Northern Illinois University
Department of History
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Statement on the History of Racist Violence in the United States

The NIU History Department endorses the American Historical Association’s June 2020 statement urging a reckoning with the United States' deplorable record of violence against African Americans, a record that stretches back centuries. The killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers stands within this sordid national tradition of racist violence. It is past time for Americans to confront our nation's past, using insights from history to inform our actions as we work to create a more just society.

News

• Professor Rosemary Feurer co-authored an opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune titled “Chicago Played a Big Role in Mother Jones’ Life. Why No Statue for Her?” and another in the Chicago Sun-Times titled “A Statue for Mother Jones Would Remind Chicago that Workers Built This City.”
• Professor Stanley Arnold was interviewed by Rockford NBC affiliate WREX for stories about voter registration and about the protests against police violence against African Americans.
• Professor Beatrix Hoffman wrote an opinion piece for Newsweek about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on health insurance in the United States. She was also interviewed by Slate about the impact of previous epidemics on Progressive-era debates about collective health security benefits.

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In Memoriam

The History Department commemorates the life of Samuel Blackwell, Ph.D., who passed away Dec. 3, 2020. After earning his M.A. and Ph.D. from NIU, Blackwell went on to serve the department as an instructor in American history for many years. Alumni will fondly recall his classes on military history and the Civil War-era United States; these specialties were also reflected in his scholarly publications. Even after retirement, Blackwell remained a great supporter of the NIU History department. He will be missed. Read more about his life and his abiding connection to NIU.

Recent Awards

• Professor Emma Kuby’s book Political Survivors: The Resistance, the Cold War, and the Fight Against Concentration Camps After 1945 has won the 2020 George Louis Beer Prize from the American Historical Association for the best work on European international history since 1895. The book was also awarded the 2020 David H. Pinkney Prize from the Society for French Historical Studies; and the 2020 European Studies Book Award from the Council for European Studies.
• Recent History Ph.D. Heeyoung Choi has been awarded the 2020 Deborah Wong Research and Publication Award from the Society for Ethnomusicology.
• Professor Valerie Garver was awarded a Mercator Fellowship to spend a semester at the University of Heidelberg, where she will share her expertise in early medieval material culture with the research group on medieval material text cultures. Her edited volume, A Cultural History of Work: the Medieval Age (800-1450) (Bloomsbury Press), which includes her own piece on "Work, Skill, and Technology," is part of the multivolume work which won the 2020 Prose Award for multivolume reference in the humanities.
• Professor Beatrix Hoffman has received the 2020 Wilma Stricklin Award. The award recognizes exemplary leadership/service resulting in a more favorable campus climate for women.
• History Ph.D. candidate LeNie Adolphson has been awarded the Judy and John McCarter Family Fellowship from Chicago PBS station WTTW. She will be assisting in the production of a documentary about journalist and Civil Rights movement leader Ida B. Wells.