History at Emory

Congratulations, Leo!

We're excited to announce that Undergraduate Honors Fellow and History major Leo Raykher has won the 2026 FCHI Undergraduate Honors Award! 🌟⁠
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This award recognizes Leo's outstanding work on his thesis project and exemplary engagement in the Undergraduate Honors Fellowship this academic year. On winning the award, Leo shared:⁠
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"I'm so humbled and grateful to have been able to work with not only accomplished but compassionate people this past year at the Fox Center. This award is a culmination of all the time that I spent working on this project, which was deeply personal for me. I'm so honored that Dr. Freeman and the Fox Center team saw that in my work."⁠
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Congratulations, Leo! Read more on our site: https://fchi.emory.edu/news-events/news-articles/fchi-award-raykher.html

As King Charles III gets ready to address Congress, Prof. Patrick Allitt looks at America’s curious love affair with the British monarchy.
https://www.ajc.com/opinion/2026/04/king-charles-iii-and-americas-curious-love-affair-with-the-british-monarchy/

Congratulations to Rafi Escoto, who has had a paper published in the Central Europe Yearbook! The paper, “Everything Old is New Again: Border Rituals and the Return of History in ‘Green Border’”, analyses Agnieszka Holland’s 2023 film about refugees from the Middle East and Africa who attempt to reach the European Union, only to become caught up in a geopolitical crisis triggered by the Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko.
Rafi initially wrote this paper in HIST 145: The History of Now, which is taught by Profs. Matthew Payne and Astrid M. Eckert.
Rafi is a junior and is currently studying abroad in Italy. You can find the paper here: https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cey/article/view/6880

Trouble the Land: Atlanta Student Movement With an emphasis on 1960, "Atlanta Student Movement" explores the origins and tactics of student-led civil rights activism in Atlanta, Georgia, through the voices of participants. Topics include the publication of "An Appeal for Human Rights," the boycott of Rich's Department Store, and the tensions...

The Atlanta History Center on Thursday night hosted Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographer Jon Meachem in conversation with Prof. Patrick Allitt of Emory's History Department. Meachem came to talk about his new book “American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union.”
If you have access to the AJC, an article about the event is here:

Trump and Jon Meacham came to Georgia with different messages about America The same day Donald Trump came to Georgia to make false claims about election results, presidential biographer Jon Meacham came to Atlanta to talk about preserving the union.

Don't Miss this Talk!

Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa vanished in 1975 outside a Detroit restaurant, and his death has been the stuff of enduring mystery and legend. But there's so much more to his story and the story of the Union he led in the 1950s when one-third of American workers belonged to unions.

Fearlessly organizing workers, using legal and illegal means, Hoffa and his friends were famous and infamous figures in the 1950s. This talk examines the impact of fame on Jimmy Hoffa’s friend group, showing how it shaped their work, their friendships, their s*x lives, their families, and their leisure time.

Sometimes people assume that labor activism allowed people to achieve the white picket fence life of the 1950s, as a union wage paid for a house in the suburbs where husbands were the sole breadwinner for wives and children. TEAMSTERS METROPOLIS, however, shows the Hoffa’s friends’ deep ambivalence about being “normal” was the key to their success as militant union activists.

Come hear Earlham College professor Ryan Murphy talk about his new book TEAMSTERS METROPOLIS next Monday at 4 p.m. in Bowden Hall 118! Open to all--undergraduate students are especially welcome to attend!

Sponsored by the Hightower Fund (in addition to departments listed on the flyer).

Presenting Undergraduate Research at the Annual Meeting - AHA Learn how to submit a proposal to present your undergraduate thesis or research at the AHA annual meeting.

We’re off to a great start this Fall 2025 🍂🎉 Join us in welcoming Dr. Jason Ashe to Emory Religion Department. He’ll be co-teaching REL 170-2 with Prof. Sara McClintock.

The IAS is happy to announce a seminar featuring our very own, Dr. Devaka Premawardhana, entitled “Male Initiation as Maternal Return in Northern Mozambique”.

This event will take place on Thursday, September 18, at 4 pm in Anthropology 206.

History graduate student, Beverly Val-Addo, will serve as the respondent for this talk.

The new semester is underway, and there are plenty of humanities events around Emory to explore! These events open to all. Click each link to learn more and register:

9/4, 7-9 pm: “The Ethics of Inspiration: Honoring Ancestors and Influences,” a conversation presented by the Emory Center for Ethics https://ethicsofinspiration25.eventbrite.com/

9/6, 2-3 pm: “Korean Traditions and Creativity Now,” a panel inspired by Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan, at Hill Auditorium, High Museum of Art , ticketed event, https://high.org/event/korean-traditions-and-creativity-now/

9/14, 3-4 pm: Curatorial talk by Margaret Nagawa celebrating the opening of special exhibition Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection
https://carlos.emory.edu/calendar

9/16, 4 pm: “Two Tribes: Real Life Stories of a Jewish Native American,” an author talk by Emily Bowen Cohen co-presented by Emory's Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies and the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies
https://js.emory.edu/news/index.html?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D188686146

9/20, 9 am-4 pm: “Celebrating 250 Years of Jane Austen,” a seminar organized by the Jane Austen Society of North America https://jane250.square.site/

9/26, 4-6 pm: “Southern Ground: The Legacy of Radcliffe Bailey and the Future of Black Contemporary Art in the South,” a panel discussion at Auburn Avenue Research Library, open to the public, registration required, https://fulcolibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/68b311392e852b9d40594f22

9/30, 7 pm: R. William Johnstone and Wyche Fowler in conversation with Prof Joe Crespino, an author talk at McElreath Hall, Atlanta History Center, ticketed event, https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/event/r-william-johnstone-in-conversation-with-wyche-fowler/

Photos: Speakers David Harrington & John Fenn; Kim Chong Hak, Untitled, 2024; Insistent Presence promotional poster; author Emily Bowen Cohen; JASNA promotional poster; speakers Sheila Pree Bright, Ato Ribeiro, Michi Meko, Navin Norling, and Karen Comer Lowe; "Wyche Fowler: A Political Life in Georgia, Congress, and Abroad" by R. William Johnstone