News & Events

History Department 2017 Newsletter – “The Past in the Present”

History Newsletter 2017-18 – “The Past in the Present” Chair’s Welcome Twenty Years of ARCHIVE Drunk History Nature’s Metropolis Turns 25 Wisconsin 101 Progress Report Faculty/Emeriti News News Professorships Graduate Student/Alumni Notes Undergraduate/Graduate Awards and …

African Studies celebrates the contributions of Florence Bernault

The African Studies Program congratulates and bids a fond farewell to longtime colleague Florence Bernault, who will be returning to her home country of France for a senior professorship in African History at the Institut …

Making Tracks: Gregg Mitman

A recent autobiographical essay on how Gregg Mitman became an environmental historian, commissioned by the Rachel Carson Center. Read the essay on their blog, Seeing the Woods.

History of Science Brown Bag – Marie Hicks

“Searching for Genderqueerness in the Archive” Marie Hicks UW-Madison, Department of History Upcoming History of Science brown bag: December 8th with Lynn Nyhart – Town Hall

Lecture: Evan Laksmana

“Reshuffling the Deck?: Organizational Evolution, Officer Promotion, and Military Reform in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia” Evan Laksmana Doctoral Candidate Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Syracuse University Senior Researcher Center of Strategic and International Studies Jakarta …

Lecture: Susan Brewer

“A Place Called Home: Family and Identity on Oneida Land” with Susan Brewer Tuesday, December 5, 2017 4:00 PM 7191 Helen C. White Susan Brewer investigates the history of Oneida Indian land in central New …

Better Health Through the Humanities

A new certificate teaches students historical, cultural and philosophical ways people intersect with health care and provides them a broader, more nuanced understanding of health. Last spring in a Biology and Society course, Makenzie Wydra …

Seminar: Mira Green

“Digesting Bodies: Status, Gender, and Mastery in Roman Society and Homes” Mira Green History, University of Washington Classics Monday, December 4, 2017 3:30 – 5:00 PM 212 University Club Providing a distinct window into the …

History of Science Colloquium

“Saints and Science in Early Modern Italy: Filippo Neri and Francesco Borgia as Patron Saints of Earthquakes” Prof. Monica Azzolini Dept. of Philosophy and Communication U. of Bologna; Davis Center, Princeton Friday, December 1, 2017 …

Lecture: Dr. Zach Fredman

“The Jeep Girl Crisis of 1945: American Servicemen and Chinese Women in Wartime China” Dr. Zach Fredman U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security Fellow Dartmouth College Thursday, November 30, 2017 3:30 – 5:00 Masley Media …

Prof. Lederer named UNC Distinguished Visiting Professor

January 2016 Susan E. Lederer, Robert Turell Professor of Medical History and Bioethics and department chair, will spend Spring 2016 in North Carolina. She will be the Nannerl O. Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor at the …

Gómez receives UW IRH residential fellowship

January 2016 Assistant Professor Pablo Gómez has been awarded a UW Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH) residential fellowship for the coming Fall semester. Pablo will be working on his second book project during …

All History of Science Department Events for Spring 2016

January 22 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag Welcome to Spring Semester! BB organization and scheduling. Location: 204 Bradley Memorial January 29 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag: Mitra Sharafi, Law School, UW-Madison “Blood Testing and Fear …

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2016

September 9 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag Welcome, introductions, and planning for the semester. For the remainder of the hour, we’ll have an informal discussion about current problems with academic publishing, which seems increasingly dysfunctional. …

Post-Soviet Lustration and Contemporary Hierarchical Relations with Russia

Professor Yuval Weber National Research University — Higher School of Economics (Moscow) Thursday, December 8, 2016 4:00 PM 206 Ingraham Hall A key challenge for post-authoritarian governments is to consolidate political authority; one of the …

What’s in a Name?: Searching for the African Origins of “Samba” and “Zumbi” in Brazil

Marc Hertzman Professor of History University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Wednesday, November 30, 2016 3:30 – 5:00 PM 8417 Social Science This presentation explores the contours and significance of prolonged searches for African origins of …

The Ottoman Empire Through a Greek Lens

Molly Greene Professor of History and Hellenic Studies Princeton University Wednesday, Novemeber 30, 2016 5:00-7:00 PM Rm 225 Pyle Center Molly Greene studies the history of the Mediterranean Basin, the Ottoman Empire, and the Greek …

