News and Events!
From the Federated Department of History at NJIT
FALL 2022 EVENTS
August 2022
Dr. Neil Maher featured on PBS Series "The Bigger Picture"!
WATCH: The Story Behind the Earth's Most Famous Photo
July 2022
Congratulations, Destiny Adeleye and Kiaja Jones!
Two Law, Technology and Culture Majors Win Gilman Scholarships to Study in South Korea
June 2022
Congratulations, Dr. Gabrielle Esperdy!
Dr. Gabrielle Esperdy Named Interim Dean for the Hillier College of Architecture and Design
May 2022
Congratulations, LTC and HISTORY Students!
NJIT Professors Prime Jada Evans for UCLA School of Law
Senior Success: Sreya Sanyal Is Off to Become an NIH Researcher
Pradnya Desai Awarded in Startup Competition, Off to Microsoft
May 2022
Dr. Rosanna Dent Awarded National Science Foundation Grant!
Congratulations, Dr. Dent! The grant will fund Dr. Dent's project, Collaborative Research: Digital Archives and Indigenous Afterlives of Scientific Objects.
May 2022
2022 Federated Department of History Student Award Winners!
Congratulations!!!
Outstanding Academic Achievement in History: Elizabeth Kissell
Outstanding Academic Achievement in Law, Technology, and Culture: Jada Evans
Department Service Awards: Pradnya Desai and Zachary Lane
Friedlander Memorial Award: Serene Hozien, Daniel McKay, Maryam Yasin
Zabriskie Memoral Award: Molly Stevens and Megan Tomaselli
Zebel Award: Mahnoor Shaikh and Randy Vargas
Samatar Memorial Award: Katherine Cardenas, Gabriella Parodi, Mahnooor Shaikh
Seminar Paper Award: Nancy Meehan, Elizabeth Kissell, Randy Vargas
Graduate Paper Award: Tyler Crespo Rodriguez
Graduate Mentor Awards: Nour-Alhuda Abel-Aziz, Kristen Deleasa, Saad Latif, Tyler Crespo Rodriguez
NJIT Pre-Law Society Hall of Fame Initiates: Raunak Basu, Pradnya Desai, Jada Evans
Phi Alpha Theta (History Honor Society) Initiates: ALPHA NU ALPHA Chapter (NJIT) Andreea Chirica, Jada Evans, Kyanna Gonzalez, Subah Iqbal, Peter Koczarski, Saqlain Sattar, Joseph Soubany, Volney Stefflre; IOTA KAPPA Chapter (Rutgers-Newark) Daniel McKay, Tiffany Habersham, Mariah Ramos, Lindsey Arevalo, Stephen Alworth, Jessica Lancaster, Jose Liriano Jr., Maryam Yasin, Jamisha Montague, Mahnoor Shaikh, Simone Oropeza
April 2022
Dr. Karl Schweizer named Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute!
Congratulations to Dr. Schweizer, who will be joining the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Center for the Study of America and the West as a senior fellow! The Foreign Policy Research Institute is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the United States.
April 2022
2022 CSLA AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
Congratulations to the following award winners from the Federated Department of History and the Law, Technology, and Culture Program!
Distinguished Alumnus: Dr. George Hill
Rising Star Alumnus: Stephen Tighe
Excellence in Undergraduate Education: Dr. Stephen Pemberton
Outstanding Staff Member: Dr. Scott Kent
Spirit of “Doc” Award: Jada Evans
Outstanding Undergraduate Student: Elizabeth Kissell
Outstanding Graduate Student: Colleen O’Neal
April 2022
Dr. Neil Maher Wins Prized Fellowship to Explore Newark's Environmental Justice History!
Congratulations to Dr. Neil Maher, NJIT master teacher and professor of history, who has been named fellow for The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. The fellowship is regarded as one of the most sought-after in the humanities, with past fellows having won National Book Awards, MacArthur Genius Awards and Pulitzer Prizes. Maher is one of just 15 scholars selected to the center’s 2022-23 class of fellows out of a pool of 506 applicants from 48 countries. Dr. Maher will spend his fellowship working on his new project, titled Wasted: An Environmental Justice History of Newark, New Jersey, which will analyze the connections between racial and environmental discrimination in Newark during the post-World War II period.
April 2022
Christina Strasburger Honored with the 2022 Rutgers Beloved Community Award!
