In her first semester at Emory, Cahoon Family Professor of American History Malinda Maynor Lowery adopted a novel approach to her course “Legal History of Native Peoples.” With the support of Emory’s Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation and Dialogue, Lowery embedded student-led debate into the foundation of the course. Through debate and independent research, the students and Lowery studied contemporary laws in the historical context of indigenous communities and their legal systems. Read the Emory News Center’s full profile of the course for more: “Indigenous history course uses debate format to create broad engagement.”
Category / Undergraduate Students
‘TIME’ Features Research Conducted by Klibanoff and Students for ‘Buried Truths’ Podcast
TIME recently featured historical research conducted by the Emory team behind the “Buried Truths” podcast. Season three of the podcast, which is led by James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism Hank Klibanoff and comprised of Emory undergraduate students, focused on the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. The researchers identified various direct descendants of Arbery, including an enslaved local leader in agriculture and environmental engineering, Bilali Mohammed, through census research. Read an excerpt from the TIME piece below along with the full article: “What Ahmaud Arbery’s Death Has Meant for the Place Where He Lived.”
“In the 1700s, some of Watts and Arbery’s shared ancestors arrived in the region in a group of enslaved families brought to Sapelo Island to cultivate rice, cotton and indigo to enrich their white slaveholders. On his father’s side, Arbery was also the direct descendant of Bilali Mohammed, an enslaved man originally from West Africa brought to the island after first being enslaved in the Caribbean, according to the team of students behind Atlanta Public Radio’s Buried Truths podcast. The students, lead by Hank Klibanoff, director and co-teacher of the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project at Emory University, were able to confirm that lineage by hunting through Census and other records after a detailed tip shared by Barger, something of a local-history buff. Mohammed—whose slaveholder represented Georgia in the U.S. Congress—was an important source of African agricultural and engineering techniques befitting a climate where rice will grow; that knowledge was key to making Brunswick a prosperous center of economic and cultural activity. Mohammed left behind a 13-page Arabic-language manuscript that is today in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript collection at the University of Georgia.“
Senior History Major Annie Li Wins Prestigious Marshall Scholarship
Congratulations to senior Annie Li, a history and sociology double major, on being selected for the prestigious Marshall Scholarship. Li is one of 41 students selected nationwide for the award, which supports up to three years of graduate study at any institution in the U.K. As the Emory News Report explains, “Li will pursue a master’s of philosophy with a focus on Christian ethics at the University of Oxford, researching the theological motivations behind transnational social movements. The work expands on her honors thesis, which examines the motivations of Chinese-American activists from San Francisco’s Presbyterian Church in Chinatown (PCC) who participated in the Civil Rights Movement in the South and the Asian American Movement in the West.” Li’s honors thesis, “Chinese-American Christians in the Civil Rights Movement, 1963-1968,” was advised by Dr. Chris Suh, Assistant Professor of History. Read more about Li’s award here: “Emory senior Annie Li selected as a Marshall Scholar for study in U.K.”
2020-’21 Clio Prize Winners Announced
The Emory History Dept. Undergraduate Committee recently announced the winners of the 2021-’21 Clio Prizes. These awards are given annually for the best research paper in a junior/senior History Colloquium and to the best paper in a Freshman History Seminar. Browse past winners here and see the 2021-22 recipients below:
The Clio Prize for the best paper written in a freshman seminar has been awarded to:
Julia Pecau
Paper title: “Justice in Medieval Europe”
Nominated by Prof. Michelle Armstrong-Partida
The Clio Prize for the best research paper written in a junior/senior colloquium has been awarded to:
Alex Levine
Paper title: “‘The Most Potent of All Human Agencies’: Missionary Printing and the Development of the Chinese Indigenous Church”
Nominated by Prof. Tonio Andrade
Scott Benigno (C22) Publishes Article on British Railway Investments in Brazil
History major Scott Benigno (C22) recently published an article in the Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History titled, “The Economics of Empires: An Analysis of British Railway Investments in 1850s Imperial Brazil.” The article investigates Britain’s interests in developing railways in Brazil before the country’s industrialization. The paper was mentored by Dr. Thomas D. Rogers, Associate Professor of Modern Latin American History and Arthur Blank/NEH Chair in the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences (2018-2021). Read the article abstract below and find the full piece here.
“While Brazil is not often thought to be connected to Britain in our present day, Brazil’s early independent history was inextricably linked with the European imperial power. Using A Report on the Proposed Railway in the Province of Pernambuco, Brazil written by British civil engineer Edward De Mornay in 1855 as an example, this paper looks specifically at Britain’s interests in developing railways in the mostly non-industrialized Brazil and the reasons behind.”
Honors Students Present Summer 2021 Thesis Research
On Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, the department of history held its first in-person undergraduate event since March 2020. At this event, five history honors students – Ellie Coe, Sarah Gordon, Carson Greene, Willie Lieberman, and Channelle Russell – delivered presentations about the thesis research they conducted during Summer 2021. This research was made possible with history department funding provided through the George P. Cuttino Scholarship, Theodore H. Jack Award, James L. Roark Prize, and Bell I. Wiley Prize.
