SIU History

04/11/2026

We are pleased to announce that PhD candidate Emine Turkmen is a winner of this year’s Dissertation Research Assistantship Award. This fellowship allows Emine to spend the next year completing her groundbreaking dissertation, “Forging an Ally: The Marshall Plan and the Transformation of the Turkish Health System.” Congratulations!

04/07/2026

Summer course (May 2026) - "Food and History."

03/24/2026

Upcoming event to commemorate “America at 250.” Please attend an event marking America’s birthday, where two leading scholars present opposing viewpoints on the meaning of the Declaration of Independence.

04/12/2025

The School of History and Philosophy had two winners in this year's teaching awards.

Sabrina Starnaman (Philosophy) won Outstanding Non-Tenure Track Teacher of the year.

Emine Turkmen (PhD candidate, History) won Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the Year.

We are very proud of their teaching excellence and devotion to students!

(Starnaman on left, Turkmen on right)

04/05/2025

Will Brady is this year's winner of the Edward J. O’Day Award for best undergraduate paper in History. His paper is entitled "'Between Something Staged and Something Real': Katherine Dunham's Evolution from Academia to Broadway." Dr. Ted Cohen was Will's advisor.

This evening, Will and other SIU musicians performed a score from Katherine Dunham's work, "Dances from L'Ag'Ya."

Great work!

03/10/2025

For Women's History Month, an interesting story on the inventor of the dishwasher.

Gilded Age socialite Josephine Cochrane transformed the way we clean dishes.

02/24/2025

02/03/2025

Check out Season 3 (eight episodes) of “Chapters,” the SIUC History podcast channel. https://open.spotify.com/show/3aurGw14tvjPxk4lusJiVk

01/24/2025

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/can-you-read-this-cursive-handwriting-the-national-archives-wants-your-help-180985833/

Anyone with an internet connection can volunteer to transcribe historical documents and help make the archives' digital catalog more accessible

10/28/2024

We are very proud of our history student Carlos Gomez, who won this year's Lincoln Laureate Award. Congrats, Carlos!

A history major from the western suburbs of Chicago with a strong admiration for President Abraham Lincoln is the 2024 Lincoln Academy of Illinois student laureate for Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

10/27/2024

Our recent PhD, David Kemp, interviewed Cornel West this past week. The interview occurred at Benedict University, where David teaches African American and Atlantic history. The audio is here: https://tinyurl.com/2tt3yd3b

09/18/2024

SIU students learn how to produce podcasts based on their own research. Season 3 episodes released today! Check it out:

Remember, today is SIU's Day of Giving. https://www.givecampus.com/schools/SouthernIllinoisUniversityFoundation/day-of-giving-fy25/pages/COLA

Chapters is written, edited, and produced by SIUC History Students at the Digital Humanities Podcasting Lab at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Every Sunday from June 7th to August 23rd at 5:30pm we will debut a new "chapter" into history. Join Ben and Josh as they talk to student researcher...