Dr. Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of History and Department Chair, was a featured guest on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s show “Political Rewind” on the eve of the presidential inauguration of Joseph R. Biden. Hosted by Bill Nigut, the episode examined past presidential transitions amidst grave uncertainties and national crisis. Crespino was a guest alongside Dr. Michelle Brattain (Professor of History, Georgia State University), Tamar Hallerman (Senior Reporter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and Dr. Fredrick Knight (Professor of History, Morehouse College). Listen to the conversation here: “On Eve Of Tense Inauguration, A Look Back At Other Tumultuous Transitions.”.
Category / Faculty
Anderson Analyzes White Supremacist Roots of Trump-Incited Insurrection at U.S. Capitol for NBC News
In a recent article for NBC News, Dr. Carol Anderson analyzed the role of white supremacy in ex-president Donald Trump’s political career and the insurrection he incited at the United States capitol on January 6. Anderson is an expert on public policy, particularly the ways that domestic and international policies intersect through the issues of race, justice, and equality in the United States. Read an excerpt from the NBC News piece below along with the full article: “The Trump-fueled riot shocked America. To some, it was a long time coming.”
“‘This situation, in this moment, for me feels something like the mythical Cassandra,’ said Carol Anderson, author of the book ‘White Rage.’ Anderson was referring to the character in Greek myth cursed with the gift of accurate prophecy that is not believed.
‘”I and many others, we have been hollering Trump is a racist,’ she said. ‘Trump is a dangerous racist who stokes and speaks to those impulses in his most ardent followers. This isn’t economic anxiety that he appeals to, that he speaks to in his voters. It’s white supremacy. And, until this nation really deals with white supremacy and how dangerous we ought to know that it is, there will be another demagogue who eventually rises in his place.'”
Anderson Identifies Post-Election Voter Suppression Efforts in GA
Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, offered analysis in TIME of voter suppression efforts in Georgia following the 2020 general election and January runoff elections for Georgia’s two senate seats. Anderson’s most recent book is One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2018). Read an excerpt from the piece below along with the full article: “After Georgia Flips Blue, Voting Rights Advocates Brace for New Voting Restrictions.”
“Some voting rights advocates and experts don’t buy that reasoning. ‘It’s bull,’ says Carol Anderson, chair of African American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. ‘So what we’re saying is that when you know you’ve sent out XYZ millions of ballots and you know the kinds of statistical returns you’re going to have on that, that you’re not going to provide the staffing to handle it?’
“She feels lawmakers’ sudden interest in alleged fraud in mail voting is entirely politically motivated. ‘It was the use of those absentee ballots, particularly by folks who haven’t used them before that…helped flip the state blue,’ she says. ‘Let’s be real clear here. The Republicans would not be looking at this if… you hadn’t had the use by African Americans of mail-in voting absentee ballots.'”
Crespino Offers Insights on Legacies of Trump Presidency for ‘The Washington Post’
The Washington Post featured Dr. Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of History and Department Chair, in an article on the legacies of the Trump presidency. White House reporter David Nakamura wrote the piece, titled “As Trump’s presidency recedes into history, scholars seek to understand his reign — and what it says about American democracy.” Crespino is an expert in the political and cultural history of the twentieth century United States and of the history of the American South since Reconstruction. His most recent book is Atticus Finch: The Biography—Harper Lee, Her Father, and the Making of an American Icon (Basic Books, 2018). Read an excerpt from the article below along with the full piece here.
“I wonder if there will be the same documentation of Trump’s own decision-making and processes that we have with other presidents,” said Joseph Crespino, a history professor at Emory University in Atlanta. “He’s not a reader or a note-taker or a memo writer. That will be a challenge.”
Chira Organizes CLAH Roundtable “Freedom Before the Age of Revolution”
Dr. Adriana Chira, Assistant Professor of History, organized a roundtable for the recent virtual conference organized by the Conference on Latin American History. Titled “Freedom Before the Age of Revolution,” the conversation brought Chira into conversation with Fernanda Bretones (University of Florida), Mariana L. Dantas (Ohio University), Mary E. Hicks (Amherst College), and Alexandre Pelegrino (Vanderbilt University).
Strocchia Named to Editorial Board of ‘The Journal of Modern History’
Dr. Sharon T. Strocchia, Professor of History, has been named to the editorial board of the Journal of Modern History. The JMH is one of the world’s leading journals for the study of all varieties of European history. Strocchia’s specializations include: the social and cultural history of Renaissance Italy; gender and sexuality in early modern Europe; and health and medicine in the premodern world. Her most recent (and prize-winning) book is Forgotten Healers: Women and the Pursuit of Health in Late Renaissance Italy (Harvard UP, 2019).
Lesser Interviewed by Radio France International on Storming of U.S. Capitol
Radio France International recently interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Lesser about the insurrection and attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The interview (in Portuguese) is headlined, “‘It was an attack on democracy and an example of racism,’ says historian about the invasion of the American Congress.” Lesser is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History and Director of the Halle Institute for Global Learning.
Yannakakis Contributes to Collaborative Article in the American Society for Legal History’s ‘The Docket’
Dr. Yanna Yannakakis, 2018-2021 Winship Distinguished Research Professorship in History and Associate Professor, recently contributed to a collaborative article in the American Society for Legal History’s The Docket. Yannakakis’s piece, “Legal Performances in the Boundary Lands: Violence, Objects, and Indigenous Claims in Colonial Mexico,” is one of five contributions to a broader article titled “The Everyday Materials of Colonial Legal Spaces.” That article includes a piece by Yannakakis’s frequent collaborator, Dr. Bianca Premo (Florida International University). Read more via the links below as well as at The Docket.
Smith’s ‘Talking Therapy’ Wins American Journal of Nursing Book Award
Dr. Kylie M. Smith has won the 2020 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award in History and Public Policy for her work Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing (Rutgers UP, 2020). Smith is Associate Professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and Associated Faculty in the History Department. Talking Therapy previously won the 2020 Lavinia L. Dock Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing. Read more about the work below and at the Rutgers UP website.
Strocchia to Present at Virtual Conference “In Sickness and in Health”
Dr. Sharon T. Strocchia, Professor of History, will present at the upcoming virtual conference “In Sickness and in Health: Pestilence, Disease, and Healing in Medieval and Early Modern Art.” Strocchia’s talk, “Picturing the Pox in Italian Popular Prints, 1550-1650,” centers on syphilis Renaissance Art. Read more below and register for the conference here.