MOMENTS IN HISTORY
NEWSLETTER
Spring 2025 2024
Faculty Moments
23
14
IN THIS ISSUE
07
09
Media Moments
Current Student Moments
Future Moments Future
03
Photos: University of Maryland unless otherwise noted
Alumni Moments
History Has Its Eyes On You
11
Muncy Receives Two Major University Awards
history has its eyes on you
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Department of History faculty member Robyn Muncy has been selected as a 2025-26 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher by the University of Maryland. The award honors faculty members who demonstrate outstanding scholarly achievement and outstanding accomplishments as teachers. Earlier in Spring semester, Robyn was selected to receive the 2025 Winston Family Honors Faculty Award from the UMD Honors College. She is recognized for "meritorious contributions to Honors students, classes, and programs on this campus." Robyn, unsurprisingly, was lauded for having "provided a supportive and inspiring environment, with a personalized approach....[doing] so with seemingly boundless enthusiasm and good cheer…. [Robyn's] dedication to fostering intellectual curiosity and critical thinking had a profound impact on many of our students.”
Photo courtesy of ARHU
Chiles Recognized for Excellence in Teaching
Congratulations to Rob Chiles who has won a 2025 Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty for Teaching. He receives this award for engaging and inspiring students, and bringing history to life with both analytical rigor and accessibility. From the award letter of Provost Jennifer Rice King: "Your dynamic teaching style has impacted over 8,000 students across a variety of courses, earning you the UMD 2023 Donna B. Hamilton Award for Teaching Excellence and recognition for your remarkable skill in creating innovative course design." Photo courtesy Dani Hursh
Rick Bell has been awarded two summer research fellowships to support a new public-facing research and writing project about the Declaration of Independence. The first is a library research fellowship awarded by the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, Washington, DC. The second is a library research fellowship awarded by the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon in Virginia. Julie Greene and Madeline Hsu, immediate past and current directors of the Center for Global Migration Studies (CGMS) respectively, organized and hosted a conference in honor of the late Ira Berlin as CGMS's annual conference. Held April 30-May 1, 2025, the conference was titled "Free and Unfree': Racialized Migrations and Inequalities." It explored the intersections between Lonnie G. Bunch III and Julie Greene chattel slavery and immigration. The conference featured a keynote discussion with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III. Piotr Kosicki began January 1, 2025 serving on the editorial board of the journal Contemporary European History; in 2024 Piotr also joined the editorial board of the Italian scholarly journal Mondo Contemporaneo. In summer 2025 Piotr will be inducted into the Concilium Civitas, an invitation-only fellowship society for high-impact scholars of Poland in the humanities and social sciences. Quincy Mills has been selected by UMD's College of the Arts and Humanities (ARHU) as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for Graduate Education and Director of the Frederick Douglass Center for Leadership Through the Humanities. Quincy currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of History. The Douglass Center’s activities are intended to demonstrate the core values of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore, ultimately becoming a prominent writer, orator, newspaper publisher, civil rights leader, and government official. Julie Taddeo was a nominee for the 2025 Donna B. Hamilton Awards for Teaching Excellence administered by the UMD Office of Undergraduate Studies. Stefano Villani has been appointed visiting professor at the Università degli studi di Torino (University of Turin), Dipartimento di Studi Storici, Troino (Turin), Italy for the month of May 2025.
