Month / April 2025

by emoryhistorydept

Celebrating 2025 Senior Prize Winners

On April 30 the History Department will gather for the annual Senior Celebration to honor history major, joint major, and minor graduates. Five graduating students will receive senior prizes for their exceptional contributions to undergraduate historical inquiry at Emory. The senior prize recipients are:

James Z. Rabun Prize for the Best Record in American History – Matthea Boon

Named for former professor James Z. Rabun, this prize is awarded annually to the graduating senior history major or joint major in Emory College who has achieved the best overall record in American history courses.

The African, Asian, and Latin American History Prize for Best Record in African, Asian, and Latin American History – Rebecca Casel

Established in 2015, this award is given annually to the graduating senior history major or joint major in Emory College who has achieved the best overall record in African, Asian, and Latin American history courses. 

George P. Cuttino Prize for the best record in European History – Ezekiel Jones (Co-recipient)

Established in 1984 to honor Professor George P. Cuttino, this prize is awarded annually to the graduating senior history major or joint major in Emory College who has achieved the most outstanding record in European history courses. 

The Matthew A. Carter Citizen-Scholar Award – Alex Minovici

Established in memory of Matt Carter, who graduated from Emory in May 2000 with High Honors in History, this award is given each year to the graduating history major or joint major in Emory College who exemplifies the qualities that made Matt Carter such an outstanding individual: high academic achievement and good works in the community.

George P. Cuttino Prize for the best record in European History – Samantha Stevens (Co-recipient)

Established in 1984 to honor Professor George P. Cuttino, this prize is awarded annually to the graduating senior history major or joint major in Emory College who has achieved the most outstanding record in European history courses. 

by emoryhistorydept

David Eltis Wins W.E.B. DuBois Medal of Honor

David Eltis, Robert W. Woodruff Professor Emeritus of History, has won the W.E.B. DuBois Medal of Honor, Harvard University’s highest award in the field of African and African American studies. The DuBois medal is given to individuals in the United States and across the globe in recognition of their contributions to African and African American culture and the life of the mind.

A specialist in the early modern Atlantic World, slavery, and migration (both coerced and free), Eltis is the author of many prize-winning works, including Economic Growth and The Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Oxford University Press, 1987) and The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas (Cambridge University Press, 2000). Eltis co-created the Transatlantic Slave Trade database and website SlaveVoyages.org, a pioneering digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible the records of the largest slave trades in history.

Eltis received the award at the recent conference “SlaveVoyages: New Research & Uncharted Waters,” which was held at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard and featured multiple Emory History graduate program alumni.

Eltis with Daniel B. Domingues da Silva (PhD, 2011) at the recent conference focused on the SlaveVoyages project.

by emoryhistorydept

History Majors to Present at Fox Center’s Undergraduate Honors Fellows’ Colloquium

Six undergraduate honors students from the Emory History Department have spent the past year conducting original research as part of the 2024-25 cohort of Undergraduate Humanities Honors Fellows at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry. These fellows will present their work at the upcoming Undergraduate Honors Fellows’ Colloquium. The event will take place in Ackerman Hall, on the third floor of the Michael C. Carlos Museum, on April 9 from 1-4 pm with a reception to follow.

Read the fascinating titles of their presentations below and learn more about their research here.

  • Emilyn Hazelbrook, “Premeditated but Not Guilty: The Rise and Fall of the Battered Woman Legal Defense”
  • Klaire Mason, “From Reform to Repression: Putin’s Third Term and the Making of an Authoritarian State”
  • Alex Minovici, “Sînge și Spaimă: The 1989 Revolution and the Politics of Violence in Socialist and Post-Socialist Romania”
  • Adelaide Rosene, “Shadows of Exclusion: A Sundown Town’s Possessive Legacy in Wisconsin (1895-1970)”
  • Mercedes Sarah, “Keeping ‘Togetherness’: A Me-Wuk Family History of Mothers, Women, and Matriarchs in 20th-Century California”
  • Charlotte Weinstein, “The Sounds of Dissent: Czechoslovak Punk Rock From Communism to Democracy”