Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Nnenna Ochuru ’25
"I want to further study the politicalization of education."
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Cornell historians, undergraduates, and graduates research the World. Our expertise stretches across the globe and through the centuries, illuminating the present.
Research Links
Spotlights on Research in the Department
Faculty Research
Violence and Risk in Medieval Iceland: This Spattered Isle: New Book by Professor Oren Falk
Oren Falk's book and research considers the medieval Icelandic sagas as case studies in the violence general to the human experience, arguing that violence, “both perennial and contemporary,” serves as a technique for dealing with uncertainty....
In this book, the Icelandic case studies elaborated reveal the historically specific ways in which such general truisms get acted out in a particular culture. Successive chapters move from the individual level of struggling to survive and assert dominance in a feud, through the sociological level of creating and upholding institutions that will serve elites’ agendas, to the existential level of coming to grips with the harsh environment Icelanders faced, a sputtering volcanic outcrop stuck in the middle of a storm-tossed North Atlantic.
Graduate Student Research
History & Science Research Synergize for Greater Understanding
The research of Kevin Bloomfield, a Ph.D. candidate in history, and colleagues, was recently honored with a publication in Climatic Change.
The paper, Beyond One-Way Determinism: San Frediano's Miracle and Climate Change in Central and Southern Italy in Late Antiquity, examines the cultural impacts of climate change in Italy during the first millennium by studying scientific data and historical records.
Undergraduate Research
Ezra's Archives is a publication put forth annually by the Cornell Historical Society. The Cornell Historical Society (CHS) is an undergraduate organization at Cornell University founded in 2010. CHS educates and fosters appreciation for historical topics and methodology with the undergraduate student population and the community at large. This journal, launched in the Spring of 2011, showcases stellar examples of undergraduate research in the field of history. In 2021, Ezra's Archives was published online and articles can be read in this and previous issues on e-Commons.
History News
U.S.-Russia peace plan should be ‘non-starter’ for Ukraine
The leaked peace initiative, which would allegedly require Kyiv to surrender territory and significantly reduce the size of its army and some types of weaponry, is largely an attempt to put pressure on Zelensky, says David Silbey.
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Historian to explore state of American sports in 2025 Seymour Lecture
Author and historian Kevin Baker will examine the paradox at the heart of modern American sports: while there are more games and sports than ever before, access has become increasingly limited and costly.
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Medical anthropologist to deliver annual Society for Humanities lecture
Stacey Langwick, associate professor of anthropology in the College of Arts & Sciences, will speak on "Healing in a Toxic World: Reimagining the Times and Spaces of the Therapeutic."
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Plan to conduct nuclear tests comes with enormous risks, says Cornell expert
Where and how the tests will happen are important questions, says military historian David Silbey, as last confirmed nuclear test by the United States was in 1992.
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New digital collections preserve, examine Cornell history 
Newly published digital collections at Cornell University Library explore areas of Cornell history. Freely accessible online, the three new collections were digitized from materials held in Cornell University Library’s Rare and Manuscript Collections.
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Election of Japan’s first female PM isn’t a win for women, says Cornell historian
Sanae Takaichi’s election may seem surprising in a country that ranked lowest among OECD nations in women’s political representation as recently as 2023, but it is not a victory for gender equality, says professor Kristin Roebuck.
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HIST 2213 World War II: History and Culture
HIST 2213 World War II: History and Culture (ETM-AS, HST-AS) (HTR) Tuesday and Thursday: 1:25-2:40 plus Independent Research Professor Ruth Lawlor What was the Second World War? How do people in different countries remember it today? In this class, we will explore the military, political, e...
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