VOLUME 18 • FALL 2004

N E W S L E T T E R

2

It is again a pleasure to report on the ac-

tivities of the past year. As always, the

members of the department engaged in a

wide variety of scholarly and teaching en-

deavors, and you can catch up with news

of individual faculty in the pages that fol-

low. Collectively, one of the department’s

most significant endeavors in 2003-2004

was to revise the undergraduate concentra-

tion requirements. The department had

not conducted a systematic review of its

concentration in some time, and given all

the changes in the past few years, both at

the University and Department levels, I

thought it was time we did so. I asked

Howard Chudacoff to head the review, and

his committee, which included Professors

Deborah Cohen, Nancy Jacobs, and Kerry

Smith, deliberated over the course of the

year and placed a set of recommendations

before the department in April.

In his report to the department, Profes-

sor Chudacoff explained that the commit-

tee identified two major issues for consid-

eration: one was the question of whether

an eight-course concentration possessed

sufficient rigor, coherence, and depth; and

the second was the concern that whereas

the History Department had expanded the

scope of its course offerings dramatically

over the past two decades, the concentration

requirements chiefly had remained focused

around certain traditional areas, particularly

the United States and Europe. The commit-

tee then introduced several recommenda-

tions, and after two lengthy meetings the

department endorsed the following: (1) To

increase the minimum number of required

courses from eight to ten in order to give

the concentration more substance and to

encourage concentrators to immerse them-

selves in a greater variety of perspectives and

topics; (2) to modify the chronological pro-

vision so as to require concentrators to take

a minimum of three courses each in the pre-

modern and modern periods; (3) to expand

the geographical provision to require stu-

dents to distribute their courses across at

least three geographic areas; (4) to encour-

age students to take a first-year seminar,

which can serve as a gateway into the con-

centration; and (5) to allow students to take

two (and in some cases three) courses out-

side the Department (these include history

courses at other institutions, either in the

United States or abroad, as well as history-

oriented courses in other departments and

programs at Brown). The office of the Dean

of the College will review these recommen-

dations in the fall, and if approval is forth-

coming, as we anticipate, the new require-

ments will take effect next year.

A LetterFromThe Chair

design and printing: Brown Graphic Services (KJG-D)

editors: James McClain, Tim Harris & Mary Beth Bryson

3

Also on curricular matters, I am happy

to note that the History Department is

steadily increasing its slate of first-year

seminars. Those being taught next year are

Slavery and Historical Memory in the U.S.

(Seth Rockman), Worlds in Collision: Co-

lonial Encounters and the Creation of Latin

America (R. Douglas Cope), The Campus

on Fire: Colleges and Universities in the

1960s (Luther Spoehr), Magic, Science,

and Religion in Europe (Tara Nummedal),

The Many Worlds of the California Gold

Rush (Karl Jacoby), History and Memory

in China (Mark Swislocki), Tokyo Modern

(James L. McClain), and Gender and Sexu-

ality in Latin America (James Green).

Over the past few years, Charles Neu

and I have welcomed new faculty to the

Department. This year is no exception.

Joining the History Department in 2004-

2005 are James Green (a specialist on mod-

ern Brazil), Dimitris Livanios (modern

Greece and the Balkans), Seth Rockman

(colonial U.S./the early republic), Robert

Self (twentieth century U.S.), and Naoko

Shibusawa (U.S. and the World). In addi-

tion, Andrew Huebner will serve as a Visit-

ing Assistant Professor, and we have col-

laborated with the Department of Portu-

guese and Brazilian Studies to appoint

Jorge Flores to a one-year term as Visiting

Professor with expertise on European ex-

pansion during the early modern period.

I wish to close with words of congratu-

lations and thanks to you, our graduates.

Three of you correctly identified Utamaro

as the artist of the wood-block print that

graced the cover of last year’s report. Hats

off to Dean Herrin, Robert W. Parson, and

Jill Tuncay. And finally, I join my col-

leagues in extending a heartfelt thank you

to all of you who sent us financial contri-

butions. We use those monies to under-

write student research projects and other

department activities, and we very much

appreciate your support.

Best wishes,

James L. McClain

Eleanor Doumato

Stefan Halikowski-Smith

THANK YOU LE Hartmann-Ting

Matthew Kadane

Roger Levine

Dimitris Livanios

Neeti Nair

Matthew Sneider

Kathryn Tomasek

James Woodard

F l o r e n c e E x c h a n g e S c h o l a r sC a t e r i n a B r i z z i & V a l e n t i n a S o r b i

Visi

ting

Prof

esso

rs

4

Michael Breen, BrownPhD 2000, Reed College

(1) My high school Euro-pean history teacher,Nancy Husted and myWestern Civ professorat Chicago, KarlWeintraub.

(2) Undergrad. Mostlyseminar with occasionalcoursewide lectures.

(3) Hard to say as I am justfinishing up my firstbook project. Perhapsleaning a little more to-ward the 18th centurythan before. I also findmyself becoming moreinterested in social his-tory questions than be-fore and am becominginterested in early mod-ern France in a moreglobal context (i.e.

Interview with PhD GraduatesGraduate Advisor Amy Remensnyder tracked down a number of our recent PhDrecipients and asked them the following questions:1. What inspired you to become a historian?

2. What kind of teaching do you do (undergrad, graduate, lecturing, and seminars)?

3. How have your research interests evolved since you left Brown?

4. What did you find to be the most helpful aspect of Brown’s PhD program?

5. What is your fondest memory of Brown?

6. Do you feel you received an appropriate amount of funding while you were at Brown?

7. Are there any other observations about your experience in Brown’s History Departmentthat you’d like to share with us?

colonialization, com-merce, New France).

(4) Opportunity to workclosely with my advi-sor—Phil Benedict.Opportunity to getteaching experience,which counts for a loton the job market.

(5) The Ageing Squad (IMbasketball team)and Ye Olde Bats (Soft-ball team). Good cama-raderie among grad stu-dents and faculty.

(6) In terms of duration,yes. Stipends werepretty small back then,but I think they’ve im-proved. The only thingthat was really missingwas summer funding.But overall I wastreated well and can’tcomplain.

Liam Brockey, BrownPhD 2002, PrincetonUniversity

(1) I think it was the nu-merous experiences thatI had traveling aroundthe world before begin-ning graduate school,as well as the good ex-amples of excitingteaching that I hadduring my undergradu-ate years.

(2) I teach both undergradsand grad students, inboth lectures (primarilyundergrads) and semi-nars (both graduate andundergraduate).

(3) In terms of my specificfield, I would say no,but I have definitelybroadened my perspec-tives on the early mod-ern world since I left

5

Brown. Having hadtwo years to reflect onthe conclusions I cameto in my dissertation, Ihave also been able toturn my findings morecomplex and more nu-anced—but this is fun-damentally a questionof perspective.

(4) For me, workingclosely with my advisor,Philip Benedict. Also,the time I spent work-ing as a teaching assis-tant since it gave meinvaluable expertise formy later teaching as-signments.

(5) Working at theJohn Hay and JohnCarter Brown librar-ies—it was almost likebeing in Europe at thearchives with so fewpeople and such trea-sures. The sheer beautyof New England andthe new Providencealso were inspiring.

(6) Since I still have30,000 dollars of debthanging around, I’ll sayno—especially whenmany of my colleagueswho were fully fundeddid not graduate. Itwould have been nice iffunding was an all ornothing practice atBrown where therewere no offers of ad-mission without sti-pends and without ad-equate health care (thatwouldn’t have to comeout of my already mea-ger stipend). I do be-lieve this has changed,though.

