Congratulations to Dr. Tonio Andrade, whose book The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History (Princeton UP, 2016) won a Distinguished Book Award from The Society for Military History. Andrade is Professor of History at Emory University. The Gunpowder Age has received broad critical acclaim, including from the Wall Street Journal, which concluded: “The Gunpowder Age is a boldly argued, prodigiously researched and gracefully written work. This book has much to offer general readers, especially those with a passion for military history, as well as specialists.” Read more about the work and its reception on Andrade’s website.
Category / Awards
Dr. Tehila Sasson Wins International Research Award
Congratulations to Dr. Tehila Sasson, Assistant Professor of History and a new colleague in the Emory History Department, for receiving the International Global History Research Award for 2016. Given by the The Universities of Basel, Heidelberg and Sydney, the award supports Sasson’s proposed conference, titled “Global Histories of Natural Resources.” Read more about the award, conference, and Professor Sasson’s work here.
James V.H. Melton’s `Religion, Community, and Slavery on the Colonial Southern Frontier` Wins the Austrian Studies Book Prize
Congratulations to Dr. James V.H. Melton, Professor of History, whose most recent book was awarded the Austrian Studies Book Prize by the Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Melton’s work, Religion, Community, and Slavery on the Colonial Southern Frontier, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. The prize marks the second in as many years for an Emory historian of German-speaking Europe, following Professor Brian Vick‘s award last year for The Congress of Vienna: Power and Politics after Napoleon (Harvard University Press, 2014).
Professor Tonio Andrade Wins Article Prize from the Society for Medieval Military History
Dr. Tonio Andrade was awarded the Gillingham Prize for his article “Late Medieval Divergences: Comparative Perspectives on Early Gunpowder Warfare in Europe and China.” Andrade’s article appeared in the Journal of Medieval Military History in 2014. The Gillingham Prize is given annually by the Society for Medieval Military History to the best article by a member to appear in the preceding issue of the Journal of Medieval Military History.
Celebrating Emory History Graduating Seniors, 2016
This past April the History Department celebrated the accomplishments and contributions of senior majors and minors in the days before graduation. In addition to their leadership in other areas on campus, these students were celebrated as members of the History Honors Society (Phi Alpha Theta), history honors students, and/or recipients of a Department prize. The Department’s Senior Celebration was held on April 27 in the J. Russell Major Seminar Room.
Honors Students attending the Senior Celebration: (left to right, back row) Jane Chang, Emily Moore, Julia Wahl, Shannon Stillmun; (left to right, front row) Adam Goldstein, Gideon Weiss, Declan Hahn.
Members of the History Honors Society, Phi Alpha Theta, at the Senior Celebration: (left to right, back row) Julia Keating, Prof. Kathryn Amdur – Faculty Advisor, Julia Wahl, Emily Moore, Ami Fields-Meyer, Tom O’Leary; (left to right, front row) Adam Goldstein, Declan Hahn.
Senior Prize Recipients awarded at the Senior Celebration: (left to right) Declan Hahn – the Latin America & Non-Western World Prize; Julia Wahl – the George P. Cuttino Prize in European History; Adam Goldstein – the Matthew A. Carter Citizen-Scholar Award; Shannon Stillmun – the James Z. Rabun Prize in American History; Prof. Brian Vick, Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Roark Prize, Endowed by Young Alumni, Established to Support Undergraduate Research
Retiring Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of American History, Dr. Jim Roark, will be honored with a scholarship for undergraduate research bearing his name. The Roark Prize will support rising seniors in the History Department pursuing research in the United States relating to their honors thesis. The idea for the prize originated with two former history students, Ben Leiner (’14) and Naveed Amalfard (’14), who counted Roark as an inspiring mentor and professor. Read the Emory News Center’s full report on the prize here.
Graduating History Major, Ami Fields-Meyer, Named Emory College Class Orator
Following the university-wide commencement ceremony on May 9, senior history major Ami Fields-Meyer will speak to his fellow graduates as the class orator at the Emory College diploma ceremony. The Los Angeles native arrived at Emory with sights set on a career in politics as an elected official. A history class early on changed his perspective and led him to a major in History (along with a minor in African-American studies) instead of political science.
“[H]e took a history class focused on the history of inequality in the United States. Fields-Meyer discovered life as a self-described news junkie took on greater depth when he understood the historical context of current events.”
Fields-Meyer also highlights his experience in the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases course, co-taught by historian Brett Gadsden and Hank Klibanoff. Gadsden remembers Fields-Meyer fondly from the class: “One thing I’ve really admired is his efforts to bridge the past and the present, to really think about the gap between the two, and understand the echoes of history. That’s testimony to me of a dynamic mind.”
In addition to his accomplishments as a Dean’s Achievement Scholar, Fields-Meyer co-founded TableTalk, an initiative designed to spur conversations between groups at Emory that would not likely otherwise interact.
Read the full profile on Fields-Meyer here.
Three History Majors Recognized in Woodruff Library Undergraduate Research Award Contest
The panel of judges for the 2016 Woodruff Library Undergraduate Research Award recognized the outstanding scholarship of three History Department majors. Samantha Keng and Zixuan (Armstrong) Li each received $500 prizes for undergraduate research papers. Keng’s paper, sponsored by Professor Carol Anderson, is titled “Model Minority Awakenings: Vincent Chin, Asian America’s Emmett Till.” Li’s work, titled “Doner Kebab: Symbol of German Multiculturalism in the Turkish Immigration Question,” was supported by Dr. Astrid Eckert. A third History Department major, Emily Moore received an Honorable Mention. Titled “‘A Casket Full of Precious Memoirs’: The Town of Washington’s Conception of Its Own History,” Moore was sponsored by Dr. Leslie Harris. Congratulations to these students and their advisers on outstanding work. Descriptions of each piece can be found in the Emory Undergraduate Research Journal (EURJ) from pages 66-69. Also see the news release on the Woodruff library’s Scholar Blog.
From left to right: Emily Moore, Zixuan (Armstrong) Li, Samantha Keng, & Hannah Conway
Brian Vick Wins Hans Rosenberg Prize from the Central European History Society
Brian Vick, Associate Professor of History, recently won the Hans Rosenberg Book Prize from the Central European History Society. The award honors the best book in central European history published in English by permanent residents of North America. Vick received the award for The Congress of Vienna: Power and Politics after Napoleon (Harvard UP, 2014). Below is Prof. Vick’s description of the project.
“My most recent research explores questions of European culture and political culture at the Congress of Vienna, including the political engagement of women, the development of liberal and conservative politics, and the role of religious revival. This work also sounds the cultural and political meanings of the celebratory spectacle and display surrounding Napoleon’s defeat and the return of peace at the close of the wars against Napoleon, and it spotlights such less-studied but important aspects of Congress diplomacy as the struggles over Jewish rights in Germany, abolition of the African slave trade, and the problem of the Barbary corsairs…Along with related articles and essays, this work reassesses the nature and direction of European culture and political culture in their period of transition between the revolutionary era and the nineteenth century.”
Conis’ ‘Vaccine Nation’ Awarded Arthur J. Viseltear Prize from the American Public Health Association
Dr. Elena Conis‘ book Vaccine Nation: America’s Changing Relationship with Immunization has been awarded the Arthur J. Viseltear Prize from the American Public Health Association. The award is for an outstanding book or scholarly contribution to the history of public health.
