News

2024

• Ashley Brown Continues to Receive Book Awards

  Ashley Brown – Associate Professor and Allan H. Selig Chair in the History of Sport and Society – has continued to receive many accolades for her biography of the iconic American tennis player and golfer …

• Professor Emeritus Colleen Dunlavy’s Book Named Among Best Books of Summer 2024 by Financial Times

  The Financial Times recognized Professor Emerita of History, UW-Madison Colleen Dunlavy’s Small, Medium, Large: How Government Made the US into a Manufacturing Powerhouse one of the best summer books of 2024. Small, Medium, and Large …

• Day of the Badger: April 16-17, 2024

  Day of the Badger is an annual campus-wide day of giving. For 1,848 minutes on April 16 – April 17, alumni, friends, faculty, and students come together to celebrate and support UW. How to Participate: …

• Sasha Maria Suarez Recognized with Exceptional Service Award

  Congratulations to Assistant Professor Sasha Suarez who was awarded an Exceptional Service Award! This award recognizes Sasha for her considerable community-facing and university service while also maintaining a high level of research and creative productivity.

• Neil Kodesh receives Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award

  Professor Neil Kodesh was one of thirteen faculty members chosen to receive this year’s Distinguished Teaching Awards. This honor recognizes exemplary achievements in teaching, an honor given out since 1953 to recognize some of the …

• Judith Houck Publishes New Book: Looking Through the Speculum: Examining the Women’s Health Movement

  The University of Chicago Press has published Professor Judith Houck’s new book, Looking Through the Speculum: Examining the Women’s Health Movement. The work highlights local history to tell a national story about the evolution of …

• Mou Banerjee and Undergraduate Students Featured in Interview on The Nonviolence Project

  The College of Letters & Science recently published a spotlight on The Nonviolence Project, an online history project that aims to educate people about the success of nonviolent protests across the world. The project is …

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2023

• Paige Glotzer Publishes New Essay for Prestigious Digital Redlining Project

  Paige Glotzer published an essay as part of the launch of the new version of the prestigious digital resource for redlining, Mapping Inequality. Glotzer was invited to pilot the site’s new feature, called “context essays,” …

• John Suval (PhD 2018) Receives Book Award from the Southern Historical Association

  Dangerous Ground: Squatters, Statesmen, and the Antebellum Rupture of American Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2022) by John Suval received the Southern Historical Association’s 2023 James A. Rawley Award for the best book on secession and/or …

• NBA Star Devin Harris Returns to Graduate 20 Years Later

  This Sunday, December 17 former professional basketball player Devin Harris will graduate with his bachelor’s degree in History from UW-Madison, nearly 20 years after leaving UW-Madison to play in the NBA. Before turning pro, Harris …

• History Alumnus Nils Peterson Receives Prestigious Marshall Scholarship

  Recent alumnus Nils Peterson has been awarded a 2024 Marshall Scholarship. This prestigious honor gives high-achieving young Americans the opportunity to study at the graduate level at any university in the United Kingdom. Nils will …

• History Major Chloe Foor Receives Spotlight for Interdisciplinary Work

  The School of Computer, Data, & Information Sciences recently published a student spotlight on Chloe Foor that detailed how Chloe is using her interdisciplinary education to study the human-centered aspects of technology. Chloe is a senior majoring in Computer …

• Marla Ramírez and Undergraduates Present at Oral History Conference

  Professor Marla Ramírez and two undergraduate students, Lezly Vejar and Zevdah Drizin, presented on their original research at the 2023 Oral History Association Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland this October. The presentation, titled “Latinxs in …

• Grad Student Verenize Arceo Receives Two WHA Awards

  Congratulations to graduate student Verenize Arceo, who has received two awards from the Western History Association! Verenize received the 2023 WHA Graduate Student Prize and the 2023 Trennert-Iverson Conference Scholarship. The WHA Graduate Student Prize …

• Ashley Brown Receives Book Award for Althea Gibson Biography

  The Association of Black Women Historians has awarded its 2023 Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize to Professor Ashley Brown for her book, Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson. Bestowed since 1984, the …

• Viren Murthy’s Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution was just published with University of Chicago Press

