DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

Recent Award Winners

Award Winners 2026

Undergraduate archival research project

• Best Long Form Project:

  Catherine Ndovu ’27, “U.S. Medical Intervention in Kenya: The Walter Reed Project”
  Originally submitted to History 319: History of U.S. Foreign Relations, Daniel Immerwahr

  Ndovu’s project explores how medicine became an avenue for militarism and surveillance in Kenya and abroad, expertly employing a wide variety of primary sources to support her arguments, including government archival records, historical newspapers, East African magazines and literature, and papers from the National Library of Medicine. Her project presents a clear, organized and compelling analyses of historical documents.

• Best Short Form Project:

  Margaret Sprigg-Dudley ’26, “Collectivization Narratives in the 1930s: An Economic, Not Ideological, Battle”
  Originally submitted to Environmental Policy & Culture 309: American Environmental History, Keith Woodhouse

  Sprigg-Dudley’s paper, written for American Environmental History (Environmental Policy & Culture 309), was also inspired by coursework for Cold War Mirrors (History 300, New Lectures in History). She digs into 1930s discussions of  the Soviet system of agriculture in American agricultural periodicals, in conversation and critique of Shane Hamilton's Supermarket USA. Her project has a clear point of view and cites primary sources as a counterpoint to present a strong critique of secondary source claims.

• Best Use of McCormick Collections:

  Jessica Dean ’26, “Widening The Gateway: Community Formation and Institutional Power in Trans Print Culture”
  Originally submitted to History 300: Histories of the Trans Present, Zavier Nunn

  Dean’s paper situates The Gateway, a Bay Area newsletter, within the broader development of trans identity and consciousness via print media. The original printing of the October 1980 issue of The Gateway is held the McCormick Library Femina Collection. By adeptly employing archival and primary sources, Dean expresses a clear point of view and compelling interpretation of print materials.

First-Year Seminar Essay Award

• Sabrina Xu, “Fear and Fragility in the Massachusetts Bay Colony”

Josef Barton Research Seminar Essay Award

• Nate Berman, “Clandestine Immigration of Holocaust Survivors to Palestine, 1945-1948​”

JAcob Lassner Prize in Jewish and Islamic Civilization

• Nate Berman, “Clandestine Immigration of Holocaust Survivors to Palestine, 1945-1948​”

Hearst Foundation Undergraduate Scholarship in History

• Olivia England

The Grace Douglas Johnston Award

• Carissa Bruno, “Communal Consensus in the Making of a Murder: Mariticide, Petty Treason, and Negotiating Justice in Early Modern England"

The Grace Douglas Johnston Award Honorable Mention

• Lara Weissmann, “There Is an Alternative: Breira and the​ Moral Debate over Establishment Zionism​ in 1970s American Jewish Life”
• Nat Wells, “California Prometheus: Stewart​ Brand and Techno-Optimism in the​ Late 20th Century”