Author: Stockford, Lillian

Manisha Sinha’s Book Named as One of Best Feminist Books of 2024

MS. Magazine has named Manisha Sinha‘s book The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 as one of the top feminist books of 2024.

Karla Strand, a gender and women’s studies librarian, reviews Sinha’s book as: “With this groundbreaking volume, renowned historian Manisha Sinha offers a critical reexamination of the Reconstruction era. By extending the time frame and including other important events such as imperialism, conquest of Indigenous peoples and women’s suffrage, Sinha presents a new understanding of the consequences of its defeat.”

To read more of this article, and to learn more about the other books named: Ms. Magazine’s Top Feminist Books of 2024

Sergio Luzzatto Interviewed About New Book and Awarded Frulia Storia Award

In 2024, Professor Sergio Luzzatto published his book, Primo Levi e i suoi compagni. In this book, “Sergio Luzzatto returns to examine the figure of Primo Levi and reconstruBook cover of Professor Sergio Luzzatto's book "Primo Levi e i suoi compagni"ct the story behind his writing, following the path that from leads the characters of Survival in Auschwitz to the real identity of his deportation companions, the European Jews forced “to the bottom” with him,”.

To read interviews about Primo Levi e i suoi compagni:

Corriere della Sera

El Pais

In September of 2024, Luzzatto was also awarded the Frulia Storia Award for his work, “Dolore e furore: Una storia delle Brigatte rosse“. The Award is awarded to an Italian nonfiction book for, “originality, scientific rigor and diffusion potential beyond the circle of professionals.”. The book must go through two rounds of judging, first by a jury of authors and scholars, and then by a jury of 300 readers.

To read more about this impressive achievement:

Messaggero Veneto

Primo Levi e i suoi compagni

Sergio Luzzatto, Author

 

Donzelli Editore, 2024

Book cover of Professor Sergio Luzzatto's book "Primo Levi e i suoi compagni"

Description:

You who live safe/ In your warm houses … Meditate that this came about:/ I commend these words to you”: with unforgettable verses, of Dantesque proportions, Survival in Auschwitzopens, a text that has become over time the definitive book on Auschwitz, on the horror of the twentieth century. But what does Primo Levi mean when he says “you”? What, when he says “I”? And what, when he says “we”? The way in which the author, a master of the Italian language, has strategically employed – and bent – ​​personal pronouns nests the tangle of good and evil, of innocence and shame in the Shoah: the idea, at once, of belonging and of distance, but also the pain of guilt, and the responsibility that derives from it. Starting from these questions, Sergio Luzzatto returns to examine the figure of Primo Levi and reconstruct the story behind his writing, following the path that from leads the characters of Survival in Auschwitzto the real identity of his deportation companions, the European Jews forced “to the bottom” with him. Who were the members of the chemical Kommando of Auschwitz-Monowitz? And who were, in particular, the companions represented by Levi as negative or even abject characters, Luciferian incarnations of evil? Perhaps Primo Levi would have become a writer even if he had not been deported to Auschwitz. Certainly he would have been a different writer, if the history of the twentieth century had not marked the life of the young chemist forever through the experience of that black hole. That is why his books today must be reread today with the tools of historians: to unravel the threads of a continuous – and problematic – fabric, between historical fact and literary transfiguration.

 

Podcast Interview With Brendan Kane and Emmet de Barra

Screenshot of Leamh Website Home pageProfessor Brendan Kane and former MA student Emmet de Barra, now a PhD student in Irish at Trinity College Dublin, recently gave a podcast interview on the Celtic Students Podcast about their work on the innovative and fun website to Learn Early Modern Irish Léamh.org.

Listen in for a interesting discussion of Celtic languages, grammar games, collaborative work, and the perhaps surprising utility of the digital humanities as a tool for language revival.

