April 2020

Geographical Region Distribution Application

This application is for history majors who seek credit to fulfill one of the geographical region distribution requirements in a course with content that covers more than one geographical location. The student must focus their work on the geographical region they wish to obtain credit towards. The credit for the course will be determined by the course syllabus, the final and/or mid-term paper’s topic and content. You must attach the course syllabus, a copy of the mid-term and/or final paper for this application to be processed.

NPR: Medical Historian Says Pandemics Are 'Looking Glasses' For Societies

In his book, Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present, Yale medical historian Frank Snowden explores how, for centuries, disease outbreaks have transformed societies across the globe.

Pandemics “serve like looking glasses” that reveal societies’ flaws — and their commitments — Snowden said on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Steven Rome and Sahaj Sankaran win 2020 Manuscripts and Archives Diane Kaplan Memorial Senior Essay Prize

Congratulations to the winners of the 2020 Manuscripts and Archives Diane Kaplan Memorial Senior Essay Prize!

Steven Rome (Grace Hopper College). The Apostle of Dissent: J. Hendrix McLane’s Fight Against History in Post-Reconstruction South Carolina. History Department. Adviser: Professor David Blight.

Regina Kunzel designated the Larned Professor

Regina Grace Kunzel, newly named as the Larned Professor of History and of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, is an historian of gender and sexuality in the 20th-century United States. Her appointment will be effective in January.

Kunzel is currently the Doris Stevens Chair and Professor of History and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University.

Sunil Amrith named the Dhawan Professor of History

Sunil Amrith, newly appointed as the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History, focuses his research on the trans-regional movement of people, ideas, and institutions across South and Southeast Asia. His appointment will be effective on July 1.

Amrith is currently the Mehra Family Professor of South Asian History at Harvard University.

Lauren Benton appointed the Biggs Professor of History

Lauren Benton, recently named as the Barton M. Biggs Professor of History, is a comparative and world historian whose research focuses on law in European empires, the history of international law, and Atlantic world history. Her appointment will be effective on July 1.

Benton is currently the Nelson O. Tyrone Jr. Professor of History and professor of law at Vanderbilt University.

Changing course: Yale classes adapt to the pandemic

What does it mean to teach during a global pandemic? Even beyond the shift to Zoom classrooms and virtual lectures, it has for many Yale professors meant rethinking how a course can serve as a shared intellectual pursuit and also a chance for finding much-needed community.

Ashanti Shih awarded 2020 Rachel Carson Prize for best dissertation in environmental history

Ashanti Shih (HSHM) was awarded the 2020 Rachel Carson Prize for best dissertation by the American Society for Environmental History for her dissertation, “Invasive Ecologies: Science and Settler Colonialism in Twentieth-Century Hawai’i.”

Book party on April 14: A celebration of Valerie Hansen's The Year 1000

You are cordially invited to an e-book launch via Zoom at 5:15 pm on April 14 for Valerie Hansen’s The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World— and Globalization Began, which Scribner will release on that day. Fabian Drixler will start off by asking Valerie questions and then we’ll open up Q+A to everyone.

What History Tells Us About Covid-19 with Arne Westad on "Society, Infected" podcast

Arne Westad, the Elihu Professor of History at Yale University about what history can teach us about COVID-19. Westad points us to 1918 and the effects of Spanish Influenza to underscore how a pandemic can change society. The 1918 Spanish Flu began the era of socialized medicine, as people realized that the health of everyone, rich or poor, was connected.