Two faculty members from the history department presented their research during the annual conference of the New York State Association of European Historians in Niagara Falls, New York.
Evelyn Jennings, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Professor of History presented on research from her book, Constructing the Empire in Havana: State Slavery in Defense and Development 1762-1835, which examines the use of enslaved labor to construct the coastal forts of colonial Havana.
Jennings holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Literature from SUNY Oswego, a master’s in Latin American history from SUNY Stony Brook, and a Ph.D. in Modern European and Atlantic history from the University of Rochester. At St. Lawrence, she teaches courses on Colonial Latin America, Imperial Spain, Slavery and Freedom in the Americas, Latin American History through Travel, the Caribbean, the U.S. and Cuba, and Atlantic History.
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, and member of the NYSAEH board of directors, Carolyn Twomey presented on the use of material objects in the teaching of history courses, specifically her pedagogical approaches to a Jewish marriage ring from the 14th-century Colmar Treasure.
Twomey’s research focuses on rituals and environments of water in the early Middle Ages as well as the cultural and religious history of material culture and sacred spaces from late antiquity to the present in Europe and the Mediterranean.