Undergraduate students and faculty gathered on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, for a virtual workshop to discuss a chapter from Assistant Professor Maria R. Montalvo‘s book Archive of the Enslaved: Power, Enslavement, and the Production of the Past. The conversation focused on enslaved people, illness, and commodification in the antebellum courtroom.
Dr. Joseph Crespino, History Department Chair and Jimmy Carter Professor, was recently quoted in an article in The Atlanta Journal Constitution about the upcoming visit of Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden to Warm Springs, Georgia. The town served as a vacation retreat for Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his 12 years as president. AJC political columnist Jim Galloway interviewed Crespino to help explain the significance of the visit along with the parallels between Roosevelt and Biden and the 1930s and 2020s. Read an excerpt below, along with the full article: “Opinion: Joe Biden heads for Warm Springs and the Roosevelt legacy.”
“Joe Crespino is the Jimmy Carter Professor of History at Emory University. Much of his work has involved the Depression-era South.
“Biden’s visit is ‘interesting symbolically and historically because of where Biden fits within the Democratic party in 2020,’ he told me. ‘He’s had to move to the left in the primary to accommodate a younger, more liberal wing within the party. Roosevelt was pushed by the left wing of his party.
‘Yes, [Roosevelt] was a liberal. He was surrounded by liberals. But he was pulled to the left by the circumstances of the time. He became more liberal, and the New Deal became more far reaching,’ Crespino said.“
Dr. Eric L. Goldstein, Associate Professor of History, is the featured speaker for an upcoming live stream event hosted by the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Goldstein, who also serves as Judith London Evans Director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, will speak on “The Consequences of Acceptance: From the ‘Jewish Race’ to White Privilege.” Jewish Museum of Maryland director Tracie Guy-Decker will join Goldstein for a conversation about how the place of Jews in America’s racial culture has changed over time. The event is Sunday, November 8, 2020 at 4:00pm EST. Find more information here, including the link for registration.
The Emory News Center’s most recent Emory Report highlighted recent faculty accolades across campus, including those earned by Dr. Astrid M. Eckert and Hank Klibanoff. The report highlights Eckert’s new book, West Germany and the Iron Curtain: Environment, Economy and Culture in the Borderlands (Oxford UP, 2019), which won the 2020 DAAD/German Studies Association Book Prize for the Best Book in History or Social Sciences. Read our interview with Dr. Eckert about the book from last year here. The article also celebrated Hank Klibanoff, whose podcast Buried Truths won the 2020 national Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association in the large market category.
Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and associated faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in two articles discussing the past and present of voter suppression in the United States. Anderson commented on the history of ballot restrictions in the state of Texas for The Nation article, “Texas and the Long Tail of Voter Suppression.” She offers further insights into how recent policy measures suppress voting in Georgia in the article “US election: Early voting shines light on fight over voter suppression,” published by Deutshe Welle. Read an excerpt from the Deutshe Welle article below along with the full pieces at the links above.
“Georgia keeps doubling down on trying to stop Black people from voting as well as stopping Hispanics and Asian Americans,” Carol Anderson, professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, told DW, pointing out that all three groups overwhelmingly vote Democrat.
“It’s a legacy of knowing that this system in place is not designed to honor and embrace your right to vote, but is systematically working through different ways to stop it,” she said.
Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and associated faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in the NBC News article “Trump’s refusal to disavow QAnon is part of his pattern of encouraging hate for political gain.” The article addresses Trump’s refusal to disavow the conspiracy group QAnon. The piece’s author, Jewish Democratic Council of America executive director Halie Soifer, writes that QAnon frequently employs “anti-Semitic tropes and age-old conspiracy theories.” Soifer draws on comments that Prof. Lipstadt posted on Twitter. Watch Dr. Lipstadt’s commentary below, and read the full NBC News article.
The September issue of The American Historian, titled “History for Black Lives,” featured seven articles from scholars throughout the United States and was edited by Dr. Carl Suddler, Assistant Professor of History. On Thursday, October 2020, Suddler and the other authors of the articles in the edition will host a webinar on the continued centrality of racism in the U.S. and struggles for justice. Find more information about event, which is open to the public, on the flyer above.
Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, recently discussed voter suppression relating to the upcoming presidential election for two prominent news outlets. Anderson was quoted in the PBS ‘News Hour’ article “Most voters expect intimidation at the polls. But they’re voting in record numbers,” and she was a guest on the ‘Axios Today’ podcast episode “The Hard Truth of Voter Suppression.” Anderson is, most recently, the author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy (Bloosmbury, 2018).
Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently a guest on Slate’s podcast “Amicus.” Hosted by Dahlia Lithwick, the episode features Anderson and UC Irvine election law professor Rick Hasen discussing the state of the upcoming presidential election. Listen to the full episode: “Testing the Election: Votes are already being cast. Will chaos be the winner?“
The Atlanta NPR affiliate WABE recently featured season three of the “Buried Truths” podcast, hosted by Emory faculty member Hank Klibanoff. Klibanoff is James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism and directs the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project. Listen to his conversation with “Closer Look” host Rose Scott here: “Veteran Journalist Discusses New Season Of ‘Buried Truths’ Podcast.”