The Institute's Graduate Student Liaison, Joseph Ho, recently received an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award from the Rackham Graduate School. Joseph was one of 20 such students recognized for his honor and the only representative from the Department of History. He will receive a $1000 stipend and will be recognized at an awards ceremony at 2:00 p.m., April 18, at the Rackham Amphitheatre (open to the public).

EIHS Residency Research Fellow Ellen Wurtzel met with the Department of History's Premodern Colloquium on February 17 to discuss a chapter of her book project, entitled "'Enlargement...will serve the common use and protection of all': city walls and uniform jurisdiction in the 17th century". She will also give a paper in April at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College as part of the symposium, "Religion, Ritual, and Performance in the Renaissance."

Graduate Fellow Ben Graham is preparing a conference paper for the annual meeting of the American Society of Environmental History, slated for April 3-6 in Toronto. His paper will discuss olive oil and the dialectical relationship between environmental and cultural affairs in early medieval Italy, including how the use of olive-oil fueled artificial lighting in ecclesiastical structures resulted in shifts in the cultivation of the olive tree in this period. Ben notes that his paper traces its origins to the Institute's January 18 Friday Workshop, "The Country and the City: 40 Years Later," for which he served as a panelist, and it includes research conducted with assistance from his fellowship funds.

Photos above, from left to right: Joseph Ho, Ellen Wurtzel, Ben Graham.