, and love of learning that would shape her life. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University, an accomplishment she carried with pride.
Rosalyn married Mike Phillips, and together they raised two children while living in Colorado, Kansas, and ultimately Stone Mountain, Georgia. Whether substitute teaching, cheering at countless ball games or savoring summer camping, Rosalyn poured her heart into the moment. Her devotion to her children was unwavering, and she nurtured them with the same warmth, humor, and optimism she offered to everyone she met.
She retired in 2008 from Emory University in Atlanta, where she served for more than 25 years as an Academic Department Administrator in the History Department. Rosalyn found fulfillment in her work, forming lasting friendships with colleagues and students who admired her intelligence, steadiness, and generous spirit.
A woman of many passions, Rosalyn was a longtime member of Glenn Memorial Methodist Church and an enthusiastic participant in the Atlanta Cajun Zydeco Association, where she embraced her love of dance and community. Known for her cheery smile, kindness, and unwaveringly positive outlook, she had a remarkable ability to make others feel seen, valued, and loved — and she never let them forget it.
Rosalyn was a lifelong reader with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, a talented cook and patient seamstress. She was a dedicated student of the French language, enjoyed yoga and genealogy. She was a treasured friend to all who knew her. Her presence brought light, laughter, and comfort, and her absence will be felt deeply.
She is survived by her daughter Lisa Phillips (Mike Owens) of Brevard, North Carolina; her son Trace A. Phillips (Jen Moran) of Edwards, Colorado; her sister Melissa Page (Hugh Simpson) of Los Lunas, New Mexico; and her former husband Mike Phillips (Susanne Pinkley) of Alpharetta, Georgia. Rosalyn is also remembered with love by many extended family members and countless friends whose lives she touched. Her memory will continue to inspire those who were fortunate enough to know her.
Doctoral alum Claudia Kreklau, Honorary Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of St Andrews, has published a new article in the journal German History. Titled “Vaterland, c.1780–1870,” the piece examines the multiple and shifting meanings of the German-language term meaning “fatherland.” The full abstract follows:
This article analyses the changing semiotics of the term Vaterland between 1780 and 1870 in a variety of German-language discussions by reconstructing specific instances of meaning. It finds that the term Vaterland held multiple meanings due to the range of religious, philosophic and political frameworks and historical frames of reference in which this term operated. A great variety of speakers produced and exercised meanings synchronically and modified them diachronically. Far from being synonymous with better-studied terms such as Germany or Volk, Vaterland meant something different in every instance of usage—and reflected contestations for the fatherland itself in the period examined here.
Doctoral program alum Dr. Lena Oak Suk (PhD, ’14) has published her first book, In the Darkness of the Cinema: Gender and Moviegoing in Early Twentieth-Century Urban Brazil, with Pittsburgh University Press. Focused on the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Suk’s work offers an innovative analysis of how movies and moviegoers reshaped gendered perceptions and gendered realities in urban Brazil at the beginning of the last century. Rielle Navitski (University of Georgia) praises In the Darkness of the Cinema as “an engaging account of how the movies transformed urban space and women’s participation in public life in Brazil.”
Suk is a research affiliate at the Institute of Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and Assistant Director of Investigator Skill-Building in the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship & Creative Endeavor at UT. She completed her graduate training under the advisement of Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History.
Read the abstract of Suk’s monograph below, and find more information on Pittsburgh UP’s book page.
Gender and sexual morality, and their intersections with race and class, were central to the formation of urban Brazil in the twentieth century. In the Darkness of the Cinema takes a wide-ranging and innovative approach to gender and moviegoing culture in Brazilian society. By focusing on the flirtations and romances of the movie theater, as well as the intrigue and moral panic that they caused, Suk creates a rich portrait of spectatorship. Where women went to the movies, who they met, and what they did in the darkness were key questions that brewed among overlapping but disparate circles, from film intellectuals and filmmakers to legislators and public health officials, as well as the moviegoers themselves. Amassing sources located traditionally within film culture as well as outside of it, such as film magazines, interviews, comics, literature, and songs, Suk shows that movie theaters and moviegoers made an indelible mark on the urban landscapes of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
