Rochester HISTORY
An Annual Newsletter of the Department of History of the University of Rochester
Now available online at http://www.rochester.edu/college/his/resources/alumni.html
History 2013
A WORD FROM THE CHAIR
This has been a busy and successful year for the
History Department. We are moving forward on a number of fronts, including our hiring plan, our new emphasis on global history, and pursuit of initiatives in digital
history.
This past December, we hired Pablo Sierra (PhD
UCLA, 2013) as our new historian of the African Diaspora. Pablo is one of an avant garde of scholars moving
into study of the African Diaspora in Mexico, an important history that has almost disappeared from scholarship and Mexican public discourse. His dissertation,
which focuses on Afro-Mexican slavery in the textile
center of Puebla during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, mines remarkable and little-used municipal
archives.
In the spring we concluded a second search, for
an historian of late medieval/early modern Europe, hiring Thomas Devaney (PhD Brown University, 2011).
Tom’s book manuscript, No One Shall Wear Mourning:
Urban Spectacle and the End of the Spanish Frontier, now under review at University of Pennsylvania Press, focuses
on pageants and ceremonies sponsored by Christian nobles, churches and town councils on the frontier between Castile and Muslim Granada in the second half of
the fifteenth century. He argues that the organizers of
these events sought to ameliorate tensions between the
Christian and Muslim populations.
Pablo and Tom have the kind of intercultural and
geographical reach that the department seeks as part of
its new direction towards trans-regional, transnational,
and global history. They also will contribute to expanding our undergraduate curriculum in the histories of Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Islamic world,
and early modern history.
We have also been very fortunate to bring on
board a new lecturer, Molly Ball (PhD UCLA, 2013), an
economic historian of modern Brazil. Molly will be
teaching Brazilian history and economic history for the
department in the coming academic year.
Several faculty and graduate students garnered
university-wide honors this year. Ted Brown was appointed to a newly endowed chair, the Charles E. and
Volume 7
Dale L. Phelps Professorship in Public Health and Policy. Dick Kaeuper won the Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Dahpon Ho was
awarded the G. Graydon Curtis `58 and Jane W. Curtis
Award for Nontenured Faculty Teaching Excellence,
and PhD candidate John Portlock received the Edward
Peck Curtis Awards for Excellence in Teaching by a
Graduate Student.
The university leadership has undertaken a major initiative this year in digital science. This is an area
where the department already has strengths, which we
aim to increase. In the field of digital history, Tom
Slaughter has been working with students on the digitalization of the Seward archives held at Rush Rhees Library. Michael Jarvis is developing computer software
that uses GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology to image historical change in Bermuda, from demographics to settlement patterns, to trade.
To close on a more somber note, this past October Stewart Weaver and other department members organized a symposium and memorial service for our colleague Lynn Gordon, who passed away in February
2012. Among many other accomplishments, Lynn was
the author of a path-breaking study of college women
during the Progressive Era and one of the founders of
the university’s Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s
Studies. She was a great friend and colleague. We will
miss her.
MATTHEW LENOE
IN THIS NEWSLETTER
HAAC Happenings .......................................................... 2
News from the Undergraduate Program ................... 2-3
News from the Graduate Program................................. 3
Department Events Through The Year .................... 3-5
History’s Life Lessons .................................................. 5-6
Faculty Awards .............................................................. 6-8
Reading for a Rainy Day .................................................. 8
Faculty News ................................................................. 8-9
Graduate Student Activity ......................................... 9-10
Alumni News and Reminiscences .......................... 10-13
In Memoriam ............................................................. 13-14
Degrees, Prizes, and Awards ................................... 15-17
History 2013
Page 2
Rochester HISTORY
ALUMNI ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Carl Angeloff `53
Edward Atwater `50
Barbara Berg `65
Dana Bradley `83
James Capua `71
Barry Cohen `66
William Gamble `50
Jon P. Getz `89
Francis Grebe `54
Robert Kirkwood, PhD `56
Adam Konowe `90
Marion Maneker `86
Amy Phelan `91
Jeffrey Reznick `92
Nancy Kelts Rice `58
Peter S. Szabo `85
James Shedel, PhD `78
Curtis Vock `87
Randall B. Whitestone `83
G. Robert Witmer, Jr. `59
Mark S. Zaid `89
Mitchell Zuckerman `68
HAAC HAPPENINGS
In September 2012, Matt Lenoe and Phil
Castleberry of the advancement office met alums Bob
Kirkwood and Frank Grebe. They discussed over lunch
the future of the department and its new global history
direction as well the fundraising campaign to endow the
Dexter Perkins Chair.
The Alumni Advisory Council met during
Meliora Weekend 2012. Matt Lenoe briefed alumni on
changes in the graduate school program, including the
abolition of the division of the program into three fields
– American, European, and Global History – and the
shift to more individualized programs for graduate
students. Other matters discussed included the job
searches in the history of the African Diaspora and late
medieval/early modern Europe. Attendees made a
number of helpful suggestions related to fundraising,
acquisition of more space for department offices, and
connecting alums more with undergraduates. We are
very grateful to those who attended - Phil Castleberry,
Frank Grebe, Robert Kirkwood, Adam Konowe,
Nancy Kelts Rice, Randall Whitestone, and Mark Zaid
who were joined by Ted Brown, Dick Kaeuper, Joan
Rubin and myself from the department. We look
forward to another fruitful meeting this year.
On March 4, 2013 we had a second HAAC
meeting and teleconference; we are now aiming to have
two council meetings per year. Mark Zaid, Randall
Whitestone, Barry Cohen, and Adam Konowe were
present. They made a number of helpful suggestions,
such as connecting department digital initiatives with
local companies pioneering Geographic Information
Systems technology, creating a department Facebook
page and alumni listserv, and increasing faculty visibility
through free public online lectures and speaking at
more alumni events. We will be implementing some of
these suggestions over the next year.
Mary L. Mitchell `47 of Rochester passed away
in March of last year. Last month we received a
distribution from her estate just shy of $12,000 for the
Perkins Professorship. We would also like to extend our
warmest thanks to Bob Kirkwood and Frank Grebe for
their contributions to the Perkins fund. We have now
reached our $1.5 million goal and are looking forward
to appointing and installing the inaugural Perkins
Professor.
MATTHEW LENOE
DEPARTMENT CHAIR
NEWS FROM THE
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
This has been a great year for undergraduate
students at the UR. We offered a total of 77 courses,
including several new gateway courses (introductory
seminars for history majors) covering topics ranging
from American sports to the Eastern Front in World
War II. Besides our usual array of curricular favorites,
Kristin Poling taught a very popular seminar on the
great cities of 19th-century Europe and I taught a very
hands-on course covering the archaeology of early
America. Tom Slaughter pioneered a pair of courses
immersing students in documentary editing and digital
history, having them transcribe, annotate and get webready selected family letters from the UR’s William
Seward collection.
It has also been a productive and
rewarding year for many of our majors. This spring we
sent 43 new history alumni into the world with our best
wishes for success. Seven completed honors theses,
including Cameron LaPoint, who also won a Fulbright
Scholarship to pursue further studies in Japan next year.
Rising Dan Gorman won a Beinecke Scholarship to
support his future graduate study, one of only four UR
students to have won this scholarship in the past 15
years. Adam Ondo, another rising senior, won the
History 2013
Page 3
Rochester HISTORY
College Writing Center’s university-wide top prize for
the best research paper of 2013. We also instituted a
new tradition by throwing a historically inflected party
for our graduating seniors aboard the Erie Canal boat
Mary Jemison and seeing our familiar River Campus from
a whole new perspective.
With three new faculty joining us in 2013-2014,
the History Department looks forward to expanding our
offerings in Latin American and early modern European
history as well as further develop in the areas of digital
history, experiential learning, and public history
internships.
MICHAEL JARVIS
DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
NEWS FROM THE
GRADUATE PROGRAM
As you may recall from last year’s newsletter, the
graduate program is now emphasizing comparative and
global history while continuing to make a place for more
traditional national histories. We also introduced a new
required course, History 501: Worlds of Inquiry, that
explores the work of several members of the
department faculty in order to acquaint all of our
graduate students with the nature of historical practice
both generally and as we understand it at Rochester.
