The Society for Military History is soliciting nominations for the Vandervort Prizes, which recognize outstanding articles on the history of war and society.
Here is the call for nominations from the Society for Military History:
Vandervort Prize Nominations
The Vandervort Prizes recognize outstanding journal articles that contribute to the field of military history.
The Vandervort Prizes honor the JMH’s longtime editor, the late Dr. Bruce Vandervort. A prize is awarded to at least two of the best articles published in The Journal of Military History during the previous calendar year, as well as up to two articles published outside of the journal.
All articles published in The Journal of Military History are automatically eligible for the Vandervort Prizes.
The selection committee is seeking nominations of outstanding articles published in other journals. These should be articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals, in English, with a publication date of 2022. The journal itself need not focus on military history, as we are seeking to recognize scholarship that shows the intellectual breadth of our discipline.
Self-nominations are permitted. One nomination per individual, please.
To nominate an article for consideration, please submit a copy of the article (preferably as a PDF) and complete citation information to Dr. Adam R. Seipp (aseipp@tamu.edu) by January 17, 2023.
Archaeologists and scientists are discovering new information about the soldiers and conflicts of the past through battlefield archaeology.
Recent digs have uncovered the grave of Richard III from the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487) and mass graves from battles of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).
A newly published article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers fresh archaeological evidence from the battlefield of Himera (Sicily) on mercenaries’ involvement in ancient Greek warfare.
Mass Grave from the Site of the Second Battle of Himera, 409 BCE. Photo: The New York Times
The New York Times reports on the battlefield archaeology in Sicily and the analysis of soldiers’ remains from the site of the battlefield at Himera: “Neither Herodotus nor Diodorus Siculus mentioned mercenaries in their reports of the first Battle of Himera, a fierce struggle in 480 B.C. in which the Greeks from various Sicilian cities united to beat back a Carthaginian invasion. Mercenaries were considered the antithesis of the Homeric hero.”
“‘Being a wage earner had some negative connotations — avarice, corruption, shifting allegiance, the downfall of civilized society,’ said Laurie Reitsema, an anthropologist at the University of Georgia. “In this light, it is unsurprising if ancient authors would choose to embellish the Greeks for Greeks aspect of the battles, rather than admitting they had to pay for it.'”
“But research published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the ancestry of the troops defending Himera was not as strictly Greek as historical accounts of the time would have it.”
The Humanities Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is offering a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Humanities as Social Practice during academic year 2023-2024.
Recent Ph.D.s in History and the Humanities are encouraged to apply for this post-doctoral fellowship.
Here is the call for applications from H-Net:
The Humanities Research Institute (HRI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, seeks to hire a Post-Doctoral Fellow for a one-year appointment commencing Fall 2023.
The Humanities as Social Practice draw on interdisciplinary arenas of inquiry that have direct impact on contemporary issues. When the humanities are conceived of as a social practice, they have the capacity to move between the academy that nurtures them as fields of study and the communities, local and global, they both seek to serve and must be accountable to, especially in a public research university. As form of “public humanities,” this practice is collaborative and cross-disciplinary, drawing on a range of methodologies and seeks to recognize academic knowledge-making beyond the walls of the university. Through its social practices, the humanities have the capacity to challenge hierarchies of knowing and expertise, in part by engaging audiences and communities beyond campus, in part by embedding reciprocal partnerships in all aspects of research, pedagogy, and public engagement. Practices rooted in critical humanities training are attentive to social differences and disparities, aiming to re-center the human condition and collective community needs in an increasingly tech-driven world.
The Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in Humanities as Social Practice will spend the one-year term in residence at UIUC, participating in the yearlong HRI Fellows Seminar and in the variety of publicly engaged humanities work ongoing at HRI and on campus. The Fellow will pursue a project rooted in participatory community-based research and designed to amplify what the humanities as a social practice can and should look like, both in their field(s) and in the larger ecosystem of campus and local communities. They will be required to make a public presentation of their work and run a workshop for graduate students interested in developing pathways to the humanities as a social practice in their own work in the spring semester of 2024.
The search is open to scholars in all humanities disciplines, including the humanities-inflected social sciences, whose research interests lie in the area of community-based social justice and human rights. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, community-based research in racial, im/migrant, and/or gender justice; public health; environmental justice; Indigenous sovereignty; and disability studies.
The fellowship carries a $60,000 annual stipend, a $6,000 research account, a modest moving allowance, and a comprehensive benefits package. To be eligible, applicants should have received their Ph.D. in a humanities discipline between January 1, 2021 and no later than July 31, 2023.
Application Deadline: November 28, 2022
Detailed eligibility requirements and application guidelines can be found at http://go.illinois.edu/postdoc. The University of Illinois conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer. The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
The submission period opens October 1, 2022. Applications must be submitted through the online application system. No paper or e-mailed applications (or letters of support) will be accepted. Please do not contact HRI about the viability of your project. The selection committee cannot vet the appropriateness of proposals in advance. Careful reading of the application guidelines should answer most questions. Please limit queries to general questions about the fellowship opportunity and/or difficulties with the application system. The volume of applications HRI receives prevents us from commenting on the status of individual applications. Receipt of applications will be acknowledged via auto-generated email, once an applicant has clicked “submit.” Please note that active submission is necessary; uploading all requisite application materials does not, unto itself, constitute submission.
