History Department News and Research

Sound scholarship helps us understand what sometimes seems unknowable: North Africa and the Middle East.

"New York has some of the most restrictive laws that govern our elections of any state in the country" says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science. She adds that New York is "one of the few states that doesn't have early voting and one of the few states that has very restrictive rules on changing on one's party registration," concluding that the state's electoral laws are "outdated."

Thanks to the generosity of one “citizen of the world,” dozens of budding scholars have chased far-flung intellectual goals.

"The term the regime used for land reclamation was ‘bonifica,’" says Michael Ebner, associate professor of history. "In English, it might be translated as ‘reclamation,’ as in land reclamation, but was also used more generally by the regime for reclaiming the race or the state."

"I believe I've spent enough time within sisters' domain to understand it, to speak its language, and to interpret and present it all to others. In this, I may have an advantage that insiders do not in presenting that world to a wider audience that really ought to know about it," writes Margaret S. Thompson, associate professor of history and political science.

The Truman award has become the premier graduate scholarship for aspiring public service leaders in the United States. The scholarship seeks to fund students who possess the leadership skills, intellect and passion that will make them “change agents” for the public good in any field.