News – Page 2 – Department of History

Tuscaloosa-area Alumni Happy Hour Set for March 1

February 8, 2023

The Department of History is pleased to announce our first-ever Tuscaloosa-area alumni happy hour, which will be held on March 1, from 5-7 at Loosa Brews, 412 20th Avenue, across University Boulevard from the Federal Courthouse in downtown Tuscaloosa. We hope to see as many of our alumni as possible and learn of all you’ve accomplished since graduation. Feel free to spread the word of this event to your fellow alums! This will be the first of many exciting new […]

Department Alum & WHHA President Stewart McLaurin to Speak March 1

February 7, 2023

Stewart McLaurin, a 1981 graduate of The University of Alabama Department of History and current president of the White House Historical Association (WHHA), will return to campus on March 1 to speak as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute‘s (OLLI) lifelong learning lecture series. McLaurin will be in town to discuss the WHHA’s history, current projects, and role in preserving the presidential mansion for future generations. His presentation is entitled, “The White House Historical Association and Five Chapters of […]

“Early Modern Intersections in the American South” Symposium to be Held February 16

February 7, 2023

ATTENTION — The University of Alabama will suspend operations at 12:30 PM CST today as a result of impending severe weather. Dr. Ethridge’s plenary address will be rescheduled. Please join us for the opening session of “Early Modern Intersections in the American South,” a symposium hosted by A&S in conjunction with the Folger Institute, on February 16, in the Camellia Room in Gorgas Library. Dr. Robbie Ethridge, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Mississippi, will give the plenary address, […]

Dr. David Thomson to Discuss How Treasury Officials Financed the Union War Effort

February 7, 2023

ATTENTION — The University of Alabama will suspend operations at 12:30 PM CST today as a result of impending severe weather. Dr. Thomson’s address will be moved to Friday, February 17, at Noon, in the Summersell Room. Dr. David Thomson, associate professor of history and chair of the department of history at Sacred Heart University, will present a talk based on his book, Bonds of War: How Civil War Financial Agents Sold the World on the Union, on Thursday, February […]

Summersell Center Now Accepting Short-Term Research Fellowship Applications

January 20, 2023

To support the study of southern history and promote the use of the manuscript collections housed at The University of Alabama, the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South will offer a total of eight research fellowships in the amount of $750 each for the 2023-2024 academic year. Eligible researchers will have projects that entail work to be conducted in southern history or southern studies at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the A.S. Williams III Americana […]

Summersell Center Accepting Deep South Book Prize Nominations

January 20, 2023

The Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South and the Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History at The University of Alabama are pleased to announce that they are receiving nominations for the 2024 Summersell Deep South Book Prize for the best book on the history of the American South. The author of the prizewinning book will be awarded a cash prize and be invited to give an address and meet with faculty and students at The […]

Department to Host Visit by Fulbright Scholar

November 3, 2022

The History Department, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Capstone International Center are pleased to welcome to campus Professor Iulian M. Damian, a scholar of European history and culture who is currently in the United States as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. Professor Damian will present a public research presentation entitled “A ‘Hot Corner’ of 15th Century Europe: Fascination, Defense, and Resilience along the Ottoman Frontier” at 2 PM on November 15 in the Summersell Room (251) in ten […]

Dr. Margaret Peacock Wins Outstanding Commitment to Advising Award

November 3, 2022

Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Margaret Peacock was recognized by The University of Alabama Academic Advisors Association (UA-AAA) as the recipient of the 2021-2022 Outstanding Commitment to Advising Award at last week’s Fall Campus Assembly. The Outstanding Commitment to Advising Award recognizes the importance of academic advising at The University of Alabama by celebrating outstanding academic advisors. The association’s executive board and nomination committee announced her as winner of the award on October 26. In addition to her […]

Alumna Returns to Discuss Book That Began as Undergraduate Research Seminar Project

October 10, 2022

Dr. Isabela Morales (UA Class of 2012) returned to campus on September 29th and 30th to talk about her first book, Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom (New York: OUP, 2022). Speaking to a group of fifty undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty, Dr. Morales explained how her research began in Dr. Jenny Shaw’s American Slavery Research Seminar (now HY497) during the Fall 2011 semester. The subject of that seminar was “Slavery in the Americas” and […]

Professor Bart Elmore to Speak About Seed Money

September 27, 2022

UPDATE October 6 — This event has been postponed until the spring. Please join the Department of History as we welcome Professor Bart Elmore, who will be speaking about his recent book, Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future. For the better part of a decade, environmental historian Bart Elmore investigated the history of Monsanto, the chemical firm turned agricultural giant that became the largest seller of genetically engineered seeds in the world. Now owned by Bayer after a […]

Dr. Lawrence Cappello Interviewed About Ring Cameras and Privacy

September 19, 2022

Assistant Professor Lawrence Cappello appeared on NewsNation with Brian Entin to discuss the right-to-privacy implications of the recent revelation that Amazon, the parent company of Ring, released customers’ camera footage to law enforcement without customer consent or a court order. Cappello appears at the 1:16 mark below.

Rethinking Alabama Politics from the Civil War to the Present: A History Symposium

September 15, 2022

Join the Department of History on Monday, October 3, 2022 for Rethinking Alabama Politics from the Civil War to the Present: A History Symposium. This event brings together today’s leading historians on Alabama history for a reappraisal of post-Civil-War era Alabama history. Lunch will be served for graduate students and panelists. Students should contact Brian Martin to RSVP. Camelia Room, Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, The University of Alabama Monday, October 3, 2022 9 am – 5 pm Refreshments Available […]

Department Alumna Returns for Book Talk

September 7, 2022

Dr. Isabela Morales began her career as a historian as an undergraduate in The University of Alabama’s History Department (BA, 2012). During a visit to Hoole Special Collections Library as part of her Capstone Undergraduate Research class, she encountered a set of attorney papers from the nineteenth century. Those papers revealed that prominent Huntsville enslaver and cotton planter Samuel Townsend died in 1856, leaving behind a vast estate worth around $200,000 (equivalent to nearly $7 million today). Townsend left most […]

Rothman Named Finalist for 2022 Harriet Tubman Prize

August 13, 2022

Dr. Joshua Rothman, professor and chair of the Department of History, has been named a finalist for the 2022 Harriet Tubman Prize for his his The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America (Basic Books, 2021). The Ledger and the Chain debunks the notion that slave traders were social pariahs and outcasts, proving instead that they moved among the social and financial elite of both North and South. Rothman shows how Isaac Franklin, John Armfield, and Rice Ballard […]

Graduate Students Visit Pickensville Rosenwald School Museum

May 12, 2022

Dr. Julia Brock and graduate students rounded out the semester with a trip to Pickensville Rosenwald School Museum. Museum Board members, who are also alumni from Pickens County Rosenwald schools, gave a presentation on their work restoring the school (the only Rosenwald school left standing in the county) and collaboration with Dr. Kimberly Ransom of the University of Michigan on the creation of the museum. Board members toured the museum with the students, telling their experiences in the schools and […]