NEWS
2024
November 13, 2024
Dr. Wiel on PBS
Dr. Keisha Wiel, who is with us this year as a visiting assistant professor in Africana Studies and History, was recently featured on an episode of the PBS series “Otherwords.” She shared her expertise on creole and pidgin languages in the Caribbean diaspora. You can view the clip here:
October 31, 2024
Prof. Schlichting in the news
Prof. Kara Schlichting has recently popped up in several major media outlets, related to her ongoing project on the history of heat in New York (part of the Melting Metropolis project: https://www.meltingmetropolis.com). The New York Post quoted her for a piece on NYC’s Great Tree Search: https://nypost.com/2024/10/09/us-news/350-year-old-tree-saplings-planted-for-fallen-wwi-soldiers-included-in-citys-updated-great-trees-list/ She appeared in a Slate article on the 50th anniversary of Robert Caro’s biography of Robert Moses: https://slate.com/business/2024/09/power-broker-robert-caro-moses-real-estate-new-york-jane-jacobs.html And she spoke to Shelterforce about the politics and public health implications of urban heat last July: https://shelterforce.org/2024/07/30/beating-extreme-heat-through-community-efforts/
Prof. Sneeringer Speaks in Germany on the Long Night of the US Elections
Prof. Julia Sneeringer, whose early work focused on political propaganda for women voters in Weimar Germany, will be participating (via zoom) in the Long Night of the US Elections at the University of Hamburg on November 6. She and other US-based historians will be reporting from their home states as the results roll in. https://www.geschichte.uni-hamburg.de/arbeitsbereiche/public-history/projekte/us-wahl.html
January 26, 2024
Prof. Bregoli on Jewish Masculinities
Francesca Bregoli has guest edited a special issue of the journal Quest (issue 24/n. 2 [2023]) on the theme of Jewish Masculinities, 1200-1800. Quest is a top-tier Italian journal that publishes in English. It’s also open source, so it can be freely accessed online: https://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/jewish-masculinities-1200-1800/ Congratulations, Francesca!
2023
December 19, 2023
Prof. Schlichting in the New York Times
Professor Kara Schlichting, an expert on the environmental history of New York City, was recently quoted in the New York Times for an article on a neighborhood where the effects of climate change are dramatically visible. Kudos, Kara!
November 16, 2023
Natalie Zemon Davis (1928-2023)
A TRIBUTE AND PERSONAL MEMORY FROM MICHAEL WOLFE
We lost one of the truly great historians of the postwar era with the passing of Natalie Zemon Davis at her home in Toronto on October 21. Anyone trained in a history doctoral program since the 1970s knows her work and legions of us have had our research interests inspired by her. Some history undergraduates may, but certainly all should know and closely read her pathbreaking studies in the social, gender, and cultural history of early modern France and Europe. She moved the field, and then some.
The extended obituary in the NYT presents a fine synopsis of Natalie’s amazing life and wide influence. I want briefly to share how I came to know this remarkable woman. It was in fact due to the good graces of another remarkable woman, my mentor at Boston University, Dr. Nancy L. Roelker. The AHA, in fact, named its prestigious Mentoring Award in Nancy’s honor shortly after her death in 1993. The story I will tell will help explain why it did. In 1982, just after I began my doctoral studies, Nancy introduced me to Natalie at an AHA meeting. I remember her talking over lunch about making the movie and writing the book about Martin Guerre. It was during that lunch I learned about how Nancy had been so instrumental in helping to get Natalie started in the profession back in the 1960s. Prior to that, Natalie and her husband, Chandler, a brilliant mathematician, while still graduate students at Michigan in the mid-1950s had been targeted by the House Committee on Un-american Activities for their political activism. Chandler even went to jail for a time. They were blackballed by universities and the FBI confiscated their passports. For Natalie, this also meant no return travel to the archives in France for further, vital research. Though she managed to defend her thesis in 1959, professional prospects for both their futures looked bleak until Chandler landed a job at the University of Toronto in 1962. With that, he and his young family moved north. Natalie began teaching at Toronto part-time and writing. She still encountered much trouble, however, finding a place on conference programs or in getting universities stateside interested in hiring her. This is where Nancy’s role was decisive. Nancy, who helped many other women join the profession, knew of Natalie’s difficulties, so she made it her task, starting in 1964, to make sure Natalie was on the program of every annual meeting of the new Society for French History, which she had just helped to set up, for as long as she wanted. It did not take long, in fact, for others to sit up and take notice of Natalie’s brilliant new work combining social and cultural history, and by 1971 she became the second woman ever on the history faculty at Berkeley. The rest is history, as they say.
After my first encounter with Natalie back in 1982, I’d occasionally see her at meetings. I only had the privilege of working with her in the wake of Nancy’s death a decade later. Soon after, I contacted Natalie about organizing a Festschrift in Nancy’s honor, which she enthusiastically embraced. With her help, we got our collection of essays by colleagues and students of Nancy published a few years later. All Nancy’s good deeds came full circle, we felt. Our work together on that project set the stage for our second collaboration, a translation from French of her extended interview with Denis Crouzet, a distinguished French historian. A Passion for History came out in 2010 and is as close to an autobiography we will ever have of this remarkable historian and woman. Her voice will be missed but her presence will always be felt. Adieu chère mâitresse.
Michael Wolfe, November 2, 2023
October 25, 2023
Prof. Duncan’s class visits the Schomburg Center
Students in Prof. Natanya Duncan’s HIST 392W colloquium, “Latinx History through Primary Sources,” recently paid a visit to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. This was part of their coursework, which explores Latinx history from the 1500s to the present with special emphasis on learning about the fundamentals of archiving. Students will be creating final projects that engage with a variety of primary sources, such as the documents, material objects, sound and visual objects found at amazing NYC resources like the Schomburg.
