Emory undergraduate students recently contributed their original research projects to the website of the History of Skiing & Snowsports course. Dr. Judith A. Miller, Associate Professor, has offered this innovative class since the spring semester of 2021. This year’s 24 student contributions tackle a range of compelling subjects, from the history of affordable housing in Aspen to the development of adaptive technologies that enable disabled persons to ride the slopes. View the full collection of student research, encompassing three years of the course’s offering, on the History of Skiing & Snowsports website.
Month / June 2023
Lipstadt Front and Center amid Biden Administration’s Effort to Combat Antisemitism
Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and the US Ambassador to monitor and combat antisemitism, was front and center at the recent release of the Biden Administration’s plan to combat rising hate, bias, and violence against Jews. The first-of-its-kind policy, dubbed the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, outlines more than 100 steps that the US government and other stakeholders can take to combat antisemitism. Lipstadt participated in the unveiling of the strategy at the White House alongside Doug Emhoff, spouse of Vice President Kamala Harris, White House domestic policy advisor Susan Rice, and homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall. Lipstadt described the strategy as a “historic moment in the modern fight against what’s known as the world’s oldest hatred.” Read more about the plan and the event via the AP News article “Biden releases new strategy to tackle rise in antisemitism, says ‘hate will not prevail’.”
Webster Awarded a 2023 NISS Dissertation Grant
Fourth-year doctoral candidate Anjuli Webster has been awarded a 2023 dissertation grant from the National Institute of Social Sciences. The NISS grant will support research for Webster’s dissertation, titled “Fluid Empires: Histories of Environment and Sovereignty in southern Africa, 1750-1900.” History department faculty members Clifton Crais, Mariana P. Candido, Yanna Yannakakis, and Thomas D. Rogers serve as advisors for Webster’s dissertation. The NISS typically awards no more than four grants each year, spanning the fields of Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology.
Olivia Cocking Receives Prestigious Chateaubriand Fellowship
Fourth-year doctoral candidate Olivia Cocking has received a prestigious Chateaubriand Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), a grant administered by the Cultural Services of the Embassy of France in the United States. The fellowship will support research in France for Cocking’s dissertation, which examines how migrants from the French empire navigated municipal courts and social welfare programs in the metropole between 1919 and the 1960s. Cocking’s dissertation is advised by Drs. Judith A. Miller and Tehila Sasson.
Nine History Doctoral Students Recognized at May 2023 Commencement
At the May 2023 Emory Commencement nine PhD candidates from the History Department were recognized for completing their degrees. Some of the students received their diplomas in the summer or fall of 2022 but were not honored until the 2023 ceremony. The students represent more than seven areas of research specialization and are pursuing an array of professional positions inside and outside the academy. In the table below, find the names, advisors, and dissertations of these recently-minted PhDs.
Allitt Offers Historical Context on Charles’s Coronation Ceremony
Dr. Patrick N. Allitt, Cahoon Professor of American History, was quoted early last month in a HuffPost article in the lead up to the coronation of King Charles of England. A native of England and specialist in American intellectual, environmental, and religious history as well as Victorian Britain, Allitt offered historical context for one of the key aspects of the ceremony: the king’s anointing. This part of the ceremony is both the most sacred and the most shrouded in secrecy. Read an excerpt of Allitt’s comments below along with the full article here: “We Won’t Even Get To See The Most Sacred Part Of King Charles’ Coronation.”
Patrick Allitt, a professor of American history at Atlanta’s Emory University, elaborated further on the anointing, telling HuffPost by email Thursday that “the idea is that the monarch is appointed not by the people but by God.” It’s a notion that he said “was held with special force in the 1600s.”
“I don’t suppose that anyone still believes that God chooses the king, but the British monarch is still the head of the Church of England,” Allitt said. “The secrecy surrounding the anointing is a way of emphasizing that it is the symbol of a contract between king and God rather than king and people.”