On April 19th the HGSA hosted their first Undergraduate Conference, which showcased seventeen undergraduate research presentations. View the full program here.

Following the conference, we celebrated the academic achievements and generosity of our community during the academic year at our Spring Awards Ceremony. View photos here and the list of the awards presented here.

I am pleased to announce that we have three colleagues who have just been promoted:

• Congratulations Joe Clark on your promotion to Associate Professor with tenure!
• Congratulations Akiko Takenaka on your promotion to Professor!
• Congratulations Scott Taylor on your promotion to Professor!

Nikki Brown, Melanie Goan, and our librarian Jennifer Hootman traveled to the University of Alabama in February to share information about their Documenting Racial Violence in Kentucky project with members of the Alabama Memory team.  Both projects are researching lynching in their respective states.  Over three packed days, they strategized how to research, present, and teach the history of racial violence and made plans for future collaborations.  They also visited Stillman College (HBCU), the Elmore County Historical Society, and the Equal Justice Initiative's National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum in Montgomery.  Eight undergraduate interns and graduate student, Ari Ribeiro Santana, are assisting this semester with the project's work.  

During the month of February 2024, Francie Chassen-López was Visiting Scholar at the Humanities Institute of the Autonomous Benito Juárez University of Oaxaca, Mexico. She taught classes, collaborated with colleagues on the reform of the curriculum, and continued her research on 19th century civil wars at the Francisco Burgoa Library. She also taught a class at the Sociology Institute of the same university.  On Feb. 16th, she attended the premier of a dramatic monologue, “Juana Cata, el mito y la historia,” written and acted by Clara Guadalupe García and directed by Jorge Prado at the San Pablo Cultural Center, which was based on Francie’s recent biography of that 19th century Mexican woman.

Our major Jed Chew presented "Good to Laugh With? Humour, Animal Trials, and the Elision of Theriophilic Discourses in Racine’s Les Plaideurs," at the American Historical Association’s Undergraduate Research Lightning Round at the 2024 annual meeting in San Francisco.

I (Anastasia Curwood) spoke at Bellarmine University on the history and impact of Black Studies February 8. I also appeared at the invitation of Kentucky's Black Legislative Caucus February 22 at the 20^th Anniversary Black History Month Speaker Series, hosted by the Kentucky Historical Society. I was then in New York March 7 as a presenter in the Schomburg Center's Conversations in Black Freedom Studies series. You can see video of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/live/mLWs0JXW1yE?si=vtmIC_OcKUyE-sns.

Allen Fletcher published a photo essay in the latest issue of The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. The citation is: “Ethel Wright’s Visual Record of Pine Mountain Settlement School, 1919-1921.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 121, No. 3 (Summer 2023): 235-258.

This month, Amy Malventano participates in the Global Conference on Women and Gender: Revitalizing Ecofeminism at Christopher Newport University. Specifically, she will be part of a panel on "Women and Environmental Justice Activism." Additionally, Amy has accepted a position at Thomas More University, where she will head up the Archives and Special Collections program at the Benedictine Library. In addition to traditional archives work, she will lead the initiative to build a digital archive and oral history collection, along with several digital humanities projects. 

The eighth edition of Jeremy Popkin’s Short History of the French Revolution has been published by Routledge.  First published in 1995, Popkin’s textbook has introduced several generations of college students to the dramatic story of the French Revolution.  It is also frequently used in high-school level AP courses. Also, the current president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, was recently photographed with a copy of the Spanish translation of Dr. Popkin's A New World Begins on his desk.  It’s the black book on the top of the pile in the left corner of the picture.  There seems to be a bookmark about half-way through it. 

C.J. Werking won 3^rd place and some prize money at the Graduate School’s Grad Teach Live event February 29 with her presentation, "From Soldiers' Pets to Stanley Cups: Humanizing History and the College Experience in the Classroom"!

A number of us were in attendance at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference held at Western Carolina University Cullowhee between March 7-9. Dr. Sinu Rose presented with Emma Kiser, and there was a special panel on Appalachian history research at UK featuring Dr. Kathy Newfont, our alumni Dr. Chris Leadingham and Dr. Jillean McCommons, Abi Stephens, and Dorian Cleveland.