Fifth Satadru Sen Lecture
On October 19, 2023 Sunil Amrith gave the fifth memorial Satadru Sen lecture, a series established by the late Prof. Sen’s family to keep his work and philosophy alive. Amrith, a professor of history at Yale University, spoke on the topic of climate justice in the realm of the Indian Ocean. The talk wove together historical questions of mobility – of people, capital, and natural resources – with the current context of the climate crisis. You can view a recording of the lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuOIUjpMNSk
October 16, 2023
Acts of Faith – Religion and the American West
Recent MLSMA graduate Carolina Acosta-Clark worked on an exhibit currently at the New York Historical Society, “Acts of Faith – Religion and the American West.” The show is on view until February 25, 2024 – details at https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/acts-of-faith-religion-and-the-american-west. So gratifying to see our MLSMA graduates out there working in History!
September 18, 2023
Excellent Students Recognize Excellent Teachers
Several QC students will be honored in October 2023 with the QC Academic Excellence Award. When asked if there was a particular professor who made an impact on them, several recipients singled out members of the History department. Tzippora Applebaum (Macaulay History major) cited Sarah Covington; Wanda Harris (Art History) cited Carol Giardina; Gianna Palumbo (History-Social Studies 7-12) cited Tracey Billado; and Deborah Tulloch (History-Social Studies 7-12) cited Fidel Tavarez. Congratulations to these students and their teachers!
Kara Schlichting in The Atlantic
Kara Schlichting was recently quoted in the September 2023 issue of The Atlantic in Michael Waters’ article “America Has a Private-Beach Problem.” She gave some historical context to this piece on the increasing privatization of what used to public space along America’s coastlines, noting that in the 19th century, beaches were actually undesirable from a real-estate perspective. You can read the full article here (paywalled): https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2023/09/private-beach-state-laws-public-access/675292/
August 31, 2023
Queering the Archives from Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives is cooking up a cool project for this fall that they’re hoping to recruit undergrad and interested grad students for. It’s a four-part exploration of some of the LGBTQ+ journals in their collections, where they’ll be exploring different modes of looking at, researching, and adapting history for the stage. They’ll meet for four weeks in October, and stage the final collective result at the beginning of November.
Interested students can email qc.archives@qc.cuny.edu for more info or use this form to sign up:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7QFKewHNTr5dev-2Kx4o-ElT6rIGhfS0BYsYgZ0eOSAkBbg/viewform
August 28, 2023
Submissions for the Melting Metropolis Project
The Melting Metropolis research team is interested in what people in the past and present think and feel about high temperatures in cities. We have partnered with the Queens Memory Project to organize our outreach and programming. Please share your stories and photos here and Melting Metropolis will archive them in the Queens Public Library’s collections and use them to inform the public programming and projects we develop.
Kara Schlichting and the Melting Metropolis Project
In fall 2023 Associate Professor of History Kara Schlichting received, as part of a UK-based research team, a Wellcome Discovery Award. The five-year project is entitled “Melting Metropolis: Everyday Histories of Health and Heat in London, New York, and Paris since 1945.” It examines the effect of extreme heat in three major cities, London, Paris, and New York, in the post-war era. Schlichting and her collaborators are studying how Londoners, New Yorkers and Parisians have experienced heat and sought to mitigate its impact on their health and well-being. The project considers people’s lived experience alongside the actions of urban authorities and planners. Melting Metropolis integrates archival research, oral history, ethnography, and community engagement to investigate the challenging interaction between the climate crisis, health, and cities.
In July 2023 Schlichting and the project’s Research Artist, Bryony Benge-Abbott ran a New York City pilot program in Queens. Events included two “Handling the Heat” craft table and community surveys at Queens Central Library and 34th Avenue Open Streets, Jackson Heights; a photography exhibit ‘Handling the Heat: How we do summer in Queens” at Queens Central Library; two “Drawing Heat” sensory art walks in Jamaica; and an “Open Newsroom” event “Preparing for Climate Change in NYC” with local digital nonprofit newspaper The City on August 3 at Queens Central Library.
August 9, 2023
Upcoming Lecture Series from Morris Rossabi
Morris Rossabi will be keeping a busy schedule this Fall. In addition to his ongoing research in China, he’s been invited by Cambridge University to deliver a series of six lectures on Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies. Congratulations on this amazing honor, Morris!
Mellon Mays Fellow
Fidel Tavarez will be spending the Fall 2023 semester as a Mellon Mays Career Enhancement Fellow. His work has already taken him this year to Trier, Germany and this fall he’ll be working in Seville, Spain and the Huntington Library in California. Congratulations, Fidel!
In Memoriam of Jon Peterson
The History Department mourns the passing of our colleague Professor Jon Peterson, who died of cancer on July 1. Jon retired from Queens in 2005 after a nearly forty-year career. He was a specialist in US urban history, best known for his award-winning book The Birth of City Planning in the United States 1840-1917 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). He was also a beloved teacher whose courses included the history of New York City and the history of the borough of Queens. Born in Ohio, Jon came to Queens College in 1966 after earning a BA at Swarthmore College, an MA at Ohio State, and a Ph.D. from Harvard. At Queens, he was a key member of the History department who served as chair from 1991 and 1995, as well as many other committees. He also performed an unsung but vital service to the college during the renovation of Powdermaker Hall in the early 2000s. When the original blueprints called for a more corporate layout, Jon applied his architectural expertise and, as former chair Frank Warren put it, “in his quiet and efficient way” humanized the plans to make them more academically friendly. That sense of humaneness and decency is how those of us who knew him will remember Jon.
New History Department Faculty
The department is excited to welcome some new members this year. Andrew Amstutz joins us as our new Assistant Professor in Islamic History, with a specialization in South Asia. Lisa Betty joins us as a Lecturer in African American History. And Nourit Zimerman is a visiting scholar for the year from Sapir College in Israel, where she is a professor of legal history. You can find out more about them by clicking the link to People.
