Category / Undergraduate Students

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Roark Prize, Endowed by Young Alumni, Established to Support Undergraduate Research

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Retiring Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of American History, Dr. Jim Roark, will be honored with a scholarship for undergraduate research bearing his name. The Roark Prize will support rising seniors in the History Department pursuing research in the United States relating to their honors thesis. The idea for the prize originated with two former history students, Ben Leiner (’14) and Naveed Amalfard (’14), who counted Roark as an inspiring mentor and professor. Read the Emory News Center’s full report on the prize here.

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Graduating History Major, Ami Fields-Meyer, Named Emory College Class Orator

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Following the university-wide commencement ceremony on May 9, senior history major Ami Fields-Meyer will speak to his fellow graduates as the class orator at the Emory College diploma ceremony. The Los Angeles native arrived at Emory with sights set on a career in politics as an elected official. A history class early on changed his perspective and led him to a major in History (along with a minor in African-American studies) instead of political science.

“[H]e took a history class focused on the history of inequality in the United States. Fields-Meyer discovered life as a self-described news junkie took on greater depth when he understood the historical context of current events.”

Fields-Meyer also highlights his experience in the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases course, co-taught by historian Brett Gadsden and Hank Klibanoff. Gadsden remembers Fields-Meyer fondly from the class: “One thing I’ve really admired is his efforts to bridge the past and the present, to really think about the gap between the two, and understand the echoes of history. That’s testimony to me of a dynamic mind.”

In addition to his accomplishments as a Dean’s Achievement Scholar, Fields-Meyer co-founded TableTalk, an initiative designed to spur conversations between groups at Emory that would not likely otherwise interact.

Read the full profile on Fields-Meyer here.

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Graduating History Major Takuya Maeda Profiled for Innovative Scholarship

In May of 2016 senior Takuya Maeda will graduate with highest honors in history. Maeda was recently profiled for his research accomplishments at Emory, most especially his work on the use of funds from the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 “set aside for the Japanese-American community to develop educational efforts and awareness about internment” during World War II. Maeda received a grant from the Scholarly Inquiry and Research at Emory (SIRE) program to conduct this research, which his mentor Professor Daniel LaChance described as “groundbreaking.” Maeda plans to continue and expand this project through graduate work in history. Read the full profile on Takuya here.

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President Jimmy Carter Discusses the Importance of History and Archives with Students from Spring Course Taught by Dr. Joseph Crespino

On April 21 President Jimmy Cater was on Emory’s campus to speak to students in a session titled “Why Archives Matter: Memory, Meaning and History.” Included in the event where students from Dr. Joseph Crespino’s spring undergraduate course on the history of politics and race in the United States. Aside from a lively question and answer period with the attendees, the event served to highlight recent renovations at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. Read more about the event on the Emory News Center’s site here.

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Three History Majors Recognized in Woodruff Library Undergraduate Research Award Contest

The panel of judges for the 2016 Woodruff Library Undergraduate Research Award recognized the outstanding scholarship of three History Department majors. Samantha Keng and Zixuan (Armstrong) Li each received $500 prizes for undergraduate research papers. Keng’s paper, sponsored by Professor Carol Anderson, is titled “Model Minority Awakenings: Vincent Chin, Asian America’s Emmett Till.” Li’s work, titled “Doner Kebab: Symbol of German Multiculturalism in the Turkish Immigration Question,” was supported by Dr. Astrid Eckert. A third History Department major, Emily Moore received an Honorable Mention. Titled “‘A Casket Full of Precious Memoirs’: The Town of Washington’s Conception of Its Own History,” Moore was sponsored by Dr. Leslie Harris. Congratulations to these students and their advisers on outstanding work. Descriptions of each piece can be found in the Emory Undergraduate Research Journal (EURJ) from pages 66-69. Also see the news release on the Woodruff library’s Scholar Blog.

From left to right: Emily Moore, Zixuan (Armstrong) Li, Samantha Keng, & Hannah ConwayFrom left to right: Emily Moore, Zixuan (Armstrong) Li, Samantha Keng, & Hannah Conway

 

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Spring 2016: Graduate Students Design and Teach Courses to Emory Undergraduates

Each semester students from Emory’s History graduate program enter the classroom to teach courses they have designed and developed through the TATTO program. This spring five third-year graduate students are teaching dozens of Emory undergraduates, exposing them to fascinating topics ranging across time and space.

These courses enable graduate students to gain valuable experience teaching subjects directly linked to their own research interests. More broadly, the experience forms part of the History Department and Laney Graduate School’s holistic training that prepares graduate students for careers in teaching and research.

Below are the five courses being taught this semester, along with links to the profiles of each instructor and the syllabi:

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History Honors Students Awarded Fox Center Fellowships

Congratulations to history honors students Adam Goldstein and Takuya Maeda who were awarded Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry Fellowships (FCHI) for Spring 2016.  Adam was awarded a FCHI Humanities Honors Fellowship and Takuya was awarded a FCHI Sire Fellowship.

Here is  a link with details about both students: http://fchi.emory.edu/home/fellowships/index.html.

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Erica Sterling (BA, ’15) Selected for John Lewis Fellowship

A recent graduate of Emory and former history major (doubled with Psychology), Erica Sterling recently was selected to receive the new John Lewis Fellowship. Read more about Erica and the fellowship here, or check out this brief description from the Emory News Center:

Three Emory students have been selected to receive the John Lewis Fellowship, a new human-rights focused educational program launched in partnership with the National Center for Civil and Human Rights (NCCHR) and Humanity in Action (HIA), Inc., an international educational organization.

Students and recent graduates from 119 universities applied for the new fellowship — named for civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis — which brings an inaugural class of 20 American and 10 European scholars to Atlanta this summer for a four-week program that explores the history and contemporary politics of diversity and minority rights in the United States.

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Alumni and Friends: Help Fund Student Research

The Emory College Department of History places student research at the heart of its mission. The department’s approach to learning—including quantitative analysis, close textual reading, work with primary materials, excellence in communication, and mastery of research methods—prepares students to do their own research on the cutting edge of the discipline. With a faculty distinguished for its expertise, Emory’s Department of History does more than ensure that undergraduates know about history. The department’s emphasis on independent research fosters the skills and intellectual discipline students need to thrive in any number of professions.

Through research, Emory students gain strong analytical abilities that help them in all aspects of their professional lives: in government work and with nongovernmental organizations, in medicine and other health professions, and in law and business.

Alumni and friends who want to champion historical understanding, educational excellence, or student success after graduation will find meaningful investment opportunities in undergraduate research at the Department of History.

Learn more here: Fund Student Research