1. Yesterday Today
Welcome to the first issue of our new newsletter. It is our
intention to share with you news about the historical
profession, our faculty, alumni, and students. The profession,
similar to other disciplines in the Humanities, is experiencing
exciting times and new opportunities due to the growth of
digital and audiovisual source materials, electronic journals,
online classes and degrees, a strengthened public history field
where historians seeking non-academic employment can
thrive, and an increasing social urgency to not forget the past
as we try to navigate the conflictive present and build a
better future for those who will come next. The times are, at
the same time, challenging because of a decline in the
number of Humanities majors across the nation, legislative
pressures to shorten time to degrees, lowering budgets for
both public universities and state agencies supporting
research in the Humanities, a controversial emphasis on
accountability, in particular, through the quantitative
measurement of “productivity.”
Cont’d p. 13
Chair’s Message
Prof. Victor Uribe
Contents
1
2
3
4
Chair’s Message
Faculty Profile
Faculty Books & Prizes
Featured Event
5
7
Undergraduate Program
Department of History
FIU
2016-7
No. 1
11
14
Graduate Program
Alumni News
Giving

2. 2 Yesterday Today n. 1
My roles as teacher,
researcher and mentor
integrate successfully here
Faculty Profile:
Prof. Okezi Otovo
When I joined the FIU History
faculty in 2012, I had high expectations.
I anticipated a stimulating academic
environment with innovative scholars and
dedicated students. I expected to find a
faculty committed to approaching the
study of the past from various
perspectives, through diverse voices, and
in many parts of the world. The History
Department confirmed my initial
impressions and has proved a rigorous
setting from which to teach and to learn.
One of the aspects of our History
Department that I deeply value is the high
priority placed on faculty research.
Research is a major strength of the
department that we all take very seriously.
My own research specialization focuses on
modern Brazilian history, particularly the
experiences of people of African descent
and the myriad ways health and illness
impact state and society. I share the
results of my work many venues, including
scholarly journals and book chapters. At
FIU I found the right intellectual climate to
advance my research agenda,
culminating in the publication of my first
book Progressive Mothers, Better Babies:
Race, Public Health, and the State in
Brazil, 1850-1945 (University of Texas Press,
2016).
The book is a study of maternal and child
health and welfare in Brazil following the
abolition of slavery. I have published
articles on related themes in the Luso-
Brazilian Review and Law and History
Review as well as in a number of
outlets in Brazil. Here in Miami, I participate in
community conversations about history,
health, and racial and gender inequalities.
I am fortunate that my roles as teacher,
researcher, and mentor integrate successfully
in this department. I think all the History
faculty members feel very privileged to share
the discipline with our students at FIU. For
example, I teach a wide range of courses
from introductory surveys to specialized
advanced seminars, allowing me to bring my
own research interests in race, gender, and
social medicine to both the undergraduate
and graduate classrooms. It is precisely in
these areas where we are most challenged
to destabilize our assumptions and consider
structures and change over time rather than
a simplistic presumption of Cont’d p. 13
Cont’d p. 7

3. 3 Yesterday Today n. 1
Faculty research- supported by prestigious
national grants and fellowships - appears in our fields’
top journals such as The American Historical Review,
and our faculty often win prizes for these pieces. We
also regularly lend our expertise in popular media,
including the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Keep up with these works on our website: fiu.history.edu.
Gwyn Davies and Jodi
Magness. The 2003-2007
Excavations in the Late
Roman Fort at Yotvata.
Eisenbrauns. 2015.
Sherry Johnson and James G.
Cusik. Andrew Jackson in Florida, 1814-1821:
Forging His Legacy. Florida
Historical Society Press. 2016
Aurora Morcillo Gómez, ed.
Memory and Cultural
History of the Spanish Civil
War: Realms of Oblivion.Brill,
2014; and En cuerpo y
alma : ser mujer en tiempos de Franco. Siglo XXI.
2015.
April Merleaux. Sugar and
Civilization: American Empire
and the Cultural Politics of
Sweetness. University of North
Carolina Press, 2015.
2016 Myrna F. Bernath Book Award,
Society for Historians of American
Foreign Relations
Faculty Books