As important as our rigorous curriculum,
however, is the context in which our MA and PhD
candidates undertake their studies - the community that
the students themselves have fashioned. All graduate
students in the department are automatically members
of the Graduate History Society (GHS), the umbrella
organization for a number of activities. One of these is a
series of talks devoted to professional development,
held about once a month. The job market is a perennial
concern of these events, but last year the series also
included a fascinating forum devoted to the ways in
which department faculty have balanced personal and
professional life. Another effort of the GHS is called
HOT, which stands for History on Tap; a monthly
gathering at a local bar for students to socialize, often
with individually invited faculty members.
A third activity is History at Work (HAW).
Students meet every other week at the home of a
participant to discuss a previously distributed piece of
written work. Seminar papers, dissertation chapters,
prospectuses, lectures, and syllabi have all come in for
analysis. Topics have included starting, revising, and
ending projects, as well as how to write and teach for
different audiences. Students at all stages of the program
mingle at HAW. As PhD student Amy Negley notes,
“We have all found the experience incredibly rewarding,
not just as writers getting feedback on our work, but
also as graduate students learning how to read critically,
comment constructively, and hold academic
conversations.”
Finally, each year the GHS runs a graduate
student conference that draws panelists from outside
the university as well as from the ranks of Rochester
students. It features a keynote speaker and a theme of
broad interest. Now heading into its fifth year, the
graduate student conference has successfully introduced
new students to the nature of professional exchange and
increased the visibility of our program. Organizers are
hoping to expand the conference next time around.
Apart from the activities of the GHS, our
graduate program is enriched by the department
workshop, in which all PhD students are required to
present their work (typically an aspect of the
dissertation) at some point in their studies. Many
students also attend the Albion Tourgée Seminar in
American cultural and intellectual history, organized by
faculty members Daniel Borus and Robert Westbrook.
But the graduate student body can be especially proud
of the ways in which their own initiatives have enhanced
the scholarly and social climate of the department. I
look forward to another year of working with such an
energetic and committed group!
JOAN SHELLEY RUBIN
DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES
DEPARTMENT EVENTS
THROUGH THE YEAR:
MELIORA WEEKEND
The Department is launching its first Canal Boat
Tour, “Bagels and Locks,” this year during Meliora
Weekend. This wonderful fundraiser helps to support
our senior class boat tour and is a great opportunity to
see the University of Rochester like you’ve never seen it
before - on a trip up the Genesee and along the Erie
Canal in the Mary Jemison canal boat. This year, UR
History alum, Kayleigh Nutting ’08, will be our guide as
we enjoy a light brunch and spectacular fall foliage. The
event is such a great hit that it sold-out in less than two
hours, the first Meliora Weekend event to sell out!
Given the exceptionally high demand the department
will be chartering more than one cruise next year, so be
sure to register early.
History 2013
Rochester HISTORY
SEWARD COURSE UPDATE
Page 4
of Rochester History Department faculty members
helped make the day a great success. Professor Matthew
Lenoe, our department chair, gave the introductory
remarks for the conference, using the occasion to clue
attendees in on the proud tradition of deviance in
Russian history. UR professors Dorinda Outram, Jean
Pedersen, Dahpon Ho, and Daniel Borus each
moderated panels and helped facilitate lively and
engaging Q&A sessions. And finally, the University of
Rochester history graduate students would like to
especially thank Mr. John Testa, Class of `76 and
Vietnam War veteran, who presided over fact checking
at the conference, making sure the young budding
scholars got the story right. Next year’s conference is
already in the works, as we aim to build on this year’s
success.
The Seward Family in Peace and in War book
project is founded on two new courses, The Seward
Family’s Civil War and The Seward Family in Peace and
in War, as well as the digital editorial project that
supports them. As part of the project, students are
digitizing, transcribing, and editing the family’s
manuscript letters and journals, the vast bulk of which
are part of the Seward papers collection here at the UR,
and designing and building a website on which to post
their work. The work of two of the undergraduates this
summer is supported by Lessing/Landau Grants,
funded by Pamela Lessing (UR Class of 1972).
William Henry Seward, Lincoln’s secretary of
state, was also governor of New York, a state senator,
and a United States senator. The collection has rich
GRADUATE HISTORY SOCIETY
family materials that are deeply revealing about the
nineteenth-century history of women, adolescents, and
family relationships in America. Several members of the
Ferrari Symposium
family travelled the world, two were diplomats, and their
The Ferrari Symposium for this year,
correspondence and journals record experiences that
“Reformations in Western Thought,” actively engaged
place them in a global perspective.
members of the Department of History. Diarmaid
THOMAS SLAUGHTER
MacCulloch of the University of Cambridge, widely
EDITOR, REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
regarded as the foremost historian of Reformation
history today, provided the centerpiece lecture and
Deviants, Taboos, & Unmentionables participated in a number of informal meetings, including
a lunch with members of our department, hosted by
The fourth annual University of Rochester Matt Lenoe.
graduate student history conference took place Saturday,
Lectures in the course that was closely
February 23, 2013, in the Sloane auditorium of Goergen associated with the symposium were given by Dorinda
Hall. This year’s topic, “Deviants, Taboos, and Outram, Dick Kaeuper, and Christopher Guyol. Dick
Unmentionables,” set the stage for what proved to be and Chris also team-taught a new course supporting the
an academically enriching and thoroughly enjoyable day. symposium, “Monks and Knights,” to investigate the
Attendees were treated to papers ranging from the Black relationship between monastic spirituality and ideas and
Panther party’s links to North Korea to the radical practices of chivalry up to the Reformation and beyond.
politics of jazz and much more. In all, sixteen papers Translations of some sources unavailable in English
were presented by graduate students hailing from a were used in this class, with support from the
number of different institutions, including the Department of History and Dean Thomas DiPiero.
University of Buffalo, Cornell University, SUNY
For the formal plenary lecture by MacCulloch in
Brockport, as well as the University of Rochester and the Hawkins-Carlson Room of Rush Rhees Library,
the Eastman School of Music. The keynote speaker for Dick provided the introduction, a challenge, given our
the day was Professor Tom Lutz of University of guest’s massive accomplishments already praised in
California-Riverside. The author of historical works about six previous introductions by others at
such as American Nervousness, Crying, and Doing Nothing, symposium events!
Lutz proved the ideal commentator on deviance in
All the historians who met and talked with
American life in general, and the American academy in MacCulloch found welcome challenges to received ideas
particular.
on the crucially important early modern era and on
President of the Graduate History Society, Sam religious history in general.
Claussen, presided over the day’s events as the
RICHARD KAEUPER
conference emcee. In addition, a number of University
History 2013
Rochester HISTORY
Bermuda Field School
This past summer, Professor Michael Jarvis led a
team of six history and ATHS (Archaeology,
Technology and Historic Structures) majors on an
interdisciplinary expedition to Smiths Island, Bermuda.
Students engaged in historic research in the Bermuda
archives and archaeological excavations at two early
seventeenth-century house sites, among the oldest yet
found in Great Britain’s oldest colony.
During the four-week dig, students learned to
identify, date, and interpret artifacts and features such as
hearths, ovens, and postholes. The most exciting finds
include evidence of Native American slaves known to
have lived on Smiths Island in the late 1690s and the
foundations of a house thought to date to 1610.
Living in a 400-year-old seaport allowed us to
study the evolution of British colonial vernacular
architecture and change in local building techniques
over time. Primary research projects ranged from
studying Bermuda’s 1650s witchcraft crisis to 18thcentury medical history and maritime quarantine
legislation to Victorian fashion and Bermuda’s reAnglicization. Aside from formal study, students learned
practical boat handling (we commuted daily across the
harbor to work), snorkeled over pristine reefs, and
visited Bermuda’s pink sand beaches.
MICHAEL JARVIS
DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
CALL FOR COURSE PROPOSALS:
2014 PRE-COLLEGE PROGRAMS
University of Rochester faculty, staff, graduate
students, and alumni are invited to submit proposals for
Pre-College Programs’ 2014 summer sessions through
September 15, 2013.
