It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of our long-time colleague, Professor Frank Stuart, on August 23, 2018 at his home in Colorado, where he lived since retiring from the University of Miami. Frank was a member of the Department of History from 1969 to 2002. Frank was an extremely lively and admired teacher who taught a series of immensely popular courses on Reformation Europe and modern British History, as well as large surveys on Western Civilization, stretching from the ancient Near East to modern times. Thanks to his lively presentation, animated style, and detailed knowledge of the subject matter, Frank was beloved by his students, who clamored to take his courses. When teaching his Western Civilization classes, Miami’s largest lecture rooms were filled to the brim with more than 250 students.
As a tenured faculty member from the mid-1970s to 2002, Frank was very much at the center of departmental life. In the 1970s he served as Chair of the Department and later on for many years as Director of Undergraduate Studies. Many of us still remember with pleasure the many departmental parties that Frank generously hosted in his home. Those of us who knew him will always remember his cheerfulness, his fine sense of humor, and his optimistic outlook on life, as well as the aura of confidence and enthusiasm he radiated. He was a source of encouragement and inspiration for students and colleagues alike. He has left an indelible mark on his friends in the Department and on the students to whom he was so dedicated. As a close friend of his, who for many years worked in the Department, said on hearing the news of his passing: “He was a gentleman with a big heart for everybody.” We will miss him and always remember him fondly.
The Spring 2018 Newsletter is out!
Congratulations to Professor Mary Lindemann, who has been elected President-elect of the American Historical Association. Founded in 1884, the AHA is the largest and most influential professional organization of historians in the United States. Lindemann, who has been chair of the Department of History since 2009 and who recently served as President of the German Studies Association, will serve as President-elect of the AHA in 2019 and then as President in 2020. We congratulate her on this extraordinary honor!
Professor Edmund Abaka has had a busy 2016-17 academic year in Ghana as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cape Coast. Professor Abaka organized the first ever event at the John Evans Atta Mills Presidential Library in Cape Coast, Ghana. The Presidential Library was commissioned late last year by the former president of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani Mahama. He also delivered an inaugural address in honor of Professor Emeritus J. H. Nketia at the African University College of Communications, Accra. Last but not least, he curated an exhibition at the University of Cape Coast on "Ties that Bind: Roots and Routes of Ghana U.S. Relations." Professor Abaka's Fulbright Grant has been extended to the 2017-18 academic year.
Professor Gregory W. Bush has published White Sand Black Beach: Civil Rights, Public Space, and Miami's Virginia Key (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2016). In White Sand Black Beach, Bush recounts the history and current state of the public waterfront in Miami. Recently environmentalists, community leaders, and civil rights activists have come together to revitalize the beach at Virginia Key, and Bush highlights the potential to stimulate civic engagement in public planning processes. While local governments defer to booster and lobbying interests pushing for destination casinos and boat shows, Bush calls for a land ethic that connects people to the local environment. He seeks to shift the local political divisions beyond established interest groups and neoliberalism to a broader vision that simplifies human needs, and reconnects people to fundamental values such as health. A place of fellowship, relaxation, and interaction with nature, this beach, Bush argues, offers a common ground of hope for a better future.
The Spring 2016 Newsletter is now out!
Professor Edmund Abaka won the Fannie Lou Hamer & Kwame Nkrumah Award from the National Council of Black Studies. The award recognizes “outstanding academic leadership and service” to the field. Congratulations!
Guido Ruggiero, professor of history, delivered the 2016 Appleby Memorial Lecture at San Diego State University. His remarks, “On My Own Ignorance on the Italian Renaissance After Writing 600 Plus Pages,” were drawn from his latest book, Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento (Cambridge University Press, 2014). This is a high honor: previous speakers in this series included Natalie Zemon Davis, John Demos, and Kenneth Pomeranz.
