News
The inaugural $50,000 American Battlefield Trust Prize for History has been awarded to historian Elizabeth Varon for “Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South,” a richly reported biography of the complicated Civil War leader who after the war encouraged an examination of the roots of the conflict and advocated for racial reconciliation.
Dr. James McPherson, Pulitzer Prize winning author of “Battle Cry of Freedom” and one of the prize’s three judges, called Varon’s work “a literary and research achievement.” “The special virtue of this book is it tells us the whole story of Longstreet, for the decades after the war as well as the war itself,” said McPherson, professor emeritus at Princeton University. “It’s beautifully crafted and original in its good many insights.”
Varon’s work was selected from among nearly 100 entries for the new prize, which seeks to underscore the irreplaceable perspective and primary research value of preserving the battlefields on which our nation was forged – during conflicts which we still seek to better understand today.
The works of two other authors also were recognized with $2,500 honorable mentions: D. Scott Hartwig’s “I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign” and Friederike Baer’s “Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War.”
Full announcement can be read here: https://www.battlefields.org/news/historian-elizabeth-varons-longstreet-biography-wins-inaugural-american-battlefield-trust
Professor Joseph Seeley discussed the significance and legacy of "6-25" on its 75th Anniversary for UVA Lifetime Learning.
"On this day, 74 years ago, the Korean War began, a conflict often overlooked in history. Join us in reading “June 25th: Remembering the Forgotten Korean War”, an exploration of the war’s enduring impact and significance in our UVA community. Let’s remember and learn together."
The article can be read here: https://engagement.virginia.edu/learn/thoughts-from-the-lawn/20240625-Seeley?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2SGwKaURpW-mNbLOllNkQTV7KWX8WP7TZpxmLQF_0yeDIif3QNTWDzK_Q_aem_hkMeEO1pFEWoGgSRs4EITQ
Professor Deborah S. Kang was featured in Tim Murphy's article, "The Border Patrol Is an Engine of Crisis—and Has Been Since the Beginning," for Mother Jones. Kang discussed the history of the Border Patrol.
Read the article here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/05/border-patrol-turns-100-anniversary-cb-hudspeth/
Professor Justene Hill Edwards was featured in WalletHub's recent article about State Economies with the Most Racial Equality!
You can find it here: https://wallethub.com/edu/state-economies-with-most-racial-equality/75810#expert=Justene_Hill_Edwards
Professor S. Deborah Kang discuss the Border Patrol involvement in asylum processing in Public Books
Professor S. Deborah Kang details how the US Border Patrol's fraught, seemingly mismatched involvement in asylum processing is, in fact, a matter of design in "The Board Patrol and Asylum Exclusion." This article is a part of the Public Books' series "The Border is the Crisis."
Read here: https://www.publicbooks.org/the-border-patrol-and-asylum-exclusion/
Congratulations to Professor Neeti Nair, who will be 2024-25 residential fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center!
Congratualtions to Professor Erik Linstrum, who will be a residential fellow at the Huntington Library! Linstrum is the 2024-25 Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellow!
See announement here: https://huntington.org/awarded-fellowships
In his New York Times opinion piece, It's Time to End the Quiet Cruelty of Property Taxes, Professor Andrew Kahrl explains the problem with the property tax system and offers solutions. Read here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/opinion/property-taxes-racism-inequality.html
Kirt von Daacke (History, American Studies) is co-editor, with Andrea Douglas, of the new book, After Emancipation: Racism and Resistance at the University of Virginia (University of Virginia Press). The book's 15 essays include contributions by Sylvia Chong and Kasey Jernigan (American Studies); Andrew Kahrl, Christian McMillen and Liz Varon (History); and A&S alumni James H. Hershman Jr. (History Ph.D., 1978), Countess Hughes(Psychology B.A., 1982; Assoc. Dir. of Assignments, UVA Housing & Residence Life); Scot French (History Ph.D., 2000) and Andrea Douglas (Art History Ph.D., 2001).
Kirt von Daacke is an Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia. Andrea Douglas is Executive Director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Together they serve as Co-Chairs of the UVA President’s Commission on the University in the Age of Segregation.
