The History Department is deeply saddened and disturbed by the mass shooting in Georgia and the violence that has been directed against people of Asian descent throughout the country since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As historians, we recognize that anti-AAPI violence is nothing new—it has deep roots dating back to the 19th century and is part of systemic racism in this country. We recommit to our mission of teaching and learning about the histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., and about racism’s intersectional ties to oppression based on gender and sexuality, indigeneity, immigration status, physical disability and difference, class, and other factors. The Stony Brook community must confront these connected forms of harm—and the plague of gun violence—directly.
In The Spotlight
Paul Gootenberg (Professor and Chair)
Chair of History Paul Gootenberg, recently opened a roundtable on "The Past, Present, and Future of Drug History" with a talk " The Globalization of Drug History, 1990-2020." The event was sponsored by Virginia Tech and the Alcohol and Drug History Society (ADHS). Gootenberg is President-elect of the ADHS, the world's largest body for the study of intoxicants in history.
Mohamad Ballan (Assistant Professor)
Assistant Professor Mohamad Ballan was awarded a prestigious Mellon Fellowship at the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame. He will have a year in residence to complete his first book, Lord of the Pen and Sword, which examines the phenomenon of the “scholar-statesman”—litterateurs, physicians, and jurists who ascended to the highest administrative and executive offices of state—in Islamic Spain and North Africa.
Aishah Scott (PhD, 2019)
Congratulations to Aishah Scott (PhD, 2019) on her joint appointment as Assistant Professor in the Health Policy and Management Department and Black Studies at Providence College.
Sara Lipton (Professor)
Professor Sara Lipton will be participating in a panel discussion moderated by NYT editorialist Bret Stephens, "Conspiracies Then and Now" hosted by the University of Southern California on March 18th. For more information and registration see here.
Joshua Teplitsky (Associate Professor)
Associate Professor Joshua Teplitsky will present a lecture at Hebrew Union College, "Kashruth, Community, and Control: Shehitah Manuals and the Afterlives in Early Modern Europe" on Monday, March 1st, 1pm (EST). To register go to: huc.edu/libraryseries
Mohamad Ballan (Assistant Professor)
Read Assistant Professor
Mohamad Ballan's short essay, "
A Connected World: Exploring the Early Middle Ages with Ibn Faḍlān" about how he uses the ancient text of Ibn Faḍlān,
Mission to the Volga, to teach about travel in the medieval world.
Eric Beverley (Associate Professor)
Professor Eric Beverley recently co-edited a special section titled "Rethinking Sovereignty" and authored the introduction and the article "Old Borderlands: Sovereignty and Autonomy in the Hyderabad Deccan, ca. 1800–2014" in the journal Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East .
David Yee (PhD, 2019)
Congratulations to David Yee (PhD, 2019) on the publication of his article, " Shantytown Mexico: The Democratic Opening in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, 1969-1976" in The Americas 78:1 (January 2021).
Matt Ford (Phd Candidate)
Congratulations to Matt Ford (PhD Candidate) for his recent publication of "Indelible Divides and the Creation of Myths: Visions of the Ecuadorian Amazon" in the peer-reviewed journal, A Contracorriente 18:2 (Winter 2021): 63-91.
Matías Hermosilla (PhD Candidate)
Matías Hermosilla (PhD Candidate) has recently published his second poetry book: Memorias incómodas de un mal viajero (2020). Find the book here. Congratulations Matías!
María Clara Torres (PhD, 2020)
Congratulations to
María Clara Torres (PhD 2020) for winning the prestigious
AHA-Conference on Latin American History's Lewis Hanke Prize for best dissertation, with support to transform it into a book. The title of María Clara's dissertation
is “The Roots of an Illicit Peasant Crop: Coca in Colombia, 1950–2010."
¡Felicidades María Clara!
More In the Spotlight
News and Announcements
Book Launch and Talk
Join Professor Lori Flores for a discussion about her recent co-edited book The Academic's Handbook. Register for the Zoom event here.
History Club Trivia Night!
Register here to participate.
POSTPONED UNTIL FALL 2021:
Long Island Migrant Labor Camps: Dust for Blood
Join the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center for a book talk with Mark Torres on Tuesday, March 30. Register here.
