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Department of History
history@umn.edu
612-624-2800
history@umn.edu
612-624-2800
Faculty News
Major Awards for History Profs. Kevin Murphy, Barbara Welke, Donna Gabaccia (2), Kay Reyerson, Elaine Tyler May
It has been a season for great honors and accomplishments for our faculty. Congratulations to all!
Donna Gabaccia is one of the recipients of the 2013 University Outstanding Community Service Award
(Continue Reading)April 3rd, 2013
Donna Gabaccia has been awarded the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society for Foreign Relations: American Immigration in Global Perspective.
Elaine Tyler May has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2013 by The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
Kevin Murphy is a 2013 recipient of the UofM's Award for Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education.
Kay Reyerson has been awarded the Robert L. Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies by the Medieval Academy.
Barbara Welke has been named one of the new Distinguished McKnight University Professors.2012 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History to Ruth Karras
Congratulations to Professor Ruth Karras, who has been named co-winner of the AHA's 2012 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History for her book Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012).
Given by the American Historical Association and named in memory of Joan Kelly, this prize is awarded annually for the book in women's history and/or feminist theory that best reflects the high intellectual and scholarly ideals exemplified by the life and work of Joan Kelly (1928-1982).
(Continue Reading)November 13th, 2012Erika Lee to receive 2012 Sara Evans Faculty Woman Scholar/Leader Award
Congratulations to Erika Lee who has been awarded the Sara Evans Faculty Woman Scholar/Leader Award in Humanities, Arts and Sciences for 2012 at the University of Minnesota.
Erika Lee received the award at the Celebrating University Women Awards Program on October 12, 2012.
(Continue Reading)October 30th, 2012Prof. Jeffrey Pilcher's "Planet Taco"
Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food
Prof. Jeffrey Pilcher's new book, Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food, published September 2012 by Oxford University Press, is featured in the Fall 2012 issue of the UofM Alumni Association's MINNESOTA Magazine, and was recently profiled in a Washington Post article published on August 3, 2012.
(Continue Reading)October 9th, 2012Arthur "Red" Motley Award for 2011-12 to Prof. Saje Mathieu
The College of Liberal Arts has awarded to Saje Mathieu the Arthur "Red" Motley Exemplary Teaching Award for 2011-12. The purpose of the award is to recognize faculty who are outstanding teachers of graduate and undergraduate students in the College of Liberal Arts. Congratulations Saje!
(Continue Reading)June 21st, 2012Professor Emeritus Stanford (Stan) Lehmberg
Professor Emeritus Stanford (Stan) Lehmberg, born in 1931 and taught in the Department of History from 1969 to the late 1990s, died in New Mexico on June 14. His books included Sir Thomas Elyot, Tudor Humanist (1960), a modernized edition of Elyot's book Book Named the Governor (1962), Sir Walter Mildmay and Tudor Government (1964), The Reformation Parliament, 1529-1536 (1970), The Later Parliaments of Henry VIII, 1536-1547 (1977),The Reformation of Cathedrals: Cathedrals in English Society, 1485-1603 (1988), The Peoples of the British Isles, from Prehistoric Times to 1688 (1991), and another study of cathedrals, Cathedral Under Siege: Cathedrals in English Society, 1600-1700 (1996). Stan served as chair of the department and was also an accomplished musician. For 28 years he was organist and choir director for St. Clement's Episcopal Church in St. Paul.
(Continue Reading)June 20th, 2012NAISA Book Prize for Prof. Jean O'Brien
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) awarded Jean O'Brien its Best Subsequent Book Prize for her Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians out of Existence in New England (University of Minnesota Press, 2010). Congratulations Jeani!
(Continue Reading)June 12th, 2012David Chang, Finalist for ASA Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize
AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION AWARDS CEREMONY (2011)
The Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize was established in 2002
and is awarded annually for the best-published first book in American
Studies that highlights the intersections of race with gender, class,
sexuality and/or nation.The 2011 prizewinner is Cynthia M. Blair, I've Got to Make My Livin':
Black Women's Sex Work in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago (University of
Chicago Press, 2010).Finalist mentions go to:
David Chang, The Color of the Land: Race, Nation, and the Politics
of Landownership in Oklahoma, 1832-1929 (University of North Carolina
Press, 2010)Kelly Lytle Hernández, Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol.
(Continue Reading)December 19th, 2011
(University of California Press. 2010)Evan Roberts Takes Freshmen to 19th Century Chicago
Students in Evan Roberts freshman seminar are immersing themselves in a different time and place -- 19th century Chicago.
