Richards Center Penn State

Building the Archives of Black History Together!

More info at: douglassday.org/Penn-State/

The SCWH Grad Student Connections Comm is pleased to announce a discussion with @jcwe.bsky.social co-Editor Dr. Greg Downs. @gregdowns.bsky.social will discuss publishing your article with the JCWE, article publishing tips, and take questions from you. Zoom Link: us06web.zoom.us/j/8857214479...

Don't Delay -- Apply TODAY for one of the 2026-2027 Predoctoral Fellowships!

Deadline for submitting application packet is March 1, 2026!

Please help share this amazing opportunity to be a part of the Richards Center Community!!

richardscenter.la.psu.edu/fellowships/...

The Richards Center invites applications for the Mark & Ann Persun Visiting Scholars Program for tenured history faculty at the rank of Assoc Prof. For the 2026-27 academic year, the fellowship is open to scholars of the Civil War Era, broadly conceived, who study military or political history.

Be sure to check out Christina Snyder's, McCabe Greer Professor of the American Civil War Era, article in The Economist

The Richards Civil War Era Center invites applications for the Mark and Ann Persun Visiting Scholars Program for tenured faculty in history at the rank of Associate Professor. Deadline is March 1! Learn more: richardscenter.la.psu.edu/fellowships/...

Congrats to Christopher Heaney who was awarded a $25,000 Engaged Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Fdn to support Proyecto Huayo, a community-guided collaboration with San Mateo de Huánchor, Peru, focused on the recontextualization of a pre-Hispanic ritual cranial mask now held in the Smithsonian.

Congratulations!!

Call for applications - predoctoral scholars

The @richardscenter.bsky.social invites applications for two 2026-27 predoctoral dissertation fellowships in the history of the Civil War Era. One-year fellowship to work on their research - NO teaching or admin responsibilities! More info: richardscenter.la.psu.edu/fellowships/...

Join the McCourtney Institute for Democracy for a lecture from one of the country’s leading democracy scholars and practitioners, Danielle Allen.

This event is co-sponsored by the Africana Research Center, Humanities Institute, and the Richards Civil War Era Center.

democracy.psu.edu/events/

Henry 'Box Brown: Tobacco Worker, Stage Magician, Tourist Attraction - The Journal of the Civil War Era Henry ‘Box’ Brown had a variety of identities in his life-tobacco factory worker, escaped slave, abolitionist, lecturer, and touring panoramist and entertainer on the English stage. In recent years, a...

In today's Muster, ongoing contributor Elliott Martin writes about Henry 'Box' Brown and Richmond's public history landscape www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2026/01/henr...

We are excited to welcome these new members to the board! And deeply thankful for the service of our past board members 🙏

Congratulations to the Africana Research Center's Director Dr. Sherita L. Johnson, whose book Mixing: Race, Higher Education, and the Case of Clyde Kennard was published by the University Press of Mississippi this month! www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/M/Mixing

Call for Applications: 2026-27 Predoctoral Fellows, History of the Civil War Era

This is a limited-term fellowship for advanced graduate students who are in the writing stage of their dissertation. Review of app materials will begin March 1.

Learn more: richardscenter.la.psu.edu/fellowships/...

We kicked off our spring series of workshops this week with an excellent discussion on "“My Room-mate is a Democrat”: Young Women’s Political Culture at Antebellum Midwestern Schools" by our very own Assistant Program Director Hope McCaffrey! Congratulations, Hope!

The Richards Civil War Era Center invites applications for the Mark and Ann Persun Visiting Scholars Program for tenured faculty in history at the rank of Associate Professor. Deadline is March 1! Learn more: richardscenter.la.psu.edu/fellowships/...

Muster Call for Graduate Student Submissions - The Journal of the Civil War Era The Society of Civil War Historians’ Graduate Student Connection Committee, together with Muster, the blog of The Journal of the Civil War Era, is calling for submissions from graduate students. Muste...

In today's Muster, we are announcing a call for gradate student submissions www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2026/01/must...

Congratulations to Jonathan S. Jones, whose book Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis (UNC Press) is a finalist for the 2026 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize! www.gilderlehrman.org/about/press-...

Photo of Jessica Wicks-Allen

Listen to our former postdoctoral fellow, Jessica Wicks-Allen, as she appears on the Journal of American History podcast to discuss her new article “Child Apprenticeship and Black Maternal Authority following the Civil War.” player.captivate.fm/episode/7adc...

Tom Watson Brown Book Award - The Journal of the Civil War Era The $50,000 Tom Watson Brown Book Award is presented annually by the Watson-Brown Foundation and the Society of Civil War Historians to the author or authors of the best book “on the causes, conduct, ...

Submissions are open for the 2026 Tom Watson Brown Book Award! Publishers are asked to send books (published in 2025), along with a cover letter nominating the work, directly to the jurors no later than January 31. Learn more: www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/awards/tom-w...

Jan. 6 and the Long Shadow of Civil War- and Reconstruction-Era Political Violence Two days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, we...

ICYMI @jcwe.bsky.social editors @katemasur.bsky.social and Gregory Downs discuss January 6 and the legacy of Civil War-era violence with @talkingpointsmemo.com talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/jan-6-a...

Thinking back to Jan 6, 2021 when @jbf1755.bsky.social @erikalexander.bsky.social Peter Onuf & I were scheduled to be on a virtual panel for the @mhs1791.bsky.social on, uh, "Contested Elections in American History"

We postponed until later in the month.

My AHR review of Lori Ginzberg's excellent "Tangled Journeys: One Family’s Story and the Making of American History" (UNC Press, 2024) academic.oup.com/ahr/article-... (paywalled - but there's an extract) @richardscenter.bsky.social @historians.org #history

a fireworks display with the words happy new year written below it ALT: a fireworks display with the words happy new year written below it

We wish everyone a Happy 2026!

Applications are open for the Mark and Ann Persun Visiting Scholars Program for tenured faculty in history at the rank of Associate Professor: richardscenter.la.psu.edu/fellowships/...

Death by Lightning - An Ode to Service - The Journal of the Civil War Era In his inaugural speech on March 4, 1881, newly elected President James Garfield emphasized the importance of ongoing Reconstruction, asserting that the “elevation of the negro race from slavery to th...

In today's Muster, @richcondon.bsky.social explores the recent Netflix series Death by Lightning and its portrait of James Garfield as the last "Lincoln Republican" www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/12/deat...

Q&A with Pre-Doctoral Fellows Alison McCann and Michael Kaelin - George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center Meet our 2025-2026 pre-doctoral fellows, Alison McCann and Michael Kaelin! Both fellows recently conducted a Q&A with Production and Communications Manager Sheena Carroll, focusing on their dissertati...

Learn more about our 2025-2026 pre-doctoral fellows, Alison McCann and Michael Kaelin, in our new Q&A! richardscenter.la.psu.edu/news/qa-with...

Congratulations!

Dylan Penningroth, Joshua Strayhorn, Tera Hunter

Congrats to postdoc scholar Dr. Joshua Strayhorn on a great manuscript workshop on “Freedom’s Promise: Black Mobility, Migration, and Freedom Dreams in Eastern North Carolina, 1862-1898!” And many thanks to the invited scholars, Dr. Tera Hunter & Dr. Dylan Penningroth, for their valuable feedback.

Congratulations to Antwain K. Hunter, whose book A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715–1865 was published by UNC Press last month!

uncpress.org/978146968989...