Category / Faculty

by emoryhistorydept

Anhhuy Do (C’24) Traces Family’s Remarkable Journey from Sài Gòn to Nashville in ‘Southern Spaces’

Do’s grandfather, Đỗ Phương Anh, in front of Bách Thảo Market in Nashville, after passing his citizenship test in 2000. Photo courtesy of the Anhhuy Do.

Alumnus Anhhuy Do, a 2024 graduate who completed majors in History and Political Science, has published a powerful article in Southern Spaces. The piece, “Sài Gòn to Nashville: A Refugee Journey,” traces the remarkable and harrowing migration of his family from Vietnam to Nashville, Tennessee, where they resettled in the 1990s as part of the U.S. government’s Humanitarian Operation. Published fifty years after the fall of Sài Gòn and the communist takeover of Laos, Cambodia, and Việt Nam, Do’s piece illuminates the legacies of the post-Việt Nam War era in Southeast Asia and among Vietnamese American communities throughout the U.S.

While at Emory, Do was active in many groups, including Asian Pacific-Islander Desi American Activists, Pi Sigma Alpha, the Vietnamese Student Association, he Atlanta Urban Debate League, Center for Civic and Community Engagement (CCE) Society, and Imagining Democracy Lab. In his senior year, he won the History Department’s Matthew A. Carter Citizen-Scholar Award and the Jane Yang Award for Community Advocacy from the Office of Campus Life.

Do is pursuing his PhD in Vietnamese History from Princeton University, supported by a Presidential Fellowship. He extends a special thank you to Dr. Allen Tullos, Professor and Co-Director of Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, “for making this publication possible and remaining steadfast in amplifying unheard voices across Southern US history.” Read Do’s piece here: “Sài Gòn to Nashville: A Refugee Journey.”

“Many South Vietnamese sought new identities as they resettled in locations such as California, Texas, Washington State, Louisiana, and the DC metro area including Maryland and northern Virginia. Perhaps surprisingly, Tennessee also became home to generations of Vietnamese refugees and immigrants with intense transnational migration histories. One family’s story is that of my own, whose refugee experience does not follow the typical timeline of helicopter escapees and boat people. Rather, as Humanitarian Operation arrivals, my family’s history offers an illuminating narrative.“

by emoryhistorydept

Lesser Publishes ‘Living and Dying in São Paulo’ with Duke UP


Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History, has published a new monograph, Living and Dying in São Paulo: Immigrants, Health, and the Built Environment in Brazil, with Duke University Press. The work examines competing visions of wellbeing in Brazil among racialized immigrants, policymakers, and health officials over 150 years and primarily in São Paulo’s Bom Retiro neighborhood, drawing out the connected systems of the built environment, public health laws and practices, and citizenship. In addition to historical and literary documentation, Lesser’s book was informed by a multi-year observation of a basic health team at the Octávio Augusto Rodovalho Public Health Clinic of the Brazilian National Health Service. Read praise for Living and Dying below and find the full open access book from Duke UP.

“Living and Dying in São Paulo is methodologically innovative, conceptually powerful, and engagingly written. Jeffrey Lesser’s book has rare precision and creativity. Not only does he give an insightful reading of place and people, he also makes a bold case for historians to adopt new approaches and for those in the social and biomedical sciences to pose questions historically. This is the kind of writing I am sure most historians—myself included—wish they could do.” – Jerry Dávila, Jorge Paulo Lemann Chair in Brazilian History, the University of Illinois.

by emoryhistorydept

Undergraduates Receive Awards for Research Produced in History Courses

Emory Libraries recently announced the 2025 recipients of the Elizabeth Long Atwood Undergraduate Research Award, which annually recognizes Emory College students who engage with the library’s collections and demonstrate excellence in undergraduate research. Three of the five awardees produced their projects in courses in the history department, taught by Dr. Judith A. Miller and Dr. Jinyu Liu, respectively. They are:

  • Anushka Basu, class of 2026, a double major in QSS: Data Science and vocal performance, received an Atwood Award for her paper, “Gender in Opera: How Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne Reflects and Reinforces Enlightenment-Era Roles of Women,” that she completed for “History 412W: Music and Politics” (taught Dr. Judith A. Miller).
  • Jasper Chen, class of 2028, a classics and computer science major, received an Atwood Award for his paper, “Sardis: A Millennium of Adaptation,” that he completed for “Classics 190/History 190: Freshman Seminar: Ordinary Romans” (taught by Dr. Jinyu Liu).
  • Agustin Zelikson, class of 2025, double major in philosophy, politics, and law as well as history, received an honorable mention for his paper, “A National Identity Arises: The Political Origins of Aurora,” that he completed for “History 412W: Music and Politics” (taught by Dr. Judith A. Miller).

