Academic

2008welcome to new history Facultywelcome to new history Faculty continuedSherwin K. Bryant(PhD, Ohio StateUniversity, 2005), a facultymember in AfricanAmerican Studies witha joint appointment inHistory, specializes incolonial Latin American History witha particular emphasis upon slavery, race,and the early modern African Diaspora,and has a book forthcoming that offersthe first comprehensive analysis ofslavery and slave life in the north Andes(Ecuador and southern Colombia).Dyan Elliott (PhDToronto, 1989), JohnEvans Professor ofHistory, is a historianof western Europe inthe Middle Ages, whostudies gender, spirituality,and sexuality. Elliott’s publicationsinclude Spiritual Marriage: SexualAbstinence in Medieval Wedlock (1993);Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, andDemonology in the Middle Ages (1999);and Proving Woman: Female Spiritualityand Inquisitional Culture in the LaterMiddle Ages (2004), the winner of the2006 Otto Gründler Award for anoutstanding contribution to the field ofmedieval studies.Regina Grafe (PhDLondon School ofEconomics and PoliticalScience, 2001) is a historianof early modernSpain with a specialinterest in economichistory. Her recent book, Entre el MundoIbérico y el Atlántico, traced the transformationof northern Spain in the wake ofthe region’s integration into the EnglishNorth Atlantic in the 16th and 17thcenturies. She is working on a bookproject that seeks to unravel the sourcesof peninsular Spain’s painfully sloweconomic, political and social integrationbetween the late 17th and the early 19thcenturies.Darlene Clark Hine(PhD Kent StateUniversity, 1975) is aleading historian ofthe African Americanexperience who joinedthe Northwesternfaculty as Board of Trustees Professor ofAfrican American Studies and History.Her numerous publications include TheAfrican-American Odyssey, Black Victory:The Rise and Fall of the White Primaryin Texas, Black Women in White: RacialConflict and Cooperation in the NursingProfession, 1890-1950, The HarvardGuide to American History, Hine Sight:Black Women and the Re-Constructionof American History, More Than Chattel:Black Women and Slavery in the Americas,A Question of Manhood: A Reader in U.S.Black Men’s History and Masculinity, AShining Thread of Hope: The History ofBlack Women in America, Speak Truth toPower: Black Professional Class in UnitedStates History, and “We Specialize in theWholly Impossible”: A Reader in BlackWomen’s History.Rajeev K. Kinra(Ph.D. University ofChicago, 2008) specializesin South Asianintellectual history,particularly in earlymodern north India.He has just completed a dissertation entitled,“Secretary-Poets in Mughal Indiaand the Ethos of Persian: The Case ofChandar Bhan ‘Brahman.”John A. Lynn will jointhe faculty as DistinguishedProfessor ofMilitary History Parttimein the fall of 2009,teaching three courses ayear. His interests centeron the history of Western and non-Western military institutions and warfare.His books include Women, Armies,and Warfare in Early Modern Europe;Battle: A History of Combat and Culture;The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667-1714; Giantof the Grand Siécle: The French Army,1610-1715; and The Bayonets of theRepublic: Motivation and Tactics in theArmy of Revolutionary France, 1791-94.Professor Lynn has served as presidentof the United States Commission onMilitary History and vice-president ofthe Society for Military History. Hewill be retiring from the University ofIllinois in spring 2009.Kate Masur (PhDUniversity of Michigan,2001) works onquestions of race andcitizenship in the nineteenth-centuryUnitedStates and is especiallyinterested in cities, social movements,and political theory, as well as slaveemancipations throughout the AtlanticWorld. Her dissertation, “Reconstructingthe Nation’s Capital: The Politics ofRace and Citizenship in the District ofColumbia, 1862-1878,” received awardsfrom the University of Michigan and theAmerican Studies Association. She is aneditor of Freedom: A Documentary Historyof Emancipation, 1861-1867, ser. 3, vol.2: Land and Labor, 1866-1867 (undercontract with Cambridge UniversityPress) and is currently revising her dissertationfor publication. Kate joined theNorthwestern faculty in fall 2005 afterspending the previous year as a fellow atthe Library of Congress’s John W. KlugeCenter.Robert A. Orsi (Ph.DYale, 1983) is the firstholder of the GraceCraddock Nagle Chairin Catholic Studies inthe Religion Department;he holds a jointappointment in History. He studiesAmerican Catholicism in both historicaland ethnographic perspective, as wellas theory and method for the study ofreligion. His prize-winning publicationsinclude The Madonna of 115th Street:Faith and Community in Italian Harlem,1880-1950; Thank You, Saint Jude:Women’s Devotion to the Patron Saint ofHopeless Causes; Between Heaven andEarth: The Religious Worlds People Makeand the Scholars Who Study Them, andGods of the City: Religion and the AmericanUrban Landscape.Sarah M. S.Pearsall (Ph.D.,Harvard, 2001) focuseson early American history,and is especiallyconcerned with the interconnectionsbetweenAtlantic and Caribbean Anglophonecolonization, settlement, and revolution,and issues of gender, the family, sexuality,and the household. She is currentlycompleting a book tentatively entitledAtlantic Exchanges: Fractured Families inthe Age of the American Revolution.Susan Pearson (PhDUniversity of NorthCarolina, 2004) is anhistorian of nineteenthcenturyAmerica withspecial interest in thecultural politics ofreform, rights discourse, the developmentof American liberalism, and thehistory of human-animal relations. Herfirst book, The Rights of the Defenseless:Animals, Children, and Sentimental Liberalismin Nineteenth-Century America,will be published by the University ofChicago Press.Amy Stanley (Ph.D.Harvard, 2007) specializesin the history ofearly modern Japan. Sheis particularly interestedin women’s history, thehistory of gangstersand the underworld, and the formationGreat Success for the Graduate Program (2006-2007)By Ben Frommer, Director of Graduate Studies<strong>Academic</strong> Year2006-2007 wasan exceptionallysuccessful one forour current grads. Ourstudents won 9 internalfull-year research andwriting grants, including one recipient ofNorthwestern’s most prestigious graduatehonor, the Presidential Fellowship.Additionally, two students were awardedfour-year Javits Fellowships and othershave garnered research fellowships fromACLS, DAAD, IREX, the FulbrightCommission and the Berlin Programfor Advanced German and EuropeanStudies.In terms of admissions, the departmentreceived a record 268 complete applications,a continuation of the upwardtrend in absolute numbers that began inthe fall of 2002. The enormous size ofthe applicant pool resulted in a especiallycompetitive rate of acceptance:in all we accepted a mere 12 percentof those who sought admission to thePhD program. In September 2007 wewelcomed a broad group of studentsinterested in studying African, Asian,European, Latin American and UShistory.The Department has also introducedseveral new initiatives to improvegraduate opportunities for research andwriting. Thanks to the generous supportof NU History Department alumni,this fall we awarded the first HistoryAlumni Teacher-Mentor Awards toCharlotte Cahill, Karl Gunther andBritt Petersen. The Department hasalso announced a new grant for dissertationresearch exploration. This grant,which is also funded by donations fromour alumni, is intended for students toof social policy in early modern citiesand towns. Her dissertation, which sheis currently revising for publication,explores official and popular attitudestoward the sex trade in provincial Japanbetween 1600 and 1868.Butch Ware (Ph.D.University of Pennsylvania,2004) specializesin West Africanhistory, with researchinterests that includeIslam, social history,education, slavery, and the early-modernBlack Atlantic World. His first bookproject, tentatively entitled “Knowledge,Faith, and Power: A History of Qur’anSchooling in Senegambia,” interrogatesthe role of “traditional” Islamic educationin shaping Muslim identity andIslamic society.NORTHWESTERN’S AFRICANHISTORY PROGRAM RANKEDNO. 1 IN THE NATION BY U.S.News and World Reportconduct research during the summerafter their second-year. In spring, weestablished a new prize to honor BillHeyck’s extraordinary record of trainingand mentoring graduate students, TheThomas W. Heyck Prize, an annual prizeof $1000 for research travel involving theBritish Isles. Students and friends whowould like to help permanently endowthe prize may so specify in their donorletters.2The Newsletter of the Department of History at Northwestern University3