In H-Diplo’s series on “Learning the Scholar’s Craft: Reflections of Historians and International Relations Scholars,” Stephen Rabe, a 1977 graduate of UConn History’s doctoral program, describes his path to becoming a prominent specialist in foreign relations. Rabe discusses with candid fondness his time studying with scholars like Mary Beth Norton and his dissertation director, Thomas G. Paterson. He attributes his “learning of the scholar’s craft” to UConn’s faculty, who served as great role models who “took their jobs seriously, worked hard, and published.” Be sure to read more about Stephen Rabe’s journey to history, the academy, Storrs, and beyond in this fantastic and detailed essay.
10/14 and 10/15: Encounters Series on Land Grab CT and A Dialogue on UConn’s Colonial History
This week, Native American Cultural Programs (NACP) and the Native American and Indigenous Students Association (NAISA) will host several dialogues that interrogate the relationship between colonialism, dispossession, and indigenous sovereignty. On Thursday, October 14 at 4pm EDT, the creators of Land Grab U, Tristan Ahtone and Bobby Lee will discuss the role of land grant universities in land accumulation, wealth and indigenous dispossession. On Friday, October 15, the dialogue continues at 12pm EDT. For both events, please fill out the Google doc form to register.
More event information below:
- 10/14 event with Land Grab U, 4pm EDT
- 10/15 event on UConn’s Colonial History, 12pm EDT
10/13: Wednesday Workshop on Technology
This week’s Wednesday workshop will be about how to use the e-reader platform, “Perusall” for teaching, as well as how to host your own meeting in Zoom. Hosted by UConn professors Bradley Simpson and Victor Zatsepine. This is sure to be an insightful session. If you can, be sure to “zoom” on over! Taking place on Wednesday, October 13, from 12:15-1:15 EDT.
10/11: Manisha Sinha To Deliver Keynote at Race and Slavery in New England Symposium
Save the date! On Monday, 10/11, UConn History Professor Manisha Sinha will deliver the keynote address at the Race and Slavery in New England Symposium, sponsored by the Museum of Old Newbury. The conference will take place from 8:30-5:30pm with in-person and online options. Professor Sinha will speak at 8:45am on the “Abolitionist International.” From the event website:
Sinha explores how Garrisonian abolitionists built transnational networks of protest by aligning antislavery with pacifism, women’s rights, and utopian socialism. Abolition overlapped with contemporary radical social movements, including the struggle for the rights of labor. The talk will address both the convergences as well as conflicts between these movements.
Check out the registration and event details! This will be an excellent and timely talk and conference!
State Historian Search Begins
It is with bittersweet hearts that we announce the retirement of Connecticut State Historian Walter Woodward. He is set to retire at the end of the academic year. The amazing range of his work in the role can be glimpsed on the website of the Office of the State Historian.
The job search for the next state historian is now underway, led by UConn History Professor Manisha Sinha. NPR has featured the job search on a lengthy and rich “Where We Live” segment, with insights from Walter Woodward, Manisha Sinha, New London City Councilor Curtis Goodwin, and historian Lonnie Braxton II. That is rare honor that NPR has bestowed upon us!
We wish Walt all the best in his endeavors as State Historian Emeritus!
Micki McElya Featured in New York Times Article
UConn History Professor Micki McElya has been featured in a New York Times article about the first time that women performed the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery in 84 years. Last week, Sergeant Porterfield and two other soldiers walked with her and participated in the sacred duty. According to Prof. McElya, “the images of the three female soldiers were a “visual marker” of the often unrecognized sacrifices that women and other marginalized people in the United States have made for the military.”
Please read and share this excellent NYT article!
Matthew Novosad Writes About African American War Veteran from Franklin, CT
UConn History MA student, Matt Novosad, has written an insightful article about Homer Peckham, who was the only African American war veteran from Franklin, CT. In his Norwich Bulletin article, Matt walks us through the life of Peckham, before and after his military service. A job well done! We look forward to reading more of your work that recovers the hidden histories of Franklin, CT.
Recent Graduate Student Achievements
Please join us in celebrating the many recent achievements of UConn graduate students.
New Positions
Kate Aguilar (PhD 2021) defended her dissertation, “In the Eyes of the Hurricanes: Miami Football, Race, and American Conservatism.” She began as Assistant Professor of African American History at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota in Fall 2021.
Hilary Bogert-Winkler (PhD 2019) appointed Assistant Professor of Liturgy at the School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, TN in Fall 2021.
Nathan Braccio (PhD 2020) defended his dissertation, “Parallel Landscapes: Algonquian and English Spatial Understandings of New England, 1500-1700.” He started as Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental History at Utah State University – Uintah Basin in Fall 2021.
Danielle Dumaine (PhD 2020) completed her dissertation, “Selling Herself: Diane di Prima, Desire, and Commodity in the Postwar United States.” She has been Visiting Assistant Professor, University of North Texas since Fall 2020.
Kevin Finefrock (PhD 2021) defended his dissertation, “The Long Emancipation: Navigating Slavery’s End in Connecticut, 1780-1830.” He is Associate Director of Employer Engagement and Operations, Connecticut College.
