Ahead of Trump takeover, long-range missiles unlikely to change tide in Ukraine

The Biden White House is likely trying to give Ukraine everything it can before the administration changes, says military historian David Silbey.

Klarman Fellow presents findings on housing cost history

This fall, Jake Anbinder, a historian with an interest in cities and strong ties to public policy, presented two conference papers elaborating on his award-winning book project.

Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures holds first event

During “Beyond 2024: Envisioning Just Futures and Equitable Democracy,” faculty and students from across the university will come together to creatively showcase research and art, build community and be inspired to imagine a better future.

Conference considers medicine from historical standpoint

The Nov. 2 conference will focus on an interdisciplinary approach.

New Book by Alumni Explores Walter LaFeber’s Life and Work

A year after former students held a conference in NYC that paid tribute to a giant in the field of U.S. history, Cornell University Press has published a companion volume to the event.

North Korean troop deployment aimed at cementing alliance with Russia

Cornell military expert says North Korea sending troops to Russia for for eventual deployment in Ukraine, if true, amounts to more of a political statement, than a military one.

Belnick presidential forum focuses on election and democracy’s future

Scheduled for Oct. 30 at 5 p.m. in Ives Hall, Room 305, the event is free and open to the public and a livestream is available.

Your October 2024 reads

This month’s titles, featured in Cornellians, include "Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section" by A&S alum Rachel Somerstein ’04.

HIST 4963 China's Early Modern

HIST 4963 China's Early Modern (also ASIAN 4461, CAPS 4963, MEDVL 4963) (HAN)

Thursday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research

Professor TJ Hinrichs

Theories of modernization have inspired, informed, and plagued histories of middle and late imperial China. For the Song-Qing eras (roughly 10th-19th centuries), comparative studies have variously found and sought to explain modernization emerging earlier than in Europe, an absence of modernization, or alternative paths of modernization. Regional models have argued for pan-East Asian systems and patterns of modernization. Global models have argued that China had a vital role in European development as a provenance of modernizing institutions and ideas, as a source of exploited resources, or otherwise as an integral part of global systems. In this course we explore these historiographical debates and develop critical perspectives, including approaches to escaping Eurocentric and teleological frameworks.

HIST 4910 Approaches to Medieval Violence

HIST 4910 Approaches to Medieval Violence (Also MEDVL 4910) (HST-AS) (HPE, HEU)

Tuesday and Thursday: 1:25-2:40 plus Independent Research

Professor Oren Falk

'Violence' has become an unavoidable - and urgently troubling - buzzword in contemporary Western culture. We worry about its manifestations and representations in our own civilization, we scan foreign societies with which we interact for any sign of it, we fantasize about consummating it or construct our utopias around its absence. This course is intended as an opportunity for students working on a variety of topics, periods and areas in premodern Europe to investigate its relevance to their own studies. Through an examination of readings on violence in particular historical contexts, from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period, we will seek to elicit reflection on what is meant by the concept, to prompt consideration of distinctions among forms of violence, and to sample a variety of analytical approaches and tools.

HIST 4629 The Age of Revolution in Europe & the Caribbean: 1789 to 1825

HIST 4629 The Age of Revolution in Europe & the Caribbean: 1789 to 1825 (HST-AS) (HEU)

Tuesday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research

Professor Paul Friedland


A wave of revolutions swept through Europe and the Caribbean, beginning with the French Revolution (1789-1815) and the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), and eventually upending traditional laws and societies on both sides of the Atlantic. In the first part of the semester, we will read and discuss books related to these revolutions, and in the second part, students will undertake original research in preparation for writing a substantial research paper related to the theme of the class: either an in-depth study of one revolution or a comparative exploration of revolutionary movements.

