Syracuse University History Department

09/02/2026

Check out History Professor Andrew Wender Cohen on the BBC HistoryExtra podcast, talking about his new book, “Gangster of New York” and how bullies ruled nineteenth-century America!

Access at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7IFkbzKkzhkbmZCxa0g2EH

08/25/2026

First day of Tuesday/Thursday courses for Fall 2026! Here’s a few of our History professors in their upper-level and graduate seminars today. Here’s to a great semester!

08/24/2026

Let’s go Fall 2026! Here are some of our History professors in action today in their introductory and upper-level courses!

08/21/2026

A big welcome to our new History PhD student cohort! Here they are with our HGSO representatives Jeannette Shawki and Jon Singleton, Director of Grad Studies Brian Brege, Library Liaison Rebecca Johnston, and department chair Junko Takeda at our new student orientation and lunch this week!

08/20/2026

We in the History Department office are ready and excited for the new academic year! We’re starting with new undergraduate tabling today, and new graduate student orientation tomorrow🍊

08/20/2026

Great turnout today at the History table during new undergraduate students Find Your Orange Path: MAX and CAS tabling event!

08/20/2026

08/20/2026

Congratulations to Victoria Vidler, pictured here with advisor Prof. Peggy Thompson! Victoria successfully defended her dissertation proposal, “Exclusion on the Hill: Antisemitism At Syracuse University In The Twentieth Century,” and advanced to PhD candidacy this week.

08/18/2026

Professor Mark Schmeller and his Canal Boys co-hosts Terry Morris and Paul Ryan recorded a live episode on the history of Niagara Falls tourism and daredevils at the Hotel Wolfe Island in Kingston, Ontario last week. For more on the Canal Boys — a new podcast devoted to the rich history of the Erie Canal region — visit https://www.canalboys.com/. (Photos courtesy of the Wolfe Island Historical Society.)

08/11/2026

PhD candidate in early modern Italian History, Jessica Hogbin has had a busy summer! She conducted research in Spain and England with support from the History Department and with funding from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC)’s Multi-Country Research Fellow. In Spain, she visited Madrid, Simancas, and Valladolid, and conducted research at archives and libraries (Escorial, Archivo General de Simancas, Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, and Archivo Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan). In London, she worked at the Lambeth Palace Library, British Library, the Wellcome Collection, Royal Geographical Society, and National Archives. Her research also took her to several botanical gardens, where she looked for the early modern plants that were cures for melancholy and other mental ailments. All of this research provides material for her final chapter of the dissertation, which looks at the wide-spreading impact of Italian medical theory on melancholy across Europe and its colonies. Congrats on such a productive research summer, Jessica!