Letter from the Chair
Since I last wrote to you in February, much has happened in the History Department. The past few months have been a period of both losses and opportunities. In July 2012, our much cherished colleague Chris Gilmartin, a specialist in Chinese History and Gender History, passed away. On November 16, we will celebrate Chris’s scholarly contributions, which reached both sides of the Pacific, and her deep impact on graduate students and colleagues at Northeastern University. We will also announce a new prize to be awarded each Spring for the best History graduate student research essay named in Chris’s honor. Read More…
Christina K. Gilmartin, A Gender Historian to be Remembered
Chris was a leading senior scholar in the field of Chinese gender history. The volume she co-edited with Gail Hershatter, Lisa Rofel, and Tyrene White, Engendering China, Women, Culture, and the State (1994), is an influential work that received numerous positive reviews and has been widely cited ever since its publication almost two decades ago. As the product of a conference, this collection, for the first time, pulled together American and Chinese scholars across disciplines, but with a common intellectual concern on gender relations in China. Read More…
Louise Walker spoke with departmental graduate RA Burleigh Hendrickson about joining the History Department in September 2012. What are your research interests and what current and future projects are you working on? My research focuses on Mexican History, Colonial and Modern Latin American History, and the History of Global Capitalism. My book, Waking from the Dream: Mexico’s Middle Classes after 1968, tells the story of neo-liberalism and democracy and is coming out this year with Stanford University Press. I’m also co-editing two projects: a collection of essays about Latin America’s Middle Class and a special journal project about Mexico’s recently-opened secret police archives. My other research interests include a history of conspiracy theories and a history of debt and credit in Mexico. Read More…
Abigail Adgate Works Toward Combined Degree Through Northeastern’s Plus-One Program
In the fall 2012, History major Abigail Adgate, of Mahopac, New York, entered the History Department’s Plus-One program, which enables exceptional undergraduates (3.50 or higher History GPA) to pursue an advanced degree in their final year of study. With one additional year of graduate coursework, students obtain a Master’s Degree in History. Abigail is currently working toward an M.A. with a concentration in Public History, which focuses on how to portray facets of history to audiences beyond academia. Read More…
History Majors Laura Schumann and Tom Saunders Gain From Co-Op Experiences
Laura Schumann, a History major with a double minor in Art History and Business, gained valuable experience in co-ops at Christie’s Fine Art Auctions and Childs Gallery. Another History major, Tom Saunders, co-oped as a Museum Educator at the Commonwealth Museum of the Massachusetts State Archives in South Boston. Tom worked mostly with elementary school groups but also presented to junior high, high school, and even adult groups, while Laura performed a variety of tasks related to the art industry. Both Laura and Tom cite their co-op experiences as formative in making future career decisions related to interests in history, art and education. Read More…
Professor Heather Streets-Salter Leads World History Summer Dissertation Workshop at Northeastern
From July 22-August 5, 2012, the Northeastern History Department hosted a World History Summer Dissertation Workshop for doctoral students who are in the process of crafting dissertation projects that cross the usual area studies rubrics. The workshop was supported by the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Department of History at Northeastern University and by the World History Center at the University of Pittsburgh, which had run two previous workshops under the leadership of its director and Northeastern Professor Emeritus Patrick Manning. Under the leadership of NU’s Director of World History Programs, Professor Heather Streets-Salter, this year’s workshop added two new dimensions. Read More…
Ph.D. Candidate Burleigh Hendrickson Returns from Research Abroad in France, Tunisia and Senegal
Burleigh Hendrickson, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History, returned last Spring to the United States after spending time abroad conducting research for his dissertation, “Imperial Fragments and Transnational Activism: 1968(s) in Tunisia, France, and Senegal.” Burleigh’s research was funded by a Fulbright-Hays fellowship, and the Social Science Research Council, two of the most prestigious grants available to historians. During his time abroad, Burleigh spent a year and a half conducting research in France, six months conducting research in Tunis, Tunisia, and three months in Dakar, Senegal. While in France, Burleigh was also a lecturer at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon. Read More…
Gillis Family and Zanghi and Dow Funds Provide Opportunities for Northeastern History Graduate Students
With support from the Gillis Family Family Fund and the Lucille R. Zanghi and James M. Dow Endowed History Research Fund, five Ph.D. students with promising research projects received funding in 2012 for scholarly activities ranging from research in the Ukraine and the Philippines to travel to international conferences in Middle East and North African studies. These funds enable students to conduct critical dissertation research and gain international exposure for innovative research projects. Recipients provided summaries of funding uses. Read More…
The History Department Honors the 56-Year Northeastern Career of Nancy Borromey
On September 25, 2012, the Northeastern History Department hosted a celebration of Administrative Assistant Nancy Borromey’s retirement after 56 years of service to the Northeastern community. Borromey’s dedication to Northeastern was honored by a large crowd from around the university at the Raytheon Amphitheater. History department faculty and graduate students presented Borromey with gifts of appreciation, and President Aoun sent flowers for the occasion. Read More…
Professor Harlow Robinson Conducts Research in Hollywood on Russian Filmmaker Lewis Milestone
Two years ago, Professor Harlow Robinson, the Matthews Distinguished Professor in the Department of History, received a fellowship to conduct research at the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, California. A specialist in Soviet and Russian history, Professor Robinson has long been interested in the arts and culture, particularly among the Russian emigrant population in the United States. His previous book, entitled Russians in Hollywood, led Professor Robinson to one of the most prolific filmmakers of the 20th Century: Lewis Milestone. Milestone directed such films as All Quiet on the Western Front, Of Mice and Men, and Ocean’s 11. Read More…
Note on Sources: Thanks
Many thanks to our administrative assistant Jennifer Mocarski and to our temporary staff member Samantha Christiansen for keeping the History Department running. For work on our website and the newsletter, special thanks go to Jennifer Mocarski, our departmental graduate research assistants Burleigh Hendrickson and Zach Scarlett, and our work-study students Hannah De Luna and Christopher Balino.