Join the Richards Center on Monday, April 21, at 4:00 p.m., for a conversation with Lori Ginzberg and postdoctoral fellows Hope McCaffrey and Adam Xavier McNeil about Ginzberg’s latest book, Tangled Journeys: One Family’s Story and the Making of American History (UNC Press, 2024). The event will be held at the Palmer Museum of Art and followed by a reception.

To attend, please register by emailing RichardsCenter@psu.edu by Tuesday, April 15, 2025.

Lori Ginzberg retired from Penn State in 2022 after teaching in the Departments of History and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies since 1987. She has long been interested in the ways that ideologies about gender obscure the material and ideological realities of class, how women of different groups express political identities, and how commonsense notions of American life shape, contain, and control radical ideas. Among her previous books are Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2009) and Untidy Origins: A Story of Woman’s Rights in Antebellum New York (UNC Press, 2005). In 2023 and 2024 she was a visiting professor of history at Haverford College.

Ginzberg’s latest book, Tangled Journeys: One Family’s Story and the Making of American History (UNC Press, 2024), relates an ambitious historical narrative about the ancestors and descendants of the Sanders family—children of a white Charlestonian and a woman he enslaved—while explicitly challenging readers to confront what was unseen, unheard, and undocumented in the archives, thereby inviting them into the process of American history making itself.

Ginzberg has spoken and written widely about the centennial commemoration of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A few examples include “‘All Men and Women are Created Equal:’ The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton” (National Park Service website), a National Constitution Center conversation on the life and legacy of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Ginzberg also appeared in Penn State’s “HumIn focus” film, Who Counts: The Complexities of Democracy in America. More recently she has had the opportunity to speak about Tangled Journeys, including at an author event at the Free Library of Philadelphia and on several podcasts.

The Society of Civil War Historians and the Journal of the Civil War Era invite submissions from early career scholars (doctoral candidates at the writing stage and PhDs not more than two years removed from having earned their degree) for the Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award. Papers on any topic concerning the history of the Civil War era, broadly defined, will be considered.

The winning submission will earn the author a $1,000 award and an additional $500 travel stipend to the Society of Civil War Historians biennial conference in 2026 where the award will be presented. Authors must be willing to attend the conference in order to be eligible for the award. The winning essay also will be eligible for publication in a future issue of the Journal of the Civil War Era. The Richards Center, SCWH, and UNC Press sponsor the award.

Submission information: The submission deadline is June 1, 2025. Submissions should be sent to the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center (RichardsCenter@psu.edu) with the subject line Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award. Submissions should be double-spaced and not exceed 10,000 to 11,000 words, including notes. The award committee prefers submissions written according to The Chicago Manual of Style. The winning essay will be selected by a three-person panel chosen by the JCWE editors.

The award honors Anthony Kaye (1962–2017), an innovative scholar of slavery at Penn State University and the National Humanities Center. Tony was an active member of the Society of Civil War Historians and one of the founding editors of the Journal of the Civil War Era. This award honors his passion for putting scholars in disparate fields in conversation with each other to enrich our understanding of the past.

The Richards Center at Penn State and The Journal of the Civil War Era (JCWE) announce a journal
article workshop for advanced graduate students, recent PhDs, assistant professors, and independent
scholars. Selected scholars will provide a draft journal article by August 15, 2025, and
participate in an online workshop in September. The workshop will be facilitated by a senior
historian in the field, and the aim is to assist scholars in crafting a publishable article.
Although the workshop is cosponsored by the JCWE, participants are not obliged to submit articles
there.

Deadline for applications: April 1, 2025

To apply for the program, please submit the following materials as one pdf file to RichardsCenter@psu.edu.

1) Your C.V.
2) A proposal that includes title and brief (500-word) synopsis of the proposed article; explanation of where the piece currently stands and what kind of advice you would find most helpful.

The Richards Civil War Era Center, in the College of the Liberal Arts, Penn State, invites applications for two 2025-26 predoctoral dissertation fellowships in the history of the Civil War Era.

