Tags: history

Long before there was a Peach State, indigenous communities saw the promise of peaches – originally introduced to North America by Spanish explorers. A new study published in Nature Communications shows that Indigenous political and social networks and land use practices played key roles in the peach’s adoption and dispersal across the continent: The researchers analyzed historical documents that mentioned peaches, such as the travel writings of…

Greg Lavender, B.S. Computer Science ‘83, returned to the University of Georgia for the first time in nearly three decades. The last time he was on campus the 90’s were in full swing with the internet still in infancy and flip phones as the height of technology. Now, many years later, Lavender is the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Intel and AI is abundantly present in his day-to-day activities.  As CTO, Lavender is…

The University of Georgia celebrated the completion of renovations to the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building on UGA’s historic North Campus on Oct. 4. The building is named in honor of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the first African American students to attend UGA: The renovations included restored historic features, improved accessibility, enhanced functionality and a courtyard that pays tribute to the building’s namesakes. The $30…

The University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences announced the John C. Inscoe Professorship in History. The new professorship, approved by the USG Board of Regents, honors longtime UGA faculty member John Inscoe, who recently retired after nearly 35 years at the university.  Nearly three hundred of Inscoe’s students, colleagues, family members, and friends contributed the funds endowing the new professorship. Inscoe, who…

The Athens Film Project will launch the first three of its very short films at Ciné’s Lab at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 17. A project of the Athens Historical Society that began during the early days of the pandemic, the Film Project’s goal is to create films on Athens history for local 11th grade U.S. History classes. The first two films are already…

On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto…

Over the course of the 2023-24 academic year, four departments in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences took writing in their programs of study to the next level. In collaboration with the Franklin College Writing Intensive Program (WIP), the departments of anthropology, mathematics, history, and philosophy developed plans that articulate characteristics of writing in the discipline. These include desired writing abilities of students in the…

Congratulations to our UGA colleague and Franklin alumna Sarah Quinn who has been appointed the director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, a nucleus for global research, education and service for the University of Georgia School of Law since 1977. Quinn, who has directed the center on an interim basis since June 2023, previously served as associate director for global practice preparation and managed the school's Global Governance…

Our March survey of media mentions and appearances by Franklin College faculty begins with the local coverage of professor and head of the department of history Stephen Mihm's journey to the South Pacific on a mission to search the ocean depths for soldiers who disappeared in a fierce battle of World War II. Mihm chronicled the search in the March issue of Smithsonian, in an article which also highlights the work of Franklin alumnus Dr. Patrick…

University of Georgia professor Victor Thompson has been appointed the Executive Director of the Georgia Museum of Natural History (GMNH), effective August 1, 2024. Thompson is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of anthropology and the current Director of the Laboratory of Archaeology.  The home of more than a dozen distinct collections, facilitating research for professionals,…

The University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of history announced the creation of the W. Todd Groce Fellowship, honoring the historian and longtime CEO and president of the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah. The new fellowship was made possible by a generous gift by longtime UGA donors John F. and Marilyn McMullan and will enable a single student to spend the summer in Savannah, getting hands-on experience…

From lost aviators of World War II to category-6 hurricanes and the vanishing Southern accent, scholarship and expetise of Franklin faculty was courted, quoted, featured and relied upon widely in media across the world.  A few examples, plus some well-publicized profiles and awards, from the month of February: Jordan drone strike has many waiting and wondering on government response – Kevin Jones, associate professor of history, quoted and…

Much like the Earth has five oceans, teeming with life and mysteries in its great depths and powering the Earth's natural systems and cycles – it is the Blue Planet after all – the Franklin College has five divisions powering UGA's unprecedented march to excellence. We continue to welcome 2024 by highlighting this element of our organizational structure and the academic units contained in each division. Today, we highlight the HUMANITIES:…

Despite ongoing efforts in the corporate world and academia to untangle and correct inaccurate notions about race and biology, strong currents of belief and practice continue to challenge what can appear to be a broader awareness. For example, although race has no biological basis, medical school training curricula tend to misrepresent race and reinforce biologically-essential components of race as explanations for disease. As the social…

We are indeed thankful for the research findings and expertise from Franklin faculty members shared regularly in media across the globe. Archeology and the dangers of online gambling lead November's samples of recent stories and coverage:   Why school location can expose certain kids to more air pollution – Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Science and Franklin College…

From storms to smart phones to... what happened to the Southern accent? Research from Franklin College faculty and graduate students was widely reported during September. A sample of the stories and media pick from across the globe: Scientists are asked if humans have broken the Earth’s climate – Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor od Geography, quoted by CleanTechnica, The Extinction Chronicles  Does…

Book awards, new grants, fellowships, and excellence in musical performance headline the outstanding accolades of Franklin College faculty and students over the summer. A sample of the good news from over the summer break – congratulations all: Anna Westerstahl Stenport became the 17th dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences on June 1 UGA appointed Gagan Agrawal, professor and associate dean for research and graduate studies in…

For Franklin College faculty across campus, 2023 was a summer 'on' for writing in and commenting for media reports from around the world. Expert insights and new research findings were widely covered in a variety of broadcast, digital, and print media. A sample from our tireless colleagues: Eating carrots (and other veggies) really does improve your eyesight, study says – research study led by Jack Harth, a doctoral candidate in the College…

The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences has named Montgomery Wolf as the new director of the Franklin Residential College (FRC), UGA's oldest living learning community. Wolf, Principal Lecturer of American History in the UGA department of history, succeeds Benjamin Ehlers as director of the FRC. Established in 2000, the Franklin Residential College is a collaborative partnership among the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of…

The University of Georgia department of history has announced the creation of the Sheffield Hale Fellowship. The annual award will underwrite a paid internship at Atlanta History Center, open to both undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing a career in public history and historical museums. The award honors Sheffield Hale, the current president of Atlanta History Center. Hale, who graduated with honors in History, summa cum…

In the tradition of recognizing and celebrating Americans and American history, we observe Juneteenth today. Two months after the American Civil War ended and two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger, newly arrived with 1,800 men in Texas, ordered that “all slaves are free” in Texas and that there would be an “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between…

"Any understanding of the world must begin at home--or end there." --Siegfried Lenz, The Heritage, 1981. Faculty members at the University of Georgia have partnered with Sandy Creek Nature Center to create a field school to teach students in a hands-on environment.  “We wanted to establish a class that offers hands-on field experience to teach archaeological methods to students,” said Attila Gyucha, assistant professor in…

Weather and climate, baseball, ghosting, and Tupperware were some of the subjects Franklin faculty colleagues discussed and wrote about over the course of April. A sample of the many news stories and research reporting that appeared in media around the world:   The U.S. leads the world in weather catastrophes. Here’s why – Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor, quoted widely by AP News, …

In his fifth year at UGA, Timothy Yang teaches history to help students make sense of subjects that may first appear too foreign or complex to understand. Trained as a historian of modern Japan, he teaches a broad range of courses about East Asia that emphasize connections and commonalities as well as global trends. One example is his approach to teaching complex topics like the history of capitalism. “Scholars commonly think…

Jamie Kreiner, professor of history and associate dean in the Franklin College, describes in her new book, “The Wandering Mind,” how monks of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (around A.D. 300 to 900) struggled with focusing their attention. The highly-acclaimed book has just been introduced in an audio format, which brings the author and her subject full circle. Kreiner relates the experience in this Q & A.   Alan…