Continue reading MN Daily: Students go back in time to 19th century Chicago
(Continue Reading)December 16th, 2011Caughey Western History Prize to Erika Lee
Western History Association has awarded the Caughey Western History Prize to Erika Lee for her book, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America.
(Continue Reading)December 8th, 2011Mai Na Lee in the Chronicle of Higher Education
In March 2011, Mai Na M. Lee, an assistant professor of history at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, participated in a panel at a conference in Madison, Wisconsin titled "To Zomia or Not to Zomia," The panel topic was centered around issues raised by Yale University professor of political science and anthropology James C. Scott in his latest book, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale University Press, 2009).
On Sept. 4, 2011, Mai Na Lee was featured extensively in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education discussing the Zomia region and James C. Scott's book.
(Continue Reading)September 29th, 2011
Chronicle of Higher Education: The Battle Over ZomiaProfs. Tracey Deutsch, Erika Lee, and Thomas Wolfe Honored
Prof. Tracey Deutsch has won the prize for the best book of 2010 awarded by the Association for the Study of Food and Society, for her book, Building a Housewife's Paradise: Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century (University of North Caroline Press, 2010).
Prof. Erika Lee has received the Arthur "Red" Motley Exemplary Teaching Award for 2010-11 from the College of Liberal Arts.
Prof. Thomas Wolfe has also won a significant honor this spring in the form of the Council of Graduate Students Outstanding Faculty Award for teaching and advising.
(Continue Reading)August 31st, 2011Prof. Fischer, 2010-11 Morse-Alumni Award for Undergraduate Education Recipient
Kirsten Fischer, 2010-11 Morse-Alumni Award for Undergraduate Education Recipient
Watch Kirsten's award presentation and comments here.
Each year, the University community honors its best teaching professors with the Morse-Alumni Award for Undergraduate Education and the Graduate-Professional Teaching Award. The Alumni Association is proud to financially support the awards and to host the annual awards ceremony.
(Continue Reading)May 13th, 2011Austrian Academy of Sciences Honors Prof. Cohen
On April 15, 2011, members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Section, elected Professor Gary Cohen a Corresponding Member of the Academy.
The Austrian Academy of Sciences is the leading organization promoting non-university academic research institutions in Austria. More than 1100 employees carry out extensive research projects. Highly qualified researchers from Austria and abroad are included among the members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and guarantee the "community's" excellence in the sciences and the humanities.
(Continue Reading)May 6th, 2011Wed 2/16, 4:00 pm, U Bookstore: Tracey Deutsch's Building a Housewife's Paradise
Tracey Deutsch will discuss her book, Building a Housewife's Paradise: Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century, on Wednesday, February 16 at 4:00 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Bookstore in Coffman Memorial Union.
Deutsch examines the history of food distribution in the United States and demonstrates the important roles that gender, business, class and the government have played in the evolution of the American grocery store. The supermarket, that icon of postwar American life, emerged not from straightforward consumer desire for low prices and convenience, but through government regulations, women customers' demands, and retailers' concerns with financial success and control of the "shop floor." From small neighborhood stores to huge corporate chains, Deutsch traces the origins of contemporary food distribution through topics as varied as everyday food purchases, sales tax, ideologies of domesticity, politics and the history of capitalism.
(Continue Reading)February 15th, 2011Profs. Welke, Matar Named a Scholar of the College in the College of Liberal Arts
Barbara Y. Welke, University of Minnesota professor of History and professor of Law, and Nabil Matar, University of Minnesota professor of English and professor of History have been named as a Scholar of the College in the College of Liberal Arts for the three year period 2011-12 through 2013-14.
Award recipients will be honored at a presentation on Feb. 16, 2011, at 3:30 p.m. in the Cowles Auditorium of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
(Continue Reading)February 14th, 2011Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project at U Bookstore - Monday, Jan 24, 4pm
Members of the Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project will discuss their work in Queer Twin Cities on Monday, January 24 at 4:00 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Bookstore in Coffman Memorial Union.
The Twin Cities GLBT Oral History project--a collective organization of students, scholars, and activists devoted to documenting and interpreting the lives of GLBT people, presents a collection of essays on Minnesota's vibrant queer communities, past and present.
Queer Twin Cities is a rich blend of oral history, archival research, and ethnography that uses sexuality to chart connections between people's lives in Minnesota. This collection delivers a critical analysis of local history and community, and fills a glaring omission in the culture and history of Minnesota. Contributors include Kevin P. Murphy, an associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota, and Jennifer L. Pierce, a professor of American studies and the former director of the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota.
