Cities of Drugs, edited by Professor Paul Gootenberg—Out Now

Cities of Drugs is a study of global ports, urban crossroads and their relationship to modern drugs that examines how twelve cities shaped and were reshaped by the international drug trade. The contributors to the edited volume argue that drug cities are a complex analytical category that need to be understood through comparative urban history that is attentive to traffickers, labor, consuming cultures, and local politics. Cities of Drugs is published by the McGill-Queens University Press.

READ FURTHER DETAILS ON THE PUBLISHER WEBSITE

Congratulations to Professor Valeria Mantilla Morales on winning the Oxford University Press First Book Prize!

Professor Morales has won the Oxford University Press First Book Prize for her monograph, Navigating Amphibious Lives along the Magdalena River: Histories of Free People of Colour in Colombia, 1560–1860. The book introduces the concept of “amphibious culture” to explore how free people of color related to land and water. The First Book Prize supports emerging scholars by disseminating their first monographs and open access publication alongside hardback publication.

On Teaching the 9/11 attacks

Professor Nancy Tomes was interviewed for a National Review article on teaching the 9/11 attacks as history in the classroom. Professor Tomes discusses the challenges of teaching a course on the attacks, integrating difficult material in the syllabus, and the context and prior background with which young students enter the classroom.

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WSJ Review | Shallow Blue Empire

We’re excited to celebrate Stony Brook University environmental historian Tamara Surani Fernando, whose book Shallow Blue Empire: A History of Pearl Diving in the Indian Ocean, 1850–1930 is the subject of a new review in The Wall Street Journal. The book explores the history of pearl diving in the Indian Ocean and the encounters between local, precolonial knowledge and British colonial efforts to map, document, and extract wealth from the sea. As the review highlights, pearl divers possessed generations of intimate knowledge of reefs, currents, and the ocean floor—knowledge that became essential to colonial efforts to expand the pearl trade during the Great Pearl Boom. 🌊 Read the review: “Shallow Blue Empire” Review: The Riches Beneath the Sea in The Wall Street Journal.

READ THE WSJ REVIEW!

Who Owns American History?

Distinguished Professor Chris Sellers and Beth English examine how, under the second Trump administration, the fight over history has become a fight over democracy. Who gets to decide what stories are remembered, whose voices are heard, and who is trusted with the country’s memory? Read their latest article in Dissent: “Who Owns American History?”

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We are proud to congratulate Professor Sara Lipton on receiving the 2025–2026 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

The Chancellor's Awards for Excellence are among the highest honors conferred by the State University of New York, recognizing consistently superior professional achievement and a sustained commitment to excellence in teaching, scholarship, service, and the advancement of higher education. Dr. Lipton is an internationally recognized historian whose scholarship explores religious identity and experience, Jewish-Christian relations, and the intersections of art, culture, and society in the High and Late Middle Ages. Her acclaimed book, Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Iconography, examines the emergence and evolution of visual representations of Jews in medieval Christian Europe and has made a significant contribution to the study of medieval history, religion, and visual culture.

READ ABOUT CHANCELLORS AWARD WINNERS!

Professor Richard Tomczak featured on a special edition of the SBU "Voices of Transparency and Excellence" Podcast

Professor Tomczak, Director of Faculty Engagement and Research Assistant Professor in History, discusses the question,"what would the Founding Fathers think of American government and politics today?" on the latest episode, "USA at 250". The episode is part of a special edition of the podcast in honor of the USA's semiquincentennial.

LISTEN TO USA AT 250