Congratulations to Christina Strasburger, Rutgers-Newark Department Administrator! The Beloved Community Award goes to individuals who most exemplify the aims of our beloved community, one in which all members are working together and are heard, respected and valued.
April 2022
Welcome, Dr. Teal Arcadi!
The Federated Department of History welcomes Dr. Teal Arcadi who will be joining our faculty as a unviersity lecturer in Fall 2022. Dr. Arcadi is a historian of American governance and holds a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University. His article, Partisanship and Permanence: How Congress Contested the Origins of the Interstate Highway System and the Future of American Infrastructure, recently appeared in Modern American History.
March 2022
Congratulations, Dr. Elektra Kostopoulou!
Congratulations to Dr. Kostopoulou on her appointment as Chief Investigator and Consultant for Roma Women's Access to Justice (JUSTROM3), a joint program of the Council of Europe/European Union focused on improving access to justice for Roma women in four different countries. Additionally, Dr. Kostopoulou was recently elected a permanent member of the Scientific and Technological Research Center of Turkey (TÜBİTAK).
January 2022
Congratulations to History Major, Samuel Carlos!
Carlos is the recipient of the 2021 National Security Education Program David L. Boren Scholarship, which funds the study of foreign languages and regions of national security interest. He will be studying Mandarin and Southeast Asian technology and politics at National Taiwan University in the spring and summer of 2022. Carlos is enrolled in the Albert Dorman Honors College at NJIT and is a dual degree (B.S./B.A.) student majoring in History, Mathematics and Computer Science.
November 2021
Dr. Scott Kent on American Doughboys and Letters from the Western Front
Congratulations to Dr. Kent on his recent article discussing his dissertation "Letters From The Western Front: The Correspondence of American Doughboys and American Censorship During The Great War 1917-1918"!
October 2021
Dr. Rosanna Dent recognized by the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians!
Dr. Dent's article, "Subject 01: exemplary Indigenous masculinity in Cold War genetics’ published in the British Journal of the History of Science, received the 2020 Berkshire Conference award for an article in the fields of the history of women, gender, and/or sexuality.
October 2021
Dr. Neil Maher featured on "The Living New Deal" Webinar Series!
The Living New Deal webinar series will host Dr. Neil Maher on Thursday, October 21st. Dr. Maher will present on "Biden’s Civilian Conservation Corps: Lessons from the Original CCC". The mission of The Living New Deal project is three-fold: research, presentation and education stemming from the historical work of uncovering the immense riches of New Deal public works. Click here to register and for more information.
October 2021
Congratulations, Dr. Gabrielle Esperdy!
Professor of Architecture and History, Gabrielle Esperdy, was awarded the 2021 NJIT Board of Overseers Excellence in Research Medal and Prize. Click here to read more about Dr. Esperdy's work in architectural and urban history!
August 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Rosanna Dent Recipient of IAS Fellowship!
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is one of the world’s leading centers for curiosity-driven basic research. Dr. Dent was awarded a fellowship to continue her work on her current book project, "Studying Indigenous Brazil: Moral Economies of Research in A'uwe-Xavante Territory," which combines historical, ethnographic, and community-based methods to explore the human sciences and their afterlives in Indigenous communities.
June 2021
2021 NJIT Service Awards!
Congratulations to Prof. Scott Kent for 10 years of service and to Dr. Neil Maher for 20 years of service to NJIT!
June 2021
2020-2021 NJIT Excellence in Teaching Awards!
Congratulations to the following awardees from the NJIT Federated Department of History!
Excellence in Upper Division Instruction by a University Lecturer: Dr. Elektra Kostopoulou
Excellence in Instruction by an Adjunct Faculty: Dr. Deborah Morrison-Santana
June 2021
2021 NJIT Career Development Services Awards!
Congratulations to Dr. Alison Lefkovitz, Faculty Co-op Advisor of the Year, and the NJIT Pre-Law Society, Student Group Partner of the Year!
May 2021
Congratulations to 2021 Phi Alpha Theta Inductees!
The following students were inducted into the NJIT Alpha-Nu-Alpha chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, an academic honor society for undergraduate and graduate students and professors of history:
Ayiah-Bideha Mohammad Al-Qanawi
Raunak Narayan Basu
Katherine Demottie
Elizabeth Kissell
Zachary Lane
Sreya Sanyal
Whitney Roth
Juliana Schlichting
Marissa Soistman
Matthew Trochim
May 2021
2021 NJIT Federated Department of History Student Awards!
Congratulations to All!
