Faculty News

JEREMY BALL

published “‘At least in those days we had enough to eat’: Colonialism, Independence and the Cold War in Catumbela, Angola, 1974-1977,” in Jeffrey Engel, ed., Local Consequences of the Global Cold War. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2007.
published "'I escaped in a coffin': Remembering Angolan Forced Labor from the 1940s," Cadernos de Estudos Africanos, Spring 2007.

DAVID COMMINS

was named the first incumbent of The Benjamin Rush Distinguished Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences on Friday, Oct. 19, 2007. The Rush Chair was named for the founder of Dickinson College, Dr. Benjamin Rush
published The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia, IB Tauris, 2006
completed a chapter on twentieth century Arabia for the new edition of the Cambridge History of Islam
published articles in Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World (Routledge, 2006) and in Ottoman Reform and Islamic Regeneration (IB Tauris, 2005)
was a guest at Berlin's Zentrum Moderner Orient to present research on the Wahhabis
published reviews of Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial by Fire for Democratization, the Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization for International Journal of Middle East Studies, and The Modern Middle East for The Historian

JOHN OSBORNE and ARCHIVIST JAMES GERENCSER

received an LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to "digitize and make available via the world wide web numerous pamphlets, essays, and manuscripts which reflect the history of the state of Pennsylvania and the entire nation." The project titled Their Own Words has "as its basic goal the mounting of approximately 22,000 pages of original text of historical, social, and cultural significance." They will focus on digitizing materials from the 18th and 19th centuries, materials "at risk from a preservation point of view," and "documents generally difficult to access due to their rarity." The LSTA five-year plan goal is to "provide Pennsylvanians with reasonable access to the world of information and the necessary assistance to make effective use of that technology." History alum Robert Reeves is also working as Archives Technicians on this project.

MATTHEW PINSKER

has been named by the Organization of American Historians (OAH) as one of about 300 scholars from across the country to join the 2008-09 Distinguished Lectureship program. See details at http://www.oah.org/activities/lectureship/2008/index.php
was appointed in June 2007 by Gov. Ed Rendell to serve as a member of the Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (see http://www.palincoln.org/)
was awarded three $150,000 grants from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) for Summers 2006, 2007, and 2008 to host various K-12 teacher training workshops on the history of the Underground Railroad

KARL QUALLS

received a Central Pennsylvania Consortium Mellon Grant to begin a new project on Spanish refugee children raised in Moscow from 1937 to 1951.
published “Where Each Stone is History”: Travel Guides in Sevastopol after World War II in Anne E. Gorsuch and Diane P. Koenker, eds., Turizm: The Russian and East European Tourist under Capitalism and Socialism (Cornell, 2006).
was presented with the 2004 Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching at Dickinson's commencement on Sunday, May 23. The Ganoe Award is given to annually to a professor at the college selected by members of the senior class immediately prior to their graduation through a secret balloting process. The winner receives a cash honorarium in addition to the opportunity to use funds accumulating as a result of the endowment to purchase books for the library or educational equipment for departmental or college-wide purposes.
was awarded the American Council of Learned Societies' Library of Congress Fellowship in International Studies
was given the Student Senate Faculty of the Year Award for 2003, and was nominated again in 2004 and 2007. It is given annually to a member of the faculty who has contributed their time and energies directly to the successful efforts of the Student Senate.
received the following grants for 2004-2005 to work on his study: "Architecture as Persuasion: Power Politics, Everyday Life, and Mythmaking in Soviet Sevastopol' Postwar Reconstruction, 1943-54": J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art, the Humanities National Council for Eurasian and East Europan Research's Policy Research Fellowship, and International Research and Exchanges Board Short-Term Travel Grant.

KIM LACY ROGERS

was the 2007 recepient of the Oral History Association Book Award for her book, Life and Death in the Delta: African American Narratives of Violence, Resilience, and Social Change. The award was presented at the OHA conference in Oakland, California on October 27.

REGINA SWEENEY

was notifed that her book, Singing Our Way to Victory, was awarded the best book on popular music studies in the past two years by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music at the biennial conference held in Montreal in July 2003.

was honored by Choice Magazine, the publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, by having her book, Singing our Way to Victory, chosen for their Outstanding Academic Titles list. "These titles have been selected for their excellence in scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution to the field, and their value as important--and often the first--treatment of their subject. Comprising less than 3% of the 22,200+ titles submitted to Choice during the year, Outstanding Academic Titles are truly the 'best of the best'."