March 20, 2023
Upcoming Book Talk From Oliver Burtin
January 30, 2023
Alumni Chris Bendall’s article published in Archival Outlook
We would like to congratulate recent MLS/MA graduate Chris Bendall for having his first article published in Archival Outlook, “Death and Community: Cemeteries as Community Archives”. The article is ” is an amalgamation of his history and archives capstones, with a focus on preserving burial markers as records of community histories.
More can be found on his website Records of the Dead.
January 24, 2023
Julia Sneeringer Gives Witmer Lecture at Hunter High School
On January 12, Professor Sneeringer gave the annual Helen Witmer lecture at Hunter College High School in Manhattan. She spoke to some 200 tenth and eleventh graders about her recent book on the early history of rock ’n’ roll in Germany. She also spoke with students and faculty afterward about the joys of doing history and studying abroad.
Sneeringer has also given talks in recent months on her book at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Regensburg. During her sabbatical, she’s been researching the history of a notorious Hamburg nightclub from the Weimar Republic through Nazism and its aftermath. She’s also writing a short guide on the history of West Germany for Bloomsbury Academic Press.”
2022
November 18, 2022
Prof. Fidel Tavárez’s new article, “Mispricing Tuition”, in Inside Higher Ed
Professor Tavárez’s new article can be found here:
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2022/11/17/humanities-majors-should-pay-lower-tuition-opinion
July 5, 2022
John Maxwell O’Brien (1939-2022)
John O’Brien, beloved colleague of the History Department, died on Monday, June 27 after a brief illness.
John received his BA from Queens College, MA from Columbia, and PhD from the University of Southern California (whose Trojans served him well in the department’s March Madness pools… except when they didn’t). He began teaching at Queens in 1965, at first covering courses in medieval Europe, the subject of his doctoral research and early publications, and winning the college’s award for Excellence in Teaching (for the first of three times) in 1968. But it was a shift of field later in John’s career, to ancient Greek history, that yielded his scholarly masterpiece, Alexander the Great: The Invisible Enemy (Routledge, 1994). This book’s innovation was to interweave the well-known details of Alexander’s biography with passages of contemporaneous poetry, be it tragedy, comedy, lyric, or epic. With historical perspectives thus multiplied the result is a portrait of Alexander remarkable for its humanity and breadth of perception. Alexander’s momentous later years, as John demonstrated, were an exquisite chaos, roiling within the sometimes wide, sometimes narrow spaces between ambition and despair, addiction and devotion, rootlessness and fantastic power.
This pathbreaking exploration of Alexander was translated into multiple languages and also became the bedrock of a new phase of John’s pedagogy at the Master’s and advanced undergraduate levels. He would go on to receive the teaching award twice more, in 1990 and 1999, with now-graduated students still attesting to his brilliance in the classroom and the profound affect he had on their lives. John retired as Full Professor in 2016; he continued his publications in retirement, but struck out in new, creative directions. Coming right up, available in July 2022, we will soon have Alexander the Great: A Lyrical Biography, co-authored with his daughter Christine O’Brien, offering an illustrated poem in 390 quatrains that is the first metrical treatment of Alexander in over a century. Before that, in 2020, came Aloysius the Great, a semi-autobiographical comic farce, based on Joyce’s Ulysses, of American and British academia featuring “a drunken history professor writing a biography of Alexander” while on a Fulbright in the UK.
Above all, John will be remembered and greatly missed for his personal qualities. His enormous kindness and generosity to his students and colleagues, his dedication to a life of service, and his belief in the mission of CUNY, made him an extraordinary man who deeply affected all who had the fortune to know him. He lived by Joyce’s words: “While you have a thing, it can be taken from you. But when you give it, you have given it. No robber can take it from you. It is yours then forever when you have given it. It will be yours always. That is to give.”
July 5, 2022
Frank Wu article on Chinese Americans and US Citizenship
In addition to being President of Queens College, Frank H. Wu is also a member of the History Department. Frank recently published a piece on the tenuous position of Chinese Americans in the US since the 19th century entitled, “‘Where Are You Really From?’ Aliens Ineligible to Citizenship and Their Descendants.” It appeared in a special issue on Chinese Latinx of the journal Chinese America: History & Perspectives (2021) [https://chsa.org/shop-chsa/publications/history-perspectives/]. Well done, Frank!
April 28, 2022
Isaac Alteras (1937-2022)
It is with sadness that the History department announces the passing of emeritus Professor Isaac Alteras, who died recently after a long illness. Isaac was an esteemed member of our department and an internationally recognized historian of US and Israeli foreign policy. He joined the History program at Queens in 1967 as a lecturer and worked his way up to full Professor. He was also formerly director of Jewish Studies and active in the MALS program.
After getting his BA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Isaac became a true product of CUNY. In 1965 he earned his MA at Queens with a thesis on Jewish physicians in Spain and southern France in the 13th and 14th centuries. He then transitioned to more recent history, writing a dissertation at the Graduate Center on post-World War I Germany and the Geneva disarmament conference. He was best known for his book Eisenhower and Israel: US-Israeli Relations, 1953-1960 (University of Florida Press, 1993). Over the years, many students passed through his courses on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Cold War, and other topics in modern Middle Eastern, Jewish, and European history. Isaac loved to talk current events and always brought a certain flair to our department. We will miss him.
Isaac was buried at a private ceremony in Elmont, NY. Condolences can be sent to his family at ialteras@aol.com
April 18, 2022
Congratulation to Professor Covington for her new book!
Sarah Covington’s long-awaited study of Oliver Cromwell in Irish memory and history has just been published by Oxford University Press. The Devil from Over the Sea: Remembering and Forgetting Oliver Cromwell in Ireland is currently available in the UK and will publish in the US in June 2022.
