The annual History Awards ceremony was combined with the End of Year Party. Students, faculty, and staff enjoyed refreshments and door prizes as we honored the achievements of our distinguished department.

The department honored five undergraduates. The Glenn Gray Award to the outstanding undergraduate major went to Alexandria Lierz. Alex completed a degree in History, English, and Medieval and Renaissance Studies and is graduating from the honors program and with distinction. The topic of her honors thesis is “Gender Inversion and Motherhood in the Stories of the Early Christian Martyrs.”

The Ed Hirsch Scholarship went to History and English major Jared Wiebelhaus, who is also in the Honors Program. Jared has a minor in Computer Science and is contributing material to Dr. Will Thomas’s digital project on slave petitions for freedom in early Washington D.C.

The Alan Woolworth Scholarship went to History, Political Science, and Spanish major Kelsey Hanson. She impressed the awards committee with an insightful paper analyzing the early years of the Cold War.

History Department also awarded two students for high distinction and service to the History Department. The department recognized History and Classics major Andrew Ide for his high grade point average and challenging program of study. He completed an honors thesis on the cult of the emperor in early imperial Rome. A graduating senior who will be continuing his studies in the UNL M.A. program next year, Robert Perry, got an award for the service to the History Department. He has donated a generous amount of time to the department helping us with events for Phi Alpha Theta, recruitment, including shooting a recruitment video for our website and dressing in costume for the Big Red Road Show.

Six graduate students received awards and fellowships in the department. Kevin Chrisman, a graduating Master’s student received the Dov Ospovat Memorial Award for the best graduate research paper in 2012-2013academic year. Students of Early Modern Europe Andrea Nichols and Paul Strauss received the Marguerite C. and Clare McPhee Memorial Fellowship for the next academic year. Paul Strauss also got Albin T. and Pauline Anderson Memorial Award. Two Americanists Michelle Tiedje and Rebecca Wingo were recognized with Addison E. Sheldon Nebraska History Fellowship and Brian Sarnaki received Helen and Perry Moran Fellowship.

The Graduate Student Association paid tribute to Department Secretary Barbara Bullington with Staff Outstanding Service to Graduate Students Award.

Four members of the faculty were awarded research grants to support them in the beginning or continuation of their book research. Professor Timothy Mahoney received the James A. Rawley Faculty Research Grant. Dr. Katrina Jagodinsky received the Clay Thomas Faculty Research Grant. Dr. Waskar Ari and Dr. Dawne Curry received the Charles Henry Oldfather Faculty Research Grant. Professor David Cahan received the Albin and Pauine Anderson Faculty Award. Congratulations to Dr. Dawne Curry who was promoted to Associate Professor.

Professor Kenneth Winkle took wonderful pictures of the party, more of which you can see on our Facebook page. The picture above features Department Chair Professor William G. Thomas, Department secretary Barb Bullington, and History Graduate Students' Association president for 2012-2013 Academic Year Rebecca Wingo.

Professor William G. Thomas, III hosted the Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society Initiation dinner last week. The nationwide fraternity of historians enjoys a strong tradition at UNL and the history department was pleased and proud to welcome its newest members. Professor Kenneth Winkle is the faculty superwisor of the UNL chapter that gives a lot of leadership opportunities for history majors.

2012-13 Initiates are:

Margaret Abbott, Alexandra Adams, Ashlee Anderson, Michelle Clark, Chance Counts, Krissa Delka, Nicole Drinkwalter, Bryan Lasley, Anna Leas, Alexander Mallory, Felicia Nehl, Robb Nelson, Mark Pelini, Robert Perry, Monica Pettit, Janelle Ruzicka, Adam Smith, Kent D. Stejskal, and Meredith Underwood.

"Gender, Race, and the Missing Link: Science and the Transatlantic Debate on 'The Negro Question'" is the 3rd event in the Women's and Gender Studies Program Colloquium series Science & Gender Matters. Dr. Jeannette Eileen Jones, Associate Professor of History and Ethnic Studies, will explore the transformation of evolutionary thought pre and post-Darwin on transatlantic debates over the enslavement, emancipation, and enfranchisement of the “Negro.” She will focus on the gendering and racialization of the so-called “Missing Link” — the unknown intermediary figure that linked humanity to other mammals in the evolutionary chain. This figure was often linked to African women and apes in popular imagination and popular science.

The Colloquium will take place at Nebraska Union on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 3:30 pm.

“Forgotten Genocides: New Perspectives on a Less Known History,” is a one-day symposium that took place at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on April 10, 2013. Co-organized by Prof. Bedross Der Matossian (History) and Prof. Gerald Steinacher (History) and sponsored by the Harris Center for Judaic Studies, the Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Program, and the Department of History, the symposium discussed and engaged the dialogue on the new perspectives of some of the lesser known genocides and mass atrocities of the 20th century.

Applying the broader definition of Raphael Lemkin’s concept of Genocide, the symposium brought together scholars working on different aspects of genocide studies and mass atrocities of the 20th century seeking to both incorporate and bring to the forefront these understudied genocides within larger conceptual and temporal frameworks and to foster interchange between different disciplines and area studies specialists in the field.

Love Library is currently hosting "Material Culture Objects of Early Modern Europe," an exhibit showcasing the first great seal of Queen Elizabeth I, several coins from the Tudor period, Hollar'sTheater of Women, Hogenber's engraving of St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Heywood's The hierachie of the blessed Angels, print of the monuments dedicated to Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart, and other items dating to the Renaissance period from the University Special Collections. History graduate students Alyson Alvarez, Holly Kizewski, Catherine Medici-Thiemann, Andrea Nichols, and Paul Strauss working with Professor Carole Levin in her History 932 seminar "Queenship and Power" contributed research essays on the exhibit items. The exhibit is located in the basement of the library near Special Collections. The copies of exhibit essays are available in Room 29 of the Love Library. The exhibit will run through the end of April.

Exhibit items are a part of the Love Library's collection of Early Modern material culture objects that also include Shakespeare's First Folio, rare quartos, and illustrations of his plays.

Thanks to Professor Carole Levin, Holly Kizewski, and Catherine Medici-Thiemann for their contribution to this news item.

The image below comes from Dudley Digges's The Compleat Ambassador, a collection of correspondences detailing the marriage negotiations between Elizabeth I and the French princes featured in the exhibit.

Our History Majors and Phi Alpha Theta were a big hit at the Big Red Roadshow yesterday in Omaha. Our students talked with dozens and dozens of interested students and parents. Thank you to Phi Alpha Theta and all of the students who participated. Thank you to Ann Tschetter who organized our effort. Thank you to Ken Winkle and Vanessa Gorman for attending and talking with parents and students.

We made the nightly news in fact. If you'd like to see History Major Robb Nelson who made a very good young Hon. Abraham Lincoln, please see Fox News 42's coverage of the Road Show See more photos and video on our Facebook page University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of History.

The Office of Graduate Studies presented a dozen awards for outstanding graduate education at the Graduate Studies Awards Reception on February 13.?Department of History alumna Kaci Nash won a Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award for the thesis “On Our Way to the Sunny South, Land of Chivalry: Northern Imperial Attitudes in the  Civil War South.” Kaci successfully defended in Spring 2012. An Omaha native, Nash studied for her Master’s degree in History under Professor William G. Thomas.

Congratulations Kaci Nash and Professor Thomas!