Department of History Annual Newsletter 2019-2020 COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES | UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAIR’S REPORT Chair’s Report 1 Dear Friends and Colleagues, of our faculty. Professor Amy Burnett won a Guggen- heim fellowship and was appointed a Solmsen Fellow at EVENTS Historic, scary, and challenging is how I summarize the the Institute for Humanities Research at the University Paul Wilson Lecture 2 2019-2020 Academic Year. In 30 years of teaching, I’ve of Wisconsin-Madison for her research on early modern never seen anything that changed the landscape of higher publishing networks. Professor Katrina Jagodinsky received PEOPLE education like the COVID-19 pandemic. By March 2020, a $460,000 National Science Foundation award for her NEH Funding for Historical Film The Bell Affair (William G. Thomas III) 2 our Department’s office was forced into exile in my home research project “Petitioning For Freedom: Habeas Corpus Ethnic Studies Lecture: David Krugler (Patrick D. Jones) 4 and the home of Barbara Bullington and Megan Brown, our in the American West.” Professor William Thomas received C-SPAN Covers History Course (William G. Thomas III) 5 Department staff. Faculty retreated to their home offices, a $200,000 NEH award to begin work on his feature film Slavery and Reproductive Medicine Lecture at Rice University (Deirdre Cooper Owens) 5 and students moved out of the dorms and back home. It The Bell Affair, based on his book The Question of Freedom, New Book Examines American GI-German Forces Social Crisis (Alexander Vazansky) 6 happened so fast. Everyone went into overdrive, working which was published in November by Yale University Press. Suffrage Anniversary Symposium (Katrina Jagodinsky) 7 long hours without a vacation or break during the spring Professor Margaret Jacobs was appointed Director for the Academic Leadership Appointment (William G. Thomas III) 8 and summer. Faculty met the challenge and successfully Center for Great Plains Studies and also won a $300,000 Faculty Slam (Margaret D. Jacobs) 8 transitioned to an online spring semester, but most of our NEH award for her digital project “The Genoa Indian AAAS Speech (Margaret D. Jacobs) 9 research that involved travel ground to a halt. The Univer- School Digital Reconciliation Project.” Professor Thomas Digital Legal History Award (William G. Thomas III) 9 sity froze travel, and the ban to date has not yet been lifted. Borstelmann published his book Just Like Us: The American Roz Payne 1960s Archive (Patrick D. Jones) 10 When Victoria Smith retired in May, we did not have a Struggle to Understand Foreigners with Columbia University Latin America Lecture (Tim Borstelmann) 12 chance to celebrate her career at Nebraska because all nor- Press. Professor Jeannette Eileen Jones won a $300,000 Cather Archives Discovery (William Kelly [Graduate Student]) 12 mal social intercourse was officially prohibited. NEH award and a prestigious American Council of Learned Habeas Corpus NSF Grant (Katrina Jagodinsky) 13 Societies fellowship to complete her book entitled Amer- Hymen Rosenberg Professorship (Bedross Der Matossian) 15 As we prepared for the 2020-21 Academic Year over the ica in Africa: US Empire, Race, and the African Question, Guggenheim Fellowship (Amy Nelson Burnett) 15 summer, President Carter and Chancellor Green made the 1821-1919 with Yale University Press. I won my first several COVID-19 and American Perceptions of The Foreign (Tim Borstelmann) 16 decision to start Fall 2020 semester earlier and to end it at awards for my own feature documentary film. African American Health Inequities (Deirdre Cooper Owens) 17 Thanksgiving. A new vocabulary for teaching emerged, The 1918 Influenza and 2020 COVID-19 Pandemics (Deirdre Cooper Owens) 19 with hybrid, synchronous, asynchronous, and online modes Our Department graduated four graduate students, includ- Promotion and Tenure (Sean Trundle and Alexander Vazansky) 20 of delivery. And the University has announced that the ing Harrouna Malgouri, who completed his dissertation Systemic Racism in COVID-19 Healthcare (Deirdre Cooper Owens) 21 spring 2021 semester will begin in February and there will “‘We Have the Power to Combat Imperialism’: Francophone Omaha Protests (Patrick D. Jones) 22 be no spring break. Nothing looks quite the same on cam- West Africa, International and Pan-African Solidarity, and Norfolk Protests (Patrick D. Jones) 23 pus, not even the university calendar. American Cold War Politics, 1946-1987” under Professor Calls for UNL Campus Police Reform (Patrick D. Jones and Jeannette Eileen Jones) 23 Jeannette Eileen Jones. Two M.A. students, William Kelly African and African American Studies Faculty Address Current Events (Patrick D. Jones and Jeannette Eileen Jones) 24 And yet despite all this, our students continued research (Professor William Thomas) and Ann Vlock (Professor Lincoln Police Violence Against Protestors (Jeannette Eileen Jones) 25 