(7) After having been anintegral part of anothergraduate program forthe past two years, I dothink there are aspectsof Brown’s programthat are very good—es-pecially the fact thatthe department doesnot permit weak stu-dents to limp along in

the program,taking resourcesaway from otherstudents (not allprograms arekind enough towarn their stu-dents or even ex-pel them). I also

liked the fact that I wasable to work closelywith my advisor—butthis was only beneficialbecause he was willingto work closely withme. The fact that thegrad program was smallwas also very good,even though it limitedthe possibilities forgrad level seminars andother activities. In myopinion, though, manyof these affairs are dis-tractions. Given theright students, I feelthat Brown’s program isideally shaped forquickly producing verycapable doctoral stu-dents.

Joanna Drell, BrownPhD 1996, Universityof Richmond

(1) My history 100 profes-sor in my first semester,freshman year atWellesley College wasEugene Cox. He mademedieval history soundso alive, so interesting.I loved the sources,source analysis; itseemed like a fascinat-ing career to pursue.He is forever the modelof the perfect under-graduate teacher to me.

I also liked the fact that I wasable to work closely with myadvisor—but this was onlybeneficial because he was will-ing to work closely with me.

— Liam Brockey

6

(2) Undergraduate lectur-ing and seminars.

(3) I have expanded my in-terests from studying atiny region of SouthernItaly to considering me-dieval Southern Italy inthe larger context ofdevelopments in Italy,more generally, andmedieval Europe. Ihave also broadenedmy interests from thefamily to the study ofpolitics and identity ina multi-cultural envi-ronment.

(4) The personal attentionand assistance I re-ceived from my advi-sors.

(5) Talking with DavidHerlihy (my originaladvisor) about manydifferent issues in hiscrammed, crazy-orga-nized top floor office. Ialso cherished the rare(and hard-earned!)compliments fromTony Molho (my advi-sor following ProfessorHerlihy’s death.)

(6) Yes. I was very fortu-nate.

(7) I was one of very fewstudents working onthe Middle Ages. Thismeant I became great

friends with a numberof people way-outsidemy field of study (andinterest). Those friendsare my friends to thisday. Though we seeeach other only rarely,it takes no time tocatch up and feel asthough no time passed.I will always cherishthese friendships.

Brendan McConville,Brown PhD 1992, StateUniversity of New Yorkat Binghamton

(1) I was interested in his-tory from a very youngage and both my par-ents encouraged thatinterest in differentways. Also, I camefrom a large extendedfamily, and everyonehad a story, so to speak.

(2) I have taught both un-dergraduates andgraduate students forthe last twelve years atSUNY-Binghamton, insettings that rangedfrom a four-personseminar to lectures with300 people and nineTA’s. I was chair of thedepartment last yearand thus I did not domuch teaching. How-ever, I will be teaching

at Boston University inthe fall and will resumeoffering both graduatesand undergraduates ona regular basis.

(3) When I first went tograduate school I wasinterested in what Icalled popular politics.I wrote my dissertationon agrarian unrest inprovincial America(specifically New Jer-sey) and eventuallyturned it into a book. Iwas then going to writeon the revolutionarycommittees, but I gotinterested in provincialAmericans’ views onmonarchs and monar-chy. That became thecore of a much largerreinterpretation of pro-vincial politics entitledThe King’s Three Faces,which will be publishednext year. I am alsowriting an overview ofthe Revolution forLongman Press, but myreal interest is a kind ofbiography/family his-tory/microhistory ofJohn Dixwell, one ofthe regicide judges whovoted to executeCharles I in 1649 andthen fled to New En-

7

gland after the Restora-tion and lived in hidingin New Haven for 30years. More generally, Ihave become even morefirmly convinced than Iwas as a graduate stu-dent that monocausalexplanations of changeor studies designed tofufill predeterminedtheoretical or ideologi-cal models don’t workwell.

(4) I did fields with Gor-don Wood, the late BillMcLoughlin, PhilBenedict, and TimHarris. It did me aworld of good at thetime and has served mewell ever since. I wassomewhat distressed tohear that Brown hadgotten away from thefour field structure. Ithink if you don’t dothat reading in gradschool, chances are youwill never do it; toomany things come uppersonally and profes-sionally.

(5) I would say that one ofthem was sharing asmall hall on the thirdfloor of Sharpe Housewhen the present chair,Tim Harris, was a firstyear professor and I

was a first yeargraduate stu-dent. I am sureI drove himout of hismind in moreways than one,but I got a lot out ofour conversations. Ialso became friendswith Phil Benedict atthat time and have re-mained friendly withhim. But I have to saythat my fondestmemory was my rou-tine late-night thrash-ing of Jay Samons andBrad Thompson (re-spectively now of Bos-ton University andAshland University) atping pong in the base-ment of the graduatecenter. Not only did Irepeatedly get tohumble their criminaltable tennis pride, but Ilearned a lot about an-cient Greece and thepolitical philosophy ofthe Founders in theprocess.

(6) Yes and no. The sti-pends were criminallylow at the time, butProvidence was stillcheap, and I receivedthe Lax Fellowship andsome other fellowship

that allowed me to gaina real command of theEarly American ar-chives in theMidatlantic, and thatknowledge has been in-valuable in my career.A stipend that grad stu-dents can live on is ap-propriate, though nowthat the university law-yers have managed tobreak the union itseems unlikely they willbe getting such a sti-pend. Graduate pro-grams need to think ofgraduate students asadults, as painful asthat may be to some. Ithelps the studentsthink of themselves thesame way.

(7) Rigor is good. Demandthe best out of studentsand you’ll get the bestout of them.

“Demand the best out ofstudents and you’ll ge the bestout of them.”

— Brendon McConville

8

ALEXANDRA FIDLER ‘04

Ihave recently moved to Kansas City, Missouri and am work-ing for Jamie Metzl, a Brown alumnus who is running for U.S.

Congress from this city’s 5th district. I will be here through theDemocratic Primary on August 3rd and then relocating to Colum-bia, Missouri where I will spend the remainder of the year. I will bespending that time taking the LSAT and applying to law schooland, among other things, attempting to get my History honors the-sis published.

I can’t indicate a single fondest Brown memory because the col-lective experience was, to date, the most wonderful time of my life.Academically, extra-curricularly, and personally, I loved everyminute of my time at Brown. I can say that as I progressed, I be-came more intimately aware of the inner workings and personalitiesat the University, which allowed me to gain more from the resourcesavailable. As such, I feel that my time at Brown following my se-mester abroad (fall of junior year) was the most productive and re-warding.

My passion for history began in high school with the inspirationand guidance from my A.P. History teacher. He challenged us tothink in a way that truly captivated me. I enjoyed the practice ofhistory, the reading, writing, researching, and analyzing that was in-volved in retelling and reconnecting past events. It was never really aquestion what I would concentrate in at Brown given the excellenceof this department and the reputation of its faculty.

I don’t know how the study of history applies to my present ac-tivities in a Congressional campaign other than the rigorous and ex-tensive practice of reading, writing, and researching. I don’t plan toabandon the practice however, as I am still tweaking my honors the-sis and doing more research in the hopes of publishing it this year.Finally, historical skills, as well as analytic thought generally, clearlyapply to the practice of law and will most certainly help me as I(hopefully) go through law school and pursue a career thereafter.

