Category / Awards

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Klibanoff Named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Professor Hank Klibanoff, James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism and Associated Faculty in the History Department, is among four Emory faculty members who have recently been named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies, the Academy is also a leading center for independent policy research. Read Klibanoff’s biography below and learn about the other Emory faculty members selected here: “Four Emory professors named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences.”

“Hank Klibanoff is a veteran journalist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Peabody Award-winning podcast host. He co-authored ‘The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation,’ which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for history. Prior to joining Emory, he was a reporter and editor for more than 35 years, holding reporting and editing positions in Mississippi, The Boston Globe and The Philadelphia Inquirer, and serving as a managing editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“Klibanoff is director of the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project at Emory, for which students examine Georgia’s modern civil rights history through investigation of unpunished racially motivated murders. His podcast based on the project, titled “Buried Truths,” produced by public radio station WABE, was the winner of Peabody, Robert F. Kennedy and Edward R. Murrow awards.”

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History Major Isabel Coyle Wins George P. Cuttino Scholarship

Congratulations to junior History Major Isabel Coyle on winning a George P. Cuttino Scholarship for Independent Research Abroad. Coyle will conduct research in France for her Honors thesis over the summer of 2022. She will also be a Halle Institute Undergraduate Global Research Fellow. Her working title is “Immigration, Race, and Assimilation in France, 1962-1975.”

She writes that Prof. Judith A. Miller’s “support has helped me so much, and I have such great memories from the French Revolution class as well as the Origins of Capitalism class.” She owes “a lot to Dr. Maria Montalvo, who taught the first history class I ever took at Emory and is one of the reasons I decided to major in history.”

The prize is named for Prof. George Cuttino (1914-1991), who taught at Emory for 32 years. He was a beloved professor and held the Candler Chair in Medieval History. He was a two-time Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and chaired the Emory History Department in the early 1970’s before retiring in 1984.

The summer fellowship recipients will present their research to the department at an event this coming fall semester.

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Loren & Gail Starr Award in Experiential Learning Awarded to History Major Kheyal Roy-Meighoo

The Department of History is delighted to award one of the new Loren & Gail Starr Awards in Experiential Learning to Honors student and film studies major Kheyal Roy-Meighoo for the Summer of 2022. She will create short animated film, “Backwards,” about the historical connections between the Covid-19 pandemic and Asian exclusion laws.

Kheyal’s work in stop motion films has been winning praise. Last December, she received the Women in Film and Television Atlanta 2021 Scholarship. Recent projects include “The Great Escape” & “My Bunny’s Story.” Check out her YouTube channel: www.tinyurl.com/KheyalRM.

She writes that “All of the History faculty I have taken classes from have been fantastic!” and praises the department for being so supportive. “It has always encouraged me to draw on my love of film in my historical studies,” she explains. She expressed special thanks to her advisor, Prof. Chris Suh, who has encouraged Kheyal to make films since her first year at Emory. Kheyal notes that “Not only has he taught me so much about Asian American history, but he has taught me how Asian American filmmakers have tacked historical (and current) social and political issues.”

Established in 2022 through a generous donation, the Loren & Gail Starr Award provides summer funding for experiential learning projects proposed by History majors, joint majors, or minors​. The Starr Award is intended to support students who wish to use the knowledge and skills they have acquired in history courses to create or participate in projects in settings outside of the classroom. Bold, creative, and off-the-beaten path proposals are encouraged. The only rule is that engagement with the past be central to the experience undertaken by the student. We will offer a second round of these awards in the fall. 

We look forward to seeing “Backwards” at the end of the summer! This fall, all of the winners of our summer funding awards will make presentations on their projects and their research experiences to the History Department. 

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History Major Wittika Chaplet Wins George P. Cuttino Scholarship

Congratulations to junior History Major Wittika Chaplet on winning a George P. Cuttino Scholarship for Independent Research Abroad. Chaplet will conduct research in France and Burkina Faso for her Honors thesis over the summer of 2022. Her working title is “West African Visions of a Verdant Urban Future: A Microhistory of Burkina Faso’s Urban Gardens.”

She writes that “Dr. Clifton Crais, Dr. Thomas Rogers, Dr. Mariana Candido, & Dr. Susan Gagliardi have been wonderfully supportive through the process of proposing my honor’s thesis.” Moreover, “Dr. Anouar El Younssi supported me from the very beginning of my time at Emory & has been immensely helpful over the past three years.”

