I hope that everyone has had a peaceful and productive beginning to the 2023 calendar year. Welcome to the Spring 2023 newsletter from the Department of History. As usual, it has been a busy semester in which time has flown by.
Nearly all classes in the Department this semester were once again full, and with the University still anticipating ongoing growth in its incoming classes we expect healthy enrollments even as changes to the core curriculum will start getting implemented over the years to come. Fortunately, our faculty and graduate students remain up to the task of carrying out the teaching mission of the Department, and we are looking forward as well to a newly hired faculty member with expertise in the history of Asia joining us in the fall.
We have hosted several exciting presentations on a wide range of subjects from visiting speakers this semester, including Sacred Heart University’s Professor David Thomson, who spoke on the financing of the American Civil War, and Wingate University’s Professor Steven Hyland, who delivered a talk on the history of the “green finance” movement in Latin America. In addition, in February our graduate students organized the Thirteenth Annual Power and Struggle Conference. Attracting graduate students from across the country who presented their work in a series of panels, the conference was also kicked off with a keynote address on the historical politics of America’s culture wars delivered by Professor Daniel Williams from the University of West Georgia. Notably, this year’s event was the first entirely in-person Power and Struggle conference in several years, but the organizers carried things off without a hitch.
Other news and information about the goings-on in the Department of History can be found throughout this newsletter, as well as on our Facebook page, our Twitter and Instagram feeds, and the departmental website. We would love to hear from you, and hope some of you in the Tuscaloosa area were able to make it recently to the latest in our series of alumni happy hours. Keep an eye out for announcements of more of those to come. As always, we want you to be part of our future as we continue to explore our past!