Faculty in this unique program have the
opportunity to engage in meaningful youth outreach,
share knowledge with a receptive and eager audience,
and participate in a rewarding teaching experience
whilebeing compensated. Now in its 24th year, the
program continues to attract motivated, enthusiastic,
and energetic students.
Program information can be found at: https://
enrollment.rochester.edu/admissions/precollege/.
Course proposal forms are available online at: http://
enrollment.rochester.edu/admissions/res/pdf/
precollege/course_prop.pdf. If you have any questions,
contact Ursula Balent, Pre-College Programs Manager
ursula.balent@rochester.edu.
Page 5
HISTORY’S LIFE LESSONS:
Modeling History
Since leaving the History Department in 2006, I
have changed careers more than once. Yet, whether
working in the private sector, or in my current job in
foreign affairs, I have found the skills I acquired in the
department’s graduate program to be indispensable.
Classroom teaching helped me learn how to respond
quickly, yet thoughtfully, to difficult and often abstract
questions. Time spent writing my dissertation gave me
the opportunity to learn how to identify patterns among
large quantities of sources, create models, and explain
the added value of my analysis. In my current position
as a foreign service officer, I have found three lessons
from my study of history to be particularly useful.
First, professional diplomacy has discovered the
value of looking at the world through an inverted lens.
Historians stopped focusing exclusively on elites long
before E.P. Thompson published his study of the
English working class, yet this development has
influenced the practice of diplomacy only recently. The
State Department is now doggedly focused on
promoting democracy and economic opportunities from
the bottom-up. For example, the bulge in the youth
demographic in many corners of the world means that
there are countless opportunities to reach out to future
leaders. Diplomats are also looking at ways to engage
civil society through NGOs, mass movements, churches
and mosques, in strategies to reach out to youth and
women.
Second, my study of history suggests that even
the most repressive states contain competing power
centers, each harboring their own interests. For
example, changes in the structure of the North Korean
economy have changed the gender equation and
empowered women in new ways. While the use of social
media to facilitate mass social disobedience during the
Arab Spring has now been well documented, older
technology such as text messaging has recently
permitted ordinary voters to independently verify
polling results during recent elections in Kenya. And
mobile banking in emerging economies has started to
allow entrepreneurs to circumvent corrupt and often
willfully incompetent bureaucracies. Such examples are
reminders that even the most totalitarian societies aren’t
monolithic. Identifying the right pressure points can
inform the creation of policies that permit incremental
and positive change for large numbers of politically
disenfranchised people.
History 2013
Rochester HISTORY
Finally, my study of history emphasized the
significance of local concentrations of power. In the
twenty-first century, the developing and developed
worlds alike are still composed overwhelmingly of
nations of provincials. In Central Africa, where I am
currently serving, identity is rooted more strongly in
tribal and ethnic affiliation than in the nation, and
loyalty toward the head of state is valued over abstract
concepts like patriotism and civic responsibility. While
this frequently results in paralysis at the national level,
the local level often remains incredibly dynamic. In my
experience, local authorities and enterprising individuals
are often willing to work quickly to improve conditions
at the local level, by collaborating on improved access to
education, public health, and programs that empower
women.
Unlike many members of my cohort, my
graduate studies did not end with a position in
academia. However, I continue to be inspired by current
and past exchanges with students in the classroom. I am
confident as well that lessons learned during discussion
with Professors Weaver, Waters, Outram, Meehan,
Applegate, and many other colleagues will provide
inspiration wherever my career path may lead.
JONATHON KOEHLER
CLASS OF 2006
FACULTY AWARDS:
G. Graydon Curtis `58 & Jane W.
Curtis Award for Nontenured Faculty
Teaching Excellence: Dahpon Ho
Dahpon Ho, assistant professor in the
Department of History, is a specialist in East Asian
history who brings extraordinary creativity, passion, and
rigor to the classroom. Students say they are grateful for
the way his courses transform their views of East Asian
societies and develop their capacity to see history from
different perspectives. Ho’s colleagues say he is a skilled
teacher who can seamlessly integrate audiovisual
materials, innovative pedagogical methods, and
historical perspectives in his lessons. They consider him
a major contributor to the department’s undergraduate
curriculum and a gifted mentor for graduate students.
Ho’s principal interests are maritime history and
the influence on Chinese and East Asian history of
flows of trade, population, and goods. His first book
project, Sealords Live in Vain, tells the story of how the
maritime province of Fujian in southeast China was
transformed by trade and piracy into an outlaw frontier
Page 6
in the seventeenth century. In future projects, Ho wants
to examine topics such as population mobility in
Chinese history and also the rise of robotics and
cybernetics in East Asia.
His courses include “Modern China,” “Modern
East Asia,” “Tibet: History and Myth,” “The Chinese
Revolution,” “The Korean War,” and “Modernity
through East Asian Eyes.”
Before joining the History Department, Ho was
a history instructor at American University in
Washington, D.C. He received his bachelor’s degree in
Asian studies, economics, and history from Rice
University and his doctorate in history from the
University of California – San Diego.
“CURRENTS,” MAY 15, 2013
UR OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
2012 Goergen Award: Richard Kaeuper
When colleagues of Richard Kaeuper nominated
him for the 2012 Goergen Award, they pointed to a
long record of teaching success at Rochester. An
internationally recognized scholar of medieval history,
Kaeuper has published seven books, has one in press,
and three more in preparation. He is a two-time
recipient of the University of Rochester Student
Association’s Award to Teaching Excellence (1986,
1999), and a 1990 recipient of the Edward Peck Curtis
Teaching Award. In course evaluations and personal
letters, year after year Kaeuper’s students have
expressed deep appreciation for his strengths as a
teacher and passion for the subject matter.
“Students have praised him for challenging their
preconceptions about medieval history, pushing them to
think critically, surprising them with new approaches to
primary source documents, and teaching them writing
skills through intensive one-on-one collaboration,”
writes Matthew Lenoe, chair of the history department,
in a letter nominating Kaeuper for the award.
Stewart Weaver, professor of history, agrees.
“Long before ‘undergraduate research’ became a
signature mantra of student recruitment, Dick made it a
central feature of his seminar instruction,” Weaver
explains. “He simultaneously immerses his students in
the wealth of primary material available in our library
and instructs them in the best uses of the same.”
Among dozens of students who can speak to
Kaeuper’s influence on their academic careers, is
Katherine Newell Conwell `06, a current doctoral
candidate in early American history at Binghamton
University. “It was his genuine and contagious passion
History 2013
Page 7
Rochester HISTORY
for history that sparked my own love of historical
research early in my undergraduate career,” she writes.
“He has provided me with the necessary knowledge and
skills I need to continue on my journey to become the
best scholar and teacher I can be.”
MELISSA GRECO LOPES
PRESS OFFICER FOR
STUDENT LIFE AND TEACHING
Charles and Dale Phelps Endowed
Professorship in Public Health and
Policy: Ted Brown
Ted received his PhD in the History of Science
from Princeton in 1968 and did postdoctoral work in
History of Medicine and Public Health at Johns
Hopkins in 1969. After stints at the City University of
New York and Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study
he was hired by Rochester as part of a major renovation
of premed and medical school education. Since then
Ted has been a key player in the development of
interdisciplinary curricula in medicine, public health, and
the medical humanities. In recent years he was a major
contributor to the development of the Public Health
Program for undergraduates, which subsumes majors in
bioethics, epidemiology, health, behavior and society,
and health policy.
Ted has an extraordinary record of scholarship
and professional service. He published his first book,
The Mechanical Philosophy and the “Animal Economy”: A
Study of the Development of English Physiology During the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century, in 1981. In 1997-1998
he co-edited two books with Elizabeth Fee – a
collection of articles on Henry Sigerist, the pioneering
historian of medicine and advocate of universal health
insurance, and a history of US public health and the
American Public Health Association. More recently he
has coauthored Comrades in Health: US Health
Internationalists, Abroad and at Home, and a collection of
political cartoons and commentary related to American
debates about universal national health insurance, titled
The Quest for Health Reform: A Satirical History. He is
presently at work on a jointly authored history of the
World Health Organization, which should be finished
within the next three years.