More information:
(Continue Reading)January 19th, 2011
UofM Events CalendarMinnesota 2.0: Facebook gives researchers insight into young immigrants
"Minnesota 2.0," a new digital archive created by the U of M's Immigration History Research Center, used Facebook to examine how first and second generation immigrants deal with the challenges they face in everyday life. Center director Donna Gabaccia says the conversational nature of social media makes "Minnesota 2.0" a unique historical snapshot of young immigrant life in the 21st century.Visit the Minnesota 2.0 website
(Continue Reading)January 12th, 2011
Read more from MPR about the Minnesota 2.0 project
Learn more about the Immigration History Research CenterHy Berman on "Minnesota's Deadliest Blizzards"
Premieres Thursday November 11 on PBS/TPT channel 2
tpt's Mary Lahammer tells the history of three deadly Minnesota blizzards along with meteorologist Paul Douglas, climatologist Mark Seeley and historian Hy Berman. 1880s's Laura Ingalls Wilder blizzard, 1888's Schoolchildren's Blizzard and 1940's Armistice Day Blizzard are all brought back to life.
(Continue Reading)November 9th, 2010IAS "Oil Spill" Fall Course Garners National Attention
"Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010", a Fall semester course sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study and taught by PhD student Robert Gilmer, is featured on the front page of today's Star Tribune. The story profiling the course offering, instructor Robert Gilmer, and the IAS and its director, Prof. Ann Waltner, is also featured on CNN.com's "Intriguing People" blog, on HuffingtonPost.com, the website of the Washington Post, and the 6/23 edition of The Minnesota Daily.
Congratulations to Rob and Ann!
For a course description of "Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010", click here.
(Continue Reading)June 25th, 20102009-10 Distinguished Teaching Award - Ruth Mazo Karras
On Monday, April 26, 2010, Prof. Ruth Mazo Karras was honored as a recipient of the 1009-2010 Graduate/Professional Award.
The Award for Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education (Graduate/Professional Award) was established in 1999 to recognize contributions to postbaccalaureate, graduate, and professional education. Recipients are chosen for excellence in instruction; involvement in students' research, scholarship, and professional development; development of instructional programs; and advising and mentoring of students.
(Continue Reading)April 27th, 20102010 Dean's Medal to Ruth Mazo Karras
The College of Liberal Arts has awarded the 2010 Dean's Medal to Professor Ruth Karras, Department of History.
This honor is awarded each year to a member of the CLA faculty who has demonstrated excellence in scholarship and/or creative activity. Previous recipients have been Professors Edward Prescott, Sara Evans, Lydia Artymiw, Elaine Tyler May, Marcia Eaton, Gordon Legge, Jeylan Mortimer, Clarence Morgan, R. Dennis Cook, David Wilkins, Paula Rabinowitz, and John Freeman.
The faculty member selected receives an inscribed medal and a cash award, and is invited to address the faculty at the time the award is presented.
Prof. Karras' Dean's Medalist address: "A Medieval Perspective on Marriage Equality"
The college will honor the 2010 Dean's Medalist, as well as the 2010 Scholar of the College Awardees, on Monday, February 22, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in the Mississippi Room (3rd floor, Coffman Memorial Union) and is open to the public.
(Continue Reading)February 9th, 2010Gary Cohen Awarded Austrian Medal of Honor
Gary Cohen has been awarded the Austrian Medal of Honor (Verdienstkreuz) for Science and Arts, First Class. The ceremony was held at the Austrian Embassy in Washington. He was presented the award by Dr. Christian Prosl, the Austrian Ambassador to the United States.Congratulations to Gary! This is a much-deserved recognition of Gary's scholarship on the Habsburg Empire and his leadership of the Center for Austrian Studies.
(Continue Reading)November 17th, 2009Regina Kunzel, Lambda Literary Award Recipient
Regina Kunzel has been awarded the Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBT Studies for her book Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality. Congratulations Regina.
(Continue Reading)June 5th, 2009Donna Gabaccia, Fesler-Lampert Chair
Tthe Graduate School has appointed Donna Gabaccia to the Fesler-Lampert Chair in Public Humanities for 2009-2010.
(Continue Reading)June 5th, 2009Pat McNamara, "Red" Motley Award
Each year, the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) honors at least one tenured or tenure-track faculty member who has exemplified CLA's highest standards of teaching and scholarship. CLA has selected Pat McNamara as one of this year's recipients of the "Red" Motley Award for Teaching Excellence. Congratulations Pat.
