Category / Alumni

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Debjani Bhattacharyya (Ph.D., 2014) Writes About Predatory Publishing in AHA’s ‘Perspectives’

Drexel University Assistant Professor of History and 2014 Emory Ph.D. Debjani Bhattacharyya recently authored a piece for the American Historical Association’s newsmagazine, Perspectives. Bhattacharyya, a specialist on Modern South Asian History, discusses exploitative publishing practices and the culture of academic publishing broadly. Read the excerpt below along with the full piece, “When a Journal is a Scam: How Some Publications Prey on Scholarship as Public Good.”

Apart from warning our students and colleagues about predatory journals, there is a larger question we as a profession need to answer. How do we create conditions where we can prioritize the twin imperatives behind publishing our work: to be heard and to listen? These things take time. It takes time to write out early ideas, have them read by a fresh pair of eyes, be exposed to new literature, rethink the argument, and then revise and rewrite. In an ideal world, each article would be an invitation to a dialogue about a question and ultimately an attempt to create a public good. And yet, all of this must happen within a very truncated time frame given the “publish or perish” atmosphere. How do we as a profession acknowledge the realities of this mandate, while still guaranteeing the quality of peer-reviewed scholarship?

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Dr. Danielle Wiggins (PhD, 2018) on Black Progressives and the Democratic Party in ‘The Washington Post’

Recent doctoral program graduate Danielle Wiggins (PhD, 2018) authored an article in The Washington Post. Wiggins’ piece examines how Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1980s presidential campaigns laid the groundwork for contemporary black progressives in the Democratic party. Wiggins is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia. Read the article here: “The black progressives remaking the Democratic Party.”

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Emory History Department Well Represented at Decatur Book Festival

Emory History Department faculty, alumni, and current students are among the presenting authors at this year’s AJC Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the country. 2018 marks the first year that Emory University is a presenting sponsor. See the presentations of authors associated with the History Department below, and explore the full schedule here.

  • Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of History and History Department Chair. “Atticus Finch: A Biography.” Sept. 2, 3:45-4:30 p.m., Decatur Presbyterian Sanctuary.
  • Ruby Lal, Professor of South Asian History, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies and Associated Faculty in History. “Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan.” Sept. 1, 3-3:45 p.m., Marriott Conference Center B.
  • Hank Klibanoff, Professor of Practice, Creative Writing. “Understanding our Painful Past: Investigating the Impact of Lynchings Through Voice and Prose.” Sept. 1, 5:30-6:15 p.m., Decatur Presbyterian Sanctuary.
  • Edward Hatfield, Managing Editor of the “New Georgia Encyclopedia.” Hatfield will introduce Joseph Crespino. Sept. 2, 3:45-4:30 p.m., Decatur Presbyterian Sanctuary.
  • Michelle Oppong-Ampofo, Poet, Emory College Junior, and History Department Work-Study Student. Oppong-Ampofo will read her poetry on Sunday, Sept. 2, 4:40-6 p.m.
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Alumni Update: Fulbright ETA Andrew Shifren (’17 College) Teaches English in Indonesia

The Emory History Department welcomes updates from alumni. Below, 2017 graduate Andrew Shifren describes his recent arrival in Indonesia on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship.

andrew-shifren-indonesia

I’ve now spent about a week in my placement, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, where I will be living for the next 10 months. So far Indonesia has defied many of my expectations. It is isolating, but also incredibly eye-opening and motivates me to learn the language (Bahasa Indonesia) like nothing else could.  My town is the launching point for tours of the Komodo Islands and the surrounding coral reefs. In my free time I hope to snorkel and dive. The politics and history of Komodo National Park is fascinating and something I hope to learn more about. The teaching is going to be difficult, but I am looking forward to it. I teach eight 35-person classrooms per week with very little organizational help from the school. Most of the students hope to secure the well-paying tourism jobs that are popping up as hotels are built in the town and more and more tourist come to tour the Komodos; English is really the key to their futures.

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Ashley Parcells (PhD, ’18) Publishes Article in ‘The Journal of African History’

Dr. Ashley Parcells, Assistant Professor of History at Jacksonville University, published an article in the July 2018 edition of The Journal of African History. The piece is titled “Rural Development, Royal History, and the Struggle for Authority in Early Apartheid Zululand (1951-4).” Parcells, a former student of Clifton Crais, graduated in the spring of 2018. Check out the article abstract below and read the full piece here.

“From 1951, apartheid officials sought to implement soil rehabilitation programs in Nongoma, the home district of Zulu Paramount Chief Cyprian Bhekuzulu. This article argues that these programs brought to the surface fundamental questions about political authority in South Africa’s hinterland during the first years of apartheid. These questions arose from ambiguities within native policy immediately after the passage of the 1951 Bantu Authorities Act: while the power of chiefs during the colonial and segregationist era in Zululand had been tied to their control of native reserve land, in Nongoma, these development interventions threatened that prerogative at the very moment apartheid policy sought to strengthen ‘tribal’ governance. In response, the Zulu royal family in Nongoma called on treaties with the British from the conquest era, colonial law, and the very language of apartheid to reassert chiefly control over land, and more importantly, to negotiate this new apartheid political order.”

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Michael Dublin, ’01 College Alumnus and History Major, was 2018 Commencement speaker

Emory alumnus and former History major Michael Dublin was the 2018 Commencement speaker at Emory in May. Dubin described the value of his time in Bowden Hall: “As a history major, or really as a major in any of the liberal arts, you are trained to be a great writer and to think clearly, and those are both skills that are incredibly important in business.” Read more about his Dubin and his commencement address here.

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History Alumnus Preston Hogue Publishes Honors Thesis on ‘Atlanta Studies’

History alumnus Preston Hogue recently published a revised version of his undergraduate honors thesis on Atlanta Studies. The multimedia piece is entitled, “The Tie that Binds: White Church Response to Neighborhood Racial Change in Atlanta, 1960-1985.” Hogue graduated with highest honors as a joint major in Religion and History in Spring 2013.

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History Graduate Program to Host Panel on Career Diversity

The Graduate Program of the Emory History Department will host a panel discussion titled “Beyond the Professoriate: Diverse Careers in History” on March 19. Panelists will include three former graduate students: Sarita Alami, a Brand Marketing Manager at MailChimp; Ed Hatfield, Editor of the New Georgia Encyclopedia; and Chris Sawula, Visual Resources Librarian in the Department of Art History at Emory.

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Dr. Ernest Freeberg (Ph.D., 1995) to Present at National Archives at Atlanta

Ph.D. alumnus Ernest Freeberg (1995) will return to Atlanta on September 16 to present at a symposium, The Great War Over Here: Stories from the Home Front, held at the National Archives at Atlanta. Freeberg is Department Head and Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the author of Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent (Harvard UP, 2010). View more details about the event here.