Ted has a distinguished record of service to the
history of medicine, health policy, and public health,
above and beyond his publications. He edits and
contributes to the historical sections of The American
Journal of Public Health, the most widely circulated and
highly respected English-language public health journal
in the world. He is also editor of the University of
Rochester Press’ widely respected book series,
Rochester Studies in Medical History. He has served as
secretary and president for the Henry Sigerist Circle of
Medical Historians, curated exhibits at the National
Library of Medicine, and reviewed manuscripts for
numerous journals, including the Annals of Internal
Medicine.
Students and colleagues alike recognize Ted as a
skilled, indeed brilliant teacher. Between 1979 and 1982
he was the university’s first Mercer Brugler
Distinguished Teaching Professor. In 1997 the College
of Arts and Sciences presented him with the Goergen
Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in
Undergraduate Teaching. In 2001 and 2006 he received
teaching awards from the Rochester Students’
Association. In his 1997 recommendation of Ted for
the Goergen Award, department chairman Robert
Westbrook described him as an “extraordinary
teacher…his popularity…rooted in respect,” who
taught “rigorous and imaginative courses.”
MATTHEW LENOE
DEPARTMENT CHAIR
Below are a selection of Ted Brown’s remarks from his
installation as the first incumbent in the Phelps Chair, April 24,
2013…
My students have been wonderful, responsive
and challenging during my thirty-six years on the faculty,
and because of them teaching has never grown old.
Each new group of students, each new lecture or
seminar, yes even each new term paper, is a fresh
challenge and learning/teaching opportunity. So I am
grateful to my students for keeping me on my toes,
energized, and young (mentally at least). They have
responded so well for so long to what I have tried to do
in bridging from history to public health, to health
policy, and to human values and ethics. I am an
unrepentant interdisciplinarian, but underneath that and
deeper, I am driven by the desire to expose superficial
and uninformed generalizations, bland and deceptive
meliorist formulations that disguise persisting inequities
and disparities, and mythic distortions of the truth that
masquerade as empirically founded history and
unquestionable common sense. As I’ve told my students
time and again, we need to distinguish history from
myth and to interrogate “common sense” so that, as
often as possible, we can “do a Galileo” and figure out
if the earth is really sitting stationary at the center of the
History 2013
Page 8
Rochester HISTORY
universe because it seems to be or is actually moving
through space and around the sun. I’ve used history as
my tool and ally, because history can help us see with
special clarity those things that we cannot see when we
are too close to them and have no useful perspective –
as when we press a diamond to our eye and see only a
dark blur until we move back to gain perspective and
see its facets and perhaps its brilliance. History doesn’t
always reveal brilliance, and occasionally that black blur
is really just a lump of coal, because the study of history
sometimes reveals that we have not been making
progress but merely cycling around the same closed
circle, passing the same tired signposts, trapped on a
merry-go-round and not really moving forward despite
our self delusions and the assurances of the political
pundits.
As a clear example, what is especially striking
about the history of the health reform struggle in the
United States is how some things have never really
changed and have become recurrent themes in our
history. From the start of reform efforts at the turn of
the twentieth century until the present, antagonists have
regularly resorted to the political use of fear, hope,
selective memory, and outright distortion. But it is also
true that over the years, the role of big money and
corporate interests – of the for-profit insurance industry
and Big Pharma – has become larger and more
ominous. Another change has been the replacement in
debates today of an earlier bipartisanship and the ability
to reach political compromise – as in passing Social
Security and Medicare – replaced now by an almost
completely partisan division and mutual intolerance. So
I’ll turn for guidance to my favorite political pundit, Yogi
Berra, who put it well when he said that it’s sometimes
just “Déjà vu all over again.” But Yogi also said, “You
can observe a lot by watching” and, most optimistically,
“It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” I’ll take my cues from Yogi
and will continue to engage as an historian, teacher, and
advocate with public health and policy in all their forms.
For more information, go to
http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=5912.
THEODORE BROWN
READING FOR A RAINY DAY
Suggestions from Ted Brown
Beatrix Hoffman, Health Care for Some: Rights and
Rationing in the United States Since 1930 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2012).
Robert Proctor, Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette
Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2011).
T. R. Reid, The Healing of America: A Global Quest for
Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care (New York:
Penguin Books, 2010).
Paul Starr, Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American
Struggle Over Health Reform (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2011).
Howard Waitzkin, Medicine and Public Health at the End of
Empire (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2011).
FACULTY NEWS
Theodore Brown continued to give talks in 2012-2013
on his recent work in the history of international and
global health. In January 2013 he presented “The World
Health Organization and Global Health Leadership” at
a workshop on “Leadership in Global Health
Governance” at Queen Mary, University of London. In
the spring of 2013, he and Anne-Emanuelle Birn of the
University of Toronto completed their review of page
proofs (finally!) for their book, Comrades in Health, which
Rutgers University Press published in June. Ted
continues his active engagement with the American
Public Health Association, where he has been working
with former APHA president Jay Glasser on a collective
history of the organization and its role in American and
international public health. With APHA executive
director Georges Benjamin, he co-authored a book
about the long struggle for national health-care reform
as seen in political cartoons. The “cartoon book” was a
joint publication of the APHA and the Cartoonists
Group, the official professional organization of
American political cartoonists. It was published in late
October 2012 and has led to several speaking
engagements, including one at Roosevelt House Public
Policy Institute in New York City On February 6, 2013
that was streamed live on the internet and recorded by
C-SPAN for initial broadcast on Saturday, March 30:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/310842-1. Ted
remains active as history editor for the American Journal
of Public Health and as editor of Rochester Studies in Medical
History, a book series of the UR Press which recently
published its twenty-fourth volume. He also continues
to give many talks in the Rochester area on health
reform, and in January 2013 he traveled to Sarasota for a
talk to a Florida-based alumni group.
History 2013
Rochester HISTORY
Dorinda Outram finished the revision of the third
edition of her book, The Enlightenment, which appeared
in the UK and Europe in December 2012, and in the
US in April 2013. She is now at work on a project on
the history of laughter. She also published her poem
“Mars and Venus” in the anthology Le Mot Juste, edited
by Kathryn Jospe. She was active in the Humanities
Project series of speakers on ‘Observation,’ introducing
speaker Lorraine Daston on April 15, and contributed a
lecture on ‘Literacy: Internalizing the Word’ to the
Reformation course in conjunction with the Ferrari
Symposium on the Renaissance and Reformation.
Joan Shelley Rubin is happy to report the publication
in April of the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and
Intellectual History, of which she is co-editor-in-chief.
Several UR faculty members and graduate students
helped create the headword list, served as research
assistants, or contributed articles to the encyclopedia, so
the project has a kind of Rochester stamp on it. Rubin
also recently presented a paper entitled “Cosmopolitan
Ideals, Local Loyalties, and Print Culture: George
Chandler Bragdon in Upstate New York” at a
conference on “Print Culture Histories Beyond the
Metropolis” sponsored by the Center for Middletown
Studies at Ball State University. A collection of her
essays, entitled Cultural Considerations: Essays on Readers,
Writers, and Musicians in Postwar America, came out in July
from the University of Massachusetts Press.
Thomas Slaughter completed Independence: The Tangled
Roots of the American Revolution this year, which will be
published by Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, in the fall. He was accepted this year into
the Institute for Editing Historical Documents, which is
administered by the Association for Documentary
Editing and funded by the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission. He also began
work on two new book projects: Founding Grandfathers:
The First Four Presidents in Retirement and The Seward
Family in Peace and in War. The second project grows
from two new courses, “The Seward Family’s Civil
War” and “The Seward Family in Peace and in War,”
and the digital editorial project that supports them.
Stewart Weaver spent 2012-13 on a well-earned leave
of absence after six years as chair of the department. He
is currently writing a short book about exploration and
looking forward to his return to full-time teaching.
Elya Zhang has been selected for an ACLS (American
Council of Learned Societies) Fellowship for the 201314 competition. Her project is titled “Foreign Money
and the Chinese State: A Loan Story, 1865-1949.”
