Image: Faculty Book Release Congratulations to Joseph Kellner! His new book, The Spirit of Socialism: Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse, will be released June 15 by Cornell University Press (2025). The Spirit of Socialism is a cultural history of the Soviet collapse. It examines the millions of Soviet people who, during the cascading crises of the collapse and the post-Soviet transition, embarked on a spirited and highly visible search for new meaning. Amid profound disorientation, these seekers found direction in their horoscopes, or behind gurus in saffron robes or apocalyptic preachers, or by turning from the most basic premises of official science and history to orient themselves anew. The beliefs they seized on and, even more, the questions that guided their search reveal the essence of late-Soviet culture and its legacy in post-Soviet Russia. Read the complete description at the Cornell U Press website https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/.../the-spirit.../... .... Faculty Book Release Kudos to Akela Reason! Her new book Politics and Memory: Civil War Monuments in Gilded Age New York, will be released this month from the Yale University Press (June 10, 2025). The Press describes her research as: A rich history of Gilded Age partisan politics, aesthetics, and the creation of New York City’s Civil War monuments... Illuminating the historical context of Civil War soldiers’ monuments in New York City, Akela Reason explores the complex and fascinating intersection of art, politics, and memory within these works, while also highlighting the ever-changing ways different constituencies have engaged with them in symbolic and physical terms. Yale University Press website. .... The Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies has announced the recipients of its fellowships for 2025–26, for the theme of “Truth and Information.” Cindy Hahamovitch, University of Georgia was a awarded fellowship support for her research “That Same Old Snake”: Slaves, Coolies, Guestworkers, and the Global History of Human Trafficking”. .... Congratulations to Tracey Johnson, who has been selected as one of just nine 2025 UGA Special Collections Faculty Teaching Fellows! Dr. Johnson is assistant professor of history and Institute of African American Studies, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. You can read more about the 2025 Special Collections Faculty Teaching Fellow cohort at the library's web page here. .... We are proud to announce that Joey Kellner is the recipient of a Michael F. Adams Early Career Scholar Award. Established by the UGA Research Foundation, these awards recognize junior faculty whose research, creative and scholarly achievements indicate a trajectory toward an exceptional, sustained research career and an imminent rise to international stature in their field of study. Joseph Kellner, assistant professor in the Franklin College Department of History, is a historian of the Soviet Union whose research examines the intersection of ideology, belief and historical change. His forthcoming book, “The Spirit of Socialism: Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse” (Cornell University Press, June 2025), offers a groundbreaking analysis of the Soviet Union’s collapse, focused on a flourishing of new and radical worldviews that defined the period’s culture. Based on extensive oral history interviews, the book reappraises late Soviet culture and the Soviet legacy in post-Soviet Russia. Kellner is also co-editor of “Red Against Empire: Bolshevik Historians and the Anti-colonial Critique” (University of Toronto Press, expected 2026), which recovers and interprets early Soviet anti-colonial scholarship. A recipient of the Willson Center Research Fellowship and the Virginia Mary Macagnoni Prize for Innovative Research, Kellner is making significant contributions to scholarly debates on Soviet history, cultural identity and intellectual history. .... Kudos to Timothy Yang, Awarded a Creative Research Medal for 2025! The university established the Creative Research Medals in 1980 to recognize a distinct and exceptional research or creative project, performed by a mid-career faculty member, with extraordinary impact and significance to the field of study. Timothy Yang, associate professor in the Franklin College Department of History, explores the intersection of business, medicine and empire in the making of modern East Asia and Japan. His book, “A Medicated Empire: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Japan” (Cornell University Press, 2021), is a micro-history of how a multi-national drug company, Hoshi Pharmaceuticals, expanded alongside Japan’s imperial ambitions, using state connections to dominate colonial markets. Through extensive archival research, Yang reveals how the company capitalized on imperial policies, marketing medicines in colonies while adhering to domestic narcotic bans, shaping both commercial and medical landscapes across the world. Widely praised for its innovative approach, the book won the Hagley Book Prize for best book in business history and has received glowing reviews in leading academic journals. Yang’s work bridges the history of science, economic history and colonial studies. As director of UGA’s Center for Asian Studies, he continues to advance interdisciplinary scholarship across Asia and beyond. Read about more of the University of Georgia Research Awards for 2025 at https://news.uga.edu/2025-research-awards/ .... Radical Tariffs Aren’t New, But They Have Been Disastrous- Scott Nelson continues to highlight the relevance of history to the current moment. Check out his latest article on tariffs in AHA Perspectives: https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/radical-tariffs-arent-new-but-they-have-been-disastrous/
