Department of History

Assistant Professor Philip Janzen published “An Unformed Map: Geographies of Belonging between Africa and the Caribbean” (Duke University Press, 2025). His book examines Caribbean administrators in Africa between 1890 and 1930, showing how they were shaped by colonial societies yet marginalized both by Europeans and Africans. By drawing on unconventional sources, Janzen reconstructs their struggles with assimilation, racism, and displacement, and how they rethought their identities.

Professor Florin Curta’s first of two books this year, “Medieval Europe from Another Angle, Volume 1: The People” (Routledge, 2025) shifts focus from Western Europe to East Central and Eastern Europe, using both literary and archaeological evidence to reassess the region’s significance in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. By examining settlements, burials and material culture, the volume offers new models for understanding how ethnicity, particularly among the Slavs and Avars, was constructed and perceived.

In his second book, “Medieval Europe from Another Angle, Volume 2: Transformations,” Professor Curta examines a number of economic problems that highlight the limits of the current interpretative models, such as the existence of markets or the relation between trade and gift-giving, largely on the basis of the archaeological evidence from the eastern parts of the European continent.

Associate Professor Ben Wise has co-authored two books with Craig Smith. Both “The Collection” (Shapco Press, 2024) and “American Ace” (Invisible Hand Press, 2024) are art books consisting of photographs of matchbook covers from gay bars in the 1970s and 1980s found in the Cornell Rare Books Archive. The books function as both celebratory archives and as creative interventions in 20th century queer iconography.