Page 9
GRADUATE STUDENT ACTIVITY
Douglas Flowe (ABD) attended eighteen graduate
fairs and recruitment events throughout the US this
year, in his new position as the graduate recruitment and
retention specialist at the university’s David T. Kearns
Center for Leadership and Diversity. He gave numerous
presentations to groups such as the National Society of
Black Engineers, the University of Central Florida’s
PRIME TRIO program, and the Society of Hispanic
Professional Engineers. In September, Douglas
organized the Center’s Graduate Visitation Program and
invited eleven undergraduates to visit various UR
graduate programs, of which ten applied and six were
admitted to the university. In his capacity as The
National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for
Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM)
representative to the university, Douglas has been in
contact with hundreds of GEM fellowship applicants
and facilitated the applications of thirty-six of these
students to UR graduate programs. He also acted as a
GEM fellowship judge at the organization’s annual
judging event in Alexandria, VA. For purposes of
professional development, Douglas attended the annual
New York Graduate Admissions Professionals
conference in Albany, NY in the summer and the
Compact for Faculty Diversity conference in Tampa, FL
in the fall. He is also the primary organizer of the new
Charles Augustus Thompson lecture series that invites
four junior scholars to give invited lectures on topics of
diversity and identity in various UR departments. In
addition, he acts as academic advisor to a number of
students in the Ronald E. McNair scholars program and
has given presentations on applying to graduate school
for Rochester’s undergraduates. In this capacity he also
served on the Executive Committee of the Graduate
Students of Color and led a panel discussion entitled
“The Urgency of Now: Schotts Report on Black Male
Graduate Rates in Rochester.” Douglas was also invited
to give a lecture on Tom Sugrue’s Origins of the Urban
Crisis in the Rochester Urban Fellows program this
summer, and taught a six-week course on applying to
graduate school for McNair students. This past April,
he presented a dissertation chapter, “Saloons, Dives,
and the ‘Black Tough’ in Manhattan’s Tenderloin,” at
the Religious Studies Department at Syracuse
University. This summer, he created and organized a
search aid for David T. Kearns’ personal and
professional papers at the Rare Books Library at the
UR. He is currently writing chapter four of his
dissertation.
History 2013
Rochester HISTORY
Jeff Ludwig (ABD) began a position as researcher in
the Rochester City Historian’s Office (getting his first
taste of public history, and finding that he liked it),
where, among other jobs and along with Michelle Finn
(PhD 2011) and Emily Morry (PhD 2012), he creates a
weekly historical column, “Retrofitting Rochester” for
the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper. He was also hired
as a Writing Instructor at the Eastman School of Music.
Writing, in fact, occupied a good deal of Jeff’s time this
year. In addition to submitting his eighth-- and
hopefully penultimate-- dissertation chapter to his
adviser, he published an essay in the Spring 2013 John
Updike Review. The piece, “Roommates and Rivals: John
Updike, Christopher Lasch, and a Harvard University
Friendship,” won the 2013 John Updike Emerging
Writer’s Prize, an award given to a “young writer or
critic who deepens our understanding of the work of
John Updike.” Jeff also presented a version of the paper
at a conference in Boston during the summer of 2012.
In non-history news, Jeff and his wife, Katie Ludwig
(MA 2011), bought a house in Rochester this year.
Michael Read (third year) has worked to broaden his
historical horizons beyond books and articles
throughout his second year in graduate school. During
the summer of 2012 he had the opportunity to assist
Professor Jarvis during a month-long archaeological
field school to Smiths Island, Bermuda. Come fall Mike
joined Professor Slaughter for the first year of the multiyear Seward Family Papers project, which seeks to
digitize, transcribe, and annotate part of the wonderful
collection housed in the Rare Books and Special
Collections of Rush Rhees Library. Whether in the dirt
or in the digital realm, this year has given Mike the
opportunity to think about history in new ways and
from a variety of perspectives.
Peter Sposato (ABD) just accepted a tenure-track
position at Indiana University, Kokomo (with a 3:3
teaching commitment). Congratulations on this
placement!
Page 10
ALUMNI NEWS AND REMINISCENCES
Debbie Abbot (MA `90) is teaching English as a
Second/Foreign Language for her ninth year in
Istanbul, Turkey. She completed an MA TESOL two
summers ago. Working at a school that is home to
Turkey’s champion handball team, Debbie has had the
pleasure of getting to know the world of high school
athletes who hope to become professional handball
players in the future. The best students will go on to
play in the schools’ founder’s professional club or on
other national teams. In the past, the team has made it
to World Championships. “It suddenly occurred to me
that some of the boys I teach might be Olympians one
day. A happy thought,” says Debbie. Additionally,
Debbie has been working with the school’s Model UN
club, introducing students to the politics of world
governance. “For students who enjoy this activity,” says
Debbie, “it is the most motivating English learning and
practicing activity I have ever seen.” She has also
enjoyed being one of the coordinators for her school’s
involvement in an EU sponsored Comenius
project. One of the goals of the project is to get teachers
and students from European countries such as
Switzerland, Croatia, Norway, and Turkey, moving
around to meet each other in an effort to create
“Europe.” The EU gives money to a national agency
that distributes it and monitors the projects. Debbie’s
school recently hosted forty students and teachers from
Poland, Italy, Spain, and Germany. She was awarded a
medal used for the Koln Carnival by the director of the
Koln Alexander von Humboldt Gymnasium for her
efforts as a coordinator. Additionally, Debbie had the
pleasure of going to Koln for a week in November for
the teachers’ meeting and will be going to Cagliari
(Sardinia) with a colleague and seven students in
May. She will be working on a two-year “protecting biodiversity” project, implemented mostly on the ocean
where some underwater species are in great danger.
Debra E. Altschuler (BA `92) and her husband, Eric I.
Hausman welcomed their second child, Joshua Louis
DO YOU HAVE NEWS FOR US?
Hausman on April 23, 2012. He joins big sister, Emma
We always welcome news from our alumni for future Olivia Hausman who is eight years old. Debra works as
issues; e-mail us at history.department@rochester.edu the in-house real estate counsel for Carlson, Inc. and
or send us a letter:
Eric is a senior communications manager for Target.
They have been living in Minneapolis since 2006.
Attention: Newsletter
University of Rochester
Kathryn Elaine Baker (BA `01) served four tours in
History Department
Iraq from 2003-07 and one amphibious deployment in
364 Rush Rhees Library
2009-10. Although she left active duty military service
Rochester, NY 14627
(United States Marine Corps-USMC) to pursue family
life in Oct 2011, she attained rank of Major in the
History 2013
Rochester HISTORY
USMC Reserve in November, 2011 and is now
employed helping military families overcome the
challenges of deployment (with Marine Corps Family
Team Building) at Camp Pendleton, CA. Additionally,
Kathryn earned an MFA in creative writing from
National University in 2010 and received the
International Merit Award from Atlanta Review for
original poems in July 2012. Kathryn traveled to
Australia, Ghana, and India in 2012.
John M. Barry (MA `69) was a finalist for the Los
Angeles Times Book Prize for his latest book, Roger
Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State,
and the Birth of Liberty. His earlier book, The Great
Influenza won the Keck Award from the National
Academies of Science for the year’s best book on
science or medicine, while Rising Tide (1997) won the
Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American
Historians.
Geri Blitzman (BA `68) had a rich and interesting
career in organizational development and change, built
in part on her study of intellectual history from 1964-68
with Drs. Harootunian, Monas, Baritz, and Kaufman.
Her coursework and readings sensitized her to issues
relating to change, culture, roles, leadership, and
navigating organizational life and transition. The
introduction to Taoist thought and leadership theory in
Dr. Harootunian’s class is still memorable and
important to Geri. She has worked with scores of
companies, teams, and leaders over a thirty-five year
practice, New England Growth in Boston, now
focusing on executive coaching.
Michael Breakstone (BA `03) and his wife had a son
named William on October 4, 2012. William is now
messily eating solids and rolling over (and then getting
upset that he’s on his stomach).
Blaise Chow (BA `97) was appointed to the Board of
Directors for Apex for Youth, a 501(c)3 nonprofit
organization that seeks to empower inner city immigrant
youth to be well-rounded, productive members of
society by helping them build their self-confidence,
explore academic and career goals, develop a sense of
community and service, and gain leadership skills.
