Historians in the News

Most Mississippians can’t pass U.S. citizenship exam. Is American history education the problem?

Nearly 70 percent of Mississippians failed test of basic knowledge of American history.

How 4 faculty helped create Columbia’s first African American and African Diaspora studies department

After decades of activism surrounding the University’s lack of dedicated scholarship to issues of race and ethnicity, Columbia approved its first African American and African Diaspora studies department last fall.

How fast food changed historian Marcia Chatelain's thinking about capitalism and race

An award-winning African-American history scholar and author on uncovering the structural causes of food poverty.

Marcus Hunter is redrawing the map of African-American history and culture in the United States

With ‘Chocolate Cities,’ Marcus Hunter seeks to incite new understanding of the history of black life in America

Daniel Immerwahr Profiled by Chicago Tribune

“How to Hide an Empire” builds towards a single, reality-scrambling concept: that the familiar map of the United States you know, sea to shining sea, Atlantic to Pacific, Canada to Mexico, is wrong.

This Retired Howard Professor Wants "Lift Every Voice and Sing" to Inspire Americans

Eugene Williams Sr., with support from his wife Mary Johnson, is trying to convince NBA teams and schools nationwide to play “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” at games or events during Black History Month. 

'The love was in the food': Culinary historian Michael Twitty leads chefs to Africa

In his TED Talk and elsewhere, Twitty likes to say, “race is the illusion, food is the reality,” and there’s “no such thing as food without politics.” 

Boston Mayor Mary Walsh Proposes Public History Project to Recognize Boston's Long Ties to Slavery

Boston is taking a step toward recognizing the role slavery played at one of its most visited landmarks.

Shepard University and Loyola University Awarded Grant to Create Historical Database

The project is a collaboration between Bankhurst and Roberts that aims to make the letters and petitions of British loyalists who fled the American Revolution housed in the British National Archives available in a digital archive.

Ancient Historian Lindsey Mazurek Discusses Public Engagement and Productivity

"There’s an image of the monk-like individual in the ivory tower, and I wish now that I had realized how ineffective it was for me."

Every Sunday, These Historians Go to the Movies — All in the Name of Digital Community

#HATM (Historians at the Movies) and public engagement. 

New Interactive Tool Maps the American War on Terror

by Stephanie Savell

In general, the American public has largely ignored these post-9/11 wars and their costs. But the vastness of Washington’s counterterror activities suggests, now more than ever, that it’s time to pay attention.

History has a massive gender bias. We’ll settle for fixing Wikipedia.

Only about 18 percent of Wikipedia’s biographical articles are about women. 

ASALH Black History Celebration Highlights Black Migration

The event included a panel with Jelani Cobb, Derek Musgrove, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, among others. 

Historians fight back as TV raids their research treasures for its shows

Academics demand that producers ensure that dramas and documentaries credit their work

N.J. schools will finally teach about LGBTQ history. Here’s what kids would learn.

If done right, New Jersey will help set the national agenda for teaching kids about gender and sexuality throughout history and across all subjects, exposing students to a past that’s largely been ignored.

Professor Juana María Rodríguez talks sex work’s history and the internet’s future

Although this humanities research project might read to many as a niche project in a small ethnic studies department, its cultural, political and technological implications loom large.

Historian Ana Raquel Minian Interviewed on How Trump's Wall Rhetoric Changes Lives in Mexico

Why does America detain so many illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in the first place?

"The North Star" Launches with Keisha N. Blain as Editor-in-Chief

Through written content, podcasts, video broadcasts, and an app, the new North Star editorial team plans to explore issues of civil rights, human rights, and social justice in America and around the world.

Cynthia E. Orozco presents at Latino history Texas symposium

Orozco is the author of "No Mexicans, Women or Dogs, the Rise of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement," a history of the origins of LULAC.