History Department, Past and Present Series, 2025-26

In Fall 2025, the History Department launched its Past and Present Series, featuring faculty bringing their historical expertise to make linkages to present-day controversies and challengees.  

Fall 2025: 

Professor Alice Weinreb, “Hunger as a Weapon: How Studying the Two World Wars Helps Us Understand the Current Famine in Gaza,” October 13, 2025

Professor Michelle Nickerson, “Guilty by Association: How Learning about McCarthyism Helps Us Understand the Current ‘War on Woke’,” October 22, 2025

Professor John Donoghue, “The Plot Against America: How Conspiracy Theories from the American Past Help us Understand the Success of the MAGA Movement Today,” November 5, 2025

Spring 2026: 

All lectures are from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m., Simpson Mulitpurpose Room, 6333 N. Winthrop Avenue

January 28:  Professor Chris Cantwell, "Until It’s Done: How the History of American Socialism Helps Us Understand Zohran Mamdani"

February 11:  Professor Kim Searcy, "The Most Nihilistic Conflict on Earth? How The History of Colonialism in Africa Helps Us Understand the Sudanese Civil War"

March 11:  Professor Brad Hunt, "Rent:  How the History of Public Housing Helps Us Understand the Affordability Crisis"

April 8:  Professor Suzanne Kaufman, "I Feel I Will Go Mad, Literally, If I don’t do Something!  How Studying Resistance Movements in Nazi-occupied France during World War II Helps Us Understand Resistance in Trump’s America"