The digital memorial and database project SlaveVoyages, spearheaded by Emeritus Professor David Eltis and maintained by numerous Emory faculty and alumni, was recently featured in an article in The New York Times. The piece, “We Still Can’t See American Slavery for What It Was,” provides an overview of the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans as well as the history of SlaveVoyages itself. Originating in the 1960s, the database was recently expanded with a new section titled “Oceans of Kinfolk” that includes information on trafficking within North America in the first half of the nineteenth century. The New York Times columnist, Jamelle Bouie, situates this expansion in the context of a broader reflection about how data on slave trafficking can provide access to or, alternatively, obscure the lived experiences of the enslaved. The Steering Committee of SlaveVoyages includes the following Emory History faculty and alumni: Allen E. Tullos (Professor, Emory History Department), Alex Borucki (PhD 11, Associate Professor, UC-Irvine), and Daniel B. Domingues da Silva (PhD 11, Associate Professor, Rice University). Read Bouie’s article here: “We Still Can’t See American Slavery for What It Was.”
Category / Faculty
Lipstadt in ‘NYT’: “For Jews, Going to Services Is an Act of Courage”
Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, recently published a piece in The New York Times. In the guest essay Lipstadt addresses increasing anti-Semitic violence in the United States, including at synagogues such as the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, where a gunman took three hostages last month. Read an excerpt from Lipstadt’s piece below along with the full article: “For Jews, Going to Services Is an Act of Courage.”
“I have not walked through the main entrance to my synagogue since October 2018, after the shootings at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue. For over three years now, that door has remained locked. When I asked why, I was told, “It’s too wide open; it can’t be made secure.” I understood. You won’t find wide-open doors at any synagogue in Europe or North America. It is only after you get past the guards that you find welcome, though welcome is still there for those who seek it.
“It is not just the large synagogues that fear for security. I hear from students that they think twice about going to Hillel services, the campus Jewish chaplaincy. Some out of fear for physical safety. Some out of worry about the slings and barbs that might come from other students in the dorm. I met parents whose child had been accepted to a very selective college. He wears a kipa and was struggling with whether to replace it for the next four years with a baseball cap. Increasingly I hear: Jews are contemplating going underground.
“We are shaken. We are not OK. But we will bounce back. We are resilient because we cannot afford not to be. That resiliency is part of the Jewish DNA. Without it, we would have disappeared centuries ago. We refuse to go away. But we are exhausted.“
Anderson Appears on MSNBC’s ‘Ayman’ and ‘All In With Chris Hayes’
Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African-American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently a guest on two MSNBC programs. Anderson discussed contemporary politics, including on issues relating to voting rights, in historical perspective on the shows ‘Ayman’ and ‘All In With Chris Hayes.’ She is author, most recently, of The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). Watch the MSNBC segments featuring Anderson here: ‘Ayman‘ and ‘All In With Chris Hayes.’
Daniel LaChance Named 2022-23 Chronos Fellow
Congratulations to Dr. Daniel LaChance on receiving the 2022-23 Chronos Faculty Fellowship in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. LaChance, the Winship Distinguished Research Professor in History, 2020-23, and Associate Professor of History, is the third recipient of the award. A year of paid leave and research stipend will support the completion of LaChance’s next book, Empathy for the Devil: Executions in the American Imagination. Undergraduate students will work alongside LaChance as research assistants on this project. Read more about the fellowship and Empathy for the Devil here: “Emory historian Daniel LaChance named 2022-23 Chronos Fellow.”
Dudziak Quoted in ‘AJC’ Article on GA 2022 Elections
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently quoted Dr. Mary L. Dudziak, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law and Associated Faculty in the History Department, in an article about Georgia state politics and the 2022 elections. The piece provides an overview of divides among republicans in Georgia, as well as the implications of those cleavages for democratic candidates, in advance of the 2022 elections. Read an excerpt from the article citing Dudziak below along with the full piece: “As 2022 dawns, Georgia Republicans focus on 2020 election.”
“‘The emergency lights are on. The threat to democracy is real and the need to safeguard the electoral system in Georgia is urgent,’ said Mary Dudziak, an Emory University law professor who has written extensively on the intersection of race, civil rights and foreign policy during the Cold War.”
Anderson Describes “Jim Crow 2.0” on ‘Democracy Now’
Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African-American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was a guest on Democracy Now on the one-year anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Anderson critiques Republican efforts to limit voting access, especially for Black voters, by promoting baseless claims about voter fraud. Watch Anderson discuss “Jim Crow 2.0” with host Amy Goodman here: “‘White Rage’ Author Carol Anderson: GOP Attack on ‘Election Fraud’ Really an Attack on Black Voters.”
Anderson and Klibanoff Discuss Arbery Case on ‘Closer Look’
Two associated faculty in the History Department – Dr. Carol Anderson (African American Studies) and Hank Klibanoff (Creative Writing) – were recently interviewed on Closer Look with Rose Scott, a program produced by Atlanta’s NPR affiliate WABE. Anderson and Klibanoff discussed the recent convictions and sentencing of the three men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery. Anderson is the author, most recently, of The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). Klibanoff is the host of the WABE podcast Buried Truths, which dedicated its third season to the Arbery’s life and murder. Listen to the full Closer Look interview 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.‘”
Klibanoff Discusses DOJ’s Decision to Close Emmett Till Case
Hank Klibanoff, James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently a guest on “Closer Look,” a program produced by the Atlanta NPR affiliate WABE. Klibanoff discussed the decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to once again close its investigation into the murder of Emmett Till. The cold case was reopened in 2004 and again in 2017. Klibanoff hosts the “Buried Truths” podcast and serves as the director of the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project at Emory. Listen to Klibanoff’s conversation with host Rose Scott here: “Local professor discusses the Department of Justice’s decision to close Emmett Till case.”
Lowery’s Indigenous History Course Engages Students in Spirited Debate
In her first semester at Emory, Cahoon Family Professor of American History Malinda Maynor Lowery adopted a novel approach to her course “Legal History of Native Peoples.” With the support of Emory’s Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation and Dialogue, Lowery embedded student-led debate into the foundation of the course. Through debate and independent research, the students and Lowery studied contemporary laws in the historical context of indigenous communities and their legal systems. Read the Emory News Center’s full profile of the course for more: “Indigenous history course uses debate format to create broad engagement.”