August 14, 2025
Dear History Colleagues and Friends of History,
On the passing of our dear friend Dr. David Levy, I would like to share with you the obituary written by his daughter, Beth:
https://www.tribute.care/obituaries/david-levy
The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the David and Lynne Levy History Fund. You can donate here: https://give.oufoundation.org/LevyMemorial
If you are in Dale Hall Tower any time this week (and hopefully into next) you will see a flower arrangement in the David Levy Lounge under David’s portrait.
--Elyssa Faison
Chair, Department of History
A new exhibit at the University of Oklahoma is shedding light on a lost era of Russian nobility – with the help of a local connection. “Russia's Romanovs in War, Revolution, and Exile, 1916-2016: Stories from a Family Archive” is open for free to the public through February at the Bizzell Memorial Library’s first-floor exhibition space.
Three faculty members from the University of Oklahoma have received a $219,407 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support a 2025 summer institute, “Visual Wests."
University of Oklahoma associate professor Sarah Hines has received a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation for research into Indigenous ecological knowledge in the Bolivian highlands
August 2021
Statement on HB 1775
The faculty of the OU Department of History views the recently enacted Oklahoma HB 1775, which aims to restrict the way racism, sexism, sexuality, and gender identity can be discussed in classrooms, as antithetical to our obligation as historians and educators to grapple honestly with the past. We stand with our colleagues at OU and at other colleges and universities, educators at all levels in our state, our graduate student historians in training, and the many students in our classes who seek open inquiry and informed discussion guided by mutual respect, reason, and evidence. We oppose racism and efforts to prevent students from learning about it. Opposing racism means we must discuss and describe racism’s history and the forms it takes in the present.
The OU Department of History endorses the Joint Statement on Legislative Efforts to Restrict Education about Racism in American History ” issued by the American Historical Association. As that letter states, “Legislation cannot erase ‘concepts’ or history; it can, however, diminish educators’ ability to help students address facts in an honest and open environment capable of nourishing intellectual exploration.” As historians and educators, we are committed to our collective pursuit of historical knowledge, and to using that knowledge--including about the histories of race, gender, and sexuality-- to prepare our students to engage in their communities and in civic life.
