American University's Department of History encourages interdisciplinary study, individually designed programs, and close contact between faculty and students. Our outstanding faculty is dedicated to teaching, scholarship, and helping students use the matchless resources of Washington, D.C.

Faculty News

Eileen Findlay, Max Paul Friedman, Lisa Leff,and Justin Jacobs received Fall 2013 CAS Mellon Fund Research Grants.

Making Women’s Histories: Beyond National Perspectives, edited by Pamela Nadell and Kate Haulman, was recently published. Click here to learn more about the book.

Allan Lichtman appeared on MSNBC to discuss political cover-ups. Click here to view the video (starting at 00:57).

Max Paul Friedman published an op-ed in the April 26, 2013, issue of Reforma, Mexico's leading newspaper. The op-ed calls for a more humane immigration policy as President Obama prepares to visit Mexico City in May.

The Organization of American Historians has selected Alan Kraut to receive a 2013 China Residency. For this inaugural teaching seminar in the People's Republic of China, Kraut will lead an intensive week long seminar for graduate students and faculty drawn from throughout the country.

Max Paul Friedman was awarded a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship in the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation's eighty-ninth annual competition for the United States and Canada. The Fellowship will support Friedman's current research project, “The Containment of the United States: The Latin American Diplomatic Tradition and the Limits of Principle.” He is one of 175 scholars, artists, and scientists to win the fellowship this year. 

Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman's new book, FDR and the Jews, was featured as an Editors' Choice in the April 14, 2013, edition of the New York Times Sunday Book Review. The book was reviewed in the April 7, 2013, edition of the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Click here to read the review.

C-SPAN's Book TV interviewed Max Paul Friedman about his new book, Rethinking Anti-Americanism: The History of an Exceptional Concept in American Foreign Relations, as part of Book TV's College Series. Click here to watch the video.

Pamela Nadell discussed the women's suffrage movement in an article honoring Women's History Month.

In May 2014, Gautham Rao will be a visiting professor in the Centre d'études nord américaines at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.

Justin Jacobs recently appeared on Voice of America's Chinese-language television program. Click here to watch the video.

Peter Kuznick recently talked about his background in radical politics and the upcoming 10-part documentary The Untold History of the United States, which he worked on with Academy Award–winning director Oliver Stone, whose films include Platoon, Wall Street, JFK, and Born on the Fourth of July. Read More.

Max Paul Friedman recently published his new book Rethinking Anti-Americanism The History of an Exceptional Concept in American Foreign Relations. An interview about the new book was aired on Australian ABC's "Late Night" program. Click here for the audio file.

Gautham Rao recently published an article entitled, Administering Entitlement: Governance, Public Health Care,and the Eary American State," in Law and Social Inquiry (Sept 2012).

Graduate Student News

David Waltrop won the Charles Thomson Prize by the Society for History in the Federal Government for his article, "An Underwater Ice Station Zebra: Recovering a KH-9 HEXAGON Capsule from 16,400 Feet Below the Pacific Ocean" in Quest: the History of Spaceflight Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 3 (2012).

Lauren Duval, Jordan Grant, and Amy Langford received CAS Fall 2013 Graduate Student Research Grants.

Aaron Bell, Anna Kaplan, Lorna Loring, Louie Milojevic, and Mattea Sanders received CAS Fall 2013 Graduate Student Conference Grants.

Nguyet Nguyen received a Cosmos Club research grant to research in France in Fall 2013.

Borislav Chernev received a CAS Dissertation Fellowship for 2013-14.

Congratulations to Rebecca DeWolf for receiving the Clendenen Dissertation Fellowship for 2013-14.

Congratulations to Aaron Bell for receiving the Roger Brown Dissertation Fellowship for 2013-14.

Erica Munkwitz received the Richard and Carol Breitman Endowed Scholarship for 2013-14, awarded to students who focus in European History.

Nicholas Ercole, Jordan Grant, Louie Milojevic, and Nguyet Nguyen received Gondos Graduate Summer Research Fellowships to support research at the U.S. National Archives.

Alumnus David Onkst received a Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Fellowship to conduct research at the National Air and Space Museum.

Congratulations to Nicholas Ercole, Jordan Grant, John Little, Nguyet Nguyen, Allen Pietrobon, and Terumi Rafferty-Osaki on receiving CAS graduate student research grants.

Congratulations to Andrew Chatfield, Bryan Clark, Meghan O'Connor, Terumi Rafferty-Osaki, Mattea Sanders, and Daniel Schwarz on receiving CAS graduate student conference grants.

Ryan Englekirk's research on baseball umpires was featured on the AU website.

PhD candidate Matthew Pembleton won an American University Dissertation Fellowship for Fall 2013.

Congratulations to the following graduate students who won awards at the 2013 Robyn Rafferty Mathias Student Research Conference: Ryan Englekirk, Professional Presentation Prize; Alison Kootstra, Best Oral Presentation in the Social Sciences by a Graduate Student; and Jessica Carlton, Best Oral Presentation in the Social Sciences by a Graduate Student - Honorable Mention.

Undergraduate Student News

Congratulations to Mariah Measey for winning the Janet Oppenheim Prize for best senior thesis, "Taking Center Stage: the Women’s Cooperative Guild, 1883-1921," advised by Professor Mary Frances Giandrea.

Avram Billig received a Janet Oppenheim Prize-Honorable Mention, for the senior thesis, "From Tammany Hall to the Tuileries: Political Considerations Behind the New York Press Coverage of the Paris Commune," advised by Professor Kim Sims.

Hallie Borstel received a Janet Oppenheim Prize-Honorable Mention for the senior thesis, "’Baching’ It: Single Women, Language, and Homestead Land Policy," advised by Professor Kate Haulman.

Matthew Skic wrote a post on his curatorial internship for the National Museum of American History's blog.

Neil MacIntosh won a Mathias Undergraduate Summer Research Award.

Zachary Kopin received a Janet Oppenheim Research Award and a CAS Dean's Undergraduate Research Award for summer 2013.