UMass Department of History

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UMass Department of History The History Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst The History Department at UMass Amherst. Because in a vibrant democracy.

UMass Amherst historian Stephen R. Platt is one of three finalists for the thirteenth annual Gilder Lehrman Military His...
10/08/2026

UMass Amherst historian Stephen R. Platt is one of three finalists for the thirteenth annual Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize, a $50,000 award that recognizes the best book of the year in the field of American military history. Platt’s book, “The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II,” explores the legendary life of WWII commander Evans Carlson who took inspiration from Mao’s Communist forces and created America’s first special forces.

Platt is recognized alongside finalists Rick Atkinson (“The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780”) and John A. Haymond (“Black Soldiers, White Laws: The Tragedy of the 24th Infantry in 1917”).

The winner will be announced in late October. Good luck, Professor Platt!

Read more about Stephen R. Platt's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/618088/the-raider-by-stephen-r-platt/
Read more about the Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize here: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/about/press-releases/finalists-thirteenth-annual-gilder-lehrman-military-history-prize-announced

College of Humanities & Fine Arts at UMass Amherst
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

UMass Amherst alum Blair Huang ‘25 spent the summer of 2024 interning for The Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project, an...
10/07/2026

UMass Amherst alum Blair Huang ‘25 spent the summer of 2024 interning for The Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project, an archaeological excavation of the ancient Etruscan civilization in Tuscany, Italy. As a double computer science and history major, Huang harnessed her skills to create visuals that tracked the site’s surviving relics.

The Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (Manning CICS) spotlighted her work, highlighting the importance of data science in historical research. As Huang says, “Even in history, numbers can tell a story.”

Huang is currently a Master’s student in Computer Science at Manning CICS.

Read more about Blair Huang’s work: https://www.cics.umass.edu/stories/blair-huang-25
Read more about the The Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project: https://www.poggiocivitate.com/

Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst
College of Humanities & Fine Arts at UMass Amherst

UMass Amherst historian Asheesh Siddique has been awarded a 2026-27 Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania Fellow...
10/01/2026

UMass Amherst historian Asheesh Siddique has been awarded a 2026-27 Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania Fellowship to support research on his upcoming book on the origins of written constitutionalism in the Atlantic world.

Reflecting on the award, Siddique said, “this fellowship is supporting crucial research at the British Library and other archives in the UK, and I am grateful to the Eccles Institute and the British Library for their support.”

Siddique is a historian of early America, early modern Europe, and the British empire whose research and pedagogy explores the role of collecting, managing, and using knowledge to the history of state formation and governance.

College of Humanities & Fine Arts at UMass Amherst
British Library

As a recipient of the George A Miller Visiting Scholarship, UMass Amherst history visiting scholar and lecturer Justin ...
09/29/2026

As a recipient of the George A Miller Visiting Scholarship, UMass Amherst history visiting scholar and lecturer Justin F. Jackson will give a lecture this Thursday, Oct. 1 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jackson’s lecture traces military occupation across US history and argues that occupation and globalization “have always been intertwined.”

A historian of the United States, the US in the world, and global history, Justin Jackson's research and teaching interests span from histories of American foreign relations, war, labor, and migration to US political history, the global 1960s, and infrastructure.

Jackson’s lecture is titled “Occupying America: War and the Infrastructure of US Power in a Globalizing World.”

Read more: https://cas.illinois.edu/node/3024

College of Humanities & Fine Arts at UMass Amherst

UMass faculty and graduate students have collaborated over the past several years to ask new questions about the role of...
09/04/2026

UMass faculty and graduate students have collaborated over the past several years to ask new questions about the role of mass knowledge production—whether artistic, scientific, or technical—in China’s Great Leap Forward. Their work culminated in a book published this month, A Revolution Across Art and Science: Participatory Knowledge Production in China’s Great Leap Forward.

Edited by UMass historian Sigrid Schmalzer and art historian Christine Ho, the volume includes essays by PhD students Jaehee Seol, Guanhua Tan, Bing Xia, and Fanqi Xu. Together, they reveal how laborers reimagined knowledge during the Great Leap Forward. The volume is a bold call to confront big questions and lasting contradictions in Mao-era history, driven by the research questions of a dynamic cohort of UMass History graduate students.

Pictured: Jaehee Seol, Sigrid Schmalzer, and Fanqi Xu review images from the Great Leap Forward

The History Department has added four new exciting courses to our fall lineup! Please join us! Register now on SPIRE.Que...
09/03/2026

The History Department has added four new exciting courses to our fall lineup! Please join us! Register now on SPIRE.

Questions? Email [email protected] or contact the faculty for course details.

This semester, the history department welcomes our newest faculty member, Fredrick Walter Lorenz. Lorenz, a historian of...
09/02/2026

This semester, the history department welcomes our newest faculty member, Fredrick Walter Lorenz. Lorenz, a historian of the late Ottoman Empire, joins the department as assistant professor of Middle Eastern history.

Learn more at the link in bio.

The 2026 World Cup has brought a soccer fervor to Massachusetts, and UMass historian Brian D. Bunk is meeting the moment...
06/29/2026

The 2026 World Cup has brought a soccer fervor to Massachusetts, and UMass historian Brian D. Bunk is meeting the moment with a new book on the history of soccer. The Shortest History of Soccer: From Ancient Kicking Games to the World's Most Popular Sport is an accessible, fast-paced tour through centuries of tradition that evolved into the game fans across the world know and love today.

Author and soccer historian Tom McCabe, co-host of the podcast An American Game, called the book “Lively, thematic, and sharply written. Brian Bunk’s latest is a match winner!”

Read an excerpt at the link in our bio.

Congratulations, Brian!

While researching Japanese imperialism, historian Garrett L. Washington discovered a gap: “in all of these studies, I c...
06/10/2026

While researching Japanese imperialism, historian Garrett L. Washington discovered a gap: “in all of these studies, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of women.”

His new project, “Faith in the Realm,” centers on elite laywomen involved in Christian and Buddhist organizations. Although these women were not ordained, Washington emphasizes that his work looks “beyond these auxiliary, supportive roles to reveal how they were leading, acting, and expressing themselves in relation to Japanese imperialism.”

This research brings together his scholarship and role as the history department’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by creating more inclusive historical narratives.

Learn more about Garrett’s work at the link in our bio.

Three members of the history department community were recognized by the 2026 HFA Awards for their contributions to the ...
06/05/2026

Three members of the history department community were recognized by the 2026 HFA Awards for their contributions to the department, research, and teaching. From education to public engagement to scholarship, all three awardees play essential roles in ensuring our students’ success and uplifting our department’s scholarship in the history field and beyond.

Congratulations to...
Daniel Gordon, College Outstanding Teacher Award
Jennifer Heuer, Dean’s Outstanding Fellow
Jess Johnson, HFA Outstanding Staff Award

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161 Herter Hall, UMass
Amherst, MA
01003

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Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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