Speaking generally about the History concentration, I would sayonly that I absolutely loved the department, the classes that I took,and the faculty that I worked with. At all times, I felt challenged,engaged and respected by my peers, TAs, and professors. The thesisprocess was particularly rewarding and allowed me to delve deeplyinto the study of history and get to know faculty members inti-mately. I am proud of the work I accomplished in the departmentand I will always think of it with great fondness.

Interviewwith RecentConcentrators

Over the

summer, the

Interim Chair,

Tim Harris,

caught up with

some History

concentrators –

past and

present – to

ask them about

their

experiences of

Brown and the

concentration

in History.

9

EMMA KUBY ‘03

Ihave just come back to the United States after a year in Paris.I was there on a Brown postgraduate fellowship, researching the

secularization of the French public school system in the late 1800sand also looking at contemporary political debate over state regula-tion of religious dress among Islamic schoolgirls. It was an unbe-lievable year. I’m now back in Providence, working and relaxing,and in the fall I start graduate school at Cornell. I’ll be working to-wards a PhD in modern European history.

My fondest memories of Brown are living with tons of wonder-ful fellow students in Brown’s cooperative housing and my transfor-mative relationships with friends, staff, and faculty members.

I decided to concentrate in History in large part because Pro-fessor Carolyn Dean’s Modern European Women’s History coursechanged the way I thought about the world, about myself, andabout the production of knowledge. I was already a Gender Studiesconcentrator when I took her class, but I decided to add History asa second concentration. I didn’t have the slightest idea at the timethat I would wind up wanting to be a historian — I just knew thatthe kind of intellectual work that history classes demanded was ex-hilarating for me, and that I wanted to continue doing it.

Brown’s history faculty inspired me and engaged me to such adegree that I felt confident deciding that I wanted to be a historianmyself. Studying history at Brown has given me high standards forthe kind of committed teaching and creative research that I aspireto. It’s made me believe that the questions historians are able topose are incredibly interesting, important ones. I feel well-preparedand excited for my graduate studies.

The best thing for me about concentrating in History was thedegree of support and encouragement I received from the faculty.History is a big concentration at Brown, but the faculty I studiedwith were always incredibly thoughtful and giving of their time andenergy. They were deeply invested in students’ intellectual develop-ment, and they shaped my Brown education in many more waysthan I can count.

MATTHEW PERL ‘01

For the past two years I have been working for MorganStanley in London and am currently part of their Central and

Eastern European Banking Team. I’ve really enjoyed the opportu-nity afforded by the region in which we operate to meld my inter-

My fondestmemories ofBrown are livingwith tons ofwonderful fellowstudents…

10

est in government and public affairs with finance. Perhapsunsurprisingly, a large proportion of the business being conductedin the Eastern Europe remains privatization-related, and I havebeen fortunate enough to be involved with projects for theSerbian, Greek and Bulgarian governments in a relatively short pe-riod. In August, I will be moving to Morgan Stanley’s Moscow of-fice, and look forward to continuing my work in the same vein outthere.

The thing I really appreciate about Brown in retrospect is thebonds the school helps form between people. In the past year Ihave become great friends with a number of fellow alums who Inever knew while in Providence. This really has been Brown’s last-ing gift to me and in that sense the one for which I am most grate-ful.

I already thought that history would probably be my concen-tration when I showed up on campus as a Freshman. My Dad hadalways read history books and was a regular viewer of A&E’snightly line up of historical documentaries (I remember Victory atSea in particular). I think that ended up rubbing off on me and alot of the books I read for fun even at a young age were historicalor at least historically-based fiction. At the end of high school Ihad had my fill – for the time being – of American history. I tookProfessor Harris’ English History course in my first semester andthat sealed things.

As for how studying History helped prepare me for what Ichose to do after Brown, there is absolutely no question: writing.Although it may not be apparent from this, I am confident thatmy writing was improved vastly by the history faculty. It is a tool Iuse every day.

I guess there probably are not too many prospective studentsreading this but the department truly was great – one of the stron-gest at the university in my opinion – and I would truly recom-mend it for all comers.

MARGARET YOUNG ‘05

Ichose the major because I enjoy how historical inquiry illu-minates the complexity and bias in capturing and recording any

story or event. The history major provides a strong base of knowl-edge while also encouraging this inquiry. I chose to specialize inmodern American history because of the breadth of courses avail-able. By offering a number of interdisciplinary courses in addition

The thing Ireally appreciateabout Brown inretrospect is thebonds the schoolhelps formbetween people.

11

to the traditional ones, such as courses cross-registered in theAfricana Studies, Urban Studies, and Education departments, theHistory department has allowed me to fully explore my interestsand the interplay among diverse fields.

I think that studying history has helped prepare me for the fu-ture, although I have yet to decide what that future might be. Ihave learned to ask better questions and have gained research andwriting skills that will be valuable wherever I end up. I have foundthe openness and accessibility of the history faculty and the sup-port given to thesis writers to be major strengths of the concentra-tion. The encouragement of the faculty has also allowed me tospend two summers at Brown exploring my interests in the field.

New FacultyMARK SWISLOCKI, who earned his PhD atStanford University, joined the Department of His-tory last fall, following a two-year postdoctoral fel-lowship at Columbia University’s Society of Fellows.His research interests are in the cultural history ofChina’s later empires, the Republic of China, andthe People’s Republic, and he is currently working on two works of food history.A Sense of Time and Place, a history of Restaurants in Shanghai since 1850, examinesShanghai restaurants as sites through which different interest groups have put forthcompeting visions of Chinese history. The manuscript thus raises broader questionsabout food and cultural memory, historical consciousness, and efforts to perpetuate asense of cultural continuity during China’s turbulent nineteenth and twentieth centu-ries. Living Standards, a cultural history of nutrition in nineteenth- and twentieth-century China, examines the discourses and practices of Chinese medical dietetics andbiomedical nutrition in nineteenth- and twentieth-century China. This year Swislockialso expects to complete “‘Fifty-Thousand Pigs Can’t Be Wronged!’,” an article onhuman-animal relations in Shanghai, and his translation of Yang Jiang’s 1987 novel,Xizao (Taking a Bath). Published in 1988, this satirical, historical novel depicts the dailylife of intellectuals during China’s Three-Antis Campaign of 1951, when they wereforced to undergo thought-reform for the first time and were challenged to reinterprettheir life histories in terms of Chinese Communist Party orthodoxy. The novel, whichis ideal for teaching the history of twentieth-century Chinese politics, illustrates theextent to which national political campaigns affected daily life, and the ways by whichindividuals shaped the scope and meaning of those same campaigns.

