Student Awards and Honors
Annual Departmental Awards
The John Henry Davis Award is named for the late Professor of History who taught at the College from 1926 through 1969. He was a founder of the College’s tutorial system and he created the interdisciplinary course, “Man in the Light of History and Religion,” later renamed “The Search for Values.” He was the first president of the British Studies at Oxford program. This award is given annually to the outstanding senior history major. Graham Gordon was the recipient of the 2009 John Henry Davis Award.
The Douglas W. Hatfield Award is named for the J.J. McComb professor of history (1989-2001) who joined the faculty in 1965. Dr. Hatfield was also Chair of the Department of History from 1970 to 1980 and Director of the Search for Values Program from 1985-2000. Prof. Hatfield, who retired in 2004, continues to teach in the Department on a part-time basis. This award is given to the senior history major who has distinguished her/himself in the area of undergraduate research in history. Anthony Siracusa received the 2009 Douglas W. Hatfield Award.
The Phi Alpha Theta Award is presented annually to a senior for outstanding service to the history honor society. This year′s Phi Alpha Theta Award winner was Avery Pribila.
Honors Research Graduates, 2009
The Department had two students complete honors research projects in 2008-2009.
Taylor Barnes, "′An Unprecedented Conversation′: The Limits of President Clinton’s Advisory Board on Race"
Faculty Mentor: Robert Saxe
On June 14, 1997, President Clinton delivered the commencement speech at the University of California, San Diego and unveiled “One America in the 21st Century: The Presidential Initiative on Race” as the newest, and seemingly most personal, project to be undertaken by his administration. The Initiative included the creation of the President’s Advisory Board on Race, a seven-member team that would spend a year cultivating an “unprecedented conversation” about race in the United States. Despite the enthusiasm with which Clinton started the project, the Initiative and the Board have been largely absent from discussion of the Clinton presidency and civil rights. This essay seeks to explore the topic not only to shed light on a forgotten piece of history but to also systematically question the role of the executive office in racial reparation and the limits of that role. By examining primary sources such as speeches, press releases, and interdepartmental correspondence from the Clinton Presidential Library and other media sources, it becomes evident that the Board’s disappearance from the Clinton legacy is due largely in part to its failure to live up to the expectations it created for itself. The essay deconstructs the “rhetoric of action” that the Board fashioned and maintained throughout its tenure and compares that rhetoric the actual capabilities of the Board. Ultimately, the Board was incapable of fulfilling the role it presented to the public due to both logistical, bureaucratic limitations as well as the problems inherent in attempting to resolve racial inequality, demonstrating that the executive office has, despite past success, limited effectiveness in the field of social justice in the modern United States.
Anthony Siracusa, "Developing and American Ahimsa: The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr.′s Paradigm of Protest"
Faculty Mentor: Charles McKinney
The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr. was described by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as "the leading theorist of nonviolence in America". In spite of such high praise, little research has been done on Lawson′s contribution to the creation of a nonviolent movement for racial justice in America. Lawson′s success at teaching ideological and tactical nonviolence was essential to successful campaigns in the modern civil rights struggle, and the historical research and theological interpretations in this essay demonstrate that Lawson′s understanding of nonviolent protest became a foundational element of the southern civil rights movement.