News
Department of History

RIT’s ROAR the Vote campaign is making it simple for RIT students to become engaged, educated voters this fall through registration drives and presidential election debate viewing parties.

RIT celebrates the 19th Amendment, equal rights, and the power of voting with “Moving Forward: Suffrage Past, Present, and Future.” The special programming includes talks, voter registration and pre-election events and exhibits.

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, senior associate dean of RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named interim COLA dean effective June 1. McQuiller Williams succeeds Dean James Winebrake, who is leaving RIT on June 30 to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

Dean James Winebrake will be leaving RIT’s College of Liberal Arts to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Winebrake, who came to RIT in 2002 as chair of the Department of Public Policy and became dean in 2011, will leave RIT effective June 30.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 34: Studying history is more than poring over textbooks and old documents. History Professor Richard Newman and humanities Professor Lisa Hermsen talk about place-based learning, which gets students into the community to experience where the history happened.

When Richard Newman graduated from high school, he never imagined he’d wind up being a college history professor. Newman, a professor of history in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, came to RIT in 1998. He specializes in early American, African-American, and environmental history.

Four faculty members from RIT’s College of Liberal Arts have recently written books on diverse subjects: how disability is viewed in the media, the commercialization of 19th-century autobiographies, how birth and death costs and practices have changed over the years, and how Germany adopted technology and a productivity culture after World War II.

Essay by Rebecca Edwards, professor of history, published by The Conversation.

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts honored student achievement in writing on Friday with the presentation of more than a dozen writing awards for essays varying from sanctuary cities, how democracies can withstand outside meddling, and the excavation, preservation and reconstruction of a London theater where Shakespearian plays debuted.

Michael Brown, an assistant professor in Rochester Institute of Technology’s Department of History, is the 2018-19 recipient of the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, recognizing exceptional performance in the classroom and a commitment to student learning. He will be recognized with a dinner on April 16 and participate as a member of the platform party for the university’s academic convocation on May 10.

A two-day conference examining President Donald Trump’s rise within U.S. history and how people are talking about U.S. history in relation to Trump is scheduled March 28 and 29 at RIT.

WHEC-TV interviews Richard Newman, professor of history.