Photo courtesy Madeline Hsu
Holly Brewer was quoted in The Times (UK) on March 30, 2025 about the shift toward an imperial presidency in the US. Among her comments, she says: "George III was more restrained." Read the complete article HERE. Julie Greene has been busy answering journalists' questions about the Panama Canal due to its recent prominence in the news, with podcasts, interviews and television news appearances from Australia and Malaysia to the UK and Colombia as well as here in the US. Listen to Julie on BBC's The Global Story HERE. Shay Hazkani co-authored with Tamir Sorek a long-form piece in the May 28, 2025 edition of the newspaper Haaretz about the attitudes of Israeli Jews to ethnic cleansing and genocide. Titled "Yes to Transfer: 82% of Jewish Israelis Back Expelling Gazans" the article has gained a lot of traction and attracted both interest and anger. Read the article (paywalled unless a subscriber) HERE. On June 3, the Washingotn Post published Jeffrey Herf and Norman Goda's opinion piece "Why It's Wrong to Call Israel's War in Gaza a 'Genocide." Read the article (paywalled unless a subscriber) HERE. Herf also published "'Free Palestine' Terrorism: The Global Intifada Comes to Boulder Colorado 11 Days After the Murders in Washington" in the June 1, 2025 edition of The Free Press. Read the article HERE. In an article titled "A Taste of Ethnographic Research," Madeline Hsu's new class, HIST338B /AMST328T Maryland's Ethnic Foodways (co-created/co-taught with Psyche Williams-Forson, AMST), was featured in the April 16, 2025 edition of MarylandToday. The course explores ethnic food in Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties, MD. The creators received a Teaching Innovation Grant from the UMD Teaching and Learning Transformation Center, a Harmony Grant from UMD's College of Arts and Humanities, and funding for an intern from the ARHU Undergraduate Technology Apprenticeship Program to develop the course. Material from the course will be part of a new digital archive being developed by CGMS, which Hsu directs. Read the article HERE. Kate Keane's popular course, HIST289R Pocketbook Politics: A History of American Buying and Selling, was featured in the April 18, 2025 edition of MarylandToday. The article, "Take This Class! How Shopping Has Shaped U.S. History," describes how the course addresses the history of US consumption and consumerism, beginning with the boycott of British tea at the time of the American Revolution. Read the complete article HERE. Piotr Kosicki has had a flurry of international and US media appearances surrounding the death of Pope Francis and the selection of his successor Pope Leo XIV. See articles in The New York Times (paywalled unless a subscriber) HERE; The National Catholic Register HERE; Reuters HERE; Asia First TV (Singapore) HERE; PolAmeryka (in Polish) HERE; Veja (Brazil) HERE; ABC7 WJLA TV below; Polish Press Agency (in Polish) HERE; and The Baltimore Banner HERE. Julie Taddeo was interviewed January 22, 2025 on KCBS Radio (San Francisco) about the settlement of Prince Harry's suit against Rupert Murdoch's UK publications for invasion of privacy Hear the interview HERE.
MEDIA MOMENTS
Antoine Borrut's article entitled “An Islamic Late Antiquity? Problems and Perspectives” was published in the Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies 4/1 (2025): 1-27. Julie Greene published her book Box 25: Archival Secrets, Caribbean Workers and the Panama Canal (UNC, 2025), and gave several talks on the book. Julie also continued her work as editor of the journal Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. On March 20, the journal Persuasion/American Purpose published Jeffrey Herf's 7,000 word essay "We Are Uncomfortably Close to 1933." The essay examines similarities and differences between the erosion of the power of the German parliament from 1930 to 1933, and the response of the US Senate, especially Republican Senators, to events in the past several years. Read the essay HERE. The Woodrow Wilson Center commissioned Piotr Kosicki to write a public-facing "brief" for their Venezuela Desk series. Titled "Caracas is Not Warsaw: Lessons from Rafael Caldera for Solving Venezuela’s Political Crisis," published on December 19, 2024. Read the article HERE. Karin Rosemblatt published a chapter in “Investigating Cuauhtémoc's Bones: Politics, Truth, and Mestizo Nationalism in Mexico,” in Empire, Colonialism, and the Human Sciences: Troubling Encounters in the Americas and Pacific, Adam Warren, Julia Rodriguez, and Stephen Casper, eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2024), pp. 211-36. Read the open access chapter HERE.
