Our dear colleague Charlie Hale passed away September 29th.  He was surrounded by family and friends at home in Seattle. The cause of death was congestive heart failure.  Charlie’s work, Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821-1853 (Yale University Press, 1968), and The Transformation of Liberalism in Late Nineteenth-Century Mexico (Princeton University Press, 1989) earned him the lasting respect of his colleagues; both books were also published in Spanish, earning him wide readership and recognition in Mexico--culminating with the Order of the Águila Azteca in 1993, the highest honor that the Mexican government bestows on foreigners for their contribution to Mexican society.  In 2004, Charles and Lennie, his wife of 56 years, moved to Seattle where he continued research and writing on his last book, Emilio Rabasa and the Survival of Porfirian Liberalism.  The ten year project was finished in the spring of 2008, and has been published by Stanford University Press. It will soon be published in translation in Mexico as well. In his final days, Charles often said how happy he was to have completed this work before his health deteriorated.  He is remembered fondly in obituaries in the Iowa City Press Citizen and in his hometown Minneapolis Star-Tribune. On Thursday, Oct. 30th, there was an on-campus memorial gathering for friends and colleagues to share memories and thoughts of Charlie Hale.

The Library has a trial subscription to Cambridge Histories Online. This historical reference compendium allows instant access to the texts of the Cambridge Histories series. Contains over 250 volumes published since 1960. Send comments to Chris Africa. Trial ends October 30, 2008. Please also note two trials nearing expiration: Declassified Documents Reference System Digital Archive provides online access to over 500,000 pages of previously classified government documents. Trial ends October 8; send comments to Janalyn Moss; the Digital National Security Archive a database which includes more than 63,000 of the most important declassified documents regarding critical U.S. policy decisions. Trial ends October 16, 2008; send comments to Janalyn Moss.

ARTstor, a digital library of nearly one million images and related data in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences, is now available.  ARTstor has very generously donated one year of free access to help the University of Iowa recover from the flood damages. Students, faculty and staff can access ARTstor in several ways, including the Libraries Resources page, or the Art Library homepage.

Two members of the Department spoke to national media about this summer's floods. Connie Berman shared her thoughts with Stan Katz in his "Brainstorm" column for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Colin Gordon spoke to the host of NPR's "The Story" in mid-June.

Kim Nielsen (PhD 1996) has won the A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize for the best essay in southern women's history from the Southern Association of Women Historians for "The Southern Ties of Helen Keller," Journal of Southern History  LXXIII, No. 4 (November 2007): 783-806.

Welcome to our new colleagues: Elke Stockreiter, Mériam Belli, and Michael Moore. We also welcome those returning from research leave: Paul Kramer, Jen Sessions, Rosemary Moore, and Jacki Rand. Michel Gobat (NEH/Faculty Scholar), Kevin Mumford (Warren Center/Faculty Scholar), and Paula Michaels (ACLS) are on leave for all of 2008-09. Laura Gotkowitz (Fulbright), Jeff Cox (Global Scholar), and Linda Kerber (Brodbeck) are on leave in the Fall, but will rejoin us in the spring.

Thanks to Lisa Heineman (Director of Graduate Studies), Marshall Poe (Director of Undergraduate Studies) and Paul Greenough (Issues Coordinator) who have taken on administrative roles. Jeff Cox will continue to lead the Honors Program. Leslie Schwalm is serving as Interim DEO of the new Department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.

The Department of History will run two searches this year: Stephen Vlastos will chair the search in Late Imperial/Modern China and Shel Stromquist will chair the search in Early North America.

The offices of those on leave in the fall are being used by orphans of summer flood. We welcome Robert Bork (113 SH), Craig Adcock (160 SH), Julie Hochstrasser (173 SH), and Christopher Roy (174 SH)—all of the Department of Art and Art History.

Paul Kramer is the winner of the 2008 Stuart L. Bernath Lecture Prize, awarded annually by the Society for the History of American Foreign Relations. The Bernath Lecture Prize recognizes and encourages excellence in teaching and research in the field of foreign relations by younger scholars.

Congratulations to Shel Stromquist, Connie Berman, and Laura Gotkowitz, all of whom have been awarded won Arts and Humanities Initiative (AHI) research grants for 2008-09. Glenn Penny (with Laura Graham in Anthropology) has been awarded an AHI conference grant.

Yucheng Qin (PhD 2002) has accepted a tenure-track job at in the History Department at the University of Hawaii-Hilo.

Sue Peabody (PhD 1993) is completing her term as president of the French Colonial Historical Society. Her sabbatical book project “Free Soil in the Atlantic World” was funded by an American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship, a Library Company of Philadelphia Fellowship, and reviewed at Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center.

Glenn Penny (with Laurie Graham in Anthropology) has won a Major Project Award from International Programs for a conference on "Performing Indigeneity."

GOOD NEWS to report for current/recent graduates: Matthew Conn-awarded a dissertation fellowship from the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies; Gabriele von Roedern-accepted in the German Historical Institute's Summer Archival Seminar; Michelle Armstrong-Partida-awarded the University of California's Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship; Tetsuya Fujiwara-awarded a 3-year fellowship from the Japanese Ministry of Education; Chris Gerteis-awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for 2008-9.

Marshall Poe's new media project includes an interview site New Books in History. Check it out! Be the first to have Kevin Mumford and Mac Rohrbough interviews on your I-Pod.

Congratulations to Charissa Threat, for accepting a tenure-track job at Northeastern University; and to Megan Threlkeld, for accepting a tenure-track job at Denison University.