Past, Present & Future THE 2018 REPORT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY 1 CONTENTS LETTER FROM THE CHAIR 1 Letter from the Chair 2 Undergraduate Program Update 3 Undergraduate History Journal Grows UMass Amherst’s fall 2017. She gave two talks on her research on women, 6 Giving Back and Looking Forward Department of Histo- gender, and emotions in South American dictatorships. ry continues to thrive In April, we hosted our annual Writer in Residence, the 7 A Transnational History of Food’ amid challenges to historian, poet, and activist Aurora Levins Morales, who 8 Undergraduate Researcher Gets higher education gave public lectures on campus and in Holyoke and met National Showcase and the humanities. with students, faculty, and community members. 10 Honors Program Update We are delighted to We had several other distinguished visitors during 11 Profile: Devon King ’18 welcome two new the academic year. Scott Bruce (then at the University of 12 Graduate Program Update faculty members: Colorado at Boulder, now at Fordham University) deliv- 14 Critical Conversations at the GHA Kathryn Schwartz, a ered “The Dark Age of Herodotus: Shards of a Fugitive Conference historian of the mod- History in Medieval Europe,” the annual Distinguished 16 ‘The Dark Age of Herodotus’ ern Middle East, who Lecture of the UMass/Five College Graduate Program joined us this fall after a year of research leave in Tou- in History. Nancy McLean (Duke University) spoke on her 16 Open-Access Oral History Training Tools louse, France, and Diana C. Sierra Becerra, a specialist in book Democracy in Chains. Kendra Field (Tufts University) 17 Public History Program Update modern Latin America who will join us in the fall of 2020 offered “The Art of Family History” and read from her book 19 ‘Monuments, Memory, and White after a two-year postdoctoral fellowship across the river at Growing Up With the Country. And Tore Olsson ’04, now Supremacy’ Smith College. Kathryn’s research examines the history of assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee 22 UMass Historians Present at NCPH printing in nineteenth-century Cairo, while Diana focuses at Knoxville, returned to campus to give a talk, “Finding Annual Meeting on the role of women in revolutionary movements. We are Parallels and Intersections in U.S. and Mexican History.” 22 So ‘PHaB’! delighted to welcome them. We were also joined last year It drew on his 2017 book, Agrarian Crossings: Reformers 23 The Digital Life by Alon Confino, a distinguished scholar of the Holocaust, and the Remaking of the U.S. and Mexican Countryside. as the inaugural Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Stud- We also revived our department’s Brown-Bag Research 24 Community Engagement Update ies, director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Colloquium, with presentations from Cristina Wolff (“Tell- 25 2018 Writer in Residence: Aurora Levins Memory Studies, and professor of history. ing Bodies in the Memories of Dictatorship: South America, Morales Five of our faculty members were awarded tenure 1970s”), Heidi Victoria Scott (“The Mapping of Potosí’s 27 Our Newest Faculty Members last year: Julio Capó Jr., Alon Confino,Jason Moralee, Cerro Rico in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”), 28 Faculty and Staff Updates Samuel Redman, and Priyanka Srivastava. Julio, Sam, and Nathan Kapoor, a PhD student at the University of 33 A Chorus of Praises for Joye Bowman and Priyanka were also promoted to the rank of associate Oklahoma (“Grounding Empire: The Electrification of Min- 33 A History of Women’s Resistance professor; Jason was promoted to full professor, as was ing in Late-Nineteenth-Century New Zealand”). Petróleo en Bolivia, 1957 Jennifer Fronc. Congratulations to them all! Those are only some highlights from the past year. The 35 Celebrating Barry Levy Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) Our transitions this year included two retirements. rest—from new book publications to the many awards our 37 A Farewell to Suzanne Bell La Paz, Bolivia Professor Barry Levy stepped down after 30 years in the de- undergraduate and graduate students received—fill most 38 In Memoriam partment and Undergraduate Program Assistant Suzanne of this newsletter. 41 Student Updates This 1957 mural by Bolivian painter Miguel Alandia Pantoja captures the hopes that Bell left after 32 years on campus, including a decade in I would like to thank Associate Chair Sigrid Schmalzer, many Bolivians invested in the country’s oil and natural gas resources following the history department. They will both be missed and Graduate Program Director Anna Taylor, and Undergrad- 45 Alumni Updates the 1952 revolution. The expansion and industrialization of the hydrocarbons we encourage them to come back and let us know what uate Program Director Joye Bowman for serving with me. 49 Profile: Kelli Morgan ’17PhD sector, they believed, would allow Bolivia to break the historic cycle of dependence on mineral exports and the poverty that accompanied