  Viren Murthy’s Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution was just published with University of Chicago Press. Recent proposals to revive the ancient Silk Road for the contemporary era and ongoing Western interest in …

• Kathryn McGarr’s City of Newsmen Reviewed in New York Times

  Associate Professor Kathryn McGarr, a History Department affiliate, was featured in The New York Times in a review of four new books on journalism. Read the review of City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional …

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2022

• Louise Young Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

  This past fall, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences inducted Professor Louise Young. An honorary society and policy organization founded in 1780, the Academy elects exceptionally accomplished individuals and engages them in advancing the public good. Young signed the Book of Members …

• Jim Sweet Gives His Presidential Address at the American Historical Association Conference in January

  Jim Sweet ends his term as the 2022 President of the American Historical Association with a presidential address at the annual American Historical Association Conference. The address, entitled “Slave Trading as a Corporate Criminal Conspiracy, …

• Judd Kinzley Recorded an Interview with University of the Air

  Professor Judd Kinzley recorded an interview on the history of US-China relations for University of the Air on Wisconsin Public Radio. University of the Air invites distinguished faculty guests from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to …

• Ph.D. Alum Catherine Burns Received 2022 James Phinney Baxter Award

  Catherine M. Burns (PhD 2011) is the recipient of the 2022 James Phinney Baxter Award for best article in the scholarly journal Maine History. “ ‘It May Be Questionable’: Granger v. Avery and the Redaction …

• PhD Candidate Tyler A. Lehrer Publishes New Article in Itinerario: Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions

  Tyler A. Lehrer (he/him), PhD Candidate in Southeast and South Asian History, has recently published an article in Itinerario: Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions titled “Dangerous Friendships in Eighteenth-Century Buddhist Laṅkā and Siam.” The article …

• Samuel Freedman Visits History 136

  On Tuesday, November 15th Professor Ashley Brown hosted Samuel G. Freedman as a guest speaker in History 136: Sport, Recreation, & Society in the United States. Freedman’s appearance was coordinated as part of his visit to …

• Go Big Read Author Meets with History Undergraduate and Graduate Students

  This year’s Go Big Read book is How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith. On November 2nd, 2022, Clint Smith spoke with History undergraduates and …

• Monica Kim Named 2022 MacArthur Fellow

  Professor Monica Kim has recently been named a MacArthur Fellow. This “genius grant” fellowship provides an $800,000 stipend for the fellows to use as they see fit. The criteria that are used to select the …

• Kacie Lucchini Butcher Publishes New Article in The Oral History Review

  Kacie Lucchini Butcher, the Director of the Public History Project, recently published an article in The Oral History Review titled Challenging the Badger Brand: The Ethics of Conducting Oral History Interviews with College-Athletes. This article …

• Welcome New Faculty

  The Department of History is excited to welcome three new faculty members – Khaled Esseissah, Michael Martoccio, and Jorell Meléndez-Badillo! Khaled Esseissah joins us as a historian of Islam, colonialism, slavery, race, and gender, with …

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2021

• In Memoriam: Alumnus R. Richard “Dick” Wagner

  In Memoriam: Alumnus R. Richard “Dick” Wagner The Department of History is sad to share the news that one of our alums, R. Richard “Dick” Wagner (PhD, 1971) passed away unexpectedly on December 12, 2021 …

• In Memoriam: Alumnus Tyler Stovall

  The Department of History is saddened to note the passing of alumnus Tyler Stovall (PhD, 1984). Dr. Stovall studied with Harvey Goldberg at UW-Madison and became a distinguished historian of modern France with a particular …

• Professor Judd Kinzley Publishes Article in Wisconsin Magazine of History

  Congratulations to Professor Judd Kinzley, who has a new article published in the most recent issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History. “The Ghosts of Science Hall: The Chinese Geologists of the University of Wisconsin” …

• Professor Gloria Whiting Wins Prize for Best Article in American Legal History

  Professor Gloria Whiting has received the Cromwell Prize from the American Society for Legal History for her article, “Race, Slavery, and the Problem of Numbers in Early New England: A View from Probate Court.” This …

• Professor Alfred McCoy Publishes New Book

  Congratulations to Professor Alfred McCoy on the publication of his new book, To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change, out this month from Haymarket Books. From the publisher’s website: “In a tempestuous narrative …

