Professor Gloria Whiting recently published an article in the early American history journal, William and Mary Quarterly. Titled “Race, Slavery, and the Problem of Numbers in Early New England: A View from Probate Court,” the piece sheds light on who in the region toiled in bondage, and how the population of unfree laborers changed over …
On Tuesday, August 4, 2020 Richard Herbert Sewell, aged 89, passed away peacefully at Agrace Hospice. Richard was born April 11, 1931, in Ann Arbor, Mich. to Herbert and Anna (Broene) Sewell. Like them, he attended the University of Michigan and in 1953 graduated with an honors degree in history. In 1964, he was awarded …
Thomas Joseph McCormick Jr., emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, passed away on July 25 at the age of 87. Tom earned his Ph.D. at UW–Madison in 1960, after receiving his Master’s in History at the University of Cincinnati. Following teaching assignments at Ohio University and the University of Pittsburgh, Tom returned …
Professor James H. Sweet has been selected as the new President-elect of the American Historical Association. In the 2020 balloting for officers and committee representatives, AHA members voted to elect James Sweet as the next President of the AHA. Professor Sweet has served as Department of History Chair (2013-2016), Director of the African Studies Program (2012-2013), …
Professor Francine Hirsch is featured on a new episode of the SRB Podcast talking about her new book, Soviet Judgement at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II (Oxford University Press, 2020). “The Allies organized the Nuremberg Trials to hold the Nazis accountable for their crimes and to restore …
Alumna Vaneesa Cook (Ph.D. 2015) has written a blog post about her work with the Missing in Action Recovery & Identification Project at UW–Madison. The piece is titled “The Legacy of the 5307th Merrill’s Marauders: Wisconsin MIAs in Burma.” The MIA Project is a joint initiative between UW–Madison and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) …
Graduate student Leslie Bellais has published a chapter in the edited collection Home Front in the American Heartland: Local Experiences and Legacies of WWI (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020). The chapter is titled “‘Lest We Forget’: Remembering World War I in Wisconsin, 1919-1945” and is the second chapter in a volume aimed at offering a multifaceted exploration …
Alumna Tyina Steptoe (Ph.D. 2008) has written a piece on hip-hop and the Black Lives Matter movement for The Conversation, an independent, nonprofit online publisher of commentary and analysis. The piece is titled “Hip-hop is the soundtrack to Black Lives Matter protests, continuing a tradition that dates back to the blues.” Steptoe explains the long …
Today is Juneteenth, a day that commemorates an important moment in U.S. history – the liberation of nearly 200,000 enslaved Texans in 1865. Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 pronounced freedom to all enslaved people in areas still under Confederate rule, by 1865 Texas still remained very much a slave state in practice. …
Professor Brenda Gayle Plummer, a historian who specializes in the intersection of race and U.S. foreign relations, has an article published today on foreignaffairs.com, titled “Civil Rights Has Always Been a Global Movement: How Allies Abroad Help the Fight Against Racism at Home.” The timely article addresses the current protests that have erupted on both …