Congratulations Sarah!
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-devil-from-over-the-sea-9780198848318?lang=en&cc=gb
March 1, 2022
Congratulations to Professor Richardson for being awarded the 2022 Dan David Prize
Our own Kristina Richardson has just been named a 2022 Dan David Prize Laureate! The Dan David Prize is the largest history prize in the world. Laureates are awarded $300,000 in recognition for “outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history.” This award comes in recognition of her recently published book Roma in the Medieval Islamic World: Literacy, Culture and Migration, which outlines a medieval history of Roma and other traveling groups and argues that they were the missing link between medieval Asian and European print, bringing print to Europe in the 15th century, decades before Gutenberg invented his press. You can watch the announcement ceremony online at https://dandavidprize.org/2022-dan-david-prize-announcement/
Kristina is the first CUNY professor ever to earn this distinction. Past recipients of the prize include historians Jacques Le Goff (2007), Sir Geoffrey Lloyd (2013), Pierre Nora and Saul Friedländer (both in 2014). A full list of past laureates is available here: https://dandavidprize.org/previous-laureates/
February 7, 2022
Two new books from Professor Rossabi
Distinguished Professor Morris Rossabi, world-renowned specialist in Mongolian and Chinese history, has just published two more books this winter: China and the Uyghurs: A Concise Introduction (Rowman & Littlefield) and an edited volume with Ralph Kauz, Tribute System and Rulership in Late Imperial China (Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht). More details are available in our “Faculty Books” section, under People. Congratulations, Morris!
2021
December 14, 2021
Fidel Tavarez selected for CUNY’s Faculty Fellowship Publication Program
Fidel Tavarez selected for CUNY’s Faculty Fellowship Publication Program (FFPP): Professor Tavarez has been awarded an FFPP grant, a CUNY-wide award sponsored by the Office of Recruitment and Diversity that helps assistant professors complete projects essential to their progress toward tenure. He will use the release time granted by the award to complete the manuscript for his first book, The Imperial Machine: Assembling the Spanish Commercial Empire in the Age of Enlightenment. The book explores how the Hispanic world’s commercial reforms in the 18th century represented a genuine effort to solve the dilemmas of early modern globalization. Congratulations, Fidel!
Prof. Rossabi Honored by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia
Morris Rossabi honored by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia: Distinguished Professor Morris Rossabi, one of the world’s foremost scholars of Mongolia, was recently honored by that country with their Certificate of Merit for his lifelong contributions to the study of Mongolian history and culture. The award coincided with Prof. Rossabi’s 80th birthday. Congratulations, Morris, and many happy returns! https://www.un.int/mongolia/news/historian-morris-rossabi-has-been-awarded-certificate-merit-minister-foreign-affairs-mongolia
December 3, 2021
Congratulations to Professor Richardson for the publication of her new book!
Information about Kristina Richardson’s new book Roma in the Medieval Islamic World: Literacy, Culture and Migration.
In Middle Eastern cities as early as the mid-8th century, the Sons of Sasan begged, trained animals, sold medicinal plants and potions, and told fortunes. They captivated the imagination of Arab writers and playwrights, who immortalized their strange ways in poems, plays, and the Thousand and One Nights. Using a wide range of sources, Richardson investigates the lived experiences of these Sons of Sasan, who changed their name to Ghuraba’ (Strangers) by the late 1200s. This name became the Arabic word for the Roma and Roma-affiliated groups also known under the pejorative term ‘Gypsies’.
This book uses mostly Ghuraba’-authored works to understand their tribal organization and professional niches as well as providing a glossary of their language Sin. It also examines the urban homes, neighborhoods, and cemeteries that they constructed. Within these isolated communities they developed and nurtured a deep literary culture and astrological tradition, broadening our appreciation of the cultural contributions of medieval minority communities. Remarkably, the Ghuraba’ began blockprinting textual amulets by the 10th century, centuries before printing on paper arrived in central Europe. When Roma tribes migrated from Ottoman territories into Bavaria and Bohemia in the 1410s, they may have carried this printing technology into the Holy Roman Empire.
November 22, 2021
Irish Studies Project Gets Help from Ireland
QC’s Irish Studies Program received some much-needed funding recently thanks to a $6,500 grant from the Ireland Emigrant Support Programme (ESP). Run by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, ESP is designed to strengthen the international Irish community and its bond with Ireland. Through this program, the Irish government funds projects that have a clear and identifiable impact on supporting and building global Irish communities.
November 19, 2021
Congratulations to Miriam Liebman for a new Assistant Editor position!
QC History alum and CUNY Grad Center doctoral student Miriam Liebman has just landed the position of Assistant Editor of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Miriam is completing a dissertation on Abigail Adams’ role as diplomatic actor and political advisor during the early American republic, which makes her perfectly suited to this position working with the Adams family archives. Congratulations, Miriam!
Congratulations to Professor Sneeringer for her chapter in Musicking in 20th Century Europe!
Julia Sneeringer’s chapter “Socially Engaging with Music: Pleasure, Distinction, and Identity” recently appeared in Musicking in 20th Century Europe, a handbook surveying all aspects of musical life in that time and place, from technology and musicianship as labor to music as protest and changes in listening habits. The handbook, edited by Klaus Nathaus and Martin Rempe, is published by DeGruyter.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110651966-012/html
Professor Frangakis-Syrett’s recent article, Production and Trade of Cotton in Ottoman Western Anatolia c. 1700-1914
Professor Frangakis-Syrett’s article, Production and Trade of Cotton in Ottoman Western Anatolia c. 1700-1914, has appeared in Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia:
https://brill.com/view/title/60479
Congratulations to Professor Bemporad for the publication of her new book!
