E-Newsletter, Spring 2026

Dear Friends,

The academic year is coming to an end in Smith Hall, and we are excited to share with you this digital newsletter highlighting how students, faculty, and alumni are responding to our current moment. The articles range from features on the work of our honors undergraduates and our graduate students, to examinations of how current events shape, and in some cases inspire, the teaching of history. As has been the case in years past, our department continues to excel in its research, teaching, and public-facing engagement. We do so thanks to the generosity of our donors.

This has also been a challenging year for our department. We began the academic year with the loss of our beloved emeritus colleague, Professor Quintard Taylor, and in winter quarter, we lost another cherished colleague, Professor Vicente "Vince" Rafael—a feature about Vince's life and scholarship on empire, colonialism, and the Philippines and its diaspora will appear in the autumn newsletter. The end of the year is marked by the departure of two assistant professors to other institutions, and staffing changes prompted by budgetary challenges within the College of Arts and Sciences have also impacted our department. In short, the history department is becoming smaller.

As we adapt to the new staffing model, we remain absolutely focused on our core values and mission, including expanding our course offerings and public-facing activities. We plan to offer four new courses in the next year ranging from the rise and fall of China's first empire to a series of courses examining modern political formations, conflict and discrimination, and the pursuit of social justice. The 2027 History Lecture Series is moving ahead as planned and will examine histories of travel and exploration—look for more information later this year. Finally, this autumn we will inaugurate a new biennial lecture on environmental history to honor our colleague, Professor Linda Nash, who passed away in 2021, and we will offer what will hopefully become an annual or biennial lecture in pre-modern history. Professor Bathsheba Demuth, a historian from Brown University who has written an environmental history of the Bering Strait, will deliver the Nash Memorial Lecture. Professor Carlos Noreña, a renowned historian of ancient Rome at UC Berkeley, will deliver the pre-modern history lecture.

Thank you for all the ways in which you support the Department of History, and I look forward to seeing you in the year to come!

Sincerely,

Adam Warren
Chair, Department of History
Williams Family Endowed Professor