2024 News and Events
Fall 2024
On Wednesday, November 13, Molly Taylor-Poleskey, Harvard's Map Librarian, will visit UMass Lowell to give a lecture related to her recently published book: "The Great Elector's Table: The Politics of Food in Seventeenth-Century Brandenburg-Prussia". Her lecture, "Someone’s in the Kitchen: Bringing the Servants into European Ceremonial Studies," will consider the significance of court food servants and food culture at the court of the elector of Brandenburg-Prussia. This event is free and open to the public, and will take place in Coburn G10 from 4-5 p.m. It is being co-sponsored by Medieval & Renaissance Studies and the History Department. For any questions, please contact Professor Andrew Drenas by email: Andrew_Drenas@uml.edu.
On Monday, October 28, from 5 to 6 p.m., Professor Lauren Fogle gave a lecture in Dugan 208 related to her research on Jewish conversion to Christianity in medieval England. The lecture, "The House of Converts in Medieval London," drew on Professor Fogle's book, "The King's Converts: Jewish Conversion in Medieval London." The House of Converts in London was a unique institution in medieval Europe: a place where royal funding maintained Jewish converts to Christianity in an attempt to facilitate their new lives as Christians. However, the ideal was quite far from the reality and this talk discussed how the actual converts lived and how they became converts in the first place. This lecture was co-sponsored by Medieval & Renaissance Studies and the History Department.
In anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, Professor Abby Chandler has been editing an essay collection for H-Net called "Remembering the American Revolution at 250". The first issue was published on October 10. "Remembering the American Revolution at 250" is bringing together historians, public historians, and other practitioners from around the world to consider this moment in American history in an ongoing collection of research essays, reflective essays, and lesson plans that will be published over a multi-year period.
On Wednesday, September 18, starting at 3:30 p.m. in Dugan 207, filmmaker Li-Da Kruger visited UMass Lowell to screen the documentary "Prue Leith: Journey with My Daughter." Li-Da was airlifted by helicopter out of Cambodia in 1975 as a baby and brought to Great Britain, where she was adopted by Prue Leith (of "The Great British Bake Off"). Years later, Li-Da returned to Cambodia, with Prue, in search of her biological family. The documentary narrates her fascinating story. After watching the documentary, there was time for discussion plus question and answer (Q&A) with Li-Da.
This semester, the History Department welcomes Professor Christine Su as a visiting lecturer. She earned her doctorate from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2003. For her dissertation, she studied "Tradition and Change: Khmer Identity and Democracy in the 20th Century and Beyond." Professor Su joins the History Department as Visiting Lecturer of Southeastern Asian Studies and History. She will be among the core personnel of UMass Lowell's Center for Asian American Studies. Her areas of expertise are Asian American Studies, U.S.-Asia relations (especially Southeast Asia), the Khmer (Cambodian) Diaspora, and ethnography/oral history.
On September 1, Professor Elizabeth Williamswas promoted to a tenured Associate Professor. Since joining the History faculty in 2017, Professor Williams has been the department's expert in the history of the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. She has published journal articles and book chapters on environmental and agricultural history in this region. In 2023, she published a monograph with Stanford University Press: "States of Cultivation: Imperial Transition and Scientific Agriculture in the Eastern Mediterranean."
Summer 2024
History Camp Boston 2024 will be taking place from Friday, August 9, to Sunday, August 11. On Saturday, August 10, Professor Abby Chandler and Professor Jane Sancinito will be giving talks related to their research. At 10:30 a.m., Professor Chandler will give a presentation on "Garden History and L.M. Montgomery: All the Flowers I Want." At 1:30 p.m., Professor Sancinito will give a presentation on "The Reputation of the Roman Merchant." For more information on History Camp Boston 2024 and how to register to attend, please go to the History Camp Boston 2024 website.
Professor Abby Chandler attended the sixteenth Biennial Conference of the L.M. Montgomery Institute (June 19-23) at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada. On Saturday, June 22, she presented a paper titled “'All the Flowers I Want': Gardens as Evolving Representations of Home in L.M. Montgomery’s Writings."
Spring 2024
On Tuesday, April 30, UMass Lowell's Center for Women & Work and the History Department hosted a book launch to celebrate the publication of Professor Jane Sancinito's recently published monograph, "The Reputation of the Roman Merchant." The event took place from Noon-1:30 p.m. at 150 Wilder Street.