You can find information about Prof. Bemporad’s new book, Pogroms: A Documentary History, here:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pogroms-9780190060084?cc=us&lang=en&
This edited volume surveys the complex history of anti-Jewish violence by bringing together archival and published sources–many appearing for the first time in English translation. The documents assembled here include eyewitness testimony, oral histories, diary excerpts, literary works, trial records, and press coverage. They also include memos and field reports authored by army officials, investigative commissions, humanitarian organizations, and government officials. This landmark volume and its distinguished roster of scholars provides an unprecedented view of the history of pogroms.
October 4, 2021
Simon Bolivar Award Ceremony
Prof. Fidel Tavarez will be honored in October 2021 by the Latino Alumni Group of the Alumni Association of City College at their annual Simon Bolivar Award ceremony. Fidel earned his BA in History at City College in 2011 before going on to Princeton for his PhD. Congratulations, Fidel!
June 22, 2021
Congratulations to Professor Richardson for the publication of her new book!
You can find information about Prof. Richardson’s new book, The Notebook Of Kamāl Al-Dīn The Weaver, here:
https://www.orient-institut.org/publications/bi-bibliotheca-islamica/details/the-notebook-of-kamal-al-din-the-weaver/
At the end of the 10th / 16th century in Aleppo, a weaver, cloth merchant, and poet named Kamāl al-Dīn would regularly take his time to fill blank pages with his varied observations. But it was not a linear narrative he produced, nor was it a diary. Rather, he scribbled down accounts on the political and social life of his city and the region; the climate; economic developments; his craft; poetry, much of it his own; anecdotes; reading excerpts; obituaries of dignitaries and friends; history. In doing so, Kamāl al-Dīn upends assumptions about literary agency, faith, and class in the Ottoman Arab provinces and thus gives us insights rarely seen in other contemporary works.
Only a fragment of what once must have been a sizeable work survives, now preserved in the Forschungsbibliothek Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha under the shelfmark MS orient. A 114. It represents the earliest known Arabic notebook of an artisan or merchant.
June 2, 2021
Congratulations to Deborah Tulloch on receiving the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship!
We would like to congratulate Deborah Tulloch, an undergraduate history major, on her academic success, which includes being awarded the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) at Queens College. As an aspiring scholar, Deborah would like to study the history of Black Power movements across the Atlantic world, with a particular focus on the Caribbean and the United States. With the support of the MMUF Program, Deborah plans on writing an ambitious senior thesis, which she will then use as a writing sample for graduate school applications. We celebrate Deborah’s achievements and look forward to seeing her develop into a promising scholar.
May 26, 2021
Available History 190 in Summer Session I
May 19, 2021
Apply for the Jacqueline Schiller Fund Scholarship, 2019-20
The Jacqueline Schiller Fund was established in The New York Community Trust to provide scholarships to CUNY students in the fields of literature and/or history* who are among the best and brightest and who demonstrate financial need. Currently matriculating students at the Associate’s, Baccalaureate, Master’s and Graduate/Professional degrees levels are eligible.
For the 2021-22 academic year, there will be ten scholarships in the amount of $1,000. each. Applications are due NO LATER than July 14, 2021. Awardees will be notified by email and letter by August 20, 2021.
The application is: Here
April 22, 2021
Congratulations to Ryan King on receiving a Fulbright Scholarship
We would like to congratulate one of our MLS/MA students, Ryan King, on receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Free University in Berlin. Ryan wants to take advantage of their program specializing in Graphic Novels for his research on the psychology of hoarding and to tap into the vibrant comic culture there.
April 5, 2021
Beberfall Law School Scholarship, 2021
The Beberfall Law School Scholarship awards between $250 and $500 to a graduating student, in any major, who shows great promise in pursuing a legal career. To qualify for the scholarship, students must have been already accepted to, and agreed to attend, an ABA-‐approved law school in the coming fall.
All application materials, including the completed form and an approximately 1000-word personal statement, should be emailed to the Chair of the History Department (Kristin.Celello@qc.cuny.edu), by Monday April 26, 2021.
Forms can be downloaded here.
March 23, 2021
What Comes After? From Queens College to a Career
Interested in pursuing a career in public health, law, or journalism? Come join us for an information session. Admissions officers from the CUNY professional schools will discuss the application process, financial aid, and career opportunities. REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
These information sessions will take place during Free Hour (12:15 – 1:15 PM).
1) Wednesday, April 7th: CUNY School of Public Health
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0qc-GtqD4tEtE6Mcx9X80d4lMWdjUibyOR
2) Monday, April 12th: CUNY School of Law
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpd-mrrzIqEtczF9U-_NMKkxAGAp448I40
3) Monday, April 26th: CUNY School of Journalism
Register here: https://journalism-cuny.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdeyuqzsoHNBnbsxt42L_8TSPQYThHJ_B
January 27, 2021
History MA graduate Richard Schlosberg published in Taylor & Francis
We wanted to congratulate Richard Schlosberg, a graduate from our MA program, for the publishing of his article in Taylor & Francis:
January 21, 2021
Recent History Graduate Peter Kropf Published in Forbes & Fifth
We would like to congratulate Peter Kropf for having one of his papers, that he wrote in Prof. Giardina’s HIST 392W: America in the 1960s, in University of Pittsburgh’s undergraduate academic journal Forbes & Fifth.