For more information, see the full call for applications on H-Net.
The International Security Studies Program at Yale University is seeking a postdoctoral associate in Maritime and Naval Studies.
This is a great opportunity for a recent Ph.D. in Maritime and/or Naval History. Any recent Ph.D.s from the Department of History at Northern Illinois University or colleagues from other programs in early modern studies should feel free to contact me for advice on applying for this position.
Clarkson Frederick Stanfield, The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 (1836)
Here is the announcement from Yale University:
Maritime and Naval Studies Program Postdoctoral Associate
International Security Studies, Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University
The Maritime and Naval Studies Program, directed by Paul Kennedy, the J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History and Global Affairs, will award one postdoctoral associate position, funded for one year with the possibility of renewal for a second year, starting in January 2023. The Maritime and Naval Postdoctoral Associate must have completed their Ph.D. degree in a relevant field to begin the fellowship.
The Maritime and Naval Postdoctoral Associate is expected to use the time to conduct original research and write manuscripts for publication, focused on analysis of naval and maritime history that informs today’s most pressing international political-military challenges. The Maritime and Naval Studies Postdoctoral Associate Fellowship will be awarded to a candidate who is conducting outstanding research and who would benefit from engagement with the intellectual resources of the Yale community, alongside other postdoctoral associates, pre-doctoral associates, and Yale faculty in history, political science, and other disciplines.
Working with the leadership of International Security Studies, the Associate will also assist in the development of a series of lectures, conferences, and other symposia that advance the field of maritime and naval studies and its significance to global affairs. Roughly half of the Associate’s time will be devoted to program development; the other half to their own scholarship.
The Associate will participate regularly in research colloquia on campus and will be granted opportunities to present their work. In consultation with the program director, the Associate may also teach course(s), if desired. The Associate is expected to be in residence through the duration of their fellowship and contribute to the intellectual life of International Security Studies at the Jackson School of Global Affairs. The Associate will have the use of an office on Yale’s campus.
Salary: A minimum of $56,448, depending on experience.
A complete application includes:
C.V.
1000-word statement including the research proposal and any other relevant experience
Three letters of recommendation
Two writing samples, e.g., dissertation chapters or journal articles
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Yale University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. Yale values diversity among its students, staff, and faculty and strongly welcomes applications from women, persons with disabilities, protected veterans, and underrepresented minorities.
For more information, see the full position announcement on H-Net.
Illinois College is hiring an Archivist and Curator.
Graduate students in History at Northern Illinois University may be interested in applying for this position.
Here is the full position announcement:
Illinois College – College Archivist and Curator of Special Collections
Illinois College invites applications for the position of Archivist and Curator. The primary responsibilities of this position include:managing the resources of the Khalaf al Habtoor Archives, the Paul Findley Congressional Office Museum, and other special collections; working closely with students and faculty to provide meaningful research and internship opportunities; and liaising with the local community as both the City of Jacksonville and Illinois College prepare for their respective bicentennial celebrations (2025 for Jacksonville, and 2029 for the College). The Archives resides in a spacious state-of-the-art location in the Schewe Library on the Illinois College campus and contains documents and artifacts related to the history of the College and Jacksonville. This position is a full-time administrative appointment with faculty status.
This position entails an educational function both on campus and beyond, as well as ensuring best practices in materials preservation, management, display, and dissemination. This position is responsible for organizing frequent public events. The Archivist and Curator interacts with students as teacher, research mentor, and work supervisor. As a member of the Schewe Library team, the Archivist and Curator partners with Library staff on programming and planning.
This position requires a master’s degree in an appropriate field (Library and Information Science, Public History, or Archival Studies) and knowledge of best practices in materials management and preservation. Strong preference for direct experience working with the public and for experience with archival collection management software and digitization. For more information please see ic.edu/employment.
Since 1829, Illinois College has transformed the lives of undergraduate students. The College is focused on student success and provides many opportunities for faculty-study interaction beyond the classroom, including collaborative research projects, international study-travel, and mentoring/advising. The College is committed to ensuring access and equity. The College develops in its students qualities of mind and character needed for fulfilling lives of leadership and service. The College is located in historic Jacksonville, Illinois 30 minutes west of the capital city of Springfield and 90 minutes north of St. Louis, Missouri.
Applicants should submit the following materials in PDF format.
Letter of application
C.V.
A statement of educational philosophy that includes discussion of working with diverse constituencies
Contact information for three references and/ or three letters of reference
Review of applications will begin October 15, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled.
Western Illinois University will be hosting an academic conference on Perspectives on Global and Local Military History in April 2023.