Through one-on-one mentoring relationships,
educational programs, and social services, APEX helps
youth overcome the multiple challenges they face,
enabling them to cultivate valuable and meaningful
relationships. Check out Apex for Youth’s website to
learn more. Blaise is a partner in the New York office of
Ropers, Majeski, Kohn, & Bentley. He can be reached
at bchow@rmkb.com or 212-668-5927.
Page 11
Aida DiPace Donald (PhD `61) published a new
book: Citizen Soldier: A Life of Harry S. Truman. She can
be seen in a C-SPAN interview with Brian Lamb
online.
Antoinette Emch-Deriaz (PhD `84) has the deep
sorrow to announce the death of her husband Dr.
Gerard G. Emch, professor emeritus of mathematics at
the University of Florida the fifth of March 2013 at their
home in Gainesville. Professor Emch was a member of
the U of R Faculty from 1966 to 1986.
Barbara Francis (BA `67, MA `69, EDD `84) has
retired from Lesley University’s Graduate School of
Education where she was an associate professor and
program director of the middle and high school
program that awards students masters degrees and
certification to teach in MA. She has been hired to work
for Harvard University as a consultant for Higher Ed in
the Caribbean, Central and South America, and will be
working with professors to use the most current
methodologies practiced in US schools. She will be
taking a ten day intensive workshop at Dartmouth
College to prepare to speak academic Spanish.
Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild (PhD `76) is professor
emerita of graduate studies at the Union Institute and
University. Additionally, she serves on the program
committee for the 2013 Association for Slavic, East
European, and Eurasian Studies convention in Boston,
and is a research associate and the co-founder of the
Gender, Socialism and Post-socialism Working Group
at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies,
Harvard University. She is also a producer of the
documentary film Left on Pearl: Women Take Over 888
Memorial Drive, Cambridge, which will be completed in
2013. In 2012 Rochelle published the following articles
and reviews: “From West to East: International
Women’s Day, the First Decade,” Aspasia, vol. 6 (2012):
1-24; “Esther Frumkin: Bringing the Revolution to the
Jewish Street,” in Judith Sƶapor, Andrea Pető, Maura
Hametz, and Marina Calloni, eds., Jewish Intellectual
Women in Central Europe 1860-2000: Twelve Biographical
Essays. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2012,
173-204; “Women and Gender in Central and Eastern
Europe, Russia, and Eurasia: An Essential Resource,”
review essay, Aspasia vol. 7 (2013): 218-220; Barbara
Alpern Engel, Breaking the Ties That Bound: The Politics of
Marital Strife in Late Imperial Russia in The American
Historical Review vol. 117 (2012): 1328-1329.
Jerome C. Goldstein (BA `57) MD, is a graduate of
the River Campus and a lifelong fan of Arthur J May!
He is delinquent in telling you about a book he co-
History 2013
Rochester HISTORY
authored in 1995 titled A Century of Excellence. It is a
history of the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
Autumn
1999/Winter
2000
He
was executive
vice president
of the Academy at that
time.
Michael L. Jacobs (EDD `74) now professor emeritus
at the University of Northern Colorado (professor of
education and chair, educational foundations and
curriculum studies, 1970-2009), found that “retirement”
did not suit him so he returned to graduate school,
earning in 2012 an MS in Mental Health Counseling.
After a year-long internship in an adult outpatient clinic
working primarily with criminal offenders and substance
abusers, he has opened a private practice in
psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, and life coaching in
association with Parker Counseling and Education
(Parker, Colorado). His mission as a professional
therapist, counselor, and coach is to help clients who are
stressed by life’s trials and tribulations to understand
that by changing the way one thinks about things, those
things can and usually will change. He has also formed a
professional organization, the LCCranston Group LLC,
an association of professionals providing service of
excellence in counseling, coaching, consulting,
management training, and education. The mission of
this enterprise is to help clients, both individual and
organizational, identify creative solutions to personal
and/or professional problems and challenges.
Adam Konowe (BA `90) published an article entitled
“Media Training as a PR Catalyst: It’s about Bucks, Not
Just Buzz,” in PRNews’ Media Training Guidebook
Amy Kuenzi, (BA `03), a double major in history and
religion, continued on to get an MA in Museum Studies.
She is now working as a curator at the Harley-Davidson
Museum in Milwaukee, WI.
Michael Lamb (MA `13) Michael Lamb graduated
from the University with his master’s degree in May and
moved to Denver, CO. He enjoyed his time at the UR,
especially the opportunity to get to know and work with
the department, and would like to thank everyone for
their help over the years; it was a pleasure for him.
J Stanley Lemons (MA `62) retired as emeritus
professor of history from Rhode Island College in 2007,
but continues as an active historian. He was appointed
to the 1663 Rhode Island Colonial Charter Commission
to aid in the 350th anniversary of that charter and is
writing the opening article for the anniversary booklet.
In addition, this spring Mercer University Press is
publishing his volume on the First Baptist Church in
America in the Baptists in Early North America series.
Page 12
Yael Luttwak (BA `94) was featured in a New York
Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/
us/slim-peace-unites-jews-and-muslims-to-talkdiets.html, in March for her work as documentary
filmmaker and founder of the first Slim Peace group.
Slim Peace is an organization that uses the theme of
weight-loss support to bring Israeli and Palestinian
women together.
Drew Maciag’s (PhD `05) book, Edmund Burke in
America: The Contested Career of the Father of Modern
Conservatism, has recently been published by Cornell
University Press.
Carolyn McPherson (MA `58) and her husband,
Bruce traveled to most of the Western European
countries and enjoyed all of their adventures. Of course,
this was after Professor John Christopher whetted their
appetites for European history. Carolyn has now
become interested in the central European countries
and will travel to Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, and
Prague with a “Road Scholar” group this fall. She finds
it a most enjoyable way to keep on learning!
David Mustard (BA `90) is a professor of economics
at the Terry College of Business at the University of
Georgia, where he has been working for fifteen years.
Most of his research is on policy-related issues, such as
crime, sentencing disparities, impacts of casinos,
education reform, higher education, gender differences
in educational achievement, impacts of gun laws, and
tort reform. He is married to Elizabeth (nee Niles BA
1989) and they have five children between the ages of 3
and 12, a dog and cat. Check out his homepage at
http://www.terry.uga.edu/~mustard/.
Carol W. Nichols (BA `72, MS `75) spent the month
of January 2013 studying yoga and its philosophy at the
Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune,
India. Her observations and watercolor/calligraphic art
work are presented at RIMYIstudent2013.weebly.com.
Gary Ostrower (PhD `70) is teaching at Alfred
University and serving as ombudsman at both Alfred
and St. Bonaventure University. He was invited to
deliver a general lecture about the Second World War
for C-SPAN 3 which televised in December 2012 and
has already been downloaded as a podcast over 500,000
times. Gary has also been named a “Super Professor” by
FacultyRow – one of 400 such professors in the US.
Andrew Otis (BA `11) has just won a Fulbright to
India for a history research project on the early press in
India and the Bengal Renaissance.
History 2013
Rochester HISTORY
Neal Palmer (PhD `05) is still enjoying teaching at
Christian Brothers University in Memphis. He is
Autumnthrough
1999/Winter
2000 term as department chair
halfway
his second
and was granted tenure this year. He is also working to
implement a program in sustainability studies within the
History and Political Science Department that will
concentrate on environmental history and urban
planning.
David Pankenier’s (BA `68) book, Astrology and
Cosmology in Early China: Conforming Earth to Heaven was
published this year. He also became a member of the
Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
Derek Peterson (BA `93) has published a new book:
Ethnic Patriotism and the East African Revival: A History of
Dissent (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
Dean Richardson (BA `66) will become professor
emeritus at Willamette University College of Law in
May. He will teach his final semester this fall, marking
his fortieth year as a professor of law at Willamette.
Paul C. Rosier (PhD `98) helped initiate a new minor
in sustainability studies at Villanova University; in spring
2012 he taught the inaugural seminar with a colleague
from the Geography and Environment department.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences gave him the
Veritas Award for Research Excellence in spring 2013.
Paul was promoted to full professor and elected chair of
the History Department, starting fall semester 2013.
