Congratulations to Jason Ward, acting professor of History, who recently authored a piece for Southern Spaces. The article reviews Melanie S. Morrison’s Murder on Shades Mountain: The Legal Lynching of Willie Peterson and the Struggle for Justice in Jim Crow Birmingham (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018). Read Ward’s article here: “Shades of Violence: Jim Crow Justice and Black-Resistance in the Depression-Era South.”
Professor of South Asian Studies Ruby Lal recently published Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan with W.W. Norton. Lal is Associated Faculty in the History Department. The biography charts the ascendance of the empress in 17th Century India and her unprecedented rule over the vast Mughal empire. Read a more detailed description of the book below along with Lal’s recent article about it on the BBC, “The Mughal queen who became a feminist icon.”
Four centuries ago, a Muslim woman ruled an empire.
When it came to hunting, she was a master shot. As a dress designer, few could compare. An ingenious architect, she innovated the use of marble in her parents’ mausoleum on the banks of the Yamuna River that inspired her stepson’s Taj Mahal. And she was both celebrated and reviled for her political acumen and diplomatic skill, which rivaled those of her female counterparts in Europe and beyond.
In 1611, thirty-four-year-old Nur Jahan, daughter of a Persian noble and widow of a subversive official, became the twentieth and most cherished wife of the Emperor Jahangir. While other wives were secluded behind walls, Nur ruled the vast Mughal Empire alongside her husband, and governed in his stead as his health failed and his attentions wandered from matters of state. An astute politician and devoted partner, Nur led troops into battle to free Jahangir when he was imprisoned by one of his own officers. She signed and issued imperial orders, and coins of the realm bore her name.
Acclaimed historian Ruby Lal uncovers the rich life and world of Nur Jahan, rescuing this dazzling figure from patriarchal and Orientalist clichés of romance and intrigue, and giving new insight into the lives of women and girls in the Mughal Empire, even where scholars claim there are no sources. Nur’s confident assertion of authority and talent is revelatory. In Empress, she finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.
Jeffrey Lesser, Director of the Halle Institute for Global Research and Learning and Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History, recently commented about a leading candidate in Brazil’s 2018 presidential election for a Time magazine article. Read an excerpt below in addition to the full article by Matt Sandy, “Jair Bolsonaro Loves Trump, Hates Gay People and Admires Autocrats. He Could Be Brazil’s Next President.”
Despite Bolsonaro’s prior support for military rule, analysts agree that a coup is unlikely in Brazil. But few believe the country would be unaffected by a Bolsonaro presidency. “[It] would be revolutionary for contemporary Brazilian society,” says Jeffrey Lesser, director of the Halle Institute for Global Research and Learning at Emory University. “There is little doubt that if elected, he would seek to diminish checks and balances.”
The American Historical Association recently profiled Dr. Sarah E. Gardner, a 1996 graduate of the History doctoral program, in their member spotlight series. Gardner is Professor of History and Director of Southern Studies at Mercer University. Read the full post.
Emory History Department faculty, alumni, and current students are among the presenting authors at this year’s AJC Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the country. 2018 marks the first year that Emory University is a presenting sponsor. See the presentations of authors associated with the History Department below, and explore the full schedule here.
Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies Carol Anderson recently authored an opinion piece in The New York Times. Anderson discusses the record of voter suppression by Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state since 2010 and currently the Republican nominee for governor. Read the full article: “Brian Kemp, Enemy of Democracy: An expert on voter suppression, he will help keep Georgia red.”
Alexa Palomo, a senior history and anthropology major, has spent her summer as an engagement coordinator and fundraiser at Atlanta’s Gateway Center. The organization focuses on ending homelessness in Metro Atlanta “through therapeutic programs and community collaboration.” Read more about Palomo in a recent Emory News Center article, “The change agent: Alexa Palomo.”
The Emory History Department welcomes updates from alumni. Below, 2017 graduate Andrew Shifren describes his recent arrival in Indonesia on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship.
I’ve now spent about a week in my placement, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, where I will be living for the next 10 months. So far Indonesia has defied many of my expectations. It is isolating, but also incredibly eye-opening and motivates me to learn the language (Bahasa Indonesia) like nothing else could. My town is the launching point for tours of the Komodo Islands and the surrounding coral reefs. In my free time I hope to snorkel and dive. The politics and history of Komodo National Park is fascinating and something I hope to learn more about. The teaching is going to be difficult, but I am looking forward to it. I teach eight 35-person classrooms per week with very little organizational help from the school. Most of the students hope to secure the well-paying tourism jobs that are popping up as hotels are built in the town and more and more tourist come to tour the Komodos; English is really the key to their futures.
Dr. Ashley Parcells, Assistant Professor of History at Jacksonville University, published an article in the July 2018 edition of The Journal of African History. The piece is titled “Rural Development, Royal History, and the Struggle for Authority in Early Apartheid Zululand (1951-4).” Parcells, a former student of Clifton Crais, graduated in the spring of 2018. Check out the article abstract below and read the full piece here.
“From 1951, apartheid officials sought to implement soil rehabilitation programs in Nongoma, the home district of Zulu Paramount Chief Cyprian Bhekuzulu. This article argues that these programs brought to the surface fundamental questions about political authority in South Africa’s hinterland during the first years of apartheid. These questions arose from ambiguities within native policy immediately after the passage of the 1951 Bantu Authorities Act: while the power of chiefs during the colonial and segregationist era in Zululand had been tied to their control of native reserve land, in Nongoma, these development interventions threatened that prerogative at the very moment apartheid policy sought to strengthen ‘tribal’ governance. In response, the Zulu royal family in Nongoma called on treaties with the British from the conquest era, colonial law, and the very language of apartheid to reassert chiefly control over land, and more importantly, to negotiate this new apartheid political order.”
The Laney Graduate School recently published a profile of PhD candidate Stefanie M. Krull on their homepage. Krull’s core research interests are Central Europe, Modern Germany & Poland, nationalism & ethnicity, and migration/diaspora. Her dissertation, titled “’The Latecomers’: Resettlers from Poland & their Integration into West Germany, 1970-1990,” is advised by Astrid M. Eckert. View the video profile of Krull and read more about her research.