UVM History Department Blog

Dear Friends,

It’s been a very long year and, during COVID, our efforts at communicating with the broader public have been limited at best. As we start to move back toward something resembling normalcy, it seemed like the right time to provide some news.

The good news is: we made it through the academic year with most of our history classes meeting in person. Students, faculty, and staff were incredible: masking up, social-distancing, and ensuring that things continued on as normally as they possibly could.

While work of all sorts has been difficult, members of the history department (old and new alike) continue to flourish. Some recent highlights are included below:

RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS

Early in the spring, Professor Jon Huener published his new book, The Polish Catholic Church under German Occupation: The Reichsgau Wartheland, 1939-1945 (with Indiana University Press). For details see: https://iupress.org/9780253054043/the-polish-catholic-church-under-german-occupation/

Professor Sarah Osten’s article [“Out of the Shadows: Violence and State Consolidation in Postrevolutionary Mexico,” The Latin Americanist (Vol. 64, No. 2)] received an honorable mention for best article in the social sciences from the Latin American Studies Association, Mexico Section.

Professor Felicia Kornbluh received a Mellon-Schlesinger Summer Research Grant from the Schlesinger Library at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for her project, “How to Fight a War on Women: New York’s Abortion Decriminalization and the Rise of Reproductive Justice.”

Professor Paul Deslandes released a new Great Courses lecture series titled: Notorious London: A City Tour. For details see: https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/notorious-london-a-city-tour OR https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/notorious-london-a-city-tour

RECENT PRESS ON FACULTY RESEARCH

Professor Nicole Phelps’s research was recently highlighted in a podcast put out by the Roy Rosenzweig Center at George Mason University titled “Consolation Prize.” It focuses on her work on the US Consular Service. Her scholarship is featured in episode 1 and there is an interview with her in Bonus Episode 1. For details see: https://consolationprize.rrchnm.org/category/episodes/.

Professor Bogac Ergene was recently interviewed for an NBC news story on food prices during Ramadan. For details see: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/grocery-price-hikes-hit-muslims-during-ramadan-n1266501.

OTHER FACULTY ROLES

Professor Paul Deslandes was recently reappointed as Chief Reader for the College Board’s AP European History Program. He held this position from 2013-2018 and has been appointed to this role for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years. In this capacity, he oversees the scoring of some 100,000 student exams, plays a leading role in test development, and functions as a spokesperson for the program.

NEWS ON RECENT GRADUATES

Ruby Daily (MA, 2014), who is now finishing a PhD at Northwestern University, recently had her research on letters from people in the British world to the American sex researcher Alfred Kinsey highlighted in an article in the Times (of London). For details see: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sex-scouts-and-stutters-please-were-british-qmsnwnpx5.

Sarah Chute (MA, 2021) was admitted with full funding to the PhD program in history at the University of Toronto.

Alex Auman (BA, 2009) was recently sworn in as a US Foreign Service Officer.

Sara Corsetti (BA, 2020) will be attending NYU’s Global School of Public Health in the fall for graduate study.

And finally:

The History Review, our student-run and edited journal, recently received an honorable mention in the 2020 Gerald D. Nash competition for student publications that is run by the Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society.

If readers have news they’d like to share, please e-mail the chair at paul.deslandes@uvm.edu or the department’s general e-mail address at history@uvm.edu.

Happy spring and enjoy the summer!

The History Department is abuzz again with activity now that a new semester has begun. During the fall term, there was lots to celebrate. Two notable events were the launch of a book (written by affiliated faculty member Stephen Terry with research assistance by history major Louis Augeri on Senator George D. Aiken–Say We Won and Get Out: George D. Aiken and the Vietnam War) and a highly successful symposium titled “Interpreting the Book: Medieval Manuscripts at UVM.” The latter event was organized, in conjunction with Silver Special Collections, by Professors Charlie Briggs and Sean Field. A highlight of the symposium were presentations by undergraduate and graduate students in Charlies Briggs’ seminar “Books and Readers in Europe, 1250-1550.”

We also held some important events for students including our once-a- semester “meet and greet” for faculty and students and a seminar on career networking for history students. In the interest of helping our students prepare for life after UVM, we’ll be holding another career event in the spring that will feature a panel of history alums speaking on their experiences after UVM.

The spring term will also bring a celebration of faculty research, a series of lectures on a diverse array of topics, and a special event featuring UVM history alum (Class of 1974) and Associated Press journalist Terrence Petty who will discuss his recent book Enemy of the People: The Munich Post and the Journalists Who Opposed Hitler and how his education as a history major at UVM prepared him for his career.

More details on these and many other events and developments will be posted on this blog and on our Facebook https://www.facebook.com/uvmhistory and Twitter http://@uvmhistory accounts.

Dear History Department Friends,

As always, the fall has been a busy term in the history department. We have hosted a number of lectures, held a career networking event for majors, and a sneak peek (on spring courses) event with students and faculty. Our communications intern, major Kaleigh Calvao, is hard at work on our first ever department newsletter for alums and we are looking forward to a busy and exciting spring semester.

Some recent news and events worth mentioning are included below:

This weekend, November 8th and 9th, the UVM Humanities Center and Silver Special Collections–along with the history department–are sponsoring a colloquium on “Interpreting the Handwritten Book:  Medieval Manuscripts at UVM.” Here’s the program: https://specialcollections.uvm.edu/events/colloquium. On Friday, Nov. 8th, 3:30-6:45, are student presentations from Professor Charlie Brigg’s HST 225 seminar.  Most of the presenters are History grad students and undergraduate majors.  On Saturday, November 9th from 9:00-5:00 invited speakers and UVM faculty will be delivering various talks on recent research on these topics. We hope that people who are interested will attend these events.

Professor Erik Esselstrom will be delivering his Full Professor Lecture on November 20th at 4:30 p.m. in Memorial Lounge in Waterman. The title for his talk is “In the Shadow of Mao’s Mushroom Clouds: Japanese Reactions to Chinese Nuclear Weapons in the 1960s.” The department would like to encourage all who can to attend.

Professor Nicole Phelps has been invited to become a commissioning editor for H-Diplo. H-Diplo is one of the largest H-Net networks, with several thousand subscribers around the world, and is particularly active in reviewing books and articles. Professor Phelps will be concentrating on expanding the network’s reviews of scholarship on the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.

We will continue to share information through the remainder of the fall term. And, as always, we are willing to share relevant news.

Dear History Readers,

We are delighted to be starting a new academic year. As always, our students and faculty have returned refreshed to campus, ready to undertake all sorts of new projects. Our faculty traveled the globe over the summer, conducting research, giving papers, and networking with fellow historians. Similarly, our students have returned to campus with a wealth of interesting experiences as interns and summer fellows at a variety of different organizations and institutions.

Aside from getting back to the serious business of teaching and learning, the department is continuing in its role as an intellectual center on campus. On September 17th, we will host Timothy Breen, James Marsh Professor-at-Large within the Department of History at UVM, who will deliver a lecture at 4:00 pm in Memorial Lounge in Waterman. The title of his talk is: “Ending the American Revolution: Reconciliation and Revenge.” This lecture coincides with the release of his new book “The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America,” which Harvard University Press will publish that very day.

We hope that all who can will attend. Be on the lookout for additional blog posts throughout the semester.

Best wishes,

Paul Deslandes (Chair, Department of History)