Roundtable: After Trump
Join us on March 19 as the History Club hosts a roundtable about the historical significance of the Capitol Riots. Register here.
History Department Colloquia
We're featuring two presenations this semester, by José Miguel Munive Vargas on March 5, and Zinnia Capo-Valdivia on March 23. Click on the dates for the Zoom links.
Maurie McInnis (University President)
The History Department welcomes as our newest Professor of History, Dr. Maurie McInnis, the sixth president of Stony Brook University. A renowned cultural historian and author, McInnis’ academic scholarship has focused on race, slavery, and power in the American South. She has published extensively on American art history, including five books, most recently Educated in Tyranny: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's University (2019). McInnis recently served as executive vice president and provost for the University of Texas at Austin, after teaching Art History for two decades at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.
Zoom Talk: Career Options for History Majors
Register here via Zoom.
Upcoming History Club Event
Register here via Zoom.
Hosted by the Library, short presentations from scholars in History, English, and Hispanic Languages & Literature based on their participation in the 2021 meetings of the Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association. Participants from the History Department include Herman Lebovics (Emeritus) and Eric Zolov. Please register here for Zoom link
Talk by Professor Tomes!
Let's participate!
Catherine Lugar (PhD alumni)
Sadly we note and celebrate the life of alumna
Catherine Lugar (PhD, 1980) who passed away from Covid-19. A remembrance can be read
here.
The Mexican Restaurants of New York City website is ready!
This project, put together by professor Lori Flores and PhD candidates Ximena López and Fernando Amador, maps the presence of Mexican cuisine in NYC during the last couple of decades. Visit the site here.
In The Media
Jonathan Garcia (History Minor) recently published his independent research paper from last fall, "The History of the Census as a Political Tool," in the Stony Brook Undergraduate History Journal . Congratulations Jonathan on a fine piece of writing!
Associate Professor Shobana Shankar will be commenting on the new Netflix movie, Namaste Wahala, a love story set in Nigeria, which stars Nigerian and Indian actors and draws on the popularity of Nollywood and Bollywood. For more information see here.
Richard Tomczak (PhD candidate) published the essay, "Writing Histories of Witchcraft in a Pandemic: The Power of Publishing Student Writing Online" in the American Historical Association blog, Perspectives Daily. The essay discusses the project that Tomczak and his students worked on last summer in collaboration with the graduate student-run journal, Crisis & Catharsis.
Professor Robert Chase contributed to an article in The Statesman on proposals to rename buildings and the need for deeper understanding of African-American history across campus, "Does it surprise me? No: Members of the SBU community comment on lack of Black memorialization."
Student-created history journal seeks to fill gap at Stony Brook
The Statesman recently published an article about the new Stony Brook Undergraduate History Journal and the hard-working history students behind it, including Joshua Berkowitz, Peter Lupfer, Kyle O’Hara, and Brandon Chavez. Check out what our students have been up to!
Join a weeklong, online roundtable discussion of Professor Robert Chase's recent publication, We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners' Rights in Postwar America hosted by Black Perspectives , official forum of the African American Intellectual History Society. See more information here.
Richard Tomczak (PhD candidate)
has been a Research Assistant and member of the Advisory Committee for the Long Island-based,
Dyckman Farmhouse Discovered initiative, "Generations of Slavery in Inwood." See
here
for a recent article about a public art installation by Reggie Black and
here
for an article in
The Guardian
that incorporates his research assistance.
In the coming year 2021, he will be collaborating on a material culture exhibition,
an interactive "soundscape," and a 10-episode podcast series on the enslaved people
owned by the Dyckman Family.
Read an article in The Statesman about the History Department-sponsored debate this fall, "How Do We Decide?: Monuments in the Era of Black Lives Matter" featuring History faculty Robert Chase, Donna Rilling, Eric Zolov, and affiliate Zebulon Miletsky.
Prof. Sara Lipton recently published "Life, Death, and the Levys" in the December issue of The New York Review of Books .
Given the recent changes in the composition of the Supreme Court,
Professor Chris Sellers has written an Op Ed commenting on the environmental history of this Judicial institution.
Read the text
here.
Distinguished Professor Nancy Tomes was interviewed by CBS News. There, she discussed the varied responses to the uses of masks during the pandemic of 1918. For more, click here.
In the Media