Megan Raby wins 2016 Derek Price/Rod Webster Prize

November 2016 History of Science alumna Megan Raby has received the 2016 Derek Price/Rod Webster Prize presented at the recent History of Science Society (HSS) annual meeting in Atlanta. Awarded for the best article in …

History Department Colloquium

Panel on “Gender and the Ancient Economy: Thinking Through Some Problems” Prof. Claire Taylor “Why Buy the Cow When You Can Get the Milk For Free?: Gender Politics & Protest in Wisconsin Dairy Country” Jillian …

Stitching Wartime History: The Case of the French Resistance

Enjoy a special afternoon with textile-collection donors and friends of the School of Human Ecology featuring Stitching History from the Holocaust, an original exhibit created by and on loan from the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee. …

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2015

September 4 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag Welcome, introductions, and planning for the semester Location: 204 Bradley Memorial September 11 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag: Stephen Neal, History of Science, UW-Madison “Making Science Global During …

“Journeys with Baron Ungern: Biography and Empire in the Russian Revolution”

Willard Sunderland, Professor of Russian History, University of Cincinnati Friday, December 4, 2015 1:30 – 3:00 PM 212 University Club Sponsored by: Alice D. Mortensen/Petrovich Chair in Russian History, the George L. Mosse Program in …

Workshop: Rethinking Borderlands

Thursday December 3, 2015 Memorial Library Room 126 3:30 to 5:00 pm Kathryn Ciancia on Inter-war Poland Assistant Professor of History, UW-Madison Judd Kinzley on the Early People’s Republic of China Assistant Professor of History, …

First Book Award to Nicole Nelson

November 2015 The UW Center for the Humanities has awarded History of Science Assistant Professor Nicole Nelson a First Book Award, one of the three UW junior faculty in the humanities and interpretive social sciences …

Department well-represented at the annual HSS meeting

November 2015 The UW History of Science Department will be well-represented at the annual History of Science Society (HSS) meeting this month in San Francisco. Graduate students James Brannon, Melissa Charenko, Bridget Collins, Dana Freiburger, …

Ujamaa Urbanists: Street Archives and City Life in Socialist Tanzania

Emily Callaci Assistant Professor of History UW-Madison Nov. 23, 2015 3:30 – 4:30 PM 212 University Club Building Urban migration in Africa in the second half of the twentieth century has been one of the …

“Why is China so Big? Rethinking the Boundaries of Civilized Empire under the Qing”

Professor University of Chicago Nov. 13, 2015 1:30 – 3:00 PM Conrad A Elvehjem Building, Room L140 Prof. Pomeranz is a specialist on society and economy in late Imperial and twentieth-century China and the past …

Kutler Lectures

Lila Corwin Berman, Temple University “The Death and Life of Jewish Urbanism” Monday, November 9, 2015 4:00 p.m. Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (330 N. Orchard St.) In modern times, Jews emerged as the consummate urban …

Thirty-Seventh Annual Merle Curti Lecture Series

“Past Belief: Visions of Early Christianity in Early Modern Europe” Featuring Professor Anthony T. Grafton Princeton University November 3 – November 5, 2015 4:00 PM Pyle Center Vandeberg Auditorium Topics Tuesday, Nov 3rd “How Jesus …

Florence Hsia pens piece on Pope Francis, the Jesuits, and Science

October 2015 History of Science Professor Florence Hsia recently penned a piece for The Conversation about Pope Francis, the Jesuits, and science. Titled “Jesuits as science missionaries for the Catholic Church”, Hsia ponders the historical …

Disclosing/Enclosing Thematic Cluster

December 2014 Assistant Professor Nicole Nelson from History of Science and a trio of Medical History and Bioethics faculty – Linda Hogle, Pilar Ossorio, and Kris Saha – form the team leaders of an exciting …

Keller named Associate Dean of Division of International Studies

December 2014 Professor Richard C. Keller, Department of Medical History and Bioethics and History of Science, has been named as associate dean of the UW–Madison Division of International Studies. Starting January 2015, Keller will serve …

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2014

September 5 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag Introductions and Planning Location: 204 Bradley Memorial September 12 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag: Michael Shank, History of Science, UW-Madison “Rethinking Mathematical Culture from Pythagoras to Cusa: David …

Emeritus Professor Robert Siegfried dies, first department PhD

November 2014 Robert Siegfried, professor emeritus of the History of Science department and its first Ph.D. awardee, passed away on September 2, 2014. Siegfried taught in the department for many years after completing his doctorate …

