by emoryhistorydept

Alumni Update: Daniel Krebs (PhD ’07)

The History Department was pleased to receive an update from Dr. Daniel Krebs (Ph.D. 2007). Krebs writes that a year ago, he “left the University of Louisville, and my fairly narrow confines of early American military history, and joined the faculty of the Department of National Security & Strategy at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA. My new position focuses much more generally on military history, security, strategy, defense, policy, and particularly on regional studies, especially in Europe. I am also the overall director of the advanced regional studies program. This program sends our students around the world on various trips and courses to learn about the strategic environment in other regions. Our students are all senior leaders in the U.S. military and government. Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels (or civilian equivalents) with 20+ years of experience in the military and government. We also have students from partner and allied nations in each of our courses. All students earn a Masters in Security Studies during a year-long stay in Carlisle. So, I went from teaching young BAs & MAs to adult education. From civilian state university to professional military education within the Federal Government/Department of Defense. From ivory tower academia to an institution that is much more concerned with contemporary policy-making and strategy. From thinking about history in the traditional sense to thinking about how history can be applied for strategic decision-making.”

Are you an Emory History alum? Please send us updates on your life and work!

by emoryhistorydept

Alumni Update: Marty Pimentel (C’20)

Pimentel at a youth climate workshop focused on women’s climate adaptation in Morocco

The History Department was pleased to receive an update from Marty Pimentel, a History major who graduated from the College in 2020. After graduating Pimentel went to Georgetown for a master’s degree in Arab Studies. After two years of classes, a year abroad in Morocco, and another thesis, he graduated in May 2023 with distinction. He spent a year in Morocco doing fieldwork for his graduate thesis and did more fieldwork in Morocco last fall. He was there researching environmental civil society and spoke with some incredibly inspiring people. Now he is starting a new full-time position as a Program Manager and Research Associate with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, one of the premier foreign policy and international affairs think tanks in DC.

Are you an Emory History alum? Please send us updates on your life and work!

by emoryhistorydept

Marissa L. Nichols (PhD ’23) Awarded Prestigious 2024 ACLS Fellowship


The Emory University History Department is proud to celebrate Dr. Marissa L. Nichols, a 2023 alum, on being awarded a 2024 ACLS Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). The ACLS Fellowship Program supports scholars who are poised to make original and significant contributions to knowledge in any field of the humanities or interpretive social sciences.

Nichols has been recognized as one of 60 exceptional early-career scholars selected through a multi-stage peer review from a pool of 1,100 applicants. ACLS Fellowships provide up to $60,000 to support scholars during six to 12 months of sustained research and writing. Awardees who do not hold tenure-track faculty appointments receive a supplement of $7,500 for research or other personal costs incurred during their award term.

Nichols currently holds a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Healthcare History and Policy in Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. The ACLS fellowship will support the writing of her book project, “The Backbone of Rural Health: Nursing and Indigenous Healing in Oaxaca.” Based on her dissertation, which was advised by Dr. Yanna Yannakakis, the manuscript traces how rural nurses and Indigenous communities shaped the expansion of rural healthcare in mid-twentieth-century Oaxaca, Mexico. It relies on research from archives and libraries in Mexico as well as oral histories conducted primarily as part of her dissertation research.

“The applications we received this year were nothing short of inspiring – a powerful reminder of the capacity of humanistic research to illuminate and deepen understanding of the workings of our world” said John Paul Christy, Senior Director of US Programs at ACLS. “As scholars face increasing challenges to pursuing and disseminating their research, we remain committed to advancing their vital work.”

by emoryhistorydept

Stein Discusses War in Gaza on LiveNOW

Dr. Kenneth Stein, Emeritus Professor of History, recently discussed the war in Gaza on LiveNOW, a national news service powered by FOX television stations. Stein analyzes the state of the military campaign, humanitarian needs of Gaza residents, and the geopolitical implications of the war. A scholar and public intellectual, Stein has contributed widely to scholarship and policy on contemporary Middle Eastern history, political science, and Israeli studies. Watch the conversation here: “Gaza ceasefire: Israel has agreed to a framework, US says.”

by emoryhistorydept

Alumni Update: Kate Nowak (C’19)

The History Department was pleased to receive an update from Kate Nowak, a former History major who graduated from the College in 2019. Since graduation, Nowak has been working as a defense paralegal with Swift, Currie, McGhee, & Hiers in Atlanta. She works directly with two firm partners to manage their caseload. She is thankful for the analytical thinking and writing skills that she honed in the Emory History Department. She puts them to use daily in legal work. She was also elected as Paralegal Liaison and enjoys building interpersonal connections with her team as well as with new hires through firm training programs and meetings.