The Richards Center conceives of the Civil War Era broadly. We especially welcome projects related to the history of slavery, emancipation, and their legacies and the history of struggles for freedom and democracy in the United States. This is a limited-term (one-year) fellowship for advanced graduate students who are in the writing stage of their dissertation. During their residency, the fellows will primarily perform their research; they will have no teaching or administrative responsibilities. The fellows will be expected to make progress on their dissertation and to take an active part in the Richards Center and Penn State’s community of researchers.

For more information, visit the Predoctoral Fellowship Program webpage.

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. The fellowship is open to scholars of the Civil War Era, broadly conceived, who study military or political history.

In 2025-2026 academic year, the fellowship will be held to a scholar of political history.

This fellowship is designed to provide mid-career faculty with time, support, and resources to devote to a book-length work-in-progress. The Visiting Scholar will also become an important member of the Richards Center community and will workshop sections of their book project, in addition to participating in Center events and programs. There is no teaching or service associated with this fellowship.

For information, visit the Person Visiting Scholars webpage.

The George and Ann Richards Civil War Era seeks a new Production and Communications Manager for the Journal of the Civil War Era (JCWE) and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center (RC).

JCWE Production Management (60%): The Production and Communications Manager takes the lead in the production of each quarterly issue and serves as the main point of contact with the editors and The University of North Carolina (UNC) Press.

JCWE issues are composed of three scholarly articles, one review essay, notes on contributors, and book reviews. The journal occasionally publishes special issues. The Production and Communications Manager will coordinate with journal/review/copy editors and the production manager at UNC Press to schedule and guide the journal through major steps in the production process — submission, acceptance/rejection, peer review, editing, design, and publication.

Regular duties involve communicating with journal editors, peer reviewers, and authors during the production process; ensuring timely completion of publication agreements and other author paperwork; scheduling, tracking, and moving articles and book reviews through the various stages of quarterly production in Submittable; tracking essay prize submissions and status; accepting/rejecting minor editorial changes (from journal editors) on page proofs; reviewing cover and frontmatter proofs for accuracy; in collaboration with the JCWE Production Assistant maintain detailed records of the above tasks in the online platform Dropbox.

RC/JCWE Communications (40%):  The Production and Communications Manager will compose monthly RC newsletters, update the RC WordPress website, produce communication materials for alumni, and develop and implement new promotional strategies in collaboration with RC leadership.

Qualifications:

Experience: Applicants do not need formal experience with journal production to be considered as the successful candidate will receive full training in the position, but some familiarity with peer-edited journals (print or online) is a significant benefit. Experience maintaining a WordPress website and writing for a public audience (blogging, journalism, etc.) is preferred.

Collaboration and Organization: The position requires attention to detail and the ability to work collaboratively with the editorial team, authors, RC leadership, and reviewers. It also requires the ability to meet multiple deadlines for multiple production processes simultaneously.

Technologies: Experience with Submittable, WordPress, Dropbox, YouTube Studio, and Zoom webinar hosting preferred.

Education: B.A. in Communications, History, or related field. M.A. preferred.

To Apply:

Please submit in a single PDF document a Cover Letter detailing your qualifications and experience, a Resume/CV, and a list of three references to Barby Singer at bqs6@psu.edu by 1/15/2025.

We’re hiring! Apply by November 1, 2024 to join the Richards Center as a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Civil War Era or in African American History.

This is a one-year appointment with an excellent possibility of renewal for a second year. During their residency, the scholar will primarily perform their research. The scholar will have no teaching or administrative responsibilities. In addition, they will attend workshops, professional development sessions, and other relevant events, and will be expected to take an active part in Penn State’s community of researchers.

A Ph.D. in History or related field is required at time of appointment. Successful applicants must have completed all requirements for the Ph.D. within the previous four academic years.

To be considered for these positions, submit a complete application packet including a cover letter describing your research and goals for the scholarship year, a curriculum vitae, and a list of three references online at Penn State’s Job Posting Board. We will request writing samples and letters of recommendation from candidates who advance in the search process.

Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil War Era

The Richards Civil War Era Center, in conjunction with the Department of History and the College of the Liberal Arts, at The Pennsylvania State University invites applications for a Postdoctoral Scholar in the history of the Civil War Era, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2025.

All research interests spanning the pre-war period through Reconstruction will receive favorable consideration. Proposals that align with the Richards Center’s interests in slavery, abolition, and emancipation are especially welcome.

Postdoctoral Scholar, African American History

The Richards Civil War Era Center and the Africana Research Center at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, invite applications for a Postdoctoral Scholar in African American History, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2025.

All research interests spanning the origins of slavery through the Civil Rights movement will receive favorable consideration. Proposals that align with the Richards Center’s interests in slavery, abolition, and emancipation, as well as comparative or Atlantic history, are especially welcome.

Richards Center director Rachel Shelden recently published an article in the Journal of American Constitutional History. In the words of legal historian Julian Davis Mortenson, it’s “a big deal.”

Shelden argues through an analysis of the Civil War era Congressional Globe that 19th-century Congress reflected public thought and thus uses the Globe to understand what the 14th Amendment meant to the American public. Read here.

Abstract:

Few legislative terms left a bigger mark on U.S. constitutional law than the first session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, which met from December 1865 through July 1866. Although legislative history has become more controversial in modern legal interpretation amid the rise of public meaning originalism, this session and the men who drafted the Fourteenth Amendment so fundamentally altered the constitutional politics of modern America that their stories remain the subject of deep scholarly interest and fierce debate. In Punish Treason, Reward Loyalty, Mark Graber takes a comprehensive look at this session through the Congressional Globe—which then served as the “official” records of the legislative branch—to explain the broader constitutional and political considerations of the men who framed the Fourteenth Amendment. Using the Globe’s text, Graber argues that Sections 2, 3, and 4 were the heart of that amendment, rather than the better-known Section 1. Yet, a closer look at the context in which the Congressional Globe operated shows that such debates were far from an accurate depiction of congressional business. Instead, the Globe’s pages contained an outsized number of “buncombe” speeches designed for constituents rather than for persuading or negotiating with colleagues; the men who make up Graber’s book used these speeches as a tool of dialogue with the broader public. Ultimately, the Globe may tell us just as much about the public meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment—and many other constitutional and statutory concerns—as it does about legislative intent.

Congratulations to Christina Snyder, McCabe Greer Professor of the American Civil War Era at Penn State and Richards Center affiliate faculty, who has been awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She will use the fellowship to work on her third book project, American Abolitions: The Slow Death and Many Afterlives of Slavery. Dr. Snyder calls this prestigious fellowship “one of the greatest honors of my career.” Read more in this excellent feature from Penn State News.

The Richards Center is thrilled to announce that the first Persun Visiting Scholar will be KT Shively! 2024–2025 will be the inaugural year of the Mark and Ann Persun Visiting Scholars program for tenured faculty in history at the rank of associate professor. More information about the program, which supports scholars of Civil War era military or political history to develop a book-length work-in-progress, can be found on our program details page.

Kathryn “KT” Shively is an associate professor of Civil War and Reconstruction history at Virginia Commonwealth University with specialties in early American military, environmental, and medical history. They are the author of Nature’s Civil War: Common Soldiers and the Environment in 1862 Virginia (University of North Carolina Press, 2013) and co-editor with Caroline Janney of the forthcoming volume, The Second Manassas Campaign (UNC Press, expected 2025). They also serve as co-PI with Paul Quigley (Virginia Tech) on the NEH-funded public history project, “Experiencing Civil War History Through Augmented Reality: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Environment at Pamplin Historical Park.” Their second monograph, History Wars: Jubal A. Early and the Confederate Origins of Modern American History, is under contract with University of Georgia Press for submission in 2025. Their favorite part of being a Civil War historian is giving battlefield tours, and they spend their non-working hours hosting bluegrass jams, making pies, hiking, and reading with their kid.