On Friday, April 26, The Academic Minute posted a short comment by Professor Abby Chandler on some of the research in her second book, “'Seized with the Temper of the Times': Identity and Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary America." Professor Chandler reflected on how two Rhode Island colonists, Martin Howard and Stephen Hopkins - both committed to their shared sense of identity as British subjects - responded differently to the Sugar and Stamp Acts. Howard remained a loyalist during the American Revolution but Hopkins believed that it was necessary to break away from the British Empire.
On Saturday, April 13, two faculty presented research papers at the New England Historical Association (NEHA) conference at St. Anselm's College in New Hampshire. Professor Joshua Morrison gave a paper on "Massachusetts's Triangular Trade: The Shifting Economic Fortunes of Salem, Boston, and Lowell, 1790-1830."Professor Andrew Drenas gave a paper on "The Memoirs of a 'Spiritual Warrior': St. Lawrence of Brindisi's Commentariolum (1612) and Reflections on Catholic Missions in the Holy Roman Empire."
On Thursday, April 11, Professor Jane Sancinito and students in her Roman History and Pirates of the Mediterranean courses participated in this year's Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, which was organized by the UMass Lowell Library. The goal this year was to raise the profiles of Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans. The thirteen student and faculty editors worked on sixteen articles, making ninety-five edits and adding sixty references. Among the Wikipedia pages created was one for UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen. Within the first month, the articles from the edit-a-thon had been viewed nearly 10,000 times by Wikipedia users around the world. The UML 2024 Edit-a-thon was the subject of a university article published online on May 10: "Students Sharpen Research Skills at Wikipedia Edit-a-thon."
On Tuesday, April 2, from 4-5 p.m. in McGauvran 318, History graduate Kelley Leonhard ('21) returned to UMass Lowell to give a talk: "From UMass Lowell to The Boston History Company: Life after a History Major." ;Kelley worked for Revolutionary Spaces before becoming the COO for the Boston History Company in 2023. Kelley reflected on her life in Boston’s dynamic public history world, and then students were able to ask her questions as they think about their lives and careers after UMass Lowell.
On Monday, April 1, Professor Christoph Strobel gave a talk on Native American history for the Medieval & Renaissance Studies program: "The Indigenous Old World: An Exploration of Ancient and Medieval North America." The talk explored the worlds of the Indigenous peoples of North America before European colonization. It focused on subjects such as the Indigenous peoples' cities, architectural traditions, methods of agriculture, and how they managed their environment. The lecture was given in Dugan Hall 208 from 4-5 p.m.
On Thursday, March 14, Johanna Hanink (Brown University) gave this year's Zamanakos Lecture: “Athens in America: Ancient Greece and the Making of the New Nation.” It considered early America's fascination with ancient Greek architecture, art, and culture - the "Greek Revival" - and its enduring significance, in the context of both the recent bicentennial (in 2021) of the Greek Revolution and the upcoming commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. The lecture took place in Coburn Hall 255 at 6 p.m.; a reception followed.
In commemoration of Black History Month, the History Department co-sponsored "Black History on Stage: Blending the Past with the Present." This performance on February 29 included a one-woman show presenting a range of historic figures, with a second artist acting as liaison to the audience. These guest speakers were Brandi LaShay and Krasel Morales. Performance times were 12:30-1:30 p.m. and 6-7 p.m. at the Comley-Lane Theatre. Between performances, there was a talk-back with the actors, which took place at the Allen House Gallery from 4-5 p.m.
On Monday, January 29, as part of their "Curious Kids" series, The Conversation published an article that Professor Jane Sancinito wrote about the long history of the alphabet, and how the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans all contributed to its evolution. One can read Professor Sancinito's article on the history of the alphabet online.
On January 4, "The Conversation" published an article written by Professor Abby Chandler about two Rhode Island colonists, Martin Howard and Stephen Hopkins, contemporaries who lived during the American Revolution. Professor Chandler considers how both men, despite their similarities, came to very different conclusions about how to align themselves during the conflict. Their individual approaches to the issues of the time shed light on the decisions thousands of British colonists had to make before the American Revolution. One can read Professor Chandler's article on Martin Howard and Stephen Hopkins online.
In January, Professor Jane Sancinito published a monograph: "The Reputation of the Roman Merchant". This book examines the strategies Roman retailers, craftsmen, and other workers used to succeed and develop good reputations, despite the stigma associated with their work. It was published by the University of Michigan Press.