I think thatstudying historyhas helpedprepare me forthe future…

12

Omer Bartov, The “Jew”in Cinema From theGolem to Don’t Touch MyHolocaust (Indiana Uni-versity Press, 2005)

Paul Buhle, From theLower East Side to Holly-wood: Jews in AmericanPopular Culture (Verso,2004)

Deborah Cohen, Com-parison and History: Eu-rope in Cross-NationalPerspective (Routledge,2004)

Richard Davis, transla-tion/introduction, Histori-cal Records of the FiveDynasties, Ouyang Xiu(Columbia UniversityPress, 2004)

Carolyn Dean, The Fragil-ity of Empathy after theHolocaust (Cornell Uni-versity Press, 2004)

Faculty Books Faculty Books Faculty Books

Mary Gluck, PopularBohemia: Modernism andUrban Culture in Nine-teenth-Century Paris(Harvard University Press,2004)

Tim Harris, Restoration:Charles II and His King-doms (Penguin, 2005)

Kurt Raaflaub, The Dis-covery of Freedom in An-cient Greece (ChicagoUniversity Press, 2004)

Lea E. Williams, Voyag-ing: An Inside Look at SeaTravel, or, The WorldThrough a Porthole (HatsOff Books, 2004)

Gordon Wood, TheAmericanization of Ben-jamin Franklin (Penguin,2004)

13

ENGIN AKARLI was an NEH fellow atthe Institute for Advanced Study inPrinceton in 2003-04, pursuing his projecton “Law and Order in the Marketplace:Istanbul 1730-1840.” He gave talks on re-lated subjects in the Institute for AdvancedStudy, New York, Columbia and HarvardUniversities, and in the panel on “Violenceand Social Order in the Ottoman Empire”at the 2004 AHA Annual Conference heldin Washing-ton, D.C.His article“Gedik: ABundle ofRights andObligationsfor Istanbul Artisans and Traders, 1750-1840” is published in Law, Anthropologyand the Constitution of the Social: MakingPersons and Things, ed. by A. Pottage andM. Mundy (Cambridge and New York:Cambridge University Press, 2004), 166-200. His article “Law in the Market PlaceIstanbul, 1730-1840” will appear in Dis-pensing Justice in Muslim Courts: Qadis,Procedures and Judgments, ed. by M. KhalidMasud, R. Peters, and D. Powers (Leidenand Boston: Brill, forthcoming).

During the academic year 2003-4 OMERBARTOV was on leave with a John SimonGuggenheim Fellowship. Having com-pleted his book “The Jew” in Cinema: FromThe Golem to Don’t Touch My Holocaust,which will be published by Indiana Uni-versity Press in the fall of 2004, he spentmuch of his time working on a new re-

Faculty Activities search project. This is an ambitious at-tempt to write the history of interethnicrelations in the city of Buczacz — locatedin what is now Western Ukraine but wasknown in the past as Eastern Galicia —from the establishment of the town in thefourteenth century to the aftermath ofWorld War II. Made up primarily of Poles,Jews, and Ukrainians, Buczacz serves as amicrocosm of the complex and fascinatingweb of ethnicities and religions that char-acterized Eastern Europe. But during theSoviet and German occupations of thetown between 1939-45, the entire Jewishpopulation was murdered and the majorityof the Poles were deported to Western Po-land. Research on this town entails travelto archives in numerous countries and theuse of innumerable languages, a wide vari-ety of documents, as well as written andoral testimonies and interviews. ProfessorBartov also acted as Project Leader of theinternational collaborative project at theWatson Institute for International Studies:“Borderlands: Ethnicity, Identity, and Vio-lence in the Shatter-Zone of Empires since1848.” The project included some tenseminars featuring local and outside speak-ers during the year as well as a workshop inMay which brought together some fifteenspecialists in the field from the UnitedStates and abroad. The project will con-tinue with another seminar next year, whileProfessor Bartov will resume his teachingduties at the university.

PHILIP BENEDICT continues his re-search on the French Wars of Religion. Hewrote an article on “Two Catholic Histori-ans of the Early Wars of Religion” and

14

worked withgraduate stu-dents on severaleditorial pro-jects. On abroader canvas,he wrote achapter on

“The Second Wave of Protestant Expan-sion” for the forthcoming Cambridge His-tory of Christianity, volume 6. WithMyron Gutmann of the University ofMichigan, he edited a festschrift forTheodore K. Rabb, Early Modern Europe:From Crisis to Stability, scheduled to ap-pear next year from the University ofDelaware Press. For this volume, he wroteon “Religion and Politics in the EuropeanStruggle for Stability, 1500-1700”. His2002 book, Christ’s Churches Purely Re-formed: A Social History of Calvinism, wonprizes from the American Society forChurch History and the Renaissance Soci-ety of America. In the 2004-2005 aca-demic year he will be in residence in thefall at the Center for Advanced Study inthe Visual Arts in Washington D.C.,where he hopes to complete his currentbook project, History through Images in theSixteenth Century: The “Wars, Massacres,and Troubles” of Tortorel and Perrissin. Hewill then take up a new post at the Insti-tute for the History of the Reformation inGeneva.

JOHN BODEL published two articles:one, in an Italian book on ancient bank-ing and finance, on money and the mon-etary economy in the work of the Romannovelist Petronius; the other, in the Jour-

nal of Roman Archaeology, as the sixth in aseries of review articles (co-authored withJerzy Linderski) on the modern supple-ments to the volumes of the CorpusInscriptionum Latinarum for Italy. He alsodelivered papers on Roman tomb gardensat the University of Michigan; on the roleof the elements in Roman funerary ritualat Boston University, Wabash College, andBrown’s Colloquium on the Religions ofthe Ancient Mediterranean; and onprogress at the U.S. Epigraphy Project indeveloping a system to encode inscriptionaltexts electronically in Extensible MarkupLanguage (xml) at New York University. InJune, along with seven other ancient histo-rians, art historians, and archaeologists, heexplored Roman catacombs and cemeteriesin Rome and Tunisia (the Roman provinceof Africa Proconsularis) in preparation fora conference at the University of Chicagoin 2005 on late Roman and early Christianfunerary practices.

During the past year, three of HOWARDCHUDACOFF’S works were published innew editons: A People and a Nation, 7thedition (with five other authors); The Evo-lution of American Urban Society, 6th edi-tion (with Judith Smith); and Major Prob-lems in American Urban History, 2nd edi-tion (with Peter Baldwin). He also pre-sented two papers derived from his currentresearch on the history of children’s play inthe United States, and continued his ser-vice as faculty representative to the NCAAand as a member of the Campus Life TaskForce.

15

DEBORAH COHEN finished work onComparison and History: Europe in Cross-National Perspective (Routledge, 2004), abook that she co-edited with MauraO’Connor. Comparison and History bringstogether scholars who have worked eithercross-nationally or comparatively to re-flect upon their own research. In chaptersthat engage practical, methodological, andtheoretical questions, the contributors toComparison and History assess the gains –but also the obstacles and perils – of his-tories that traverse national boundaries.Cohen will be on leave next year to workon her new book-project, Household Gods:The British and their Possessions, 1840-1950, which is under contract to YaleUniversity Press.

DOUGLAS COPE is currently workingon a study of Mexico City’s “informaleconomy” in the eighteenth century. InJune, he presented some of his research atthe Historical Society Conference inBoothbay Harbor, Maine.

RICHARDDAVIS willfinish histhird andfinal year aschair of

East Asian Studies, in June. He took agroup of five undergraduates on a groupUTRA to Hong Kong over winter recess,as part of the Freeman programming inEast Asian Studies. His long awaitedtranslation of Ouyang Xiu’s HISTORI-CAL RECORDS OF THE FIVEDYNASTIES was published in Feb. 2004

by Columbia University Press. The 748-page hardback will be produced inabridged paperback in 2006.

CAROLYN DEAN’S new book, TheFragility of Empathy after the Holocaust, isforthcoming from Cornell University inNovember 2004. She also gave talks atHarvard, Yale, Princeton, and Northwest-ern Universities in the Spring. She iscurrently working on a project on theconcept of victimization in France andItaly after 1945.