2020
October 28, 2020
Prof. Sneeringer joining scholars from the University of Hamburg, Germany for the “Long Night of the US Elections” on Nov. 3
Details (in German) here:
https://www.hamburg.de/politische-bildung/veranstaltungen/14475184/die-lange-nacht-us-wahl/
You can also see a short video on the state of the race in her home state Pennsylvania here:
October 20, 2020
Prof. Flowers selected for the 8th Cohort of A’Lelia Bundles Community Scholars
Below is the announcement from Columbia University about Prof. Flowers’ selection for the eighth cohort of A’Lelia Bundles Community Scholars program. During this time she will be conducting oral histories from students, faculty/staff, and parents associated with The Modern School about its founder Mildred Louise Johnson.
https://neighbors.columbia.edu/news/announcing-8th-cohort-alelia-bundles-community-scholars
July 9, 2020
Congratulations to Prof. Allen on the publication of his textbook!
Be sure to check out the new book by Prof. Joel Allen, The Roman Republic and the Hellenistic Mediterranean: From Alexander to Caesar (Wiley-Blackwell, 2020). This book was based on Prof. Allen’s teaching here at Queens College but will no doubt be of great use now to students everywhere.
June 8, 2020
Read Prof. Schlichting in the New York Times about NYC’s Covid Summer
Congratulations to Prof. Kara Schlichting on her recent op-ed in the New York Times about how we can survive this Covid-shadowed summer in the city: “New York City Doesn’t Have to Suffer This Summer.”
You can also hear Prof. Antonova on two recent podcasts: Flash Forward, a futurology podcast about future scenarios from the silly to the terrifying and Past Loves, a new podcast exploring a wide variety of historical romantic relationships.
If you’re looking around for more to read and listen to as the semester winds up and summer begins, check out our page of links to QC history faculty in the media: lots of interviews, podcasts, op-eds, talking head appearances and other venues where your profs have commented publicly on a wide range of subjects.
May 15, 2020
Congratulations to Profs. Bemporad, Wintermute, and Allen!
We’re delighted to have some good news to share in these difficult times: three of our department faculty have been promotion to the rank of Full Professor. Congratulations to Prof. Elissa Bemporad, Prof. Bob Wintermute, and Prof. Joel Allen!
March 17, 2020
CUNY closings and Coronavirus
The history department, like the rest of the College and CUNY, are paying close attention to the latest updates regarding SARS-Sov-2 and Covid-19. We are transitioning to online teaching platforms starting March 19, along with the rest of CUNY. Students please stay in touch with your instructors as well as you can, depending on your access capabilities during this difficult time. We’ll all get through this together. If you need to contact the history department:
PLEASE E-MAIL OUR STAFF, ALEX VICKERY (ALEX.VICKERY@QC.CUNY.EDU) OR MARILYN HARRIS (MARILYN.HARRIS@QC.CUNY.EDU), WITH ANY GENERAL QUESTIONS OR FOR PRE-REGISTRATION NEEDS.
PLEASE E-MAIL PROF. KRISTIN CELELLO (KRISTIN.CELELLO@QC.CUNY.EDU), DEPARTMENT CHAIR, TO ARRANGE FOR ADVISING.
Congratulations to Prof. Covington on the publication of her edited volume!
Check it out: the latest new book from Prof. Sarah Covington is Protestant Aesthetics and the Arts, co-edited with Kathryn Reklis, from Routledge, 2020.
February 12, 2020
Congratulations – AGAIN! – to Prof. Richardson on another NEH grant!
Just returning from an NEH summer stipend, Prof. Kristina Richardson received another NEH grant to continue work on her project, “Race, Language and Roma Culture in the Islamic Middle Ages.”
Congrats to Prof. Haller on his new article!
Prof. Stephen Haller recently had an article published in Scotia: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Scottish Studies titled “The Scottish Enlightenment on the American Frontier: Charles Nisbet and Dickinson College” (October 2019). Congratulations to him!
January 27, 2020
Prof. Antonova’s talks in Moscow and St. Petersburg
Prof. Katherine Antonova just returned from a semester of research leave in St. Petersburg, Russia, funded by American Councils and the PSC-CUNY Research Foundation. She was delighted to find tremendous riches in the archives for her forthcoming book project, Holy Men, Troublesome Women: The Transformation of Russian Elites after Napoleon. While in Russia, Prof. Antonova presented twice on the recent Russian translation of her first book, An Ordinary Marriage: The World of a Gentry Family in Provincial Russia (OUP 2013) as Gospoda Chikhachevy: Mir pomestnogo dvorianstva v Nikolaevskoi Rossii (Historia Rossica, NLO, 2019), at the German Institute in Moscow and at European University in St. Petersburg. She also presented a different research project on reevaluating Russian textile proto-industrialization at the conference “Regions of Imperial Russia: Identities, Representations, Meanings“ at the Regional History Laboratory of the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
January 16, 2020
Prof. Bemporad wins a National Jewish Book Award!
Huge congratulations to Prof. Elissa Bemporad on her National Jewish Book Award 2019 in the category of Modern Jewish Thought and Experience for her new book, Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets (Oxford University Press, 2019).
January 8, 2020
New book from Prof. Antonova!
Prof. Katherine Antonova just published a book on writing history essays for students that many of you may have already seen in your classrooms in some form. Now it’s official! The Essential Guide for Writing History Essays from Oxford University Press (2020) is now available and recommended for use in your classes!
For updates and further details about the book, “like” it on Facebook!
Instructors are encouraged to request a review copy from OUP and check out the website for instructors containing skeleton syllabi, exercises, rubrics, FAQ and more at oup.com/us/writinghistoryessays
New publication from Prof. Celello!
Congratulations to Department Chair Prof. Kristin Celello on her new article in the Journal of Women’s History! “Politics and Parenting in the 1930s: Red-Baiting, Child Custody, and the Strange Case of Mrs. Eaton,” Vol. 31, Number 4 (Winter 2019), pp. 63-85.
Tell your friends to go hear Prof. Sneeringer speak about the Beatles!
Prof. Julia Sneeringer is giving two upcoming talks related to her recent book, A Social History of Early Rock ‘n’ Roll in Germany: Hamburg from Burlesque to The Beatles, 1956-69, first at the University of Southern California Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies on January 24 and as part of the Hamburg Experience Beatles Festival, March 27-29!
