Here is a very short list of academic publications by scholars affiliated with CIC member institutions that were published during the past six months. It is NOT comprehensive!
- Beverly A. Duran, “Maternal Sacrifice and Resilience: The Legacy of Harriet Jacobs and Enslaved Black Motherhood,” GLI MA in American History Student Works (July 2024): https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/glihist/3 (open source). Duran is a graduate student in the online history master’s program offered by Gettysburg College (PA).
From the abstract: “This paper explores the unique role of enslaved Black women in preserving family and cultural identity during the American slavery era, focusing on the life and writings of Harriet Jacobs. … By examining historical records, literary analysis, and cultural studies, the paper underscores the enduring impact of enslaved Black motherhood on African American cultural preservation, identity, and resilience. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of the complexities of family dynamics within the institution of slavery and the profound influence of maternal leadership on the survival and legacy of enslaved communities.”
- Per Ivar Hjeldsbakken Engevold and Kari Lie Dorer, “Norwegians in the Slave Trade: Unveiling Hidden Histories of Colonialism and Enslavement,” Norwegian-American Studies 42 (November 2024): https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/nor.2024.a943155 (subscription). Dorer is chair of the Norwegian department and director of Nordic Studies at St. Olaf College (MN).
Excerpt: “Norwegian Americans commonly use the year 1825 to mark the beginnings of Norwegian migration to the Americas. The fifty-two Norwegians who set sail on the sloop Restauration from Stavanger were to become a symbol of the mass exodus of Norwegians who journeyed to establish a new life in America. However, Norwegians were in the Americas nearly 200 years prior—as part of the transatlantic slave trade. What brought them there? And how do their stories fit within Norwegian-American histories?”
- Jajuan S. Johnson, “Black Studies and Public Humanities,” Public Humanities 1:e13 (2025): https://doi.org/10.1017/pub.2024.27 (open access). Johnson, who is now affiliated with William & Mary College, served as assistant director of the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College (MD).
From the abstract: “The essay describes the correlation between Black Studies and public humanities and discusses the usefulness of both disciplines in reckoning with slavery and its legacies at higher education institutions. In addition to giving a short genealogy of public humanities and Black Studies, the essay uses William & Mary’s Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation and Chesapeake Heartland: An African American at African American Humanities Project at Washington College as examples on how to possibly navigate the challenges ahead as public humanists and Black Studies scholars critically engage with the public on memorialization, reconciliation, and redress.”
- Sarah Beth Kaufman, “Higher Education on the Texas Blackland Prairie: Trinity University’s Civil War Era.” Journal of Southern History 90:3 (August 2024): https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/soh.2024.a932553 (subscription). Kaufman is Associate Professor of Sociology at Trinity University (TX).
Excerpt: “Across the United States, institutions of higher learning are grappling with legacies rooted in slavery. … This essay extends such work, centering the slave economy’s influence on universities founded during southern Reconstruction. … The story of Trinity University’s founding illuminates one aspect of this era: how higher education funneled wealth gained from enslavement before the Civil War to Protestant Anglo children after slavery’s abolition.”
- Zahi Zalloua, “Reckoning with America’s Anti-Blackness: From Repression to Disavowal—and Beyond,” symploke 32:1 (2024): https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sym.2024.a946643 (subscription). Zalloua is Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature and Director of Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies at Whitman College (WA).
Excerpt: “Historically, repression has characterized America’s general approach to racial slavery, though in more recent years, I argue, that a fetishist disavowal, spearheaded by the liberal Left, is starting to exemplify the nation’s engagement with its traumatic past. I then discuss how the far-Right is moving beyond the existing models of repression and disavowal by imposing its own phantasmatic vision on the racial past. … Finally, I consider what an actual reckoning with anti-Blackness might actually entail.”