PUBLISHING
faculty moments
Holly Brewer gave a talk May 1, 2025 at the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research, University of St Andrews, Scotland for the James Wilson Lecture. Her talk was titled “Forgotten Histories of Limits on Executive Power: The US Supreme Court’s Reimagining of Absolute Monarchy.” Janna Bianchini presented a paper titled "The Lady Vanishes: Urraca Alfonso’s Forgotten Asturian Kingdom" at the Centennial Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America in Cambridge, MA, in March 2025, based on her current book project. In June, Janna will chair a panel for the Annual Meeting of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, hosted by UMD and co-organized by Department of History colleague Alejandro Cañeque. Janna also helped organize and will be a roundtable contributor at The Hungry City: A Conference in Honor of Marie Kelleher, to be held in Barcelona this July. The conference is a celebration of the work of a groundbreaking American historian of medieval Iberia, who passed away unexpectedly last year. In late May 2025, Antoine Borrut gave a talk in Paris at a conference dedicated to the memory of the late Profs. Christophe Picard and Françoise Micheau titled “Les débuts de l’Islam dans l’œuvre de Christophe Picard et Françoise Micheau.” On the same trip, at the University of Sousse, Tunisia, Antoine presented his current research in a seminar oconvened by Prof. Boutheina Ben Hassine, which focused on his forthcoming book on astrology and history in early Islam currently titled "Aligner les cieux et la terre: astrologie et histoire dans les débuts de l’islam." Julie Greene spoke about her new book, Box 25: Archival Secrets, Caribbean Workers, and the Panama Canal (UNC, 2025), on April 24, 2024 in the UMD Libraries' series "Speaking of Books." Julie has given several other book talks including at Rutgers University, NJ and Elizabeth City State University, NC. Jeffrey Herf delivered a lecture on "Three Faces of Antisemitism Before and Since October 7, 2023" at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, CA; the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California Berkeley; Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA; and at a conference on antisemitism at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, UK, March 30-April 1, 2025. On May 10, Jeffrey spoke about "Drei Gesichter des Antisemitismus: rechts, links, und islamistisch" at the Cafe Bajszel in the Neukolln section of Berlin, Germany. Read his essay about the event HERE. Madeline Hsu was part of ARHU's Pop-up Discussion Series with Dean Stephanie Shonekan on May 14, 2025 with Jose Enmanuel Castellon Gutierrez, Nohely Teresa Alvarez , and Ana Patricia Rodriguez. The topic of the discussion was "Immigration & Migration." In May 2025, Karin Rosemblatt gave the keynote address at a conference commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women. In February, Karin organized a conference on Human Rights in Latin America at UMD where she also presented two papers: “Citizen and Human: Global Rights and Latin America” and “Human Rights Beyond Liberalism: Chile’s 2021Constitutional Process.” Leigh Soares, with Blake Lindsey participated in "Education and Power in Post-Emancipation America," a virtual Association for the Study of African American Life and History event presenting an opportunity to discover how Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) founded during Reconstruction became cornerstones of education, empowerment and the movement for a more equitable society. The event held in Washington, DC on February 11, 2025 discussed how educational institutions are Reconstruction's most resilient and enduring legacies in American History. The program is part of History Talks, a webinar series that investigates facets of Abraham Lincoln’s complex legacy and its relevance to today. Julie Taddeo was an invited speaker for UMD Libraries' series “Love on the Brain: Researching Romance in Popular Culture” in February 2025 where she delivered her lecture titled "Romancing History: The Past and Present Worlds of Netflix's Bridgerton Series." She also presented a paper titled “Rakes, Heroes, and Puffy Shirts: The Transformation of Regency Masculinity from Mr. Darcy to the Bridgerton Brothers” for the Australian Popular Culture Research Network in January 2025. This spring, Julie also delivered several public history lectures for Smithsonian Associates and various adult education programs on such topics as "London in the Swinging Sixties;" "Queen Elizabeth II's Legacy Revisited;" "Downton Abbey and History;" and "The People's War: England's Home Front." Stefano Villani will participate in a summary discussion for the annual conference of NYU Arts & Sciences GLIRN (Global Italian Religious Networks). GLIRN focuses on the study of religious movements, transnational connections, and diasporas related to Italy. The conference will be held in Florence on June 9, 2025 at Palazzo Salviati. See the program HERE. Thomas Zeller gave a paper at the Latrobe Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians in Washington, DC, on January 22, 2025 titled "Consuming Landscapes: What We See When We Drive and Why It Matters." Tom also gave a paper entitled “Engineering a Reputation: Fritz Todt and the Technopolitics of Memory in the Federal Republic of Germany” at the Colloquium in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Department of History of Science and Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD on November 21, 2024.
