Research Faculty Activity

Associate Professor Margaret Abruzzo is writing a book about changing conceptions of sin and wrongdoing—and what it meant to be a “good person”—in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American moral thought.

Professor John Beeler devoted his spring sabbatical semester to working on a book manuscript examining the lives of Effie and Alexander Milne, two members of the Scottish gentry during the Victorian era. Over the summer he spent two months in Great Britain conducting research for another book project, this one on British naval policy during the final two decades of the nineteenth century. He is currently engaged in copy edits for a third book, The Milne Papers, volume three.

Assistant Professor Julia Brock co-organized Flow Tuscaloosa, a community-based exploration of area waterways through history and the arts. Flow was supported by multiple grants and UA campus units. She has spent the balance of the year focusing on her manuscript on hunting laws and practice in the Deep South.

Associate Professor Steven Bunker submitted an article on the distinctive form of the French mission civilisatrice in Mexico during the Third Republic and continues to investigate the English-born Mexican clown Ricardo Bell and his family of twenty children in Mexico’s entertainment world.

Assistant Professor Lawrence Cappello’s second book, On Privacy: Twenty Lessons for Practical People, was accepted for publication by Hachette. He also gave an invited lecture on data privacy protection to the U.S. State Department.

Professor and Associate Dean Lisa Lindquist Dorr is enjoying resuming presentations on her book on Prohibition, smuggling and the South now that such events are possible. She is working on initiatives in fostering faculty and student engagement in the classroom, as well as beginning a new book project on the history of abortion in the South before 1973.

Professor Kari Frederickson published Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama (Univ. of Alabama Press) in January. In October, the book received the 2022 Michael V.R. Thomason Book Award for the Best Book on History of the Gulf South, given by the Gulf South Historical Association. In the fall, she presented new research on tenant farming at the Gulf South Historical Association’s annual meeting.

Associate Professor John Giggie completed research on his book about civil rights in Tuscaloosa, finished an article about lynching in Alabama, planned curricula for teaching civil rights history for Tuscaloosa City Schools, and hosted a series of community mapping events for local queer history.

Professor and Summersell Chair Lesley J. Gordon published “Civil War Regiments” in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History; participated in roundtables at the Society of Military Historians & Society of Civil War Historians conferences; and was elected President of the Society of Civil War Historians.

Associate Professor Sharony Green’s study on Zora Neale Hurston’s postwar visit to Honduras will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press (Fall 2023). Dr. Green’s Antebellum America class’s 63-foot burlap installation at two historic UA sites received coverage by the global organizers of 2022 Slow Art Day, an event involving 1,500 museums and galleries.

Associate Professor Holly Grout submitted and revised her second book, Playing Cleopatra: Celebrity and the Fantasy of Exceptional Womanhood in Third Republic France. She chaired the Koren Prize Committee (for the Society for French Historical Studies), and she is an acquisition editor for H-France Reviews.

Professor Andrew Huebner signed a contract with Liveright/W.W. Norton to publish his next book, The Bullet or the Torch: Buffalo Soldiers and the Making of United States Empire. He continues to work on forthcoming co-edited collections with Cambridge and UA Press.

Assistant Professor Lucy Kaufman finished her book, A People’s Reformation: Building the English Church in the Elizabethan Parish (MQUP 2023). She is launching two new research projects on early modern England and with the support of several fellowships spent the summer in the archives of Durham, Norwich, and London.

Associate Professor Heather Kopelson published the chapter “Women, Gender, Families, and States” in vol. 1 of The Cambridge History of America and the World (2022). She also took part in the Mellon-funded RaceB4Race Second Book Institute (virtual) directed by Dr. Patricia Akhimie and Dr. Frances Dolan.

Assistant Professor Matt Lockwood finished his book, Island Refuge: Exiles and Refugees in Britain from Constantine to Climate Change, which will be published by William Collins, the original UK HarperCollins imprint, next year. He has also been featured on numerous podcasts and given several talks, conference presentations, and interviews.

Assistant Professor Di Luo published a monograph, titled Beyond Citizenship: Literacy and Personhood in Everyday China, 1900-1945. She received a fellowship from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives to conduct research on cross-border information flows in wartime China (1937-1945).

Associate Professor Jimmy Mixson celebrated the publication on a source collection on the Crusade of 1456 with the University of Toronto Press, and travelled to Germany and Austria in spring and summer looking for new manuscripts. He is now also exploring forming a rock cover band with a few graduate students.

Associate Professor Margaret Peacock published A Deeper Sickness: Journal of America in the Pandemic Year (Boston: Beacon Press), with her co-author, Dr. Erik Peterson. As the Director of Undergraduate studies, she spearheaded the introduction of a “Hidden Histories” requirement into the History Major Curriculum. She received The University of Alabama’s Most Outstanding Faculty Advisor award. She has completed a draft of her next book, Voices Carry: The Cold War and Propaganda in the Middle East, 1945-1967.

Associate Professor Erik Peterson published A Deeper Sickness (Boston: Beacon) with Margaret Peacock and the accompanying digital museum in the spring. His “Race & Ethnicity: Historical and Contemporary Issues” also appeared in The Handbook for Cultural Anthropology (NYC: Sage). This year, he’s also submitted two articles two and two book chapters. Presently, he’s writing the book Understanding Darwin for Cambridge’s “Understanding Life” series.

Associate Professor Juan Jose Ponce Vazquez served this past year as President of the Latin American and Caribbean section of the Southern Historical Association. His article titled “Pirates, Smugglers, Diplomacy, and the Spanish Caribbean in the Late 17th Century,” was accepted for publication in the Colonial Latin American Review.

Associate Professor Dan Riches worked on two volumes of collected essays he is co-editing (both now under publisher’s contract) and contributed two other essays to different collected volumes. He also continued to serve as Director of Graduate Studies.

Professor Joshua Rothman delivered a series of talks and lectures related to his recent book, The Ledger and the Chain. He published an article in the Journal of Southern History and essays for Slate and NBC NewsThink, and was named the Secretary of the Board of The Montpelier Foundation, which oversees the historic home and estate once owned by President James Madison.

Associate Professor Harold Selesky spent 2022 finishing the research for, and writing, an article on the Massachusetts Continental Line during the War for American Independence. His research on the single largest component of that army shows how one American society created armed force under conditions of unprecedented stress. He anticipates submitting the article for publication by the end of the calendar year.

Associate Professor Jenny Shaw completed her book, The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery, continued working with the Taskforce Studying Race, Slavery and Civil Rights at UA, and submitted a chapter on “Race” for the New Cambridge History of Britain series.

Associate Professor Sarah Steinbock-Pratt recently completed a chapter comparing industrial education in public schools and penal institutions in the Philippines, which will be part of an edited collection. She continues to work on her second book project on the Filipino diaspora, national identity, and transpacific communities.

Associate Professor Janek Wasserman submitted one article on Central European social reformers and completed a book chapter on Austrian fascisms. He attended two conferences and began drafting materials for his next book project, tentatively titled “Beyond Capitalism.”

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