Hear about NYC’s harbor from Prof. Schlichting!
Prof. Schichting is off campus this spring semester for a writing fellowship at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, part of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat of Munich. Congratulation her on this fantastic achievement and wish her a productive stay!
New publication from Prof. Frangakis-Syrett
Congratulations to Prof. Elena Frangakis-Syrett on her new publication! She co-edited, with Thierry Allain and Sebastine Lupo, an issue of the French journal Rives mediterrannennes Vol. 59 (2019) titled “Smyrne fin XVIIe début XXe siècle. La mutation des négoces en Méditerranée.” The articles in the volume analyze the business of trade in the Mediterranean from the late 17th to the early 20th centuries, with particular reference to the city-port of Izmir/Smyrna and its hinterland in western Anatolia. They consider various aspects of long-distance trade from the level of family firms to the creation of limited liability incorporated companies, to tax farming, landownership and capital accumulation both in the urban and rural sectors of the Ottoman economy. An important thread in the volume is the need for effective communications and the creation of networks of kinship and trust to succeed in business.
Prof. Frangakis-Syrett is also a member of the Advisory Board of the journal Meltem, İzmir Akdeniz Akademisi Dergisi and recently gave a seminar on “Production and Trade of Cotton in western Anatolia, 18th to the early 20th centuries” (31 October 2019) and on “Kinship in Ottoman Izmir’s Business World” (1 November 2019) at the Faculty Seminar, Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey.
Prof. Frangakis-Syrett has been making the most of her Scholar Incentive Award working abroad in Fall 2019 but will be back at QC this spring semester. Say hello and ask her about her travels!
2019
December 1, 2019
Announcing a job search in African-American history
Professor of African American History / Director of Africana Studies Program
The History Department of Queens College, CUNY is conducting a search for an Associate or a Full Professor of African American history. Beginning in Fall 2020, the successful candidate will also serve as Director of the Africana Studies Program for a minimum of 3 years with the goal of strengthening and developing initiatives related to advancing the program, student engagement, alumni and community involvement, and fundraising. Regardless of research specialty, the candidate will be expected to teach both halves of the History Department’s African American History survey course, as well as other undergraduate and Master’s level courses in their field of expertise. The candidate must have a Ph.D. in History, or a closely related field; have already obtained tenure in their home institution; and have a demonstrated record of research excellence, leadership experience, and academic program advancement (i.e. curriculum development, interdisciplinary collaborations, conference planning, and program outreach). Applicants will provide a cover letter, CV, optional writing sample, and the names of three references. In addition to possible on-campus interviews, this search may involve video-conference discussions at any stage of the process. Evidence of teaching excellence is requested, preferably formal institutional student teaching evaluations and/or chairperson’s annual review letters, in addition to other evidence, such as awards or informal student feedback. This may be emailed directly to grace.davie@qc.cuny.edu. Click here more information about this full-time position
Equal Employment Opportunity
CUNY encourages people with disabilities, minorities, veterans and women to apply. At CUNY, Italian-Americans are also included among our protected groups. Applicants and employees will not be discriminated against on the basis of any legally protected category, including sexual orientation or gender identity. EEO/AA/Vet/Disability Employer.
May 15, 2019
Congratulations to Prof. Joshua Freeman!
Joshua B. Freeman, Distinguished Professor of History at Queens College and the Graduate Center, was recently presented with the 2019 Sol Stetin Award for Labor History!
May 14, 2019
Congratulations to Clara Helwaser!
Recent QC History graduate Clara Helwaser will be moving on this fall to attend Cambridge University for an MPhil in Modern European History where she hopes to continue researching the development of Jewish communities in Germany and the influence of Russian Jews. Congrats, Clara!
March 29, 2019
Congratulations to Prof. Warren Woodfin!
QC Professor Warren Woodfin will be a 2019-20 fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, DC next year. Congratulations to him!
March 28, 2019
Congratulations to Prof. Francesca Bregoli!
QC Professor Francesca Bregoli was selected as a Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University for 2019-20 on the theme “The Affective Turn in Modern Jewish History,” for her project Intimate Affairs: Jewish Trade and Emotions in the Eighteenth-Century Mediterranean.
Prof. Bregoli should also be congratulated on the appearance of the volume Connecting Histories: Jews and Their Others in Early Modern Europe (Penn Press, 2019), which she edited with David B. Ruderman.
Hear Prof. Erin Wuebker on Brooklyn Paper Radio and the Brooklyn History Society Podcast!
Dr. Wuebker was recently a guest on Brooklyn Paper Radio to speak about Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward, the first Black female doctor in New York State and third in the nation, and her work researching Brooklyn health history for an upcoming exhibition at Brooklyn Historical Society. The exhibition, Taking Care of Brooklyn: Stories of Sickness and Health, will open in May.
Dr. Wuebker is also an occasional guest on the Brooklyn Historical Society Podcast, most recently in Episode 29 on “Cholera in Brooklyn.”
Congratulations to Prof. Morris Rossabi!
QC Professor Morris Rossabi has recently briefed the next U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia in DC, gave a speech on Women in Modern Mongolia st Sarah Lawrence, and a speech at Indiana University on Mongols and the Sea.
Congratulations to Prof. Kristina Richardson!
QC Professor Kristina Richardson was just announced as a recipient of an NEH summer stipend for her project, “Race, Language and Roma Culture in the Islamic Middle Ages.”
Congratulations to Prof. Katherine Antonova
QC Professor Katherine Antonova was awarded an American Councils Title VIII Research Scholar award to conduct research in St. Petersburg, Russia for six months in the summer and fall of 2019, for her project titled, “Troublesome Women: Policing Faith and Transforming Russian Elites after Napoleon.”