The call for papers lays out the themes for the conference:
“Does the transnational turn in historical scholarship suggest that all warfare is actually derivative of larger global patterns, or are there local, regional, or national “ways of war” that differentiate conflict within that certain geographical space, which historians should acknowledge? The new military history of the last several decades shifted attention away from traditional narratives that focused on generalship and troop movements on the battlefield towards the perspective of ordinary soldiers, and more recently, towards even broader social and cultural perspectives on warfare. How does the transnational turn in history affect the new military history?“
“This conference, which will be held in-person only, at the Quad Cities campus of Western Illinois University, April 14-16, 2023, invites paper and panel proposals that explore intersections between global and local perspectives on warfare, on and off the battlefield, including campaign histories; biographical analysis; material culture; cultural, social, and political implications; and indigenous populations.”
For more information, see the full call for papers on the website of Western Illinois University. The deadline for submitting proposals is 15 Janaury 2023.
Doctoral candidates and M.A. students in History at Northern Illinois University may be interested in participating in this conference.
I am not a royal family watcher, but this is clearly a major historical event in British, European, and World history.
History professors, students, and researchers working on monarchy, court culture, state development, and empire will be following developments closely….
Maya Jasanoff, Professor of History at Harvard University, has published an op-ed essay today on “Mourn the Queen, Not Her Empire.”
Jasanoff writes: ““The end of an era” will become a refrain as commentators assess the record-setting reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Like all monarchs, she was both an individual and an institution.”
Certainly much of the news reporting so far celebrates Elizabeth II’s legacy in laudatory and triumphant tones.
Jasanoff warns of the troubled legacies of the British Empire, however. “Those who heralded a second Elizabethan age hoped Elizabeth II would sustain British greatness; instead, it was the era of the empire’s implosion. She will be remembered for her tireless dedication to her job, whose future she attempted to secure by stripping the disgraced Prince Andrew of his roles and resolving the question of Queen Camilla’s title. Yet it was a position so closely linked to the British Empire that even as the world transformed around her, myths of imperial benevolence persisted. The new king now has an opportunity to make a real historical impact by scaling back royal pomp and updating Britain’s monarchy to be more like those of Scandinavia. That would be an end to celebrate.”
Graduate students in Renaissance Studies have been working with the Renaissance Society of America to organize a series of Lightning Talks events.
Graduate students in Renaissance Studies and Early Modern History will be interested in this Lightning Talk event. I would like to encourage graduate students in my HIST 458/558 Mediterranean World course at Northern Illinois University to consider submitting a proposal.
Here is the call for papers for the upcoming Lightning Talk:
Scholars have been pushing the boundaries of the field of Renaissance Studies by rethinking how this historical period could be reimagined differently in the future. Graduate students have been playing an important role in this endeavor. The RSA Graduate Student Advisory Committee aims to bring to light the exciting and innovative research that graduate students have been doing to push the field forward. During the last Lightning Talks, which was held in February 2022, graduate students presented their research and addressed how their work enables us to rethink the Renaissance archive. Given the success of this event, we have decided to continue the series in fall 2022. For the upcoming Lightning Talks we would like to ask students to present work that allows us to “rethink the Global Renaissance.” We welcome the participation of students, from a variety of disciplines, whose research re-imagines the spatial boundaries/scale of the Renaissance world beyond Europe.
Abstracts of 150 words are due by Friday, September 30. Please submit through the google form at the end of this announcement. Participants will be notified by Friday, October 7.
Lightning talks are concise oral presentations of five minutes, which may or may not include visual aids. Presentations could be based on:
• An argument from your work (BA/MA thesis, PhD dissertation, or article) • Initial findings from side projects, or work in progress • Archival findings • Pedagogical questions • Field/experience-based observations, and/or • Any archive-related topic that might stimulate discussion.
This event is open to all graduate students but preference will be given to RSA graduate student members. Please email the RSA with questions.
Best of luck,
RSA Graduate Student Advisory Committee Farrah Bazzi (chair) Esteban Crespo Bar Leshem Ana Beatriz Mujica Mary Katherine Newman Alejandro Nodarse
For questions about submissions please email Farrah Bazzi at bazzif@stanford.edu
The Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library has published a new blog post about early modern teaching technologies.
This blog post focuses on the use of hornbooks in teaching basic reading.
Hornbook, Newberry Library
The post also briefly discusses early modern classrooms, using a famous printed image from the treatise, De arte grammatica, sive, De octo partibus orationi (1495).
De arte grammatica, sive, De octo partibus orationi (1495).
The Center for Renaissance Studies’ post on “Old School Classroom Technology” is available on the Newberry Library website.
This week marks the 450th anniversary of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which began in Paris on the night of 24 August 1572.
Catholic militia and townspeople massacred thousands of Huguenots (French Calvinists) in Paris and provincial towns in one of the most notorious episodes of mass violence during the French Wars of Religion (1559-1629).
French historian Jérémie Foa has published an important new study of the killers of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, entitled Tous ceux qui tombent. Visages du massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy (2021).
The French periodical La Vie published an article, “Il y a 450 ans, les guerres de Religion culminaient avec le massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy,” earlier this week, with an interview with Jérémie Foa.
Jérémie Foa is a professor of history at Aix-Marseille Université and a specialist of the French Wars of Religion.
Brian Sandberg: Historical Perspectives 