Academic Achievement in History: Katherine Demottie
Academic Achievement in LTC: Victoria Nguyen
Department Service Award: Jada Evans and Cameron Greer
HIST 490 Best Seminar Paper: Matthew Trochim
May 2021
2021 CSLA Award Recipients!
Congratulations to the following faculty and student members of the NJIT Federated Department of History!
- Excellence in Graduate Education Award: Dr. Neil Maher
- Spirit of Doc Student Award: Victoria Nguyen
- Outstanding Undergraduate Student: Katherine Demottie
- Outstanding Graduate Student: Jordan Baldridge
May 2021
Congratulations Sreya Sanyal, Recipient of Goldwater Scholarship!
Student Sreya Sanyal, a double major in Biology and History, was named a Goldwater Scholar for her high-level research on novel therapies for COVID-19 and other diseases.
April 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Louis Hamilton and Dr. Burcak Ozludil!
And to their co-authors, on the publication of “Understanding Urban Devotion through the Eyes of an Observer." ETRA '21 Short Papers: 2021 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications Proceedings.
April 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Rosanna Dent Recipient of ACLS Fellowship!
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship program supports outstanding scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Dr. Dent was awarded a fellowship to continue her work on her project: Studying Indigenous Brazil: The Xavante and the Human Sciences, 1958-2015.
March 2021
Dr. Neil Maher on the Creation of a Civilian Climate Corps
Op Ed - YES! Magazine: Biden Needs to Go Big to Rebuild America
Interview - The New Yorker: The Civilian Climate Corps Is a Big-Government Plan That All Americans Can Embrace
Podcast - Feet to the Fire: The Once and Future Civilian Conservation Corps
March 2021
Wednesday, March 24th - 2:30pm - 3:50pm | Register for the Webex Virtual Event
Alfred Dorman Honors College – Medical Humanities Colloquium
Sickle Cell Disease, Equity, and Justice: A Stagnant History
Speaker: Dr. Melissa Creary
Melissa Creary, PhD, MPH is the Senior Director of the Office of Public Health Initiatives for the American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. She speaks on topics of justice, racism and anti-racism in health and biomedicine, COVID-19, identity politics in health, and bioethics.
February 2021
ONE BEGINS AGAIN: Organizing & the Historical Imagination
The Clement Price Institute on Ethniticy, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University-Newark invites the community to register for the 41st Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series, One Begins Again: Organizing & the Historical Imagination, moderated by Barbara Ransby. The conference will be held online on Saturday, February 20, 2021 at 9:30 A.M. EST.
February 2021
Whose Cities? Cultural Approaches to (Sub)urban Studies and Race
You're invited to join Professors Mary Rizzo and Kyle Riismandel for a live conversation about cultural approaches to urban/suburban studies and race.
Wednesday, Feb 17th at 2:30pm via ZOOM.
December 2020
Dr. Neil Maher featured in VICE News video on the "New Space Race"
December 2020
Wednesday, December 9th - 2:30pm - 4:00pm | Join the Webex Virtual Event
Neighborhood of Fear: Productive Victimization and Suburban Power Past and Present
Speaker: Dr. Kyle Riismandel
Kyle Riismandel holds a PhD in American Studies from George Washington University. He works as a Senior University Lecturer and the Interim Director of the Law, Technology, and Culture Program in the Federated Department of History at NJIT. He is the author of Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001 (Johns Hopkins University Press) and " 'Say You Love Satan': Teens and Popular Culture in 1980s American" in Growing Up America: Youth and Politics since 1945" (U. of Georgia Press).
November 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Kyle Riismandel for recent book publication!
Dr. Riismandel's book, Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture,1975-2001, is now available from Johns Hopkins University Press.
A novel look at how Americans imagined, traversed, and regulated suburban space in the last quarter of the twentieth century, Neighborhood of Fear shows how the preferences of the suburban middle class became central to the cultural values of the nation and fueled the continued growth of suburban political power.
