History Faculty Notes

Seth Armus, Ph.D.
Professor
631.687.2624

Dr. Armus is currently working on several projects— including a long-term book-length manuscript on Pierre-Antoine Cousteau, a prominent French journalist and high-profile Nazi collaborator, and a shorter article that assesses the political influence of French orientalist Louis Massignon. In addition, Dr. Armus is writing a new assessment of the writer Michel Houellebecq, on whom he has published in the past. He has older publications in a number of journals, including French Historical Studies and French Cultural Studies and a number of chapters in books of collected essays.

Heather Barry, Ph.D.
Professor
631.687.5109

Heather E. Barry, Ph.D., recently published an article titled “Naked Quakers Who Were Not So Naked: Seventeenth-Century Quaker Women in the Massachusetts Bay Colony” in the Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Summer 2015. The article examines 45 Quaker women who preached and protested against orthodox Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1656-1670. These women protested by their unauthorized arrival to the colony, holding Quaker meetings, disseminating Quaker literature, disturbing Puritan church services, and “walking naked” in public.

James Blakeley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair
631.687.2627

Dr. Blakeley recently received a grant from Calvin College's Meeter Center for Calvin Studies in Grand Rapids Michigan. The work he completed there will be presented at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in Bruges, Belgium in 2016. He is currently finishing a monograph titled: Voting for the Faith: The Reformation in the Jointly Held Territories of Western Switzerland. Dr. Blakeley has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship (2003-4) and was a participant in a National Endowment from the Humanities Summer Seminar (2013). He is also developing a new course on the Black Plague of Medieval Europe.

Steven Fuchs, Ph.D.
Professor
631.687.2625


Professor Fuchs is developing a new history course on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that examines the development of the atomic bomb, the United States' decision to deploy it against Japan during World War II, Japan's catastrophic human toll, and "the bomb's" influence on postwar global affairs. The course will be offered in Fall 2016. Steven Fuchs is also finalizing an International Studies Minor.

Mark Hessler, Ph.D.
Professor
631.687.2626

Dr. Mark Hessler is currently researching the impact of Enlightenment science on the religious practices of eighteenth century American Puritans. He is also developing a public history concentration that will provide options for students to study and experience how history is presented in public spaces. As Coordinator of Innovative Instruction, he also works in the areas of online education, curriculum development and key areas of student support services.