Students Samantha Hillgartner and Sarah Fisher Present Papers at Phi Alpha Theta Conference

Two Phi Alpha Theta members, Samantha Hillgartner and Sarah Fisher, accompanied by faculty advisor Dr. Sandra Mendiola, attended the 2010 regional Phi Alpha Theta conference held at the University of North Alabama on April 10, 2010.

Sarah presented a paper on “Tense Theology in a Holy Hierarchy: Liberation Theology vs. the Vatican” as part of a panel on "Religion," and Samantha presented a paper on "Calvin Coolidge: The Action of Inaction" as part of a panel on "Twentieth-Century America."



Pictured here see Samantha presenting her paper at the podium and Sarah, second from left, seated with her fellow panelists during her presentation.

Kudos to Samantha and Sarah for presenting their work!

History Alum Joseph Richardson Receives Assistantship to Pursue Graduate Studies at Ole Miss

Congratulations are in order for Joseph Richardson, BA 2009, who has just accepted a full graduate teaching assistantship at the University of Mississippi. Although a man of many intellectual talents -- he was also very active in the Society for Ancient Languages and won the Outstanding Classical Studies Student Award while at UAH -- Joseph has chosen to focus his studies on Southern History. He begins in Fall 2010.

Pictured here is Joseph with Dr. John Kvach at Honors Day 2009, where Joseph received the first ever "Dr. John Rison Jones Award in Southern History sponsored by the Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society."

Hurray for Joseph! We encourage all of you blog followers here in Huntsville to try to get Joseph to give you one of his hallmark tours of Maple Hill Cemetery before he leaves town!

Congratulations to Honors Day Student Award Winners

On April 6, 2010, UAHuntsville and the College of Liberal Arts honored our outstanding students. Five history students received honors: Charity D. Ethridge won the Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement Award; Thomas E. Bockhorn won the Outstanding Graduate Achievement Award; Matthew Menarchek won the "National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Alabama History Essay Award"; Samantha Hillgartner won the "Colonel Walter Aston Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the XVII Century History Award"; and Whitney Reid won the "Dr. John Rison Jones Award in Southern History sponsored by the Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society. Pictured here are Samantha, Whitney, Charity, Thomas, and Matthew.

Two other history majors also won awards, sociology double major Veronica Ferreira the Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement Award in Sociology and political science double major Sarah Fisher the "College of Liberal Arts Highest Academic Achievement Award" as the best student in the College. Pictured here are Sarah and Veronica.



We are very proud of all of our students!

MA Student Thomas Bockhorn Successfully Defends MA Thesis and Wins Department's Outstanding Graduate Student Award

The history department is proud to congratulate MA student Thomas Bockhorn, who will graduate in MA, for defending his thesis, "To Save Alabama’s Children: Power, Politics, and Child Labor, 1880 - 1908," and then winning the award for Outstanding Graduate Student in History at the April 6, 2010 Honors Day at UAHuntsville.

Pictured are a photograph of Thomas with his thesis advisor Dr. Stephen Waring after the Honors convocation and a historical photograph of Merrimack Mill employees, including many children.

Here is Thomas's thesis abstract:



Alabama became a political battleground during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Anti child labor reformers held rallies and created literature to aid in their cause. While southern anti-child labor reformers campaigned for the same cause, the question of whether states or the federal government should intervene became a heated controversy for southern progressives. Two major camps emerged by the early twentieth century: state reformers and southern nationalists. State reformers brandished their hope that the best advocates and defenders of children were the particular states where they resided. Southern nationalists, on the other hand, believed that the child labor problem was so vast that only a federal solution would stop the labor practice. The public split among southern Progressives, coupled with the 1907 Beveridge bill, allowed business interests to change the debate from saving children to decrying federal interference. These competing interests effectively stalled the movement.

History Major Veronica Ferreira Receives Assistantship for PhD Program at University of Iowa

The history department celebrates the good news of our major Veronica Ferreira, who has received a teaching assistantship for the PhD program in sociology at the Univeristy of Iowa. Her areas of focus will be gender, family and inequality. She will begin her studies in Fall 2010.

Although Veronica will pursue graduate studies in her double major of sociology and not in history, she credits her history coursework with providing an invaluable foundation for her graduate plans, particularly by teaching her how to do research and by showing her how current social phenomena are always shaped by historical context.

To the amusement of many of her history professors, Veronica also claims that "as a sociologist, I will always miss Chicago style. It makes checking sources so much easier, and it looks so much nicer on the page."

We wish Veronica much luck in her graduate studies! We also thank her for all her contributions to the history department, particularly her involvement with History Club and Phi Alpha Theta and her work as one of the first two student mentors through the Peer Assisted Study Session program. We know Veronica will be a very good teaching assistant and teacher.

Pictured here is Veronica on Honors Day with her husband Brian and children Timothy, Cecilia, and Lillian.

Congratulations to Dr. Sam Thomas for Research Fellowships

Sam Thomas has received two generous research grants to support his current research project, "Midwives and Society in Early Modern England." The National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, and a joint grant from the Newberry Library and the British Academy, will allow him to conduct research in three archives in Yorkshire, England. Pictured here is an old map of Yorkshire.

Sam's goals for this trip are to find evidence on previously anonymous midwives, and gain a better understanding of early modern social history, including the experience of childbirth and the role midwives played in supporting the patriarchal system.

Congratulations, Sam!

Jane Deneefe co-authors book on Alabama civil rights history

Jane DeNeefe, an alum of the UAH History Department, recently co-authored a book called  The Alabama Civil Rights Trail by the University of Alabama Press.  At a Huntsville celebration of the publication, Ms. Deneefe read passages from the book.  There was also a musical performance from Ivy Joe and the Snowballs, a musical group with a black singer and a white band that played to audiences of all colors during the 1960s and 1970s and helped integrate Huntsville.  Great work and congratulations Jane!