Fall ’24 in Review – One for the History Books

Ruairí Yücel-O'Mahony | Posted on January 13, 2025

From left to right: Prof. Kevin Schultz distributes awards recognizing students for excellent work at the History Department Pizzanomenon as Prof. Jonathan Connolly looks on. Prof. Lynn Hudson lectures on the history of segregated swimming at UIC's Insitute for the Humanities. Prof. Sunil Agnani speaks at the "Revolutions and History" Symposium at the Institute.

UIC Department of History Celebrates Fall 2024 Achievements

The Department of History at UIC had an exceptional Fall 2024 semester, with faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates earning significant recognition across multiple areas of scholarship and public engagement.

Publications

Prof. John Balserak published his fifth authored book, Geneva’s Use of Lies, Deceit, and Subterfuge, 1536-1563; Telling the Old, Old Story in Reformation France (Oxford University Press, September 3, 2024). From the publisher:

"Geneva was hated and loved in sixteenth-century France. Representing those who hated them were the French Catholic government, who tried desperately to eradicate Genevan Calvinism from its borders--for good reason, as it was growing significantly within France between 1540 and 1563. This book presents a new reading of the battle that raged between the Genevan ministers and the French government during this period. It argues that Calvin, after fleeing France in 1534, began during his wanderings to devise plans to establish Christ's kingdom in his homeland, rescuing it from the "idolatrous" Catholicism imposed on the French people by their monarchs. It shows that Calvin's plans entailed the systematic use of lying and deception which were necessary in order to evade detection from the French authorities. These mendacious means were employed by the Genevans to hide their support of the French Reformed congregations, to conceal political maneuvering among the French nobility who could open France to reform, and to cloak their assisting of the Huguenots during the first French civil war."

Awards & Honors

Professor Hayley Negrin achieved remarkable recognition from the Southern Historical Association, winning both the Anne Braden Prize for her article "Return to the Yeokanta/River: Powhatan Women and Environmental Treaty Making in Early America" published in Environmental History, and the Megan M. Ruddy Award for "Cockacoeske's Rebellion: Nathaniel Bacon, Indigenous Slavery, and Sovereignty in Early Virginia" in William and Mary Quarterly. The Ruddy Award committee specifically praised the article's "imaginative, thorough research and clear, elegant prose." In addition, she received an honorable mention for the Nupur Chaudhuri First Article Award from the Coordinating Council of Women in History for “Cockacoeske’s Rebellion: Nathaniel Bacon, Indigenous Slavery, and Sovereignty in Early Virginia.”

Assistant Professor Jon Connolly received the prestigious Sutherland Prize from the American Society for Legal Historians for his article "Re-Reading Morant Bay: Protest, Inquiry and Colonial Rule" in Law and History Review. The award committee praised Connolly's "insightful, tightly-argued and compelling essay" that uncovered new understanding of the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica.

Dr. Caterina Scalvedi (UIC PhD '23) won the prize for most outstanding article in modern Italian history from the Society for Italian Historical Studies for "The Missionary at the Gates of 'Dawn': Educational Continuities from Fascist Somalia through the UN Order (1920s-50s)." The article, which began as a dissertation chapter and Department Wednesday "brownbag" presentation, examines the role of Catholic missionaries in Italian-language education in Somalia.

Leadership & Professional Recognition

Professor Ralph Keen was elected president of the American Catholic Historical Association for a term beginning January 2026. This appointment makes him only the second person to serve as president of both ACHA and the American Society of Church Historians, joining the distinguished company of historian Martin Marty. He will serve as vice president in 2025 before assuming the presidency.

Fellowships & Grants

Professor Robert Johnston secured approximately $200,000 in NEH funding to direct a summer Institute for K-12 Educators on "Rethinking the Gilded Age and Progressivisms: Race, Capitalism, and Democracy, 1877-1920." This marks the seventh year Johnston has helped run the seminar, which brings 25-30 K-12 teachers to Chicago for three weeks of intensive study.

Professor Julie Peters was awarded an inaugural Non-Tenure Track Faculty Professional Development Fellowship to develop an interdisciplinary course in civil literacy, collaborating with the Department of Political Science, UIC School of Law, Department of Public Policy, Management, and Analytics, and the UIC Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement.

