Friday, October 17, 2003

Wilmington, NC -- Dr. Amy Staples, assistant professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, has been named the second Sherman Emerging Scholar in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Dr. Staples was selected in national competition for this distinction.

In the capacity of Sherman Emerging Scholar, Dr. Staples will visit Wilmington Oct. 22-25, conduct informal seminars with faculty and students, guest lecture in several classes, and present a public lecture.

Dr. Staples is the author of “Seeing Diplomacy through Bankers’ Eyes: The World Bank’s Diplomacy toward the Anglo-Iranian Oil Crisis and the Aswan High Dam,” which was published in the Summer 2002 issue of Diplomatic History and won the Stuart L. Bernath Article Prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Her public lecture, Imagining an International Order Based on Development and Peace: Thoughts on the Past and a Future,” will be delivered at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23, in the Warwick Center Ballroom on the campus of UNCW. A reception will immediately follow the lecture in the lobby of the Warwick Center. The lecture is free, and the public is encouraged to attend.

Drawing on her studies on her recent trip to India and her studies on the economic development efforts of the specialized agencies of the World Bank, Dr. Staples will suggest an alternative paradigm to the current international order, which is based on

"globalization." Arguing the need for a community-based international order that above all values human beings rather than corporate bottom lines, she will demonstrate that such thinking has been around for decades and could form the basis for a new paradigm internationally. She will also suggest ways in which Americans could participate in this process of change.

At Middle Tennessee State, she teaches courses on World War II and Vietnam as well as a survey of United States diplomatic history. She has also taught courses in American Environmental History, the increasing role of environmental issues in international affairs and U.S. foreign policy; History of Palestine and Israel, U.S. policy toward this; and The New South, the role of the South in creating and sustaining twentieth-century U.S. foreign policy.

Dr. Staples has done several television appearances in Nashville on current foreign affairs issues and recently presented a lecture on the ways in which the current war in Iraq resembles the Vietnam War.

She earned her Ph.D. (1998) in History from The Ohio State University in the fields of American Diplomatic History, Modern American History, and Modern European International History. Her M.A. (1993) in History is also from Ohio State and her B.A. (1991) in History, summa cum laude, is from St. Bonaventure University.

The Sherman Emerging Scholars Lecture Series is the first endowed lecture series for the UNCW History Department. Announced in April, 2002, the series is named in honor of Virginia and Derrick Sherman, a retired couple who have made Wilmington their home. The endowment was established in honor of the Shermans by their son, Phillip D. Sherman and his wife, Birgitta L. Sherman, and their daughter, Ann Sherman-Skiba and husband Dr. Gunther Skiba.

This lecture series, an annual event during the week marking United Nations Day, is designed to provide a forum for promising new scholars to present their perspectives on current issues in the fields of modern history, politics, and international relations to the university community and to the public.

The History Department is extremely grateful to the Sherman family. Their generosity greatly enhances the department’s ability to carry out its teaching and public service missions.



Individuals seeking additional information may contact Dr. Kathleen C. Berkeley, History Department chair at 910/962-3308

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