News | Department of History

Professor Sowande' Mustakeem receives the Dred Scott Freedom Award

The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation has named AFAS and History Professor Sowande' Mustakeem the recipient of its 2020 Dred Scott Freedom Award for her multiple award winning book Slavery at Sea.

1.15.20 | Read the Story

Graduate

Tracking the history of women’s welfare work in Ghana

Adwoa Opong, a PhD student in history at Washington University and the first McDonnell International Scholar from the University of Ghana, researches the history of women’s social welfare work in Ghana after the Second World War, a history that she says became entangled in the politics of decolonization when Ghana declared its independence.

1.11.20 | Read the Story

Faculty

The City Electric: How Mexico City’s People Shaped Its Electrified Future

We inhabit electrified spaces. Utility posts and aerial and underground cables surround us. Our horizon is broken down by high voltage towers, transformers, posts and power lines. In her current book-in-progress, “Electrifying Mexico,” Faculty Fellow and historian of modern Latin America Diana Montaño delves into the making of electrified spaces in Mexico City. Her work looks at how ordinary citizens (businessmen, salespersons, inventors, doctors, housewives, maids, and domestic advisors) saw themselves and their city as modern through electricity. Here, she previews how people and power shaped Mexico City’s fate.

11.5.19 | Read the Story

Faculty

The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Political Movement Overlooked by 30th Anniversary Celebrations

The Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 is remembered as the inevitable triumph over socialism and the inevitable rejoining of East and West Germany. But just days earlier, up to 500,000 East Germans demonstrated in Alexanderplatz public square to appeal for changes within their government — reunification was not among their demands. In the aftermath of the wall’s fall, writes historian Anika Walke, their vision for the future of the German Democratic Republic is often forgotten.

11.1.19 | Read the Story

Alumni