Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Research and Awards

Each year the Department of History awards a few scholarships and awards to its accomplished majors. These range from scholarships for promising students with established financial need to awards for excellent honors or 696 theses. Awards will be announced at our Annual Graduation ceremony, which takes place in May. In order to be considered for these scholarships and awards, you must be a history major and will need to submit an application. Some awards and scholarships require a statement or additional materials, as explained in the application form.

We also encourage history majors to apply for undergraduate research awards. Successful history majors have used these awards to conduct research for senior theses in locales as far flung as Africa and France, or closer to home in regional and national archives. If you are studying a less commonly taught foreign language, you may also be able to apply for a prestigious FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) fellowship. Several history majors have won these awards, which cover tuition for the academic year or a summer language program.

Honors Theses

The following Honors thesis projects were defended at the completion of the 2020-2021 academic year. Learn more about History Honors here.

• Jessica Blom, “The M*A*S*H ERA: Television and the Equal Rights Movement”
• Abigail Byrd, "Directing Death: The Professionalization of Death Care in Urban Kansas' Black Communities"
• Austin Childs, "'Civil Rights Divided: Geopolitics of Black Transnationalism and 'The Palestine Problem'"
• Anna L. Jacobson, "Lead, Leases, and Lies: Land and Power on the Quapaw Reservation in the early 20th century"
• Caleb Luck, "Humanitarian Aid or Western Manipulation? Interpretations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Jordan from 1979-1991"
• Kaman Simmons, "Climate, Clans, and Capitalism: Structural Change in Somalia Since Independence"