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History professor awarded the American Historical Association's "Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize"

Tom Kuehn, professor of history at Clemson University and department chair, has been awarded the American Historical Association annual "Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize" for the best work in any epoch of Italian history, Italian cultural history, or Italian-American relations. The award honors Kuehn's 2008 book, Heirs, Kin, and Creditors in Renaissance Florence. 

The award will be presented to Kuehn in January 2010, at the American Historical Association's annual convention in San Diego, CA.

Kuehn was previously honored in 2003, when he was awarded with a prestigious fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which he used to study repudiated inheritances in Renaissance Florence.

He teaches courses in the Renaissance, the Reformation, and Medieval History, and is a specialist in the legal and social culture of Renaissance Italy.

His other books include Illegitimacy in Renaissance Florence (2002), Law, Family, and Women (1991), and an edited collection, Time, Space, and Women’s Lives in Early Modern Europe (2001).

History professor wins Hodges Prize in Southern Studies

Rod Andrew, professor of history at Clemson University, has won the 2008 Mary Lawton Hodges Prize in Southern Studies for his biography Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior to Southern Redeemer.

Andrew received his award November 12 at a dinner in his honor at the University of South Carolina. Following the award presentation, Andrew gave a public lecture on "Wade Hampton and the Search for Vindication."

The Hodges Prize is given annually by the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina in recognition of "the most original work that furthers understanding of the American South."

Kenneth W. Noe, in writing for The Journal of Military History, calls Andrew's book a "compelling full biography notable for its scope, balance and insight." Noe also says, "In a suddenly crowded field of Hampton biographies, Andrew's insights and detailed attention to both Hampton's military career and his political odyssey makes this work stand out as the fullest and best."

Andrew won the 2008 Distinguished Book Award for biography from the U.S. Army Historical Foundation for Wade Hampton, and in 2008 the book was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Andrew received his M.A. from Clemson University and his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.  Teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in both antebellum and New South periods, Andrew specializes in Southern history.  His essay "‘My Children on the Field': Wade Hampton, Biography, and the Roots of the Lost Cause" is forthcoming in The Great Task Remaining Before Us: Reconstruction as America's Continuing Civil War. Andrew has been teaching at Clemson since 2000 and also serves as a graduate coordinator for the Department of History.
By Sarah Brown

Caroline Dunn, assistant professor of history at Clemson University, has won the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools 2009 Annual Dissertation Award for her PhD thesis on "Damsels in Distress or Partners in Crime? The Abduction of Women in Medieval England."

Dunn wrote her thesis at Fordham University in 2007, under the supervision of Maryanne Kowaleski. The award comes with a $1000 prize.

Dunn first came across the practice of wife abduction in the Middle Ages as an undergraduate reading an obscure biography of Thomas of Lancaster, the Second Earl of Lancaster and erstwhile rival to King Edward II of England.

“The biographer briefly mentioned that Lancaster’s wife was abducted, almost in passing,” said Dunn. “I had no idea if wife stealing was a common occurrence or if this was just one case. Honestly, I was surprised it wasn’t just a literary theme.”
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Steven Marks, professor of history at Clemson University, has been named Alumni Distinguished Professor.

Marks, who has been teaching at Clemson since 1988, was one of six faculty members to receive the distinction this year. Since 1962, the Alumni Association has named Alumni Distinguished Professors to recognize, reward and support excellence in teaching at Clemson. The designation carries a $5,000 yearly stipend made possible by alumni gifts to the Clemson Fund.

Provost Dori Helms presented Marks with the honor at Clemson's opening convocation ceremony in August 2009.

Marks specializes in modern Russia and world economic history. He is currently studying the history of capitalism and Russia's involvement in WWI, and is the authyor of the recent book, How Russia Shaped the Modern World. He grew up in Cincinnati, OH.

Marks received his B.A. degree from Miami of Ohio University and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. He has also received the Phi Alpha Theta Graduate Teaching Award, the Dean's Award for Research Accomplishments in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities, the National Scholars Award for Teaching and Mentoring and the Gentry Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities.

At its thirty-seventh annual convention in May, the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) conferred a Recognition Award on Professor Emeritus of History Joseph Arbena for his “exceptional contributions to the study of sport history.”

Professor Arbena, who retired from Clemson in 2006 after forty years on the history faculty, has served NASSH as editor of its Journal of Sport History (1993-1996), as a member of its editorial board since 1996, as local arrangements chairman when NASSH visited Clemson in 1989 and as participant in numerous programs.

Arbena has also served on the editorial boards of several other journals devoted to sports studies.  He was director of the Clemson University Conference on Sport and Society, 1981-1984, bringing together sports celebrities and academics of various disciplines to discuss the nature and meaning of sports. 

Arbena has a long record of research and publication devoted to sports in Latin America, including several anthologies and reference books, as well as numerous lectures, articles and book reviews.