HIST 4422 Oral History: Theory, Practice, and Method

HIST 4422 Oral History: Theory, Practice, and Method (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HTR)

Monday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research

Professor Rachel Sandwell

This course explores the method of oral history in theory and practice, across different topics, contexts, and geographic/national terrains. It will consider questions like: what sorts of insights do oral histories enable? How can oral history as a method supplement, destabilize, and enrich existing historical accounts? What are the challenges and risks of oral histories, and how can historians mitigate those risks? What theoretical assumptions underlie oral historical work? Are certain topics more appropriate than others to oral historical investigations, and if so, why? We will explore these questions through reading a wide range of texts, hearing from oral historians about their work, and workshopping methods in class, as well as through independent research.

HIST 4277 Modern European Cultural-Intellectual History through Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project

HIST 4277 Modern European Cultural-Intellectual History through Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project (ALC-AS, HST-AS) (HEU)  

Tuesday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research

Professor Claudia Verhoeven

The premise of this senior seminar in European cultural-intellectual history is that we can learn some of the most crucial aspects of the historian’s craft through just one book: Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project. Benjamin is normally seen as a philosopher, cultural critic, literary critic, art historian, media theorist, essayist, and translator, but he was one of the most original and influential historical thinkers of the modern era, and the Arcades Project is one of the key texts of 20th-century European intellectual history. Studying this book will teach you modern European history (esp. late 18th – early 20th c.), but also how to read, research, and write history more creatively. The structure of the seminar is straightforward: we will make our way through the Arcades Project’s “convolutes,” which means we will cover topics such as architecture, photography, fashion, poetry, prostitution, capitalism, communism, conspiracy, revolution, Marx, Nietzsche, modernity, and more, like boredom for example, or theories of progress and knowledge. Your research projects will take shape as you learn to recognize and make connections between the great variety of ideas and sources united in this magisterial and magical text.

HIST 3801 War and Revolution in 20th Century Latino History

HIST 3801 War and Revolution in 20th Century Latino History (also AMST 3831, LATA 3801, LSP 3801) (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HNA)

Tuesday and Thursday: 1:25-2:40

Professor Maria Cristina Garcia

This course examines war and revolution as drivers of migration from Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean to the United States and Canada. From the War of 1898 to the wars in Central America, war and revolution have displaced millions of people, prompting internal and cross-border migration. This history underscores how migration is multicausal—that is, produced by a wide and complex range of intersecting drivers. War and revolution disrupt livelihoods, produce scarcity, and create the insecurity that makes it impossible to exercise a basic human right to stay home. The course also examines how Latinos have become actors in U.S. wars and interventions in their countries of ancestry. There are no prerequisites for the course but HIST 1802 is strongly recommended.

HIST 3602 Cultural History of North America

HIST 3602 Cultural History of North America (also AMST 3602) (ALC-AS, HST-AS) (HNA)

Monday and Wednesday: 2:55-4:10

Dr. Justin Clark

This course examines the history of culture in North America from the pre-contact era to present. We will examine how Native, African, European, Asian, and Latino/a influences, along with colonization, immigration, urbanization, industrialization, and consumerization, reshaped the development of American culture, including its architecture, literature, music, visual art, and practices of religion, leisure, and consumption. We will also gain a basic familiarity with the theory and methods of cultural history. Intended for upper-division undergraduate students, the course provides practice in the analysis of historical sources, historiography, and written and oral expression.

HIST 3345 Global 1960s: Revolution from the College Campus to the Battle Grounds

HIST 3345 Global 1960s: Revolution from the College Campus to the Battle Grounds (also ASRC 3345) (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HTR)

Tuesday and Thursday: 2:55-4;10 plus Independent Research

Professor Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik

This course explores the waves of rebellion, and reaction, that swept the globe in the 1960s. From Dakar to Havana, from Beijing to Paris, we will examine the events, social movements, actors, places and legacies of the 1960s. Each week will focus on a specific case study and a specific theme: we will be looking at the role of film in liberation, changing ideas of sex and the body, the role of drugs in global revolutionary movements, and what being a student meant in the 1960s. In many ways the 1960s set the tone for today’s political and social debates. Over the next few months, we will try to understand how. This should help us get a better grasp of what has been happening on our campus and across the world this past year.