This summer he will have the pleasure of teaching his
son how to drive a car.
Chris Sabis’s (BA `00) honors thesis for the
department was recently cited in a new book published
by a professor at the City College of New York. The
book is titled Sound Targets, by Professor Jonathan
Pieslak. The website for the book is http://
www.soundtargets.com/ and his senior honors thesis
can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/1802/9903.
Frank A. Salamone (MA `66) has recently published a
number of books, articles, and reviews including: ed. The
Native American Identity in Sports: Creating and Preserving a
Culture, London: Scarecrow Press, 2013; The Heroic
Anthropologist Rides Again: The Depiction of the Anthropologist
in Popular Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, 2012; The Italians of Rochester, New York, PostWorld War II: Immigration, Prosperity, and Change, Edwin
Mellen Press, 2013.
Nicholas L. Waddy (PhD `01) is happy to report that
in November 2012 he delivered a paper at the
conference of the African Studies Association and in
June 2013, he presented a paper at the conference of the
Page 13
Southern African Historical Society in Gaborone,
Botswana! He was also rambling around southern Africa
for two months this summer.
Joy Wiltenburg’s (BA `76, MA `78) book, Crime and
Culture in Early Modern Germany, was published in
December 2012 by University of Virginia Press.
IN MEMORIAM:
Everett (Akam) Ramsay (1947-2012)
A senior lecturer for the honors program and
the first-year seminar program at Northern Arizona
University, Dr. Ramsay died Sunday, November 25,
2012, due to complications from a bicycle accident on
Lake Mary Road in Flagstaff. He was 65.
A road cyclist, skate skier, rock climber and fly
fisherman, Dr. Ramsay pursued his life with vigor and
passion. Born February 22, 1947, in Germany and raised
in France, Dr. Ramsay brought with him an awareness
of the larger world. He earned his BS and an MA in
political science from South Dakota State University. He
also earned an MA and his PhD in history from the
University of Rochester. He was a history professor
from 1991-2009 at Casper College in Wyoming, where
he also founded and was director of the Veritas Honors
Institute.
He authored the book Transnational America:
Cultural Pluralist Thought in the 20th Century (Rowman and
Littlefield, 2002), as well as some scholarly articles. He
had been working on a book about George Orwell, the
British novelist of Animal Farm and 1984.
In 2008, Dr. Ramsay married Anne Scott,
professor of English and honors professor, who called
him “a loyal and loving husband and a great stepfather.”
Dr. Ramsay came to NAU in 2009 to teach for the
Honors Program and moved the hearts and minds of
his students through such courses as “The Search for
American Identity, Humanity and Inhumanity,” and
“Systems of War and Peace,” among others. He thrived
in the academy through his passions for teaching,
discussing current events, and connecting with his
students and colleagues.
“Ev was a true gentleman and scholar who was
well grounded in so many complex areas and
disciplines,” said Wolf Gumerman, director of the
honors program. “The depth and care that he put into
his teaching was truly remarkable.” Such careful
attention is reflected in the feedback several students
shared in the 2011 survey of NAU sophomores, where
he was cited as a “great educator” who encouraged
History 2013
Page 14
Rochester HISTORY
critical thinking. “He pushed students, but he also was
so caring—not just about their learning but about them
Autumn 1999/Winter
personally,”
Gumerman2000
said.
Dr. Ramsay is survived by his wife, Anne Scott,
and her son, Gavin; his beautiful daughter, Faye Lane;
two sisters, Beth Dixon and Suzanne Delyons; and three
grandchildren. Contributions in his memory may be
made to the Everett Ramsay Memorial Scholarship
Fund (#5337), NAU Foundation, PO Box 22459,
Flagstaff, AZ 86002-2459.
NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY
Herbert Shapiro (1929-2012)
Herbert Shapiro, professor emeritus of history
at the University of Cincinnati, died in his Cincinnati
home on October 17, 2012. Born in Queens, New York
City on June 14, 1929 to Russian Jewish immigrant
parents, he devoted his life to teaching, scholarship, and
social activism. A man of the left, he did not shift his
opinions to fit the times.
After an education in the New York City public
schools, he a BA from Queens University (1952), an
MA from Columbia University (1958), and a PhD from
the UR in 1964. His dissertation analyzed the career of
the muckraker, Lincoln Steffens, and his earliest
publications were about Steffens, muckraking, and the
Progressive Era. He had long been interested in African
American history and his first full-time teaching
appointment at Morehouse College, then a segregated
all male institution in Atlanta, Georgia, where he and his
family lived from 1962 to 1966, contributed to his
shifting to that not yet fashionable field which became
the major focus of his professional life in both teaching
and research. Black liberation became the cause he
worked hardest to promote, often in places where it was
not welcome, most notably as a participant in the
delegation of historians who, on March 25, 1965,
marched on the last day of the historic march from
Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, with military and FBI
protection ordered by President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1966 he moved to his final position at the
University of Cincinnati from which he retired in 2001.
He was possibly the first person to teach African
American History at Cincinnati and I know he was the
first to direct graduate dissertations in that field. Herb
and I were colleagues after I came to Cincinnati in 1976,
and we had been history meeting acquaintances before
that. Although he taught a range of American history
courses it was his upper division course in African
American history that engaged him most and endeared
him to a goodly number of students; his classroom
persona was both didactic and democratic. His major
service to the university, apart from formal and informal
teaching, was helping to transform the local chapter of
the American Association of University Professors into
an effective collective bargaining unit, and to participate
in two brief, successful work stoppages which improved
both wages and benefits for regular, full-time faculty.
Fittingly, the chapter has established a memorial fund in
Herb’s name - University of Cincinnati AAUP, PO Box
210176, University of Cincinnati, Room 450 Dabney
Hall, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0176. Herb was known as a
perennial presenter and commentator on programs,
author of scores of book reviews, of dozens of articles,
and nine books, large and small of which his magnum
opus, White Violence and Black Response (Amherst, MA,
1988), is outstanding.
He is survived by Judith, his wife of fifty-five
years, their son, Dr. Mark Shapiro, of San Antonio, and
their daughter, Nina Shapiro, of Seattle and her
daughters, Sophia and Tessa, who will be fourteen and
eleven by the time that this is read. Herb, like most of
us, liked to have the last word, so I will let him have it.
This is how he ended his most important book...
“The federal government was headed, in the
person of Dwight Eisenhower, by a president who
would not endorse the Brown decision and connected in
his mind resistance to school integration with a
legitimate need to protect little white girls. The breaking
of the stalemate would require a scale of mass
movement that would make maintenance of segregation
too costly for American society to bear.
In the 1960’s the inherent tendencies, the
possibilities created by the changed context of postWorld War II American society, would have to be
played out fully in the course of mass confrontation
with racism. The warning was already plain – blacks
were no longer prepared to put up with the old order –
but racists would not yield to law and reason. If serious
progress toward racial justice and equality were to be
made it would come only as the result of a social
convulsion unprecedented since the Civil War era. In
such a situation the question of racial violence would
appear in new dimensions that nobody could ignore.”
