Assistant Professor Ricardo Salazar-Rey of the UConn-Stamford campus recently shared his experience participating in the Folger Institute‘s selective yearlong colloquium on “Finance, Race, and Gender in the Early Modern Atlantic World”. Calling the colloquium a “triumph,” Professor Salazar-Rey had the opportunity throughout the year to participate in “robust and informative” discussions and enhance his research, particularly by deepening his awareness of the special role and agency of Afroiberian women in the the Caribbean world.

To partake in this opportunity, Professor Salazar-Rey received funding from the Folger Institute and a travel award from the UConn Early Modern Studies Working Group. Salazar-Rey also notes the support he received from the UConn community, specifically his “eagle-eyed mentor” Mark Healey and Professor Brendan Kane. To read more about his experience, please click here.

Professor and State Historian Walt Woodward joined Mary Donohue in interviewing Governor Ned Lamont for Woodward’s podcast, Grating the Nutmeg. In addition to sharing Lamont’s speech, “100 Years of Fake News and Fake and Real Wars,” the podcast also includes a discussion with the Governor regarding the importance of the liberal arts and history. To stream the episode, go to this link or search for Grating the Nutmeg on your preferred podcast app.

The History Department is pleased to welcome Thoko Sipungu and Siyanda Ntlabathi who join us through the University Capacity Development Program (UCDP), a South African initiative with international partners in higher education that helps to develop the professoriate. In a parternship with UCONN Global and South Africa’s
Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the UConn History Department welcomes the second cohort or scholars in this exciting collaboration. We wish them a productive start to their semester at UCONN!

 

 

Thoko Sipungu, Visiting PhD Scholar, Rhodes University, South Africa
Sipungu is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Rhodes University. His research and teaching interests include the sociology of men and masculinities, sexuality/ies, disabilities, identity and belonging, and sociological theory. His research aims to theorize the significance of the ‘body’ and the place of disability in the construction of Xhosa masculinity/ies.

 

 

 

Siyanda Ntlabathi, Visiting PhD Scholar, University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape, in South Africa
Siyanda works as Manager of the Teaching and Learning Centre, East London Campus at the University of Fort Hare. Her work involves Leadership, supporting Academics in Technology Enhanced Learning, Curriculum Development, Portfolio and ePortfolios development and Foundation Provisioning (Extended Curriculum) Support. This entails development and support through workshops, seminars, and one on one consultations. Siyanda has a Master’s in Education and is currently pursuing her PhD (DBA in Higher Education Management) with the University of Bath.

Published in 2019 with Johns Hopkins University Press is an updated edition of Professor Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar‘s first book, Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (2005). The updated edition includes a new preface that traces the important linkage between the Black Power movement and the recent Black Lives Matter movement, as well as insight into the book’s genesis. The new edition also includes an updated essay on sources relating to the Black Power movement.

For more information, or to purchase book, please click here.

Professor Manisha Sinha contributed a new article, titled “The New Fugitive Slave Laws,” to The New York Review of Books. Drawing eye-opening parallels between the humanitarian assistance towards today’s crises, such as migrants arriving in Italy and Dreamers in the US, Today, and the assistance provided to slaves during the antebellum era, Sinha provides a timely argument that states “in criminalizing the provision of humanitarian assistance to migrants we have resurrected the fugitive slave laws of antebellum America.”

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, and in relation to the Democratic contest for presidential candidacy, Professor Micki McElya provides her assessment of whether democratic candidate and South End Mayor, Pete Buttigieg, is the inheritor of Stonewall’s legacy. Published in the Boston Review and titled “Is Pete Buttigieg the Face of Stonewall?,” McElya argues that “Buttigeig’s Stonewall is not that of the fed-up liberationists in the bar and on Christopher Street, but rather of Mattachine leaders’ sanguine next-day appeal to ‘rioters’ to be peaceful and decorous.”

To read more of McElya’s comparison, click here.

On May 23, 2019, UConn Today highlighted the important work being done by UConn’s Veterans History Project in an article titled “Preserving Veteran Stores for Future Generations.” Serving as an extension of the Library of Congress’ national initiative, UConn students are assisting in the collection, preservation, and dissemination of U.S. veterans’ personal accounts.

As discussed in the article, the project utilizes a multitude of UConn resources. In addition to being initiated by Veterans Affairs and Military Programs director Alyssa Kelleher ’04 (CLAS), ’17 MS, the project also engages with undergraduate students and professors, such as Fiona Vernal who is an Associate Professor of History and African Studies.

Professor Brendan Kane, specializing in early modern Britain and Ireland, details the recent recovery of an Irish source on The National Archives’ blog. Along with UConn Greenhouse Studios’ Wes Hamrick and Deirdre Nic Chárthaigh, Professor Kane translated the text of an early seventeenth-century land dispute from the Irish midlands. The text was shared via twitter by the The National Archives’ archivists and came to the attention of Professor Kane and the Greenhouse Studios due to their in-depth involvement with Léamh.org.

To read more about the discovery process as well as the analysis of the document, follow this link.