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Lipstadt Discusses Anti-Semitism on ABC National Radio

Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and associated faculty in the History Department, was a recent guest on Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National program. Lipstadt discusses anti-Semitism and the far right in the interview with host Phillip Adams. Read a brief summary of the interview below and listen to the full segment here.

The January insurrection in Washington, aimed at the heart of American democracy, was not only a demonstration of right wing anger and power. Prominent Jewish historian, Deborah Lipstadt, argues that antisemitism is the foundation stone of ‘white power’ and the ‘white nationalist agenda’, that allows them to then take part in attacking, deriding and demeaning people of colour.

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Emory News Center Highlights Work of Graduate Fellows Lemos and Strakhova

The Emory News Center recently published a profile of two 2020-’21 graduate fellows from the History Department. Sponsored by the Emory Libraries and Laney Graduate School, graduate fellowships provide graduate students with immersive and meaningful experiences in the following areas: digital humanities, instruction and engagement, research and engagement, data services and the Rose Library. Xanda Lemos, a doctoral candidate in Latin American History, was the fellow in digital humanities at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. Anastasiia Strakhova, a doctoral candidate in Modern European History, was the Anne and Bill Newton Graduate Fellow at the Rose Library. Read more about the work that they and the other three fellows contributed across campus over the last year here: “Graduate fellows provide thesis, data and publishing support for students and staff.”

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Alumni Update: Ellen G. Rafshoon (’01 PhD)

The History Department recently received an alumni update from Dr. Ellen G. Rafshoon, a 2001 graduate of the doctoral program. This year Dr. Rafshoon was promoted to Professor at Georgia Gwinnett College. In addition, she won the school’s outstanding faculty for student engagement award, a recognition that includes the honor of leading the student processional at GGC’s graduation ceremony. Rafshoon’s most recent publication is “Pave it Blue: Georgia Women and Politics in the Trump Era,” in Stacie Taranto and Leandra Zarnow, Suffrage at 100: Women in American Politics Since 1920 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). The essay is based on interviews that she conducted with neophyte activists and candidates who contributed to the Blue Wave in Georgia.

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Michael Camp (PhD, ’17) Publishes Chapter in ‘Energy in the Americas: Critical Reflections on Energy and History’

Dr. Michael Camp, a 2017 graduate of the doctoral program, has written a chapter in a forthcoming volume Energy in the Americas: Critical Reflections on Energy and History (University of Calgary Press). Camp’s chapter is titled “Tellico Dam, Dickey Dam, and Endangered Species Law in the United States during the 1970s.” The volume grew out of an energy history conference convened in Calgary in October 2014. The University of Pittsburg Press published Camp’s first book and a related project, Unnatural Resources: Energy and Environmental Politics in Appalachia after the 1973 Oil Embargo, in 2019. Dr. Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of History and Department Chair, served as Camp’s advisor.

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Guardado Wins Scobie Award from Conference on Latin American History

The Conference on Latin American History recently awarded graduate student Alejandro Guardado with a James R. Scobie Award. Guardado’s project is titled, “Voices, Testimonies, and Interpretations of Mexico’s Dirty War: Indigenous and Peasant Perspectives.” The Scobie award offers up to $1,500 for an exploratory research trip abroad to determine the feasibility of a Ph.D. dissertation topic dealing with some facet of Latin American history. Guardado is advised by Drs. Yanna Yannakakis and Javier Villa-Flores. Read more about the project and planned fieldwork in the summary he provided below.

My current research focuses on the period of Mexico’s Dirty War (1964-1982) and the years that followed to highlight how peasant and Indigenous communities in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas connected their histories of struggle with transnational phenomena including liberation theology and human rights movements. This June, I will train in oral history methods and theory at the University of Texas, Austin. As the summer advances, I will conduct interviews with Catholic activists, Indigenous intellectuals, NGO staff workers, and archivists from Chiapas and Oaxaca to examine how they interpreted state violence, social movements, ethnic identities, and internationalism. I use oral history and memory studies methods to attempt to understand how Indigenous and peasant peoples give meaning to the history they have experienced. 

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Strakhova Wins ASEEES Summer Dissertation Writing Grant

Congratulations to doctoral candidate Anastasiia Strakhova on being awarding a highly-competitive Summer Dissertation Writing Grant from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). The grant will support Strakhova’s work on her dissertation project, “Selective Emigration: Border Control and the Jewish Escape in Late Imperial Russia, 1881-1914.” Strakhova is advised by Drs. Eric Goldstein and Ellie R. Schainker.

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Alumni Update: Richard Rawls (PhD, ’02)

Dr. Richard S. Rawls, a 2002 graduate of the doctoral program, recently provided the department with an update. Rawls holds a dual appointment in the History and Religion Departments at Georgia Gwinnett College. His recent publications include co-editing the book Curriculum Internationalization and the Future of Education (IGI Global, 2018) with Semire Dikli and Brian Etheridge. He authored two chapters in the volume: “Internationalizing a Course on the Cultural and Intellectual History of the Ancient World” and “Reflecting on New Faculty Training: Internationalized Learning Essentials” (with Semire Dikli). Rawls also composed the encyclopedia article “Peloponnesian War” for The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018).

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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.”

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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.

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Hagemann Awarded a Dean’s Teaching Fellowship

Doctoral candidate Luke Hagemann has received a 2021-22 Dean’s Teaching Fellowship (DTF) from Emory’s Laney Graduate School. The DTF program supports students who demonstrate excellence in teaching and who will complete their doctoral degree in the fellowship year. Each Dean’s Teaching Fellow teaches one course. Hagemann’s DTF is focused on technologically enhanced teaching, or the leveraging of technology to foster active learning in support of course goals. Advised by Dr. Judith Evans Grubbs, Hagemann’s dissertation is titled “A Fisco Petit: The Redistribution of Imperial Wealth and Property to Provincials in the Roman Empire.”