News and Outreach Activities

The History Department Calendar contains up-to-date listing of events sponsored by the History Department or of interest to Valley historians. We also maintain a list of events especially for History majors and minors. Our honor roll showcases the achievements of Department students, faculty, and staff, and we keep lists of books written by our faculty and by our alumni.

Ph.D. candidate Richard Taupier has received a $4800 travel grant from  the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation. Rick will use the money this  summer for a research trip to Mongolia and Buryatiya.

Ph.D. alumni Richard Gassan (2002) and Timothy Willig (2003) both have books forthcoming in Spring 2008. Richard's book, The Birth of American Tourism: New York, the Hudson Valley, and American Culture, 1790–1835, is being published by the University of Massachusetts Press. Timothy's book, Restoring the Chain of Friendship: British Policy and the Indians of the Great Lakes, 1783-1815, will be issued by the University of Nebraska Press.

The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth _publishes articles from historians and scholars employing a range of methodologies _and perspectives on _children and young people. As an international journal, JHCY creates links between scholars of youth and childhood _working in a variety of time periods and geographic contexts. UMASS and the Five Colleges are particularly strong in notable scholars working in this exciting and emerging field. Already JHCY has received submissions from scholars working on the United States, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Great Britain, Germany, Mongolia, and Turkey. In addition, JHCY's website (www.umass.edu/jhcy) has attracted visitors from at least twenty- three different nations including, China, Italy, Brazil, Ethiopia and Japan.

The emerging field of scholarship devoted to the history of children and young people has seen a growth that merits the kind of intellectual forum that the journal provides. Over the past twenty-five years, the history of children and youth has grown in prominence within the humanities and social sciences. JHCY has received major support from the Vice Provost for Research, Graduate Dean's Office, the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and the Five College/ Graduate History Program, the History Department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst as well as the Dean of Faculty's office and the English Department at Amherst College. For more information: http://www.umass.edu/jhcy/ To Order: http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_childhood_and_youth/

The Five College Seminar presents: Mary Wilson, UMASS "Syria Under French Mandate: Are High Commissioners and Prime Ministers a Necessary Part of the Story?"

This paper is ready for download.

The next seminar will be held on May 8, 2008 at the Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons, Valentine Hall, Amherst College. We begin with an open wine bar at 5:30 followed by dinner at 6:00 and discussion of the paper at 7:00. Participants who do not wish to have dinner are welcome to arrive at 7:00 for the discussion! Presenters will begin the discussion with very brief comments about the broader context of their work, but most of our time will focus on an exchange of ideas about the paper.

The British edition of Chris Appy's book Patriots, published Nov. 1, 2006 as "Vietnam: The Definitive Oral History," was named by the Times of London yesterday as their military history book of the year: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-2476322,00.html

Audrey Altstadt has become a Senior Associate Fellow at the Joint Center of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins and the Silk Road Studies Program of Uppsala, Sweden. While not a residential fellowship, Audrey tells us that it does offer her the option of doing residential research in the future. The Fellows "are chosen on the basis of their scholarly attainments and the relevance of their work to the mission of the Joint Center" which is "producing research products relevant to policy-making on the region." Fellows are expected to act as an advisory body for the various publications of the Joint Center and in annual reviews of Center programs. Audrey was also among the experts who briefed Anne Derse, the new U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, on Aug. 17 in Washington, D.C.

The History Institute sponsors in-service training for K-12 teachers during the summer and the academic year. This year will be Emerging America: From Agrarian Colonies to World Leader A partnership with the Hampshire Educational Collaborative (HEC) and a dozen area school districts. Local teachers and students will aid schools nationwide to learn about key events in U.S. history that occurred in Western Massachusetts. At a two-week Institute July 10-21 located at Smith College, teachers will study national and local historical documents with University of Massachusetts researchers Bruce Laurie, Leonard Richards, and Marla Miller, as well as Christopher Clark from the University of Connecticut. David Glassberg will present also. Teacher teams will then work with HEC and the Center for Center for Educational Software Development at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to post and interpret primary source documents on the web. The Historic Northampton Museum and the Springfield Armory National Historic Site are making available documents and artifacts. The University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Education will also provide crucial support. Teachers from across Western Massachusetts participate at no charge – and even receive professional development points and $1,000 stipends – thanks to a three-year Teaching American History grant to HEC from the U.S. Department of Education.

Regular events include a department colloquium for faculty and grad students, the Five-College Faculty Seminar in History, and occasional talks and activities organized by the undergraduate History Club. See the calendar for currently scheduled events.

In Fall 2004 the department inaugurated the Feinberg Family Distinguished Lectureship with a program on "Race, Law, and Civil Rights: Fifty Years of Brown v. Board of Education." A new series is being planned for Fall 2006 -- check back later for details!

The Department sends a newsletter to alumni and friends of the department every year. The last issue was mailed in Fall 2007; if you are not on our mailing list, you may request a copy from the Department (tel. 413-545-1330, e-mail history@history.umass.edu). New graduates will automatically be added to the mailing list. If you move, you can update your address by sending e-mail to updateum@admin.umass.edu or calling 1-800-456-UMASS (1-800-456-8627).

The History Department also hosts the website for the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians. (http://www.umass.edu/history/berks ) Laura Lovett administers this site as well as the Valley Women's History Collaborative site ( http://www.umass.edu/vwhc ) dedicated to collecting local women's history. History Graduate Students interested in Women's History are eligible to earn a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies ( http://www.umass.edu/wost/ certificate/certificate.htm) in association with the Women's Studies Program.

Department News, Spring 2006

Professor and Chair Audrey Altstadt with History major and office assistant Kelly Basner.
Kelly was the winner of the Simon & Satenig Ermonian Scholarship and the Robert H. McNeal Scholarship. The 2005-2006 Awards Ceremony was held in May, 2006.

