Department of History

Congratulations to Dr. Edward Gray, professor of early American history, who recently published "Mason Dixon: Crucible of the Nation" with Harvard University Press (https://bit.ly/46VA6n4).

Book overview:
This is the first comprehensive history of the Mason-Dixon Line—a dramatic story of imperial rivalry and settler-colonial violence, the bonds of slavery and the fight for freedom.

The United States is the product of border dynamics—not just at international frontiers but at the boundary that runs through its first heartland. The story of the Mason-Dixon Line is the story of America’s colonial beginnings, nation building, and conflict over slavery.

Acclaimed historian Edward Gray offers the first comprehensive narrative of the America’s defining border. Formalized in 1767, the Mason-Dixon Line resolved a generations-old dispute that began with the establishment of Pennsylvania in 1681. Rivalry with the Calverts of Maryland—complicated by struggles with Dutch settlers in Delaware, breakneck agricultural development, and the resistance of Lenape and Susquehannock natives—had led to contentious jurisdictional ambiguity, full-scale battles among the colonists, and ethnic slaughter. In 1780, Pennsylvania’s Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery inaugurated the next phase in the Line’s history. Proslavery and antislavery sentiments had long coexisted in the Maryland–Pennsylvania borderlands, but now African Americans—enslaved and free—faced a boundary between distinct legal regimes. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the Mason-Dixon Line became a federal instrument to arrest the northward flow of freedom-seeking Blacks. Only with the end of the Civil War did the Line’s significance fade, though it continued to haunt African Americans as Jim Crow took hold.

Mason-Dixon tells the gripping story of colonial grandees, Native American diplomats, Quaker abolitionists, fugitives from slavery, capitalist railroad and canal builders, US presidents, Supreme Court justices, and Underground Railroad conductors—all contending with the relentless violence and political discord of a borderland that was a transformative force in American history.

Congratulations Dr. Gray!

Halloween is almost here! Still looking for costume ideas? Here’s some (mostly) historically accurate, last-minute costumes you could try 🎃
Post credit: Kristina

Let's welcome Lilly (she/her), one of our new social media interns. As a senior majoring in History and minoring in Humanities here at Florida State University , she is bringing her varied interests to our team, and we can't wait to see what content she will create! Welcome, Lilly!
Post credit: Anne

Honors in the Major Informational rescheduled!
Come and find out more about doing an Honors in the Major thesis in History. Speak to advisors, hear from students, ask your questions. Oct. 25 at 1.30pm on Zoom. Register for the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/45MFacw

Find out what it's like to write a senior seminar paper! Quentin Powell was fascinated by intellectual history and worked on the impact of the rhetoric of Coluccio Salutati on Renaissance Florence. Click fla.st/SWXJY00K to read the interview on the department's website.

Congratulations to Dr. Erik Braeden Lewis who is the winner of this year’s Mary Elizabeth Thomas Dissertation Prize. The Department of History awarded the prize to the most deserving dissertation that was defended in the past academic year (Fall 2022-Summer 2023).
The awarding committee felt that Erik Braeden Lewis’ dissertation, "The Émigré Homefront: Microhistories of Migration from the Franco-Spanish Borderlands during the Age of Revolutions,” is a sophisticated, analytically rich, and deeply researched dissertation. Lewis employs several microhistories to reconstruct the worlds of six émigré families traversing the Franco-Spanish border during the French Revolution. Whereas other studies have concentrated on individual émigré experiences, Lewis’ project underscores the primacy of the family unit in navigating shifting circumstances and legal statuses. Furthermore, the dissertation rests on an impressive body of research, which includes primary sources in French, Spanish, and Catalan dialects.

Lewis will deliver a presentation on his research at noon on Monday, November 13 in the Richardson Room (Bellamy 404).

The dissertation prize is named after Mary Elizabeth Thomas who taught at Florida State College for Women/ Florida State University from 1944 to 1985. She was the author of *Jamaica and Voluntary Laborers from Africa 1840-1865* (1974); she taught HIS 326/ AFH 3345 Africa Modern World; and she was one of the founding members of the European History Section of the Southern Historical Association in 1955 (one of only five women.)
Well done Dr. Lewis!

