Research

Shay Hazkani published an article "'Our Cruel Polish Brothers': Moroccan Jews between Casablanca and Wadi Salib, 1956-1959" in Jewish Social Studies 28. 2 (Spring/Summer 2023): 41-74.

Jeffrey Herf had an essay published in The Routledge History of Antisemitism. This book contains 40 essay by scholars on the subject; Herf's essay is the 28th chapter of the book. You can access the book HERE.

Jim Gilbert has just published his sixth novel, a legal thriller titled The Legacy. The story is set in Chicago where Jim was born. Learn more about the book HERE.

Mikhail Dolbilov’s monograph, Life of a Novel Being Created: From the Avantexte toward the Context of Anna Karenina (“Zhizn' tvorimogo romana: Ot avanteksta k kontekstu ‘Anny Kareninoi’”), has been published by the Moscow publishing house New Literary Observer (Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie).

Leo Tolstoy’s famous novel is justifiably associated with a massive swath of Russian social, political, intellectual, and cultural life in the aftermath of Alexander's transformative reforms. Combining historical approaches and literary genetic criticism, the book historicizes Anna Karenina by demonstrating how its long writing and serialization (1873–77) were affected by, and, in turn, exerted their own influence on, diverse events of the time. Most thoroughly discussed are such societal developments as shifts in gender relations in aristocratic society, emerging new forms of emotionality, the spread of religious revivalism in Russian Orthodoxy, and the rise of politically charged Russian Pan-Slavism.

Madeline Hsu celebrated the publication of Cambridge History of Global Migrations, Volume 2: Migrations, 1800–Present. She co-edited the volume, published by Cambridge University Press, with Marcelo J. Borges. See more information on the publisher's website HERE.

Piotr Kosicki had published an article in the October 4, 2023 issue of The Atlantic. The article is titled  "Ukraine Is Losing Eastern European Allies."  Piotr discusses what Slovakia's recent elections and Poland's ongoing anti-migrant memory politics mean for Ukraine. Access the article HERE.

Jonathan W. White (PhD, 2008  Advisor: Herman Belz) had his new book, Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade, reviewed in the New York Times on August 1, 2023. The book tells the story of Appleton Oaksmith, a Civil War sea captain with shifting political alliances. The reviewers write that "The astonishing stories in Shipwrecked ... [offer] a fresh perspective on the mess of pitched emotions and politics in a nation at war over slavery." The publisher has a 30% book launch discount for the next two weeks with the code RLSHPWRK23 on their site. The full New York Times review is available HERE and the publisher's website is available HERE. 

Piotr Kosicki published a new article in Foreign Affairs magazine titled "Don't Give Poland a Pass: Warsaw's Support for Ukraine Should Not Obscure Its Assault on Democracy at Home". The article addresses the state of democracy in Poland as they have been growing increasingly illiberal in recent years. These issues concerning freedom and liberty in a democratic nation are significant to examine especially with Poland's parliamentary expected to be held in Fall 2023. Kosicki argues that the United States should take up a more present and guiding position for the Polish government. Read the full article HERE.

Between Memory and Power intends to demonstrate that a robust culture of historical writing existed in 2nd/8th century Syria, and to offer new methodological approaches to access this now lost history, torn between memory and oblivion. By studying the making of Umayyad heroes or Abbasid origins-myths, this book aims to reveal the successive meanings granted to Syrian history, and to identify the various layers of historical writing and rewriting during the first centuries of Islam. Taken together, these elements make possible a history of meanings of the very space of Syria, articulated around power and its expression, which grants a clear coherence to the period, extending well beyond the dynastic caesura of 132/750.

On May 25, 2023, Julie Taddeo published a review of "This is Britain: Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s," a recent photo exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The exhibit included 46 photos, most of them in black and white which present multiple versions of what it means to "be British" as a generation of socially conscious photographers expose issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality that threaten inclusivity during these two tumultuous decades. The exhibit also includes an hour-long film, Handsworth Songs, made in 1986 by the Black Audio Film Collective and directed by John Akomfrah for Channel Four's series, Britain: The Lie of the Land. The newsreels and still photographs from the 1985 riots featured in Handsworth Songs provide context for the racism directed against the Black community in Birmingham in the 1980s. The exhibit ran until June 11, 2023. Read the full review HERE.