4. 4 Yesterday Today n. 1
Okezi T. Otovo, Progressive Mothers, Better Babies: Race,
Public Health, and the State in Brazil, 1850-1945. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 2016.
Victor Uribe-Uran. Fatal Love: Spousal
Killers, Law, and Punishment in the Late
Colonial Spanish Atlantic. Stanford
University Press, 2016.
2016 Murdo J. MacLeod Book Prize, sponsored by
the Southern Historical Association, Latin
American and Caribbean Section; 2016
Honorable Mention for the Alfred B. Thomas Book Award, sponsored by
the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies.
Featured
Event
1
Fragile Habitat
Prof. April Merleaux, Project Director
With a substantial grant from the Humanities in the Public
Square initiative of the National Endowment for the
Humanities, faculty and students have participated in
stimulating conversations with the general public across
Miami this year. The grant brings scholars and
environmentalists together with public audiences for
dialogue on pressing local issues. In Miami, residents
already see evidence of rising sea levels, sunny-day
flooding, and less predictable weather patterns. FIU
researchers are frequently in the headlines for ecological,
hydrological, engineering, design, and public education
work. But what about the humanities? Historians also have
an important role to play in discussions of climate change
and sea level rise. The past can help us understand how
we got to this moment, can offer stories about our
connections to this unique and fragile landscape, and can
guide us to identify shared values and beliefs. Even faculty
who don’t think of themselves as environmental historians
have enjoyed opportunities to engage with this initiative.
For example, FIU historian Dr. Hilary Jones moderated an
event at the Historic Hampton House featuring Dr. Edda
Fields Black, a specialist in the environmental history of
West African rice farmers. The program brought together a
diverse cross-section of Miami residents to consider how
the natural world shapes all of our lives. Dr. Jones points out
that the site of her research, Saint Louis du Senegal has
much in common with Miami. Both are islands vulnerable
to rising seas. Jones says that “sites of remembrance such
as Goree Island (Senegal) and Bance Island (Sierra Leone)
are in danger of disappearing.”
2

5. 5 Yesterday Today n. 1
With skilled undergraduate,
graduate, and post-
doctoral history tutors
available 40 hours a week,
in Fall 2016 we had over 250
visits to our Writing in History
Program
1
Making Writing—and Succeeding—
Easier: History Tutors
Prof. Tovah Bender, Director of Undergraduate Studies
The most important and successful step we have taken in
the last several years to help our undergraduates is the
establishment of the History Tutors, through the Writing in
History Program.
Although we have offered some limited tutoring since 2013,
the tutoring program really began in 2014-15. At that point,
the department introduced two-year-long, funded, post-
doctoral Writing in History Fellowships. The primary task of
these fellows is to hire, train, and supervise tutors, who offer
free tutoring to all students in history classes. The tutors are
available for one-on-one hour-long sessions from 9 to 5
Monday through Friday.
The program has been remarkably successful and has
grown rapidly. In Fall 2014, our first semester, we had a total
of 78 visits; two years later, in Fall 2016, we had over 250! We
have expanded from highly trained and skilled upper-level
undergraduates and recent graduates to include graduate
student who work as tutors as part of their funding package.
Most recently, we launched an online component, allowing
us to more fully reach students who attend visit in person.
This success is largely due to the clear benefits of one-on-
one tutoring. Students schedule follow-up visits and
recommend the program to their peers. Professors
recognize the increased quality of student work and
recommend—or even incentivize—visits to the tutors.
Undergraduate
Program

