Prof. Manisha Sinha was quoted in a May 25 New York Times piece, looking back at the murder of George Floyd and the 2020 movement for Black lives. Prof. Sinha is quoted alongside Ibram X. Kendi and Steven Hahn, among others, and seeks to place the events of 2020, as well as the subsequent reactionary backlash, within its long-term historical context.
Access the piece here.
Luke Reynolds has been invited to deliver the annual Siborne Lecture at the National Army Museum in London on June 19th. This lecture is part of the National Army Museum’s Waterloo Week (16 – 22 June) held to mark the 210th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.
In collaboration with Connecticut Humanities and the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Fiona Vernal has made an online platform TheirStory accessible to CT organizations and residents to support the creation of oral history collections. Vernal began working with TheirStory creator Zack Ellis in 2022 working on a project on West Indian, African American, and Puerto Rican migrations to Hartford. The article also details the other CT organization and communities that have benefitted from this collaboration.
Professor Helen Rozwadowski was interviewed for the Blue History Network Podcast, which is now up on Spotify and the network’s website. In this podcast, Professor Rozwadowski delves into “a wide variety of subjects, from oceanography in the Nineteenth century to how we, in the present, bring ocean history to the attention of the public“. She also discusses her books, Fathoming the Ocean and Vast Expanses.
On May 2nd, Professor Manisha Sinha was quoted in the Guardian article, “Trump 100 days: White House action plan makes Project 2025 look mild“. The article, written by Rachel Leingang, looks at the role that the policies outlined in Project 2025 are playing the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
To read the article: Here
Congratulations to Professor Frank Costigliola, whose recent biography of US diplomat and strategist George Kennan was just named a co-winner of the Sharon Harris Book Award fr
om the UConn Humanities Institute.
The book has been warmly received by scholars and the reading public, including an enthusiastic recent review in The New York Review of Books. An unpaywalled version of the review can be found here: The Enigma of George Kennan
On the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, a special issue of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies offers thirteen original translations of Vietnamese songs, poe
ms, memoirs, and fiction about the end of the war and its aftermath. Co-edited by Nu-Anh Tran and Trinh M. Luu, the collection is ideal for teaching at the college- and high school-level. Browse the issue at https://online.ucpress.edu/jvs/issue/20/2
Earlier this month, Professor Alexis Dudden was quoted in the New York Times article, “How South Korea’s Democracy Prevailed Over a Reckless Leader”. The article, written by Choe Sang-Hun, analyzes the attempted coup by former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol and what its outcome says about democracy in South Korea.
To read the article: Article
In The Politics of Care Work, Emma Amador tells the story of Puerto Rican women’s involvement in political activism for social and economic justice in Puerto Rico and the United States throughout the twentieth century. Amador focuses on the experiences and contributions of Puerto Rican social workers, care workers, and caregivers who fought for the compensation of reproductive labor in society and the establishment of social welfare programs. These activists believed conflicts over social reproduction and care work were themselves high-stakes class struggles for women, migrants, and people of color. In Puerto Rico, they organized for women’s rights, socialism, labor standards, and Puerto Rican independence. They continued this work in the United States by advocating for migrant rights, participating in the civil rights movement, and joining Puerto Rican-led social movements. Amador shows how their relentless efforts gradually shifted the field of social work toward social justice and community-centered activism. The profound and enduring impact of their efforts on Puerto Rican communities underscores the crucial role of Puerto Rican women’s caregiving labor and activism in building and sustaining migrant communities.
The University of North Carolina Press, 2025
Description:
The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to northern and western cities between 1915 and 1970 fundamentally altered the political, social, and cultural landscapes of major urban centers like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit, and changed the country as well. By the late twentieth century, Black people were mayors, police chiefs, and school superintendents, often at parity and sometimes overrepresented in municipal jobs in these and other cities, which were also hubs for Black literature, music, film, and politics.
Since the 1970s, migration patterns have significantly shifted away from the major sites of the Great Migration, where some iconic Black communities have been replaced by mostly non-Black residents. Although many books have examined Black urban experiences in America, this is the first written by historians focusing on the post–Great Migration era. It is centered on numerous facets of Black life, including popular culture, policing, suburbanization, and political organizing across multiple cities. In this landmark volume, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar and his contributors explore the last half century of African American urban history, covering a landscape transformed since the end of the Great Migration and demonstrating how cities remain dynamic into the twenty-first century.
Contributors are Stefan M. Bradley, Scot Brown, Tatiana M. F. Cruz, Tom Adam Davies, LaShawn Harris, Maurice J. Hobson, Shannon King, Melanie D. Newport, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Brian Purnell, J. T. Roane, Chanelle Rose, Benjamin H. Saracco, and Fiona Vernal.