Professor Alfred McCoy, the Harrington Professor of History at UW–Madison, has published an opinion piece on the foreign and domestic implications of drug prohibition policies, through the lens of history. The link to the piece can be found here: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176549/. Professor McCoy researches and teaches on U.S. foreign policy, colonial empires in Southeast Asia, and global drug …
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 Historic New Orleans Collection and Louisiana Historical Association for the best book on Louisiana History. His prize-winning book is entitled …
Pablo F. Gómez, Associate Professor in the departments of History and Medical History and Bioethics, has been awarded the 2019 William H. Welch Medal by the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) for his book The Experiential Caribbean: Creating Knowledge and Healing in the Early Modern Atlantic (University of North Carolina Press, 2017). …
Congratulations to alumnus David Blight (Ph.D. 1985), who has just won the Pulitzer Prize in History! Blight, Professor of History at Yale, was recognized for his most recent book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (Simon & Schuster, 2018). According to the Pulitzer Prize website, this book is “a breathtaking history that demonstrates the scope of Frederick Douglass’ …
History alumnus Ryan Quintana (Ph.D. 2010) was recently featured in an episode of the podcast Ben Franklin’s World! In the episode, he discusses the creation and development of early republic South Carolina through concepts of “space,” the ways in which Black Carolinians helped secure South Carolina’s independence, and how Black Carolinians helped build South Carolina’s …
Recently retired, Professor Emeritus John Sharpless was featured in an article from the Isthmus, discussing his time teaching at UW–Madison. “’I think it’s more about how I treated students generally,’ says Sharpless, 73, who gave his final lecture on December 11, 2018. ‘I treated them as adults whose opinions should be respected and I was always …
The Department of History will mourn the loss of Turkish historian and Professor Emeritus Kemal Karpat. Professor Karpat passed away on February 20th, 2019, at the age of 96. Professor Karpat taught in our department for 36 years, from 1967 until his retirement in 2003. His research pioneered the study of late Ottoman history, and …
History alumnus John Rowe (B.S. 1967 and J.D. 1970) was featured last month in Sift & Winnow, the e-newsletter of the College of Letters & Science at UW–Madison. The article was titled “Knowledge is Power,” and traced Rowe’s success as a CEO in major companies such as Central Maine Power Company, New England Electric System, …
Norman K. Risjord, age 87, died on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019. Norman was born in Manitowoc on Nov. 25, 1931, and grew up in Kansas City. He attended the College of William and Mary, 1949 to 1953, was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society in his junior year, and was a three-year letterman on …
Professor Emeritus William J. Courtenay has published a new book on religious life at the medieval University of Paris. The book is titled Rituals for the Dead: Religion and Community in the Medieval University of Paris (University of Notre Dame Press, 2018). According to John Van Engen, Andrew V. Tackes Professor Emeritus of Medieval History …