News & FEATURES

History Department Welcomes Karen Auerbach!

This semester the History Department welcomes Karen Auerbach, assistant professor and Stuart E. Eizenstat Fellow, to the faculty. Professor Auerbach received her BA from Rutgers University and her PhD from Brandeis University. Her Research focuses on the social history of Polish Jews in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She published her first book on the reconstruction of Jewish communities and identifications in Poland after WWII and will be teaching classes through the department which focus on modern Jewish history and East European Jewish history. Previously, she was the Kronhill Lecturer in East European Jewish History at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

In her first semester at UNC-CH, Professor Auerbach is teaching

• HIST 190: The Search for Modern Jewish Identity and
• HNRS 353: Ghettos and Shtetls? Urban Life in East European Jewish History.

Leadership Transitions

The end of 2013 marks a transition in several crucial leadership positions in the department. Terry McIntosh is stepping down as Interim Associate Chair, and will be succeeded by Louise McReynolds. Miles Fletcher has completed his term as Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies and now Lisa Lindsay will assume the duties of DUS. On behalf of everyone in the department, I want to express our sincere gratitude to Terry and Miles for their generous service on behalf of the department. I also would like to express my gratitude for their wise counsel. At the same time, I want to thank Louise and Lisa for taking on these essential leadership positions.

We also welcome Molly Worthen as Interim Placement Director while John Sweet, the serving Placement Director, enjoys a respite from the duties. Given the contemporary job market, this service to our graduate students is vital and we are fortunate that John, and now Molly have undertaken it.

W. Fitzhugh Brundage
Chair, Department of History

Professor Kenneth Janken selected to lead the Center for the Study of the American South

The Department of History congratulates Professor Kenneth Janken on his selection to lead the Center for the Study of the American South. Janken came to Carolina out of graduate school in 1991, and is on the faculty of the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies with an adjunct appointment in the Department of History. His research and writing focuses on themes in the history of the American South such as race, power, politics, and justice. Janken has written two biographies of major figures in African American and southern history and is completing a history of the Wilmington Ten and political conflicts in that city and in the state in the 1970s.

Second Issue of Department of History Student Journal Shares Top Honors

The Department of History is proud to announce that in 2013 its student journal, Traces: The UNC-Chapel Hill Journal of History, tied for first prize in the 2013 Gerald D. Nash History Journal Award competition sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society. In 2012, the inaugural issue of Traces earned second prize in this competition. Volume two contained a roundtable about the Civil War, articles by undergraduates based on original research and essays by both undergraduates and graduate students, as well as reviews of books, films, and exhibitions by graduate students. The journal’s success reflects the hard and effective work by many students. They include Executive and Founding Editors G. Lawson Kuehnert and Mark W. Hornburg, Senior Editors Maggie Howell and Michael Welker, Graduate Editors Gary Guadagnolo and Jeanine Navarrete, Director of Finance Chase Haislip, and members of the Editorial Board Augusta Dell’Omo, Anna Langley, Bo Stump, Grace Tatter, Peter Vogel, Burt Westermeier, and Tom Wolf.

Sarah Bufkin, History and Cultural Studies Major, Is 2013 Mitchell Scholarship Recipient

Sarah Bufkin, a senior History and Cultural Studies major, has been selected for a Mitchell Scholarship, which supports graduate studies in Ireland. Sarah was one of 12 Americans selected for this prestigious award, which provides tuition, accommodations, a living expenses stipend, and an international travel stipend for one year. She will pursue a master’s degree in moral, legal and political philosophy at Queens University in Belfast. “It’s such a surprise, and it really is an incredible honor to represent UNC over in Northern Ireland,” Bufkin said. “It’s also the crowning achievement of my four years in Chapel Hill. And it will allow me to do more, to learn more—to get a Master’s, which is something I never thought I would be looking to do this soon after graduating. I’m quite ecstatic.”  “Sarah is an extraordinary scholar, a deep thinker and an accomplished poet,’’ said Linda Dykstra, director of UNC’s Office of Distinguished Scholarships. “The opportunity to pursue a Master of Arts degree at Queens University Belfast is a perfect match for this exceptional woman.”

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