Category: All News

Professor Louise Young Elected into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The Department of History is proud to announce that Professor Louise Young has been elected into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences! Professor Young is one of the nearly 250 outstanding individuals to have received this honor for the year 2020. Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence and …

Video: “The History of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison”

Professor Emerita Colleen Dunlavy presents her research about the history and significance of UW–Madison’s Department of History.  Presented and recorded Blackboard Collaborate on Thursday, April 16, 2020. The video can be found here: “The History of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison”  

Podcast: Ask A Historian

The Ask a Historian podcast is one way the Department of History gives meaning to the Wisconsin Idea—that education should transcend the walls of the classroom, and that the university’s work should benefit all those in the state and beyond. Every episode features an interview with a University of Wisconsin—Madison historian who answers a question …

Professor Florence Hsia Leads Initiative to Build UW-Library Collections

The Library Collections Enhancement Initiative is a pilot program of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education to strengthen campus research capacities by providing UW–Madison libraries with flexibility to address critical and emerging collection needs. Professor Florence Hsia, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in the Arts and Humanities, says of the …

History Alumna Katie Jarvis Receives Major Book Prize

Alumna Katie Jarvis (Ph.D. 2014) has received the Louis Gottschalk Prize from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). The Louis Gottschalk Prize recognizes an outstanding historical or critical study on the eighteenth century. For the year 2020, this prize has been awarded to Katie Jarvis for her book Politics in the Marketplace: Work, Gender, …

Professor Hennessy’s New Book Featured in the New York Review of Books

Professor Elizabeth Hennessy’s recently published book, On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden (Yale University Press, 2019), has been featured in the New York Review of Books. David Quammen’s review, which covers three books on Darwin (of which Hennessy’s is one), notes that On the Backs of …

Professor Joe Dennis Discusses Graduate Students in COVID-19

Director of Graduate Studies and Professor of History Joe Dennis is featured this week in an article from Inside Higher Ed discussing the impact of COVID-19 on graduate students. Many graduate students are facing increased anxiety and challenges for how to find funding at a time when much of the economy has frozen. Those students …

Professor Gregg Mitman Receives Prestigious Grant from European Research Council

In a press release this week, it was announced that Professor Gregg Mitman had received a coveted Advanced Investigator Grant from the European Research Council. Mitman is a Professor of History of Science, Medical History, and Environmental Studies at UW–Madison, and is an affiliated researcher with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at …

Professor Cheng Explains History of Discrimination Towards Asian Americans During Pandemics

As a response to the recent uptick in incidents of racism and discrimination towards Asian and Asian American individuals amidst COVID-19, Professor Cindy I-Fen Cheng spoke to a local Madison news station about the history of these types of “immigrant scapegoating.” Cheng, Professor of History and Director of the Asian American Studies Program, said in …

History Grad Student Speaks on Solitude & COVID-19

Jennifer Stitt, a PhD candidate in the History Department at UW–Madison, has been featured in an article from Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information on the cultural history of solitude and the practice of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stitt is writing her dissertation, titled “Seeking Solitude: Imagining Self and Society in America” under the advisement …