History in Good Hands

Many of you may have missed the changeover at the helm of the History Department recently. Heide Whelan (whose name is, curiously, misspelled on the department website) has assumed control as chair, and David Lagomarsino is serving as vice-chair. Professor Whelan is Dartmouth’s Russia expert, and she is masterful. Her dry sense of humor is evident from her biography on the department website. (“Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Russian tank units stationed half a mile away from my childhood home first provoked my interest in Russia and its people.” As well they would.) Of note, ’05s: Next summer term, she will be teaching her patented History 59,“The History of Warfare”.

Professor Lagomarsino’s fields of expertise defy enumeration, although he seems fond of early modern Europe and Spain’s Golden Era. His infectious love for his subject manner is — well, infectious. And he has consistently been ranked as one of Dartmouth’s finest professors by the discriminating staff of The Dartmouth Review. No Dartmouth student can afford not to take one of his outstanding classes.

While at Dartmouth, I took classes with both of these professors, so I speak with some authority when I say that they both have a deep and abiding commitment to educating Dartmouth students as priority number one (something that, we know, will only become more and more rare). The department is in fine hands.