PRESENTING
ALUMNI MOMENTS
Charlie Fanning (PhD Advisor Julie Greene) won the Herbert Gutman Award for best dissertation from the Labor and Working Class History Association. His dissertation is titled "Empire of the Everglades: Industrial Agriculture, Migrant Workers, and the Nature of the Modern Food System." Alison Finkelstein (PhD Advisor Rick Bell) was featured in an article she wrote for the American Historical Association's publication Perspectives published in November 2024. Titled "Finding Fulfillment as a Federal Historian: From PhD to Arlington National Cemetery," Alison wrote about both the fulfillment and empathy in her job as senior historian at Arlington National Cemetery. She recounts her extensive experience as a historian in other federal government agencies and projects as well. See the full article HERE. In the photo below, Allison greets President of France Emmanuel Macron. Photo courtesy AHA. Debbie J. Goldman (PhD 2021 Advisor Julie Greene) has won the David Montgomery Award from the Organization of American Historians and the Labor and Working Class History Association for the Best Book in Labor History published in 2024. The book, Disconnected: Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age, published by University of Illinois Press, "explores how call center employees and their union fought for good, humane jobs in the face of degraded working conditions and lowered wages." Jessica Marie Johnson (PhD 2012 Advisor Ira Berlin) gave a talk sponsored by UMD's Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies on February 26, 2025. Her talk was titled "The Third Body: Black Women, Black History, and Speaking Difficult Truths," which explored "the history of Black women creating history, speaking hard truths, and healing from difficult pasts, again and again." Adolfo Polo y La Borda (PhD 2017 Advisor Alejandro Cañeque) recently published Global Servants of the Spanish King: Mobility and Cosmopolitanism in the Early Modern Spanish Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2025). He is an assistant professor of history at the University of Nottingham in the UK. Justin Shapiro (PhD 2020 Advisor Thomas Zeller) has published a new book titled The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative: A Vision for Twenty-First-Century Science (University Press of Mississippi, 2024). Justin is currently postdoctoral associate in Climate Pedagogy at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC. Rachel Walker (PhD 2018 Advisor Clare Lyons) associate professor of History in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT, has been honored with the Belle K. Ribicoff Endowed Professorship, a rotating professorship awarded every three years. Rachel is described as a teacher who is student-centered and promotes an inspiring learning environment. Her scholarship focuses on often-ignored groups and persons--Black and white, free and enslaved, male and female--in the history of early America. Her book, Beauty and the Brain: The Science of Human Nature in Early America (University of Chicago Press, 2022) won the Mary Kelley Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. Rachel's research has been supported by long-term research fellowships from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and the Library Company of Philadelphia. At the University of Hartford, she has also contributed to recruitment and retention of students, as well as the redesign of the History Major.