6. 6 Yesterday Today n. 1
History Tutors, Con’td
What do the tutors do? Certainly they sit with students and
work on the fundamentals of writing. They also help students
with the processes leading to papers, such as library research
or close reading of a text or on alternative assignments like
annotated bibliographies, oral presentations, or exams. Tutors
help with cover letters, personal statements, conference
proposals and other types of professional writing.
An extremely important skill of many of our tutors is that they
can work in multiple languages—Spanish but also French and
Portuguese—which is a huge advantage given our student
body. In some cases, they conduct sessions entirely in a
language other than English. In many cases, however,
beginning with a few minutes of conversation in a student’s
native language and making comparisons across languages
can do a great deal to help those students who are struggling
to master English, but also those whose biggest obstacle
might be their anxiety about writing in what is to them a
foreign language.
The biggest benefit of the tutors is that they are, in many
ways, just like our students. Students recognize them from
around the department. They have taken—or are taking—
many of the same classes, worked the same professors, and
have struggled on the same assignments. In some cases, they
are also writing in a non-native language. They are successful
history students who themselves struggle with writing, and that
helps students to believe that they too can become
successful writers and history students.
Image: Prof. Gywn Davies cracks up undergraduates Daniel Puig and Erin McNulty at
an end-of-fall 2016 celebration.
Featured Undergraduate Student
Rosabel Gomez (’16)
There was no better experience than finishing my
undergraduate year having completed an internship at the
National Museum of American History. At NMAH I interned
with the Graphic Arts Department, where one of my jobs was
handling a collection of prints by Benjamin Miller in the paper
conservation lab. The prints were made on Japanese kozo
paper in the early 1920s and extremely fragile, and I worked
at uploaded into the Smithsonian catalog system. It was a
really gratifying experience working with amazing works of art
and learning what collections management was like. The
Smithsonian was filled with many amazing mentors and fellow
interns. Cont’d p. 13
Undergrad Program con’td

7. 7 Yesterday Today n. 1
Graduate
Program
Department Awarded NEH PhD Career
Grant
In 2015 FIU’s History Department was one of only 25 recipients
nationwide awarded a Next Generation Ph.D Planning
Grant. With this support FIU will join a number of other
prominent universities, including Princeton, Duke, the
University of California, Berkeley and others, in reconsidering
the humanities Ph.D to open opportunities for graduates
“beyond the academy.”
Recognizing that graduates with humanities training offer a
wealth of knowledge and skills in writing, analysis, and deep
knowledge of many parts of the world, the NEH sponsored
program at FIU will be looking to help history graduates
secure employment in state, local and federal government,
in business, in the nonprofit sector and other venues. “We
want to give students the broadest opportunities for making
a career doing something they love,” says Professor Kenneth
Lipartito, the leader of the project. “There is no reason for
students to feel they must choose between pursuing the
study of something as important as history and having a job
that can support them.”
After a year of planning, Lipartito, co-PIs Profs. Jessica Alder
and April Merleaux, as well as other committee members, will
present their findings to the History Department, and hope to
pursue a major a second, much larger grant from the NEH to
“We want to give students the
broadest opportunities for
making a career doing
something they love.”
-Prof. Kenneth Lipartito

8. 8 Yesterday Today n. 1
Featured Graduate Student
Jason Daniel, PhD Candidate
Lydia Cabrera Award Recipient
My dissertation, tentatively titled, “Contraband, Ship
Construction, and Environmental Change in Cuba under
the Early Spanish Bourbons, 1700-1762” examines how the
expansion of shipbuilding activities in Havana affected the
exploitation of quality timber (including early deforestation
on the island) and the migration of skilled laborers to Cuba,
amid the international political turmoil during the first half of
the eighteenth century.
Everyone who is or has been a graduate student
understands the importance of adequate funding for
research. I applied for the Lydia Cabrera Award because its
design is to support scholars and publishers working on the
history of Cuba prior to 1868. The committee accepts
graduate student applications for consideration, and the
award provides a significant amount of funds (up to $5,000)
for research. I have a great deal of respect and gratitude
for The Conference on Latin American History, the
organization that presents the Lydia Cabrera Award as well
as numerous other grants, and their efforts to support the
research of graduate students and faculty. In my case, I will
use the award to travel to Spain for a period of about six to
eight weeks in order to visit the Archivo General de Indias in
Seville, the Archivo General de Simancas in Simancas (near
Valladolid), and multiple collections in Madrid.
Image: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print
Collection, The New York Public Library. "The City and Harbour of Havana." New
York Public Library Digital Collections.
Grad Program cont’d

