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.

ERA in the Heartland: Ratification and Reconsideration in Kansas, 1973-1980

In the early 1970s states raced to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment after it was passed in Congress. It seemed inevitable that the legislation, granting equal rights to men and women, would become the 27th amendment to the United States Constitution. Grassroots movements – for and against the amendment – mobilized swiftly in response. Highlighting the voices of ordinary Kansans, this exhibit explores the dialogue surrounding the adoption of the ERA in our state and its legacy today.

This exhibit is based on University of Kansas history and journalism student Alexandra Haggar’s Honors thesis: “Rescind ERA: The Failed Efforts in Kansas to Rescind Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, 1973-1980.”

Visit the Dole Center

Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities

Zenith! Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities is a student-run, student-reviewed, and student-published annual academic journal featuring work from History students and undergraduates from across the Humanities.

Zenith! URJH

Honors Theses

The following Honors thesis projects were defended at the completion of the 2022-2023 academic year. Learn more about History Honors here.

Mason E. Clark, ““Meet the New Boss: ‘The Establishment’ in 1960s and 70s American Thought” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Sheyda Jahanbani
Claire Ann Cox, “Decolonizing the Wakarusa Museum: The Role of Public Education and Forced Displacement Within the Settler Colonial Structure” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Kent Blansett
Alexandra Haggar, “Rescind Era: The Failed Efforts in Kansas to Rescind Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, 1973-1980” | Thesis Advisor: Professor David Farber
Noah Hookstra, "The Tent Is Never Big Enough: Exodusters, Suffragists, and the People’s Party” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Jonathan Hagel
Austin J. Klinock, “Ad Astra Per Astronauta: Bringing the Public ‘Up to Space’ and Astronauts ‘Down to Earth’” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Sean Seyer
Anna A. Madrigal, “Repatriation Beyond the Borderlands: The Impact of the Depression of 1921 on Kansas City’s Mexican Immigrants During the Great Depression” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Jonathan Hagel
Nicolas Eric Pottorf, "All Is Vanity and Evanescence: Manifestations of Pure Land Buddhism Within ‘The Tale of Heike’” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Eric Rath
Walter R. Sours, “A College Try: The People’s College of Fort Scott, Kansas” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Jonathan Hagel
Brittney Madison Wilson, “Assault, Robbery, Mayhem: The Consequences of Fraternal Campus Loyalty Movements at

the University of Kansas After World War I” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Nicholas Syrett
Elizabeth G. Winkelman, “The Day After Tomorrow: Climate Change & The Today of Science, Film, & Activism” | Thesis Advisor: Professor Alex Boynton

Past Honors Theses

Jessica Blom, “The M*A*S*H ERA: Television and the Equal Rights Movement” (2021) | Thesis Advisor:
Abigail Byrd, "Directing Death: The Professionalization of Death Care in Urban Kansas' Black Communities" (2021) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Shawn Alexander
Austin Childs, "'Civil Rights Divided: Geopolitics of Black Transnationalism and 'The Palestine Problem'"
Riana Simone Henderson, "The New Negro Woman: African-American Womanhood, Respectability, and Power in the Early Twentieth Century” (2022) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Kim Warren
Anna L. Jacobson, "Lead, Leases, and Lies: Land and Power on the Quapaw Reservation in the early 20th century" (2021)
Morgan Kurtz, “The Luck of the Archives: An Examination of the Unusual Journey of the Colonel Hopkins Collection” (2022) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Marie Brown
Caleb Luck, "Humanitarian Aid or Western Manipulation? Interpretations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Jordan from 1979-1991" (2021) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Marie Brown
Joseph M. Mirakian, “Questions, Answers, and the American Dream: A Cultural History of the Quiz Show” (2022) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Jonathan Hagel
Mamie Lucille Murphy, “From Brick to Marble: Imperial Narrative and the Temple of Augustan Concord” (2022) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Philip Stinson
Katherine Taylor Price, “Empire, Authenticity, and Urban Imagination at the 1906 Marseille Colonial Exposition” (2022) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Andrew Denning
Haylee Rose, “A Toast to Volstead: Neoliberal Hollywood’s Re-interpretation of the Great Depression in Gangster Films from 1980-2008” (2022) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Jonathan Hagel
Kaman Simmons, "Climate, Clans, and Capitalism: Structural Change in Somalia Since Independence" (2021)
Sloan Mae Sprau, “Towing the Line: The State of Minnesota’s Dichotomy as Both a Regulator and Promoter of Sportfishing” (2022) | Thesis Advisor: Professor Andrew Isenberg
Logan Woodyard Stuart, "Agricultural Higher Education in China: A Mirror to the 20th Century's Shifting Political Landscapes" (2021)