Photo courtesy University of Hartford
Lauren Cain
graduate moments
Christina Bishop (PhD Student) has won a UMD Graduate School Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award for the College of the Arts and Humanities (ARHU). Lauren Cain (PhD Student Advisor Robyn Muncy) has been awarded a Mellon Foundation Predoctoral Award in Women's History at The New York Historical Society, New York, NY for the next year. Lauren will work to create programs and content for the Center for Women's History. The Fellowship carries a generous stipend that will help Lauren complete the work on her dissertation. Diego Hurtado Torres (PhD 2025 Advisor Karin Rosemblatt) has won the UMD Graduate School Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award. Diego's thesis is titled "The Economics Discipline and Profession and US Power in Chile (1930s-1990s)." The dissertation focuses on the trajectories of several Chileans who received doctoral and master's degrees from top-ranked American universities and became leading political and academic figures in Chile. Jamie Myre, a second-year HiLS student (Advisor Robyn Muncy), has won a prestigious summer internship at the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. Jamie will serve as the publications intern for the Museum's new Center for the Study of African American Religious Life. Jamie will assist in designing and producing a journal for the Center and the gODTalk film series. She will perform research in preparation for oral history interviews; develop a collections story to explain the importance of public history to a member of the public; assist with content research for exhibitions already in development; and help with organizing/layout for publications. Leah Rasmussen (PhD student Advisor Sarah Cameron), has been awarded from a very competitive field a 2025-6 Joseph Bradley and Christine Ruane Research Grant in Russian Studies from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. The grant will support the research for her dissertation project, “Canvases of Red: Painting Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Soviet, 1917-1991.” Jordan Sly (BA 2008; MA 2023; PhD 2025 Advisor Stefano Villani) has been awarded the E.B. and Jean Smith Prize in Political History from the Department of History for his dissertation "Protector of the Reformed: Oliver Cromwell's Religio-Political Motives and the Development of Protectorate Ideology." The prize recognizes the "best graduate student working in political history" and carries a cash stipend. Jordan also presented part of his dissertation to the Washington Area Group for Print Culture Studies in April 2025.The Students in HIST 819 G Special Topics in History, Independent Research in Early America taught by Clare Lyons publicly presented their research on May 12, 2025: Dylan Bails, "Accounting for Lunatic Labor: The Pennsylvania Hospital and Moral Treatment in 18th Century Philadelphia;" Kaya Wilske, "‘All the good things’: Tracing Emotional Communities through Food Consumption;" Christina Bishop, "Blood and Belonging: The Contested Construction of Mixed-Race Native Identity;" Miranda Christy, ‘Go to the Country, Brethren’: Emancipatory Agriculture in Antebellum Ohio;" Tyriana Evans, "The Civil Rights Movement and Missing Black Girls;" Conor McCadden, "The Art of Housing Counseling: The Urban League of Pittsburgh and Public Policy Evaluation in 1970s America;" and Stanley Price, "Smoking in the City." At Spring 2025 Commencement, the Department of History graduated 12 PhDs (Șaban Ağalar Advisor Ahmet Karamustafa; Evan Roberts Ash Advisor Saverio Giovacchini; Briceño Lihar Bowery Advisor David Sicilia; Diego Hurtado Torres Advisor Karin Rosemblatt; Chaya Rivka Maron Advisor Bernard Cooperman; Nicholas Jerome Misukanis Advisor Jeffrey Herf; Jane Frances Polcen Advisor Michael Ross; Kyle L. Pruitt Advisor Julie Greene; Mauricio Restrepo Advisor Alejandro Cañeque; Brian Sarginger Advisor David Sicilia; Jordan S. Sly Advisor Stefano Villani; and Kader Smail Advisor Antoine Borrut). The Department also graduated 13 MAs (Grace Marie Baty Advisor Clare Lyons; Jingchen Bi Advisor Ting Zhang; Eleanor Elizabeth Drummond Advisor Thomas Zeller; Emily P. Irvine Advisor Thomas Zeller; Bridget Louise Jamison Advisor Saverio Giovacchini; Alexandra Brooke Kadis Advisor Julie Taddeo; Chloe Jean Kauffman Advisor Clare Lyons; Andy Lazris Advisor Zachary Dorner; Alexander Miletich Advisor Michael Ross; Rigby Elizabeth Philips Advisor Clare Lyons; Jennifer Ransel Romine Advisor Alejandro Cañeque; Natalie Rose Salive Advisor Peter Wien; Bradley K. Wortham Advisor Patrick Chung).
