In The Spotlight




The Alcohol and Drugs History Society (ADHS) held its international Biennial Conference this week, June 15-17 at UNAM in Mexico City. Current 2021-23 ADHS President (Stony Brook History Professor) Paul Gootenberg delivered a Presidential Address “Why are We in México? 5,000 Years of Pivotal Drug Histories in Las Américas.” Many current and former History graduate students participated, including Adrián Márquez, Zinnia Capó-Valdivia, Froylán Enciso, Eron Ackerman, Hernán Pruden, and Susan Gauss.




Congratulations to our recently announced History Department Undergraduate Awards Winners: Donald Jimenez (Catherine Wang Award), Franklin Eck (Traum Research Award), Joshua Berkowitz (Staudenraus Award), Rachel Steigerwald (Martin Scholarship), Veronica Buhler (Stony Brook Foundation Award), Gina Parisi (Wunderlich Memorial Award), and Tyler Bakunas (Ferguson Award). For a full description of prizes see our awards page.
Congratulations to Latin American History PhD students Adrián Márquez ("Risky Business: From Places of Vice to Illicit Networks in the South Atlantic and Caribbean, 1919-1965") and Nicolás Barrientos ("The New Right, Aesthetics, and the Global Sixties: The Case of Patria y Libertad in Chile") for receiving the LACS Graduate Student Research Fellowships!
Congratulations to Joy-Louise Gape (BA/MA '22) who presented a poster at the recent meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine, "Covid-19 Discrimination Aimed at Asian-Americans: Medical Scapegoating in a Historical Perspective," and to Naveed Nickpour (School of Medicine) for his poster presentation, "Integration of Medicine and the Community: How the 1984 Family Doctor and Nurse Program in Cuba Transformed Health Care." Both worked under the mentorship and supervision of Professor Nancy Tomes.
More In the Spotlight
News and Announcements
Congratulations to Ximena López Carrillo on the successful defense of her doctoral thesis, "Chicano Activism, Professional Democratization, and the Community Mental Health Movement in Texas, 1954-1978" (thesis advisor: Nancy Tomes). Ximena will be returning to Yale where she is on a three-year teaching fellowship. We'll miss you Ximena!
Congratulations to recently minted PhD, Matías Hermosilla, who successfully defended his dissertation, "Creating a Playlist for the Third World: Cosmopolitan Solidarity, the New Left, and the Global Protest Song Movement, 1955-1975." A rich and intellectually stimulating defense — ¡felicidades!
Dear Colleagues, students, and Friends of History: As I pass on the reins, after six years, to our new interim Chair of History, Professor Sara Lipton, let me say what a pleasure it was to serve a department that engages so many fine students, historians, and publics in the work we do as educators and scholars. The world needs clear historical perspectives now more than ever, and I am confident Stony Brook History will meet that urgent challenge. Crescat scientia; vita excolatur! Paul Gootenberg, Chair (2016-22)
Congratulations to our 2022 Graduates! Enjoy this short presentation of the wonderful accomplishments by our students this past year.
Graduation Presentation Spring 2022
"Congratulations to the editorial team of the Stony Brook Undergraduate History Journal on the recent publication of Vol. 2 no. 4 of the journal! Pick-up a print copy of the journal in the History Lounge and visit the journal's homepage to read the digital version and past submissions."

In The Media
Stony Brook President and History Department faculty member, Dr. Maurie McInnis, filmed an episode of C-SPAN's Lectures in History series, "The Shadow of Slavery in American Public Life." She presented her lecture to students enrolled in Professor April Masten’s HIS327 class, “The Arts as History,” which looks at how works of art are also historical documents. Professor Masten introduced President McInnis by discussing her field of academic study, which looks at the role that historical scholarship can play in public conversations about race and focuses on the relationship between art and politics in early America, with a focus on slavery.
Monique Watson (BA, '14), who returned to the History Department last Spring to give an inspiring talk to our undergraduates, was recently featured in Stony Brook Matters in a wide-ranging conversation about her experiences as an undergraduate and beyond.
Adrián Marquez (PhD candidate) recently published a short essay, "Claves para un anti-capitalismo del siglo XXI" in the independent Uruguayan newspaper, La Diaria.
Professor Eric Zolov and his wife, Terri Gordon-Zolov, were interviewed by Chilean historian Camilo Trumper about their new book, The Walls of Santiago: Social Revolution and Political Aesthetics in Contemporary Chile (Berghahn) in the latest issue of the literary magazine, Brooklyn Rail.
"Professor Shirley Lim discussed the historical problem of whitewashing in film and Asian-American representation for Turner Classic Movies before the screening of The Good Earth (1937) which featured the Chinese-American actress, Anna May Wong. Wong had lost the lead role portraying a Chinese woman to a white actress, Luise Rainer."
PhD student Willie Mack published a blog essay, "The Success of the Valley Road Community: A Hidden History of Nassau County's African American and Indigenous People" for Preservation Long Island. Mack is working with Associate Professor Jennifer Anderson this semester as a ACLS Public Scholars Fellow.
Professor Shobana Shankar recently did a podcast interview about her recent book, An Uneasy Embrace: Africa, India, and the Spectre of Race for the series, Afrofiles which features conversations with scholars of African Studies. Her book and research was also featured in a recent article in Stony Brook University News.