About the book:
This anthology reckons with the University of Virginia’s post-emancipation history of racial exploitation. Its fifteen essays highlight the many forms of marginalization and domination at Virginia’s once all-white flagship university to uncover the patriarchal, nativist, and elitist assumptions that shaped university culture through the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Including community responses ranging from personal reflections to interviews with local leaders to poems, this accessible volume will be essential reading for anyone with ties to UVA or to Charlottesville, as well as for anyone concerned with the legacy of slavery and segregation in America’s universities.
Link to book here: https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5925/
Professor Penny Von Eschen was interviewed about the themes of her new book, Paradoxes of Nostalgia, on The Nation's podcast American Prestige: https://www.thenation.com/podcast/world/amprest-040224-pveschen/
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On this episode of American Prestige, part 1 of a discussion on post–Cold War malaise of the 1990s. |
Congratulations to Loretta Dredger, who was awarded the Harrison Undergraduate Research Award!
Loretta will use the funds to support her work with the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School. At the Law School, she will be studying the efficacy of self-help materials designed to increase access to public services among those in need. Based on her findings, she plans to employ these materials in her volunteer work with various Charlottesville organizations, including the Haven and PACEM. The title of her project is “Exploring the Efficacy of Self-Help Materials.” Loretta's faculty mentor for this award is Professor S. Deborah Kang.
Professor Elizabeth Varon's latest book, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South, is a finalist in the Biography category for an LA Times Book Prize! Congratulations Professor Varon! View announcement here: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2024-02-21/l-a-times-book-prize-finalists-2023
Congratulations of graduate student Bethany Bell on winning the "Memphis State Eight" third paper prize at Graduate Association for African-America History annual conference.
Professor Claudrena Harold was recently featured in the PBS docuseries Gospel, the latest history series from Henry Louis Gates, Jr., that digs deep into the origin story of Black spirituality through sermon and song. Episode subjects include: The Gospel Train (the sonic influences of blues and jazz), The Golden Age Of Gospel (from the Lord’s music to the mainstream), Take The Message Everywhere (gospel goes mainstream, taking the good news everywhere), and Gospel's Second Century (gospel and preaching achieve platinum-selling success). The series first aired on February 11 and 12 but is available online. https://www.pbs.org/show/gospel/
Grace Hale recently published a review of Dawoud Bey’s, which is currently showing at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, as a part of her ongoing series called Shutter that examines how photographers especially, but also other visual artists think about the US South published by Southern Cultures: https://www.southerncultures.org/article/dawoud-beys-meditations-on-history-and-vision/?utm_source=Southern+Cultures&utm_campaign=053313cb65-12.21+Cat+Square+%2B+Emmet+Gowin_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6c45226e84-053313cb65-69397197&mc_cid=053313cb65
Professor Neeti Nair's interview with the Social-Legal Review discussing her latest book, Hurt Sentiments, is now available on the SLR forum!
The editorial board members of the Socio-Legal Review, a journal published by the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, (the #1 law school in India) have published a transcript of a conversation with Professor Nair from last December. https://www.sociolegalreview.com/post/hurt-sentiments-an-interview-with-neeti-nair
Professor Neeti Nair was recently quoted in The Print! Check out the full article, "The self-pitying Hindu has a litany of woes—evolution to Taj Mahal. Yogi’s UP is their balm."
https://theprint.in/ground-reports/the-self-pitying-hindu-has-a-litany-o...
Professor Justene Hill Edwards recently appeared on NPR’s Marketplace to discuss the Freedman’s Bank and her forthcoming book, Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank.
https://www.marketplace.org/2024/02/15/how-a-bank-failure-150-years-ago-...
Congratualtions to Professor Kristina Richardson on being selected as a 2024-2025 Phi Beta Kappa Visting Scholar!
Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America's most distinguished scholars. Each year, top scholars in the liberal arts and sciences are selected to visit universities and colleges where Phi Beta Kappa chapters are located. Visiting Scholars spend two days on each campus meeting informally with undergraduates, participating in classroom lectures and seminars, and giving one major lecture open to the academic community and general public.
The press release can be found here!