October 2020
Dr. Rosanna Dent and Dr. Stephen Pemberton featured on #COVIDCalls
#COVIDCalls is a daily discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic with a diverse collection of disaster experts - hosted by Dr. Scott Gabriel Knowles, a historian of disasters at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Click here to listen to Dr. Rosanna Dent's #COVIDCall
Click here to listen to Dr. Stephen Pemberton's #COVIDCall
October 2020
Wednesday, October 21st - 2:30pm - 4:00pm | Join the Webex Virtual Event
Making Babies, Making Miscarriages: Ultrasound, Home Pregnancy Testing, and Early Pregnancy Loss
Speaker: Dr. Lara Freidenfelds
Lara Freidenfelds is the author of The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America and The Modern Period: Menstruation in Twentieth-Century America. She is a regular contributor to the peer-reviewed blog Nursing Clio and has written on miscarriage for the Washington Post. She holds a Ph.D. in history of science and an A.B. in anthropology from Harvard University, and works as an independent scholar affiliated with the Princeton Research Forum.
Historical transformations in the experience of pregnancy over the past two centuries have made early pregnancies losses more emotionally fraught today than they were in the past. This talk examines the role of technology in this transformation, in particular, how the rituals we have developed around obstetric ultrasound and home pregnancy tests serve to make the baby “real” and encourage bonding earlier and earlier in pregnancy, at a stage when many pregnancies are destined to miscarry.
Sponsored by the Alfred Dorman Honors College and the NJIT Federated Department of History with the generous support of Robert & Ethel Singer.
September 2020
NJIT History Professor, Rosanna Dent, Named 2020 Recipient of the John C. Burnham Early Career Award from the Forum for History of Human Science
September 2020
From NJIT News:
Gabrielle Rejouis, Graduate of NJIT History Program, to Give Keynote Address at Convocation 2020
September 2020
From Smithsonian Magazine:
The Peculiar 100-Plus-Year History of Convalescent Plasma
NJIT History Professor Stephen Pemberton on the Usage and Commodification of Blood Plasma in the Last One Hundred Years.
August 2020
From The Intercept:
Escape from the Nuclear Family: COVID-19 Should Provoke a Rethink of How We Live
NJIT History Professor Neil Maher joins Guest Host Naomi Klein to Discuss!
June 2020
From NJIT News:
NJIT History Professor Rosanna Dent on Research in Central Brazil's Xavante Territory
June 2020
Congratulations, Class of 2020!
View our tribute page celebrating the 2020 graduates of the Federated Department of History at NJIT and Rutgers-University Newark.
We also congratulate the new inductees of Phi Alpha Theta, a national academic honor society for students and professors of history.
June 2020
NJIT Students Receive "Community Builder" Award
The following students, majoring or minoring in History, LTC, or Legal Studies, were nominated by their peers and were recognized for the ways in which they contribute to the betterment of the NJIT/Rutgers-Newark community:
May 11, 2020
From NJIT Weekly:
Senior Success: LTC Major Darius Singletary Answers Call of Duty
During National Police Appreciation Week (May 10-16), Darius Singletary ’20 shares his successful journey as both full-time Rahway police officer and NJIT student heading to graduation.
April 22, 2020
2020 Award Winners - Federated Department of History at NJIT
Congratulations to All!
2020 College of Science & Liberal Arts (CSLA) AwardsDr. Karl Schweizer: CSLA Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Stephen Pemberton: Excellence in Service Award
Ms. Deborah Morrison-Santana: Excellence in Teaching - Adjunct Faculty
Dr. Kyle Riismandel: Excellence in Scholarship - Senior University Lecturer
Roy Samuel '20: Outstanding Undergraduate Student
2020 Federated Department of History Student AwardsRoy Samuel '20: Outstanding Academic Achievement in History
Bobbi Johnson '20: Outstanding Academic Achievement in History
Abhishek Bose '20: Outstanding Academic Achievement in Law, Technology, and Culture
Emma Bekhet '20: Outstanding Academic Achievement in Law, Technology and Culture
Victoria Nguyen '21: Department Service Award
Roy Samuel '20: Best Senior Seminar Paper (HIST 490)
Juliana Matlack '20: Best Senior Seminar Paper (HIST 490)
March 10, 2020
From WBGO Journal:
As Newark Replaces Lead Service Lines, Advocates Say Residents Are Still At Risk
NJIT History Professor Neil Maher hosted a community discussion where local advocates leading the fight for clean water discussed the challenges ahead.
Click here to WATCH or DOWNLOAD the full panel discussion.