Associate Professor Brian Ogilvie has been quoted in a dozen newspapers in a story on the Intelligent Design movement's troubles in the wake of the verdict in last fall's Kitzmiller v. Dover trial. (The newspapers: Seattle Times [Wash.], Grand Forks Herald [N.D.], The State [S.C.], Monterey County Herald [Calif.], Kansas City Star [Mo.], Centre Daily Times [Penna.], Biloxi Sun Herald [Miss.], Contra Costa Times [Calif.], Duluth News Tribune [Minn.], Myrtle Beach Sun News [S.C.], San Luis Obispo Tribune [Calif.], Columbus Ledger-Enquirer [Ga.] .)

Associate Professor Heather Cox Richardson has been profiled as one of America's "Top Young Historians" by History News Network.

The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe, by Brian W. Ogilvie, has just been published by the University of Chicago Press.

The 2006 Massachusetts History Conference, 'Outside the Textbook: Writing History for Everyone,' jointly sponsored by the Program in Public History and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, will be held June 12 in Worcester.
Click here for more information.

Kate N. Thibodeau has landed the National Council on Public History New Professional Award. This is -- remarkably -- the third consecutive year that a graduate of our program has landed this award. Last year's winner was Kris Woll, and the year before that was David Cline.

Contemplating Edith Stein, a collection of essays about the Catholic saint and philosopher edited by Joyce Avrech Berkman, was recently published by the University of Notre Dame Press.

Françoise Hamlin has been awarded the 2005 C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize. The award was given for the best dissertation in southern history completed and defended in 2004, and was awarded by the Southern Historical Association. She has also received the 2006 Franklin L. Riley Dissertation Prize awarded every two years by the Mississippi Historical Society for the best dissertation in Mississippi history.

Laura Lovett was elected Secretary of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians. The Berkshire Conference is the largest organization of women historians in the world. They sponsor small conference meetings every year in New England (the "Little Berks") and a large international meeting every three years (the "Big Berks"). The Berkshire Conference webpages are now hosted by UMass as part of the History Department website. They can be viewed at http://www.umass.edu/history/berks.

Department News, Fall 2005

This fall the Department is pleased to welcome new tenure-track faculty members:

Christian Appy (modern US)
Françoise Hamlin (modern US)
Jennifer N. Heuer (modern France)

Jennifer N. Heuer's book The Family and the Nation: Gender and Citizenship in Revolutionary
France, 1789-1830, has just been published by Cornell University Press.

Bruce Laurie's latest book, Beyond Garrison: Antislavery and Social Reform, has just been published by Cambridge University Press.

Joyce Berkman has received a Fulbright award for fall 2005 and will spend fall semester 2005 as J. William Fulbright Professor in the History Department of the prestigious John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University, Berlin, Germany.

Department News, Spring 2004

Professor Alice Nash led her class from the Universite de Montreal on a visit to Deerfield February 27-29, 2004, the 300th anniversary of the raid. Nash is teaching in Montreal 2003-04 while on a Fulbright grant.

Distinguished Alumni Award presentation given to Richard Baker at the Statehouse in Boston, April 15, 2004. From left to right: Professor David Glassberg, Chair of the History Department, Kelly Basner, winner of the Class of '45 award, Richard Baker, Historian of the U.S. Senate and Robert Carson, who has a Summer internship with the American Antiquarian Society. Both students also work as staff assistants in the History department office.

Anne Broadbridge has received a 2004 Outstanding Teacher Award from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (February 2004). Professor Broadbridge has also been chosen as a Lilly Teaching Fellow for 2004-05 by the UMass Center for Teaching.

David Cline, an M.A. alumnus in Public HIstory, has received a New Professional Travel Award from the New Professional Award Committee of the National Council on Public History.

Brian Ogilvie was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in December 2003. He has also been named a Fellow of the Columbia University Institute for Scholars at Reid Hall, Paris, 2004-05.

Laura L. Lovett has been named a 2004-05 Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University.Professor Lovett joined the Department last fall as Assistant Professor of U.S. History, specializing in women's history and public policy.

Department Awards, Spring 2003

Graduate Student Awards

Simon & Satenig Ermonian Scholarship - for teaching:

Thomas Rushford

Caldwell Prize for writing:

Jordan Reed

Frederick Gilbert Bauer Award for research projects:

Evan Campbell, David Cline, and Heather Murray

History Travel Grant

Dinah Mayo

Potash Award (Latin American Travel Grant)

Emily C. Camin

UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS

Simon & Satenig Ermonian Scholarship for outstanding academic record overall:

Robert O. Blakely, Abigail G. DeJackome, Michael P. Franck, Russell P. Hansen, Jennifer V. Nickerson, Sara L. Pearson, Terence J. Reilly, Ian K. Sandefer, Patrick M. Toomey, Nicole M. Yukna

Robert H. McNeal Scholarship for outstanding academic record with at least 100 graded credits to:

Nicole Yukna

Harold W. Cary Prize for best record in History courses (all have a 4.0 in History):

Robert O. Blakely, Michael Franck, Ian Sandefer, Nicole Yukna

Louis S. Greenbaum History Writing Prize:

Patrick Toomey, Jasper L. McChesney, Jason Saltmarsh, Rebecca Scandura

David H. MacDonnell Scholarship to attend the Oxford Summer Seminar:

Kenneth Comish, Cheryl Marsh, Marissa McKinney, Alex Meister, Jashua Robison

Richard W. Bauer Scholarship for Summer Internship:

Jessica Lemieux, Nicole DeRise

An award from the History Opportunity Fund went to Nicole Yukna to help with her travel to South Africa during winter break to conduct interviews for her Honors Thesis.