Dear Friends, Alumni, and Fellow Historians,
Greetings from the UNC History Department! As I write this, the university and its wider communities are cautiously emerging from over a year of crisis. As historians, we endeavor to understand the present in a longer context; as individuals and members of communities, we are worn out but looking forward to brighter days.
This spring issue of The Department Historian details both the ongoing, impressive work of our faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates as well as some of their extraordinary initiatives in the face of our challenging times. These include grappling with historical legacies of inequality, embracing new possibilities for international collaboration through online teaching, and promoting a name for our building that reflects the value we place upon scholarship in the service of the public. For more news of the History Department, please do keep an eye on our website, https://history.unc.edu/, which is ably maintained by graduate students Emma Rothberg and Craig Gill.
For producing this newsletter while engaging in his own research and teaching, I deeply appreciate our faculty editor, Dr. Eren Tasar. He was ably assisted by graduate student writers Fred Cochran and Mira Markham and undergraduate Jona Bocari, whom I thank as well for this important work of public communication.
As we continue to maintain our mission through this tumultuous era, we depend more than ever on the generous backing of our friends and alumni—like Dr. John Britton, featured in this edition of the newsletter. Private contributions enable us to fund research opportunities for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty; participate in and coordinate national and international conferences; and maintain our commitment to engaging the general public. Thank you for your continued interest and support.
I hope you will consider making a gift today and help us continue our tradition of excellence that is History at UNC. And please stay in touch—we’d love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
