One important academic lesson of the pandemic was that despite COVID restrictions, many Duke undergraduate students continued to conduct valuable research in collaboration with faculty members. This week, that research was showcased when three juniors were named Faculty Scholars, the university’s highest honor for students presented by faculty. The awards went to Patrick Duan, for research studying historical dynamics of racial and ethnic minorities; Jenny (Yijian) Huang, for developing new statistical methodology for… read more about Three Juniors Selected as Faculty Scholars for Excellence in Research »
There’s a common misconception about student voting that after four years of deep engagement on the topic senior Daisy Lane wants to clear up: Students aren’t politically apathetic. “College students vote at lower rates than most other age groups, and the general conception is they care less, but that’s not true,” said Lane, a public policy and history major who worked with the student voting group Duke Votes. “The thinking is they’re only on campus for four years, their home is elsewhere and there’s a lot of student… read more about Class of 2022: Daisy Lane, Helping Students to the Voting Booth »
On Saturday, April 2, Raia Lockerman, Kerry Rork and Anna Greenleaf all had the same two fears: presenting their undergraduate research at a big conference and being away for the Duke vs. UNC game. They were the three Trinity students selected to participate in the 2022 ACC Meeting of the Minds conference, hosted by the University of Virginia between April 1 and 3. The nomination and selection process are extremely competitive, and only five students represented Duke: Lockerman, Rork and Greenleaf from Trinity, as well as… read more about Trinity Students Go on the Road to the ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference »
Six members of Duke’s Class of 2023 have been named to the second class of Nakayama Scholars. The Nakayama Public Service Scholarship is part of the university’s efforts to encourage students to use their Duke experience to engage with the large challenges facing communities around the world. The students represent multiple disciplines across Duke’s academic departments as well as a variety of future careers. Juniors Alexandra Bennion, Bentley Choi, Garrett Goodman, Shreyas Hallur, Andrew Liu and Nellie Sun… read more about Duke Names Second Class of Nakayama Scholars »
Please join us from 4:30-6:00 on Monday 18 April for our first collective in-person event: a reception for the new John Hope Franklin Gallery exhibit “Black Lives Matter Brazil-USA). Food and drinks will be served with exhibit designers serving as guides. It is preceded with a panel discussion from 3-4:00PM led by Professor Silvio Almeida, a former Mellon Visiting at Duke who presented in last year’s department colloquium. Sponsored by… read more about New Black Lives Matter Exhibit at Franklin Gallery @ History »
Featured Courses for Fall 2022 HISTORY 105 - Old Worlds/New Histories, 500-1500 CE Vasant Kaiwar Mon/Wed 3:30-4:45 pm New approaches to history of the world from ca. 500 to 1500 CE. Examines the world before European hegemony. Topics may include nature of autonomous centers of production around the globe; characteristics of trade, empire, science, technology, and high culture across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas; diffusion of inventions… read more about Featured History Courses for Fall 2022 »
Historian Peter H. Wood recently took part in a podcast entitled "Fields," produced by a Brooklyn-based group exploring aspects of American agriculture, past and present. The one-hour episode, released on February 3 as part of Black History Month, can be found here: https://heritageradionetwork.org/episode/dr-peter-h-wood-rice-and-reshaping-south-carolina. The conversation focuses on the introduction of West African rice cultivation into early South Carolina, a topic covered in Wood's pioneering book, Black… read more about Peter H. Wood podcast for Black History Month »
When Michaeline Crichlow moved from her native St. Lucia to upstate New York, she had a lot to learn — and not just in the graduate program she attended at Binghamton University. “I became a Black person not in the Caribbean, but in the United States,” said the professor and interim chair of African & African American Studies. Race wasn’t often discussed in St. Lucia, where the vast majority of the population is Black. The rare times it was, the conversation wasn’t about Black and white, but the Indo-Caribbean peoples… read more about What Decolonization Means »
Black History Month draws its origins to February 1926, when Dr. Carter G. Woodson organized “Negro History Week,” a celebration that honored the contributions of African Americans with activities such as parades, history clubs, speeches, and more. Woodson, who founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, was one of the first historians to study African American history. Eventually joining the faculty of Howard University, Woodson spent his life documenting Black history as a means of… read more about Black History Month: Showcasing the Contributions of Six Faculty and Staff »
No plans for Spring Break? Register for Prof. Lentz-Smith's four day course, Modern US History in Popular Culture, March 7th - 10th. This course will explore U. S. history as informed by media and Hollywood. Students will watch, discuss, and learn from iconic television shows, make their own soundtrack to the timeframe, and learn to treat the arcade as an archive. "Spring Breakthrough offers Duke students a free, unique spring break. It consists of 11 four-day courses taught by Duke faculty from Monday, March… read more about Spring Breakthrough 2022 - Modern US History in Popular Culture with Prof. Adriane Lentz-Smith »
John French has received this year’s Warren Dean Memorial Prize for his most recent monograph, Lula and his Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020). This prize is given annually by the Conference on Latin American History for a book or article judged to be the most significant work on the history of Brazil published in English. The citation for John’s award reads as follows: “In this methodologically innovative biography… read more about John French's book "Lula and His Politics of Cunning" awarded the Warren Dean Memorial Prize »
Thursday marks the first anniversary of the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol, when a mob stormed the building as Congressional members gathered to certify the 2020 presidential election. “If we don’t reckon with the deep historical roots of what happened this time last year, those events could be prologue to a far worse outcome in the future,” says Nancy MacLean, a Duke professor of history and public policy. MacLean points to the finding from the House select committee tasked with… read more about One Year Later, Scholars Examine Fallout From U.S. Capitol Riot »
The Duke History department mourns the passing of our friend, mentor, student, and colleague Julius Scott, PhD ’86. Through his legendary dissertation and celebrated book, The Common Wind, Professor Scott reshaped the fields of Atlantic and Caribbean history. His work gave scholars a vital and vibrant way to access the intellectual and political networks of enslaved and insurgent peoples. Through his teaching and mentoring a cohort of scholars diverse in their composition and brilliant in their approach, he… read more about Department of History mourns the passing of Julius Scott, PhD ’86 »
