Graduate News Archive | Department of History

Graduate Student Mira Markham featured in Contingent Magazine

PhD Candidate Mira Markham recently penned an insightful essay about her experiences in the archives for her dissertation research. Read her essay in Contingent Magazine.

Congratulations to Lindsay Ayling, Frederick Cochran, and Marlon Londoño, 2021 Teaching Assistant Award Recipients

On April 14, the Committee on Teaching honored graduate students Lindsay Ayling, Frederick Cochran, and Marlon Londoño with the 2021 teaching assistant awards. Read about their respective awards below: UNC History Department Peter Filene Award for Creative Teaching: Lindsay … Continued

Department Alumni Appear in Media Discussing Ukraine

Multiple department graduate program alumni have recently appeared in various media outlets discussing the historical context of the war in Ukraine. Here are some of their appearances. Virginia Olmsted McGraw – NPR: Putin’s puffy coat and Zelenskyy’s T-shirts show the … Continued

Graduate Student Cristian Walk Receives Tanner Award

Congratulations to department graduate student Cristian Walk on receiving a Tanner Award for Graduate Teaching Assistants. Read more about Cristian and his philosophy on teaching here.

Graduate Student Alexandra Odom In Carolina Arts & Sciences Magazine

Alexandra Odom won a Graduate School Impact award for her role in a documentary film focusing on the achievement gap between white and Black students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. The Carolina Arts & Sciences Magazine wrote about Odom … Continued

Five Graduate Students Awarded Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships

Congratulations to five history graduate students on being awarded the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Laura Cox, Arianne Ekinci, Cody Love, Emily Taylor, and Abigail Warchol will use their fellowships to travel to the areas they study and conduct research. You … Continued

Prof. Shannon Eaves (PhD ’15) Wins Prestigious Fellowship

Shannon Eaves, PhD’ 15 and current Assistant Professor of African American History at the College of Charleston, recently received a prestigious Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). You can read more about Professor Eaves’s … Continued

Elizabeth Ellis, PhD’15 is Honorable Mention for Cappon Prize

Elizabeth Ellis, PhD’ 15 won Honorable Mention for her article “The Natchez War Revisited: Violence, Multinational Settlements, and Indigenous Diplomacy in the Lower Mississippi Valley” published in the William & Mary Quarterly in July 2020. The annual Cappon Prize recognizes … Continued

Graduate student, Emma Rothberg, Featured in Graduate School Magazine

PhD candidate, Emma Rothberg, was interviewed in the Carolina Graduate School Magazine about her Ruth Bader Ginsburg Predoctoral Fellowship with the National Women’s History Museum. Read more about Rothberg’s fellowship and the full interview.

May 2021 Graduate Program Graduation Celebration

Last month, the department celebrated the achievements of those who graduated with their MAs and PhDs this spring. Professor emeritus, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, spoke at the virtual event which can be viewed in full on YouTube. The program for the … Continued

Graduate student, Zardas Lee, featured in UNC Endeavors article

PhD candidate Zardas Lee was interviewed in Research UNCovered, a recurring feature for UNC Endeavors that “delves into the lives of UNC researchers from all disciplines and career levels, showcasing not only their research prowess but personal experiences in academia and … Continued

Rachel Hynson’s (PhD ’14) book included on Contingent Magazine’s list of recommended books by first authors

Contingent Magazine recently included Rachel Hynson’s Laboring for the State: Women, Family, and Work in Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-1971 on its list of recommended history books by first authors. Hynson (UNC PhD, 2014) is currently Director of the Creating Connections Consortium in Middlebury, Vermont. A … Continued

Congrats to Rachel Cochran on Fulbright-Hays!

Congratulations to PhD Student Rachel Cochran for receiving a 2020 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellows Program! See the announcement here. Cochran’s dissertation, titled “Political Thought in the 18th century Persian Cosmopolis,” will explore how cosmologies, epic narrative traditions and … Continued

Donny Santacatarina, PhD candidate, awarded Adams Fellowship for the Public Humanities

Donny Santacatarina, a 5th year PhD candidate, has been awarded the Maynard Adams Fellowship for the Public Humanities. In his cohort, he’ll conduct public humanities work through the comparison of Chinese and American news systems. Congratulations, Donny, we can’t wait … Continued

