As a department, we're committed to hosting scholars from other institutions, sharing our work with one another, and discussing history with the public. We hope you'll join us for one of our upcoming events both on and off campus.
If you would like to stay up-to-date on all the latest Department of History events, join our Events Mailing List!
Join the mailing list by emailing, ubhis@buffalo.edu.
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Time: 2–3:30 p.m.
Place: Online
An online lecture with Associate Professor Ogechukwu Williams, PhD, Department of History, that examines the American College of Nurse Midwives’ maternal and reproductive health advocacy work in Nigeria during the 1980s and 1990s while fighting for autonomy, recognition, and better maternal welfare policies at home in the U.S.
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Time: 5 p.m.
Place: TBD
A short film about the untold story of Alessandro de’Medici, the first man of African descent to become a head of state in Renaissance Europe. The film aims to speak of the situations that Black Europeans are still experiencing today and to celebrate today's Afro-European community in the history of the continent.
Date: December 4, 2024
Time: 10–10:50 a.m.
Place: 114 Hochstetter Hall
Join Chijioke Ngobili as he draws on the most transformative conflict in human history-the Second World War-to explores the roots and rise of Africa's global legacy in the evolution of modern popular music heritage and culture that include today's trendy and topical "Afrobeats."
Date: November 1, 2024
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: 532 Park Hall
The History department presents a talk by Elizabeth Garner Masarik, UB alumna and Assistant Professor at SUNY Brockport and author of "The Sentimental State."
A talk with author and UB alum Ken Ilginas on writing, advocacy and adventure.
Date: October 30, 2024
Time: 1 p.m.
Place: 107 Capen Hall
Ken Ilgunas has been an indebted college grad, a trend-setting van dweller, an Alaskan park ranger, a long-distance trespasser and an America's foremost advocate for "the right to roam." He will talk about his years at UB and how they inspired him to live a life of advocacy and adventure.
Date: October 23, 2024
Time: 2–3:30 p.m.
Place: 210 Student Union, North Campus
Join Dr. Jamillah Karim for an eye-opening exploration of Muslim women's powerful role in the Black Freedom Movement, blending storytelling, academic insight and family history. Discover how American Muslim women shaped the movement and how Islam emerged as a Black liberation faith in America.
Date: October 18, 2024
Time: 4 p.m.
Place: Fitz Books and Waffles | 433 Ellicott St, Buffalo, NY 14203
In Spiritualism's Place, four friends and scholars who produce the acclaimed Dig: A History Podcast, share their curiosity and enthusiasm for uncovering stories from the past as they explore the history of Lily Dale. Located in western New York State, the world's largest center for Spiritualism was founded in 1879. Lily Dale has been a home for Spiritualists attempting to make contact with the dead, as well as a gathering place for reformers, a refuge for seekers looking for alternatives to established paths of knowledge, and a target for skeptics.
This intimate history of Lily Dale reveals the role that this fascinating place has played within the history of Spiritualism, as well as within the development of the women's suffrage and temperance movements, and the world of New Age religion. As an intentional community devoted to Spiritualist beliefs and practices, Lily Dale brings together multiple strands in the social and religious history of New York and the United States over the past 150 years: feminism, social reform, utopianism, new religious movements, and cultural appropriation.
Date: October 11, 2024
Time: 2-4 p.m.
Place: Paula T. Agrusa Plaza (firepit outside Park Hall)
Phi Alpha Theta (PAT): The History Honor Society invites undergraduate and graduate students to join the Fall Mixer at the firepit in Paula’s Plaza. Come and meet fellow history majors, minors, and graduate students for a fall afternoon social gathering. Bring your history curious friends. There will be snacks—and fire!
For more information about the Fall Mixer, please contact PAT faculty advisor Dr. Cari Casteel (caricast@buffalo.edu).
To learn more about Phi Alpha Theta, please visit the UB Phi Alpha Theta webpage.
UB History alumnus Vice-Admiral Robert B. Murrett, BA '75
Date: September 25, 2024
Time: 12-1 p.m.
Place: Zoom
Join in for a review of U.S., NATO and other allies' security challenges around the world, with emphasis on Eastern Europe, the Middle East and East Asia/Pacific.
