Retiree Spotlight: Dyan Elliot
On December 2, 2024, the History Department celebrated the career of Dyan Elliott, who is retiring this year and moving to Toronto after two decades at Northwestern as the Peter B. Ritzma Professor in the Humanities.
Newsletter, Spring 2025
A Message from the Chair
We’re about a month away from graduation, which means that we’ve entered celebration season on campus. As I walk to class, I invariably pass students posing for pictures in their purple robes; last Friday’s group had a few bottles of champagne waiting for them once they’d finished their photo shoot out on Deering Meadow. And almost every day, it seems, one university unit or another is holding a year-ending symposium or reception in Harris Hall’s elegant Leopold Room.
Sanders Seminar on the Historian's Craft
In 2024-25, we welcomed our second class of fifteen History students into the Sanders Seminar on the Historian's Craft. Several students reflected on what makes the seminar so special.
The Leopold Lecture: A 35-Year Tradition
The Leopold Lecture marked its 35th anniversary in October 2024 with a talk on the urgency of climate change delivered by former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Chabraja Center Happenings
In fall 2024, Amy Stanley, director of the Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, presided over an intellectually stimulating program of CCHS events, including lunch lectures and faculty conferences.
Symposium Highlights: Preserving Evanston’s Black History
After months of archival research uncovering hidden chapters of Evanston’s Black history, researchers gathered with community members in Harris Hall on Saturday, April 26, 2025, to unveil their work.
The Stories in Our Histories: Historians Confront Themselves
In May 2024, Leslie Harris convened a conference, sponsored by CCHS, that welcomed academic historians who have used their own family and personal histories to explore themes relevant to the discipline of history.
A Community of Scholars: The History Honors Thesis
This year’s cohort of Northwestern History honors students developed senior theses under direction of Prof. Ken Alder.
Thesis Generations
Prof. Ken Alder researched his History Department honors students from the 1990s. Where are they now?
Alumnus Spotlight: A Conversation with Beatriz Sampaio, class of 2021
Sampaio talked with current student Nathan Dent about how her History degree helped prepare her for work as a consultant focusing on sustainability. Northwestern historians helped Sampaio learn how to organize information, consider the human dimension of problems, and think about context alongside specific challenges.
Alumnus Spotlight: A Conversation with Asher Martin-Rosenthal, class of 2024
Martin-Rosenthal talked with Paige Bohart, a current History student, about how he began working for the U.S. government and what he does as a paralegal in the Justice Department’s Eastern District of New York. Currently mulling future career possibilities, Martin-Rosenthal says history classes helped him get used to long-term research and writing projects.
Alumni News
As you read through the entries, you may recognize a name or two. We hope you find old friends and appreciate all the wonderful things our alums are doing. If you didn’t provide an update this year, please respond when we reach out next winter!
Graduate Student Spotlight: Ezi Ogbuli
First-year PhD student Ezi Ogbuli discusses her work on the legal and social history of late nineteenth-century Onitsha, a town in what is today southeastern Nigeria. The research focuses on the death of a young slave girl named Amé.
Graduate Student Spotlight: Cole Roecker
Cole Roecker, a first-year PhD student, plunged into the wild world of nineteenth-century ranching, railroads, and regulation.
Graduate Student News
History's graduate students share an impressive and deeply varied assortment of news from 2024-2025. Congratulations to our grads.
Historians and Campus Programs
This year, like most years, several historians ran interdisciplinary departments or programs on campus. Professor Melissa Macauley talked with Gerry Cadava about why so many historians end up doing that kind of work, and what they learn in the process.
Conversations with the Dean
Professors Daniel Immerwahr and Kate Masur were each featured in WCAS Dean Adrian Randolph’s series, “Conversations with the Dean.”
Faculty News
The faculty have been busy! Check out their latest publications, travels, and personal points of pride.
Staff News
We highlight two incredible department admins – Graduate Coordinator Julie Hoather and Undergraduate Program Assistant Lorrie Graham.
Courtesy Appointment
Rose Miron, PhD, is a specialist in public history and Native American history, and she is the Vice President of Research and Education at the Newberry Library.
Thank You
Before you go…
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The next Newsletter will be published in Spring 2026. In several months, we will again email all History alumni to invite you to share your news related to career, life, your History degree, or anything else. Thank you in advance! Read the Alumni page for more information. We look forward to connecting with you. |