• Professor Lucas Richert Publishes New Book on the Global History of Cannabis

  Lucas Richert, Associate Professor and George Urdang Chair in the History of Pharmacy and History Department faculty affiliate, has published a new book titled Cannabis: Global Histories (MIT Press, 2021). The book, co-edited by Lucas Richert …

• Professor Sasha Suarez Speaks to Local News about Indigenous Activism

  November is Native American Heritage Month, and to help bring awareness to Wisconsinites about some of the issues the Native American community have been facing, both past and present, Professor Sasha Suarez spoke with local Milwaukee news …

• Paige Glotzer Receives Best Book in North American Urban History Award

  Congratulations to Professor Paige Glotzer on receiving the 2021 Kenneth Jackson Award from the Urban History Association for How the Suburbs Were Segregated: Developers and the Business of Exclusionary Housing, 1890-1960 (Columbia University Press, 2020)! This …

• Professor Emeritus Thomas Spear Receives AHA Prize for Best Reference Work

  Congratulations to Professor Emeritus Thomas Spear for winning the American Historical Association’s Waldo G. Leland Prize for the best reference work published over the last five years! The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Historiography: Methods and Sources …

• UW History Alumni & Emeritus Receive WHA Awards

  Congratulations to our graduate program alumni, Jennifer Holland (PhD, 2013) and Cori Simon (PhD, 2020), on their awards from the Western Historical Association! At the WHA meeting last week, Jennifer Holland was presented with two …

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2020

• Alumnus Mark Solovey Publishes New Book

  Congratulations to alumnus Mark Solovey (PhD, 1996) on the publication of his newest book, Social Science for What? Battles Over Public Funding for the “Other Sciences” at the National Science Foundation (MIT Press, 2020). “In …

• History Department 2020 Newsletter – “The Past in the Present”

  History Newsletter 2020-21 (pdf) History Newsletter 2020-21: Mobile-Friendly Version (pdf) Chair’s Welcome History Welcomes New Members Interpreting 2020 The Joy of Learning New Club and Podcast Faculty/Staff/Emeritus News and more… This issue and past copies …

• Stanley Schultz (1938-2020)

  Stanley Kenton “Stan” Schultz, age 82, passed away at his home in Middleton, Wis., on Dec. 8, 2020. Stan was born on July 12, 1938, in Los Angeles, Calif., to Kenton Schultz and Virginia Pyle …

• Alumnus Paul Grant Publishes Book

  Alumnus Paul Grant (Ph.D. 2017) has published his first book, Healing and Power in Ghana: Early Indigenous Expressions of Christianity (Baylor University Press, 2020). According to the publisher’s website: “Focusing on the southeastern Gold Coast …

• Students of Professor Banerjee’s History 200 Say “Thank You”

  Professor Mou Banerjee got a surprise on Tuesday when students from her History 200 course on Gandhi, King, Mandela: Non-Violence in the World performed a coordinated thank you to Professor Banerjee over Zoom. Students turned …

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2019

• Professor Emeritus David Sorkin Publishes New Book

  David Sorkin, a historian of Jewish and European history, has published a new book titled Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five Centuries (Princeton University Press, 2019). Sorkin is a Professor Emeritus of our department and …

• Professor Lapina Interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio

  This past Sunday, December 8th, Professor Elizabeth Lapina was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio for a segment titled “Knightly Culture and the Crusades.” The host was Norman Gilliland, who co-produces the weekly WPR program  “University …

• History Major Takes a Horticulture Class with Grandparents Who Audit

  Danielle Wendricks, a History major also studying Community and Nonprofit Leadership and Educational Policy at UW-Madison, took Horticulture 120 this semester with her grandparents, who audited the class as part of UW’s Senior Guest Auditor …

• Gloria Whiting publishes article in Slavery & Abolition

  Professor Gloria Whiting recently published an article in Slavery & Abolition titled “Emancipation without the courts or constitution: the case of Revolutionary Massachusetts.” The essay rethinks the process by which freedom was inaugurated in Massachusetts, …

• Professor Hennessy Longlisted for 2020 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