Professor Pablo F. Gómez garners UW ‘First Book Award

November 2014 Hearty congratulations to Assistant Professor Pablo F. Gómez, History of Science and Medical History and Bioethics, who has received a 2014-15 “First Book Award” from the UW Center for the Humanities. Pablo’s book, …

Elmer L. Andersen Research Scholars Award to Charenko

November 2014 Graduate student Melissa Charenko has received a research award from the Elmer L. Andersen Research Scholars program at the University of Minnesota Libraries. She plans to use this award next year to look …

Gregg Mitman – participates in a Congressional briefing Nov. 17 on the Ebola crisis in Africa

Professor Gregg Mitman participated in a Congressional briefing on Ebola and the African Health Crisis in Washington, D.C. The briefing was be held on Monday, November 17, 2014 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. in the Gold …

The Harvey Goldberg Memorial Lecture

The U.S. Green Energy Transformation: Controlling Climate Change and Expanding Job Opportunities Professor Robert Pollin Distinguished Professor of Economics University of Massachusetts-Amherst and alumnus of the UW Department of History Thursday, November 6, 2014 5:00 …

Kathryn Ciancia Awarded “First Book” Award

Congratulating Kathryn Ciancia who has been awarded the Center for the Humanities “First Book Award.” Kathryn follows Emily Callaci, Daniel Ussishkin, and Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen in winning the award. “The Center’s First Book Award is funded …

Congratulations to Bill Reese

Congratulations to Bill Reese, who recently learned that his book Testing Wars in the Public Schools: A Forgotten History (Harvard, 2013) is this year’s winner of the annual book award from the History of Education …

Honored Instructors Melissa Charenko and Toshihiro Higuchi

December 2013 History of Science graduate student Melissa Charenko and Associate Lecturer and Postdoctoral Fellow Toshihiro Higuchi have been named Honored Instructors for their contributions to UW students and their education. This fall, as course …

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2013

September 6 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag Introductions and Planning Location: 204 Bradley Memorial September 13 (Friday) at Noon Richard Hirsh, Virginia Tech “History of Science & Technology and Public Policy: Reflections on an Academic’s …

Emily Callaci won First Book Award for junior faculty

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen won the AHA’s biennial Dunning Prize for Best Book in US History

Graduate Student Jesse Gant has co-authored a book about Wisconsin bicycling history

Graduate Student Film Premieres at Tales From Planet Earth

October 2013 Melissa Charenko’s short film, 24-7B, will premiere on Friday, November 1, 2013, the opening night of the 2013 Tales From Planet Earth biennial film festival. Charenko, a history of science graduate student, produced …

Wall Street Journal ‘Numbers Guy’ Interviews Rick Keller

August 2013 Carl Bialik, ‘The Numbers Guy’ columnist for the Wall Street Journal, interviewed Professor Rick Keller as part of his 17 August 2013 blog posting titled “The Challenge of Counting Heat-Wave Deaths.” Click ‘here‘ …

Thongchai Winichakul on University of the air

On July 21, 2013, Thongchai Winichakul was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio’s show, University of the Air. The topic of the show was “Thailand: Coping with a Troubled Past”. A complete list of past shows …

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen’s latest book wins two awards

Professor Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen’s book, American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas (University of Chicago Press), has been awarded the 2013 Society for U.S. Intellectual History Annual Book Award for the best book …

AAHM Shryock Medal Honorable Mention for Fama

May 2013 During the recent American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) meeting held in Atlanta, GA, third-year graduate student Vicki Fama’s received an Honorable Mention in the Shryock Medal Essay Contest for her …

Vilas Research Travel Grant to Scott Prinster

December 2012 Doctoral candidate Scott Prinster has received a Vilas Research Travel Grant in support of his dissertation that explores the scientific critique of religious authority as higher biblical criticism spread in the United States. …

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2012

September 7 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag Introductions and Planning Location: 204 Bradley Memorial September 7 (Friday) at 3:00 pm Colloquium: Megan Raby, UW-Madison Title: “Taming ‘Jungle Island:’ The transformation of Barro Colorado Island into …

Welcome Pablo F. Gómez

November 2012 The department welcomes Pablo F. Gómez as an Assistant Professor. In addition to a Ph.D. in History of Medicine and Latin American History from Vanderbilt University in 2010, Pablo completed his M.D. at …

