News & Events
Callahan Lecture
Shannon Frystak, Visiting Assistant Professor of History, has contributed to a "mentoring toolkit" available on the new Southern Association for Women Historians website: http://www.h-net.org/~sawh/Toolkit/. Shannon's contribution offers advice on the timely completion of the doctoral dissertation.
Eugene Van Sickle, PhD, 2005, has accepted a tenure-track position at North Georgia College & State University.
Opolot Okia, PhD, under the direction of Dr. Robert Maxon, has just been awarded a Fulbright to Kenya for the 2007-2008 academic year. Dr. Okia is currently Assistant Professor of History at Winthrop College.
Jay Smith, current MA student, recently published "Red-Baiting Senator Harley Kilgore in the Election of 1952: The Limits of McCarthyism during the Second Red Scare" in West Virginia History.
Four of our MA students in Public History and History programs have published their recent works of local historical research in the Monogalia Historical Society's Proceedings. They are Hannah Cole, "Chapel Chimes on the Creek: Lynch Chapel United Methodist Church Harbors Community History", Toby Garbutt, "Maintenance of Morals: War, Industrialization and Charnages in Female Crime and Justice"; Crystal Wimer, "Beneath the Depths: The Story of Shaw, West Virginia and Jennings Randolph Lake"; and Norval Rasmussen, "Road Building Challenges in Monongalia County, 1785-1816."
David Pellegrin, who received his B.A. in History in December 2006, has just been admitted to Harvard Law School. Since graduation David has been working for a public interest law firm in Arlington, VA. Having successfully navigated the law school application process, David would be more than willing to share the fruits of his experiene with the pre-law students in History and other departments. His e-mail address is msymgw@hotmail.com
Robert Moore, a WVU Foundation Scholar who is set to graduate in May with a double major in History and English has just been accepted into the graduate program in Public Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Steve Zdatny was selected as a recipient of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Research Award.
Jack Hammersmith was selected as the recipient of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Public Service Award.
Katherine Bankole, Tyler Boulware, and Kate Staples all received West Virginia Humanities Council individual research fellowships for $2500 each. Tyler and Kate were earlier awarded Faculty Senate Research Grants.
Greg Good, along with Mark Koepke, recieved an Award for Research Team Scholarship (ARTS) from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
Joseph Hodge was named a recipient of a 2007 Riggle Fellowship.
On April 3, 2007 the reception for the new class of Bucklew and Foundation scholars was held and of the five senior Foundations Scholars making presentations, three of them were History Majors:Ingrid Bohme, Robert Moore, and Rose Simis.
Tyler Boulware, Asst. Professor of History, has recieved several grants-in-aid to support his research on "Deconstructing the Cherokee Nation." They include a $7500 Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellowship from the Huntington Library, a $1000 Price Visiting Research Fellowship from the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan, and a $1500 Archie K. Davis Fellowship from the North Caroliniana Society.
Mark Tauger received the first Travel Assitance Program Grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council, as well as funding from the Eberly College and the History Department, to present a paper at an International Workshop on the History of Climate Change in Kolkata India, on climate and the Bengal famine of 1943.
Jeffrey R. Gudzune, 2005 MA Graduate, has recently been appointed Secretary of the Delaware Humanities Council, a public non-profit that supports the arts and culture for Delaware. I am also a feature writer for Native American/First Nations' History for the web based magazine Suite 101.com.
Kathleen Naglee, is one of five winners out of more than a hundred entries, of the "Coming Home" writing contest. "Your work stood out for all sorts of reasons, but there was no denying the immediacy and intensity of your language," wrote Professor James Harms, who organized the competition. Ms Nagless essay will be published in the DA, and she was able to read it at a special even on October 15, 2007. Congratulations Kathleen.
Charlotte (Cathy) Rodabaugh, Ph. D. candidate was awarded the Filson Historical Society Fellowship located in Louisville, KY, and The Gilder Lehrman Institute Institute of American History located in New York City. These fellowships will allow Cathy to continue her research. Congratulations!
The following students presented original research papers at the Phi Alpha Theta State Conference held at West Virginia Weseleyan College, Buckhannon, WV on March 22, 2008: Doug Bell, Kelly Benner, Joseph DeHaven, Gywndaf Garbutt, Bryan Richards, Brian Sarginger, Angela Sirna, Jessica Young and graduate student Jeffrey Leatherwood. Four students were recognizied with a Best Paper of the Panel Award: Gwyndaf Garbutt, "Heretic or Nuisance: A Brief Look at the Factors Behind the Accusations of Lollardy against Margery Kempe." Jessica Young, "Forced Awkward Interactions: The Role of Lower-Class Women in Early Urban Charleston, South Carolina." Kelly Benner, "The German-American Bund: The Final Resistance to German-American Assimilation." Joseph DeHaven, "American Janus: The Enduring Symbol of a Paradoxial Nation." WVU students received 3 of the 6 overall awards for best papers: Gwyndaf Garbutt, second place, Kelly Benner, third place, Joseph DeHaven, honorable mention. Graduate students were exempt from the prize competition. West Virginia University, History Department will be hosting the Phi Alpha Theta State Conference in the Spring 2009.