Jamie Myreody text
Jeffrey Herf and Nick Misukanis Photo courtesy Jodi Hall
graduate moments moments
Photos courtesy Jodi Hall
Kader Smail and Antoine Borrut (R) Mauricio Restrepo, Alejandro Cañeque, & Diego Torres (L)
undergraduate Moments
The History Majors in HIST 399 Honors Thesis Senior Seminar publicly presented their Honors theses in the annual Honors Showcase held on May 9, 2025. The theses presentations were: Joshua Chau, "The Public Desent into Anarchy: Reactions to Republican Party Factionalism During the Progressive Era 1901-1923;" Olivia Chickering, "The Making of a Woman: Feminist and Mainstream Media Perceptions of Womanhood in an Era of Social Reform;" Abraham Fich, "'A Second Underground Railroad?': The Southern Tenannt Farmers Union's Wartime Transformation and the Radical Promise of Labor Migration;" Thomas Prestwich, "'The Biggest Merger in Labor History': American Railroad Unions Consolidate to Survive 1960-1980;" James Schmidtlein, "Christians in a Pagan World: Understanding the Constructions of Early Christian Identity from a Pagan Past and Custom;" Holland Schmitz, "Shaping the Sapphic City: New York City Lesbianism and Lesbian Pulp Novels 1945-1968;" Risa Wagner, "'Schtick in the Sticks': Jewish Comedy, Community, and Survival in the Borscht Belt;" and Mason Yang, "'Like a Million Exploding Suns': Marvel's Sentry and the First Wave Opioid Epidemic." The History Honors Program is directed by Clare Lyons. Each student had a faculty advisor to supervise their thesis. History Majors graduating in Spring 2025 were the recipients of a number of awards granted by the Department of History. The B. Marie Perinbam Award in the History of Africa, East Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East was awarded to Adele Amalie Maria Pasturel. The Hoosier-Clio Award for the Best Honors Thesis was awarded to Holland Schmitz. The Lowell Senior Scholars Award was awarded to Taylor Mason and Kiera Norris. The Jeannie Rutenberg Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Research and Writing was awarded to Oreet Zima. The Erich T. Schwartz Prize for Best Honors Paper was awarded to James Schmidtlein. The Shipley's of Maryland Award for Best Academic Record was earned by Eva Fisherman, Mason Yang, and Oreet Zimand. Three Department of History undergraduate students were awarded three out of four UMD Libraries Research Awards. Sylvia Cotten won the 2025 Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Library Award for her History Honors thesis supervised by Colleen Woods titled "The White Man's Way": Navigating Race and Memory in Federal Indian Boarding Schools," written for the History Honors Thesis program. She used newspapers from the Carlisle Industrial Training School and the Genoa Indian School as primary sources. The thesis can be read on DRUM. Taylor Mason won the 2025 Library Award for Undergraduate Research for her paper "F is for Feminism: Understanding 1970s Social Conflict through Sesame Street," written for the Department's Capstone Research Seminar supervised by Katerina Keane. The archival records of the Children’s Television Workshop (Sesame Street’s parent company) are held in UMD’s Special Collections in Hornbake Library and preserve tens of thousands of letters from both children and adults debating issues such as gender roles, nutrition, community, and racial equality. The paper can be read on DRUM. Holland Schmitz won a Library Award for Undergraduate Research for their paper "Lesbian Newsletters, Pulps, and Manuals: A Primary Source Analysis" written for HIST396: Honors Colloquium II, supervised by Colleen Woods. This research paper studies lesbian publications in the mid twentieth century through LGBTQIA+ databases and resources available through UMD Libraries. This paper can be read on DRUM. Taylor Mason (History Honors Student BA 2025) presented a paper at the New York History Conference held by the New York State Museum, Albany, NY titled “‘F’ is for Feminism”: Social Conflict and Sesame Street” on a panel with her classmate, Holland Schnitz. Taylor received a $500 travel grant from the Department of History to attend the conference. See above for the UMD Libraries Award for Undergraduate Research awarded to Taylor. She also received a Lowell Senior Scholars Award. Holland Schmitz, (History Honors Student BA 2025) has had their work in the Honors Program recognized with three awards: a UMD Libraries