From The Chair

Josh Rothman

Thank you for taking some time with the Fall 2022 newsletter from the Department of History. Although it will likely be nearly the end of the semester by the time this issue gets into everyone’s hands, I would take that as a reflection of how much we have had going on at ten Hoor Hall since the fall semester began in August!

We have been able to host a number of exciting events in recent weeks alone. Among them was a visit and lecture from Notre Dame’s Professor Sophie White, who was in Tuscaloosa to receive the Deep South Book Prize from the Summersell Center for the Study of the South for her recent work on slavery in French Louisiana. We were also thrilled to welcome back Dr. Isabela Morales, an alumna of the Department who went on to receive her Ph.D. in History at Princeton and who recently published a fantastic book rooted in research she began while still an undergraduate. Additional speakers planned in the near future help maintain a vibrant social and intellectual atmosphere for faculty, students, and visitors alike.

The University of Alabama, meanwhile, has once again enrolled its largest ever freshman class, with numbers topping just a bit over eight thousand new students. Most classes in the Department are full, and we are very excited to be engaged in a search for what we hope will be a new faculty member with expertise in the History of Asia so that we might expand our course offerings in that field, which has clear and wide-ranging significance both historically and for our current moment. One certainty is that the Department will have no shortage of demand for faculty, as we continue to buck national trends and can currently claim the highest number of History majors we have seen in eight years.

We hope you enjoy reading about everything going on in the Department. Do not hesitate to contact us, and keep an eye out especially for upcoming alumni events. We held what we hope will be the first of a series of happy hours in Birmingham earlier this semester, and we would love to reconnect with you and hear about all the things you have been doing since graduation, whether that was last year or many years ago. Stay in touch, and please follow departmental news on our Facebook page, our Twitter feed, on the department website, and on our Instagram feed. As always, we want you to be part of our future as we continue to explore our past!

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