Written by Cynthia Villalobos, COSS Multimedia & Communications Student Assistant
With the summer coming to an end, we want to recognize and congratulate the impressive accomplishments that our History Department faculty members have achieved over the past few weeks. The College of Social Sciences is proud to have four faculty members be featured in an array of national and international publications this summer. Here is the list of their work with where they were published and how they feel about their achievements.
Dr. Lori Clune, Associate Professor, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post calling on President Donald Trump to pardon Ethel Rosenberg titled: How Donald Trump could use his pardon power for good.
“Getting an op-ed out there increases exposure for my work and for the university. I had the serendipity of going to a conference of diplomatic historians the day after my op-ed appeared. Dozens of historians commented on how they enjoyed the piece and were now eager to read my monograph,” Dr. Clune said.
Dr. Romeo Guzman, Assistant Professor, was quoted in a Guardian essay on Mexican Soccer fans’ tradition of homophobic chants with his “The Other Football,” article. In addition, Professor Guzman has multiple public history projects, such as, “Straight outta Fresno,” and the South El Monte Posse’s “East of East,” as well as “The Other Football,” featured in Metropole, the blog of the Urban History Association in its series titled “Digital Summer School.” Professor Guzman has also appeared on Radio Bilingüe this summer to discuss the Mexico’s participation in the World Cup.
“Publishing for a broad audience can be understood as a type of translation and border-crossing. Historians have to use non-academic language and jargon to explain theoretical concepts. They [students] also have to move outside of the classroom and engage a multi-generational and multi-ethnic community,” Dr. Guzman said.
Professor Dr. Blain Roberts, an expert in the history of beauty culture in the United States, was quoted from multiple media outlets such as; Time, Allure and the History Channel after the Miss America Pageant’s decision to abandon its swimsuit competition.
Dr. Roberts and History Department chair and Professor, Dr. Ethan Kytle, were also interviewed about their new book, Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy, by John T. Edge for the Oxford American article called Dixie Vodka which was published in the Summer 2018 edition of the magazine.
The achievements for Roberts and Kytle do not stop there, they both published a joint essay in the Atlantic called, “When the Fourth of July was a Black Holiday.” The essay was among the most widely-read Atlantic pieces for several days and was shared more than 5,000 times on social media and was read by tens of thousands of readers from across the globe.
“Although we also published books and articles in scholarly journals, as well as op-eds for local newspapers papers like the Fresno Bee, writing for venues such as the Atlantic and the New York Times has given us our research national—and international—reach,” Dr. Kytle said.
Having these high profiled publications and appearances reflect the productivity of the History Department faculty members and bring a national and international attention to the department and the Fresno State campus.
Fresno State College of Social Sciences 