Scott Heerman, assistant professor of history, has been named for the 2016-17 academic year as the Barbara Thom Postdoctoral Fellow at the Huntington Library. He will spend the year in residence revising his book manuscript Many Slaveries: An Entangled History of Human Bondage in the Illinois Country, 1730-1860 which is under contract with University of Pennsylvania Press.
Eduardo Elena, associate professor of history has co-edited with Paulina Alberto (University of Michigan) a new volume titled Rethinking Race in Modern Argentina which has been released by Cambridge University Press (2016). It covers a range of issues regarding race in modern Argentina and draws on history, anthropology, and literary and cultural studies to place Argentina in a larger conversation on race in Latin America. The collection thus contributes to rethinking race for other global contexts as well.
Professor Dominque Reill has been named editor for Purdue University's Central European Studies series. Congratualtions to Professor Reill on this important accomplishment!
Professor Karl Gunther's Reformation Unbound: Protestant Visions of Reform in England, 1525-1590 (Cambridge University Press, 2014) has been named the runner-up for the American Society of Church History’s Brewer Prize.
Professor Karl Gunther's Reformation Unbound: Protestant Visions of Reform in England, 1525-1590(Cambridge University Press, 2014) was a finalist for the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield Prize.
Professor Guido Ruggiero has received the 2015 American Association of Italian Studies' Book Award for The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento (Cambridge, 2015).
Congratulations to Professors Abaka, Elena, Goff, Gunther, Nesvig, Ramsey, Reill, Thomas, and White, winners of 2015 Provost's Research Awards.
Congratulations to Professor Donald Spivey, who has been named a Top Black Educator in South Florida by Legacy Magazine.
The Department of History hosted its annual reception at the 2015 American Historical Association Meeting in New York City.
On Friday September 26th, Miami Beach City Commissioner Michael Grieco (UM Law '99) will be visiting Professor Martin Nesvig's course on "The Beach" (HIS 290) to discuss civic and environmental issues faced by the city and residents of Miami Beach.
Dominique Reill has received the 2014 Book Prize from the Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota for "Nationalists Who Feared the Nation: Adriatic Multi-Nationalism in Habsburg Dalmatia, Trieste, and Venice" (Stanford University Press, 2012).
Stephen Lazer (Ph.D. '14) has accepted a position as a Visiting Instructor in the Department of History at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Professor Mary Lindemann has been elected to a two-year term (2015-2016) as Vice President of the German Studies Association. She will serve as the association's President from 2017-2018.
Two members of the Department of History have received 2014-15 fellowships from the UM Center for the Humanities. Professor Mary Lindemann will be a faculty fellow, working on her project "Charlotte's Web: Incest, History, and the Literary Imagination" and doctoral student Ashley Marie Mateiro will be a dissertion fellow, working on her thesis "Lubricating the Wheels of Colonialism and Capitalism: Gulf Oil Corporation, the Black Protest Movement, and Portuguese Africa, 1956-1988."
Professor Hermann Beck has been appointed to one of three Cooper Fellowships (2014-2017) from the College of Arts & Sciences.
Professor Michael Miller has received the Provost’s Award for Scholarly Activity, awarded annually to recognize excellence in research. He has also received two major prizes for his most recent book, Europe and the Maritime World: A Twentieth-Century History (Cambridge, 2012): the 2010-2012 Alfred and Fay Chandler Book Award and the 2013 Hagley Prize for the best book in Business History.
Stephen Lazer (PhD '14) has received the 2014 David John Ruggiero Dissertation Award from the UM Center for the Humanities for "The State with Two Centers: The French Monarchy and the Dukes of Pfalz-Zweibrücken in Early Modern Alsace, 1648-1789." Congratulations to Dr. Lazer and his advisor, Mary Lindemann.
Simonetta Marin (PhD '14) has received the inaugural College of Arts & Sciences Early Modern Essay award for "A New Image for a New Devotion: The Fleshy Heart of Jesus." Congratulation to Dr. Marin and her advisor, Guido Ruggiero.
Lecturer Deborah Hamer will be a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Boston College during the 2014-15 academic year.
Spring 2018 Newsletter
