PhD Candidate Hanne Blank recently published a Turkish translation of her 2012 book Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality (Beacon Press). Merve Özturk translated the work, whose Turkish title is Düzcinsel: Heteroseksüelliğin Şaşırtıcı Derecede Kısa Tarihi, for Istambul-based publisher İletişim Yayınları. A graduate fellow in the Emory History Department, Blank is also a visiting professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at Denison University.
Dr. Astrid M. Eckert, Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of History, recently co-edited a special issue of the journal Central European History. The March 2019 edition is entitled “New Narratives for the History of the Federal Republic.” Eckert co-authored the introduction, “Why Do We Need New Narratives for the History of the Federal Republic?,” with Frank Biess of UC San Diego. Read their introduction along with the other articles here.
Senior History Honors student Yi Xie is currently working on her thesis as an undergraduate fellow at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry. Xie’s thesis is titled “Becoming American in a Multiracial Context: Chinese ‘Sojourners’ and African Americans’ Battle for Inclusion in a White Republic, 1868-1904.” She recently wrote a reflection, “Becoming American: A Historical Parallel between Chinese Immigrants and African Americans, 1868-1904,” about her research and experiences at the Fox Center. Read the full post here along with an excerpt from the abstract of her project below.
“This research aims to develop a clear understanding of the racial dynamics of the second half of the nineteenth century by studying the ‘Chinese Question,’ the ‘Negro Problem,’ and the relations between the two from the perspectives of abolitionists, Caucasian immigrants, African Americans, and the Chinese. She investigates why and how the ‘Chinese Question’ and the ‘Negro Problem’ were conflated and differentiated, and how dynamic and complex were the relations between the two. She also conducts a comparative study of anti-black and anti-Chinese violence on the West Coast. She has visited archives in Northampton, MA and will conduct more archival research in Seattle, WA.”
Dr. Carol Anderson recently published an opinion piece, “Our Democracy Is Being Stolen. Guess Who the Thieves Are,” in The New York Times. Anderson is Associated Faculty in the History Department and Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies. Her piece addresses claims and realities of voter suppression and election fraud with a focus on the recent midterm election in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District. Anderson is, most recently, the author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide (Bloomsbury, 2017). Read an excerpt below along with the full piece here.
“The real theft of American democracy happens through election fraud and voter suppression. And Republicans are the thieves.
“What happened in North Carolina during the 2018 midterms was a textbook case of election fraud. That’s when a candidate’s campaign sets out to manipulate vote tallies to steal an election.”
Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law Mary L. Dudziak recently published an article in The Washington Post on how the Korean War shaped the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of the United States government. Dudziak, who is affiliated faculty in the History Department, charts how Harry S. Truman’s 1950 decision to authorize military action in the Korean peninsula without congressional authorization established a precedent that U.S. presidents have invoked since. Read an excerpt of Dudziak’s piece below and the full article, “The toxic legacy of the Korean War,” here:
“The Korean War precedent converged with and informed another practice. After Korea, authorizations for the use of military force became the primary way for Congress to exercise its constitutional power. This method has been around since 1798, when President John Adams sought authority to use the Navy to protect American ships during an undeclared naval war with France.
Authorizations replaced war declarations for even large-scale wars like the one in Vietnam. In 2001, Congress passed an Authorization for Use of Military Force approving armed conflict “against those nations, organizations, or persons” who had “planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001,” and those who had harbored them. Like the Korean War precedent, this had unexpected aftereffects. It was later interpreted to apply to groups that did not even exist at the time it was passed. Through this process, presidential war power has become a one-way ratchet. By failing to step in, Congress has acquiesced in the loss of its own power.”
NPR’s Michel Martin, host of “All Things Considered,” recently interviewed Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt about the resurgence of public antisemitism in the contemporary United States. Lipstadt is, most recently, the author of Antisemitism: Here And Now (Schocken, 2019). At Emory she holds positions as Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and as associated faculty in the History Department. Read the full transcript of the interview here.
Congratulations to Dr. Ruby Lal, Professor of South Asian Studies and affiliated faculty in the History Department. Lal’s recent monograph, Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018), has been named a finalist in the History category for the 2018 L.A. Times Book Prize. Read more about Lal’s book here.
Cambridge University Press recently released the edited volume Securing Europe after Napoleon: 1815 and the New European Security Culture, co-edited by Emory Professor of History Brian Vick. Vick’s collaborators are Beatrice de Graaf (Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands) and Ido de Haan (Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands). The volume includes a chapter by Vick, who is a specialist in Modern Germany and Central Europe in the Long Nineteenth Century, entitled “The London Ambassadors’ Conferences and Beyond: Abolition, Barbary Corsairs, and Multilateral Security In The Congress Of Vienna System.” A book launch in New York City will take place on February 27. More details and registration can be found at: bit.ly/after-napoleon.
The February edition of the American Historical Review will feature an article co-authored by Yanna Yannakakis and Bianca Premo entitled “A Court of Sticks and Branches: Indian Jurisdiction in Colonial Mexico and Beyond.” Yannakakis is Associate Professor of History and currently holds the Winship Distinguished Research Professorship in History. Premo is Professor of History at Florida International University. The American Historical Association recently published a podcast with Yannakakis and Premo about the article, which will appear as part of a forum titled “Indigenous Agency and Colonial Law.” Listen to the episode here: “Bianca Premo & Yanna Yannakakis: ‘A Court of Sticks and Branches.‘”
Graduate fellow Alexander Cors recently published a blog post on the promises and practices of digital humanities for the interdisciplinary online community HASTAC. Cors’ principal research concerns the Mississippi Valley and Atlantic World, however his work with digital humanities has ranged from 3D visualizations of 1930s Atlanta to mapping legal networks of indigenous communities in New Spain (Mexico). Cors is currently one of the HASTAC Fellows at Emory’s Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry Read the full post here: Doing History from the “Skies.”