Department news

Dr. Ashley Preston, Assistant Professor in the Department of History will launch her new book Mary McLeod Bethune: The Pan-Africanist (University Press of Florida, 2023) at Howard University Bookstore on August 31, Thursday, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. All guests are welcome!

The Abraham Lincoln Institute, which is based in Washington, DC elected Dr. Edna Greene Medford, Department of History Professor Emerita, former chair, former interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and former Howard University Associate Provost, as the 2023-2025 president of the organization. The Institute was established in the 1990s and is dedicated to promoting scholarship on the life, times, and legacy of Lincoln through an annual symposium, dissertation and book prizes, and achievement awards.
 

City Lights and Cambridge University Press celebrate the publication of two new books: Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America by Dr. Karen Cook-Bell (Department of History alumna, Professor of History and the Wilson H. Elkins Endowed Professor at Bowie State University) and Brooding over Bloody Revenge: Enslaved Women’s Lethal Resistance by Dr. Nikki M. Taylor (Professor in the Department of History) both books published by Cambridge University Press. This conversation will be held online and on September 27, 2023, 6:00 PM EST and you can register via this link.

Congratulations to Dr. Nikki M. Taylor, Professor in the Department of History, whose new book Brooding Over Bloody Revenge: Enslaved Women's Lethal Resistance is featured in this list of feminist books of July 2023.  

Howard University Department of History alumn and Professor Dr. Benjamin Talton was named a member of the Board of Editors of the American Historical Review, the flagship journal of the American Historical Association. Previously, Professor Ana Lucia Araujo served on this same board from 2019 to 2023. 

Eola Dance, PhD candidate in US History, was named President and CEO of the Montpelier Foundation, which oversees the James and Dolly Madison plantation. Read more about this wonderful news here.

Carnegie Corporation of New York Honors Department of History Professor Ana Lucia Araujo among as Great Immigrant Great American 2023, a list of 35 distinguished immigrants for their vital and inspiring contributions to our democracy. "The 2023 honorees, the 18th class in the program, were recognized with a full-page public service announcement in the New York Times on the Fourth of July, as well as through tributes on social media.  

Dr. Ashley Preston, Assistant Professor in the Department of History, just published a new book Mary McLeod Bethune The Pan-Africanist (University of Florida Press). The book examines the Pan-Africanism of Mary McLeod Bethune through her work, which internationalized the scope of Black women’s organizations to create solidarity among Africans throughout the diaspora. Broadening the familiar view of Bethune as an advocate for racial and gender equality within the United States, Ashley Preston argues that Bethune consistently sought to unify African descendants around the world with her writings, through travel, and as an advisor. Preston shows how Bethune’s early involvement with Black women’s organizations created personal connections across Cuba, Haiti, India, and Africa and shaped her global vision. Bethune founded and led the National Council of Negro Women, which strengthened coalitions with women across the diaspora to address issues in their local communities. Bethune served as director of the Division of Negro Affairs for the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration and later as associate consultant for the United Nations alongside W.E.B. DuBois and Walter White, using her influence to address diversity in the military, decolonization, suffrage, and imperialism. Mary McLeod Bethune the Pan-Africanist provides a fuller, more accurate understanding of Bethune’s work, illustrating the perspective and activism behind Bethune’s much-quoted words: “For I am my mother’s daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.”  

Historian and Professor Emerita Edna Greene Medford discusses family separation among enslaved people, Abraham Lincoln’s difficult childhood, and his Southern roots. Medford examines the Emancipation Proclamation’s impact and its promise of freedom on the Apple TV+ series “Lincoln’s Dilemma.”

Dr. Nikki M. Taylor, Professor of History at Howard University and the author of Driven Towards Madness: The Fugitive Slave Margaret Garner and Tragedy on the Ohio participates on the BBC podcast Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley.

Dr. Ana Lucia Araujo (Professor of History) delivered the 2023 Mary Stevens Reckford Memorial Lecture in European Studies at UNC Chapel Hill on Feb. 23, with a presentation titled “Slavery as History and Memory.” More details here.

Congratulations to Dr. Nathalie Frédéric Pierre, Assistant Professor in the Department of History who was awarded an NEH faculty fellowship to work on her book project "Black Sovereignty and Free Trade in an Enslaved Atlantic World." Check the announcement with lists of awardees here.