9. 9 Yesterday Today n. 1
We want to know what you are
up to! Send updates to
fiuhistalum@fiu.edu
2
Eldon Brown (BA) I retired from Northwest Airlines in 2000, and took
up writing. I have since published four novels and one non fiction
work. I still live in Miami.
Eric Brumfield ('07 Honors BA; '10 Honors MSES; '10 JD) After getting
my history degree, I graduated with the first JD-MSES from FIU and I
now own my own law firm, The Law Offices of Eric Scott Brumfield,
Esq. I do Real Estate work in Miami, dealing with Probate,
Bankruptcies, Closings, Title work and Litigation.
David M. Callejo Perez (BA ‘93) and EdD (2000) with a history
concentration (Darden Pyron Committee Member) is Associate
Provost at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU). He was previously
the Carl A. Gerstacker Endowed Chair in Education and Chair,
Human Subjects Institutional Review Board at SVSU. He has
authored books eight on Civil Rights in the South, Urban Schools
and Higher Education, over 100 peer-reviewed articles and
refereed academic papers. Before coming to SVSU, David was
Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program in Curriculum
Studies at West Virginia University and Professor of Curriculum and
Foundations at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is a Research
Fellow at several Centers in the US and Latin America. David has
also worked with over $8 million in evaluation and curriculum
development projects on human systems in the US and abroad. He
is married to an outstanding photographer, Emily; and the proud
parent of three empowered women, Icie, Antonia, and Mazie.
Melanie Claros Rodriguez (BA ‘13) works full time for the Historic
Stranahan House Museum in Fort Lauderdale where she was hired
shortly after graduation. She began as an intern during her last
semester at FIU, earned the title of Education Coordinator in 2014
and was recently promoted to Education and Programs Manager.
In the winter of 2015, Melanie and her husband enjoyed a
honeymoon in Peru, exploring the Machu Picchu ruins. The warm
climate in Peru have shown the Rodriguez family that they belong
in South Florida where the winters aren't as
harsh. melanieclaro25@gmail.com
Michael S. Cugno Jr. (BA ’00) Sr. Systems Administrator NextEra
Energy, Florida Power and Light where he spent 40 years in multiple
IT roles. Mike's is an avid saltwater fisherman, boater, kayak and
canoe enthusiast and Florida Master Naturalist. Eight years as a
volunteer for Biscayne and Everglades national parks where he
participates in various roles around canoe and kayak guiding and
other various interpretation roles. Mscjr@att.net
Josh Daniels (BA ‘05) practices law in Boston at Goodwin, an
international law firm with offices in 10 cities and 5 countries. He
specializes in Appellate Litigation before state and federal
appellate courts and administrative agencies, representing
companies in a wide variety of sectors ranging from energy to
financial services. Before joining Goodwin, he served as a law clerk
to the Hon. Judith A. Cowin (retired) of the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court. Though he now lives in Massachusetts, he regularly
returns to the Sunshine State to seek respite from the sometimes
bitter northern climes.
Alumni
Today