HIST 2905 Global History of War from the 16th Century to the Present

HIST 2905 Global History of War from the 16th Century to the Present (HST-AS, SSC-AS) (HTR)

Monday and Wednesday: 10:10-11:25 plus discussion

Professor Ruth Lawlor and Professor Nicholas Mulder

What is war? How has it changed over time? How and why do states engage in war and what social, economic and political factors determine when and what kind of war breaks out? Who fights wars and why? This class answers these questions by tracing the evolution of modern warfare from the beginnings of nationalism and state-formation in 16th century Europe to the present day. Focusing on questions of total war, revolution, insurgency and counterinsurgency, colonial war and wars of resistance, grand strategy and political economy, students will learn about conventional and irregular war across a span of almost four hundred years, from Europe and the Americas to China and Japan, the Middle East, and North and Central Africa.

HIST 2765 The North American West

HIST 2765 The North American West (also AMST 2775) (HST-AS, SCD-AS) (HNA)

Tuesday and Thursday: 10:10-11:25 plus Independent Research

Professor Camille Suarez

In this course, we will learn about the history of the West. We will deconstruct popular myths about the West, as we engage with the major themes and significant debates that define the historical scholarship. This course will begin with Native origin stories and end with the 20th century. As a class, we will study the west from a multitude of perspectives, such as race, gender, and ethnicity, the environment, labor, politics and culture. This course is designed to increase our knowledge of the social, political and intellectual developments that have shaped our understanding of the West.

HIST 2656 Anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism in Historical Perspective

HIST 2656 Anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism in Historical Perspective (also JWST 2156, RELST 2656) (HST-AS, SCD-AS) (HEU)

Monday and Wednesday: 10:10-11:25

Professor Olga Litvak

Why is it that the age of emancipation which saw most of the world’s Jews gain citizenship status and achieve unprecedented levels of socio-economic modernization, also witnessed a catastrophic assault on Jewish life? How do we explain the conjunction between the spread of liberal values and the exponential rise of anti-semitism? Most historians refer to the virulence of racism in accounting for the scale and brutality of anti-Jewish rhetoric which prepared the way for the destruction of European Jewry in the twentieth century. But this explanation fails to account for the fact that progressive democratic discourse which explicitly endorses ethnic diversity and emphatically repudiates racial prejudice remains susceptible to anti-Jewish animus even now. In this class, we will examine the complex relationship between emancipation and anti-semitism from the perspective of those who benefited from the former but had to contend with the reality of the latter – Europe’s rising class of Jewish intellectuals. We will discover that their insights into the problem of modern Jew-hatred were both acute and prescient and have much to teach us about the current Jewish predicament.

HIST 2590 The Crusades

HIST 2590 The Crusades (also MEDVL 2590) (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HTR)

Tuesday and Thursday: 11:40-12:55 plus Independent Research

Professor Oren Falk

This course focuses on the ideas and practices of Crusading, from its birth ca. 1100 to the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1292. We explore the roots of Crusading in Christian Europe and in the Islamic Near East; the conquest, settlement, and loss of the Latin Levant; and the impacts and afterlives of Crusading. Central themes include the institutional, intellectual, and political histories of Christianity (Latin, Byzantine, and other) and Islam; military, social, and economic narratives of the period; and social, cultural, and environmental analysis, using both material and textual sources.

HIST 2392 Where Fire Meets Ice: Histories of the U.S.-Canada Border Across Four Centuries

HIST 2392 Where Fire Meets Ice: Histories of the U.S.-Canada Border Across Four Centuries (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HNA) (AMST: pre-1900)

Tuesday and Thursday: 10:10-11:25

Professor Jon Parmenter

The international boundary between Canada and the United is the longest, straightest border in the world. Although frequently cast as “boring” in juxtaposition to its southern counterpart, this viewpoint overlooks the U.S.-Canada border’s longstanding history as a site and engine of trans-national tensions and controversies. This course addresses the complex histories of the 3,500 mile boundary separating the United States from Canada from its eighteenth century colonial antecedents to contemporary challenges related to drug smuggling, border fence construction, pandemic-related travel restrictions, immigration, commerce, environmental issues, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and national identity construction. The instructor, a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, brings not only life experience of border-crossing, but also a recent background in legal testimony on border-related issues.