  Professor Elizabeth Hennessy, whose book On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden (Yale University Press) was published this year, is on the longlist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson …

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2018

• Walter Stern receives 2018 Kemper and Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History

  Walter Stern, Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies and affiliated faculty member of the History Department, has received the 2018 Kemper and Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History. This prize is awarded annually by the …

• L&S Newsletter Publishes Article on Professors Cindy I-Fen Cheng and Leonora Neville

  Sift & Winnow, the online L&S newsletter, has an article on the “Lessons of History” that features our own Cindy I-Fen Cheng and Leonora Neville, along with Christy Clark-Pujara, who teaches in the Department of …

• Commissioner Emeritus of Major League Baseball Bud Selig (B.A. 1956) Delivers Winter Commencement Speech

  On Sunday, December 16th, the winter graduates of 2018 and 6,700 guests packed the seats of the Kohl Center and listened to Alan H, “Bud” Selig, Commissioner Emeritus of Major League Baseball and class of …

• Alumnus David Gilbert Nominated for Grammy Award

  History alumnus David Gilbert (Ph.D. 2011) is up for a Grammy Award! He is nominated in the category of Best Album Notes for The Product of Our Souls: The Sound and Sway of James Reese …

• Publication from Goldberg Center Book Series Awarded Prize from the American Historical Association

  The book, Understanding and Teaching American Slavery, published as part of The Harvey Goldberg Series for Understanding and Teaching History with University of Wisconsin Press has just received the James Harvey Robinson Prize from the …

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2017

• 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 …

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2016

• 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 …

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2015

• Day of the Badger 2025

  April 8 – 9, 2025 DAY OF THE BADGER   Day of the Badger is an annual campus-wide day of giving. For 1,848 minutes on April 8 – April 9, alumni, friends, faculty, and students …

• Ashley Brown Continues to Receive Book Awards

  Ashley Brown – Associate Professor and Allan H. Selig Chair in the History of Sport and Society – has continued to receive many accolades for her biography of the iconic American tennis player and golfer …

• Emily Callaci Publishes Book Wages for House Work

  In February 2025, UW-Madison History Professor Emily Callaci published a new book entitled Wages for House Work: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise. You can find Wages for House Work at Penguin …

• James Sweet Publishes Book: Mutiny on the Black Prince: Slavery, Piracy, and the Limits of Liberty in the Revolutionary Atlantic World

  In January 2025, James Sweet published a new book with Oxford University Press. The book is entitled Mutiny on the Black Prince: Slavery, Piracy, and the Limits of Liberty in the Revolutionary Atlantic World. Read …

• Jorell Meléndez-Badillo collaborates with artist Bad Bunny to tell Puerto Rico’s History

  Professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo recently collaborated with artist Bad Bunny on his latest project. Accompanying the songs on Bad Bunny’s sixth album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos”, 17 visualizers were released on January 5. The visualizers feature …

2014

• Day of the Badger 2025

  April 8 – 9, 2025 DAY OF THE BADGER   Day of the Badger is an annual campus-wide day of giving. For 1,848 minutes on April 8 – April 9, alumni, friends, faculty, and students …

• Ashley Brown Continues to Receive Book Awards

  Ashley Brown – Associate Professor and Allan H. Selig Chair in the History of Sport and Society – has continued to receive many accolades for her biography of the iconic American tennis player and golfer …

• Emily Callaci Publishes Book Wages for House Work

  In February 2025, UW-Madison History Professor Emily Callaci published a new book entitled Wages for House Work: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise. You can find Wages for House Work at Penguin …

• James Sweet Publishes Book: Mutiny on the Black Prince: Slavery, Piracy, and the Limits of Liberty in the Revolutionary Atlantic World

  In January 2025, James Sweet published a new book with Oxford University Press. The book is entitled Mutiny on the Black Prince: Slavery, Piracy, and the Limits of Liberty in the Revolutionary Atlantic World. Read …

• Jorell Meléndez-Badillo collaborates with artist Bad Bunny to tell Puerto Rico’s History

  Professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo recently collaborated with artist Bad Bunny on his latest project. Accompanying the songs on Bad Bunny’s sixth album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos”, 17 visualizers were released on January 5. The visualizers feature …

2013

• 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

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