projects, theses, and dissertations; our faculty won ma- Katrina Jagodinsky), graduated and are beginning the Ph.D. Historic Relations Between Race and Medicine (Deirdre Cooper Owens) 26 jor grants, published big books and completed other program. Mackenzie Hughes earned her Master’s under Fourth of July, COVID-19 Style (Tim Borstelmann) 28 ground-breaking works, and embarked on new projects. Professor James Garza. Football in a Pandemic (Scott Stempson) 30 In other words, despite the extraordinary challenges that Enslaved Women and Medical Erasure (Deirdre Cooper Owens) 32 the COVID-19 pandemic brought us, the Department of Overall, despite the chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic Big Ten Academic Leadership (Deirdre Cooper Owens) 33 History thrived and conducted business in most unusual on campus and around the world, the Department of His- Publishers Weekly Review of A Question of Freedom (William G. Thomas III) 34 ways, even if it meant that graduations and thesis defenses tory has continued to thrive, has achieved great things, and The Art of Dissent Reviews, Film Festivals, and Awards (James D. Le Sueur) 34 were online, meetings, classes, and conferences moved onto our students have graduated with a special sense of pride. Faculty Notes 37 Zoom. In short, having had a front row seat on the greatest I couldn’t be prouder, and I am ever more thankful for the Graduate Student Notes 40 challenge higher education has ever faced as a Department generosity and support that our alumni have demonstrated Impact of Maslowski Funds on Graduate Students 43 Chair, I’m proud to say that our faculty and students have this year, in a year unlike others. ALUMNI been unified and determined to press on, even though we Alumnus in the News: Mikal Eckstrom (Ph.D., Aug. 2018) 43 have had to lock arms 6 feet apart. I’ve never been more Stay safe and kind wishes from Lincoln, CAS Alumni Master: Charles Wilson 45 proud of my Department, in awe of my colleagues’ pro- Alumni Advisory Council 46 fessionalism, and so grateful to the leadership team in the 2019-2020 Donors 47 Department of History, which stepped up with an “all hands James D. Le Sueur Donation Information 48 on deck” attitude, no questions asked. All departments and Samuel Clark Waugh Distinguished Professor of units did the same across the university. International Relations & NEWSLETTER DESIGNED & EDITED BY: COVER PHOTO BY: Chair of the Department of History Megan Brown James D. Le Sueur Let me take a few minutes to brag about the achievements 1 Dreher, associate professor of English and ethnic studies, In addition to producing, promoting, and distributing the wrote the screenplay for Anna, and co-wrote the screenplay film, the funding will be used to develop a website with PAUL WILSON LECTURE for this film with Thomas. Both productions are based on companion materials and design teaching programs with Paul Wilson gave the talk “Reclaiming Democracy: Reflec- He edited two research from Thomas’s “O Say Can You See” online archive original source documents. Thomas said his team aims to tions on the Velvet Revolution” on 17 October 2019 at 5:30 volumes of Havel’s of freedom suits. distribute the film through educational partners, film fes- p.m. in Andrews Hall, Bailey Library. essays and speech- tivals, and broadcast channels. They also want to organize es, and an an- “For Anna, I concentrated on Anna—just Anna,” Dreher community-hosted screenings that spark conversations. Wilson drew on his experiences in Czechoslovakia as a thology of Czech said. “The Bell Affair is a feature-length production that teacher, and later as a journalist, to look back at the origins short stories, called involves a nimiety of characters. When we began our “I envision The Bell Affair circulating in film festivals and of the collapse of communism in 1989 and examined some Prague: A Traveler’s roundtable discussion for The Bell Affair, Will and I under- other socio-cultural communities,” Dreher said. “I see of the lessons to be learned from the Czech experience, over Literary Compan- stood that a central collaboration would have to occur. It is being used as a tool for discovery about our past and, more the past thirty years, of democratic renewal in a time of ion. He co-au- a smooth partnership especially since history is my minor specific, generating more insights into freedom making as tumultuous social transformation. thored Fifty-seven discipline of research, so Will and I sync in our vision of the enacted by enslaved people.” Hours, an eye-wit- script.” Paul Wilson taught English in Czechoslovakia from 1967 to ness account of the “Our goal [with the series] is to extend the historical imagi- 1977, when he was expelled from the country for his associ- Moscow theater Anna was a shorter film, but Dreher said she was able to nation to recover these stories, showing how ordinary peo- ation with the banned rock group, The Plastic People of the hostage-taking by accomplish what she wanted to do.