SBU History Department

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SBU History Department

Undergraduate Department @ Stony Brook University. History is the systematic study of peoples, states, and societies from antiquity to our current times.

08/26/2026

📚 New Review | Shallow Blue Empire

We’re excited to celebrate Stony Brook University environmental historian Tamara Surani Fernando, whose book Shallow Blue Empire: A History of Pearl Diving in the Indian Ocean, 1850–1930 is the subject of a new review in The Wall Street Journal.

The book explores the history of pearl diving in the Indian Ocean and the encounters between local, precolonial knowledge and British colonial efforts to map, document, and extract wealth from the sea.

As the review highlights, pearl divers possessed generations of intimate knowledge of reefs, currents, and the ocean floor—knowledge that became essential to colonial efforts to expand the pearl trade during the Great Pearl Boom.

🌊 Read the review: “Shallow Blue Empire” Review: The Riches Beneath the Sea in The Wall Street Journal.

🔗 Link in bio.
Image: Arab pearl-divers at work in the Persian Gulf from: George Frederick Kunz, The Book of the Pearl (New York: Century, 1908). Courtesy of Hathi Trust

08/23/2026

📚 Fall History Book Nook: Remembering & Reflecting on 9/11

This fall, History Book Nook invites students to come together to remember and reflect on 9/11 through campus-based sites, shared discussion, and opportunities for personal exploration.

Together, we’ll explore how 9/11 is remembered at Stony Brook and consider the ways history, memory, and personal experience shape the stories we carry forward.

📖 This semester’s book: The Red Bandanna by Tom Rinaldi

The book tells the inspiring story of Welles Crowther, whose courage, determination, and sacrifice on 9/11 have inspired millions—and whose life offers a lasting reflection on character, calling, courage, and the legacy we choose to leave behind.

🎓 Open to History majors, minors, and students from across campus!

📚 Books will be provided to History majors and minors first, with remaining copies available to registered students from other majors/minors while supplies last.

Come read with us. Come remember with us. Come reflect with us.

08/21/2026

📖 The fight over who controls American history continues.

Earlier this week, we shared Distinguished Professor Chris Sellers and Beth English’s Dissent article, “Who Owns American History?” Their piece examines how battles over the nation’s history are increasingly intertwined with battles over democracy.

A new interactive investigation from The Guardian offers a powerful look at what that fight can look like on the ground, examining censorship and changes to historical interpretation in America’s national parks under the Trump administration.

Read The Guardian’s investigation: “The National Parks’ History Is Being Rewritten.”

🔗 Link in bio.
Illustration: Guardian Design/Save Our Signs

08/18/2026

📚 Who Owns American History?

Distinguished Professor Chris Sellers and Beth English examine how, under the second Trump administration, the fight over history has become a fight over democracy.

Who gets to decide what stories are remembered, whose voices are heard, and who is trusted with the country’s memory?

🔗Read their latest article in Dissent: “Who Owns American History?”

Image: President Donald Trump at the Great American State Fair in June 2026. (Andrew Harnik/Getty)

08/14/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Dr. Sara Lipton on receiving the 2025–2026 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching!

This prestigious SUNY-wide honor recognizes faculty who demonstrate consistently outstanding teaching and an unwavering commitment to student success.

A distinguished historian of the medieval world, Dr. Lipton's research explores religious identity, Jewish-Christian relations, and the intersection of art, culture, and lived experience. Her scholarship continues to shape the field while inspiring generations of students in and beyond the classroom.

Please join us in celebrating this well-deserved recognition! 👏💙🐺

08/11/2026

Congratulations to Sheila Argueta, History B.A. alumna, on receiving the Ward Melville Valedictorian Award!

The Ward Melville Valedictorian Award recognizes the outstanding academic achievement of students who enrolled at Stony Brook University as first-year students. Sheila's dedication, hard work, and commitment to excellence have earned her this prestigious honor.

Congratulations, Sheila! We are proud to celebrate your incredible accomplishment and wish you continued success in all that comes next. 🎉💙

08/07/2026

Congratulations to History Major Evan Delgado, who is spent the summer preserving and uncovering local history through the support of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation!

Working alongside Madison Town Historian Diane Van Slyke, they have contributed to the Stories of the Stones project by helping restore the historic Indian Opening Cemetery, cleaning and repairing centuries-old gravestones belonging to pioneer settlers and veterans of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War.

Their research into the lives of those buried there also played a key role in the recent unveiling of a Pomeroy Foundation patriot marker, with their historical profiles featured in the event's commemorative brochure.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation supports projects that preserve and promote the history of Long Island and New York, making opportunities like this possible. We are proud to see our students applying their historical training to meaningful public history work while helping preserve our shared past.

Congratulations on this outstanding achievement! 👏📚

08/05/2026

📚 Who gets to tell the story of American history?

A new essay, Saving America’s Story: A Declaration, examines the recent White House report criticizing the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and raises a larger question about the role of historians in shaping how we understand the past.

History is not a collection of “settled truths.” As new evidence emerges and historians ask new questions, our understanding of the past evolves. Bringing previously overlooked voices and experiences into the historical narrative doesn’t erase history; it makes our understanding of it more complete.

Complexity. Context. Nuance. Debate. These are not weaknesses of historical scholarship. They are the work of historians.

The essay argues that defending the professional practice of history means defending the importance of examining the American past in all of its complexity and ensuring that history remains grounded in evidence, research, and critical inquiry.

📖 Read the full essay: Saving America’s Story: A Declaration
🔗 Link in bio.

Image: Visitors at the National Museum of American History’s Star Spangled Banner Exhibit. (Image: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History.)

08/03/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Dafina Nedelcheva on receiving a Dissertation Research Grant from the American Society for East European and Eurasian Studies!

This award will support Dafina’s dissertation research, “Liberation and Its Discontents: Gender, Monumentality, and the Layered Afterlives of Empire in Post-Socialist Bulgaria,” which explores questions of memory, identity, gender, and the enduring legacies of empire in post-socialist Bulgaria.

Many congratulations to Dafina on this well-deserved recognition! 👏

07/31/2026

A history degree can take you anywhere. 📚➡️🩺

Meet alumnus Mitchell S. Fourman, MD, M.Phil., FAAOS, whose journey from history major to orthopaedic spine surgeon demonstrates the power of a humanities education. Now an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Spine Surgery and Director of Spine QA/QI and Education, Dr. Fourman shares how studying history strengthened his analytical thinking, leadership, and commitment to teaching.

Read his Alumni Spotlight to learn about his career path, the role historical thinking plays in medicine, and his advice for current history students.

Address

Department Of History, Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY
11794

Telephone

+16316327500

Website

https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/history/, http://linktr.ee/SBUhistory

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