Lesser Awarded Fulbright for Research in Brazil

Congratulations to Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History and Director of the Halle Institute for Global Research, for being awarded a Fulbright Research Grant in Brazil. Lesser’s project is titled, “Structural Health: Immigrants, the State, and the Built Environment in São Paulo, 1870-2020.” Luis Ferla at the Federal University of São Paulo and Fernando Cosentino of the Bom Retiro Public Health Clinic will host Lesser while he conducts archival research and fieldwork with the Brazilian National Health Service medical team. Read more about the project here.

Brandeis Awards Anderson the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize

Brandeis University has awarded Dr. Carol Anderson the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize, given to those who have “made outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and religious relationships.” The prize, which comes with a medal and $25,000, recognizes Anderson’s leading work on how racial inequality intersects with public policy in the United States, past and present. Anderson’s books include White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (Bloomsbury, 2016), One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2018), and The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). Anderson is Charles Howard Candler Professor, Chair of African-American Studies, and Associated Faculty in the History Department. Read more about her work at the Emory News Center here.

Anderson Featured on “‘The Nation’s Annual Honor Roll”

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently featured on The Nation’s 2022 Honor Roll. Author John Nichols’s described Anderson as a “Historian Who Explains Now” in the piece, titled “These Progressives Fought the Good Fight in 2021—and Gave Us Hope for 2022.” Read the magazine’s feature of Anderson below and take a look at the full list of honorees here.

The Emory University professor employs deep historical analyses to identify the roots of current crises, and in 2021 her voice was vital. In her latest book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury), Anderson revealed how the Second Amendment has been used to arm and empower white supremacists from the founding of the republic to the night Kyle Rittenhouse started shooting in Kenosha, Wis. And in a column for The Guardian on impunity, titled “White Supremacists Declare War on Democracy and Walk Away Unscathed,” Anderson explained why the Capitol insurrectionists felt so confident that they could attack the very underpinnings of our democracy. ‘American democracy’s most dangerous adversary is white supremacy,’ Anderson wrote. ‘Throughout this nation’s history, white supremacy has undermined, twisted and attacked the viability of the United States. What makes white supremacy so lethal, however, is not just its presence but also the refusal to hold its adherents fully accountable for the damage they have done and continue to do to the nation. The insurrection on 6 January and the weak response are only the latest example.‘”

Senior History Major Annie Li Wins Prestigious Marshall Scholarship

Annie Li in front of Bowden Hall

Congratulations to senior Annie Li, a history and sociology double major, on being selected for the prestigious Marshall Scholarship. Li is one of 41 students selected nationwide for the award, which supports up to three years of graduate study at any institution in the U.K. As the Emory News Report explains, “Li will pursue a master’s of philosophy with a focus on Christian ethics at the University of Oxford, researching the theological motivations behind transnational social movements. The work expands on her honors thesis, which examines the motivations of Chinese-American activists from San Francisco’s Presbyterian Church in Chinatown (PCC) who participated in the Civil Rights Movement in the South and the Asian American Movement in the West.” Li’s honors thesis, “Chinese-American Christians in the Civil Rights Movement, 1963-1968,” was advised by Dr. Chris Suh, Assistant Professor of History. Read more about Li’s award here: “Emory senior Annie Li selected as a Marshall Scholar for study in U.K.”

Dr. Mariana Candido Elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Congratulations to Dr. Mariana Candido, Associate Professor of History, on being elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. This honor recognizes Candido’s outstanding scholarship on the history of slavery, the Atlantic slave trade, African history, and women and the African diaspora. The 150-year-old Royal Historical Society is the foremost organization in the UK, representing history as a discipline and historians as a group.

Strocchia’s ‘Forgotten Healers’ Wins the Rossiter Prize from the History of Science Society

Dr. Sharon T. Strocchia’s book Forgotten Healers: Women and the Pursuit of Health in Late Renaissance Italy (Harvard UP, 2020) has been awarded the Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize from the History of Science Society. The prize is given annually in recognition of an outstanding book on the history of women in science. Forgotten Healers was also awarded the Marraro Prize by the Society for Italian Historical Studies and the Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize from the Renaissance Society of America. Strocchia is Department Chair and Professor of History. Read more about the Rossiter Prize and browse the list of past winners here.

History Department Announces 2021-’22 Graduate Award Winners

Congratulations to the graduate students who won 2021-’22 awards in the History Department. These awards were formally announced at the fall Department of History party on Friday, October 29. See the names of the winners and details below.

The Ross H. and May B. McLean Prize, awarded annually to the first-year student/s in history who achieved the most distinguished record for the previous year.

The Francis S. Benjamin Prize, awarded for the best paper written by a graduate student during their first two years in the Emory History PhD program.

The Blair Rogers Major and James Russell Major Dissertation Award, given annually to the most promising student writing a dissertation in the history of Europe and of European expansion (including the British Isles), from classical antiquity to the present. 

*As one-time special exception, due to COVID-19 and the inability to award it in 2020-21, two awards were granted in 2021-22.

Patterson Appointed Distinguished Visiting Humanities Professor at Agnes Scott College

Dr. Cynthia Burchell Patterson, Professor of History and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, has been appointed the Dabney Adams Hart Distinguished Visiting Humanities Professor at Agnes Scott College for Spring 2022. The Dabney Adams Hart Distinguished Visiting Humanities Professorship was established in 2003 by Madeline and Howell E. Adams, Jr. in honor of his sister, Dabney Hart ’48. This fund welcomes visiting scholars to campus in a variety of topics and disciplines.

2020-’21 Clio Prize Winners Announced

The Emory History Dept. Undergraduate Committee recently announced the winners of the 2021-’21 Clio Prizes. These awards are given annually for the best research paper in a junior/senior History Colloquium and to the best paper in a Freshman History Seminar. Browse past winners here and see the 2021-22 recipients below:

The Clio Prize for the best paper written in a freshman seminar has been awarded to:

Julia Pecau

Paper title:  “Justice in Medieval Europe”

Nominated by Prof. Michelle Armstrong-Partida

The Clio Prize for the best research paper written in a junior/senior colloquium has been awarded to:

Alex Levine

Paper title: “‘The Most Potent of All Human Agencies’: Missionary Printing and the Development of the Chinese Indigenous Church”

Nominated by Prof. Tonio Andrade

Graduate Student Olivia Cocking Wins Snell Memorial Essay Prize from Southern Historical Association

Congratulations to second-year graduate student Olivia Cocking on winning the 2021 John L. Snell Memorial Prize from the European History Section of the Southern Historical Association. The prize recognizes the best graduate seminar paper in European History. Cocking was awarded for her piece, “Pronatalism’s Peripheries: Housing Poor Women in Early Third Republic Paris, 1880 – 1912.” Associate Professor Judith A. Miller advises Cocking’s graduate work.