Award for Undergraduate Research; a Winston Family Honors Best Student Paper Award from the Honors College; and the Hoosier-Clio Award for the Best Honors Thesis written by this year's cohort from the Department. Holland's thesis is titled "Shaping the Sapphic City: New York City Lesbianism and Lesbian Pulp Novels 1945-1968." The entire thesis was considered for the Winston Family Honors Best Student Paper Award and the Hoosier-Clio Award while the Library Award for Undergraduate Research considered a chapter of the thesis titled "Lesbian Newsletters, Pulps, and Manuals: A Primary Source Analysis." Holland has been awarded a $500 travel grant from the Department of History to join her classmate Taylor Mason in presenting a paper at the New York History Conference. Holland's paper is titled "Constructing the Sapphic City: New York Lesbianism and the Lesbian Pulp Novels, 1945-1968." The New York History Conference was also attended by Joshua Chau (BA 205); Dr. Robert Chiles (PhD 2012); Melody Freed (BA expected 2026); Gabby McCoy (BA 2021) Moderator; Jacob McElroy (BA 2024) who was a panelist; and Brooke Timmins (BA 2025) Intern for the New York History Journal, UMD '25; as well as some of Rob's students from Goucher College, Towson, MD. James Schmidtlein (History Honors Student BA 2025) received a Winston Family Honors Best Student Paper Award for his Honors thesis “Christians in a Pagan World: Understanding the Construction of Early Christian Identity from a Pagan Past and Custom." James will spend this summer studying Greek at the University of Chicago, IL. Pete Smith (BA 2025) has published an article titled "Transcendent Communities: Categorizing Transgender Communities in the United States, from the 1960s through the 1980s" in the University of California, Berkley's undergraduate journal Clio's Scroll, 28.1 (Spring 2025): 43-76. The paper was written for the HIST408F Senior Capstone Seminar taught by Colleen Woods. Pete will be enrolled in the Department's HiLS program in Fall 2025. Ryan Carr, (History Minor) a Public Policy major, was chosen as a Senior Marshall for UMD's main Commencement ceremony. Ryan has been a member of several campus groups and organizations. He has also held internships with the Montgomery County Council, the Maryland General Assembly, and TerpsVote. The History Undergraduate Association (HUA) has had a busy semester. A number of social hours and History Trivia Night have been well attended and HUA always welcomes faculty and graduate students at their events. HUA is grateful for the graduate students who participated in the first, "Ask a Grad Student Anything" event. et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Taylor Mason (History Honors Student) was awarded a UMD Library Award for Undergraduate Research for her Honors thesis as well as a Lowell Senior Scholars Award, noted above. Taylor will present work from her Honors thesis “‘F’ is for Feminism”: Social Conflict and Sesame Street” at the New York History Conference at the New York State Museum, Albany, NY on June 5-6, 2025. Taylor received a $500 travel grant from the Department of History and will be on the same panel with Holland Schmitz. James Schmidtlein, (History Honors Student BA 2025) received a Winston Family Honors Best Student Paper Award from the UMD Honors College, for his Honors thesis “Christians in a Pagan World: Understanding the Construction of Early Christian Identity from a Pagan Past and Custom." James also was awarded the Erich T. Schwartz Prize for Best Honors Paper. Holland Schmitz, (History Honors Student BA 2025), has had their work in the Honors Program recognized with three awards, a Library Award for Undergraduate Research (for a chapter of the thesis titled "Lesbian Newsletters, Pulps, and Manuals: A Primary Source Analysis;" a Winston Family Honors Best Student Paper Award from the UMD Honors College: and the Hoosier Clio Award for the Best Honors Thesis written by this year's cohort from the Department of History. Holland's thesis is titled "Shaping the Sapphic City: New York City Lesbianism and Lesbian Pulp Novels 1945-1968." In addition, Holland has been awarded a $500 travel grant from the Department to present a paper at the New York History Conference at the New York State Museum, Albany, NY on June 5-6, 2025. Her paper is titled "Constructing the Sapphic City: New York Lesbianism and Lesbian Pulp Novels, 1945-1968."
