Annette Finley-Croswhite, Ph.D. 1991, and Gayle Brunelle, Ph.D. 1988, who did their dissertations with Professor J. Russell Major, have had enormous success with a book they wrote together, Murder in the Metro: Laetitia Toureaux and the Cagoule in 1930s France (Louisiana State Press, 2010).  It sold out of its first press run in four weeks and has garnered wonderful reviews.  British historian and journalist, Nigel Jones, picked Murder in the Metro as his favorite book of 2010 for the British magazine History Today and on December 17, they got a wonderful review in the prestigious Times Literary Supplement. Professor Finley-Croswhite writes, “While we remain early modernists based on our training at Emory and other research projects, we have become fascinated by France in the modern era.  Certainly it is testimony to the driving force of Russell Major who always wanted us to think broadly and work in multiple archives that allowed us to broaden ourselves and take on France in the twentieth century.  Our personal friendship has grown deeper as we have learned to write together in one authorial voice.”  The reviews praise the book’s writing, saying that it “reads like a novel.” It is selling very well and being used not just in courses on fascism and modern Europe but also in historical methods classes. A movie might even be in the works!  The co-authors also have been invited to numerous speaking engagements because the book is getting such great buzz. They have a website: www.murderinthemetro.com and are on YouTube and Facebook. Laetitia Toureaux even has her own Facebook site!

Natalia Starostina, Ph.D. 2007, is an Assistant Professor of History at Young Harris College, Georgia. She completed her Ph.D. at Emory University in the summer of 2007 in modern French history (Advisor: Professor Kathryn Amdur). Natalia grew up in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, and was very excited to bring students from Young Harris College to Russia. In May 2010, 19 people visited Moscow and Saint Petersburg. One of the memorable events of the trip was an encounter with a veteran of the Second World War, Mr. Lysov, who arrived to Moscow to take part in the celebration of the 65-anniversary of the victory of the Allies in the Second World War. Perhaps the happiest and most remarkable day of their voyage was the visit to Peterhof, the Russian capital of fountains. In 1717, Peter the Great visited Versailles, the great project of Louis XIV, and built his own Versailles.

Mack P. Holt, Ph.D. 1982, is Professor of History at George Mason University.  Having just finished his long-term project on the Reformation and Wars of Religion in Burgundy, he is starting a new project on “Reading the Bible in Reformation France.” He is on sabbatical this semester—Spring 2011—and will be spending much of the time in Paris looking at several hundred sixteenth-century Bibles. He explains that, “My goal is to find out how lay Protestants and Catholics read their bibles, if there were confessional differences in their readings, what passages they read most, etc. I am especially interested in any readers’ marks such as underlining, marginalia, etc. that might provide clues as to how they interpreted what they read. Having been an archive rat for my entire career, I am now fully immersed in material culture and now use books as material objects rather than just texts.” He was also elected president of the Society for Reformation Research for 2010-2011.

Nancy Locklin, Ph.D. 2000, has published Women’s Work and Identity in Eighteenth-century Brittany (Ashgate, 2007). She received the Outstanding Teacher Award at Maryville College in 2005.  She is at Maryville College (Maryville, TN), and is now the chair of the core curriculum. She has an article coming out in the Journal of Women’s History in 2011.

Felicia Goodman, B.A./M.A. 2009, is working at Columbia University as an Admissions Officer for Columbia Business School. She writes that she loves “my job and living in New York City. Hoping to admit some wonderful young historians!”

Daniel Krebs, Ph.D. 2007, has a book manuscript under contract with the University of Oklahoma Press, After The Battle: German Prisoners of War During the American Revolution. He teaches at the University of Louisville and specializes in Colonial and Revolutionary American & Military History.

Johanna Rickman, Ph. D. 2004, is an Assistant Professor of History at Gainesville State College.  She published Love, Lust and License in Early Modern England: Illicit Sex and the Nobility with Ashgate in 2008.   In 2010, she taught in a study abroad program in Germany at Linz am Rhein.

Howard Louthan, B.A./M.A. 1986, professor of history at the University of Florida, was awarded the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History (Honorable Mention) for Converting Bohemia: Force and Persuasion in the Catholic Reformation (Cambridge, 2009) as an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe or Eurasia in the field of history.  His new edited volume, Diversity and Dissenting: Negotiating Difference in Central Europe, will be appearing this spring with Berghahn Press.

Polly. J. Price, B.A./M.A. 1986, joined the Emory Law School faculty in 1995 and is Professor of Law and an Associated Faculty member of the Department of History. She recently published Judge Richard S. Arnold: A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench (Prometheus Books 2009). In 2007-2008, she held a senior fellowship at Emory’s Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry.  She also held the Frances Hare Visiting Professor of Tort Law at the University of Alabama in 2006.

Laura Kim, B.A. 2007, worked after graduation for the Sonoma County Economic Development Board coordinating a green business certification program. Since then, she has moved back home to Miami to help her parents with their business. She is also working for EcoWorks International, an NGO dedicated to rural development in Haiti. EcoWorks is planning to build an egg farm in Ganthier (a county about 30 miles east of Port-au-Prince), which will serves as the economic engine of the community. The profits from the egg farm will be re-invested in the community and help finance EcoWorks education & literacy programs and infrastructure improvements. Right now they are in the process of raising the money they need to start the egg farm. Among other activities, they have been involved in an event called “Art for a Cause,” which coincided with Art Basel Miami.