Taylor Desloge, a PhD student in history at WashU, researches a DeSoto-Carr neighborhood and how it became known as the "lung block." What he has uncovered reveals complex urban history not only about housing discrimination and redlining, but also about public health narratives that have presented African Americans as a diseased community in need of containment.
Kevin Butterfield (PhD, '10) is shaping the direction of Washington’s presidential library as its executive director. Part of the task ahead of him, he explains, is providing a space for researchers to explore the difference between Washington the symbol of national origins and Washington the man.
Historical perspectives differ not only from culture to culture but also across our own Danforth Campus. Physicist Brendan Haas and historian Joohee Suh each explain how their research grapples with "old" subject matter.
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.