Katrina: A History, 1915-2015, written by Andy Horowitz, an assistant professor of history at the School of Liberal Arts, was named the Humanities Book of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values Walter Isaacson wrote the cover story, “The Vaccine Revolution,” for TIME Magazine’s Jan. 18 issue. In his story, Isaacson writes about his experience being in a clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine, how the COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech were developed and the role of mRNA. “The plague year of 2020 will be remembered as the time when these traditional vaccines were supplanted by something fundamentally new: genetic vaccines, which deliver a gene or piece of genetic code into human cells,” he wrote.

“By shining a light on gene editing, the Nobel committee is bringing a needed awareness of the wonders of nature — and of the technology that will increasingly determine how nature works.”

“Most accounts of Katrina begin when the levees broke and conclude not long after. But these stories offer a denuded sense of what happened. … Somebody had to build the levees before they could break.”

The Newcomb Archives and the Nadine Robbert Vorhoff Collection of the Newcomb Institute are now accessible through a Digital Repository online. In addition, the Newcomb Art Museum will inventory and digitize its permanent collections with a Collection Stewardship grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services Museums for America.

Jana Lipman, associate professor of history, wrote “Detaining Migrant Children at U.S. Military Bases Has Been Done Before,” in TIME in June. Lipman has conducted research on refugee camps in America that reveals that the U.S. government has repeatedly turned to military bases to shelter immigrants. “At different times throughout the 20th century, the federal government kept groups of people from Hungary, Vietnam, Cuba and Haiti on U.S. military bases. The result can be either efficient immigration processing or a prolonged, confined and traumatic experience,” said Lipman.

Harvard University Press offers an audio interview with emeritus professor of history Larry Powell discussing his book, The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans. Powell’s book focuses on the founding of the city of New Orleans.