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The History department annually awards the Joshua Meador prize for the best 398 “capstone” research essay. This recognition of ongoing excellence by UNC History majors is made possible by the generous support of Dave and Elizabeth Meador, in honor of their son Joshua, a major in the department and avid student of history before his untimely passing in 1996.

Joshua Meador (1975-1996)

2024
Ariela Leventhal
“In the Balance: Sakharov, Perestroika, and the Preservation of the USSR” (Michael Morgan)

2023
Christiana Wayne
“Billy Graham on the Cold War: Politics and Salvation” (Molly Worthen)

2022

Simon Nayak Palmore“’Tearing Down a Building Won’t Stop Them: Memory as Source of Power in Brooklyn, Charlotte” (Marcus Bull)

2021

Sean Nguyen, “A Forgotten Legacy: The Origins of Asian American Student Activism at the University of North” (William Sturkey)

2020

Cara Price, “Reds, Whites, and Blacks: Revolutionary Russia in the Black Press, 1910-1922” (Don Raleigh)

2019

Kimberly Oliver, “Watching from the Windows: Women’s Suffrage and Institutional Support at Birth Carolina’s State Normal and Industrial College” (William Sturkey)

2018

Max Conely, “Nationality and Florality: Cherry Blossoms and the Hybridity of Japanese Identity” (Lloyd Kramer)

2017

Trey Carpenter Flowers, “A Tale of Two Conventions: US Colonialism and the Fragility of Philippine Democracy” (Ben Waterhouse)

2016

Meredith Grace Miller, “Portraits of Krakow’s Places and People: Reconciling Cultural Identity and the Modernity at the Turn-of-the-Century” (Chad Bryant)

2015

Catherine Haviland, “Describing Places: the Rhetoric of Geography in Late Antiquity” (Richard Talbert)

2014

Burton Westermeier, “Mass Pilgrimage and the Christological Context of the First Crusade” (Brett Whalen)

2013

Justin Randolph, “With Body and Goods: The Context of Communalism, Poor Relief, and Tax Protest in the Early Swiss Anabaptist Community of Goods” (Terry McIntosh)

2012

Amelia Kennedy, “Pain and Suffering on the First Crusade” (Marcus Bull)

2011

Clayton Thomas, “Shame on you, you senseless Muhammad!: Apocalypse, Polemic and the Development of Luther’s Thought on the Turks, 1518-1546” (Terence McIntosh)

2010

Christopher Jensen, “Freedmen Priests of the Imperial Cult: The Augustales as a Ruling Strategy” (Richard Talbert)

2009

David Alexandre, “Textiles at War: Participation of North Carolina Textile Management in the War Effort and Relations with the Federal Government, 1940 to 1944”

2008

Samuel Robert Dolbee, “Russian Selves and Muslim Others: Identity in the Russo-Turkish War, 1977-1878” (Louise McReynolds)

2007

Cary Michael Barber, “The Roman Renegade: Determining Morality through Its Antithesis” (Richard Talbert)

2007

Heather Marie Bulpett, “The Impact of World War II on American Education: A Nation Looking to Its Schools for Help and Hope” (Rodger Lotchin)

2006

Jacob R. Karabell, “The Jewish Reverend: Allard Lowerstein’s Multifaceted Religious Identity”

2005

Erin Kimsey, “Father Abraham and his Sons: Explaining the Soldier Vote in the Presidential Election of 1864”

2004

William Miller, “Desegregation since Brown V. Board of Education: Charlotte as a Case Study” (John Semonche)

2003

Gary Brian Ernest Jr., “A Monstrous Menagerie: Ancient Authors’ Perspectives of Exotic Creatures on the Geographic Fringe” (Richard Talbert)

2002

Aaron Wellman, “The Crisis of 1051: Causes and Consequences”

2001

Devaka Premawardhana, “Once Lost, But Now Found; The Development and Popularization of “Amazing Grace” and John Newton’s Conversion Story”

2000

Nahal Toosi, “Setting a Standard: The New York Times v. Sullivan: A New Era in Libel Law” (Richard Leuchtenburg)

1999

Sandy Kolman, “Literary Bohemia: An intrinsic Contradiction” (Peter Filene)

1998

Ashley Parrott, “A Second Home? The Employment of Jewish-German Refugee Scholars at the UN Research Universities” (Russell Van Wyk)