The Department of History Announces
Annual Essay Prize Awards for 2009

Frank A. Woods Award

Announcing the Frank A. Woods Award in History, a new undergraduate prize. Established in honor of Frank A. Woods, BA'63, LLB '66. This award will be given to a graduating senior in the College of Arts and Science who is majoring in History and has the highest grade point average.
2009 Winner: Sara Michelle Lackner

Henry Lee Swint Award

Each spring, the Department of History awards $250 to the author of the best research paper or essay in any field of history completed during the previous calendar year.  This competition is open only to undergraduate history majors and excludes History honors theses.  The papers must have been completed for a Vanderbilt history course during the calendar year 2008 (Spring or Fall 2008 terms). 
2009 Winner: Alexa Currie Bensy, “‘She Had Her Hat On’–A Few Short Words with a Whole Lot of Meaning: A Study on What Caused the 1920s Transition to Dating in American Courtship.”   History 200, Professor Sarah Igo, December 2008.

Paul K. Conkin Award

Each spring, the Department of History awards $250 to the author of the best paper in U.S. history completed during the previous calendar year.  This competition is open to all undergraduate students but excludes History honors theses.  The papers must have been completed for a Vanderbilt history course during the calendar year 2008 (Spring or Fall 2008 terms).   
2009 Winner:  Daniel Kasbohm, “Federalism, Highways, and the National Minimum Driking Age Law of 1984."   History 200, Professor James Epstein, December 2008.

Samuel T. McSeveney Award

Each spring, the Department of History awards $250 to the author of the best research paper or essay written for a freshman history seminar (History 115W).  The papers must have been completed for a Vanderbilt History 115F course during the calendar year 2008 (Spring or Fall 2008 terms).  
2009 Winner: Sanah Ladhani, “The Arab Jew: An Infectious Disease.” Jewish Studies 115, Professor Julia Cohen, Fall 2008.

Dewey Grantham Awards

Named for the late Professor Dewey Grantham, this award is presented to the best Honors Thesis in the History Department each year since Spring 1997.
2009 Winner: Melanie Carol Erb, “The Rhetoric of Reform: Metaphors of Disease in John Howard’s The State of the Prisons,” Advisor: Professor James Epstein.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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