News & Events
Department News
The History Department honors David Kotok and Laurey Stryker
On December 10th, the History Department hosted a wonderful event honoring two of its most generous donors and long-time supporters, David Kotok and Laurey Stryker, whose contributions will have a lasting impact on our students and programs.
David Kotok donated an extensive collection of American political buttons, spanning from World War I to the 2000s. This remarkable collection will serve as a valuable teaching and research resource for both faculty and students. In addition, Mr. Kotok made a financial contribution to further support the department鈥檚 mission.
The event also honored Laurey Stryker and the late Charlie Stryker, a proud alumnus of the History Department. Their generous gift will establish the Stryker Award, dedicated to supporting student research in European and Ancient History. Through this award, Charlie Stryker鈥檚 legacy and the Strykers鈥� commitment to education will continue to inspire and support future generations of historians.
History faculty and students presenting at the SHA Conference
History faculty and students rocked at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Southern Historical Association, (St. Pete Beach, FL, 11/-5 - 11/8, 2025)!
Dr. Kees Boterbloem delivered the Mathews-Weinberg keynote lecture "Icon of Soviet Education: The Life and Afterlife of Anton Makarenko" to the European History section of the conference.
Dr. Benedetta Caranaghi prented the paper "Persecuted Satirists: How Dissident Laughter Could Get You in Trouble, 1922-1945鈥� in a panel entitled 鈥淐ourts and the State鈥�.
Dr. Erin Mauldin, chaired a panel on 鈥淓nvironmental History: Studying, Using, and Abusing Nature.鈥�
Doctoral candidate Bront毛 Phillips presented a paper entitled 鈥淎 Loved Slave Boy: Placing the Getty Villa鈥檚 Portrait Bust with Inscription within Roman Funerary Contexts鈥� in a panel on 鈥淧aintings, Busts, and Parades: Cultural Expressions.鈥�
We could not have a better representation!
The department welcomes five new faculty
Dr. Benedetta Carnaghi is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of South 手机看片. A historian of modern Italy, Germany, and France, she studies totalitarianism 鈥渇rom below,鈥� focusing on how ordinary people navigated authoritarian regimes. Her first book project, Agents of Betrayal, examines little-known spies in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, while her second, Making Fun of the Fascists, explores humor as resistance to leader cults. She earned her Ph.D. from Cornell University and previously studied at the Universit脿 di Padova, Paris 1 鈥� Panth茅on-Sorbonne, and the 脡cole normale sup茅rieure.
Dr. Ann Marsh Daly is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of South 手机看片. She received her Ph.D. from Brown University in 2021 and teaches courses on nineteenth-century U.S. history, including political economy, race, slavery, and material culture. Her research explores the labor and political economy behind coinage in early America, particularly who made money, how it gained value, and its significance in early national capitalism, through her book manuscript Minting America: Labor and the Political Economy of Money in the Early United States University of South 手机看片.
Dr. Jesse Obert is an Assistant Professor of Ancient Greek History in the Department of History at the University of South 手机看片. He earned his Ph.D. in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2023, following an M.A. in Ancient History from University College London in 2013. Dr. Obert's research examines the roles of violence, warfare, slavery, and inequality in ancient Greek city-states, approaches that intersect archaeological material, textual evidence, disability theory, and digital humanities.
Satgin Hamrah is a Visiting Assistant Instructor in the Department of History at the University of South 手机看片, slated to complete her Ph.D. in History at Tufts University in December 2025 University of South 手机看片. She teaches courses on the modern Middle East, approaching complex issues such as religious and ethnic identity, sectarianism, and conflict through an interdisciplinary and transnational lens University of South 手机看片. Her research鈥攈ighlighted by the 2023 edited volume Contextualizing Sectarianism in the Middle East and South Asia: Identity, Competition and Conflict鈥攅xamines how identity, culture, and memory inform violence, wars like the Iran鈥揑raq conflict, and geopolitical security dynamic.
Dr. Benjamin Thomason is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of History at the University of South 手机看片. He earned his Ph.D. in History from Bowling Green State University in 2024. His teaching focuses on U.S. history since the late nineteenth century, highlighting how domestic developments intersect with global affairs. His research and courses integrate approaches from media studies, political science, and sociology, encouraging students to explore how cultural and political forces have shaped modern America.