Border Stories
For some people, crossing international borders is an adventure, while for others it can be a matter of life and death. As poet Warsan Shire has written, “you have to understand / that no one puts their children on a boat / unless the water is safer than the land.” From crossing between empires to immigration policy to the dwindling number of safe harbors available to those seeking refuge, histories of boundaries and borders circumscribe our everyday lives in ways so ubiquitous that they often become hard to notice.
Photo: Scott Robinson/Flickr/CC BY 2.0. Image cropped.
Staff
Advocacy Briefs, November 2023
Amid the ongoing state-level battles over so-called “divisive concepts” and in public education, the AHA released a statement addressing the…
Playing Tourist at Home
When Beyond Granite: Pulling Together arrived for just a month this summer on the National Mall, I was determined to…
On Refuge
Editor’s Note: This column was written in September before recent events in the Middle East. My earliest understanding of…
On “The Unessay”
To the Editor: I was very pleased to read Bryan A. Banks’s “The Unessay: A Creative and Audience-Focused Assignment” (September…
On “The 2023 AHA Academic Jobs Report”
To the Editor: L.Renato Grigoli’s “The 2023 AHA Academic Jobs Report” (September 2023) provides much useful data, but it leaves…
John Broesamle (1941–2023)
John Broesamle, professor emeritus of history and noted champion of the wilderness, was born on February 10, 1941, and died…
Francis A. Dutra (1938–2021)
Francis A. Dutra, a historian of early modern Portugal and Brazil at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), died…
Carey H. Latimore IV (1975–2022)
On July 26, 2022, our dear colleague Carey Harvey Latimore IV passed away in San Antonio, Texas. Carey was born…
Ronald L. Numbers (1942–2023)
Renowned historian of science, medicine, and religion Ronald L. Numbers died at age 81 at his home in Madison, Wisconsin,…
Laurie M. Wood (1985–2023)
What to say when someone full of joy and energy and brilliance dies so young? Laurie M. Wood was a…
Natale Zappia (1974–2023)
Natale Zappia, who died of a brain tumor on April 27, 2023, at the age of 48, made a career…
Him Mark Lai (1925–2009)
The dean of Chinese American history, Him Mark Lai passed away on May 21, 2009. Proud of working outside academic…
Lighting the Way
The 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day—May 8, 2015—was blisteringly hot and humid in Washington, DC. A crowd of…
AHA Member Spotlight: Victoria Haskins
Victoria Haskins is a historian at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She lives in New South Wales, Australia, and has…