 

Manisha Sinha Keynotes International Conference

On December 12th, Professor Manisha Sinha keynoted an international conference, Professor Manisha Sinha, with colleagues, on a bridge over a river.“Contesting Black Citizenship from the American Revolution to the Present” at the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, University of Leiden at Middelburg, Netherlands. The two-day conference featured multiple sessions with papers by scholars in the field from the United States and the Netherlands.

Professor Sinha’s keynote speech focused “on the rise and fall of the second American republic, covering a period of 60 years, starting with Lincoln’s election, and ending with the ratification of the nineteenth amendment”.

This is the second international conference keynoted by Professor Sinha this year. In June 2024, she keynoted another international conference on Emancipation at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark with scholars from Europe and the United States.

To read more about the events of the conference and the work of the scholars’, the Roosevelt Institute.

Summer China and the West, Study Abroad Opportunity

In summer 2025, UConn’s Experiential Global Learning program in partnership with the UConn History Department will be offering AAAS/HIST 2866, “China and the West”. This exciting 3-credit study abroad course travels to Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an, and will offer students the opportunity to visit world famous heritage sites such as The Great Wall of China, Terracotta warriors, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. This course will cultivate an increased understanding of Sino-Western shared history and perceptions about each other. In addition to field trips, students will strengthen their critical thinking and writing skills through reading, discussions, assignments, and research.

For further information, please see the attached poster, and the following links to the online brochure and information session on December 17 at 4:00 p.m:

Online brochure

Online Information Session on Dec 17, 4:00 pm:

https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/uconn-cmr/j.php?MTID=m721f75f7eda8e4eb620cc7198294a6b7

151st Foreign Policy Seminar This Week

On November 8th, the History Department will be hosting its Foreign Policy Seminar. The event will take place in the Wood Hall Basement Lounge, and there will be a Zoom meeting option available (with registration). The reception begins at 4:30, and  the talk will start at 5 pm. There will be a dinner after the end of the talk, if you are interested in attending please contact frank.costigliola@uconn.edu.

Anne Foster, a professor of history at Indiana State since 2003, will be presenting “Creating Borders, Creating Crises: The Longer, Broader War on Drugs,”.

In her latest book “The Long War”, Foster examines the global war on drugs.

“Since the early twentieth century, the United States has led a global prohibition effort against certain drugs in which production restriction and criminalization are emphasized over prevention and treatment as means to reduce problematic usage. This “war on drugs” is widely seen to have failed, and periodically decriminalization and legalization movements arise. Debates continue over whether the problems of addiction and crime associated with illicit use of drugs stem from their illegal status or the nature of the drugs themselves. In The Long War on Drugs Anne L. Foster explores the origin of the punitive approach to drugs and its continued appeal despite its obvious flaws. She provides a comprehensive overview, focusing not only on a political history of policy developments but also on changes in medical practices and understanding of drugs. Foster also outlines the social and cultural changes prompting different attitudes about drugs; the racial, environmental, and social justice implications of particular drug policies; and the international consequences of US drug policy.” from Duke University Press.

Manisha Sinha Awarded John W. Blassingame Award

This October, Manisha Sinha was awarded the John W. Blassingame Award for her significant contributions to the field of African American history through her esteemed scholarship, and mentorship of African American students.  The John W. Blassingame Award is awarded by the Southern Historical Association every three years. Sinha’s award was announced at the 90th annual meeting of the Association that took place from October 24- 27th this year in Kansas City.

To read more about this impressive achievement, UConn Today.

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey Ogbar Wins GA Historical Records Advisory Council Award

This October, Jeffrey Ogbar was awarded the Award for Excellence in Documenting Georgia’s History by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council for his book America’s Black Capital: How African-Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy. The bookchronicles how a center of Black excellence emerged amid virulent expressions of white nationalism, as African Americans pushed back against Confederate ideology to create an extraordinary locus of achievement. What drove them, historian Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar shows, was the belief that Black uplift would be best advanced by forging Black institutions.

The Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC) was formed in 1993 by the Georgia General Assembly. Since then, they have worked to ensure that Georgians have access to the history of Georgia and the records that tell that history, through education and preservation.