University of Rochester Humanities Center

Numerous humanities faculty members at the University of Rochester were appointed to named professorships during the first half of 2026. An honor designed to recognize the national stature of a professor’s work, the named positions are part of a long-standing tradition to celebrate the work of URochester’s faculty as researchers, scholars, and teachers.

Congratulations to the following faculty:

Michael Jarvis, a professor of history, has been jointly appointed as the Dexter Perkins Professor in History. His research spans early Atlantic and maritime history using historical archaeology and material culture to study trade, migration, and colonization networks. The position honors the late Dexter Perkins, a prominent American diplomatic historian who helped establish URochester’s graduate program in history and served as chair of the Department of History for nearly 30 years.

Alison Peterman, an associate professor of philosophy, has been jointly appointed as Arthur Satz Professor of the Humanities. Her research interests include early modern philosophy, philosophy of science, and philosophy of perception. The professorship is among several humanities professorships named for the late Arthur Satz ’51, a music major and the late president emeritus at the New York School of Interior Design.

Brianna Theobald, an associate professor of history, has been appointed as the Joseph F. Cunningham Professor. Theobald is an award-winning teacher and researcher in the fields of US women’s and gender history, Native American history, and the history of reproduction. The professorship was established by the late Joseph Cunningham ’67 (MA) and his wife, Andrea, to support a scholar in history, particularly modern European and American history.

The Humanities Center is pleased to congratulate our 2026-2028 Postdoctoral Fellow, Liliya Dashevski, on receiving the 2026 Junior Prize for Outstanding Toy Research from the International Toy Research Association (ITRA).

Dashevski received the award for her article, "'Shuffling the Russian Empire': Konstantin Gribanov's Geographical Cards of Russia," which is forthcoming in the edited volume Fragile Matters: The Russian Empire and Material Culture (currently under review for publication by Bloomsbury).

The ITRA Junior Prize recognizes exceptional early-career scholarship based on originality, significance, creativity, methodology, clarity of presentation, and overall contribution to the field. Dashevski is also serving as a keynote speaker at the 10th ITRA World Conference in Augsburg, Germany, where she is presenting her award-winning research.

Congratulations to Liliya on this well-deserved international recognition!

Humanities Center Director Peter Christiansen’s recent article "The Bağdat Demiryolu: German Topography between Science and Orientalism" has just been published in Muqarnas. You can access it online here: https://brill.com/view/journals/muqj/42/1/article-p227_9.xml.

The Bağdat Demiryolu: German Topography between Science and Orientalism "The Bağdat Demiryolu: German Topography between Science and Orientalism" published on 10 Jul 2026 by Brill.

Humanities Center fellow Philip McHarris joined Tavis Smiley on the Tavis Smiley Podcast on June 29. McHarris, an assistant professor of Black studies, explains how the Democratic Socialists of America’s victories in New York’s primary could revive the push to “Defund the Police” and why some Black leaders are already pushing back.

Philip V. McHarris joins Tavis Smiley Assistant Professor in the Department of Black Studies and the Frederick Douglass Institute at the University of Rochester, Philip V. McHarris explains how the

In this essay, Scholar in Exile Shohreh Laici draws on personal experience and analysis to explore the complex connections between football, identity, and geopolitics. Please read her new essay published by Democracy in Exile (The DAWN Journal):

From the World Cup to War. I Learned That Iran Is More Than the Islamic Republic. - DAWN When I was 12 years old, I watched Iran play the United States in the 1998 World Cup, Iran’s first major international tournament since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. I remember my father, an Iran-Iraq War veteran and a strong supporter of the revolution, cheering. He kissed the Iranian flag where t...

Congratulations to Nicholas Gresens, a faculty member in the Department of Religion and Classics since 2009, who will assume the role of associate vice provost for academic honesty education and outreach, effective July 1. This new role, situated in Academic Excellence, underscores URochester’s commitment to fostering a culture of academic integrity.

Congratulations to Scholar in Exile Shohreh Laici, whose new essay "My Mother's Voice: Messages from Tehran," was published today in LitHub. You can read the full piece here:

My Mother’s Voice: Messages From Tehran The walls were cracked, the ceiling collapsing. Ruins underfoot. My manuscript spread haphazardly across the areas untouched by rubble. Pages lifting and settling on top of one another in the early…

Tanya Bakhmetyeva, Associate Professor of History and Associate Director of the Humanities Center at the University of Rochester, has been invited to participate in Cryohistories and Cryosciences: A Decade of Action, an international workshop to be held at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, on July 9–10, 2026.

The workshop is an invitation-only event bringing together just twelve scholars from around the world whose research bridges the histories of the cryosphere, climate science, and environmental knowledge. Participants will explore how historical perspectives can contribute to the United Nations Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025–2034), a global initiative focused on understanding and responding to the rapid transformation of the world's ice environments.

A key outcome of the workshop will be a collaborative position paper examining how historians and scientists can work together to produce more meaningful histories of glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost, and climate change. Bakhmetyeva's participation reflects her ongoing research on the history of glaciology, cryospheric science, and environmental knowledge in the Soviet Union and Central Asia, including her current book project (with Stewart Weaver) on the Fedchenko Glacier, the world's longest glacier outside the polar regions.

The men’s World Cup kicks off this week, with tournament games being played across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. URochester expert Pablo Sierra Silva, an associate professor of history, unpacks the history, identity, migration, fandom, and politics that collide on soccer’s biggest stage.

You can also catch up with Sierra Silva in the latest Office Hours feature from the spring 2026 issue of Rochester Review: https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/2026-world-cup-history-football-soccer-706792/