Marcy Sacks

Julian S. Rammelkamp Professor of History
History Department Chair
U.S. History/African-American History

Office: Robinson Hall 211
Phone: (517) 629-0298
Email: [email protected]

Education

• Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley, (History), 1999
• M.A., University of California at Berkeley (History), 1993
• B.S., Cornell University (Industrial and Labor Relations), 1991

Courses

• U.S. History from Colonization to the Civil War
• African American History to the Civil War
• African American History 1865 – Present
• The Civil War and Reconstruction
• U.S. Immigration History
• Road to Revolution

Scholarly Activity

Current Research Projects

• “‘There is Nothing Like Having a Slave’: White Union Soldiers’ Racial Fantasies during the U.S. Civil War”
• “The Other Side of Reconstruction: Black Northerners Confront the Aftermath of Southern Emancipation.”

Books

• Joe Louis: Sports and Race in Twentieth Century America. Routledge (April 2018).
• Before Harlem: The Black Experience in New York City Before World War I. University of Pennsylvania Press (October 2006).

Public-facing Scholarship

•  “A History of the Black Community in San Juan Hill: 1900-1915,” Lincoln Center (NYC) website.
• “Joe Louis, the Punch of Detroit,” The Detroit History Podcast, Season 5, Episode 1.
• “Helping Humans Cope: The Popularity of Pandemic Pets and Civil War Companion Animals,” June 29, 2021. (blog post for Muster, the blog for the Journal of the Civil War Era).
• “‘Skull Trouble’: A Brief History of Police Harassment of Black New Yorkers,” April 23, 2020. (blog post)

Selected Articles

• “‘They Are Truly Marvelous Cats’: The Importance of Companion Animals to U.S. Soldiers during the Civil War,” Journal of the Civil War Era (June 2021).
• “Promoting Inclusivity in Academia: A Case Study in Taking Underrepresented Students to the Archives in the United States,” in Faculty as Global Learners: Opportunities and Strategies to Support Off-Campus Study Leaders at Liberal Arts Colleges, Joan Gillespie et al., eds. (Lever Press, 2020). Featured guest on associated podcast, Postcard Pedagogy. 
• “Speaking Through Silence? Whites’ Efforts to Make Meaning of Joe Louis,” in Cultures of Boxing, David Scott, ed. (Peter Lang, 2015).
• “Behind the Brown Mask: Joe Louis’s Face and the Construction of Racial Mythologies,” in ConFiguring America: Iconic Figures, Visuality, and the American Identity, Michael Fuchs, ed.  (2013)
• “Rand Paul and the Danger of Careless Rhetoric About Civil Rights.”  Christian Science Monitor 5/26/2010.
• Entry for “Harlem Property Owners Association,” in The Encyclopedia of African American History.  Facts on File, 2010.
• Entries for “Harlem,” “The New York Age,” and “The New Negro,” in The Encyclopedia of African American History.  Oxford University Press, 2009.
• “Recreating Black New York at Century’s End,” in Slavery in New York, Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris, ed. The New Press, 2005: 325-349; book published in conjunction with 2005 exhibit at the New-York Historical Society.

Research Interests

African American History, U.S. Social and Cultural History.

Awards

• Residency Research Fellow, Institute for Historical Studies, University of Michigan (2006-2007)
• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship ($40,000; 2006-2007)
• Seminar Participant, “Slavery and Public History,” sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and the Gilder Lehrman Institute (Columbia University, August 8-11, 2004)
• Faculty Diversity Award, Albion College, 2003 (sponsored by the President’s Advisory Committee on Multicultural Affairs)
• Faculty Development Grants, Albion College, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
• History and Culture Fellow, Albion College, 2000-2001
• Emerson Grant, Hamilton College, 1998
• New Jersey Historical Commission Research Grant, 1995-1996
• Eugene Irving McCormac Graduate Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 1995-1996
• New York State Library Research Resident, 1995
• Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor, University of California, 1995