Emeritus Professor Funds History Speakers Series

Walter Lorenz, Louis Fishman, and John McCurdy after Professor Fishman’s talk on September 19, 2024.
Walter Lorenz, Louis Fishman, and John McCurdy after Professor Fishman’s talk on September 19, 2024.
Walter Lorenz, Louis Fishman, and John McCurdy after Professor Fishman’s talk on September 19, 2024.

Walter Lorenz, Louis Fishman, and John McCurdy after Professor Fishman’s talk on September 19, 2024.

Thanks to a gift from the estate of Professor Emeritus William Donald “Don” Briggs, the EMU History Speakers Series has been generously endowed for the future. Briggs’s sizable gift ensures that each year the History Section will be able to bring in several internationally acclaimed historians to present their latest research to EMU’s students, faculty, and friends.

            “We are extremely grateful to the Briggs estate for this gift,” said Professor of History John McCurdy. “Don Briggs was a vital part of the History program for more than thirty years, and his devotion to EMU and its students continues even after his death.”

            In addition to funding History speakers, the Briggs gift will fund an annual scholarship for a student in History. The first scholarship will be awarded this winter.

            The EMU History Speakers Series brings five or six historians to campus each year. Speakers also include EMU History faculty who have recently published a book as well as the thesis projects of MA in History students.

            “Before the Briggs gift, we were limited on whom we could invite,” noted McCurdy. “We were confined to speakers in the region whose travel expenses were relatively inexpensive. But now, we have the opportunity to bring historians from all over the world to EMU.”

            The first History speaker funded by the Briggs gift was Dr. Louis Fishman of Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Professor Fishman spoke on “The Young Turk Revolution: Transforming Identities in Palestine Amidst New Political Camps in Istanbul” on September 19, 2024, to an audience of about fifty students and faculty members. Fishman’s talk was the beginning of a year-long theme of speakers who focus on Middle Eastern history.

For more information on upcoming speakers, go to: https://www.emich.edu/history-philosophy/history/beyond-classroom/speaker-series.php or contact History Speakers Series coordinator Professor Walter Lorenz at [email protected].

Don Briggs was a long-time member of EMU’s Department of History and Philosophy. Born in California in 1936, Briggs completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of California Los Angeles before coming to EMU to teach European history in 1964. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1974.

            Briggs regularly traveled to Europe for research and to lead numerous groups of EMU students. He was known for his innovative teaching, his service to the university, and his support of intercollegiate athletics. In 1987, he was awarded EMU’s Distinguished Faculty Award.

            Upon retiring in 1995, Briggs returned to California with his wife Joan Brehm Briggs. He died in December 2021.