2017 History Honors Cohort. Left to right, front row: Jeane Emily Bleakley DuBose, Katherine Pak, Alexandra Boscolo, Jane Fisher, Jessie Ojeda, Amy McGregor, Emilie Plesset, Morgan Meyer; middle row: Dylan Nelson, Madison Horton, Michael Gawlik, Helena Ratté, Aaron L. Bernard, Emma Stout, Adam Stone, Mary Katherine Leary, Carl Helstrom IV; back row: Keefer Denney-Turner, Andrew Grafton, Professor John Carson, Ronald A. Everett, Samuel Waldron. Not pictured: Erin Elsa Dunne. (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)


The Department of History held its thirty-third annual Honors Symposium on April 28, 2017, celebrating the twenty-two graduating seniors who completed a thesis on an original research topic. Students delivered brief presentations of their findings, and Professor John Carson presented the following awards on behalf of the History Department:

  • Arthur Fondiler Award for Best Undergraduate Thesis: Dylan Nelson (first), Michael Gawlik and Helena Ratté (second)
  • John A. Williams History Award: Erin Elsa Dunne
  • Stephen J. Tonsor History of Ideas Undergraduate Honors Award: Alexandra Boscolo
  • Stephen J. Tonsor Best Oral Presentation of Thesis Award: Aaron L. Bernard, Jessie Ojeda
  • Elizabeth Sargent Lee Medical History Prize: Jeane Emily Bleakley DuBose, Mary Katherine Leary
  • James A. Knight Scholarships in History: Keefer Denney-Turner, Andrew Grafton, Madison Horton, Emma Stout

In addition, Professor Carson recognized the History Honors students who were recently awarded LSA Honors Program writing prizes:

  • Sweetland Granader Family Upper-Level Writing Prize: Michael Gawlik
  • Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award: Helena Ratté
  • Patricia Kennedy Prize: Michael Gawlik
  • Terrence J. McDonald Prize for Archival Research: Dylan Nelson

View a list of this year's thesis topics or link to the 2017 Honors Symposium Program (PDF).

Professor Maris Vinovskis talks with Honors Symposium attendees. (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)
History Department Chair Kathleen Canning congratulated the students, their supporters, and their advisors. (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)
Morgan Meyer presents her thesis project, “A Settler Colonial Framework Developed Through the Dawes Act and the Natives Land Act.” (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)
Andrew Grafton presents his thesis project, “The Other Side of the War: Lewis Cass, American Indians, and the Development of Local Politics in the Great Lakes, 1805-1821.” (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)
Keefer Denney Turner presents his thesis project, “Law and (Dis)Order: A Legal Study of Late Colonial Uganda.” (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)
Jeane Emily Bleakley DuBose presents her thesis project, “Criminal Compulsions: The Medicalization of Crime in Progressive Era America.” (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)
Professor John Carson (left) with Katherine Pak, who presented the project "The Laundress and the Charwoman: A Study of Self-Employed Women Domestic Workers in London, 1700-1900." (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)
Professor John Carson (left) presents the Arthur Fondler Award for Best Undergraduate Thesis to Dylan Nelson for his project "Through Hell and High Sludge: Traditional Knowledge and Environmental Justice at the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation." (Photo: Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)