it. they’ve been up to. I would also like to thank our staff: Office Manager Amy 52 Reflections on a UMass Evening A final transition is that of Joye Bowman, who—after Fleig, Undergraduate Program Assistant Suzanne Bell, The life of Alandia Pantoja (1914–1975) reflected many of the traumas and struggles 54 New Books at the heart of modern Bolivian history. He was born in the department of Potosí, six years as chair and then two reprising the role of under- Graduate Program Coordinator Mary Lashway, Human 56 Our Donors site of what in the sixteenth century was the world’s most famous silver mine. graduate program director—has moved to South College Resources and Finance Assistant Adam Howes, Outreach He fought in the devastating Chaco War against Paraguay in the early 1930s, an as associate dean for research while maintaining her office Director Jessica Johnson, and Undergraduate Program event that galvanized Bolivian nationalist consciousness around the protection at Herter Hall. Congratulations, Joye! Assistant Enjoli Pescheta ’17 for keeping the department of subterranean resources. Later he became involved in the country’s influential During 2017–18 the history department kept up its usu- running smoothly and cheerily. Trotskyist movement and painted a series of murals like this one that were strongly influenced by Mexican muralism. al flurry of activities. We were delighted to host Cristina Finally, I would like to thank our alumni, faculty, and Like many of the Mexican muralists, Alandia Pantoja’s politics put him well to the Scheibe Wolff, professor in the Departamento de História, friends for their support, both moral and financial, of the left of a “revolutionary” regime that nonetheless sought to use murals as a way Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, in Brazil, and department’s activities. —Brian Ogilvie, chair of boosting its legitimacy. Bolivian visions of natural resource development are Fulbright Chair of Brazilian Studies at UMass Amherst in the topic of Kevin Young’s recent book, Blood of the Earth: Resource Nationalism, Revolution, and Empire in Bolivia. 2 1 UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM UPDATE Students, faculty, and staff had a busy year Bauer Scholarships to help cover their ex- U.S. Congress. This past year, six students— on the sixth floor of Herter Hall, as you’ll read penses on their internships: Alyssa Aloise, Mabrouka Boukraa, Leah Calabro ’18, Na- here. We continue to be grateful for alumni Lily Abrahams, Emilia Billett, Kathrine than Giacalone, Noah Graves, Benjamin support that allows us to support these ac- Esten, Frances Fleming ’18, Eathan Friend, Lerer ’18, and Dylan Mulvey ’18—worked tivities. My heartfelt thanks to this year’s Un- Nathan Giacalone, Brook Hansel, Devon closely with him on trade issues between the dergraduate Studies Committee: Brian Bunk, King ’18, Maya Levine, Clare McGladrig- U.S. and Mexico. They all enjoyed a unique Sarah Cornell, Jennifer Heuer, Alice Nash, an ’18, William Sennott, and Genevieve opportunity to hone their research and writ- Jon Olsen, and Joel Wolfe. They served tire- Weidner. ing skills. lessly as we updated our advising system, Many other students had internships as Our annual year-end celebration allows our requirements, and our program of study. well. The department hopes to see all stu- us to celebrate our students and their accom- In the spring term, with the help of the dents have multiple internship opportunities plishments. The Harold W. Cary Prize goes to History department peer mentors Tess Manderville and Leah On the last day of her four years as an undergraduate student staffer, Office of Institutional Research, several stu- before they graduate. Alumni support can the graduating senior history majors with the Calabro at an orientation and resource fair for new history majors. Kiyanna Sully holds the plant she helped revive. dents, both majors and nonmajors, partici- help make that possible. highest GPAs in their history classes. Profes- pated in a series of focus groups about their Thanks to Robert LaRussa ’76, who con- sor Cary joined the faculty in 1933 and wrote experiences in our classes. This year’s Un- tinues to work with students through a unique The University of Massachusetts: A History dergraduate Studies Committee will analyze program, the Robert J. LaRussa International of One Hundred Years (1962). This year four the responses as we try to serve our students Relations and Public Policy History Intern- students, all graduating seniors, shared the even better in the future. ship. It allows students to work with Shear- prize: Frances Fleming, Jacob Kosakowski, project. This year’s volume of the Undergraduate Internship and Career Advisor Mark Roblee man & Sterling LLP, a global law firm with 20 Dhimiter Qirjazi, and Tristian Tenerowicz. History Journal brought several exciting continues to help students prepare for their offices on five continents. LaRussa served as Jacob Kosakowski also received the developments to a growing student-run publication.