Meet Megan (She/Her)! She brings a fresh perspective to the social media internship as a STEM major and a freshman. You might catch her on campus as a part of the Themed Entertainment Association, the Film Club, Girls in Computer Science, and Dance Project FSU. We are so excited to welcome her both to Florida State University and the FSU History social media team.
Post credit: Kristina

Did you know that Florida State University has recently established a Native American and Indigenous Studies Center? We talked with Dr. Andrew Frank, its director, about the history and mission of the Center and his vision for NAIS for the next ten years. Click fla.st/UD51BOC7 to read the interview.

Are you ready for the new Napoleon movie?
Rafe Blaufarb, Professor of History, Director and Ben Weider Eminent Scholar in Napoleonic Studies at Florida State University, discusses the life and times of Napoleon.
Click on fla.st/LXQA8RKH to read the interview.

Registration for Spring 2024 at Florida State University has started! Here is some information on History's special topics courses and History courses that have recently been approved.

Celebrate Indigenous People's Day with media highlighting a variety of Indigenous experiences. From documentaries to magical realism, poetry to anthology, or punk to 70s' number one hits, discover art from an Indigenous perspective!
Post credit: Anne
Images credit: Leon County Public Library, IMDB, Wikipedia

Meet Alyssa!
Alyssa (she/her) has been an intern for the History social media team since Spring 2023. She is currently obtaining her degree in Public Relations (PR) from Florida State University and hopes to find work in events and social media, potentially in the travel/ tourism industry.
Post credit: Brooke

Congratulations to PhD candidates Danielle Wirsansky and Alice Zhang who have been awarded the Walbolt and Martin-Vegue graduate fellowships for Spring 2024 respectively.

Danielle Wirsanskys plans to study in the UK at such archives as the Special Operations Executive Archives, the National Archives of the UK, and the Arolsen Archives at the Wiener Library.

Alice Zhang intends to finish the first draft of her dissertation and complete transcribing the 33 oral history interviews she has so far conducted. Her dissertation offers a history of Chinese adoptees' diasporas in the United States from 1953 to 2015, during which time Americans adopted Chinese children from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China.

Thanks to a generous gift from Dan and Sylvia Walbolt, FSU's Department of History has been able to offer the Walbolt Dissertation Fellowships for dissertation research and writing since 2010.
George Boyd Martin-Vegue, a Latin American specialist and former faculty member at Florida State University, left a generous donation to the department that funds this graduate research fellowship. Professor Martin-Vegue received his PhD from UT Austin in 1951.

Congratulations to Paul Renfro, Ph.D. (Department of History) published “The Left Can’t Stop Wondering Where Bill Clinton Went Wrong. The Answer Explains a Lot” in Slate magazine. Well done!

Faculty and staff briefs September 2023 - Florida State University News Florida State University’s faculty and staff are central to its mission and the key to its countless accomplishments. Throughout the […]

Don't miss this 'career jumpstart' workshop co-organized by our own Dr. Kathleen Powers Conti. Register now.

Join Museum Hue and the National Council on Public History on Thursday, October 12, for the second Hueniversity: Career Jumpstart session. During Application, Resume, and Cover Letter Best Practices, discover new ways to amplify your next application and land your dream role. This session will cover best practices for writing stellar resumes, tailoring strong cover letters, and surviving the application process. Learn from Meghan Hillman, Program Manager at the National Council on Public History, Kathleen Powers Conti, a Public Historian and Preservation Professional, and Sierra Van Ryck DeGroot, the Deputy Director at Museum Hue, as they review sample resumes and answer questions from attendees.

Hueniversity: Career Jumpstart: Application, Resume, and Cover Letter Best Practices is $10 for general admission and free for Museum Hue members. Register here https://bit.ly/3RBDcIq

Congratulations, Dr. Culver!

Annika Culver, Ph.D. at the Department of History, participated in a week-long delegation to South Korea as part of the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Foundation’s Bridging the Divide Korea Program.

Congratulations on this achievement!

