February 15, 2024
Dear Students, Colleagues, Alumni, and Friends of the History Department:
Greetings from Winthrop Hall. We鈥檝e started this new tradition of sending out a Chair鈥檚 Letter at the start of each semester, to update you on some of the wonderful things happening in the history department.
Professor Garofalo is just back from a research leave funded by several prestigious fellowships, to support his work on the history of the African diaspora in Peru. I鈥檓 happy to share that the college has awarded him an endowed chair, the Virginia Eason Weinmann 鈥�51 Professorship in International Studies. This honor acknowledges Professor Garofalo鈥檚 exemplary service to the college鈥攑lease congratulate him when you bump into him on campus!
Professor Queen is also back this year from a sabbatical supported by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, during which she worked on a multi-year collaborative project translating important early Chinese texts into English.
Several of us have new books out. Professor Stock published not one but two books in 2020: , and . Last semester my co-edited anthology came out, . And Professor Forster鈥檚 new book is out this month, .
In our classes, we continue to push students to ask how the world we live in turned out this way, and to imagine alternatives to the status quo by studying the past鈥攆rom Professor Chhabria鈥檚 popular course 鈥淕lobalization of Urban Poverty,鈥� to Professor Swagler鈥檚 鈥淚s Africa Poor?鈥� Professor Hernandez鈥檚 鈥淏orders, Empire, Immigration,鈥� and Professor Accardi鈥檚 鈥淭he Muslim World.鈥�
A highlight of this past fall semester was the student-faculty trip to Jacksonville, Florida, where Professor Desloge鈥檚 students presented their research at the 108th annual conference for the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History (ASALH).
I could say much more but I鈥檓 running out of space. Thank you to the alumni who keep in touch, we love hearing from you. Wishing all of us a stimulating semester and lots of new discoveries.
Yours,
Eileen Kane
Professor and Chair, Department of History
