Olivia DrakeVictoria Smolkin-Rothrock, comes to Wesleyan this spring as an assistant professor of history, an assistant professor of Russian and Eastern European Studies. She’ll also be a core member of the College of Social Studies. Her research investigates state efforts to manage spiritual life, as well as the significance and functions of private rituals in modern society. “There were many things that attracted me to Wesleyan, but the students, and the intellectual community more broadly, are at the top of the list,” she says. “When I visited Wesleyan, the students made a profound impression: they struck me as deeply engaged in…
Vera Schwarcz, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of history, was selected by the United States’ Department of State to serve in the Speakers Program Oct. 20-24. She lectured at several universities in Chongqing and Beijing—on the subject of the 150th anniversary of the destruction of the old summer palace of Yuan Ming Yuan, in 1860. Having been selected by the State Department as a member of the very first group of American exchange scholars to live and study in China in 1979, Schwarcz has been returning regularly to China for the past three decades. This was…
David PesciThe book looks past the myths of Custer and his Last Stand and reveals the men who led both sides
Gary Shaw, professor of history, professor of medieval studies, was appointed Interim Dean of the Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Programs for the 2010-2011 academic year, beginning this July. In his 20 years at Wesleyan, Shaw has served as chair of the History Department, vice-chair of the advisory committee, chair of EPC, and has been a member of FCRR and the faculty merit appeals committee. He is the associate editor of History and Theory. His numerous awards include an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, an American Philosophical Society Research Grant and Wesleyan’s Carole A.…
Corrina KerrFor this issue, we queried Laurie Nussdorfer, professor of history, letters and medieval studies and author of Brokers of Public Trust: Notaries in Early Modern Rome (published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in 2009). She supplied her answers in writing, of course. Q: How did the idea for the book begin? A: Daniel Rosenberg ’88 wrote a senior honors thesis in the History Department about the historiography of literacy (how historians had interpreted and investigated the ability of people to read in the past). I was one of the readers of this fascinating thesis, and it occurred to me…
Professor of History Philip Pomper is making history of his own as he plans to retire from Wesleyan after 46 years in May 2010. Pomper came to Wesleyan after graduating from the University of Chicago with a doctoral degree. He had enjoyed the seminar style classes at Chicago and looked forward to teaching seminars at Wesleyan. "I always dreamed of joining the faculty of a small liberal arts institution," Pomper says. Not only did Pomper have an idea for the type of institution he was drawn to, he was compelled to be a professor even in high school. "After the…
Courtney Fullilove has joined the History Department as assistant professor. She specializes in research related to the study the development of technical knowledge in the fields of agriculture, medicine, and manufacturing in the 18th and 19th century United States. A graduate of Columbia University's Ph.D program in history, Fullilove was attracted to Wesleyan for many reasons, among them its historical significance and liberal arts idealism. She says that being a part of a place where "everyone is creative and engaged" is satisfying to her. "I'm a historian, so I like to think about the fact that Wesleyan was founded as…
Leah Wright, assistant professor of history, assistant professor of African American studies joined Wesleyan’s staff this summer. Wright says she loves being part of an interdisciplinary community and “was impressed by the intellectual curiosity and academic excellence of the students at Wesleyan." Multiple factors attracted her to the university. “I was also excited about the faculty—there is equal attention paid to teaching and research, and as a result, Wesleyan faculty excel at both. Joining Wesleyan was a major opportunity to join a vibrant and welcoming intellectual community.” She graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2003 with a bachelor’s in…
Paul Erickson, assistant professor of history and assistant professor of Science in Society, has been awarded the 2009 Prize for Young Scholars from the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science, Division of History of Science and Technology (DHST). He received the award at an August ceremony in Budapest, Hungary. The award was bestowed in recognition for Erickson's significant scholarly contribution to the History of Science in Western Civilization. The prize is awarded every four years at meetings of the Union Congress to recent PhDs in the history of science and technology for outstanding dissertation projects on topics…
Wesleyan University received a grant worth $177,918 from the U.S. Department of Education to help establish a Middle Eastern Studies Certificate Program at Wesleyan. The grant will be applied over two years. Bruce Masters, the John E. Andrus Professor of History, says he and other interested faculty will propose to the Educational Policy Committee an interdisciplinary cluster of courses that will allow interested students to graduate with a certificate in Middle Eastern Studies, in addition to their departmental/program major. The grant, along with a commitment from Academic Affairs, is supporting a long-term contract adjunct instructor in Arabic language.
Claire Potter, professor of history, chair and professor of American studies, director of the Center for the Americas, is featured in a June 24 Inside Higher Ed article titled "Fifty Years After Stonewall." Police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwhich Village in June 1969 and drag queens fought back. In the article, Potter says the GLBTQ liberation "is unfinished and becoming more complex as the research emerges that takes us on beyond Stonewall. What I would like for transgender studies in 10 years is what is happening already in gay and lesbian history: placing the emergence of identities and the emergence of liberation…