History Department News and Research

"Here we have yet one more opportunity to fully flesh out and understand what went wrong with the drug war in Mexico and why it could arguably be considered to be a colossal failure," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"If people decide that they will vote for somebody, regardless of what they may have done in their past, that's one thing," says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science. "But if they vote under the misconception that somebody is what they say they are and then they find out later when it's too late that [it] is wrong. That's a very different situation."

"Harry seems to, for good reasons or bad, rightly or wrongly, he seems to have an enormous amount of grievances and he’s not being shy about saying them," says Alan Allport, professor of history.

Eleven Maxwell School students have been awarded grants from the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE) and the Renée Crown University Honors Program. The awards provide up to $7,500 in support for original undergraduate research projects.

Capturing Ovidio Guzmán could be a way for López Obrador to show the U.S. that he is “in control of the armed forces and Mexico’s security situation,” Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, tells CNN. “It also defuses the power behind any ask from the Biden administration to stem the tide of fentanyl and other narcotics across the border,” she adds.

"I think it seems to have been pretty successful," says Alan Allport, Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History. "Charles has had an awful lot of time to prepare for this role."

In this article published in SVMMA. Revista de Cultures Medievals, Professor of History Albrecht Diem examines whether applying different notions of “monastic landscapes” (geographic, political, textual, economic, spiritual) to the monastic movement allegedly initiated by Columbanus may help us to refine or deconstruct the concept of “Columbanian monasticism.”

Amy McKeever '06 B.A. (Hist), senior writer and editor for National Geographic in Washington, D.C., says research she conducted for her capstone thesis was her "first real exposure to an intense research project and helped her understand how to dig for historical documents and other primary sources."

The American Historical Association has awarded Tessa Murphy, associate professor of history, the James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History. The award was created in 1998 and is offered annually to recognize outstanding historical writing that explores aspects of integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century. 

Zuleika Rivera ’15 B.A. (PSc/PSt) is the LGBTI program officer for the D.C.-based International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights. "It was through her [Gladys McCormick] that I discovered there are careers in the human rights field,” says Rivera.

The event, co-sponsored by the Maxwell School, was moderated by  Jessica Lynn Elliott, a fourth-year Ph.D. history student.

America's first third party, the Anti-Masonic Party, was founded on the conspiracy theory that an elite group of Freemasons were secretly controlling the U.S. government. Freemasonry continued to grow in the United States during the first two decades of the 19th century, in part because it was a good way for people who wanted to enter politics to network, says Mark Schmeller, associate professor of history.

Osamah Khalil, associate professor of history, tells USA Today the meeting between the leaders could have an impact on the United States' efforts to garner more support for Ukraine.

Dominic Chiappone is making the most of his undergraduate experience. A member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, he is a double major in history at the Maxwell School and College of Arts and Sciences and broadcast and digital journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. 

The scholarship, funded by the Obama Foundation, provides $25,000 a year for two years toward education expenses, $10,000 for research/service travel between junior and senior year (Summer Voyage), $20,000 in travel funding for the next 10 years, and leadership training.