ABBOTT GLEASON participated in aninternational symposium on the UkrainianFamine 1932-33 at the Kennan Institute inWashington D.C. in November, 2003. Hewrote articles on three Soviet modern art-ists of the 1920s for the Modern Encyclope-dia of Russian and Soviet History. He wrotean essay on Hannah Arendt and Commu-nism for the Dizionario del Communismoand is completing articles on the history ofanti-Communism and on Totalitarianismfor the same volume. Together withVladimir Golstein of Brown’s Slavic De-partment he will teach a new course on theHistory of Modern Russian Culture in thefall of 2004.

For MARY GLUCK, the past academicyear has been one of transitions, which sawthe final completion of her book PopularBohemia: Modernism and Urban Culture inNineteenth-Century Paris (forthcomingwith Harvard University Press in the fall)and her promotion to full professor. Shehas also begun working full time on a newbook on Jewish urban culture in Budapest,

16

which will continue many of the themes ofthe Paris book in the context of East-Cen-tral Europe. Within the department, shechaired the Academic Priorities Committeeand helped bring to fruition an ambitiousnew vision for the future of the departmentthat projects considerable faculty enlarge-ment in the next few years.

ELLIOTT GORN wrote a short essay onethics and history for the Journal of Ameri-can History, edited the fifth edition of Con-structing the American Past, packed off anedited collection of essays called “ChicagoSports” to the University of Illinois Press.But mostly he thought about October inWrigley Field, and what might have been.

In the fall, TIM HARRIStaught a weekly seminarat the Folger ShakespeareLibrary in Washington,DC, on “The ThreeKingdoms in an Ageof Revolution, 1660-1720”. He was onleave in the spring. His Restoration: CharlesII and His Kingdoms, 1660-1685 will bepublished by Penguin in early 2005; its se-quel, Revolution: The Crisis of the BritishMonarchy, 1685-91, will appear a year later.He traveled frequently to do research andgave talks in such exciting places as Cam-bridge (UK), Dublin (Ireland), Portland(OR), New York City, Schenectady (NY)and Egham (UK). He was able to welcomea number of colleagues from the UK forshort-term visits to Brown: David Smith(Selwyn College, Cambridge); Jeremy Gre-gory (University of Manchester); and TonyClaydon (National University of Wales,

Bangor). He would like to thank them allfor the support they gave to the graduateprogram in early modern British history.

Since retiring from the History Depart-ment, PATRICIA HERLIHY, currentlyResearch Professor, Watson Institute forInternational Studies has published:Odessa Memories (University of Washing-ton Press, Seattle, 2003); The AlcoholicEmpire: Vodka and Politics in Late ImperialRussia (Oxford University Press, 2002);“Commerce and Architecture in Odessa inLate Imperial Russia,” Commerce in Rus-sian Urban Culture 1861-1914, ed. Will-iam Brumfield, Boris V. Anan’ich, andYuri A. Petrov (Johns Hopkins UniversityPress, 2002); four encyclopedia articles;and several book reviews. In June 2003she lectured on a Brown Alumni Cruiseon the Volga and in May 2004 visitedOdessa, Ukraine, where she is an honor-ary member of the World-Wide Club ofOdessans and was interviewed for a Mos-cow TV documentary on Odessa. ThereProfessor Herlihy also received theDeRibas Society of Berlin’s InternationalPrize for her work on Odessa. In March,she gave the 2004 Backus Memorial Lec-ture at the University of Kansas entitled”“Where Have All the Russians Gone?” Ashorter version of the paper was publishedas an op-ed piece in the Providence Journalon June 14, 2004. Professor Herlihy iscurrently working on the biography of anAmerican diplomat, Eugene Schuyler(1840-1890).

17

EVELYN HU-DEHART survivedher first year at Brownand thrived the sec-ond year, and learneda lot about the Brownway of doing things!As planned, she was asinvolved with the His-tory Department(50% of appointment) as with developingEthnic Studies and research projects at theCenter for the Study of Ethnicity and Racein America (CSREA), with these dual re-sponsibilities dovetailing and complement-ing each other well in rich and productiveways. For example, her history seminar onthe Mexican Revolution was also crosslistedwith Chicano Studies/Ethnic Studies, anddrew a diverse class that was almost one-third Chicano/a. She was honored to chairthe search for a senior Brazilianist, which re-sulted in the hiring of Associate ProfessorJames Green. Along with other new addi-tions to the History faculty, Professors SethRockman, Robert Self and NaokoShibusawa, they all add intellectual diversityto the department and to our interdiscipli-nary, comparative, cross-cultural, global andtransnationally-oriented Ethnic Studies pro-gram. So even though Professor Hu-DeHartmay seem frenetic at times as she racesacross campus, she does not feel schizo-phrenic for the most part! Her own researchis also bearing fruit: two book chapters pub-lished in Mexico in Spanish; various articlesand chapters in the U.S.; and a book undercontract with Hong Kong University Presson Voluntary Associations in the ChineseDiaspora. During this summer, she practi-

cally circumnavigated the globe to presentat international conferences in Denmark,Hong Kong, Australia, and Italy. Of all thehonors that she has received in her career,perhaps the most special because least ex-pected, was to receive an Honorary Degreefrom Notre Dame University! Since she wasnot an alum, nor a prominent Catholic in-tellectual or lay activist, and certainly not awealthy potential donor, Professor Hu-DeHart says it was very rewarding to berecognized simply for her achievements andcontributions to scholarship and teaching!

During the academic year 2003-04NANCY JACOBS held a fellowship at theProgram in Agrarian Studies at Yale Univer-sity, where she conducted research on thehistory of people and birds in sub-SaharanAfrica. She presented papers on the inter-change between European ornithology andAfrican indigenous knowledge at theNorth-East Workshop on Southern Africa,the North-East Conference on British Stud-ies, The Boston University Walter RodneyAfrican Studies Seminar, and the Programin Agrarian Studies Colloquium at YaleUniversity. Two articles by Professor Jacobsappeared during the past academic year.The first, on collaborative research into as-bestos-related disease in South Africa, ap-peared in The Journal of Occupational andEnvironmental Health. The second, a reviewarticle of the environmental historiographyof South Africa’s Cape Province and how itmay be compared with that of settler societ-ies or tropical Africa, appeared in Kronos:Journal of Cape History and will be repub-lished at www.safundi.com

18

KARL JACOBY published two essays dur-ing the past year, one on the global historyof conservation, the other on the compara-tive history of the American south and theMexican north in the late nineteenth cen-tury. He also lectured at MIT and intro-duced a new seminar for first-year Brownundergraduates, entitled “The ManyWorlds of the California Gold Rush.”Jacoby is currently at work on a study ofthe conflicting memories of the “CampGrant Massacre,” an event in which some125 Apache women and children werekilled on a reservation outside Tucson, Ari-zona, in 1871.

