During the coronavirus pandemic, Asian Americans have experienced a sharp increase in racist verbal abuse and physical attacks. From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to the World War II internment of Japanese residents, to the 1982 killing of Chinese American Vincent Chin, anti-Asian racism has taken different forms over the course of our history. On Monday, March 8, Washington Post reporter Michelle Ye Hee Lee spoke with author and historian Erika Lee, together with author and activist Helen Zia, about how the past can help inform our understanding of where we are today.

Katharine Gerbner, McKnight Land-Grant Professor in the History Department and historian of religion, is interviewed in a new PBS series airing on February 18 and 23. This series reveals the broad history and culture of the Black church and explores African American faith communities on the frontlines of hope and change.

History Department and Department of American Indian Studies alumna Vanessa GoodThunder is featured by MPR News in honor of Native American Heritage Month.

New Employment Opportunity

The coronavirus pandemic will live not only in our memories but also in our history books. How does COVID-19 compare to other infectious diseases? What other implications does it have for our societies? In this series, faculty experts reflect on what we can learn from past epidemics and how we might change in response to this one.

How will life change after COVID?

History professor William Jones, author of The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights, discusses the historic March on Washington 57 years later in an article from USA TODAY.

Associate Professor Tracey Deutsch was quoted in an article for Yahoo News on activists who are going on a hunger strike to spur action in the case of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker who was killed by police in March 2020.

Professor Kathryn Reyerson discusses COVID-19 and its relation to pandemics through the ages