Welcome to the spring 2018 issue of the Department Historian! Congratulations to the Class of 2018, as well as to those students who will continue toiling away in Hamilton Hall for a little while longer, but already have much to be proud of—as you’ll see below.
You’ll read about the original research of our undergraduates in the Honors thesis program, as well as our graduate students’ innovative teaching, which prods students to take historical thinking outside the classroom. This issue also celebrates the many students and faculty members who have won prizes and fellowships to support their work, as well as the creative forms that historical scholarship can take—from our alumnus John Hall’s research for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Professor Melissa Bullard’s bold decision to apply her expertise in the Italian Renaissance to the study of 19th-century Brooklyn. And as always, the newsletter takes a look back in time—to the challenges and opportunities that UNC’s History department faced during World War II.