On season two of "Ancient China From Above," Douglas Flowe adventures through museums, archaeological sites, and mountain ranges to solve ancient Chinese mysteries. The work is part of Flowe’s wider efforts as a public historian.

Congratulations to the faculty members who will join us in residence during the next academic year!

In his new role, Peter Kastor will help faculty members in the arts, humanities, and social sciences seek out and apply for external funding.

Sowande M. Mustakeem, in Arts & Sciences, discusses her seminar “Medicine, Healing and Experimentation in the Contours of Black History” and the importance of grappling with traumatic history.

Mustakeem to lecture on medicine, Black history at three universities

"Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment" has won a best book award and an honorable mention.

In a new book, Christina Ramos uncovers the surprising role played by religious institutions in the Mexican Enlightenment.

Historian Steve Hindle uses a wealth of available records to closely examine life in a 17th-century English village during a period of major cultural and economic change.

The article originally appeared in the Hispanic American Historical Review.

Hillel Kieval was recognized for his contributions to Jewish studies in the Czech Republic.

Historian Anika Walke on the lessons of history being misrepresented, used and forgotten in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a new book, Diana Montaño explores the everyday uses and adaptations of technology from the ground up.

After compiling more than 100,000 records from the earliest days of the American Republic, Faculty Fellow Peter Kastor seeks to reconstruct and understand the federal government at the moment of its creation. With his book and database project currently underway, he is chronicling how the Founding Fathers faced the daily challenges of running a new and complex government.

The prize is awarded annually to recognize the best book on the history of American law and society.

Historian of the Middle Ages Christine Johnson finds parallels between today’s post-pandemic labor shortages and the temporary shift in power to workers after the Black Death reduced Europe’s medieval population by a third. Then and now, she writes, the ruling classes seek to reinstate and reinforce previous social and labor hierarchies.

First-year student Jesse Price writes about her experience in Diana Montaño’s first-year seminar, “Angels, Prostitutes, and Chicas Modernas: Women in Latin American History.”

Ten years after the world’s attention was captured by protests in Tahrir Square, historian of the modern Middle East Nancy Y. Reynolds cautions against an oversimplified remembering of the people, places and policies that sparked the uprising.

In 2020, our history classrooms have looked very different. Below, four faculty from the department describe how their teaching has changed because of COVID.

Douglas Flowe: "Political division now constitutes separate realities"

The public transfer of power from one president to the next has played a major role in reconciling political factions and creating solidarity among the populace at large after a contested presidential election. With the Election Day 2020 around the corner — and Inauguration Day a couple months after that — historian Peter Kastor and A&S grad Joey Vettiankal consider the historical precedents and wonder what will come next.

There’s something new happening in Belarus. On August 9, the country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was pronounced winner of his sixth term as president, claiming more than 80% of the vote, with his opponent, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya — his first real challenger in decades — receiving less than 10%. Supporters of free and fair elections immediately poured into the streets in protest — and haven’t gone home. In the weeks since, writes Anika Walke (History), protesters have begun to look beyond the current moment and to a society built on principles of mutual recognition and equality.

Douglas Flowe explores the invention of Black criminality in new book.

Douglas Flowe discusses the history of Juneteenth and its continued resonance for all Americans.

This statement is written by the Chairs and Directors of Humanities disciplines at the University.

Flora Cassen talked with Joe Madison on his Sirius XM radio show.

Flora Cassen writes an opinion piece published in Haaretz saying that as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread around the world the dark web has filled with conspiracy theories accusing Jews of triggering it.

A rebellious Indian proclaiming noble ancestry and entitlement; a military lieutenant foreshadowing the coming of revolution; a blasphemous, Creole embroiderer in possession of a notebook filled with pornographic content. These individuals all shared one thing in common. During the late 18th century, they were deemed to be mad and were forcefully admitted to the Hospital de San Hipólito in Mexico City, the first hospital of the Americas to specialize in the care and confinement of the mentally disturbed. In her current book-in-progress, “Bedlam in the New World,” Faculty Fellow and historian of medicine Christina Ramos reconstructs the hospital’s history, as well as the lives of some of its most notorious patients who fell afoul of the Inquisition and secular criminal courts, to write a new history of madness during the Age of Enlightenment.

Early modern witch hunts more resembled the regular criminal justice system, which blames marginalized groups for social ills, observes Johnson.

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.

Elizabeth Borgwardt, associate professor of history and law, was one of the historians asked by Politico to write the paragraph that they think will describe the 2010s in American history books written a century from now.

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.

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.

Historian Flora Cassen shares some of her ongoing projects and her thoughts on the role of historical scholarship in discussions of modern-day antisemitism.

When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) accused the Trump administration of “running concentration camps on our southern border,” a political firestorm erupted. But a question remained. Was the comparison justified? Holocaust historian Anika Walke sorts through the controversy.

In his research, historian Douglas Flowe brings to light the convergence of historical factors that made illegality a form of resistance for African American men in early twentieth-century New York City. Diving deep into their stories — told via intake forms, health and psychological records, and personal letters and correspondence — he removes judgment and instead attempts to understand an understudied history.