March 9, 2020
6:00 - 8:00 pm in the NJIT Campus Center Atrium
Newark's Lead Water Crisis
A conversation with women about race, equity, and environmental justice.
Click here to WATCH or DOWNLOAD the full panel discussion.
March 6, 2020
NJIT History Professor Rosanna Dent to speak at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
As part of the Indigenous Studies Seminar Series, Prof. Dent will present "Bureaucratic Vulnerability: Possession, Sovereignty, and Relationality in Brazilian Research Regulation".
March 5, 2020
Museum Cases Around Campus Being Updated by History Department Students
The history of NJIT will become more prominent around campus and online in the next couple of semesters, as a team including two students, a librarian and a historian are working to digitize and expand existing artifact displays.
February 27, 2020
Space Age Environmentalism: How Photographs of Earth Launched the Environmental Movement
A National Council for History Education Webinar Presented by NJIT History Professor Neil Maher
February 19, 2020
Breakfast with Historians!
Enjoy breakfast with the amazing faculty and staff of the Federated Department of History.
A Student Appreciation Week 2020 Event.
November 26, 2019
From The Washington Post - Made by History:
Contrary to Conservative Claims, the ERA Would Help Families — but It’s Not Enough
NJIT History Professor Alison Lefkovitz on the Equal Rights Amendment
November 22, 2019
11:30am in Tiernan Lecture Hall 1
Forensic Science Commissions: Why Every State Should Have One
Sarah Chu joined the Innocence Project (www.innocenceproject.org) in September 2008. As a Senior Advisor on Forensic Science Policy, she supports work that focuses on improving validity, reliability, quality and just application of forensic science. Sarah is currently a Criminal Justice PhD student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with BS degrees in Biochemistry/Cell Biology, Communication, and a MS in Biology. She also holds a Masters in Epidemiology from Stanford University.
Part of the Forensic Science Seminar Series.
Co-sponsored by the Law, Technology, and Culture Program.
November 20, 2019
2:30-4:00pm in the Campus Center Atrium
NJIT History Professor, Dr. Stephen Pemberton on "The Curious Case of Medical Humanities in Undergraduate Education"
This talk is for you if you’ve ever wondered why a humanities class focused on a particular aspect of medicine or health is worth your precious time. Professor Pemberton will introduce the concepts and trends in medical humanities education in historical perspective, explain what some of the benefits of traditional investments in humanities have been in U.S. medical education, and why recent trends toward exposing undergraduate students to the medical humanities is a worthwhile, challenging, but not entirely comfortable, way of grappling with the question of how physicians and patients can improve the quality of medical care in the twenty-first century. Caution: There will be blood!
Part of the Albert Dorman Colloquium Series.
November 6, 2019
Congratulations, Professor Zeynep Celik!
Professor Celik, Distinguished Professor of History at NJIT's Hillier College of Architecture and Design, received the 2019 "Woman of Outstanding Achievement in Architecture and Construction" Tamayouz Excellence Award.
October 11, 2019
11:30 am - 1:00 pm in the Campus Center Atrium at NJIT
How can a STEM Graduate’s Training be Applied to Careers in the Legal Profession?
Speakers: Catherine Fitch, Managing Counsel for Patents, Merck & Co. and NJIT Alumna Patricia Shatynski, '84, MS '86, Patent Counsel, Merck & Co.
Part of the Albert Dorman Colloquium Series.
Co-sponsored by the Law, Technology and Culture Program - Federated Department of History.
September 20, 2019
11:30 am - 1:00 pm in Eberhardt Hall Room 112
Indestructible Spirit: NJIT Alumnus, Jack Pariser, NCE '55, will share his family's experience in surviving the Holocaust and cheating the Nazis of their victory.
Part of the Albert Dorman Colloquium Series.
Co-sponsored by the Federated Department of History.
September 17, 2019
CONSTITUTION DAY 2019 at NJIT!
Professor Kyle Riismandel, Interim Director of LTC Program, and Pre-Law Society members to take part in panel discussion.
July 16, 2019
From The New York Times - Opinion Section:
Not Everyone Wanted a Man on the Moon
NJIT History Professor Neil Maher on the 50th Anniversary of the Launch of Apollo 11.
June 22, 2019
From The New York Times - Past Tense:
How Many Times Does a River Have to Burn Before It Matters?
NJIT History Professor Neil Maher on the Cuyahoga River Fires of 1952 and 1969.