Selig visit offers History undergrads rare opportunity

History course teaches students to think globally about Pearl Harbor

Vicki Fama garners Best Paper Award in St. Louis

October 2012 Third-year graduate student Vicki Fama received the best paper award for her paper titled “Heroes and Villains: Displaying and Viewing Bodies at the United States Army Medical Museum, 1862-1888” at the recent 2012 …

Jim Sweet wins the Frederick Douglass Book Prize

James Sweet, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, has been selected as the winner of the 2012 Frederick Douglass Book Prize for his book, Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of …

William Appleman Williams: “It just might catch on”

Professor Rick Keller handles the heat!

August 2012 Read about Professor Rick Keller’s research on the 2003 heat wave that gripped Europe and Paris in particular. Two recent news articles tell the whole story: “Forget blizzards and hurricanes, heat waves are …

2011 Roy Porter Prize to Bradley Moore

August 2012 Bradley Moore, a dissertator in the Joint PhD Program in History and the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, has been awarded the 2011 Roy Porter Prize. Presented by the Society for the …

Anna Zeide Receives University Exceptional Service Award

December 2011 Congratulations to Anna Zeide who has received a University Exceptional Service Award. This award recognizes outstanding graduate student teaching assistants who, in addition to their regular teaching duties, perform exceptional service related to …

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2011

September 2 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag Introductions and Planning Location: 204 Bradley Memorial September 9 (Friday) at Noon Victoria Nourse, UW-Madison Law School “Progressive Science: The Eugenic Revival of the 1930s.” Location: 204 Bradley …

Neil Kodesh’s book Beyond the Royal Gaze is co-winner of the Herskovits Prize

Neil Kodesh’s book Beyond the Royal Gaze is co-winner of the African Studies Association’s prestigious Herskovits Prize. Check out African Studies Association, Melville J. Herskovits Award for more information.

Robinson Awarded Population Health Dissertation Grant

November 2011 Katie Robinson, a M.D./Ph.D. candidate in the History of Science, has received a 2011-2012 UW-Madison Population Health Dissertation Grant provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program. Robinson plans …

Deutsches Museum Scholar-in-Residence Grant to Staley

November 2011 Professor Richard Staley has received a six month scholar-in-residence grant from the Deutsches Museum, Munich, in support of his ongoing project on physics and anthropology.

UW undergraduate and History Major Alexis Brown named Rhodes Scholar

Stanley Kutler won his case to open the closed testimony by Richard Nixon about Watergate

Thongchai Winichakul elected Vice President of AAS

Jim Sweet wins the Frederick Douglass Book Prize

James Sweet, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, has been selected as the winner of the 2012 Frederick Douglass Book Prize for his book, Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of …

Gregg Mitman named Vilas Professor

October 2011 Professor Gregg Mitman has been named Vilas Professor, one of the highest honors for established UW faculty. Vilas Professorships, created “for the advancement of learning,” recognize proven research ability and unusual qualifications and …

Inaugural Skott Vigil Memorial Lecture

“A Family Story from Native California: Finding Hidden Histories from the 19th and 20th Centuries” Lecture by William Bauer Associate Professor of History University of Nevada, Las Vegas Author of We Were All Like Migrant …

Fred Gibbs – Pioneering Data Hound

December 2010 Recent department graduate Fred Gibbs (Ph.D. 2009) and his George Mason University colleague Dan Cohen enjoyed having their recent research work as “pioneering data hounds” discussed in the New York Times. Their project …

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2010

September 3 (Friday) at Noon Brown Bag Introductions September 10 (Friday) at Noon Kellen Backer, Bridget Collins, Brad Moore, and Scott Trigg, UW-Madison “The TAA, and the place of teaching in a graduate career.” September …

Robert Kingdon (1927-2010)

Robert McCune Kingdon, Hilldale Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, beloved mentor of generations of Reformation scholars and path-breaking historian of the Reformation, died on Friday, December 3, 2010 in Madison, Wisconsin. …

Professor Bill Cronon elected president of AHA

“History as a Crime Scene” a discussion with Errol Morris (video)

Doug Kiel received prestigious SARS fellowship and residency in Sante Fe

Collins Receives UCLA Research Fellowship

August 2010 History of Science doctoral candidate Bridget Collins has received a 2010-2011 Charles Donald O’Malley Short-Term Research Fellowship from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and History and Special Collections for the …

