Dear History Friends, Colleagues, and Students,
I am writing to welcome you back to the start of a new academic year. In my role as Chair, I will be taking on a primary role reaching out to those readers of our blog with an interest in history (and the history department at UVM). There have been a number of exciting developments and accomplishments in recent months, some of which I want to share with you below.
—The Department has recently appointed a social media intern. Filling this position is undergraduate Kaleigh Calvao (a double major in history and political science). Kaleigh has a broad range of experience working in both politics and at the New London (CT) Historical Society. She will be helping the department, in the weeks and months ahead, to develop a social media strategy, revise its website, and reach out to alumni so that we can better showcase their achievements and help them connect with our current students.
In recent months, our faculty and students have had a number of great successes. In the space below, I want to highlight just a few of these:
— Lauren Fedewa (a 2018 graduate of our M.A. program) received a Fulbright U.S. Program Award to Germany in history for 2018-2019. During the award period, Fedewa will be conducting research on the establishment and operation of German foreign child-care facilities during the Second World War. During her time in Germany, she will be affiliated with the Historisches Seminar at Leibniz University in Hannover. Lauren was also awarded a fellowship from the Kosciuszko Foundation to study Polish at Jagiellonian University. The latter award she had to decline, though, to pursue the Fulbright.
—The following are just a few of our recent graduates pursuing advanced study at other institutions (Sarah Jauris, B.A. 2017–M.A. in History, Boston College; Maria Koutsouris, B.A. 2018–M.A. in Theology, Boston College; John Marchinkoski B.A. 2016–Ph.D. in English at Harvard University; and Franco Paz, M.A. 2018–Ph.D. in history at Harvard University).
–Current M.A. student Courtney Smith attended a week long workshop on medieval manuscripts in Montreal during the final week of August.
–Professor Felicia Kornbluh recently had a piece in the New York Times Book Review in which she not only reflected on a new history of the Vietnam War for young people but also her work, from the ages of 9-13, with the Children’s Express Advocacy and News Service. At age 13, she was part of a team of western journalists who reported from Cambodia following the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Kornbluh was promoted to the position of senor editor at the age of 16 and reported (with others) on children’s fears of nuclear war, a story that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Commentary.
–In spring 2018, the following history students were elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa (Maria Koutsouris, Jack Roberts, Emily Thibodeau, and Lisa Wood)
–Professor Susanna Schrafstetter is the Judith B. and Burton P. Resnick Invitational Scholar for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum during the fall 2018 semester. While in residence at the Mandel Center in Washington, D.C. she will be working on her project “Seeking Survival in the South: German-Jewish Refugees in Italy, 1933-1950.”
–Professor Alan Steinweis is holding the Ina Levine Invitational Senior Fellowship at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum during the fall 2018 semester. During the time that he is in residence at the Mandel Center in Washington, D.C. he will be working on several research and writing projects related to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
In the weeks and months to come, I will continue to share information with blog readers about events in the history department, accomplishments of our students, faculty, and alumni, and interesting stories about the value of history and its study in the contemporary world.
If you are a UVM student, faculty member, or alum, with news to share, please feel free to pass it along by responding to this post or writing to me directly at paul.deslandes@uvm.edu.
Best wishes,
Paul Deslandes
Chair, Department of History