Are you interested in the history of early America? Take a look at these recommendations from Dr. Ed Gray to explore outside the classroom.
Post idea: Kristina
Photo credits: Wikipedia, Good Reads

This fall- say hello again to Anne (she/her)! She's been a member of our team since Summer ‘23. A History and Political Science major from Spring Hill, Fla, we are excited to welcome Anne back for her 2nd season FSU History!
Post credit: Megan

The History Department’s beloved Dr. Laurie Wood passed away earlier this year after a journey with metastatic breast cancer.
Please join us on Oct. 6, 2023, at 4:00pm [EST] on Zoom as we celebrate our colleague, friend, and mentor, Dr. Laurie Wood.
Registration is required: https://rb.gy/ts2er

Save the date!
Honors in the Major Informational for History majors: Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 1.20pm on Zoom. If you are interested in doing an in-depth research project in a topic of your choice under the supervision of a faculty committee, come and attend the meeting to find out more.
To preregister for the informational event, please take the following link and fill out the preregistration page. Upon completion of this, you will receive an automated email with the Zoom link to the event:
https://fsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAudOuqpzIoHdaQ5f0A5lgYTHNsdZ4CpgX_

This fall- say hello again to Brooke (she/her)! A History and Creative Writing major from Tampa, Brooke is excited to return to FSU History for another semester. A lover of all things narrative and creative, Brooke enjoys fantasy, Sci-Fi, and historical media. We are thrilled to welcome Brooke back to the team for this fall!
Post credit: Annalia

Senior Seminars in History, Spring 2024

The senior seminar is the capstone course that every History major gets to take. Central to the senior seminar is a semester-long research project that will result in a substantial written paper.
The paper is based on your own research and analysis. This is your chance to do independent, in-depth research and writing on the subject of your choice!

Every semester, we offer a number of senior seminars that cover different areas of the world, different time periods, different themes. In Spring 2024 there will be:

HIS 4935-001 U.S. Since 1979 Dr. Paul Renfro Mondays, 9-11.45 AM
HIS 4935-002 Researching & Writing the Holocaust Dr. Robert Gellately Tuesdays, 3-5.45PM
HIS 4935-003 Benjamin Franklin Dr. Ed Gray Mondays, 3-5.45 PM
HIS 4935-004 Law & Society in East Asia Dr. Weiwei Luo Tuesdays, 9-11.45AM
HIS 4935-005 Latinx History Dr. Robinson A. Herrera Tuesdays, 12-2.45PM

Congratulations to Emily Lu, PhD candidate in East Asian history, who has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays DDRA grant for research in Japan. She will be using the research grant to work on her dissertation project, tentatively titled "Toward an East Asian Utopia: ambition and illusion in wartime Japanese Military Music, 1868-1945."
It is a study of the production, dissemination, and consumption of Japanese military songs, or gunka 軍歌, in the wartime homefront, by specifically examine gunka songs with references to imperial Japan's outer periphery: Manchuria/Northeast China, Korea, and Taiwan.
Lu will also explore the intellectual and physical journeys of gunka musicians who traveled to the imperial periphery. Her host country affiliation is generously provided by Prof. MANABE Masayuki at Waseda University, and she plans to be in Japan for seven months in 2024 from February to September.
Lu is grateful to her comps and dissertation committee members: her major advisor Dr. Annika Culver, Dr. Matthew Mewhinney from the Department of Modern Languages, Dr. Panayotis League from the College of Music, Dr. Weiwei Luo and Dr. Maximilian Scholz from the History Department. In addition, Dr. Keith McCall at the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards has been unconditionally supportive, and none of this would have been possible without his help.

