Category / Faculty

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Suddler Participates in Schomburg Center’s Conversations in Black Freedom Studies Series

Dr. Carl Suddler, Assistant Professor of History, recently participated in conversation hosted by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Titled “Resisting Carceral Cities: Prisons, Police & Punishment in Perspective,” the event centered on the rise of prisons and police and resistance to them in historical perspective. Suddler was joined by Garrett Felber (The University of Mississippi), author of Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement and the Carceral State (UNC Press, 2020), and Kelly Lytle Hernandez (UCLA), author of City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965 (UNC Press, 2017). Suddler is the author of Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York (New York University Press, 2019). Read more about the event here.

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Anderson Quoted in ‘WaPo’ Article on Black Voters’ Responses to Trump’s Baseless Fraud Claims

Dr. Carol Anderson was recently quoted in a Washington Post article titled “Anger builds in Black community over Trump’s claims of voter fraud in big cities.” The piece analyzes how Black voters have responded to Donald Trump’s accusations of voter fraud in cities with high populations of Black residents, such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, and Milwaukee. Anderson is Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department. Read an excerpt from the article quoting Anderson below along with the full piece.

“It’s as vile now as it was during Reconstruction, when Democrats believed that Republicans were illegitimate and that Black voters had no right to be voting, and they did all of these terrorist activities to block African Americans from voting,” said Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University. “It’s a very narrow, slippery slope, from saying ‘illegal votes’ to ‘illegal voters,’ so this attack on Black voters is real.”

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Lipstadt Condemns Yad Vashem Nomination in ‘The New York Times’

Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and associated faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in an article in The New York Times titled “Israel’s Pick to Head Holocaust Memorial Stirs International Uproar.” In the piece, Lipstadt condemns the nomination of Effie Eitam, a retired general and far-right politician, to head Irael’s official Holocaust memorial, the Yad Vashem. Read an excerpt of the piece below along with the full article.

“This is more than a colossal mistake — it’s a tragedy,” said Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta who has written several books on the subject. “Appointing Eitam to this position would be a blot on Yad Vashem’s reputation and Yad Vashem’s record.”

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Crespino Comments on Georgia Runoff Election

Dr. Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of History and Department Chair, recently commented on the upcoming Georgia runoff election with two U.S. senate seats at stake. The article, “In battle for the Senate, Georgia organizers fight to mobilize voters of color,” was published by Candice Norwood of PBS News Hour. Read the excerpt below along with the full piece here.

“If Democrats win both seats, they would take control of the Senate and give Biden a friendly Congress that will allow him to enact his policy agenda. But Democratic candidates in particular face more challenges turning out voters for runoff races due to socioeconomic factors as well as voting access, said Joseph Crespino, a professor of political and cultural history at Emory University.“

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Lesser to Speak on “Cultures in Movement” for ‘University in Transformation’ Lecture Series

Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History and Director of the Halle Institute for Global Research and Learning, will present a talk entitled “Cultures in Movement: Expanding Virtual Methods of Research” (Culturas em movimento: Ampliando as pesquisas em modos virtuais) for a lecture series organized by the University in Transformation (Universidade em Transformação). Lesser will discuss virtual approaches he employs in his research as well as his current major project on health, immigration, and environment in the Bom Retiro neighborhood of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Read more about the event (in Portuguese) here.

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Crespino Joins Other Distinguished Scholars for AHA Panel ‘The Crisis of Democracy’

Jimmy Carter Professor and History Department Chair Joseph Crespino spoke with a group of distinguished scholars in an American Historical Association webinar titled “The Crisis of Democracy” on November 18 at 3pm EST. Panelists included Crespino, Jerry Dávila (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Jennifer Evans (Carleton University), and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom (University of California, Irvine). The four scholars of social movements, protest, and political culture examined the perceived “crisis of democracy” and the extension of authoritarianism from comparative and historical standpoints. The colloquium was chaired by Janet Ward (University of Oklahoma).

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Yannakakis and Premo Win American Society for Legal History Article Prize

Congratulations to Dr. Yanna Yannakakis, 2018-2021 Winship Distinguished Research Professorship in History and Associate Professor, on winning an article prize with co-author Dr. Bianca Premo (Florida International University). The American Society for Legal History awarded their 2019 American Historical Review article, “A Court of Stick and Branches: Indian Jurisdiction in Colonial Mexico and Beyond,” with the Jane Burbank Article Prize. The prize is awarded annually to the best article in regional, global, imperial, comparative, or transnational legal history.

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American Society for Ethnohistory Recognizes 2019 ‘AHR’ Article by Yannakakis and Premo

The American Society for Ethnohistory recognized an article co-written by Drs. Yanna Yannakakis and Bianca Premo (Florida International University) with honorable mention for the the Robert F. Heizer Award. The article, titled “A Court of Stick and Branches: Indian Jurisdiction in Colonial Mexico and Beyond,” was published in the February 2019 issue of the American Historical Review. Read more about the prize here.

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Crespino in ‘The New York Times’: “What Democrats Are Up Against in Georgia”

Jimmy Carter Professor of History and History Department Chair Joseph Crespino published an opinion piece in The New York Times over the weekend. Titled “What Democrats Are Up Against in Georgia,” the article examines how Georgia’s distinctive political culture and history will shape the state’s two runoff elections for the U.S. Senate. Read an excerpt below along with the full piece.

“Mr. Trump’s delusional tweets declaring that he won the election or teasing new revelations of fraud and corruption evoke a similar sense of living in a dream world. The good news for Georgians is that on Jan. 5 they have an opportunity to send a wake-up call. Two Democratic victories would not only give Democrats control of the Senate but could also help turn the page on Donald Trump’s influence in American politics.”

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Crespino Comments on Political Polarization and Everyday Life for the ‘AJC’

Dr. Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of History and Department Chair, was recently quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article “Divided Georgians resort to tiptoeing, avoidance, unfriending.” Written by Matt Kempner, Shelia Poole, and Andy Peters, the piece discusses contemporary political polarization in the state of Georgia, especially in the wake of the 2020 election. Crespino is an expert in the political and cultural history of the twentieth-century United States and of the U.S. South since Reconstruction. Read an excerpt from the article below along with the full piece here.

Today’s bitter partisanshipis boosted by what people are exposed to, from cable TV news sources to personalized advertising on Google and Facebook, driven by algorithms, said Emory University historian Joseph Crespino. “We don’t look at the same sources of information.”

Communities also are much less politically diverse than they used to be, Crespino said. People are surrounded by others who think like them.

“If you live in Decatur, you’ll have very little understanding of how people in the rest of Georgia could vote for Trump,” he said. “If you live in South Georgia, you can’t understand how people could vote for Biden.”