News
Congratulations to Olivier Zunz who was awarded the Prix littéraire de biographie historique Brantôme for the French edition of The Man Who Understood Democracy. The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville (Princeton 2022).
The French title is Tocqueville. L’homme qui comprit la démocratie (Fayard, 2022).
Congratulations to Professor Erik Linstrum whose book, Age of Emergency, was an editor's choice for September 2023 in the EuropeNow Journal published by the Council for European Studies!
The book has also been featured in a review essay in the Dublin Review of Books:
Records unearthed by Christian McMillen "shed new light on states’ vocal opposition in the 1950s to tribes claiming their share of the river." Professor Christian McMillen's research on the Colorado River and tribal water rights was recently featured in ProPublica and High County News joint article.
High County News article: https://www.hcn.org/articles/waiting-for-water-states-opposed-tribes-acc...
Propublica article: https://www.propublica.org/article/states-tribes-water-rights-history-re...
Congratualtions to Professor S. Deborah Kang on her recently published article, “Sovereign Mercy: The Legalization of the White Russian Refugees and the Politics of Immigration Relief” in the Journal of American Ethnic History!
Deborah S. Kang argues, "that even though these Russians were defined as refugees under international law and perceived as such by the public, their American defenders deliberately recast them as undocumented immigrants to halt their deportations to the Soviet Union and give them a pathway to citizenship."
Read here: https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jaeh/article-abstract/43/1...
Justin T. Winokur discusses the usage of Cold War history in policy making in his recent Foregin Affairs article,"The Cold War Trap."
Read the article here: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/cold-war-trap-america-foreign-policy
Congratulations to PhD candidate Musa K. Azimli on being selected as a 2023 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow! Azimli is a part of the inaugural cohort! His project is entitled, "The Imperial Slave Market in Istanbul."
Project Abstract:
The Imperial Slave Market in Istanbul operated for over two centuries and was conceivably the largest slave market in the Middle East until the prohibition of the slave trade by the order of Sultan Abdülmecid in 1847. The history of Ottoman slavery was gradually erased from the cityscape, and before long, the location of the official slave market was lost in time. Benefitting from interdisciplinary methodologies of spatial analysis and digital history, this project explores the lost space, internal layout, and legacies of the slave market from the many-layered sources of Istanbul’s past and present. While building a digital database, this project examines the economic and social impact of this space on the Ottoman Imperial Capital and beyond.
The announcement website: https://www.acls.org/news/acls-announces-2023-mellon-acls-dissertation-innovation-fellows/
Azimli profile: https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/musa-k-azimli/
A University of Virginia Karsh Institute of Democracy team, featuring Professor William Hitchcock as one of its co-host, has won a coveted Webby Award for its podcast “Democracy in Danger,” beating out productions from NBC News, the Washington Post and The Economist. Please view the UVAToday's coverage of the announcement: https://news.virginia.edu/content/democracy-danger-podcast-wins-webby-award-against-stiff-competition
Professor Justene Hill Edwards discusses slavery on Grounds before the Civil War and the intersections of slavery and legal pedagogy at UVA Law on Legal Knowledge podcast. Legal Knowledge is a Podcast that chronicals the history of UVA Law School. Listen to Hill Edwards' discussion on episode two entitled, "Teachgin the Laws of Slavery."
Thomas Klubock's recent book, Ránquil: Rural Rebellion, Political Violence, and Historical Memory in Chile (Yale U. Press, 2022) won the Whitaker Book Prize from the Mid-Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS).
Bradly Reed won this year's AAPI (Asian and Asian Pacific American Alumni) Advancement Award. This award was established in 2022 to honor current UVA faculty members who have made significant contributions towards greater understanding and appreciation of Asian culture or Asian-American relations.
Check out Professor Zelikow's co-authored Washington Post opinion piece, "The moral and legal case for sending Russia's frozen $300 billion to Ukraine."
Read here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/20/transfer-russian-froz...