(Continue Reading)June 5th, 2009Clarke Chambers, MPR Interview
Clarke Chambers, Professor Emeritus of the History Department, was interviewed on MPR's "Midday" about growing up in southern Minnesota, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Social Welfare History Archive.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/09/30/midday2/
(Continue Reading)October 7th, 2008Steve Ruggles, Regents Professor
Congratulations to Steve Ruggles, who has been named Regents Professor. The Regents Professorship is the highest rank the University of Minnesota offers and is limited to 25 positions. This is a great honor to Steve, one very richly deserved.
(Continue Reading)June 16th, 2008Sara Evans
Sara Evans has been named the Ada Comstock Distinguished Women Scholar for fall 2008. Congratulations to Sara on a very well-deserved award!
(Continue Reading)June 16th, 2008Jean O'Brien-Kehoe helps found Native Studies Association; 2009 meeting to be held in Minneapolis
On April 11, a new academic organization officially came into existence at what will one day be called (by future academics, of course) a ''historic'' meeting held at the University of Georgia - Athens. Say hello to the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, aka NAISA.
(Continue Reading)May 13th, 2008Kay Reyerson
(Continue Reading)April 14th, 2008
Kay Reyerson has been elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, a wonderful testament to her accomplishments. The Medieval Academy was founded in 1925 and is the largest and most prestigous association committed to the study of the medieval world.Giancarlo Casale
Congratulations to Assiatant Professor Giancarlo Casale, who has been awarded a Senior Residential Fellowship at Koc University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC), for Spring 2009.
(Continue Reading)March 27th, 2008Rudy Vecoli
Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Rudolph Vecoli who recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society. The award is presented on rare occasions to scholars who have made
(Continue Reading)March 27th, 2008
distinguished contributions to the field of immigration and ethnic history. Rudy is only the third recipient of this award.Stephen Feinstein 1943-2008
The University of Minnesota lost a popular teacher and influential scholar when Stephen Feinstein, the director of the U's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) and adjunct professor of history, died on Tuesday, March 4. Feinstein was speaking at the Jewish Film Festival when he suffered an aortic aneurysm that resulted in cardiac arrest. He was 64.
(Continue Reading)March 6th, 2008Saje Mathieu
Assistant Professor Saje Mathieu has been awarded the 2008 President's Faculty Multicultural Research Award (PFMRA). PFMRA is designed to encourage and support research on issues related to people of color, particularly in a North American context.
(Continue Reading)March 2nd, 2008
For more information see PFMRA.Ruth Karras
It is with great pleasure to report that Professor Ruth Karras has been selected as the recipient of the Distinguished Women Scholars Award in Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities for 2008. This award will be presented at the OUW spring celebration.
(Continue Reading)March 1st, 2008Kirsten Fischer
Congratulations to Associate Professor Kirsten Fischer who will be the Deutsche Bank Junior Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for American Studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 2008-2009. Kirsten will teach a graduate level course on religion in early America and will work on her book "Reason and Wonder: Rational Religion in the Early American Republic."
(Continue Reading)February 14th, 2008
Featured Faculty
Major Awards for History Profs. Kevin Murphy, Barbara Welke, Donna Gabaccia (2), Kay Reyerson, Elaine Tyler May
It has been a season for great honors and accomplishments for our faculty. Congratulations to all!
Donna Gabaccia is one of the recipients of the 2013 University Outstanding Community Service Award
(Continue Reading)April 3rd, 2013
Donna Gabaccia has been awarded the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society for Foreign Relations: American Immigration in Global Perspective.
Elaine Tyler May has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2013 by The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
Kevin Murphy is a 2013 recipient of the UofM's Award for Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education.
Kay Reyerson has been awarded the Robert L. Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies by the Medieval Academy.
Barbara Welke has been named one of the new Distinguished McKnight University Professors.2012 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History to Ruth Karras
Congratulations to Professor Ruth Karras, who has been named co-winner of the AHA's 2012 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History for her book Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012).
Given by the American Historical Association and named in memory of Joan Kelly, this prize is awarded annually for the book in women's history and/or feminist theory that best reflects the high intellectual and scholarly ideals exemplified by the life and work of Joan Kelly (1928-1982).
(Continue Reading)November 13th, 2012Erika Lee to receive 2012 Sara Evans Faculty Woman Scholar/Leader Award
Congratulations to Erika Lee who has been awarded the Sara Evans Faculty Woman Scholar/Leader Award in Humanities, Arts and Sciences for 2012 at the University of Minnesota.
Erika Lee received the award at the Celebrating University Women Awards Program on October 12, 2012.
(Continue Reading)October 30th, 2012
