Feature Martina Litty Class of 2021
Dr. Mehl Joins the Honors Community
After splitting her time between the Department of History and the Honors College, Dr. Mehl will join Honors full-time beginning this summer. Jeff Janowski/UNCW
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r. Eva Mehl joined Honors as the Associate Director early in the Spring 2019 semester, following an internal search. Periplus staff sat down with Dr. Mehl to learn a little more about her and her vision for Honors. What is your academic background like? I was born in Columbus, OH, but grew up in Spain. I did all of my schoolwork there, including my first Ph.D. (early modern European history) in 2002. I then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California Davis and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City. While at UC Davis, I became interested in how differently Spain and the U.S. approach a Ph.D. I decided to pursue a second PhD, this time in Latin American history, at UC Davis. At Davis, my advisors encouraged me to explore the transpacific connections between Spanish America and Spanish Asia (mostly the Philippines), a topic that I have continued to explore to this date.
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What has your career at UNCW been like? I have been at UNCW since 2011, and so far I have had a great experience. I was hired as an assistant professor in the history department, where I have been teaching courses in Latin American history, the Spanish empire, global history, and the history of drugs and drug trafficking. After I received tenure, I got more deeply involved with department and university service. For the last two years, I have served as the undergraduate coordinator for the history department, faculty senator, member of Honors boards, and on other committees. I have found that the professor life can be much more enriching when you get out of your “ivory tower” of your department and you start learning about how the broader institution works and in what ways you can assist in it. What are your current research interests? I am working with letters of Spanish Augustinian friars who traveled to China in 1680–1724 to