RHETT S. JONES published “FromUnity to Complexity: Books on Northeast-ern Black History,” an occasional paper inthe Trotter Institute series; “Playwright J.E.Franklin: The Power of the Pen,” in BlackMasks; “Race, Ideas about Race, and theFormation of Zambo Societies,” in TheGriot; and “Sub-Africanities in Africa andthe Americas,” in The Western Journal ofBlack Studies. Now in press are “Civiliza-tion and Its Discontents: Black Life in theEighteenth Century Cities of British NorthAmerica,” in an anthology on blacks in cit-ies; “Malcolm X’s Normative Leadership,”for an anthology on Afro-American leader-ship; “Methodology and Meaning: The So-ciology of Malcolm X,” in an anthology onMalcolm X; “Orphans of the Americas:Why the Existence of Zambo Societies hasbeen Denied,” in The Journal of AfricanAmerican Studies; “Sex and Sensibility:Black Women in the Eighteenth CenturyUrban Americas,” in an anthology on Afri-can American women in cities; and

“Zambo Histories,” in an anthology onAfro-American History. He continues as aContributing Editor to Black Masks and asa Contributing Writer to the Pepper BirdMagazine. Jones has been invited to serve asguest editor for a special issue of BlackMasks. He serves as consultant to theAmerican Beach research project in Florida.

CARL KAESTLEwrote three chaptersand completed his co-editing tasks on a vol-ume entitled Print inMotion: Publishing and

Reading in the United States, 1880—1940.Co-edited with Janice Radway of Duke Uni-versity, the book will be published by Cam-bridge University Press. Kaestle is enjoyingservice on the advisory board of a project atthe New York State Archives, designed tocollect and discuss materials showing the in-teractive nature of state and federal policiesin education.

BRYCE LYON has edited and provided anintroduction for the book The WardrobeBook of 1296-1297: A Financial and Logisti-cal Record of Edward I’s 1297 Campaign inFlanders Against Philip IV of France (Brussels,Commission Royale d’Histoire, 2004). Thefollowing articles have appeared in 2003-2004: “What Were the Expenses of theKings Edward I and Edward III When ab-sent from Their Realms?” Journal of MedievalHistory, XXIX (2003). “An Account of theProvisions Received by Robert de Segre,Clerk of Edward I, in Flanders and Brabantin the Autumn of 1297,” Bulletin de la Com-mission Royale d’Histoire, CLXIX (2003).

19

“Henri Pirenne: Connu Inconnu?” RevueBelge de Philologie et d’Histoire, LXXXI(2004) and “Memoir for Carlos Wyffels,”Speculum, LXXIX (2004).

MAUD MANDEL spent the 2003/2004academic year conducting research on hernew book project, Muslims and Jews inFrance, 1948-2001: A Social and PoliticalHistory. She was awarded a summer stipendfrom the National Endowment of the Hu-manities in order to spend the summergathering materials for this project. In ad-dition, she completed an article, “Trans-nationalism and its Discontents during the1948 Arab/Israeli War,” which has beensubmitted for publication.

Needless to write, JAMES MCCLAIN’Smany duties as Chair, from participating inthe review of the concentration program tooverseeing multiple faculty searches, occu-pied a large share of his time this past year.Happily, such service to the departmentalso carries with it a sense of professionalsatisfaction. On the scholarly front, Profes-sor McClain gave talks at places such asConnecticut College and Yale University,and organized a symposium, held at Brownin April, on “Kyoto in the SeventeenthCentury” that brought together specialistson art, history, literature, and Zen Bud-dhism. Ultimately, when those presenta-tions are revised, they will be combinedwith another set of papers delivered at aparallel conference held at Leiden Univer-sity and edited for publication.

TARA NUMMEDAL is currently workingon revisions to her manuscript, AlchemicalFraud and the Battle for Authority in theHoly Roman Empire, which takes the prob-lem of fraud as a point of entry into theworld of alchemical practice in the sixteenthand seventeenth-century central Europe. Anessay out of this project appeared in ShellGames: Studies in Scams, Frauds, and Deceits(1300-1650), edited by Mark Crane, Rich-ard Raiswell and Margaret Reeves. She alsogave talks at Johns Hopkins University, theAmerican Historical Association meeting inWashington D. C., and the University ofChicago on her second project, AnnaZieglerin and the Lion’s Blood: A FemaleAlchemist’s Career in Reformation Europe.

JAMES PATTERSON, who retired inJune 2002, has continued to work withgraduate students completing their doc-toral dissertations and to assist earlier doc-toral recipients in their professional ad-vancement. He was busy, especially in thespring of 2004, as an invited speaker atconferences concerned with the 50th anni-

versary of theBrown v. Board ofEducation deci-sion againstschool segrega-tion. He is alsocompleting an in-

terpretive book about the United States,1974-2001, which is expected to be pub-lished in 2005. It will appear as a volumein the Oxford (University Press) History ofthe United States series, as a follow up tohis earlier volume, Grand Expectations: TheUnited States, 1945-1974.

20

KURT RAAFLAUB(Greek and Roman His-tory) announces thepublication of The Dis-covery of Freedom in An-cient Greece (Chicago:University Press, 2004).Several other researchprojects (on the origins

of democracy in ancient Greece, on war,peace, and reconciliation in the ancientworld, on archaic Greece) are close to com-pletion. A new course on “Writing Historyin the Ancient World” (focusing on Greeceand Rome but comprising a broad compara-tive component) had a successful trial run asa first year seminar in the spring of 2004 andwill be repeated as a seminar in the fall,combined with a lecture series on the sametopic organized by the Program in AncientStudies (featuring presentations on earlyChina, Mesopotamia, Israel, the early Islamicworld, and the Aztecs). Finally, together withhis colleagues in ancient history (John Bodel,Charles Fornara, Kenneth Sacks), Raaflaubhas designed a new interdisciplinary Ph.D.program in ancient history that is expectedto be initiated next year.

In 2003-4 AMY REMENSNYDER fin-ished up a three-year term as a Councilor ofthe Medieval Academy of America. She alsoreturned to teaching after a two year re-search leave and became the HistoryDepartment’s Graduate Advisor. When shewas not busy overseeing the welfare of thegraduate students, she wrote two articlesand continued to work on her book aboutthe Virgin Mary in medieval Spain andearly colonial Mexico.

JOAN RICHARDS returned to teachingthis year after two years of leave. In the fallshe taught an Introduction to ScienceStudies as well as her usual history of sci-ence courses. In addition to advising andorganizing the departmental workshop, shewas the program co-chair for the history ofscience meetings in Cambridge, Massachu-setts. Whenever time allowed she contin-ued writing her book on the Frend/DeMorgan family using the materials shegathered while on leave.

This year, KEN SACKS completed a termas Director of Undergraduate Studies andof the Honors Program for the Depart-ment and has been invited to continue onfor an additional three years. He says it’s agreat job, since he gets to work especiallywith rising seniors as they begin to fashiontheir honors theses. Last summer, he devel-oped a new seminarfor first year students,“The World ofWalden,” which stud-ies the Transcenden-talism of Emerson,Thoreau, Fuller, andothers. The highlightof the course was aclass trip to Concord, where they did ev-erything from viewing original manuscriptsof Emerson’s and Thoreau’s to spendingseveral hours conversing with an actor por-traying Thoreau just after he had written“Civil Disobedience.” Sacks is on leave inthe fall and beginning work on a study ofphilosophy and religion in the ancientworld.

21

KERRY SMITH contributed a chapter toPublic Spheres, Private Lives in Modern Japan,1600-1950 (Gail Lee Bernstein, Andrew Gor-don, and Kate Wildman Nakai, eds.), forth-coming this fall with Harvard UniversityPress, and spoke at conferences in Singapore,Australia, and Japan. He continues work on abook about the social and cultural histories ofthe Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

JOHN THOMAS, in addition to teachingthe Graduate Students Writing Workshop anddirecting three History Honors Theses, isnearing completion of his portrait of a Ne-braska Panhandle writer tentatively entitledMari Sandoz: Historian of the High Plains.

