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Message from the Department Chair, Anastasia Curwood
November 2023
Dear Alumni and Friends,
Welcome to the Fall 2023 Department of History newsletter. We've had many eventful months since our last update. Our students and faculty continue to change the course of History!
I'm pleased to bring you an interview by incoming first-year major Grace Yi with Dr. Amber Sergent, 2023 Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year and a Ph.D. alumna of the department. The daughter of a family that farmed tobacco for four generations, Dr. Sergent is now a social studies teacher at Woodford County High School. She describes the time and dedication to students demonstrated by the History faculty, which inspired her to combine human compassion and scholarly rigor in her own teaching.
We also share a profile of a recent History undergraduate major alum who is now embarking on his first year in the M.A. program. Dorian Cleveland describes the passion for history that led him to several successful research projects as an undergraduate intern in statewide historical organizations. He is hoping to use his advanced degree to continue museum work in the future.
Our faculty continue to publish books and earn accolades from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Antiquarian Society, and the University of Kentucky, among others. We celebrate these recognitions of our day-to-day commitment to impactful research and teaching. Our priority continues to be excellence in the study of the past and the development of historians and citizens for the future.
You can connect with me at a.curwood@uky.edu. Thank you for reading.
Warmly,
Anastasia
Dr. Anastasia C. Curwood
Professor and Chair of the Department of History
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Dr. Amber Sergent (Ph.D. '12), a Woodford County High School social studies teacher, was named Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year for 2023. In an interview with UK undergraduate Grace Yi, she discusses her rural upbringing, what led her to her degree at UK, and her teaching philosophy. Read more
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Dr. Cody Foster
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Cody Foster (Ph.D. '21) received 2023 Earle C. Clements Innovation in Education Award. The Clements Award recognizes history and civics teachers across Kentucky who demonstrate a marked impact on student success, display great creativity and innovation in the classroom, and show a decided commitment to increasing student awareness of the importance of public service. Read more
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Dorian Cleveland graduated from UK in spring 2023 with a history major. Over the summer, he finished an internship with the Lexington History Museum, and started studying for a master’s in history at UK this fall. While an undergraduate, he translated his passion for history into a potential career through internships with financial help from UK. Read more
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HISTORY WORKSHOPS
Explore our events page to discover upcoming workshops, including two insightful book talks related to Veracruz and the Caribbean and Cuban America.
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Save the Date: "Making History" Graduate Alumni Symposium, January 19, 2024
Organized by the History Department Program Committee (faculty members Emily Mokros and Kathy Newfont, graduate students Maeda Ali, Garrett Freas, and Arshiya Jeelani), the Graduate Alumni Symposium will be a one-day event to highlight and celebrate the remarkable achievements of our graduates from the Ph.D. program and to connect current graduate students in mentoring relationships with alumni who are thriving in a diverse set of careers. Our graduate program is currently in a moment of growth, and we see an opportunity to
gather a large audience to showcase the strengths of the UK History Ph.D. The structure of the symposium will allow invited participants to speak to both research achievements and to offer reflections on their careers in teaching and public history.
In addition to the speakers, we would be thrilled for UK History alumni to attend the symposium and connect with our community.
If you are interested in attending, please contact DepartmentofHistory@uky.edu
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Fostering a Diverse Community of Graduate Students
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2023-2024 Graduate Students
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The History Department welcomed eight new graduate students for the 2023-2024 academic year. Visit our graduate student directory to learn more about our current graduate student body and their areas of interest.
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Doctorate Defense
Dr. Austin Zinkle recently completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of Kentucky in July 2023, defending his dissertation, "The Kids Were Alt-Right: Radical Right Youth Activism and the Origins of the White Power Movement, 1960-1980." Dr. Zinkle’s current research explores white supremacist and neo-Nazi youth during the twentieth century, and he is broadly interested in United States youth culture and youth social movements. Dr. Zinkle is currently a postdoctoral scholar affiliated with UK’s Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies and working on the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Pilot Program at UK's J. David Rosenberg College of Law. As a
co-developer and co-instructor of the CRRJ KY Clinic alongside Associate Clinical Professor of Law D'lorah Hughes, Dr. Zinkle is guiding a group of third year law students in research into cold cases of lynchings and racial homicides during the Jim Crow era of Kentucky.
Dr. Rachel Herrington earned a Ph.D. in History in August 2023 from the University of Kentucky. She lived and farmed in South Africa for over twenty years and currently teaches Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies (WRD) at UK for the 2023-2024 academic year. Her students this semester are predominantly incoming freshmen who are working on Narratives of Resistance of Indigenous groups around the world, including the Sioux Nation, Aboriginal Australians, the New Zealand Māori, the Arctic Innuit, the Scandinavian Sámi, the Kenyan Ogiek, Brazil’s Indigenous people, and the Amazigh of Northern Africa. Dr. Herrington’s WRD students’ final protect will culminate in a recorded podcast challenging the First Nations and global Indigenous dominant historical narratives. Rachel reported that
she enjoys teaching UK’s incoming students and hopes the knowledge gathered for their podcasts in her course will serve as an introduction to Indigenous and global environmental history. Dr. Herrington’s research focus is the global commons systems and land dispossession of Indigenous and marginalized communities. Her dissertation was a Transatlantic comparative case studies work titled, "From Displaced to Displacers: Scottish Crofters, First Nation Peoples and Commons Enclosure from the 1700s to the 1800s", which examined the eviction of Scottish tenant farmers and their subsequent emigration to Mi’kmaw lands in Eastern Maritime Canada.
Qualifying Exams
Wei-Ting Chen completed his qualifying exams in September 2023. He is currently working on the idea and actions of mercy in the Carolingian and early medieval period, within the perspective of emotion.
Paolo D'Amato completed his qualifying exams in September 2023. His research areas are Appalachian social-environmental history with an emphasis on water infrastructure, political relationships between local-state-federal, and flooding.
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Remembering Professor Robert Olson
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Dr. Bob Olson
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We share the sad news that Robert (Bob) Olson passed away on October 14,2023 in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Olson dedicated 47 years as a distinguished colleague and professor at the University of Kentucky's Department of History before retiring in 2010. Renowned for his work in Middle East Studies, he garnered many awards, most notably a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of exceptional contributions to the field of Kurdish Studies. A tribute Festschrift, "Kurdish Issues: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Olson," stands testament to his legacy. Please take a moment to honor this extraordinary professor.
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Please Support the History Department With a Gift Today
Your donation to the Department of History is an investment in the future of the department and the next generation of scholars. You can make your gift to honor or memorialize a friend, relative, or faculty member. To donate online to the following funds, please visit https://uky.networkforgood.com/causes/15272-history-funds
• History Development Fund: Provides critical resources to respond to student needs, attract world-class faculty, and provide innovative opportunities to enable our students to compete in the global marketplace.
• Robert M. Ireland Undergraduate Research Endowment Fund in History: Offers scholarships for travel and summer support to undergraduate History majors conducting historical research.
• Daniel B. Rowland Community Fellowship: Provides assistance to students who want to pursue summer internships, particularly in community service, historical education, or historic preservation.
By mail, please send to:
University of Kentucky Gift Receiving
P.O. Box 23552
Lexington, KY 40523
Your gift of $75 or more will qualify you as an active member of the UK Alumni Association. For assistance, please contact philanthropy officer Debra Gold at 859-257-8124 or debra.gold@uky.edu. We are grateful for your support!
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