Are you an Emory History alum? Please send us updates on your life and work!

by emoryhistorydept

PhD Candidate Anjuli Webster Publishes Articles in Journals of African and World History


African history graduate student Anjuli Webster has published two new articles drawing on her doctoral research. The first, a short piece titled “Water and History in Southern Africa,” was published as an Open Access “History Matters” contribution in the Journal of African History. The second article, titled “Inter-Imperial Entanglement: The British Claim to Portuguese Delagoa Bay in the Nineteenth Century,” appeared in the Journal of World History. Webster wrote the original version of this article in the graduate student seminar (HIST 584) and under the supervision of Drs. Clifton Crais and Jason Morgan Ward. Webster thanks the Research Workshop in History at Emory for support in the process of revisions and the History PhD program for funding image reproduction fees.

Webster’s dissertation, “Fluid Empires: Histories of Environment and Sovereignty in southern Africa, 1750-1900,” explores transformations in sovereignty and ecology in southern Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries. She has won many grants for her research, including from the American Society for Environmental History, Harvard Center for History and Economics, the Luso-American Development Foundation, and Emory’s “Visions of Slavery” Mellon Sawyer Seminar.

by emoryhistorydept

Alumni Update: Alex Borucki (PhD, 2011)

The History Department was delighted to receive an update from Dr. Alex Borucki, a 2011 alumnus of the graduate program and Professor of History at the University of California Irvine. Read Borucki’s update below:

“I have worked in collaborative research since my days in Bowden Hall by witnessing the creation of the Slave Voyages website fifteen years ago, but I engaged in a radically different way of teamwork more recently.

“In 2021, the writer/cartoonist/marketing mastermind Gonzalo Eyherabide asked me for historical guidance because he was creating a graphic history, or historieta histórica in Spanish, about Joaquín Artigas, an African man who had fought in the wars of independence in the early 1800s Uruguay, and who was enslaved to the family of Uruguay’s founding father, José Artigas.

“As a result of two years of emails and discussions, Gonzalo adapted my article about the U.S. slave ship Ascension to recreate the story of Joaquín’s enslavement in Mozambique (because we knew Joaquín was from there) and, subsequently, his forced crossing of the South Atlantic.

“Early in 2023, Artigas: Un Patriota sin Patria was published in Montevideo, selling 3000 copies in a semester, and a second edition was released by the end of 2023. I met Gonzalo while visiting Montevideo last December when he gifted me a copy of his beautiful work. He also drew on the first blank page of the book a fine depiction of me and him talking in the bar next to the Río de la Plata, or River Plate, where we usually met. He added this inscription: ‘Culture is and must be generosity and solidarity,’ which encapsulates some of the best collaborative research outcomes.”

by emoryhistorydept

Anderson Analyzes ‘White Rage’ for NPR’s ‘Created Equal’


Dr. Carol Anderson, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently a guest on “Created Equal,” a radio show/podcast hosted by award-winning journalists Stephen Henderson and Laura Weber Davis out of WDET in Detroit. The conversation draws on Anderson’s 2016 book White Rage: the Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide (Bloomsbury), which analyzes how and why historic gains by African Americans toward full(er) democratic citizenship in the U.S. have, throughout the nation’s history, consistently accompanied a “white reaction [that] has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains.” Find the Feb 7, 2024 interview on the “Created Equal” archive stream (organized by date) here: “What is white rage? And what really divides our nation?“