Emory News Center Features Montalvo’s Course, “Slavery and the Archive”
The Emory News Center recently wrote a feature story about Dr. Maria R. Montalvo‘s spring 2021 course, “Slavery and the Archive.” The course involved undergraduates in conducting original archival research on the lives of enslaved people, including in Emory’s extensive collections in African American history in the Woodruff Library and Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. Dr. Erica Bruchko, a 2016 graduate of the History doctoral program and African American Studies and U.S. History Librarian at the Woodruff library, supported the students’ research. Dr. Montalvo is an Assistant Professor and in her second year at Emory. Read a quote from the Emory News Center article below along with the full piece: “History course uncovers ‘archival silences’ of enslaved people.”
“My goal is not to have them all become historians,” Montalvo says. “My goal is to help them understand how to read, learn and question effectively enough to become the best of anything they want to be.”
Students in Miller’s “The History of Skiing and Snowsports” Launch Website
This spring Dr. Judith A. Miller, Associate Professor of History, taught a new course, “The History of Skiing and Snowsports.” Explaining the genesis of the course, Miller said, “I wished to create a course that took the history of skiing and snowsports seriously, that is, a course that reflected the questions that historians have.” The students in this course have just published their final projects on a website, which was produced in collaboration with Emory’s Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS). Browse the students’ projects on the new website, and read more about the course via the description below.
This new course explores the history of snow sports, especially skiing, from the 18th century to today. We have many topics and Zoom guests lined up. This class is not only for history majors or skiers, but also for business students, and anyone interested in environmental history, sports history, and the history of gender and race. The class will look at the military uses of skiing in World War II, the expansion of leisure sports after 1960, the development of ski schools, history of ski patrols, lift technology, emerging environmental issues, snow science, avalanche control, the history of the land and the indigenous peoples, race and inclusivity in winter sports, the transformation of ski equipment, snow fashions, and the business of ski resorts. Students who have never taken a history course and first-year students are welcome. Each student will do a short final research project. Check out the promotional video on @emoryhistory Instagram during the enrollment period. As American Historical Association Executive Director Jim Grossman says, “Everything has a history.” Skiing and snow sports have a fascinating histories.
Celebrating the Class of 2021
Congratulations to the History Department-affiliated undergraduate and graduate students receiving degrees at Emory’s 2021 commencement! Find out more information about Emory’s commencement ceremonies here. See below for a list of undergraduate students graduating with special recognition.
History Majors Graduating with Honors
Melanie Mills Dunn
Jason Paul Goodman
Colin Andrew Hutton
Cameron Vida Katz
Ryan Andrew Kelly
Sun Woo Park
Rachel Elizabeth Remmers
Max K Rotenberg
Graduating Members of the History Department Honor Society, Phi Alpha Theta, Phi Tau Chapter
Zachary Charles Ball**
Daniel Manuel Batterman
Elise Lauren Black
Colleen Elizabeth Carroll
Jessica Arevalo Dam
Melanie Mills Dunn
Jason Paul Goodman
Cameron Vida Katz
Ryan Andrew Kelly
AnnMarie Marlow
Rachel Elizabeth Remmers
Jesse Leib Steinman
Rowan M. Thomas
James L. Roark Prize in American History
Cameron Vida Katz
Matthew A. Carter Citizen-Scholar Award
Ciara Murphy
George P. Cuttino Prize in European History
Jesse Leib Steinman
James Z. Rabun Prize in U.S. History
Max K Rotenberg
Melanie Mills Dunn
Latin America & Non-Western World History Prize
Jacob Angelo DeFazio
History Dept. Students and Faculty Receive Grants from Halle Institute
Emory’s Halle Institute for Global Research has awarded multiple undergraduate and graduate students and faculty members from the History Department with research funding throughout the 2020-’21 academic year. Directed by Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History, the Halle Institute supports and promotes global research opportunities for faculty, students, and visiting scholars throughout all of Emory’s schools. See the History Department’s recipients and their funded projects below.
Rethinking Global Inequalities (with Goizueta Business and Society Institute)
Michelle Armstrong-Partida – “Singlewomen: Enslaved and Free in the Late Medieval Mediterranean”
Halle-CFDE Global Atlanta Innovative Teaching (GAIT) Grants
Adriana Chira – “Human Trafficking in World History”
URC-Halle International Research Awards in partnership with the University Research Council (URC)
Astrid M. Eckert – “Germany and the Global Commons: Environment, Diplomacy, and the Market”
Graduate Global Research Fellows
Georgia Brunner – Rwanda/Italy/Belgium
Undergraduate Global Research Fellows
Bronwen Boyd – “The Signares of Senegambia: Slavery, “Progress,” and the French Colonial Project in the Nineteenth Century,” Emory College of Arts and Sciences: History, French Studies
Ellie Coe – “Unlikely Friendships: The Little-Known Meetings of Cosmonauts and Astronauts in the Early Space Age,” Emory College of Arts and Sciences: History, Russian and East European Studies
Alex Levine – “Dueling Dragons: Examining Welsh National Identity Through Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century British Imperial Involvement in China,” Emory College of Arts and Sciences: History
Annie Li – “A Comparative History of the Activism of Chinese American Churches and Taiwanese Churches,” Emory College of Arts and Sciences: History, Sociology
Willie Lieberman – “English Femininity in Purcell’s Operas,” Emory College of Arts and Sciences: History
Julien Nathan – “Who is the Nation: Analyzing the Relationship Between Gastarbeiter and the New Left Student Movement, 1960-1973,” Emory College of Arts and Sciences: History