Edward Guimont (PhD 2019) started as Professor of Global History at Bristol Community College, Fall Rivers, MA in Fall 2021.
Aimee Loiselle (PhD 2019) began a position as Assistant Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University in Fall 2021.
Winifred Maloney (MA 2018) has started a new position as Associate Dean of College Counseling at Choate Rosemary Hall.
Lauren Stauffer (PhD 2021) completed her dissertation “Beyond the North Atlantic: How NATO Developed an ‘Out-of-Area’ Perspective, 1979-1991″ and began work in a position with the US government.
Megan Streit (PhD candidate) began work this fall as Deputy Director of Operations for Capstone, Keystone, and Pinnacle Courses, National Defense University, Washington DC.
Jessica Strom (PhD 2021) completed her dissertation “Financing Revolution: Adriano Lemmi and the Struggle for Italian Unification“ and continues to teach courses at the UConn Stamford campus.
Prizes, Fellowships, and Internships
Katie Angelica (PhD candidate) received a 2019 grant from the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, a 2020 Short-Term Grant from the New York Public Library, a 2021 Andrew Mellon Grant from the Massachusetts Historical Society, and a 2021 Grant from the Connecticut League of Women Voters — and she has finally been able to starting putting all of them to use in an intense stretch of dissertation research this fall as archives and libraries reopen.
Alex Beckstrand (PhD candidate) was the sole winner of the 2021 Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Naval History Scholarship, an award of $5,000 given by the Naval History and Heritage Command to an active duty commissioned officer in the US Navy or Marine Corps studying the lessons of naval history for the analysis of great power competition. He also had his article on Woodrow Wilson and civil-military relations during the 1916 military expedition into Mexico accepted by the Journal of Military History.
Nicole Breault (PhD candidate) was Robert Middlekauff Fellow at the Huntington Library for two months in 2020-2021, as well as Draper Dissertation Fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. She was co-winner of the inaugural Sandra Rux Prize. For 2021-22, she is the David Center for the American Revolution Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
Orlando Deavila Pertuz (PhD 2019) won Honorable Mention for the 2019 Michael Katz Award for Best Dissertation in Urban History. He is now Assistant Professor at the Instituto de Estudio del Caribe, Universidad de Cartagena, Colombia.
Erick Freeman (PhD candidate) is a Dissertation Fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, 2021-22.
Constance Holden (PhD candidate) was an intern with the National Endowment for the Humanities in Summer 2021. She also won the Brian Bertoti Award for Outstanding Historical Scholarship for her paper, “Black Visibility and Whitened Modernity: Constructing Argentine Nationalism in Caras y Caretas, 1898-1910”, presented at Virginia Tech’s Innovative Perspectives in History Graduate Research Conference.
Aimee Loiselle (PhD 2019), won the 2020 Catherine Prelinger Award from the Coordinating Council for Women in History & 2020 Lerner-Scott Prize in Women’s History from the Organization of American Historians.
Frances Martin (PhD candidate) received a 2021 Samuel Flagg Bemis Dissertation Research Grant from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
Britney Murphy (PhD candidate) was 2021 National Predoctoral Fellow for Humanities Without Walls.
Amy Sopcak-Joseph (PhD 2019), won the 2020 Zuckerman Dissertation Prize in American Studies from the McNeil Center for Early American History at the University of Pennsylvania.
Megan Streit (PhD candidate) received a 2020-21 Boren Fellowship, a 2020 Samuel Flagg Bemis Dissertation Research Grant from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and a 2021 Critical Language Scholarship to study Azerbaijani.
Cornelia Dayton Recovers Missing Pieces of the Lives of Phillis Wheatley and John Peters in Middleton
UConn Today has highlighted the recent and monumental research of UConn History Professor Cornelia Dayton. Professor Dayton has made groundbreaking recoveries into the lives of prominent African-born writer, Phillis Wheatley, and her free husband, John Peters. For years, scholars were unsure about where Wheatley and Peters had gone after they left Boston. Using legal papers from Essex County, Massachusetts, Dayton uncovered that Phillis Wheatley and John Peters spent 3 years in Middleton, MA, on a farm where Peters had been enslaved. For Dayton, this work challenges the myth that nothing, or very little, exists about the lives of people of color in New England. Dayton’s research proves that in following “the small details,” we can arrive at new understandings of freedom, race, and gender that complicate what we think we know about the individual lives of people of color.
A job well done! Be sure to stay tuned for more developments, including a website! In the meantime, read the award-winning article in the September 2021 New England Quarterly and check out the @Wheatley_Peters Twitter!
9/23: Hana Maruyama Virtual Forum with Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry
New UConn History Prof. Hana Maruyama will participate in a virtual forum on “Animating Memories of Japanese American Incarceration” with the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry.
This event is a part of their Fall 2021 Puppet Forum Series and exhibit on Puppetry’s Racial Reckoning. In collaboration with theater artist Kimi Maeda, Hana Maruyama will discuss the impact and legacies of Japanese incarceration during World War II. The discussion will take place on Thursday, 9/23 at 7pm EDT on Zoom. Follow this link to learn more about the event and be sure to register!