10. 10 Yesterday Today n. 1
I can’t express how valuable
having some
background in history
and the humanities has
been in terms of helping
me to develop
professionally. Almost
all that lawyers do—
particularly litigators—is
parse text and write for
the purpose of
persuasion.
-Joshua Daniels, BA
Erika Edwards (PhD ‘11) Works for University of North Carolina at
Charlotte, where she is an assistant professor of colonial Latin
America. She has worked at the University for the past 6 years. She
is currently finishing her manuscript, Hiding in Plain Sight: The
Disappearance of the Black Population in Cordoba, Argentina
1776-1853. Her research has been supported by a Fulbright, Ford,
UNC's faculty grants, and the AAUW. She has also been cited and
consulted for the NYT, National Geographic, and La Voz del
Interior and interviewed for about.com, the government of the
province of Cordoba, and Radio Diafar. eedwar27@uncc.edu
Anna Marie Hernandez (BA ‘97) is a partner in the South Florida
Litigation Group at Holland & Knight in Miami. She practices in the
areas of commercial and real estate litigation and arbitration. Mrs.
Hernandez served as the 2016 President of the Cuban American
Bar Association, one of the largest minority voluntary bar
associations in South Florida. She is happily married, a resident of
Coral Gables, and still very much a history buff.
annie.hernandez@hklaw.com
Joseph Holbrook (PhD ’13) teaches Introduction to Religious Studies
and World Religions for the FIU Religious Studies Department, and
World and American History at BBC for the History Department. He
also teaches introduction to the Social Sciences for Miami Dade
College/Kendall and online classes for the MDC Virtual College. He
recently taught Ancient Religions and Civilizations online in Spanish
for a university in Colombia. He is currently developing a new
course on the History of Genocide. He has several book
manuscripts in progress and spends whatever free time he has
between semesters working on a family farm in Ohio.
Lisa Howe Since graduation in December 2015 I have taught as an
adjunct at FIU and MDC teaching American and World history
classes. I have received the Digital Public History Post-Doctoctoral
Fellowship in the Department of History, FIU in September of 2016.
Suzana G. Mehle MBA Administrator: South Miami Neurology, LLC,
under our brand name First Choice Neurology for 9 years. In 2002, I
established a Healthcare Consulting practice under Suzana G.
Mehle & Associates.I spend my free time in Maine enjoying its
coastal beauty. mehle5@bellsouth.net
Andrea Miranda (BA ‘08, J.D. ‘12) works for boutique real estate law
firm in North Bay Village, Florida. Having a History degree opened
many doors in the legal world and provided her with great insight
during law school. She is now considering returning to her true
passion and becoming a legal historian by focusing on English
common law and its effects on present American
jurisprudence. Until then, she is closing deals and applying her
writing skills in a world of business and entrepreneurship.
Alumni News con’td

11. 11 Yesterday Today n. 1
Alexandra Ortiz (MA‘14) currently works for the International Benefits
Office of the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, Maryland
since October 2014. Hates winter with a passion and misses Florida
and the beach every day, especially when there are 3 feet of snow
outside. She would like to move to the DC area and get a position in
foreign affairs and/or analysis because she misses using her research
skills. Email: alexandra.ortizlopez@gmail.com.
Frances L. Ramos (MA’96) went on to receive her PhD and works as
an associate professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa,
where she has spent the past 10 years. A specialist in colonial Mexico,
she has authored an award-winning book, several peer-reviewed
articles, and numerous book chapters in both Spanish and
English. Professor Ramos is currently writing a monograph on efforts to
retain Mexico, the Spanish Empire’s most lucrative viceroyalty, during
the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713). Because her husband
works in Miami, her family is “bi-coastal. framos@usf.edu
Nancy Ramos I am very proud to inform you that I went to Cytology
School and became a Cytotechnologist. Currently working at CBS
Laboratory as the Pathology Manager. I love my career very much
and I am very grateful to my teachers at FIU.
Brian R. Rick (BA ’82) I have recently published a book about my
father, Henry Rick, who served in Patton's 3rd Army during World War
II. "Some of Dad's Stories" is now available on Amazon and Kindle:
https://www.createspace.com/6514643. I also currently serve as a
Communications Officer for the North Carolina Department of
Transportation, representing 14 counties in eastern North Carolina. My
wife, Angela, and I currently live in Richlands, NC. brianrick@att.net
Francis E. “Frank” Rodriguez (B.A. cum laude ‘95) serves as the Miami
Office Managing Partner for Shutts & Bowen LLP, a full-service business
law firm. In that role, Frank manages the Miami office with more than
100 lawyers. He oversaw the construction and move into the firm’s
new Miami office and recruited about 40 lawyers to join the firm over
the last two years. Frank maintains a busy tax practice that focuses
on representing foreigners investing in the United States and U.S.
persons investing abroad. He also assists financial institutions,
borrowers, and real estate investors with state and local tax issues,
including Florida documentary stamp tax and intangible tax
issues. He actively volunteers at his daughters’ school and is on the
FIU President’s Council. frodriguez@shutts.com
Matthew Sabatella (MA '15), Performs and records traditional
American folk music with the Rambling String Band. As a singer,
instrumentalist, performer, speaker, writer, and content curator, he
illuminates the connection between music and the history of the
United States. His mission is to share America’s rich musical heritage
with others, both for the sheer love of the music and for its value in
inspiring people to better understand each other and the country’s
past, present, and future. He has released three albums of traditional
music in the Ballad of America series and is currently writing his first
book. ms@matthewsabatella.com
Alumni News cont’d