MICHAEL VORENBERG spent the 2003-04 academic year on a leave that was partlyfunded by the American Council of LearnedSocieties. During the year, he completed mostof the research for his next book project, Re-constructing the People: The Impact of the CivilWar on American Citizenship, and he pre-sented some of this new work in academicmeetings in Chicago, Baltimore, and Beaufort,South Carolina. He completed a number ofessays to be published next year, from a studyof the Supreme Court under Chief JusticeSalmon P. Chase to a discussion of AbrahamLincoln’s attitudes toward race and retributivejustice. Also, he signed a contract to publishThe Emancipation Proclamation: A Brief His-tory with Documents (Bedford Books/St. Mar-tin’s Press), which will be available in 2006.

In addition to continuing to work as a ship-board lecturer, LEA WILLIAMS did manageto complete a book published this year, VOY-AGING, An Inside Look at Sea Travel or the

World through aPorthole. It is partautobiography andpart maritime his-tory.

GORDON WOOD spent the fall term,2003, teaching the Revolution and the ori-gins of the Constitution at NorthwesternLaw School. During the fall term he lecturedat the National Conference of Editorial Writ-ers, which was held in Providence; at a con-ference of Massachusetts school teachers inWorcester; at the Society of the Cincinnati inWashington, DC; at the Chicago HumanitiesFestival; and at Washington University. Hetaught at Brown during the spring 2004 se-mester. Professor Wood lectured during thewinter and spring at the University of Chi-cago Law School; at Colonial Williamsburg;at the Aspen Institute; at Portsmouth Abbey;at Princeton University; at the University ofKentucky; at a conference of federal courtjudges at Tucson; at Northwestern Univer-sity; at the Foreign Policy Research Institutein Philadelphia; at the New York HistoricalSociety; and at a conference of school teach-ers in Honolulu. He also acted as a commen-tator at the Organization of AmericanHistorian’s Convention and at the conven-tion of the Omohundro Institute of EarlyAmerican History. He wrote several reviewsfor the New York Times, the New York Reviewof Books, and The New Republic. In May hepublished a book entitled The Americaniza-tion of Benjamin Franklin. Professor Woodserved as a consultant to the National Con-stitution Center and to the US Capitol reno-vation and continues to serve on the Boardof Trustees for Colonial Williamsburg.

22

Alumni Notes

Andrew C. Halvorsen (B.A. ’68) writeswarmly about his former professors, especiallyAnthony Molho and Bryce Lyon. Retired aftera successful business career, Andy is reading ex-tensively in modern history and notes his greatrespect for Jim Patterson’s Grand Expecta-tions. He is also “proud” to say that his sonIan (’06) has just declared as a history concen-trator.

Dean Herrin (B.A. ’81) writes that he ishappy to speak with Brown history studentswho are interested in public history jobs. Deanhas been a Historian with the National ParkService for more than a decade and currentlyis the National Park Service Coordinator ofthe Catoctin Center for Regional Studies,which he helped create as a regional historycenter cosponsored by the National Park Ser-vice and Frederick Community College. In ad-dition, he recently authored America Trans-formed: Engineering and Technology in theNineteenth Century — Selections from the

Several readers wrote to update us abouttheir professional and personal lives. We arealways delighted to hear from you, and Iencourage all of you to drop us a line andvisit whenever you are in the Brown vicinity.

Historical American Engineering Record,National Park Service (ASCE Press, 2003). Heespecially sends his regards to Professors JamesPatterson, Jack Thomas, and Gordon Wood.

In the spirit of the cover of last year’s newslet-ter, Robert W. Parson (B.A. ’59) sent us a setof stamps minted in 1994 that featureMaejima Hisoka (1835-1919), the founder ofthe Japanese postal system and the great, greatgrandfather of his wife, Teruko Parson. Bobcurrently is a M.A. candidate in Americanhistory at the University of Arizona. He writesthat he is “happily challenged and stimulated”by his studies, perhaps because his assignmentshave included books by Gordon Wood andKarl Jacoby.

John R. Thelin (B.A. ’69) included in his let-ter a “Brown University Recollection” remi-niscing about his studies with Anthony Molho,Bryce Lyon, John Thomas, WilliamMcLoughlin, and David Underdown. He alsowas the department’s undergraduate researchassistant and worked with ProfessorUnderdown on research about the British Par-liament in the seventeen and eighteenth centu-ries. After graduating from Brown, Jack re-ceived a Ph.D. in the History of Educationfrom the University of California at Berkeley,and he served as the Chancellor Professor atthe College of William and Mary and Professorof Higher Education and Philanthropy at In-diana University before joining the Universityof Kentucky faculty in 1996. Widely published,Jack contributed an essay on “American Re-search Universities” to Elliott Gorn’s Encyclo-pedia of American Social History, and hisbook A History of American Higher Educa-tion is forthcoming from The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press. Jack was the commencementspeaker at Brown for the Graduate School cer-emonies in May 1995.

23

2003-2004Ph.D.s Awarded

BOCKELMAN, Brian (BA, Dartmouth; AM, Brown) “Prophets of the Arrabal: Remak-ing Argentine Culture in Buenos Aires, 1880-1930”; lecturer, Harvard University

HUEBNER, Andrew J. (BA, Northwestern; AM, Brown) “The Embattled Americans: ACultural History of Soldiers and Veterans, 1941-1982”; visiting asst. prof. Brown University

SNEIDER, Matthew T. (BA, University of Colorado, Boulder; AM, Brown) “Charityand Property – The Patrimonies of Bolognese Hospitals”; asst. prof. University of Massa-chusetts, Dartmouth

TRIVELLATO, Francesca (BA, Cá Foscari University, Venice, Italy; AM, Brown) “Trad-ing Diasporas and Trading Networks in the Early Modern Period: A Sepharadic Partner-ship of Livorno in the Mediterranean, Europe, and Portuguese India (ca 1700-1750)”;asst. prof. Yale University

WOODARD, James P. (BA, University of North Carolina; AM, Brown) “A Place inPolitics: São Paulo, Brazil, from Seigneurial Republicanism to Regionalist Revolt”; lec-turer, Harvard University

200

4

Jenny A. Asarnow Marjorie Harris Weiss Memorial Premium in History

Brian J. Baskin Samuel C. Lamport Prize in International Understanding

Gaurab Basu Samuel C. Lamport Prize in International Understanding

Jesse Cromwell UCS-DOC Diversity Honors Thesis Prize

Aidan E. Evenski Marjorie Harris Weiss Memorial Premium in History

Alexandra M. Fidler Pell Medal

Alexandra M. Fidler UCS-DOC Diversity Honors Thesis Prize

Janis T. Foo The Gaspee Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution

Ariana C. Green The Gaspee Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution

Jennifer E. Johnson Samuel C. Lamport Prize in International Understanding

Elizabeth R. Lew The Gaspee Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution

Catherine R. Love Samuel C. Lamport Prize in International Understanding

Megan A. Maley Samuel C. Lamport Prize in International Understanding

Benjamin Persons The Anne S. K. Brown Prize in Military History

Aaron B. Sokoloff Samuel C. Lamport Prize in International Understanding

PR

IZES

24

Twenty-two students completed the honors program this year. The range of

topics was exceptionally broad. For example (just to take the first few al-

phabetically): Jenny Asarnow wrote on “Dirty Books and the Avant-Garde:

Merlin and The Paris Olympia Press”; Brian Baskin on “The Role of the Inde-

pendent Press in Post-Independence Zimbabwe”; Nickhill Bhakta on “The Si-

lent Explosion: International Response to India’s 1974 Nuclear Test”; and Jesse

Cromwell on “A Second Haiti?: Nineteenth Century Afro-Cuban Militancy

and United States’ Racial Thought.” In a significant departure from past prac-

tice, only about half the theses were on U.S. history topics. During this com-

ing academic year, however, in which we likely will have the largest honors

class in recent memory, the preponderance of topics will once again be in U.S.

history.