ROGER DANIELS
CHARLES PHELPS TAFT PROFESSOR EMERITUS
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
History 2013
The Department of History wishes to thank
the following
alumni,
Autumn
1999/Winter
2000 parents, and friends
for their generous support:
Dr. Edward C. Atwater '50
Mr. Joseph R. Barager '46, '47 MA
Mr. Ayman F. Bekdash '07
Mr. David A. Berry '67
Ms. Julie C. Broadbent '09
Dr. Robert C. Brown '57 and Gail Brown '57
Mr. Robert N. Burr '39
Mr. Scott H. Camillo '03, '06 (Warner School)
Ms. Ellen R. Caplan '72
Mr. John C. Casper MBA '91, parent '13
Dr. Barry Gerald Cohen '66
Dr. Cynthia A. Crosby '60
Mr. Joseph F. Cunningham '67 MA and
Mrs. Andrea Cunningham
Mr. Sean T. Delehanty '13
Dr. Aida Dipace Donald '61
Mr. Matthew Rudolf Fearnside '03
Ms. Rosanna Gabriele '01
Dr. Margery Ann Ganz '69
Ms. Teresa A. Gillen '77
Gleason Family Foundation
Mr. Francis R. Grebe '54
Mr. Frank A. Interlichia P'12, '14 and
Mrs. Linda E. Interlichia parent P'12, 14
Ms. Toni L. Iyoha '13
Mr. David J. Kelly '13 and Mrs. Ann Kelly
Dr. Robert Kirkwood '56 PhD
Mr. Michael A. Klobucher '13
Ms. Letty Laskowski '03
Mrs. Pamela R. L. Lessing '73
Ms. Emily Locker '05
Dr. Douglas T. McGetchin '88
Dr. Martin K. Melman '69, parent '05
Mr. Arthur R. Miller '56
Estate of Mary L. Mitchell '47
Mr. William A. Peniston PhD '97
Mr. L. Gerald Rigby '67
Mr. Martin E. Schloss '68, parent '05 and
Dr. Madelyn D. Pullman '68
Dr. Richard S. Sorrell '66, '68 MA and
Mrs. Sally R. Sorrell '67
Mr. David A. Stein '72
Ms. Amy C. Stell '13
Mr. David M. Sterling '82 MA, '94 PhD
Mr. Robert Jon Vanderlan '04 PhD
Mr. Randall B. Whitestone '83
Mr. Daniel S. Williford '04
Ms. Jacqueline M. Yan '13
Mr. Jerome J. Zukosky '52, '57 MA
Page 15
Rochester HISTORY
DEGREES, PRIZES, AND AWARDS
PHDS AWARDED
Paul Dingman
“Ethics and Emotions: A Cultural History of Chivalric
Friendship in Medieval/Early Modern Times”
Monique Patenaude
“Bound by Pride and Prejudice: Black Life in
Frederic Douglas’s New York”
Emily Morry
“’I Too Sing America’: The Sense of Place in
African American Music, 1920-1992”
Jamie Saucier
“Cul-de-Sac Culture: The Suburban Discourse in
America, 1945-1975”
MAS AWARDED
Matthew Allison
Edward Greenberg
Michael Lamb
Thesis: “’A Picture Theater on Every Street Corner’:
The Rise of Motion Picture Theaters in Rochester, NY
1896-1929”
Cassandra Painter
Danielle Picard
BAS AWARDED
Brielle Berman
Manpreet Brar
Emily Breeding
“Take Five” Scholar
Haley Brower
Cum Laude, Distinction
Ryan Bruckenthal
Richard Brunet
Patrick Carter
Laura Casper
Matthew Chin
Cum Laude, Highest Distinction, Research Honors
Amanda Davis
Cum Laude, Distinction
History 2013
Page 16
Rochester HISTORY
Sean Delehanty
Magna Cum Laude, Highest Distinction,
Autumn 1999/Winter
2000 Honors
Research
Donias Doko
Cum Laude, Highest Distinction, “Take Five” Scholar
Thomas Doser
Benjamin Einhouse
Alex Erines
Cum Laude
Jonathan Firestone
Wellington German
Erik Gerstner
Leslie Gordon
GRADUATE PRIZES AND AWARDS
Willson Coates Book Prize
To the graduate student most fully demonstrating historical
imagination and the capacity for research in British history,
European intellectual history, or philosophy of history.
Kyle Robinson
Sanford Elwitt Memorial Prize
To a graduate student in European history for research
and travel, in memory of Professor Sanford Elwiitt.
Samuel Claussen
Cum Laude, Highest Distinction
David B. Parker Memorial Prize
Andrew Gray
Joshua Haley
To the graduate student in the PhD program who
best exemplifies David B. Parker’s qualities of
historical imagination and dedication to learning.
Highest Distinction, Research Honors
Brian Hughes
Distinction
Toni Iyoha
Antoinette Johnson
Gabriel Kagan
Sarah Kain
Magna Cum Laude, Highest Distinction, Research Honors
Amy Kantor
David Kelly
Christopher Guyol
Lina and A. William Salomone Prize
To the graduate student in the PhD program who has done
outstanding work in European cultural and intellectual history.
Kyle Robinson
Harkins Prize
Highest Distinction, Research Honors
In memory of William F. Harkins, Jr. to a graduate student
who has written the best seminar paper.
Michael Klobucher
Distinction
Cameron LaPoint
Donald Marks “Dexter Perkins Prize”
Magma Cum Laude, Highest Distinction, Research Honors
Sydney Leonard
Justin Lyttleton
Carolyn Magri
“Take Five” Scholar
Quinton Mitchell
Jamie Morton
Francesca Ossi
Matthew Skurnick
Amy Stell
Travis Talerico
Francesca Tassara
Paige Vandemark
Stevan Veljkovic
Magna Cum Laude, Highest Distinction, Research Honors
Jacqueline Yan
Highest Distinction
Michael Read
This prize is to perpetuate the name of Dexter Perkins
and is to encourage and assist a worthy student in
history in his/her cultural and intellectual development.
Consuelo Angío
Egon Berlin Prize
For the support of research in European history.
Samuel Claussen
Meyers Graduate Teaching Prize
To the graduate student who has
demonstrated excellence in teaching.
Michael Read
VanDeusen Award
To support a fourth year graduate student’s dissertation research
in the field of American 19th century History.
Amy Negley
History 2013
Page 17
Rochester HISTORY
UNDERGRADUATE PRIZES, AWARDS,
AND HONORS
PHI ALPHA THETA
History Honors Society
Joshua Haley
Amanda Davis
Sean Delehanty
Donias Doko
Benjamin Einhouse
Joshua Haley
Sarah Kain
David Kelly
Cameron LaPoint
Carolyn Magri
Dilyana Mihaylova
“The King and His Agents: The Administration of
Ireland under Edward I”
N.B. Ellison Prize
HONORS IN HISTORY
Matthew Chin
“Lead Poisoning and Community Mobilization: A
Historical Comparative Analysis”
Sean Delehanty
“Politics at Water’s Edge: American Foreign Policy and
Domestic Politics 1972-1976”
Sarah Kain
“Love is a Battlefield:
the Predominance of Violence and Subordination of
Love in Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain”
David Kelly
“Lou Gehrig: A Symbol of American Values
in the 1930s”
Cameron LaPoint
To the member of the senior class concentrating in history
who has done the best work in the department.
Sean Delehanty
Willson Coates Senior Honors Essay Prize
in History
To the senior student who has written
the best senior essay in the department this year.
Cameron LaPoint
History Seminar Prize
“The Development of Banking and Finance and the
Convergence of East Asian Economic Modernity”
To the student who has written the best History Seminar paper.
Stevan Veljkovic
Webb Prize
Grace Wagner
“Redefining Latitude: Church of England Divines,
Discursive Multiplicity, and the Emergence of a
Public Sphere in Restoration England”
To the undergraduate student who has done the best work
in a course dealing with the Black experience in America.
Christopher Lasch Fellow in American
History
Herbert Lawrence Sadinsky Memorial Prize
Amanda Davis
Sean Delehanty
Stevan Veljkovic
Laura Casper
PHI BETA KAPPA
Academic Honors Society
Sean Delehanty
Thomas Doser
Cameron LaPoint
Stevan Veljkovic
Olivia Garber
To the best undergraduate history paper
on an aspect of World War II
University of Rochester
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
364 Rush Rhees Library
Rochester, New York 14627
ROCHESTER HISTORY NEWSLETTER
is published annually by:
NONPROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
UNIVERSITY OF
ROCHESTER
The University of Rochester
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
FACULTY EDITORS: MATTHEW LENOE
STAFF EDITORS: JACQUILYN RIZZO
CALEB ROOD
STUDENT EDITOR: CASEY ATEN
Telephone: (585) 275-2052
Fax: (585) 756-4425
E-mail: history.department@rochester.edu
http://www.rochester.edu/College/HIS/
ROCHESTER HISTORY NEWSLETTER
We are delighted to present this publication of the History Department at the University
of Rochester as a means by which to communicate current news and future directions to
colleagues, alumni, and friends. We look forward to hearing from all of you. We’ll
especially appreciate any suggestions or submissions for future issues of the newsletter.
Let us know how you’re doing. We’ll also be happy to answer questions from prospective students.