On November 11th, Cláudio Daflon successfully defended his dissertation “Peripheral Vision:The New Conurbano Universities and the Struggles for a More Popular and Democratic Higher Education System in Argentina, 1980s-2010s”.
Congratulations to Dr. Daflon on his successful defense!
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.
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 sch
olarship, 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.
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 book “chronicles 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.
Grace Easterly has been selected as a 2024-2025 fellow at the Cold War Archives Research Institute.
The Cold War Archives Research Institute at the Wilson Center has two objectives: “to stimulate original scholarship on the interplay between soft and hard power in the cold and hot wars between 1945 and 1991; and to demonstrate the power of cooperative scholarship through innovative archival practices”. This highly competitive fellowship seeks to train graduate level students in archival research methodologies, and hone the CWAR fellows “critical research skills in historical and archival methodologies, further their own research agendas in Cold War history, improve their communication and presentation skills, and develop a network of supportive professional contacts”.
Congratulations to Grace Easterly on this impressive achievement!
Congratulations to Dr. Abdullah Alhatem, who on September 13th successfully defended his dissertation, “The Domestic Slave Trade and the “Christian Master” in New England”!
On August 28th, 2024, Professor Jason Chang, professor of History and Asian American Studies and Director of Asian and Asian American Studies, became the head of the new Social and Critical Inquiry Department. The department brings together the areas of American Studies, Asian and Asian American Studies, Native American and Indigenous Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, under the motto, “Transformation takes social and critical inquiry”. The department prioritizes education, community partnerships and engaged research, and university service, with research focused around “study social and cultural formations and their impact on public life”.
As new department head, Professor Chang believes part of the emphasis of the department is on, “leveraging student experiences and faculty research so that the impact is not just on campus but in communities”. In the next five years, the department hopes to offer “a transformative educational experience that connects students to communities and addresses important societal problems in Connecticut and beyond”.
Professor’s Chang’s work as department head, and the goals of the new department are featured in UConn Today’s article, “Meet Jason Chang, First Head of New Social and Critical Inquiry Department”.
On July 26th, Gabrielle Westcott successfully defended her dissertation, “Struggling for the Soul and Mind of a President: How Emotions and Personality Shaped Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam Policy in 1968”.
From the abstract:
“In the summer of 1968, an irate President Lyndon B. Johnson lashed out at his senior foreign policy advisors, calling them “dupes” of a Soviet conspiracy to get him to stop bombing North Vietnam. His staffers reported that he grew “very pissed & emotional” in response to proposals for a bombing cessation because he believed stopping the bombing would endanger his sons-in-law, both of whom were serving in Vietnam. Johnson belittled and berated Vice President Hubert Humphrey for deviating from the administration’s position and sidelined Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford when he continued to advocate a cessation. LBJ’s personality and emotional outbursts set the parameters of foreign policy debates and his emotions surrounding events in his personal life shaped U.S. policy toward Vietnam. Behind the scenes, Johnson’s senior advisors waged a fierce battle for the “soul and mind” of the president. Conscious of the role emotions played in LBJ’s thinking, they crafted their policy proposals to appeal to his emotional state. The decision-making process quickly deteriorated. Filled with angry outbursts, private lamentations, and personal conflict, the final year of Johnson’s presidency illustrates how emotions and personality influence foreign policy.”
Congratulations Dr. Gabrielle Westcott on her successful dissertation defense!
Congratulations to Frances Martin who successfully defended her dissertation, “From the Ambassadors of Little Saigon: The Nation-Making and Grassroots Diplomacy of Vietnamese Refugees in the United States, 1975-1997″, on June 7th!
From her abstract:
“Following the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam, many left Vietnam as refugees and resettled in the United States. However, for the Vietnamese refugees living in the United States, the formal dissolution of their nation-state did not sever their allegiance to their countrymen and the ties that bound them together as a nation. This dissertation examines how stateless individuals organized and advocated for themselves in the international system and replicated the functions of a nation through this activism. Using three Vietnamese refugee groups in the United States, The National United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (The Front), The Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association (FVPPA), and Project Ngoc, this project examines how Vietnamese refugees in the United States reproduced different structures of a nation (the state, family, and civil society). The Front sought the overthrow of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the creation of an anti-communist Vietnam. In doing so it recreated the state structures of military and government in the Vietnamese refugee population in the United States. The FVPPA, by raising awareness of the issue of Vietnamese re-education camp prisoners and fighting for their release, immigration, and resettlement process, ensured the reestablishment of the Vietnamese family in the United States. Finally, Project Ngoc, a student activist organization through advocating for Vietnamese refugees and protesting the policy of forced repatriation, participated in and strengthened the civil society of the Vietnamese refugee population. These three organizations are examples of the way stateless peoples use their activism to protect themselves from international neglect and advance their agendas in the nation-state system.”