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Judith A. Byfield

Field Member, Africana Studies and Research Center, College of Arts and Sciences

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Ask our Ambassadors: Why choosing a humanities major was right for me

Halle Livermore says there are infinite pathways you can take to decide on your major.

Don’t Expect Sanctions To Win the Ukraine War

The outcome of sweeping Western sanctions on Russian has proven as difficult to predict as that of the war itself, Nicolas Mulder writes.

Banners flying outside a stately building

Russia and Ukraine peace talks likely have nothing to do with ‘peace’

As peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine appear to be proceeding in fits and starts, Barry Strauss, writes that history shows that such talks are a way station to the real arena: the battlefield.

Richard F Bensel

Richard Bensel (Ph.D. Cornell University) is the Gary S. Davis Professor of Government. His primary fields are American politics and political economy.His research and teaching interests include American political development, parties and elections, the United States Congress, comparative state formation, political culture, institutional change, and philosophy of social science. You can find his CV here.

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Ernesto Bassi

My research interests coalesce around two significant questions: How do people develop geographic and cultural identifications? How do geographic regions come into being? In particular, I am interested in the role circulation (of goods, people, news, and ideas) plays in the configuration of geographic spaces, collective identities, geopolitical projects, and political allegiances.

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John Barwick

My research centers on the fascinating enigma that is modern China. I am drawn especially to the question of Chinese engagement with the modern world in the 19th and 20th centuries and the construction of Chinese modernity that emerged from it. A subtheme of my work considers the role of religion in modern societies, and in particular the role of Christianity in mediating notions of modernity around the world over the past two centuries. My dissertation was awarded the CSRCS Ph.D. Dissertation Award from Chinese University of Hong Kong and is currently under review with Brill Press.

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Edward E. Baptist

I focus on the history of the 19th-century United States, and in particular on the history of the enslavement of African Americans in the South. The expansion of slavery in the United States between the writing of the Constitution in 1787 and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 had enormous consequences for all Americans. Indeed, the expansion shaped many elements of the modern world that we now live in, both inside and outside the borders of the United States. I am writing a book about that process: the experience of the slave trades and forced migrations that drove expansion, the systems of labor that emerged, the economic and political and cultural consequences for women and men and children.

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above-ground pipeline extends across a rugged landscape

Russian gas threat could force European economy to reform

Cristina Florea provides a historical perspective on energy and economic development.

The long history of disinformation during war

While we might crave information, we are right to be suspicious of the sources that provide it, Barry Strauss, professor of history and classics, writes in Washington Post commentary.

Student-librarian partnership makes history

The inaugural RAD Public History Fellows have been digging deep into library archives and bringing their discoveries to light in creative ways – from social media posts to displays of artifacts and tours of library exhibits.

Early Silicon Valley championed meritocracy through ‘flexible masculinity’

Klarman Fellow Charles Petersen won the Martha Moore Trescott Prize at the 2022 Business History Conference for his gender analysis of tech company leadership.

person silhouetted against a backgrond of green and blue lights

U.S. information warfare ‘fundamentally shapes conflict’ in Ukraine

Historian David Silbey says there is a long history of the U.S. using intelligence to help allies.

Glenn Altschuler

Glenn Altschuler received his PhD in American history from Cornell in 1976 and has been an administrator and teacher at the university since 1981.

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Professor Claudia Verhoeven Receives GPSA Faculty Award

Claudia Verhoeven, associate professor of history, has received the GPSA Faculty Teaching, Advising, and Mentoring Award. Verhoeven is a historian of modern Russia and Europe whose primary research interests are terror/terrorism and revolutionary cultures. This award given by the GPSA (Graduate Professional Student Assembly) recognizes...

3 tropes of white victimhood

History professor Lawrence Glickman writes in The Atlantic that in the conservative world, the idea that white people in the United States are under siege has become doctrine.

The 2020-21 Department of History Newsletter

The 2020-21 Department of History Newsletter is available as a pdf. Should you need an accessible copy, please email the Department of History and one will be prepared. Link to the Department of History Newsletter.

Aduke Gomez to speak May 10

The Cornell Community is invited to hear ADUKE GOMEZ on May 10, 2021 from 2:45 PM to 4:00 PM.Living and Creating in Nigeria in the Era of COVID-19Registration at: cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqdeipqDgoHtZYBzuvxaW-Vbvo757VybeOADUKE GOMEZ – Aduke utilises her legal and advisory skills to assist in business and creative development...

Six graduate students receive 2021 Wu Scholarships

Six graduate students were awarded 2021 Hsien and Daisy Yen Wu Scholarships. These scholarships recognize graduate students for their academic ability, performance and character as well as financial need.

Book Cover Art — Sailing to Freedom book cover provided

Virtual Book Talk: Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad

Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground RailroadA Virtual Book Talk with Timothy D. Walker, Mirelle Luecke, and Megan Jeffrey: Followed by a Q & A moderated by Professor Edward BaptistMonday, May 10, 2021, at 5:00 pm: Register at https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_X2i6SLiFQua6jjmmsXfhNAEmail mailto:mkj42@...