Category: News


Students and Faculty Attend BrANCH Conference in Cambridge, England

The British American Nineteenth Century Historians (BrANCH) held its annual conference at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, October 5-7, 2018. Professors and graduate students interested in all aspects of U.S. History from the period gathered together at Madingley Hall for a weekend of panels, lectures and lively conversations, showcasing the latest research on Nineteenth Century United States history. Four members of UA’s history department attended and participated in the conference. These included PhD student Dawn Wiley who shared her research in […]

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Religious Life, Elites, and Medieval Culture Conference

  An International Conference Hosted by The University of Alabama, in Partnership with the University of Dresden   October 17-20, 2018 THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA Tuscaloosa, Alabama       For a thousand years and more, from the sixth to the sixteenth century and beyond, monks, nuns, canons, friars, and others under religious vows stood at the pinnacle of Western European society. For their learning, piety, and expertise, and for their embodiment of Christian ideals and values, they were accorded […]

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Graduates Students Stay Busy During the Summer

This summer, graduate students in the Department of History engaged in a variety of interesting and productive pursuits. Andrew Deaton presented a paper on the legacy of the Hussite Wars at the Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies at St. Louis University. Our grads also researched at archives around the United States. Kari Boyd spent three weeks at the US Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, PA, on a Robert L. and Robert C. Ruth Fellowship. She was […]

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Department Welcomes Dr. Julia Brock

The Department is pleased to welcome Professor Julia Brock to our faculty. Dr. Brock did her undergraduate work at the University of Georgia, earned her Master’s from Florida State University, and received her Doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012. Her specialty is in public history and post-Civil War American and Southern History. Her dissertation looked at hunting and game laws in the New South, when areas such as southern Georgia and northern Florida were host to […]

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Graduate History Association Hosts Power & Struggle Conference

The University of Alabama Graduate History Association will host its annual Power and Struggle Conference on October 5 and 6, 2018. This year’s keynote speaker is former Bankhead Fellow and current The Ohio State University Associate Professor of History Hasan Kwame Jeffries, author of Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt (2009). Jeffries will speak at 7:00 pm, Friday, October 5, 2018, at Smith Hall on The University of Alabama campus. The Charles G. Summersell Memorial […]

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Assistant Professor Juan Ponce-Vázquez Appears on Historias Podcast

Assistant Professor Juan Ponce-Vázquez was interviewed by Historias, the podcast of the Southeastern Conference of Latin American Studies, this week. Professor Ponce-Vázquez discuss his research on smuggling in the seventeenth century Spanish Caribbean, as well as his writing strategies for finishing the first book, the value of social media, work-life balance, and what lays on his research horizon. The complete podcast is available the SECOLAS website.

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Alumnus Adam Petty Working with Joseph Smith Papers

Department alumnus Adam Petty (PhD 2018, MA 2014) has recently accepted a position as a Historian and Documentary Editor for the Joseph Smith Papers. Petty completed his doctorate under George Rable last year, with a focus on the Civil War era. His dissertation “Virginia’s Wilderness: Investigating the Landscape of War,” focused on the interaction between the environment and three military campaigns in Virginia. After earning his BA at Brigham Young University, Petty chose Alabama because he was “looking for a […]

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Undergraduate Researches Alabama Food History

Rising Senior Rachel Remmes participated in the Department’s Honors Thesis program last year, completing a thesis under Dr. Charles Clark entitled “Southern Alabama’s Corn, Peanut, and Wheat Agriculture in the 20th Century and 21st Century Trends.” Remmes, a Secondary Education – Social Sciences and History major, says she has “always been interested in food as a representation of culture and the environment.” After taking a course on natural resource management, she was drawn to investigating the allocation of agricultural resources, […]

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Rothman Helps Mark Site Where Franklin & Armfield Traded in Enslaved Laborers.

Department Chair Dr. Joshua Rothman was recently involved in a project in New Orleans, where several markers were erected to mark places in the city where enslaved people were bought and sold. A few years ago, Rothman co-wrote an op-ed in the New Orleans Times-Picayune discussing “the absence of recognition of the city’s role in the slave trade, and suggesting that that ought to change.” The essay reached the Mayor’s office, and the city decided to create a series of […]

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Dr. Andrew Huebner Speaks at National World War I Museum

On July 1, Department of History Associate Professor and OAH Distinguished Lecturer Andrew Huebner spoke to a gathering at the National World War I Museum and Memorial, in Kansas City, Missouri. Huebner discussed his latest work, Love and Death in the Great War. His presentation is available via the National WWI Museum and Memorial’s Youtube channel.

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Southern Association for Women Historians Holds 11th Triennial Conference at The University of Alabama’s campus

The Southern Association for Women Historians (SAWH) recently held its 11th Triennial Conference at The University of Alabama’s campus, June 7-10, 2018. Professors, public historians, graduate students, and individuals interested in history all gathered together in Tuscaloosa for four days of invigorating conversation, thought-provoking plenaries and panels, and inspiring workshops centered around this year’s theme of “Resistance, Power, and Accommodation: Women and Southern History.” The University’s excellent facilities also provided a positive and supportive environment for colleagues to reunite and […]

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Southern Association for Women Historians Holds 11th Triennial Conference at The University of Alabama’s campus

The Southern Association for Women Historians (SAWH) recently held its 11th Triennial Conference at The University of Alabama’s campus, June 7-10, 2018. Professors, public historians, graduate students, and individuals interested in history all gathered together in Tuscaloosa for four days of invigorating conversation, thought-provoking plenaries and panels, and inspiring workshops centered around this year’s theme of “Resistance, Power, and Accommodation: Women and Southern History.” The University’s excellent facilities also provided a positive and supportive environment for colleagues to reunite and […]

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Undergraduates Recognized at Campus Research Conferences

Several undergraduate students within the Department of History have recently participated in undergraduate research conferences across campus. At the end of last month, several students presented posters at URCA, the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference. The following students presented research they have conducted under the supervision of department faculty: Bradley Beasley, with Dr. John Beeler The Admiralty Foreign Intelligence Committee/Naval Intelligence Department Reports Database In 1883 the British Admiralty (Navy Department) began systematically to preserve intelligence reports on rivals’ […]

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Department Celebrates Professor George McClure’s Career

Dr. George McClure has taught at The University of Alabama for more than thirty years, where he has taught innumerable students in our own department, as well as in the Honors College and Blount programs. Dr. McClure is a scholar of the Renaissance, and has also taught courses on the Reformation and environmental history. Beloved by students and colleagues alike, Dr. McClure is both an accomplished scholar and a gifted teacher. His retirement party at ten Hoor was bittersweet and […]

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Department Celebrates Recent Publications by Faculty

The History Department celebrated three faculty members publishing books earlier this semester. Professor Emeritus Howard Jones published My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness. In it, Jones gives an exhaustively researched and compelling look at the events of March 16, 1968, when U.S. troops entered a group of hamlets on a “search and destroy” mission. Three hours later, more than 500 civilians were dead, killed by U.S. soldiers in the My Lai Massacre, named after one of the […]

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