At the 50th anniversary of the fight, the “Thrilla in Manila” emerges as not only the story of two extraordinary boxers’ pushing themselves to their physical limits, but also embodies creativity and entrepreneurship within the African American community, as well as a climactic event in the history of American sports in the 1970s.
“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Tom Hanks fan club?”: Modern McCarthyism in America
Recent attacks on Tom Hanks and American universities highlight parallels between 2025 and the McCarthy era. But our moment has something the Cold War Red Scare didn't: the benefits of hindsight and mass resistance.
T-Pain Against the Machine: How Mid-2000s Hip Hop Can Inspire College Students to Skip the AI and Find Their Own Voice
T-Pain’s stunning, stripped-down vocal performance on the Tiny Desk version of “Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” makes it clear that he’s got the organic vocal chops to “sound good” without any digital assistance. Through T-Pain's example, students see that we must first know what our own voices are capable of to then explore what technology might do to expand, enhance, or embellish our creative endeavors.
History of Delinquency—Syllabus
This course introduces the history of delinquency as a legal construct in the United States since 1825. Broadly defined as the adult conception of criminal and problematic youth behavior, we will examine what delinquency meant during the past 200 years as well as antidelinquency efforts deployed by families, social workers, police departments, judges, clinicians, politicians, and legislators.
Noir City vs. The Opera on the Turnpike: As Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run Turns 50, Its Most Underrated Track Deserves Some Love
"Meeting Across the River" routinely lands last when fans rank their Born to Run favorites. But its noir mood was where the country was heading in the mid-1970s.
“Making New History” with Old Tools: The Coloniality of Method in (Post-)Colonial Historical Commissions
Even well-intentioned efforts at historical reckoning can reproduce epistemic harm when they rely on unexamined disciplinary assumptions.
Presenting at your First Undergraduate Academic Conference: A Guide FOR Students BY Students
Presenting original research at an academic conference is a major achievement for undergraduate students. Take some advice from undergrads who have not only survived their first academic conference, but thrived.
Digital Tools for the Humanities
Machines reconfigure work. And yet, historians or other humanistic researchers rarely think about the way that our digital workflows—the tools that we use to do our work—enable or disenable the kinds of questions we pursue and the evidence that we marshal to answer them.
The Industry that Stayed: How Meatpacking Remained Domestic
As the Trump administration calls for the return of domestic manufacturing, there is one industry that managed to resist the outsourcing process of the late 20th century. It only required the destruction of its labor unions.
“Don’t Kill Big Bird” — The Trump Administration’s Showdown with PBS and NPR
In 1995, Democrats held up a Big Bird doll to laud the importance of children’s television and save public broadcast funding. This strategy does not seem likely to work in 2025.