Both within the honors program and among our concentrators generally,

we had a great many prize winners this year. Of particular note, for her thesis

“‘Breaking Boundaries’: The Lineage and Legacy of African-American Artistic-

Activism,” Alexandra Fidler won two prizes: the Department’s Claiborne Pell

Medal for Excellence in United States History and the UCS-Dean of the Col-

lege Diversity Honors Thesis Prize. Bringing to bear an exceptional amount of

archival research and a deep understanding of modern dance, Ali produced a

highly original contribution to our understanding of the Civil Rights move-

ment.

As has become our custom (for the past two years, at least!), we had a re-

ception for all thesis writers and senior concentrators at the Faculty Club. And,

again, we were able to support thesis research with a travel stipend of $200 to

any student who requested it. To those of you who have contributed to our

honors fund and other undergraduate needs, we extend our deepest gratitude.

— Ken Sacks

HONORS PROGRAMS

25

2004Asarnow, Jenny Ariel “Dirty Books and the Avant-Garde: Merlin and The Paris Olympia Press“

Baskin, Brian Jay “The Role of the Independent Press in Post-Independence Zimbabwe“

Bhakta, Nickhill Hitesh “The Silent Explosion: International Response to India’s 1974Nuclear Test”

Cromwell, Jesse “A Second Haiti?: Nineteenth Century Afro-Cuban Militancy and UnitedStates’ Racial Thought”

Dominguez, Freddy Cristobal “Helping a Troubled Neighbor: Spanish Involvement in the French Warsof Religion 1559-1563"

Eddy, Jared James “A Divided Profession: Theory and Practice in Ancient Medicine fromHippocrates to Galen”

Fidler, Alexandra Macks “Breaking Boundaries: The Lineage and Legacy of African-AmericanArtistic Activism”

Goldman, Beth Ilana “Kickers of the Noiseless Revolution”

Green, Ariana Carlyn “Poetry in Commotion: WBAI and the Black-Jewish Rift, NYC 1968History through Radio, Radio through History”

Hernandez, Vivian Denise “To Safeguard the Health and Well-Being of the Nation’s ChildrenA History of the National School Lunch Program”

Johnson, Jennifer Elizabeth “Frantz Fanon in History: Selective Readings in the Black PowerMovement and Postcolonial Studies”

Karwowski-Hoppel, Charles Joseph “Sir Robert Wilson and the Birth of British Russophobia: 1791-1832"

Krause, Arielle “The Exclusionary Bar: The Genesis of Female Attorneys and theirProfessional Identity for Female, From 1880-1930"

Lew, Elizabeth “Reexamining Irish-Chinese Relations in America: A Study of Belleville,New Jersey 1870-1886"

Love, Catherine Reynolds “The Voice of Your Brother’s Blood: Clerical Reactions to Torture Duringthe Brazilian Military Dictatorship, 1969-1973"

Marshall, Rachel Rebecca “A Crumb of Equality: The Amendment Adding Gender to the CivilRights Act of 1964”

Phillips, Nicholas Francis “Training for Citizenship: Universal Military Training Legislation, 1945-1952"

Prasad, Sheela “Fire in the Multiversity: The ROTC Phase-Out at Brown University,1967-1972"

Sokoloff, Aaron “British Views of France and Germany from the Armistice to 1923"

Stern, Anna Pauline “Conservative Judaism and the Challenge of the 1950s”

Vanze, Judith Shaw “The Slender Harlem Girl and the Long-Legged Tigerbelle: AltheaGibson and Wilma Rudolph in the Black Press”

HONORS RECIPIENTS

26

“The professor was of course excellent,but the TA was absolutely phenomenal.”

Read through student evaluations ofHistory courses and you’ll find that

such comments aren’t unusual. You’ll alsobe convinced of something PresidentRuth Simmons has often said: the excel-lence of Brown’s undergraduate programdepends directly on the excellence notonly of the faculty but of our graduatestudents. As apprentice teachers and de-veloping scholars, graduate students arevital in fostering Brown’s intellectual vi-brancy.

In my first year as Graduate Advisor, Iam happy to report that the HistoryDepartment’s graduate program is stron-ger than ever. The program remains large(60-80 active students at various stages)and continues to attract top-notch appli-cants from all over the country and theworld, including places as far flung as Tai-wan, Korea, France, China, and England.A record number of applicants acceptedour admissions offers this year, so that wewelcome an entering class of 21 verypromising Ph.D. candidates along with 3very able MA students. Our current stu-dents are just as outstanding. They havedone extremely well in this year’s univer-sity wide competitions for dissertationand research fellowships. They have alsobeen very successful in winning highlycompetitive external grants such as Javits,Mellon, and Folger Institute fellowships.

Reflections on the History Graduate Program

In addition, all five students who com-pleted their Ph.D.s this year received of-fers of teaching positions, despite whatremains a very tight academic job market.We congratulate them as they leaveBrown to take up their faculty duties atHarvard, Yale, and the University of Mas-sachusetts.

It is quite gratifying to note that thenews on that perennial problem front ofgraduate education – funding –is betterthan it has been. Due to a reorganizationof the Graduate School and its financesunder the able leadership of its new dean,Karen Newman, graduate stipends haveimproved considerably this year, even ex-ceeding those offered by some of our peerinstitutions. The Graduate School hasalso made more funds available to sup-port graduate students attending nationaland international conferences in order topresent their research, as ours often do.Of course we wish that we could offereven more fellowship support to studentsin their first year and to students travel-ing to distant archives for their research.But we are optimistic that PresidentSimmons and Dean Newman will con-tinue in their drive to improve the fund-ing situation for Brown’s graduate stu-dents, thereby allowing the History De-partment to maintain its standing as oneof the top-ranked Ph.D. programs in thecountry.

Amy G. Remensnyder

27

The HistoryDepartmentheld its annualbarbecue onMay 13 atHaffenreffer inBristol. Weclearly knowhow to have afun time!

KEEPING IN TOUCH ANDWINNING A CONTEST

We hope to feature more news andinformation about our graduates infuture editions of the Newsletter. Ihope all of you will write to usabout your professional accomplish-ments and noteworthy personaldevelopments. To encourage you todo so, the Department will send acopy of one book featured in thisNewsletter to the first five of you toidentify the building that graces thecover of the Newsletter.

— Best, Tim Harris

The 23rd William F.Church Memorial Lecture

Lorraine Daston,Director,Max Planck Institute for the

History of Science, Berlinspoke on

“The Material Powers ofthe Imagination in

Early Modern Europe”

during the annual William F.Church Memorial Lecture

onTuesday, November 18, 2003

�

�

28Hist

ory

New

slett

eran

ann

ual

new

slet

ter

publ

ishe

d by

the

Dep

artm

ent

of H

isto

ryB

row

n U

nive

rsity

142

Ang

ell S

tree

tPr

ovid

ence

, RI

0291

2