Colloquium Series – Appropriations: Collecting for Science

September 2010 In association with this year’s “Go Big Read” book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the History of Science Department Colloquium Series will examine diverse perspectives on the nature and …

Crystal Moten a 2010-2011 Bouchet Scholar

The Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society commemorates the first African American to earn a doctorate degree from an American university (Physics, Yale University, 1876). The Bouchet Society seeks to develop a network of scholars …

All History of Science Department Events for Spring 2009

January 23 (Friday) at Noon Bridget Collins, Kellen Backer, and Jocelyn Bosley, UW-Madison “Prelims: Everything you needed to know but were too afraid to ask.” January 30 (Friday) at Noon An open forum for all …

Harvey Goldberg, The Bootleg Lectures, Madison, Wis., 1974-76 – CDs For Sale

India and the Indianness of Christianity: Essays on Understanding – Historical, Theological, and Bibliographical — in Honor of Robert Eric Frykenberg

“Honoring historian Robert Eric Frykenberg — arguably the historian most responsible for promoting studies of intercultural and interreligious interactions in the South Asian context — the essays in this collection avoid the pitfall of Eurocentric, …

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2009

September 4 (Friday) at Noon Judy Kaplan, UW-Madison Introductions followed by a brown bag talk by Judy, topic “The Long Rangers: pre-historical linguistics from Moscow to Michigan.” September 11 (Friday) at Noon Sarah Pfatteicher, UW-Madison …

Professor Florence Bernault Edits Special Issue of Politique Africaine

Professor Florence Bernault just guest-edited a special issue of France’s international flagship journal in African Studies, Politique Africaine on the recent events in Gabon (Equatorial Africa). Last June, Omar Bongo Ondimba, the longest serving president of …

Professor James Donnelly publishes Captain Rock: The Irish Agrarian Rebellion of 1821-1824

Named for its mythical leader “Captain Rock,” avenger of agrarian wrongs, the Rockite movement of 1821–24 in Ireland was notorious for its extraordinary violence. In Captain Rock, James S. Donnelly, Jr., offers both a fine-grained …

Honors for Lynn Nyhart

October 2009 Lynn Nyhart has won the 2009 Susan E. Abrams Prize for the best book in the history of science published by the University of Chicago Press in the previous two years, for her …

Professor John M. Cooper, New York Times op-ed contributor, writes column “Obama’s Prize, Wilson’s legacy” (pdf)

George L. Mosse Exchange Faculty Exchange Fellow – 2009-2010

Diego Olstein Areas of Research and Teaching Medieval Iberia My first field of research is Medieval Iberia. To date, my contributions to this field are contained in my book La Era Mozarabe. Los mozárabes de …

Professor Colleen Dunlavy in On Wisconsin, Summer 2009 Issue (pdf)

All History of Science Department Events for Fall 2008

September 5 (Friday) at Noon Introductions and Planning September 12 (Friday) at Noon James Secord, Cambridge “Paper Comets: Prophecy, Science and the End of the World in the Nineteenth-century Press.” September 15 (Monday) at 4:00 …

Selected Articles and Books

Susan E. Lederer, Flesh and Blood: Organ Transplantation and Blood Transfusion in Twentieth-Century America (Oxford University Press, 2008)

All History of Science Department Events for Spring 2008

January 25 (Friday) at Noon Walton Schalick, UW-Madison “Mephibosheth in the Middle Ages: Disability and Children, 1000-1400.” February 1 (Friday) at Noon Scott Prinster, UW-Madison “Who’s Watching the Watchers? Why Some Historians Call Institutional Review …

Ronald Numbers Awarded the Sarton Medal

November 2008 Ronald L. Numbers, Hilldale Professor of the History of Science, received the Sarton Medal at the annual meeting of the History of Science Society in Pittsburg. It is the highest honor conferred by …

Eric Schatzberg Repeats as Winner of the Usher Prize

October 2008 For the second time, Eric Schatzberg has won the Usher Prize from the Society for the History of Technology, a prize given to the author of the best scholarly work published during the …

Shank named Herbert and Evelyn Howe Bascom Professor

September 2008 Michael Shank was named a Herbert and Evelyn Howe Bascom Professor in Integrated Liberal Studies for 2008-2010. The professorship honors contributions Evelyn Howe, emerita lecturer in ILS, and Herbert Howe, professor emeritus of …