New Article by Professor Emeritus Johanna Shields

Retirement sure hasn't slowed down the scholarly efforts of Johanna Shields! She has recently published an article, "The Dynamics of Southern Friendship in the Civil
War Novels of Augusta Evans and Jeremiah Clemens," in Mississippi Quarterly, 60
(Spring 2007), 305-33.

Congratulations, Johanna. We hope we will remain so productive over the years!

Congratulations to Sandra Mendiola

We are pleased to announce that first year faculty member Dr. Sandra Mendiola has received a UAH Research Mini-Grant for $4,651.00 and a UAH Humanities Center Faculty Research Grant of $2165.00 to pursue research on "Mexico's 'Dirty War' on Street Vendors, 1973-1986" in Puebla and Mexico City, Mexico, in Summer 2009. In Mexico City, she will visit the General National Archive and the National Autonomous University's newspapers collection, and in Puebla, she will also conduct oral interviews with female street vendors. This research will contribute to Sandra's book manuscript, a revision of her doctoral dissertation, tentatively entitled "Marketers, Street Vendors, and Politics in Mexico."

Sandra has also been invited to be the featured scholar at a February meeting of the Newberry Library in Chicago. Her pre-circulated paper on the state repression that street vendors faced as they formed a militant union that fought for access to public spaces will be the sole subject of discussion for organizers and participants.

Pictured here see Sandra conducting an oral history interview during her dissertation research.

The History Department is delighted that Sandra is off to such a good start and congratulations her on her early successes!

Congratulations to Sam Thomas

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Sam Thomas. Sam just received word that he received a UAHuntsville Research Mini-Grant worth $7800 and a Wellcome Institute Grant (based in England) for $2200.

Sam will use the funding for two primary projects. In May, he will attend a seminar at the Folger Library in Washington, DC, on "Secularization and Selfhood." The seminar will explore how individuals in England and America understood the shift from the religious culture of the early modern period to the so-called "disenchantment of the world" that developed in the wake of the Enlightenment.

Then in July, he'll spend two weeks in Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, England, laying the groundwork for his project under development on "Midwifery, Medicine and Society in Early Modern England." While there, he'll survey archives that he will use as he researches and writes two books on the social and cultural history of midwifery between 1660 and 1800.

Well done, Sam!