Karen Jones Board Chair
john Davis
undergraduate moments
undergraduate moments moments
HUA's History Jeopardy Photo courtesy HUA P
Jon T. Sumida
IN MEMORIaM
George H. Callcott
George Callcott on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
The Department of History is saddened by the news that our long-time colleague, George Hardy Callcott, age 96, passed away on May 5, 2025. George was a faculty member in the Department from 1956 to1994. Born in Columbia, SC, he received the BA from the University of South Carolina; the MA from Columbia University; and the PhD from the University of North Carolina, where he studied with the distinguished historian of the United States, C. Vann Woodward. George was a specialist in the history of the US, the American South, and the state of Maryland. He wrote two histories of UMD: A History of the University of Maryland (MD Historical Society, 1966) and The University of Maryland at College Park: A History (Noble House, 2005). From 1970-76, he served as UMD Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and in 1982 as Acting Chair of the Department. In 1966, he was named Most Outstanding Faculty Member; in 1988 Outstanding Teacher from the College of Arts and Humanities; 1991-92 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher; and received the President's Medal in 1994. He served as Vice-Chair of the Maryland State Heritage Commission during the celebration of the Maryland's 350th anniversary. George was a board member of the Maryland Historical Society; the Maryland Hall of Records Commission; and the Friends of the Library of the University of Maryland.
The Department of History is saddened by the death of our colleague, Jon Tetsuro Sumida, at the age of 75. He suffered from Parkinson's Disease and died suddenly on February 8, 2025. Jon was a distinguished and vigorous scholar of military history, dedicated to archival research, and a well-respected mentor to students. In graduate school, Jon was the principal trumpet for the University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra and for many years at UMD was part of a musical group that added a celebratory element to Department of History commencements. He won many academic awards in his career, including three Moncado Prizes from the Society for Military History, and Naval History Author of the Year from the US Naval Institute. Jon also enjoyed fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Center, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and Churchill College, Cambridge University, UK. Jon was born in Washington DC to parents who were Nisei survivors of the Japanese-American WWII incarceration camps. He graduated from Stevenson College, University of California at Santa Cruz, with a BA in History. In college he was active in organizing against the Vietnam War which resulted in an 18-month federal prison term for refusing to be drafted. Jon earned the PhD in British History from the University of Chicago in 1982. In 1980 he joined the Department of History at UMD, where he taught for nearly forty years. Jon also lectured frequently at the US.Marine Corps University, the US Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting, the Army War College, the National War College, the US Naval Academy, and other institutions. Jon is the author of three monographs: In Defence of Naval Supremacy: Finance, Technology, and British Naval Policy, 1889-1914 (1989/pb 1993); Inventing Grand Strategy and Teaching Command: The Classic Works of Alfred Thayer Mahan Reconsidered (1997/pb 1998); and Decoding Clausewitz: A New Approach to On War (2008/pb 2011), as well as editor of The Pollen Papers: The Privately Circulated Printed Works of Arthur Hungerford Pollen 1901-1916 (1983).
in memoriam
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University of Maryland Department of History 2115 Francis Scott Key Hall College Park, MD 20742 301-405-4265 hist-web@umd.edu © Copyright, UMD Department of History, 2025 Sabrina Alcorn Baron, Media Manager
Spring 2025
UMD DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY 2115 Francis Scott Key Hall College Park, MD 20742 301-405-4365 history-web@umd.edu
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