News & Events
Drompp Becomes V.P. for Academic Affairs
Rhodes College President William E. Troutt has announced the appointment of Dr. Michael R. Drompp as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty for two academic years, 2008-09 and 2009-10. Drompp currently is Professor of History at Rhodes as well as Dean of Academic Affairs for Post-graduate Fellowships. In his new position, Drompp will promote excellence in teaching and scholarship as well as close student-faculty interactions. In addition, he will provide leadership for academic departments and interdisciplinary programs in curricular, personnel, and budgetary matters.
Department Welcomes New Faculty
Joining the History Department to offer courses in Medieval Europe is Alex Novikoff, who received his Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Pennsylvania. He will also be teaching in the Search program. Novikoff has served as an adjunct instructor at Princeton and a Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Joseph’s University.
Dr. Etty Terem,who received her Ph.D. from Harvard in May, will join the department as Islamic/Middle East historian, a new position. Dr. Terem has received a post-doctoral fellowship to continue her research and writing on family life in 19th Century Morocco. She will join the Rhodes faculty in January, 2009.
With Professor Drompp’s move to administration, Dr. Clayton Brown will join the department to offer courses on the history of China and the Far East. Brown is a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. He is the recipient of a Mellon/ ACLS Dissertation Fellowship.
The Mellon Foundation awarded Rhodes College a three-year grant to begin an Environmental Studies program. History was one of only three departments to successfully compete to hire a 3-year post-doctoral fellow through the Mellon grant. Dr. Tait Keller will offer courses on “Environmental History” and “Disease & Epidemics” this fall. Keller graduated from Georgetown University in 2006 and comes to Rhodes from teaching positions at Towson University, the U.S. Naval Academy , and George Mason. He will also offer courses in German history.
Awards
Student Awards
The department of History was proud to present three awards to graduating seniors at the annual Awards Convocation in April. Luke Archer received the John Henry Davis Award as the outstanding history major. The Douglass Hatfield Award for distinguished research went to Ashley Cundiff. The Phi Alpha Theta Award for outstanding service to PAT was given to Jordan Hoffman. Congratulations to all!
Faculty Awards
Dr. Charles McKinney has received a CAP grant for the fall of 2008 which releases him from teaching duties so that he might devote full time to completing his manuscript on Wilson, N. C., and the long civil rights struggle there.
Sabbatical Leaves
Lynn Zastoupil, J.J. McComb Professor of History, will be on sabbatical in 2008-09. He will be completing his critical study of Rammohun Roy, an Indian intellectual, and his impact on nineteenth century Britain. Serving as Zastoupil’s sabbatical replacement will be Brian Page, a Ph.D. candidate in recent U.S. history at the Ohio State University. Coincidentally, Page’s supervisor is Dr. Ken Goings, a former chair of the Rhodes History Department.
Gender and Native American historian Dr. Dee Garceau-Hagen will also be on sabbatical in 2008-09. Her project involves documentary film-making of three ethnic dance forms. She began filming this summer in Montana. Dr. Matthew Hild, whose Ph.D. is from the Georgian Institute of Technology, is her sabbatical replacement. Hild specializes in the history of technology, southern history, and labor history. He most recently taught at Georgia State University.
Tim Huebner will be on leave this fall. Having completed the college text Major Problems in Constitutional History this year, he has returned to a textbook project on the civil war era.