This session will include assessment of current diplomatic, military, humanitarian and economic implications of engagement overseas. Strategic considerations will be evaluated, as well as discussion of likely outcomes in the year ahead.
Robert recommends reviewing his four key references ahead of this webinar if you so choose:
Robert B. Murrett, BA '75, is a Professor of Practice on the faculty of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and serves as the Deputy Director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law at the University. He is also on the adjunct staff of the RAND Corporation and the Institute for Defense Analyses, and chairs the MITRE Intelligence Advisory Committee. He serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at SU, the Board of the National Intelligence University Foundation, and is responsible for a series of ongoing research projects between the University and the Syracuse Veterans Administration Medical Center.
Previously, Murrett was a career intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, serving in assignments throughout the Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East through his thirty-four years of duty, retiring in the grade of Vice Admiral. His duty stations included service as Operational Intelligence Officer for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Assistant Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, senior intelligence officer for the U.S. Second Fleet and NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic, and Director for Intelligence, U.S. Joint Forces Command. For his last ten years on active duty, he served as Vice Director for Intelligence, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of Naval Intelligence, and Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
Date: September 20-21, 2024
Time: 7 p.m. on Friday, 9:30 a.m. on Saturday
Place: Asbury Hall on Friday, The Central Library (1 Lafayette Square) on Saturday
This year, the theme of the Festival is “Hauntings” and will be launched at Asbury Hall with a reading and talk by Pulitzer Prize Finalist Percival Everett about his novel “James” (a reframing of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from “Jim’s” point of view). Percival Everett’s novel Erasure is the basis for the 2024 Oscar award winning film American Fiction.
For more information visit the UB Humanities Institute website.
There is a free shuttle from the CFA on Friday for students, and to the Festival on Saturday. Please register for a free ticket and/or a seat on the shuttle on the Buffalo Humanities Festival website.
Date: September 18, 2024
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: 532 Park Hall
Come out and meet other History students, enjoy some free snacks, and watch a classic film.
This event is open to all History students. The Department of History will provide drinks and light refreshments, but students can bring their own.
Date: September 13, 2024
Time: 12-1 p.m.
Place: 280 Park Hall
The Asia Research Institute and Asian Studies Program, along with the Department of History, are pleased to welcome back to campus two UB alumni to discuss their recently published monographs.
Dr. Phillip Guingona will present his work on “China and the Philippines: A Connected History, c. 1900–50” (Cambridge University Press 2023), and Dr. Xiangli Ding will discuss his recent book, “Hydropower Nation: Dams, Energy, and Political Changes in Twentieth-Century China” (Cambridge University Press 2024).
Phillip Guingona (UB PhD 2015) is an assistant professor in the Department of History, Politics, and Law at Nazareth University. Xiangli Ding (UB PhD 2018) is an associate professor in the Department of History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences at Rhode Island School of Design.
Date: September 6, 2024
Time: 3-5 p.m.
Place: 509 O'Brian Hall
More information and registration TBA soon!
Date: April 24, 2024
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 PM
Place: Park 545
More information and registration TBA soon!
Date: April 5, 2024
Time: 3:00-5:00
Place: Capen Hall 107
Prof. David Nirenberg will lecture in April 2024. The Institute he directs is a renowned center of historical research and intellectual inquiry, where some UB faculty have spent productive research leaves. Further, Professor Nirenberg is a gifted and prolific historian of the relations of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean region. Through his historical inquiry, he engages topics that resonate in our contemporary times, such as racism, anti-Semitism, and Christian-Muslim relations.
More information TBA soon!
Date: March 14, 2024
Time: 12:00 PM
Place: Zoom
For more information and registration visit the Feminist Research Alliance Workshop webpage.
Date: February 21, 2024
Time: 12:00 PM
Place: Zoom
For more information and registration visit the Feminist Research Alliance Workshop webpage.
Date: March 9, 2023
Place: O'Brian Hall, UB North Campus
The Graduate History Association (GHA) of the University at Buffalo is hosting the 32nd Annual Milton Plesur Graduate History Conference, to be held at the University at Buffalo on Saturday, March 9, 2024. Co-sponsored by the History Department, the Center for Disability Studies, and the Mellon foundation, this conference provides a forum for graduate students from across North America to share their research with fellow students and faculty members from a variety of fields, including
More information TBA soon!