News and Features

Hi, my name is Mary Clare Swan, and I am a senior from Miami double majoring in Marketing and Finance. I was a History Department Social Media Intern from fall 2020 through the summer of 2021, during my sophomore year. I’ve always loved history, and in this internship, I learned about all the things happening behind the scenes in creating a social media post. It was one thing to read about this in my textbooks and hear about it in my courses, but it was another thing to actually be the one creating the posts.

An interview with Kiri Raber on doing dissertation research in different archives in London, UK. Kiri, a fourth-year, PhD candidate, is researching the history of families throughout the early modern British Empire with a specific focus on Jamaica.

This is an interview with Danielle Wirsansky about her contributions to “The Sum of Many Spaces: Landscape Photography and the Sense of Self,” an exhibition currently at Dirac Science Library on Florida State University’s Tallahassee Campus. Danielle’s photography will be exhibited in Dirac alongside the works of other photographers for the remainder of the spring semester. If you are interested in seeing the exhibition- just visit the entry floor of Dirac and walk straight ahead!

Hi, I am Cassandra, and I recently graduated from FSU's Department of History. In this project, I explore the connections between a series of government reforms occurring near the end of the reign of King Louis XV and enlightened absolutism. I spent the summer of 2022 studying in Paris and loved seeing all of the history in the city for myself. I chose Dr. Cathy McClive's senior seminar on Claudine Rouge’s disappearance in 18th century France because it would give me a chance to explore more complex themes in early modern French history, which is one of my favorite time periods in history.

The HGSA was founded in 1997 and has been a part of graduate student life in the History Department ever since. Here we speak with Rhiannon Turgel-Ethier, the current president, and Dragana Zikovic, the communications officer, about their dissertation research and their involvement with the HGSA.

Congratulations to Lauren Owens, winner of the Fall 2023 Walbolt graduate fellowship and Rhiannon Turgel-Ethier, winner of the Fall 2023 Martin-Vegue graduate fellowship.

My name is Gabrielle, and I am a senior hoping to graduate this spring semester. In the senior seminar on American Pop Culture with Dr. Mooney, I began to work on 1990s feminism. For my senior seminar paper, I decided to look at “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the TV series. I loved watching Buffy as a child, and it was wonderful being able to use my passion for my senior thesis.

Congratulations to Benjamin Ream, winner of FSU History's Undergraduate Research Paper Award, and Anne Tirrell who received an honorable mention.

Hi, I am Ben, I am in my final semester at FSU with a double major in History and Classical Civilizations. After graduation, I am planning to teach Latin and History at the high school level. My senior seminar paper is called "Rewriting History: The Significance of Roman Origin Stories in the Augustan Age." One of the focal points of my paper was Rome’s attempts to move away from ancient stories that connected them to the Greeks. The other focus was on Augustan Age propaganda, especially why authors in the circle of the emperor Augustus were keen to write such stories.

Kieran, Ava, Maya, and Bryce are in charge of running FSU's History Club. Together they work hard to organize meetings and outings for the Club's members. "We have game nights where we play historically themed board games. We have movie nights where we watch a movie that the members chose. And then we have outdoor activities, where we go to FSU sporting events or historical places in the area." In this interview, they share how their passion for history translates into running the History Club.