The prize is named for Prof. George Cuttino (1914-1991), who taught at Emory for 32 years. He was a beloved professor and held the Candler Chair in Medieval History. He was a two-time Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and chaired the Emory History Department in the early 1970’s before retiring in 1984.

The summer fellowship recipients will present their research to the department at an event this coming fall semester.

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Katie Wilson Named LGS’s Outstanding Program Administrator in the Humanities for 2022

From left to right: Katie Wilson, Humanities; Roberta Lynn, Cancer Biology; Renee Sevy-Hasterok, Economics; Joanna Young, Bioethics; Kimberly Jacob Arriola, Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs and Dean of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies; Jeffrey K. Staton, Senior Associate Dean of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies.

Congratulations to Katie Wilson, Senior Graduate Academic Degree Program Coordinator, on receiving the Laney Graduate School’s Outstanding Program Administrator in the Humanities Award. 2022 is the inaugural year for the award. The faculty, staff, and students of the History Department are delighted that Wilson has received this recognition for her 11 years of outstanding work in the Department.

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Chira Receives NEH Summer Stipend and Postdoc at Harvard

Dr. Adriana Chira, Assistant Professor of History, has been awarded two external grants to support work on her new project, “In the Plantations’ Shadow: Black Peasants and Land Claims in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Spanish Equatorial Guinea, 1850-1950.” Chira received an NEH Summer Stipend for this coming summer and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History at Harvard University for AY 2022-23 to work on the same project. Chira’s first book, Patchwork Freedoms: Law, Slavery, and Race Beyond Cuba’s Plantations, was published by Cambridge earlier this year. Congratulations, Professor Chira!

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History Major Alex Levine Wins George P. Cuttino Prize in European History

Congratulations to Emory History major Alex Levine, who has won the George P. Cuttino Prize in European history. The Prize is given to the graduating senior with the best record in European History.  Levin will teach English in Greenland next year on a Fulbright.

Levine notes that Dr. Brian Vick has been an extremely important, intellectually stimulating, and caring mentor. Dr. Tonio Andrade and Dr. Teresa Davis have also been valuable mentors and role models. The encouragement of these three professors has been very meaningful to Alex. Among the most influential classes he took were Dr. Andrade’s “China & the World” colloquium, which has helped him better conceptualize the modern “West,” and Dr. Tehila Sasson’s graduate course, “After Empire.”

This prize was established in 1984 to honor Professor George P. Cuttino on the occasion of his retirement after thirty-two years’ service in the Department of History.

The award will be officially presented at the department’s Senior Celebration on Wednesday, April 27.

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History Majors Charak, Coleman, Levitt, and Russell Initiated into Phi Beta Kappa

 Hannah, Ben, & Chanelle are pictured here, along with Haley Rubin, who has taken many History Dept. courses. Ayriel Coleman not pictured here.

Four History majors were recently initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Emory. They are: Hannah Charak, Ayriel Coleman, Ben Levitt, and Channelle Russell. They were among just 35 Emory seniors inducted into the organization. Phi Beta Kappa’s Gamma Chapter of Georgia was established at Emory University on April 5th, 1929. Congratulations!

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Phi Beta Kappa Recognizes Emory History Faculty for Excellence in Teaching

The Phi Beta Kappa Gamma Chapter of Georgia at Emory recently recognized four History Department faculty members for excellence in teaching. The faculty members are:

The faculty members were recognized at the spring initiation ceremony on April 14, 2022.

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Lesser Named 2022 Eleanor Main Graduate Faculty Mentor

Congratulations to Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History and Director of the Halle Institute for Global Research, on receiving the 2022 Eleanor Main Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. Named for an extraordinary Emory faculty member, mentory, and leader, the Main award has the following aims: to recognize outstanding faculty who are engaged in the Emory/LGS community and academic or professional communities related to their discipline through mentorship; to legitimize the importance of mentoring of graduate students within the larger context of graduate education; and to foster mentoring of the highest quality. Lesser’s nomination was supported by faculty in multiple programs across campus as well as PhD program alumni, who cited him as an inspiring mentor of graduate students. The award will be presented at the 2022 commencement ceremony.