12. 12 Yesterday Today n. 1
Michelle Foster Sammartino (MA’16) left teaching after almost 25
years in the classroom and became Social Studies Instructional
Specialist for Broward County Public Schools. She serves as both
mentor and trainer to high school teachers throughout the
district. Her FIU Public History studies went into action right after
graduation when she delivered a women's suffrage history lecture
for Historic Stranahan House Museum in August. Looking forward
to guest curating a local history exhibit at the Wiener Museum of
Decorative Arts in Dania Beach in the Spring, she still maintains a
dream of opening an environmental history museum in Park City,
Utah in the future. michelle.sammartino@browardschools.com
Kelly Feitosa de Barros Silva (BA; minor in PIR ’10) has spent the last
6 years as an Elementary School Librarian for Riviera Schools in
Coral Gables, where she is extremely happy giving library classes to
all students from PK-5th grade. She regularly includes historical
themes during story time such as WWII or Greek History and uses
different sources such as film to engage students which she learned
from Dr. Frank Luca during her time at FIU. For the time being she
will happily continue being a school librarian.
kellyfeitosa15@gmail.com
Amanda Snyder (PhD ’13) now works at the University of Central
Florida. She has very recently purchased a home and is excited to
finally, officially, become a Florida resident. She has a book
chapter appearing soon in the edited volume Torrid Zones from
University of South Carolina press and continues the work with
teaching writing that she began as an FIU postdoc.
asnyd002@gmail.com
Rodney Earl Walton (MA ’01; PhD ’09) Following graduation he
published the methodology chapter of his dissertation in an article.
“Memories from the Edge of the Abyss: Evaluating the Oral
Accounts of World War II Veterans” The Oral History Review 37, no. 1
(Winter/Spring 2010): 18-34. The remainder of the dissertation was
published in book form. Big Guns, Brave Men: Mobile Artillery
Observers and the Battle for Okinawa (Annapolis: Naval Institute
Press, 2013). He works as a part-time adjunct for FIU teaching
American and European history with an emphasis on military
matters. When not teaching, he enjoys playing tennis and travel. In
2016 he returned to Vietnam for the first time in 43 years.
rwalton@fiu.edu
Carolina Zumaglini (PhD, ‘14) After being awarded a Writing in
History Program Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2015, Carolina moved
back to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she works as an
independent content editor for W. W. Norton & Company and an
academic coach for Latin American students who desire to study
abroad. She is in the process of opening her own academic
consulting company, under the name Scholars, to promote
international student exchange between Latin America and the
world. czumaglini@gmail.com
Alumni News cont’d