Read more about the Atwood Award as well as all five of this year’s winners.

by emoryhistorydept

David Eltis Wins W.E.B. DuBois Medal of Honor

David Eltis, Robert W. Woodruff Professor Emeritus of History, has won the W.E.B. DuBois Medal of Honor, Harvard University’s highest award in the field of African and African American studies. The DuBois medal is given to individuals in the United States and across the globe in recognition of their contributions to African and African American culture and the life of the mind.

A specialist in the early modern Atlantic World, slavery, and migration (both coerced and free), Eltis is the author of many prize-winning works, including Economic Growth and The Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Oxford University Press, 1987) and The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas (Cambridge University Press, 2000). Eltis co-created the Transatlantic Slave Trade database and website SlaveVoyages.org, a pioneering digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible the records of the largest slave trades in history.

Eltis received the award at the recent conference “SlaveVoyages: New Research & Uncharted Waters,” which was held at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard and featured multiple Emory History graduate program alumni.

Eltis with Daniel B. Domingues da Silva (PhD, 2011) at the recent conference focused on the SlaveVoyages project.

by emoryhistorydept

Picone (Ph.D. ’19) Publishes ‘Landscaping Patagonia’ with UNC Press


Dr. María de los Ángeles Picone (PhD, 2019) has published her first book, Landscaping Patagonia: Spatial History and Nation-Making in Chile and Argentina, with UNC Press. Focused on northern Patagonia in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the inventive monograph charts how an array of people who lived in, governed, and traveled through this region “sought to construct versions of Chile and Argentina based on their ideas about and experiences in geographical space.” Dr. Emily Wakild, a leading environmental historian of Latin America, describes Landscaping Patagonia as a “masterful, field-changing work.” She continues: “The Patagonian landscape takes center stage as Picone brings to life the people who inhabited this ecologically and culturally expansive region.” Picone, currently an Assistant Professor of History at Boston College, completed her dissertation under the advisement of Drs. Jeffrey Lesser, Thomas D. Rogers, and Yanna Yannakakis in 2019. Read the full abstract of Landscaping Patagonia below.

In late nineteenth-century Latin America, governments used new scientific, technological, and geographical knowledge not only to consolidate power and protect borders but also to define the physical contours of their respective nations. Chilean and Argentine authorities in particular attempted to transform northern Patagonia, a space they perceived as “desert,” through a myriad of nationalizing policies, from military campaigns to hotels. But beyond the urban governing halls of Chile and Argentina, explorers, migrants, local authorities, bandits, and visitors also made sense of the nation by inhabiting the physical space of the northern Patagonian Andes. They surveyed passes, opened roads, claimed land titles or leases, traveled miles to the nearest police station, rode miles on horseback to escape the police, and hiked the landscape.

María de los Ángeles Picone tells the story of how people living, governing, and traveling through northern Patagonia sought to construct versions of Chile and Argentina based on their ideas about and experiences in geographical space in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By repositioning the analytical focus from Santiago and Buenos Aires to northern Patagonia, Picone reveals how a wide array of actors, with varying degrees of political, economic, and social power, assigned distinctive—and sometimes conflicting—meanings to space and national identity.

by emoryhistorydept

Alumni Update: Nick Sessums (’24) Publishes Essay in ‘Central Europe Yearbook’

The History Department was pleased to receive an update from Nick Sessums, a 2024 alumnus who graduated with honors. After nine months of drafts, revisions, edits, and reviews, Sessums has just published an essay, titled “Russification and Russianization in Modern Historiography,” in the Central Europe Yearbook.

The essay project began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. As a student of history, politics, culture, and international relations, Sessums was captivated both by the historical moment itself and what it said about the world that we live in. Russia’s invasion went against everything that he had been taught about how people and governments were supposed to operate. He had to know why reality did not match his perception of the world.