Graduate student Nico Soto was named the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy's Emerging Scholar in Residence for spring 2025 and received a 2025 Dissertation Research Grant. His research examines how seasonal Mexican migrants remade the Midwestern heartland and navigated changing labor landscapes after the bracero program ended.

Graduate student Liliana Macias was selected as an Imagining America PAGE (Publicly Active Graduate Education) Fellow for 2024-2025, joining a national network of graduate students and early-career scholars focused on public scholarship.

PhD student Briana Salas was given an excellent profile in UIC Today and won a Crossing Latinidades Grant, supported by a $5 million grant to UIC, to support her dissertation research on school resource officers in Texas and their relationship to what scholars call the school-to-prison pipeline.

Media & Public Engagement

Professor Teri McMurtry-Chubb published an op-ed in The Hill titled "America Needs a Working-Class White House," examining class dynamics in American politics. She was also selected for the prestigious 2024-25 Public Voices Fellowship with the University of Illinois System, a program designed to amplify faculty expertise in public conversations about pressing issues.

In what is likely to be the first of many public appearances by our resident vaccine expert, Prof. Robert Johoston appeared in a KFF Health News piece on prominent anti-vax advocate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s nomination to head up the HHS in 2025. Prof. Johnston is currently working on a book called, "Pox, Populism, and Politics: Three Centuries of American Vaccination Controversies," to be published by Oxford University Press.

Graduate student Jeff Nichols served as an archival researcher for multiple episodes of Chicago Stories, including segments on the Black Sox scandal, the Young Lords, and Leopold and Loeb. He also published yet another great article in the Chicago Reader analyzing David Mamet's recent (mis)representations of Chicago.

Graduate student Liliana Macias was interviewed by WTTW about the Latina’s monument project, Raíces Chicago Story Coalition, and the general paucity of Latinx presence in the historical archives.

History major Nez Castro's work was prominently featured in the Chicago History Museum's growing Latine collection, Aquí en Chicago. Castro began working with the museum through the department's HIST 499 internship program and has continued to flourish in their role, exemplifying the success of the department's internship initiatives.

Colleagues Away

We express our most sincere support and excitement for three History faculty who were awarded fellowships for this academic year. Lynn Hudson and Young Richard Kim are serving as Faculty Fellows at the UIC Institute for the Humanities. Prof. Hudson presented her work in an excellent talk at the Institute for the Humanities in the Fall ("Troubled Waters: Segregated Swimming in American Cities, 1914-1954") and Prof. Kim will be presenting his work ("Cyprus and the Historiography of Late Antiquity”) on Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 4:00PM.

Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez is also away on a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship working on her latest project, Stolen Innocence: How the United States Robbed Migrant Minors of Their Childhood.

Congratulations to all! Have fun, and we look forward to enjoying and learning from the fruits of your hard work.

Department Awards

The department awarded several internal awards and fellowships to recognize and support outstanding student work. Congratulations to the recipients:

Alexander Callaway - Prof. Michael Perman Memorial Scholarship
Aleksei Epishev - John B. and Theta Wolf Fellowship
Franklin Howard - Robert V. Remini Scholarship
Frankee Lyons - Leo Schelbert Dissertation Prize
Sohini Mukhopadhyay - Deena Allen Memorial Fellowship
Zichan Qiu - Peter R. D'Agostino Memorial Scholarship
Ekaterina Vasilik - Polish Resistance (AK) Foundation Scholarship

Department-Sponsored Lectures and Workshops

"Cyprus and the 1974 Invasion: Views from the Diaspora" Symposium. UIC Insitute for the Humanities. September 26-27, 2024.

Samuel G. Friedman (Columbia University). "How Civil Rights Won the White House: Harry Truman, Hubert Humphrey, A. Philip Randolf, and the Breakthrough of 1948." UIC Institute for the Humanities. October 28, 2024.

Lunch with Kathy Osberger, author of I Surrender: A Memoir of CHile's Dictatorship, 1975. UIC Institute for the Humanities. October 30, 2024.

Lynn Hudson (UIC). "Troubled Waters: Segregated Swimming in American Cities, 1914-1954." UIC Insitute for the Humanities. November 7, 2024.

The department congratulates all our faculty, students, and alumni on their outstanding achievements last semester!

Modified on January 15, 2025