Meet Elly! Elly is a senior studying History with a minor in Education. She joined the FSU History Social Media Team because she loves all things social media and history-related!
On campus, you might find her studying at the student union or at her sorority house, Chi Omega! In her free time, she likes to play the piano, listen to music, and hang out with her two cats Ozzy & Bowie! Welcome Elly 💛✨
Post credit: Alyssa

The Advisory Board for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Florida State University is proud to announce its Undergraduate Essay Contest in Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies. This contest is meant to highlight the insights and analysis possible using the sources and methodologies associated with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies across the disciplines. The winner of the contest will receive a $250 prize, presented at an awards ceremony to be held in the Spring 2024 semester.
Find out more at https://ws.artsandsciences.fsu.edu/undergraduate-essay-contest

Notes From The Workfront: Arad Gigi (FSU PhD 2018)
In this article, we hear from Arad Gigi who shares how his academic training prepared him to work for a market research firm with a higher education practice. Click on fla.st/NAPG7283 to read more.

Meet Kristina! She is a senior here at Florida State University, majoring in both History and Philosophy. This is her third semester as a FSU History social media intern, and she absolutely loves it! She is a proud Virgo and an avid lover of history and culture, which is why she loves traveling around the world! Let’s give a warm welcome back to Kristina!
Post credit: Elly

Are you interested in the history of modern Latin America? Take a look at these recommendations from Dr. Robinson A. Herrera to explore outside the classroom.
Are there any history topics you'd like to see recommendations for? Let us know in the comments.

Post idea: Kristina
Photo credits: Wikipedia, Good Reads, IMDB

Congratulations Dr. Blaufarb!

Rafe Blaufarb, Professor at the Department of History, was awarded a long-term residential fellowship to support his project, “Moral Regeneration, Financial Crisis, and Capitalism in the French Revolution,” which investigates how the new political order created by the French Revolution was shaped by a clash between two different forms of capitalism.

To read more: https://buff.ly/3P5GrEX

Congratulations on this achievement!

Congratulations Dr. Palmer!

James A. Palmer, Ph.D. at the Department of History, presented the paper “Imagining Islam in Late Medieval Rome: The Case of the Anonimo Romano” at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, United Kingdom.

Congratulations on this achievement!

Congratulations to Annika Culver, Ph.D. who participated in a week-long delegation to South Korea as part of the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Foundation’s Bridging the Divide Korea Program and to Paul Renfro, Ph.D. who was interviewed for the Slate article “Did the ‘Runaway Train’ Music Video Really Save 21 Kids?”
Well done!

Faculty and Staff Briefs July 2023 - Florida State University News Florida State University’s faculty and staff are central to its mission and the key to its countless accomplishments. Throughout the […]

London Calling - Informational Meeting: 9/ 20 @ 3pm in Bel 421.

The FSU History Department and FSU London Study Center are working together to offer a history-intensive semester on a regular rotation. Led by a History instructor from the main Tallahassee campus, History majors will be able to take a wide selection of courses that fulfill their major and other course map requirements.

This History-Intensive Semester will also be useful for anyone wishing to complete a minor in one semester, as the History courses combined with the other offerings at the FSU London Study Center fulfill the requirements for a British Studies minor.

Courses offered regularly in London and likely to be of interest to History majors include: British Life and Culture, Comparative Govt: Great Britain, Tudor England, Intro to Theatre, Shakespeare, Nineteenth-Century Europe, Art and Art History, World Religions, Intro to Archaeology, Sociology of Mass Media, Photography, and Public Speaking.

We anticipate the next History-Intensive Semester will be in Fall 2025. Charles Upchurch, Professor of British history, is scheduled to lead the lead the program, teaching two 3000-level courses that count towards History, diversity, and lower-division writing credit within the FSU Liberal Studies program.

Also, for those students who are interested, Prof. Upchurch will guide students in the use of the libraries and archives where he conducts his academic research in London, helping students to frame achievable research projects building from their interests. This will be an excellent opportunity to create a writing sample for professional and graduate school applications.

Tuition for a semester-long program in London is usually set for all students (both in-state and out-of-state) at the current out-of-state tuition rate. For more information on History programs in London, including the semester-long program for History majors, contact: Charles Upchurch - Professor of British History, Florida State University 113 Collegiate Loop, 401 Bellamy Bldg., Tallahassee, FL 32306-2200,

For more information about London Study Center programs in general, contact: Florida State University International Programs (https://international.fsu.edu) A5500 University Center (850) 644-3272