History Department News and Research

At the Museum of the American Revolution, Syracuse University alumni heard Dean David M. Van Slyke and historian Tessa Murphy reflect on the nation’s founding and the legacy of independence.

Their expertise spans a range of fields, and they play a vital role in advising the dean and school leadership.

Rhetoric centered on hidden power and world domination is often an antisemitic trap, warns Britt Tevis, assistant professor of history and Phyllis Backer Professor of Jewish Studies.

Britt Tevis, Phyllis Backer Professor of Jewish Studies and assistant professor of history, has edited an anthology, Sanctioned Bigotry: A Documented History of Antisemitism in the United States (Yale University Press, 2026). Tevis uses a variety of sources to chart the course of antisemitism in the United States from the colonial period to the present day.

Andrew Wender Cohen, professor of history, talks about his new book, Gangster of New York: A Violent Life in Nineteenth-Century America, that follows the remarkable career of Louis Bieral—a boxer, gambler, political enforcer and American Civil War veteran.

Andrew Wender Cohen, professor and director of graduate studies in the History Department, has written Gangster of New York: A Violent Life in Nineteenth Century America (Cambridge University Press, 2026). The book traces the extraordinary life of Louis Bieral, a 19th-century gangster, politician, sportsman and Civil War hero whose turbulent journey illuminates the violence woven into the fabric of American life.

Bob Bifulco has joined the dean’s office leadership team and faculty have stepped into new roles guiding the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and the Law, Society and Policy program.

“There's real danger here of an escalating conflict that could spill over into the broader Persian Gulf region with profound consequences, not just for the regional stability, but for the global economy. So there's no military solution here. What needs to happen is a good faith, negotiated settlement,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program.

Co-authored by Assistant Professor of Geography and the Environment Meghan Kelly; Maxwell Ph.D. students Cameron Kline, Rachel Ameen and Brooklyn Montgomery; and Maxwell alum Simone Yoxall, the article was published in Cartographic Perspectives.

“This disaster throws a wrench in the White House and State Department plan for securing and stabilizing the circum-Caribbean region that includes Venezuela,” says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

On the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast, Syracuse University faculty break down the ideals behind the nation’s founding and what 250 years of democracy reveal about the U.S. today.

The inaugural flight, titled Foundations and comprised of four lectures examining the origins of the U.S. republic, is available on Maxwell’s YouTube channel. The remaining nine lectures to be released in the days ahead in three additional flights titled: Shaping a Nation, Issues in Focus and Modern Challenges.

“This might be a time of thinking about liberty, equality, the pursuit of happiness,” says Carol Faulkner, professor of history. But in some ways this time is different, she says. “It's much more partisan. It's really much more about a divisive president than the 1876 or the 1976 commemorations.”

“I think this idea that the Iranians are going to turn uranium over is really posturing. They're not going to turn the uranium over. What they may be willing to do is actually downgrade the uranium to a certain level under UN or international auspices and the United States is going to have to agree to that,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program. 

“There is room for negotiation on the nuclear program. But one of the things Iran is looking for is the following: they want the United States to agree, or at least to recognize, its right—Iran's right—too enrich uranium under the nuclear non-proliferation agreement that Iran signed and other countries have signed,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program.