13. 13 Yesterday Today n. 1
1
Chair’s Message cont’d
There is also a tight
marketplace for our
graduates, not to mention
economic, political, and
cultural threats of a more
structural type at the global,
national, regional, and local
levels. Both opportunities
and challenges shall provide
us food for thought,
reflection, and, ideally, for
the tweaking of our vision
and mission through a
dialogue with and feedback
from you.
Ideally, “you” here means
faculty colleagues,
graduate, and
undergraduate students and
alumni in History and the
Humanities in and out of FIU,
as well as members of local,
regional, national, and
international public history
communities, university
administrators, and the
community at large. With
you, we hope to share and
discuss the state of our field,
highlight faculty and student
publications and activities
worthy of notice, and all of
our accomplishments in
areas such as external
funding, entrepreneurship,
the award of fellowships,
civic engagement,
internships, public
presentations, and
innovative teaching.
We hope that as you learn
more about what we do,
you shall feel as excited and
proud as we are about the
state of our BA, MA, and PhD
programs and about the
exploits of faculty and
students alike. We hope you
2
might even decide to support
some of our endeavors and
turn them into your endeavors
too, for together we can
certainly increase our
chances for faculty and
student success in a rapidly
changing and forever
competitive and exciting
world, full of risks but full of
promises too. We look forward
to hearing your reactions and
invite you to engage
enthusiastically with us.
Image: Prof. Victor Uribe
Featured Undergrad cont’d
I now work at History Miami
Museum, an affiliate of the
Smithsonian Institution, which
captures the rich history and
uniqueness of Miami perfectly.
I'm becoming a Museum
Educator-- a thrilling
experience. Education in a
museum is very different from
education in a typical
classroom. We as educators
try and make history a living
entity. We strive to get our
students to think critically
about the "why" of situations,
making it a forward thinking
environment that looks to the
future of education.
Otovo cont’d
“inevitability.” While the past
must be studied on its own
terms, it is also vitally important
for cultivating the ability to
contextualize our own position
in the world, and to conceive of
alternatives and solutions to
consequential social problems.
In doing so, history students may
connect their academic studies
to other arenas of their lives and
personal development,
understanding the past (and
present) as complex and
contingent, rather than simple,
linear, or predestined.
By seeing the past from multiple
perspectives and studying the
experiences of everyday
people and their relation to
mainstream or dominant
historical narratives, we can all
conceive of ourselves as actors
in the world. These are values I
share with my colleagues in the
History Department and one of
many reasons why History at FIU
is such a positive intellectual
community.
[There is] an increasing
social urgency not to
forget the past as we
face a conflictive
present and try to build a
better future
-Chair Victor Uribe

14. Consider giving directly to the
History Department.
https://give.fiu.edu/give-now/school-of-
international-and-public-affairs/
Designate “History”
1
Giving in These Times
Debates about the best use of
public funds for education swirl
through social media, the press
and government: Should monies
flow to students based on
performance metrics? Should we
focus on job training and building
new facilities (including the
modern facelift to old DM, shown
at left)? Public universities, and
particularly programs in the
Humanities, are under increasing
pressure to demonstrate our value.
We in FIU’s History Department
hope that, as we respond, our
focus never strays from our
students—past, present, future.
2
To that end, our globally-renown
research faculty are equally
dedicated teachers, and we are
committed to providing student
fellowships, expanding our digital
activities, maintaining our writing
program and more. We believe
more than ever in the skills that
History imparts and the values we
nourish in the classroom.
But, let’s be honest, times are what
they are. History is not in STEM and
it’s not an athletic program. We
really need your help. Please
consider giving directly to History,
selecting it as a designation at
https://give.fiu.edu/give-now/school-
of-international-and-public-affairs/
Your employer might match your
gift!
FIU Department of History
DM 392, MMC
Miami, FL 33199