Message from the Chair Welcome back to the Department of History!  We have a new chair since our last newsletter. Professor Catherine Rymph took up the mantle this summer after John Wigger completed his term.  Let her tell you why now is a vital time to study history! Read more

Our Undergraduates

Fourth Annual History Majors' Hot Dog Roast The annual feast was a great success with Professor Lois Huneycutt's cupcakes and Professor John Frymire as grillmeister! There are more pictures at the link above.

Wondering What You Could Do with a History Major? Where are our majors now? Just about everywhere! They are earning advanced degrees in fields from strategic intelligence and cybersecurity to social work and library science, as well as history and law. They can be found teaching English for the Peace Corps in Madagascar, serving as linguists in the military, working for major corporations, teaching and serving as principals in our public schools, and helping to keep history alive in our public parks and archives around the country and in our own backyards.

Our Graduate Students

Congratulations! So far this year, eight of our graduate students have earned their degrees, and several more are slated to finish this spring.  See who has graduated!

We are pleased to announce that Lawrence Celani won BOTH the Best Student Paper Prize and the Lynn and Kristen Morrow History Prize at this year’s Missouri Conference on History for his paper “‘Their Blood Has Flown and Mingled with Ours’: The Politics of Slavery in Illinois and Missouri in the Early Republic”!

Alumni Bookshelf

We are never prouder of our graduate students than when they leave us and publish books of their own! Check out these new titles from our alumni. Chad Denton, PhD ’15, Decadence, Radicalism, and the Early Modern French Nobility   Amahia Mallea, MA ’01, PhD ’06, A River in the City of Fountains Todd Morman, MA ’10, PhD ’16, Many Nations Under Many Gods Steven Smith, MA ’07, PhD ’13 Empire of Print Lucas Volkman, MA ’06, PhD ’12, Houses Divided Cassandra Yacovazzi, PhD ’15, Escaped Nuns Tiffany Ziegler, PhD ’10, Medieval Healthcare and the Rise of Charitable Institutions

Our Faculty

Welcome to New Colleagues!

Devin Fergus is our new Arvarh Strickland Distinguished Professor of History and Black Studies. He specializes in political economy and inequality in modern America. Alyssa Zuercher Reichardt is our newest assistant professor. She is affiliated with the Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy and focuses on indigenous history and empires in early America and the Atlantic world.

We have been missing Assistant Professor Victor MacFarland for quite some time now. He has spent the academic year working on the oil crisis of the 1970s as a faculty fellow at Harvard's Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History .

Dispatches from the Archives Jerry Frank spent his summer investigating water-based recreation in the American West. That recreation is endangered by the increasing scarcity of the region’s most precious resource. Read more

Hot off the Presses!  Check out new releases from three of our faculty members.

By Devin Fergus Also check out The Majority Report to hear Fergus talk about the impact of hidden consumer fees on wealth inequality. Or tune into the Race and Wealth podcast "Fees Fry Folks' Fun."

By Jay Sexton Check out the Brian Lehrer Show to hear Sexton's thoughts on his latest book or read about the book here.

By A. Mark Smith When this book won the American Philosophical Society's John Frederick Lewis Award, Smith became the first person ever to receive the award three times!

Around the Department

Melinda Lockwood Retires For more than a decade, Melinda Lockwood, the department's executive staff assistant, was a key member of Read Hall. Many of you may remember her as both a friendly face and a fount of knowledge. She took her much-deserved retirement at the end of 2017, and the department celebrated with her (and a cake) in November 2017. We miss her terribly, but, thankfully, she continues to provide us with her wisdom, expertise, and institutional memory whenever we call.

Advising Excellence Congratulations to Jenny Morton, our undergraduate adviser, for being named the "Top Adviser to Army ROTC"! Morton's work advising history students is absolutely crucial to the department, and we could not be more pleased that Army ROTC has also recognized the extraordinary worth of her work.

In our last newsletter, we introduced you to the new Kinder Forum on Constitutional Democracy. We have great news! The forum has been upgraded to the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy thanks to the generosity of Rich and Nancy Kinder and the hard work of those at Kinder. The many activities of the institute could easily fill a newsletter of its very own.  Explore here to learn about all about the important work going on at the Kinder Institute!

Great Info on the History Website Did you know that the history department sponsors lectures that are free and open to the public? On April 4, Professor Christopher Forth, of the University of Kansas, will be at Mizzou talking about the history of fat.  To keep up with all of our events and activities, follow us on Facebook (and maybe spare us a "like" or two). You can also follow the department on Twitter .

Thank You! Finally, please know that your support means the world to the department. Endowments enable the department to offer competitive scholarships to students, provide critical resources to graduate students, support cutting-edge faculty research, and serve as a hub of knowledge and enrichment across Mizzou and beyond. If you would like an example of how your financial support of the department makes a difference, check out this story  about students broadening their perspectives with experiential learning. Interested in giving? Click here to make a gift.

Department of History 101 Read Hall • 573-882-2481 • muashistory@missouri.edu