Jessica Wilkerson (Ph.D. ’14) Wins H.L. Mitchell Award

Jessica Wilkerson, who earned her Ph.D. from the history department in 2014, has won the Southern Historical Associations H.L. Mitchell Award for her book To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice. The award recognizes … Continued

PhD Candidate Lucas Kelley and Recent PhD Garrett Wright (PhD ’19) Write for Scalawag Magazine

PhD Candidate Lucas Kelley and Recent PhD Garrett Wright write how “stolen Indigenous land built universities across the United States” in a new article for Scalawag Magazine. Using maps made by Adrienne Hall, Wright and Kelley show that “so-called land-grant … Continued

Allison Somogyi (’19):” Why Do Women Change Their Stories of Sexual Assault?”

Allison Somogy, PhD ’19 writes for The Conversation about “the circumstances that can prompt victims to change their stories about sexual assault.” Read here.

PhD Candidate Alyssa Bowen: We Need an Academic New Deal

PhD Candidate Alyssa Bowen co-wrote an insightful article for The Nation with William Horne, entitled “We Need an Academic New Deal.” In this thoughtful and timely article, Bowen and Horne analyze the current crisis facing higher education and state demands to … Continued

Robert Colby (PhD ’19) Wins the Allan Nevins Prize for Best Dissertation

Robert Colby, who received his PhD from our department last year, recently won the Society of American Historians’ Allan Nevins Prize for Best Dissertation in American History. Dr. Colby’s dissertation, “The Continuance of an Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the … Continued

John “Rocky” Rhodes (PhD ’16) Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel

John “Rocky” Rhodes, who received his PhD from the Department of History in 2016, received his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in a ceremony at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In Rocky’s dissertation, “Agents of Empire: The Frontier U.S. Army and the Transition … Continued

DTH Interview with Caroline Newhall on Black POWs in the Confederacy

PhD candidate Caroline Newhall was featured in a recent interview with the Daily Tar Heel ahead of her public “Tell about the South” talk next Wednesday, April 17, hosted by the Center for the Study of the American South. In the … Continued

Mark Reeves receives 2019 SERSAS Graduate Student Paper Prize

Mark Reeves received the 2019 Graduate Student Paper Prize from the Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies (SERSAS), for his paper entitled “A Gilded Cage? Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Pan-Africanism as Governor-General of Nigeria, 1960-1963.” This prize recognizes the best paper from the recent … Continued

Liz Lundeen Receives UNC Graduate School’s Impact Award

Liz Lundeen received the UNC Graduate School’s Impact Award, an annual honor for graduate students whose research “contribute to a better future for people and communities in North Carolina.” Congratulations, Liz! Read more about her research and the award here.

Lucas Kelley Publishes an Op-Ed on Borders and Immigration in the Knoxville News Sentinel

UNC-Chapel Hill PhD candidate Lucas Kelley recently published an op-ed in the Knoxville News Sentinel. Using his expertise in early American history, Lucas explained the history of borders and immigration in Tennessee to provide context to ongoing conversations about the United … Continued

Daniela Weiner (PhD student) publishes article in the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies

Daniela R. P. Weiner, a Religions and Public Life Graduate Fellow and PhD student in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, recently published an article titled ‘Tendentious texts: Holocaust representations andnation-rebuilding in East … Continued

Jacqueline Whitt (PhD ’08) is producer and editor of new podcast

Jacqueline Whitt (UNC PhD ’08) is producer and editor of “A Better Peace: The WAR ROOM Podcast.”

Ethan Kytle (PhD ’04) and Blain Roberts (PhD ’05) in the New York Times

Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Confederacy, by Ethan J. Kytle (UNC PhD ’04) and Blain Roberts (UNC PhD ’05), was mentioned as one of “17 Refreshing Books to Read This Summer” by the New York Times.

Christina Snyder (PhD ’07) wins Parkman Prize

Christina Snyder (UNC PhD ’07) won the 2018 Francis Parkman Prize for Great Crossings: Indians, Settlers & Slaves in the Age of Jackson (Oxford University Press).

2018-2019 awards

Congratulations to three of our doctoral students who won competitive 2018-2019 awards from the College of Arts and Sciences as part of its new initiatives to support graduate education: Aubrey Lauersdorf, a Kenan III Graduate Fellowship; Kirsten Cooper, a Druscilla French … Continued