In comparison to the little documentation of the 1918 flu pandemic’s impact on Storrs, the University is ensuring that the experience of COVID-19 will be remembered. Through an initiative launched by the University Archives & Special Collections (ASC) in the UConn Library, stories from the UConn community – students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and other affiliated community members – are being collected by the ASC, preserved for posterity, and then made accessible for research and study in what will be known as the UConn COVID-19 Collection. Three classes this semester took part in the initiative, including two courses taught by History professors. Helen M. Rozwadowski, a professor of history and maritime studies at Avery Point and Sylvia Schafer, an associate professor of history at Storrs altered their writing assignments to offer students the opportunity to reflect on the effects of the pandemic.

To read about more about the teaching experiences of Professor Rozwadowski and OSchafer, or the initiative launched by the ASC, click here.

The Department is thrilled to announce that our grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to develop a new joint undergraduate minor with Digital Media & Design in Digital Public History has been funded.  This is a planning grant for $35,000, with the aim of applying for a larger implementation grant down the road. For NEH’s announcement, please click here.

Congratulations to co-Pis Fiona Vernal and Tom Scheinfeldt for all their hard work in bringing this together.  Alongside the DMD Department Head Heather Elliot-Famularo, our Department is looking forward to the wonderful courses and undergraduate projects we can build together!

On February 12th, Professor Helen Rozwadowski will be taking the podium at Memorial University to deliver the Henrietta Harvey Distinguished Lecture. Established in 1964, the lecture series invitees “highly-regarded scholars” to deliver a lecture, and spend time with faculty, students, and staff through panels and discussion. Sponsored by the Department of Sociology, the Department of Classics, the Department of History, and the Maritime Studies Research Unit, Professor Rozwadowski’s is titled “Writing Ocean Histories”.

For an interview between Prof. Rozwadowski and Memorial University’s Gazette, please click here.

The Senate’s acquittal of President Trump kept media outlets, and Professor Manisha Sinha, busy during the week of February 5th. TIME Magazine‘s article, “Where Trump’s Acquittal Fits Into the History of Impeachment, According to Historians,” features Professor Sinha’s view of the Senate vote, its place in American history, and the future of the Republican Party. Democracy Now! also interviewed Professor Sinha for the second time this year to receive her follow-up remarks on the impeachment process.

Professor Sinha is the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair of American History at the University of Connecticut. She currently is on leave as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University.

For the article, click here.

For the TV interview by Democracy Now!, click here.

Matthew McKenzie, Professor of History at UConn-Avery Point, recently presented as a speaker in the World Fish Migration Day Lecture Series (sponsored by The Wildlands Trust) in Pembroke, Massachusetts. Professor McKenzie’s talk was titled “Old Friends in a New World: Early English Settlers’ Annual Calendars of New England Fish Arrivals.” Although World Fish Migration Day is not until May 16th, there is no question that Professor McKenzie’s lecture and research helped kick off the celebrations!

A video recording of his lecture can be found here.

On January 22, Draper Chair and Professor Manisha Sinha was interviewed by Democracy Now! to discuss the similarities between President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate and historical similarities to President Andrew Johnson. An 18 minute recording of the interview can be found here with the title of “‘Andrew Johnson Was A Lot Like Trump’: Echoes of 1868 in Trump’s Impeachment Trial”.