HIST 2158 St. Petersburg and the Making of Modern Russia

HIST 2158 St. Petersburg and the Making of Modern Russia (also RUSSL 2158, SHUM 2158) (HST-AS) (HA-AG) (HEU)

Monday and Wednesday: 2:30-4:10

Professor Olga Litvak

Founded by Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century, St. Petersburg was built expressly to advertise the triumph of enlightened absolutism at home and to display Russia’s status as a major European power abroad. But for all of its neo-classical splendor, the image of imperial St. Petersburg has been consistently invoked as a critical touchstone for the expression of political discontent, social unease and spiritual anxiety. The most modern and “intentional” of Russian cities, Russia’s northern capital has come to stand for everything that’s wrong with modern life. In this seminar, we will approach St. Petersburg as a cultural text composed by an illustrious trio of Russian writers who saw the complicated history of their country through Peter’s “window to the west” -- Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Andrei Bely.

HIST 1976 Recreating the Caribbean: Migration and Identity in Contemporary Caribbean History

HIST 1976 Recreating the Caribbean: Migration and Identity in Contemporary Caribbean History (also ASRC 1976) (HST-AS, SCD-AS) (HGS)

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 11:15-12:05

Professor Judith Byfield

Waves of voluntary and forced migrants and their imposition on indigenous communities led to radically new societies in the Caribbean. Though popularized as tropical paradises, the Caribbean has one of the highest rates of emigration in the world. Revolutions, wars of independence and socio-economic and political marginalization has led to the formation of Caribbean diasporic communities in Central America, North America, Europe and Africa. These diasporic communities are also transnational spaces because emigrants retain important social, economic and political connections to their countries of origin. Drawing on specific case studies this course considers three interconnecting questions – What factors led to sustained emigration? Why did migrants’ settle in specific countries? How have Caribbean diasporic communities reshaped their natal communities and their new homes?

HIST 1690 Deep Fake: A History

HIST 1690 Deep Fake: A History (HPE, HTR)

Tuesday and Thursday: 10:10-11:25 plus discussion

Professor Casey Schmitt and Professor Claudia Verhoeven

In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries declared "post-truth" as the international word of the year. Since then, especially with the rise of generative AI, concerns about the meaning of truth have emerged as central in media, politics, and daily life. But does truth/post-truth have a longer history? And what can we learn from how philosophers, political theorists, artists, and people in the past engaged with concepts like truth and falsity? This history of Deep Fakes offers students a historical understanding of how and why humans have constructed and enacted categories of the real/fake, original/copy, and fact/fiction from the ancient world to the present day. Specific topics covered may include myth and history, conspiracy, imposters, forgeries, propaganda, realism, replicants, and hyperreality.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author from Jerusalem to speak Oct. 10

Nathan Thrall will talk about his most recent book, “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy.”

Celebration kicks off McGraw Hall project

More than 75 people, including university leaders, donors and members of the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, celebrated the start of the $110 million McGraw Hall renovation project Sept. 19 with a “groundbreaking” ceremony.

Student spotlight: Cameron Tardif

Cameron Tardif, a doctoral candidate in history studies sport as a space of race and power in 20th-century United States and Canada.

Freeing Ukraine to hit targets deep in Russia likely won’t change tide of war

Cornell expert: “The center of gravity of this conflict is still in the east of Ukraine and Ukrainian disadvantages aren’t really going to be fixed by deep strikes inside of Russia."

Donor’s Annual Prize Shows Appreciation for Teaching Assistants

The Deanne Gebell Gitner ’66 and Family Annual Prize for Teaching Assistants was created to put TAs in the spotlight, celebrating and recognizing them for their contributions to education at Cornell.