Congratulations to David Pultz – again!
CCNY graduate student and member of the QC Beta-Tau chapter David Pultz has — for the second time! — been recognized by Phi Alpha Theta. He has just won the 2018 Nels Andrew Cleven Founder’s Prize for a graduate paper titled, “Transnational Human Rights Norms Come of Age: Assertions, Influences, and Continuities in the Helsinki Final Act.”
Congratulations to Yurie Amma!
QC history student Yurie Amma just won a $10,000 Japanese American Association Honjo Foundation Award. Congratulations Yurie!
January 9, 2019
Memorial event scheduled to celebrate the life and work of Prof. Satadru Sen
Please save the date: Friday, March 8, 2019, 5:00pm-7:00pm at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum.
Further details will be announced as the event gets closer.
Congrats to Prof. Covington on a new edited volume!
If you see Prof. Sarah Covington, be sure to congratulate her on the appearance of Early Modern Ireland: New Sources, Methods, and Perspectives (Routledge), which she co-edited with Valerie McGowan-Doyle and Vincent Carey.
2018
November 30, 2018
Honoring David Syrett
Professor Elena Frangakis-Syrett has recently taken on the task of adding the Navy Records collection of publications by the late Queens College history department faculty member, David Syrett, to her donation of Professor Syrett’s many works to the College’s Rosenthal Library. Read more about Prof. Syrett’s impressive contributions to military history here.
October 30, 2018
Prof. Rossabi’s Global History for NYC 9th and 10th graders
We’re delighted to hear that Prof. Morris Rossabi’s revisions to the New York City curriculum in Global History for 9th and 10th grades are now being phased in.
Professor Sneeringer to speak about the Beatles at Monmouth University
On Nov. 10 Prof. Julia Sneeringer will be speaking at Monmouth University’s symposium on the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ White Album. The subject will be receptions of the Beatles in West and East Germany in the 1960s.
October 9, 2018
Professor Satadru Sen
The History Department is tremendously sad to have to announce that Professor Satadru Sen passed away suddenly on Oct. 8.
Those wishing to attend the memorial service in the Hudson Valley this Friday should contact the department office for more details.
October 4, 2018
Prof. Warren Woodfin in the Queens Chronicle
Prof. Warren Woodfin guest-curated an exhibit at the Godwin-Ternbach museum, which you can read about here in the Queens Chronicle.
September 27, 2018
Congratulations to David Pultz!
The History Department congratulates David Pultz, a graduate student at City College and member of our Beta-Tau chapter. David won Phi Alpha Theta’s 2018 Nels Andrew Cleven Founder’s Prize for a graduate paper. His paper is titled,“Transnational Human Rights Norms Come of Age: Assertions, Influences, and Continuities in the Helsinki Final Act.”
David also won this prize in 2017 for another research paper titled, “On the Tiger’s Back: The George W. Ball Memorandums and the Johnson Administration’s March Toward Escalation in Vietnam, 1964 – 1965.”
September 13, 2018
Irish Studies oral history project featured in the Irish Times
August 24, 2018
Fellowship and Keynote Addresses by Prof. Rossabi
We are delighted to congratulate Distinguished Professor Morris Rossabi on his acceptance of a fellowship from the Invited Scholars programme at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Founder’s Collection! Prof. Rossabi will be worth with the Far-Eastern Art collection in Lisbon, Portugal.
Prof. Rossabi had a busy summer, delivering a keynote speech at Bonn University on “Ming China and Tribute Relations” at a conference on Tribute in China in July and another keynote at NYU-Shanghai on “The Mongols and World History” at a conference on Eurasian Connections. This December, he will also be speaking on “Yuan Dynasty Porcelains” at I Tatti, the Harvard Center in Florence.
“Why Was Hamburg a Perfect Fit for the Beatles?” Get a peek at Prof. Sneeringer’s new book!
Check out this sneak peek at some content from Prof. Julia Sneeringer’s new book, A Social History of Early Rock ‘n’ Roll in Germany: Hamburg from Burlesque to Beatles’ (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), just published in The Journal of Music.
May 1, 2018
Miriam Liebman awarded dissertation fellowship
April 16, 2018
Deirdre Cooper Owens awarded book prize and selected as OAH Distinguished Lecturer
Prof. Deirdre Cooper Owens’s book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology (Univ Georgia Press, 2017) won the Darlene Clark Award from the Organization of American Historians, as the best book in African-American women’s and gender history for this year! The OAH has also selected Dee-Dee as a Distinguished Lecturer. This is huge news – congratulations to Prof. Cooper Owens!
February 13, 2018
Lawrence Cappello is moving on to the University of Alabama!
We are delighted to announce that our own Lawrence Cappello, BA Queens College and PhD CUNY Grad Center, has accepted a tenure-track position at the flagship campus of the University of Alabama. We will miss him, but are so happy to see his success!
January 14, 2018
Elissa Bemporad an ARC Distinguished CUNY Fellow at the Grad Center
The Advanced Research Collaborative at the CUNY Graduate Center promotes interdisciplinary scholarship. Congratulations to Associate Professor Elissa Bemporad! Click here to find out more about the fellowship!
2017
March 23, 2017
Sergei Antonov is moving on to Yale!
We are delighted to announce that our own Prof. Sergei Antonov has accepted a tenure-track position at Yale University. Congratulations!
2016
December 12, 2016
Prof. Amy Chazkel awarded NEH fellowship
Amy Chazkel, Associate Professor of History at QC and the CUNY Graduate Center, was awarded a prestigious NEH Fellowship for University Teachers for her project “Urban Chiaroscuro: Rio de Janeiro and the Politics of Nightfall.” The grant is highly competitive. This year only 86 awards were made in the national competition. Congratulations, Professor Chazkel!