UVAToday highlights how, through a partnership between the Governing America in a Global Era Initiative (GAGE)and Washington Post's "Made by History," several of our grad students have produced remarkable work! GAGE director William Hitchcock discusses the programs importance to grad students’ professional development. Also, Bethany Bell and Brianna Frakes share their experiences!
The article can be read here: https://news.virginia.edu/content/remarkable-uva-students-expand-possibilities-through-washington-post-partnership?fbclid=IwAR2BEBE4uSfiK3FZU08S0o7bY_kl6MQVDkscieXjqJQSagVyIqCQI8iTCFM
Professor Neeti Nair recently appeared on “The Agenda,” a nightly current affairs program on Canada’s TVO Today. The episode is titled “Is India’s Democracy in Crisis?”
The episode can be viewed here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZPLM_EyFw0
Congratulations to Professor Neeti Nair on the publication of her new book, Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia!
Her book can be found here: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674238275
Professor John Edwin Mason was interviewed by PBS NewHour about the Holsinger Studio Collection's "Visions of Progress: Portraits of Dignity, Style and Racial Uplift" exhibit — open through June 24 — that he curated for UVA's Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library : Images of 'Black life, Black joy' are immortalized in historic Charlottesville portraits
Professor Kristina Richardson awarded 2023 Monica H. Green Prize for Distinguished Medieval Research
Congratulations to Professor Kristina Richardson, who has been awarded the 2023 Monica H. Green Prize for Distinguished Medieval Research by the Medieval Academy of America.
The prize “honor[s] scholarship and public engagement that demonstrates the importance of studying the past to understand the present.” The prize's description can be found here: www.medievalacademy.org/page/MonicaHGreenPrize
Congratulations to Professor Melvyn P. Leffler on the publication of his new book, Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq.
His book can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/book/44895
An excerpt/adaptation appeared in the Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/fear-power-and-hubris-bush-and-iraq-war/672759/
In a recent Washington Post "Made by History," article Brianna Frakes (PhD Candidate) explains how resistance to the Emancipation Proclamation relates to the contemporary moment.
"The Emancipation Proclamation sparked fierce resistance. That matters today." can be read here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/01/31/emancipation-p...
Professor Justene Hill Edwards was featured in WalletHub's recent article about States with the Biggest and Smallest Wealth Gaps by Race/Ethnicity. You can find the article here: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-financial-gaps-by-race/9842#expert=Justene_Hill_Edwards.
Marc J. Selverstone new book, The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam
Congratulations to Miller Center Professor Marc J. Selverstone on his recently published book, The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam (Havard University Press 2022)
The book can be found here: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674048812
Description:
A major revision of our understanding of JFK’s commitment to Vietnam, revealing that his administration’s plan to withdraw was a political device, the effect of which was to manage public opinion while preserving United States military assistance.
In October 1963, the White House publicly proposed the removal of United States troops from Vietnam, earning President Kennedy an enduring reputation as a skeptic on the war. In fact, Kennedy was ambivalent about withdrawal and was largely detached from its planning. Drawing on secret presidential tapes, Marc J. Selverstone reveals that the withdrawal statement gave Kennedy political cover, allowing him to sustain support for U.S. military assistance. Its details were the handiwork of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, whose ownership of the plan distanced it from the president.
Selverstone’s use of the presidential tapes, alongside declassified documents, memoirs, and oral histories, lifts the veil on this legend of Camelot. Withdrawal planning was never just about Vietnam as it evolved over the course of fifteen months. For McNamara, it injected greater discipline into the U.S. assistance program. For others, it was a form of leverage over South Vietnam. For the military, it was largely an unwelcome exercise. And for JFK, it allowed him to preserve the U.S. commitment while ostensibly limiting it.
The Kennedy Withdrawal offers an inside look at presidential decisionmaking in this liminal period of the Vietnam War and makes clear that portrayals of Kennedy as a dove are overdrawn. His proposed withdrawal was in fact a cagey strategy for keeping the United States involved in the fight—a strategy the country adopted decades later in Afghanistan.