Month / January 2021

by abritt

Anderson Identifies Post-Election Voter Suppression Efforts in GA

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, offered analysis in TIME of voter suppression efforts in Georgia following the 2020 general election and January runoff elections for Georgia’s two senate seats. Anderson’s most recent book is One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2018). Read an excerpt from the piece below along with the full article: “After Georgia Flips Blue, Voting Rights Advocates Brace for New Voting Restrictions.”

“Some voting rights advocates and experts don’t buy that reasoning. ‘It’s bull,’ says Carol Anderson, chair of African American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. ‘So what we’re saying is that when you know you’ve sent out XYZ millions of ballots and you know the kinds of statistical returns you’re going to have on that, that you’re not going to provide the staffing to handle it?’

“She feels lawmakers’ sudden interest in alleged fraud in mail voting is entirely politically motivated. ‘It was the use of those absentee ballots, particularly by folks who haven’t used them before that…helped flip the state blue,’ she says. ‘Let’s be real clear here. The Republicans would not be looking at this if… you hadn’t had the use by African Americans of mail-in voting absentee ballots.'”

by abritt

Crespino Offers Insights on Legacies of Trump Presidency for ‘The Washington Post’

The Washington Post featured Dr. Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of History and Department Chair, in an article on the legacies of the Trump presidency. White House reporter David Nakamura wrote the piece, titled “As Trump’s presidency recedes into history, scholars seek to understand his reign — and what it says about American democracy.” Crespino is an expert in the political and cultural history of the twentieth century United States and of the history of the American South since Reconstruction. His most recent book is Atticus Finch: The Biography—Harper Lee, Her Father, and the Making of an American Icon (Basic Books, 2018). Read an excerpt from the article below along with the full piece here.

“I wonder if there will be the same documentation of Trump’s own decision-making and processes that we have with other presidents,” said Joseph Crespino, a history professor at Emory University in Atlanta. “He’s not a reader or a note-taker or a memo writer. That will be a challenge.”

by abritt

Bhattacharyya’s ‘Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta’ Available Open Access

Dr. Debjani Bhattacharyya‘s (PhD, ’14) Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta (Cambridge UP, 2018) has recently been made available open access by Cambridge University Press. The monograph, which was Bhattacharyya’s first, won the 2019 honorable mention for the best book in Urban History from the Urban History Association. Bhattacharyya is Associate Professor of History at Drexel University.

by abritt

Chira Organizes CLAH Roundtable “Freedom Before the Age of Revolution”

Dr. Adriana Chira, Assistant Professor of History, organized a roundtable for the recent virtual conference organized by the Conference on Latin American History. Titled “Freedom Before the Age of Revolution,” the conversation brought Chira into conversation with Fernanda Bretones (University of Florida), Mariana L. Dantas (Ohio University), Mary E. Hicks (Amherst College), and Alexandre Pelegrino (Vanderbilt University).

by abritt

Strocchia Named to Editorial Board of ‘The Journal of Modern History’

Dr. Sharon T. Strocchia, Professor of History, has been named to the editorial board of the Journal of Modern History. The JMH is one of the world’s leading journals for the study of all varieties of European history. Strocchia’s specializations include: the social and cultural history of Renaissance Italy; gender and sexuality in early modern Europe; and health and medicine in the premodern world. Her most recent (and prize-winning) book is Forgotten Healers: Women and the Pursuit of Health in Late Renaissance Italy (Harvard UP, 2019).

by abritt

Lesser Interviewed by Radio France International on Storming of U.S. Capitol

Radio France International recently interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Lesser about the insurrection and attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The interview (in Portuguese) is headlined, “‘It was an attack on democracy and an example of racism,’ says historian about the invasion of the American Congress.” Lesser is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History and Director of the Halle Institute for Global Learning.

by abritt

Yannakakis Contributes to Collaborative Article in the American Society for Legal History’s ‘The Docket’

Dr. Yanna Yannakakis, 2018-2021 Winship Distinguished Research Professorship in History and Associate Professor, recently contributed to a collaborative article in the American Society for Legal History’s The Docket. Yannakakis’s piece, “Legal Performances in the Boundary Lands: Violence, Objects, and Indigenous Claims in Colonial Mexico,” is one of five contributions to a broader article titled “The Everyday Materials of Colonial Legal Spaces.” That article includes a piece by Yannakakis’s frequent collaborator, Dr. Bianca Premo (Florida International University). Read more via the links below as well as at The Docket.

by abritt

Smith’s ‘Talking Therapy’ Wins American Journal of Nursing Book Award

Dr. Kylie M. Smith has won the 2020 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award in History and Public Policy for her work Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing (Rutgers UP, 2020). Smith is Associate Professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and Associated Faculty in the History Department. Talking Therapy previously won the 2020 Lavinia L. Dock Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing. Read more about the work below and at the Rutgers UP website.

by abritt

Strocchia to Present at Virtual Conference “In Sickness and in Health”

Dr. Sharon T. Strocchia, Professor of History, will present at the upcoming virtual conference “In Sickness and in Health: Pestilence, Disease, and Healing in Medieval and Early Modern Art.” Strocchia’s talk, “Picturing the Pox in Italian Popular Prints, 1550-1650,” centers on syphilis Renaissance Art. Read more below and register for the conference here.

by abritt

Lesser Featured in ‘TV Justiça’ Documentary about Immigration and Brazil

Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor and Director of the Halle Institute for Global Learning, was recently interviewed for a documentary program titled “Immigrants Part I: Brazil’s formation.” The program is the first in a series about immigration produced by TV Justiça. Lesser is an expert on ethnicity, immigration, and race, especially in Brazil. Watch the first episode in the documentary series below along with the second one here: “Immigrants, Part 2: In search of a nation.”