Cornell history scholars in residence at Institute for Advanced Study

Mara Yue Du, associate professor of history; Durba Ghosh, professor of history; and Rachel Weil, professor of history are pursuing research projects at the IAS campus in Princeton, New Jersey.

Cornell adds 3 A.D. White Professors to celebrated roster

Best-selling writer Cory Doctorow, filmmaker Louis Massiah ’77 and award-winning journalist P. (Palagummi) Sainath have been appointed as the latest Cornell A.D. White Professors-at-Large.

From portfolios to pizza, fall A&S career events explore diverse fields

"Cornell alumni are generous with their time and efforts to assist students, to answer questions from students, or connect them to people and places."

Western weapons won't decide war in Ukraine

None of the technological wonder solutions from the U.S. and other allies to Ukraine have fulfilled its war-winning vision, says war historian David Silbey.

New A&S dean relishes ‘life in a university’

Peter John Loewen says he's excited to support faculty in their research, meet students and showcase the value of a liberal arts education.

Academic boot camp tackles mission: imposter syndrome

A group of military service members and veterans spent two weeks at Cornell as part of the Warrior-Scholar Project, which helps participants build skills and navigate transitions to higher education.

Your August 2024 Reads

The featured titles include Joe Fassler ’06's novel drawn from the Icarus myth and former dean Philip Lewis' book on the public humanities.

Childcare workers built movement to raise pay, include more families

In the early 1990s, labor activists responded to the exploitation of waged childcare workers by dissolving the usual labor divisions between workplace and home, according to a new account of the movement by a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow.

A&S honors 10 faculty with endowed professorships

With these new appointments, the number of A&S faculty appointed to endowed professorships since fall 2018 has reached 76.

Traverso honored by Autonomous University of Barcelona

Enzo Traverso, the Susan and Bart Winokur Professor in the Humanities, has received an honorary doctorate from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB).

New trustees to join Cornell board in July

At its May 24 meeting, the Cornell Board of Trustees elected seven new trustees to four-year terms. The board also reelected a trustee from the field of labor.

Peter Loewen named dean of Arts and Sciences

Coming from the University of Toronto, where he is the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Loewen begins his five-year appointment as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Aug. 1.

The Digital CoLab: Elevating skills, building community

Following one simple formula: “People over projects," the Digital CoLab on the 7th floor of Olin Library stimulates innovation in research and teaching while building connections among scholars across campus.

Humanities scholars research free speech, AI, sports culture and the Supreme Court

“This year’s Humanities Scholar Program conference was spectacular. The range of topics covered, the diversity of approaches, and the level of mastery demonstrated by the students were inspiring,” said interim director Lawrence Glickman.

National Humanities Center selects two A&S professors as 2024-25 Fellows

Kim Haines-Eitzen, the Paul and Berthe Hendrix Memorial Professor of Near Eastern studies, and Mostafa Minawi, associate professor of history and director of Critical Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies, will pursue research projects in residence in Durham, North Carolina.

Outstanding A&S teachers, advisors honored with 2024 awards

Among the faculty members being recognized this year for exceptional teaching and mentorship are Liliana Colanzi, Durba Ghosh, and Nick Admussen.

'I have felt a sense of belonging'

Axaraly Ortiz is a history major.

'I learned that my interests in history and finance are not mutually exclusive'

Skyler Risom is a history major.

'Real world issues often don’t fit into the neat boxes of disciplines'

Mayanka Dhingra is a history and science & technology studies major.

Einaudi seed grants grow international collaborations

A new round of Einaudi Center seed grants will help faculty from across Cornell, including three from the College of Arts & Sciences, tackle issues ranging from drone-assisted healthcare delivery for migrants to sustainable infrastructure design for Ukraine.

History alum receives Pulitzer Prize for story of dementia

Katie Engelhart ’09 is recognized for “for her fair-minded portrait of a family’s legal and emotional struggles during a matriarch’s progressive dementia."