Dear Alumni, Students, Colleagues, and Friends,

I wish everyone a very happy end of Spring Semester.  This past academic year was the first full year of in-person campus life in four years.  After a seemingly endless series of semesters of online learning, teaching, and collaborating, we returned to campus with a renewed sense of appreciation for our community and for everything we do.  Over the past year the department hallway returned to life as students and colleagues conversed and exchanged ideas, and our department held a series of events to promote our faculty’s outstanding research.

This year we also had the honor to welcome Dr. Steven Vose to our faculty.  Steve is joining us as the Bhagwan Suparshvanatha Endowed Professor in Jain Studies.  Steve brings his wide-ranging expertise to our department.  Trained as a historian of Medieval India, he is an expert in the history of the Jains, a South Asian religious tradition that emphasizes non-violence, asceticism, and charity.  This research has provided a foundation for Steve to develop a deep knowledge of religious studies and ethics, and his work has taken him to the study of practices and theories of social justice across cultures and historical periods.  Steve will be teaching a broad array of courses on South Asia, nonviolence, and religious studies here at CU Denver. 

As we welcome Steve, we also give our thanks our colleague Leigh Campbell-Hale, who will be retiring at the end of this year.  Over the past four years, Leigh has guided our CU Succeed program through some major transitions as our department’s CU Succeed Liaison.  Her work has allowed us to maintain deep connections to our colleagues in CU Succeed.  Leigh also taught courses in US History, and our department had the opportunity to celebrate her recently published a book with the Colorado University Press, titled Remembering Ludlow but Forgetting the Columbine: The 1927-1928 Coal Strike.  We all congratulate Leigh and wish her all the very best in her retirement.

In our department, this year was busy as we continued our efforts to adapt our curriculum to changes that accelerated in the wake of COVID.  To meet the demand of online courses, our department developed new curricular plans that will allow us to better support our undergraduate and graduate students in completing their degrees online.  We hold equity as a core value in these changes, as we seek to ensure that students near and far, and with all types of schedules, can develop their critical understanding of the past and follow their passion for History.

Congratulations to all of our graduating MA and BA students.  These have been a hard series of years, and we all admire your tenacity and hard work.  Know that we are here to support you as you move forward.

All best wishes,

Ryan Crewe

Associate Professor and Chair