2024-06-13
- Russell Wigginton (PhD, '01, History) is the president of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. A profile about his career was the cover story of the Summer 2024 issue of Illinois Alumni magazine.Read the feature
2024-06-11 - This year Ernest Crim III (BA, '09, history) was our convocation speaker. Crim is the founder of Crim’s Cultural Consulting. Through his work, he speaks to companies, middle and high schools, educators, colleges, and community groups and uses Black historical narratives to empower and educate. He was also recently honored with the...
2024-06-11 - The Department of History is proud to announce professor Teri Chettiar has been selected as a Conrad Humanities Scholar.The Conrad Humanities Scholars Award recognizes promising mid-career scholars and provides financial support for continued achievement,...
2024-06-10 - The Department of History is pleased to announce that professor Jerry Dávila has been selected for the Presidential Fellows Program. Dávila holds the Jorge Paulo Lemann Chair in Brazilian History and is the Executive Director of the Illinois Global Institute.This prestigious program supports...
2024-06-07 - Charles J. Shields (BA, English, '75; MA, History, '79) is the author of 20 nonfiction books for young readers, and biographies of Harper Lee, John Williams, Kurt Vonnegut, and Lorraine Hansberry. He recently retired after a successful 25 year career as a writer where he combined his interest in literature with the research skills he gained as a historian. His favorite part of the job? The...
2024-05-23 - Federal policy toward Native American tribal nations in the first half of the 20th century sought to end the government’s legal and political relationship with tribes. A new book by University of Illinois history professor David Beck looks at one aspect of...
2024-05-21 - Professor Marsha Barrett, an expert on the political and social history of the US during the 20th century, was recently interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered. The NPR piece asked if our current political and social climate is a mirror of 1968. Barrett told NPR "it makes sense that people are looking for historical examples to understand what's happening now. But 1968, may not be the best one...
2024-05-09 - How Black history changed Ernest Crim III's lifeWhen Ernest Crim III (BA, ’09, history) first started at the University of Illinois, he thought he wanted to be a psychology major. He was the friend that everyone confided in, so he thought “hey, maybe I want to be a psychologist, right?” Then, in the second semester of his freshman year, he took a Black history course taught by professor Clarence...
2024-05-06 - Carol Symes, a professor of history at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is vice president of the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Symes spoke with News Bureau education editor Sharita Forrest about a...
2024-04-29 - Professor Rosalyn LaPier was interviewed on April 25, 2024 on WILL's The 21st about the return of land to Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. On April 19, the U.S. Department of the Interior placed portions of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation land into trust for Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, making it the only federally recognized Tribal Nation in Illinois....
2024-04-22 - The Department of History is pleased to announce that three new faculty members (subject to board approval) will join our ranks this fall. Our new colleagues will add to our strengths in South and East Asian history, and nineteenth century United States history.Deepasri Baul Deepasri Baul, currently the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at the Asian University for Women...
2024-04-22 - The Department of History is pleased to announce the winners of our 2023-2024 annual awards. These awards celebrate our faculty, lecturers, undergraduate, and graduate students to thank them for their dedicated service to our department. They also provide funding and scholarships for their research and education and honor the excellence of their work. We are grateful to the support of our donors...
2024-04-18 - An annual study of recent alumni reports 94% of history majors who graduated during the most recent 2022-2023 period secured their first destination within six months of commencement. Of that figure, 56% of new graduates found employment, and 38% sought further education such as graduate or professional school. The median salary for new history alumni who graduated starting in May 2022...
2024-04-18 - The call for reparations for people of African descent to compensate for slavery has a long history, but it has been discussed more broadly and gained support in recent years. Illinois, California and New York have established commissions to examine how to address the repercussions of slavery and racial discrimination, and several cities have done so as well. Last year, Evanston, Illinois,...
2024-02-22 - The History Department is delighted to welcome Professor Laura Goffman, our new Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern history. Goffman is an historian of public health, empire, and social change in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula.