History News Wrap-Up

Friday, September 27, 2019

On September 19th, the University of Virginia Press held a launch event at the Rotunda Dome Room to celebrate the publication of the book, Educated in Tyranny: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's University (UVA Press, 2019). Co-edited by Maurie McInnis and Louis P. Nelson, Educated in Tyranny also features an essay from history faculty affiliate Kirt von Daacke. Two stories are available here: UVA Today | NBC 29

In other news, Justene Hill Edwards was quoted in a New York Times article about Attorney General Mark Herring’s recent announcement that couples in Virginia no longer need to declare their race as a requirement for a marriage certificate. 

Our former graduate student, Shira Lurie (supervised by Alan Taylor), wrote an editorial in the Toronto Star. In her editorial, Shira argues that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's “brownface” scandals are just a small part of a problem plaguing Canada.  “We take pride in our liberal, multicultural identity” she notes “and ignore (and hope others ignore) the ways we have failed to enact it.” Shira is currently a University College Fellow in Early American History at the University of Toronto.

Another former graduate student in our department, Melissa Gismondi (supervised by Alan Taylor), wrote about Prime Minister Trudeau in a recent New York Times editorial. "Down here, Trudeau’s brownface and blackface episodes are bursting the Canadian exceptionalism bubble,” Gismondi notes.