The Journal of the Civil War Era is pleased to announce that Dr. J. Jacob Calhoun has been selected as the recipient of the Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award for 2025. His winning essay is titled, “‘Nothing was known of the dead’: Coroners and the Massacres of 1866.”

The prize committee, consisting of Paul Barba (chair), Erin Mauldin, and Whitney Stewart, praised the article as follows: “By closely and creatively interrogating the records of the coroner’s offices in Memphis and New Orleans in the aftermath of the 1866 massacres, Calhoun reveals the vast power and responsibility vested in these officials and their institutions. Significantly, Calhoun demonstrates in convincing fashion how these men shaped both the government’s investigations of mass racist violence and how historians have interpreted these pivotal moments in Civil War era history. Insightful and meticulous, Calhoun’s essay brings into relief the enduring methodological value of close readings and comparative lenses.”

Calhoun is a Byron K. Trippet Assistant Professor of History and the David A. Moore Chair in American History at Wabash College. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Nau Center for Civil War History 2024-2025, and he received his PhD from the University of Virginia in 2024.  His research focuses on the history of emancipation and Reconstruction, specifically the intersection between politics, race, and violence.

The Kaye Award is awarded every two years and is co-sponsored by the JCWE, the Society of Civil War Historians, the University of North Carolina Press, and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center.

Guy Emerson Mount has won the $1,000 George and Ann Richards Prize for the best article published in The Journal of the Civil War Era in 2024. The article, “Shall I Go? Black Colonization in the Pacific, 1840-1914” appeared in the December 2024 special issue, Black Internationalism in the Era of Emancipation, guest edited by Brandon R. Byrd.

The prize committee was impressed by the article’s “innovative approach and its illuminating insights” and praised it for creating “an innovative historical arc that illuminates how white state crafters sought to tackle the problem of emancipation through colonization.” The committee called the article “beautifully written” and predicted that it “will not only offer scholars of slavery, abolition, Reconstruction, and US imperialism a new way to think about the connections between these topics but also fuel further conversation about the place of the Pacific in the histories of nineteenth-century America.”

Mount is an Assistant Professor of History and an affiliate in African American Studies at Wake Forest University. He teaches courses in Atlantic History, Antebellum America, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the Global History of Reparations.  He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago under the direction of Tom Holt.  While at Chicago, he co-founded the Reparations at UChicago Working Group which first uncovered the University’s historical ties to slavery while organizing alongside residents of the South Side of Chicago for reparations.  Previously he held a Carter G. Woodson fellowship at the University of Virginia and a tenure-track position at Auburn University where he was granted the Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award in 2022. His current book project, from which the winning article is derived, is tentatively titled Black Elsewheres: Slavery, Empire, and Reconstruction in the Black Pacific. 

Awarded annually, the Richards Prize celebrates the generosity of George and Ann Richards, who were instrumental in the growth of the Richards Civil War Era Center and in the founding of The Journal of the Civil War Era. The journal is grateful for the service of this year’s prize committee: Joanna Cohen, Queen Mary University of London (chair); Anne Sarah Rubin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Gabriel (Jack) Chin, University of California, Davis School of Law.

We’re hiring! Apply by November 1, 2025 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, 2026.

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, 2026.

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.

UNC Press has published The Second Manassas Campaign, co-edited by 2024-2025 Richards Center Persun Visiting Scholar KT Shively.

The Second Manassas Campaign contains essays that contextualizes the military campaign’s political dimensions, logistics, aftermath, and more. Shively co-edited the volume with Caroline E. Janney.

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 (UNC Press, 2013) and co-editor with Caroline Janney of The Second Manassas Campaign (UNC Press, 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.

Learn more about the book on the UNC Press website.

The Richards Center is thrilled to announce that Ryan Quintana will be the 2025-26 Persun Visiting Scholar! This is the second 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.

Ryan Quintana is an associate professor of 19^th Century American History at Wellesley College with specialties in the history of political development and the state, slavery and emancipation, and the production of space.  He is the author of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina (University of North Carolina Press, 2018).  He is currently working on his second book project, “We Do Not Want to Be Slaves”: Empire and Expansion in the Age of Emancipation, which examines the everyday labors and governing practices of empire and infrastructural development in the North American West during the Civil War Era. When he’s not in the archives or the classroom, he enjoys working in his garden, riding his bike, and hoping that Manchester United will somehow turn it all around.

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.