In The Spotlight
Megan Knighton (PhD Student) has recently spearheaded an effort with the Lloyd Sealy Library Special Collections at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Fortune Society, a non-profit that supports the formerly incarcerated, to make available a series of oral histories she conducted with New York City criminal justice advocates. This involved support for the creation of a finding aid for The Fortune Society's manuscript collection and an expansion of the Sealy Library's digital collections. Knighton received the Barbara Swartz Endowed Research, Travel, and Professional Development Award from the History Department to preserve and present her oral history research, which was then featured at the 2025 Oral History Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
Professor Emerita Brooke Larson was recently recognized for her book, The Lettered Indian: Race, Nation, and Indigenous Education in Twentieth-Century Bolivia (Duke University Press, 2024). The Conference on Latin American History (CLAH), which is the leading organization for U.S.-based Latin American Historians, just announced that Brooke was a co-winner of the most prestigious Bolton-Johnson Prize, which will be conferred at the AHA Conference in Chicago in early 2026.
Please welcome our newest faculty to the History Department, Nurlan Kabdylkhak and Riga Shakya!
News and Announcements
The History Club has entered the Wolfstock Homecoming Door Decorating Contest - please take a few minutes to check out the door of the club!
Join us for a conversation with the editors behind La Impresora, an independent poetry press based in Puerto Rico. In this talk, our featured speakers will introduce their editorial project, and share how their work addresses cultural gaps in publishing.
Attention all historians! The 9/11 Committee at Stony Brook University, consisting of Nancy Tomes, Kristen Nyitray, and Daniel Henao, has produced a self-guided walking tour and StoryMap through five sites in Stony Brook University's west campus for the September 11 commemorations of 2025. Please scan the QR code posted above to acess the StoryMap tour, which can be done in-person or virtually online
In The Media
Dr. Susannah Glickman recently wrote an important long-form piece on the defense tech industry published in the New York Review of Books. Professor Sara Lipton describes it as "sobering but essential reading, and public-facing history at its best."
Associate Professor Robert Chase was recently interviewed by the Courier-Journal of Kentucky for a two-part investigative story on corrupt sherriffs who are unable to be removed from office due to their political power. Please see the following links for more:
"Beholden to no one"
"Kentuck Gov. Andy Beshear has the power to remove convicted sheriffs. Why hasn't
he?"
"Drug trafficking. Embezzlement. Murder."
Distinguished Professor Nancy Tomes was recently cited in an NPR article titled 'Ancient Miasma Theory May Help Explain Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Moves.' A prominent scholar in the history of medicine, Dr. Tomes is widely recognized for her expertise on germ theory and the complex relationship between scientific authority and public perceptions of health, the body, and disease.
