Professor Alexander Aviña's Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside (Oxford University Press 2014) has been awarded the Maria Elena Martinez Mexican History Book Prize by the Conference on Latin American History. The prize is awarded annually for the book or article judged to be the most significant work on the history of Mexico published during the previous year. Congratulations, Alex!

Dr. Richard Bartlett, historian of the American West and professor of history at FSU for more than three decades, passed away in Knoxville last month. His obituary lists five books published before retirement, and five books written after retirement. Prof. Ed Wynot notes that "Dick was one of the nicest persons you could ever hope to meet, let alone work alongside. He didn't have a mean bone in his body, and was especially helpful to new faculty starting their academic careers." The department offers its condolences to his family, students, and friends.

The Institute on World War II and the Human Experience is holding a conference on Comparative Home Fronts on January 14-16, 2016 at the Hotel Duval. Sheldon Garon (Princeton) will be the keynote speaker; consult the conference schedule for the full program. The conference is free and open to the public, but please register at http://ww2.fsu.edu/conference/form.

Last month, Professors Katherine Mooney (left) and Nathan Stoltzfus (right) were recognized with Transformation through Teaching awards for helping students to develop both intellectually and personally. Read more about their awards here.

The J. Leitch Wright, Jr. awards for excellence in research were presented at the October faculty meeting. The awards went to Kent Peacock (Ph.D.), Katie Beasley (second place, Ph.D.), and Richard Siegler (M.A.). This year's Richardson teaching award went to Rebecca Shriver.

On Monday, November 16, 2015, at 5:30 P.M., the Institute on World War Two II and the Human Experience will host its fall lecture,“The Church of Greece and the Holocaust” by Panteleymon Anastasakis, PhD. The lecture will take place at the FSU Alumni Center’s Rendina Room, 1030 W. Tennessee Street, Tallahassee, Florida. A reception will follow. Please RSVP. Contact us at ww2@fsu.edu.

An FSU alumnus, Dr. Anastasakis is an independent scholar who specializes in twentieth century Balkan history, World War II, collaboration and resistance in times of war, and church-state relations. His recently published book, The Church of Greece under Axis Occupation, represents an intersection of these interests. He earned his BA and MA in history from Florida State University and his PhD in modern European history from the University of Minnesota. Currently teaching at The City College of New York, he is also in the preliminary stages of a study that examines how the Church of Greece responded to the economic, political, and social troubles in Greece during the interwar period, including the Greek-Turkish population exchange, the rise of communism and fascism, and the Great Depression.  

Colby Ellis, an FSU undergraduate history major and a student of Charles Upchurch, has won this year's Undergraduate Essay Prize from the North American Conference on British Studies for his essay “William III and the Decision to Accept a Joint Constitutional Monarchy.” The prize carries a stipend of $100 and will be announced at this year's meeting of the NACBS in Little Rock Arkansas in November. Colby is the second FSU student in three years to win the prize. More coverage.

FSU history alum (and current American Historical Association president) Vicki Ruiz is among the recipients of the 2014 National Humanities Medal, the White House announced on Friday. Her National Endowment for the Humanities profile opens with this anecdote: "As a transfer student at Florida State University in the mid 1970s, Vicki Ruiz did not think she’d be on the vanguard of creating the field of Chicana/Chicano studies in the United States. She just wanted to be a school teacher, a career her mother always encouraged her to pursue. So when Jean Gould Bryant, then an assistant professor in history, asked Ruiz if she’d ever considered graduate school, Ruiz demurred. “I said, ‘Hmm, graduate school. That’s for rich people. That’s for smart people. I’m neither,’” Ruiz says. But Bryant convinced her that she was smart enough and could get a fellowship." May we continue to do this work. Congratulations, Professor Ruiz!