by emoryhistorydept

Chira’s ‘Patchwork Freedoms’ Wins ASWAD Book Prize

Adriana Chira


The Association for the Worldwide Study of the African Diaspora has awarded Adriana Chira’s Patchwork Freedoms: Law, Slavery, and Race beyond Cuba’s Plantations (Cambridge UP, 2022) with its First Book Prize. The ASWAD prize marks the book’s fifth award, following: Honorable Mention, Best Book, Nineteenth Century Section, from the Latin American Studies Association; the 2023 Elsa Goveia Prize from the Association of Caribbean Historians; the American Historical Association’s Rawley Prize; and the American Society for Legal History’s Peter Gonville Stein Book Award. Patchwork Freedoms was released as part of Cambridge’s Afro-Latin America series. Learn about this year’s other ASWAD prize winners. Congratulations, Professor Chira!

by emoryhistorydept

Summer 2024 Funding Opportunities for Undergraduates


Through the generous support of donors, the History Department is pleased to offer multiple funding opportunities for undergraduates in the summer of 2024 to pursue research, study, or experiential learning in the United States or abroad. Students graduating in the fall of 2024 or spring of 2025 are eligible. Applications should include a faculty letter of recommendation and be submitted electronically to Becky Herring by 4pm on March 4. Browse a summary of our funding programs below, and find more details on the Undergraduate Research section of our website.

  • The Loren & Gail Starr Award in Experiential Learning: The Undergraduate Studies Committee hopes to fund up to *5* experiential learning projects proposed by History majors or minors with junior or senior status. The awards, which can range from $500 to $3,000 each, are intended to support students who wish to use the knowledge & skills they have acquired in history courses to create or participate in projects in settings outside of the classroom. The committee seeks proposals from students that are bold, creative, & off-the-beaten path. The only rule is that engagement with the past be central to the experience undertaken by the student.
  • George P. Cuttino Scholarship for Independent Research Abroad: The Cuttino Scholarship is offered annually to rising senior history majors or joint majors in Emory College. The scholarship provides for a summer of research and travel abroad between the students’ junior and senior year. The stipend may be up to $10,000. All junior history majors and joint majors in Emory College with a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.0 or above are eligible. Early in the spring semester (normally mid-February) a notice with deadline for submission of Cuttino Scholarship applications to the Director of Undergraduate Studies is issued. The Cuttino Scholarship recipient is selected by the Department of History Undergraduate Committee.
  • George P. Cuttino Fellowship for Summer Programs Abroad: The Cuttino Fellowships for Summer Programs Abroad are offered annually to rising senior history and joint history majors in Emory College for study outside the United States in a summer study program. Priority is given to students enrolled in Emory Study Abroad programs. Several awards are given each year and can be as much as $4,000 each. The recipients of the fellowships must provide documentation of enrollment in an academic summer study abroad program in order to receive the awarded funds. Upon returning to Emory in the fall, the recipients must also provide documentation of their successful completion of the summer study program.
  • Theodore H. Jack Award for Independent Research in the US: The Theodore H. Jack Award is offered annually to an Emory College history major or joint history major who has attained senior status (75+ credit hours) at the time of the award. It provides modest funds for summer research in the United States outside the city of Atlanta on topics that deal in whole or in part with American history. It is expected that recipients will use the award to research an honors thesis, though students not in the honors program are welcome to apply.
  • James L. Roark Prize for Independent Research in the US: The James L. Roark Prize will be awarded annually to advanced undergraduate History majors (75+ credit hours). The award will provide funds for undergraduate research in American history to be conducted within the United States over one summer.Recipients will be expected to use the prize towards research for an honors thesis, or a similarly significant research project.
  • Bell I. Wiley Prize in U.S. History for Independent Research in the US: The Wiley Prize is offered annually to an Emory College history major or joint major who has attained senior status (75+ credit hours) at the time of the award. It provides funds for summer travel within the United States outside of the city of Atlanta in support of innovative research in the history of the United States. It is expected that recipients will use the award to research an honors thesis, though students not in the honors program are welcome to apply. All history and joint history majors with senior status in Emory College and with a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.0 or above are eligible.