In the Spring of 2023, he began researching and writing his undergraduate thesis, “Parallel Nations: Ukrainian, Russian, and Imperial Identity in Right-Bank Little Russia” (submitted in April 2024). While he answered many of his original questions in this process, he also began to ask new ones. He started to explore not just the current and historical events themselves, but how the people researching them talk about and interact with them.

Those questions led him to write the essay on Russification and Russianization. He addressed the current moment for Russian and Ukrainian Studies scholarship, particularly for the study of the Ukrainian-Russian borderlands that have faced the brunt of the Russian invasion. His article is also shaped by larger, structural questions regarding disciplinarity, as Slavic Studies in general faces both external and internal challenges in today’s academy. Finally, he highlights the continued role of memory in the field, as the way that we remember historical events often shapes how we study them going forward.

Sessums is especially grateful to his former professors, Dr. Astrid M. Eckert and Dr. Matthew Payne, who told him that his work was good enough for publication and helped him push it to the finish line.

by emoryhistorydept

Anderson Offers Historical Context on Brink of Inauguration

Dr. Carol Anderson, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of African American Studies and associated faculty in the History Department, recently sat for an interview on the “Big Books and Bold Ideas” show from Minnesota Public Radio. Anderson was interviewed alongside Lindsay M. Chervinsky, a presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. Speaking in the lead up to the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20, Anderson and Chervinsky draw parallels to earlier periods in U.S. history and offer commentary on the country’s political trajectory. Anderson is the author of many books, including, most recently, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally-Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). Listen to the MPR conversation here: “On the brink of the inauguration, historians reflect on America’s trajectory.”

by emoryhistorydept

Lipstadt Will Return to Emory as University Distinguished Professor

Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt will return to the Emory faculty as University Distinguished Professor following her service as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism in the Biden administration. A renowned historian of modern antisemitism and the Holocaust, Lipstadt will retain her positions as Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies in the Department of Religion and Associated Faculty in the History Department. She is only the fourth person to hold a University Distinguished Professor chair, following Jimmy Carter, Salman Rushdie, and Kevin Young. Read more about Lipstadt’s return in the Emory News Center’s article.

“I am excited to bring what I have learned during my time with the State Department back to Emory to help teach the next generation of scholars and leaders,” Lipstadt says. “When my nomination was announced, I said that the one thing I would miss was being in the classroom with my Emory students. Now, I look forward to returning to campus to resume the crucial task of supporting students as they learn to evaluate evidence and think critically.”

by emoryhistorydept

History Department Offers Rich Slate of Courses for Spring 2025 Semester

Faculty and graduate students in the Emory History Department will teach a rich slate of undergraduate courses in the spring 2025 semester. These include offerings at the 200 and 300 levels, as well as many compelling interdisciplinary courses cross-listed with departments across campus. Browse the offerings below.

200-Level Courses

  • HIST 215/AMST 285-1: History of the American West, Patrick Allitt, TTh 11:30am-12:45pm
  • HIST 221/AFS 221-1: The Making of Modern Africa, Clifton C. Crais, TTh 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 228/AMST 228/ EAS 228 1: Asian American History, Chris Suh, MW 2:30pm-3:45pm
  • HIST 239/AAS 239: History of African Americans Since 1865, Kali Gross, MW 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 247: Napoleon’s Europe, Brian Vick, MW 5:30pm-6:45pm
  • HIST 254/MESAS 254: From Pearls to Petroleum, Roxani Margariti, MW 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 265/MESAS 235: Making of Modern South Asia, Hugo Hansen, MW 4pm-5:15pm
  • HIST 267W/AAS 267W: The Civil Rights Movement, Carol Anderson and Lizette London, MW 4pm-5:15pm
  • HIST 270/JS 270/MESAS 275: Survey of Jewish History, Tamar Menashe, TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm
  • HIST 279W/CHN 279W: Post-Mao? China After 1976, Sarah M. Rodriguez, MW 1pm-2:15pm
  • HIST 285/AMST 285-2: The US and the Cold War, Emilie Cunning, MW 11:30am-12:45pm
  • HIST 285-2/AFS 270-2: Colonial Legacies in Africa, Gerardo Manrique de Lara Ruiz, MW 5:30pm-6:45pm
  • HIST 285-3/AFS 270-3: African Nationalism in the 20th Cent., Rene Odanga, 2:30pm-3:45pm
  • HIST 296-1/ JS 271: Jews & Race in U.S. History, Eric L. Goldstein, MW 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 296-2/REL 270-4/JS 271-2: Holocaust Memory in Europe, Israel, & the US, Alicja Podbielska, TTh 11:30am-12:45pm
  • HIST 200W/MESAS 200W: Middle East: Empires to Nations, Courtney Freer, TTh 11:30am-12:45pm
  • HIST 206W/MESAS 202W: South Asia: Empires to Nations, Ruby Lal, MW 2:30pm-3:45pm
  • HIST 214/AMST 285-3: The American Death Penalty, Daniel LaChance, MW 4pm-5:15pm

