This roundtable discussion will focus on the multifaceted influence of 2020 American Historical Association President Mary Lindemann on our field. Across her distinguished career as a remarkably productive publishing historian, tremendously effective teacher and mentor, and leading figure in our professional community and its professional organizations, Lindemann’s work has left an indelible mark on a striking diversity of subfields: the history of science and medicine; urban history; women’s and gender history; the history of crime, authority, and violence; diplomatic history; and (most recently) the history of the environmental degradation brought by warfare and its aftermath. Her work also cuts across any of a number of geographic boundaries, not only bringing to life the world of the early modern German states (the center of gravity of her work) but crucially connecting it to that of the Low Countries, France, England, and beyond. Lindemann’s scholarship wears its erudition lightly, remaining accessible and indeed enjoyable reading despite its intellectual heft and theoretical and methodological sophistication. This signal mixture of substance, range, and tone has allowed Lindemann to speak across the traditional sub-disciplinary and national divisions in our field and to challenge those divisions as few other scholars have. The result has been a scholarly œuvre that resonates across our profession while weaving the various strands of that profession together into a better and more-integrated whole. The purpose of our roundtable will be to discuss these contributions of Lindemann’s work while pointing to the future directions its integrative potential can take our profession in.

Our discussion will be led by Dr. Suzanne L. Marchand, Boyd Professor in the Department of History at Louisiana State University. Dr. Marchand will be joined by Dr. Benjamin Marschke, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of History at Cal Poly Humboldt; Dr. Jared C. Poley, Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Georgia State University; and Dr. Daniel Riches, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History at the University of Alabama.