300-Level Courses

  • HIST 332/MESAS 332: Gandhi: Non-Violence & Freedom, Scott A Kugle, MW 2:30pm-3:45pm
  • HIST 336/AMST 336/LACS 336: Migrants & Borders in the US, Iliana Rodriguez, TTh 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 338/JS 338: Jews of Eastern Europe, Ellie Schainker, TTh 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 342/AMST 385-1: The Old South, Maria Montalvo, TTh 1pm-2:15pm
  • HIST 343 (Part of Sustainability Minor too): History of Skiing & Snowsports, Judith A. Miller, TTh 5:30pm-6:45pm
  • HIST 347: The Industrial Revolution, Patrick Allitt, TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm
  • HIST 348/AMST 348-1/JS 371 3: Ethnic Experience in America, Jonathan Prude, TTh 5:30pm-6:45pm
  • HIST 363W/LACS 363W-1: Sugar and Rum, Robert Goddard, TTh 8:30am-9:45am
  • HIST 368/HLTH 385-10: History of Hunger, Thomas Rogers, TTh 5:30pm-6:45pm
  • HIST 378 /AFS 378-1/ANT 378-1/LACS 378 -1: Human Trafficking: Global History, Adriana Chira, MW 1pm-2:15pm
  • HIST 384/AAS 384-1/ENG 389-1: Slavery in US History & Culture, Michelle Gordon, TTh 4pm-5:15pm
  • HIST 385-1/AMST 385-2/ ANT 385-8: Oral History: Methods/Practices, Jonathan Coulis, TTh 4pm-5:15pm
  • HIST 385-2/AMST 385-3: Information & Power, US History, Matthew Guariglia, MW 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 385-3/JS 371-2/WGS 385-9: Women & Law, 1200-1800, Tamar Menashe, TTh 11:30am-12:45pm
  • HIST 385-4/REES 375-1: The Soviet Cold War, Matthew Payne, MWF 1pm-1:50pm
  • HIST 385-6: Cultures of Romanticism, Brian Vick, MW 1pm-2:15pm
  • HIST 385W-1: Singlewomen/Premodern Europe, Michelle Armstrong-Partida, MW 11:30am-12:45pm
  • HIST 385W-2/AMST 385W-2: Black & Indigenous Histories, Malinda Lowery, MW 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 396-2/CPLT 389-1/ENG 389-2: History, Memory, Literature, Angelika Bammer, TTh 10am-11:15am
  • HIST 396-3/ENG 389-3/PHIL 385-5/CPLT 389-3: No Time to Think!, Elizabeth Goodstein, TTh 4pm-5:15pm
  • HIST 396-4/ GER 375-1, JS 375 1, CPLT 389 4: Making Sense of Fascism, Frank Voigt, TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm
  • HIST 302/CL 329R: History of Rome, Jinyu Liu, MW 2:30pm-3:45pm
  • HIST 323: Reformation Europe & Beyond, Sharon Strocchia, TTh 4pm-5:15pm
  • HIST 325W/CL 325W: The Classical Tradition & American Founding, Barbara Lawatsch-Melton, TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm
by emoryhistorydept

Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of History, Remembers Life and Legacy of Former President

Members of Joe Crespino’s “Carter Presidency” seminar course visiting Jimmy Carter’s Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, in 2018.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter died on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. Dr. Joseph Crespino, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Divisional Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Jimmy Carter Professor of History, has helped to shape of popular understandings of Carter’s life and legacy, including in the days since his passing. Carter nurtured a “unique collaboration” with Emory University, which included regular end-of-term visits to Crespino’s “Carter Presidency” seminar course. Crespino was named the first Jimmy Carter Professor in 2014. View a presentation Crespino recently gave about Carter’s legacy, along with a list of recent articles from, and media citations of, Crespino focused on the former president.