Essay Prize Winners
Monsignor Francis A. O'Brien Award
(best essay by a senior history major)
2008
Peter Van
"Loss of Meaning: The De-Politicization of Cold War Protest Music"
2007
Megan Hawley
"Fashioning the Individual: Clothing in Renaissance Italy," originally written for Margaret Meserve's course on Family and Society in Early Modern Italy
2006
Kamaria Porter
"'You Must Fight Injustice Wherever You Find it' Monsignor John J. Egan and Catholic Action Against Segregation in Chicago"
2005
Ryan Metheny
"Jewish Immigration and the Industrial Removal Office"
Mary Rao
"Deism and Christianity in Colonial America
2004
Matthew Ziegler
"Great Britain and Latin American Independence: A Case Study of British Diplomacy involving Argentina and Colombia, 1806-1825"
2003
Jessica Sharron
"Krupp and IG Farben: Justice at Nuremberg?"
John William Jacobs, Jr.
"The History of the Interstate System and the Social Consequences of Constructing Highways in Urban Areas"
2002
John-Paul William Drevline
"Ernst Kaltenbrunner and the Fusion of Nazi Intelligence Services"
2001
Alena Stransky
"An Earthly Battle Within a Cosmic War: C. S. Lewis on the Christians Role in War and World War II"
2000
Nathanael Smith
"The National Socialist Revolution"
1999
Kathleen Anne Keller
"Service du Travail Obligatoire"
1998
Nathan Van Gessel
"The Origins of Pearl Harbor: Myth vs. Reality"
1997
Scott Reilly
"The Occurrence of Empire: Anti-Imperialist Disadvantages and Expansionist Strengths 1898-1905"
1996
Emily Mily
"The Overstatement of Feminism in French Revolutionary Historiography"
1995
Catherine Dougherty
"Why are there so few Women in Medical School? An Analysis of the Debate, 1945-1985"
Christopher Fisher
"Ethnic Conflict and Resolution: Italy, Austria, and the South Tyrol Solution"
1994
John Fiore
"Jacques-Louis-David The Artist of the French Revolution"
Rev. Marvin R. O'Connell Award
(best essay by a junior/sophomore history major)
2008
Brian Sarnacki
"Radical Pulpits: Liberal Protestants, Socialism, and Labor Strife"
2007
Greg Wagman (Class of 2008)
"A Bridge Too Far," originally written for Mike DeGruccio's course on the American Civil War era
2006
Teresa De Vries
"The IRA and the World"
2005
Rachel Meeks
"The Language Surrounding Joan of Arc and the Value of Women in the Fifteenth Century"
2004
No Prize Awarded
2003
William Spencer McSorley
"Conversion to the Christian God: The Unforced Scandinavian Acceptance of Christ"
2002
Jennifer Randazzo
"Just Grounds of Female Influence: Woman's Migration into the Public Sphere, 1820-1860"
2001
Kimberly M. Springer
"United States Information Centers: Meetinghouses or Propaganda-Hausers?
2000
Rebecca Trujillo
"Tito and the Breakdown of Yugoslavia"
1999
Andrew Meirose
"Choctaw Education from the Eighteenth Century Until the 1898: The Mission Effect"
1998
Laura G. Holland
"Walking the Thin Line: The Carter Administration Responds to the Polish Solidarity Movement"
O'Hagan Award
(best essay in Irish history by a history major)
2008
Kyle Cassily
"Michael Collins and the IRA: The Reason England Left Ireland?"
2007
Nora Devlin (Class of 2007)
"William Drennan and the 'United' Irish Movement," originally written for Tom Kselman's course on the Age of Democratic Revolutions
2006
Teresa De Vries
"The IRA and the World"
2005
Peter Vranderic
"Why Did the Irish Fight in the American Civil War?"
2004
Matthew DiBiasse
"A Frustrating Friend: The Consequences of Irish Neutrality to the American-Irish Relationship and Irish-Catholic America, 1939-1945"
2003
Kristen Marie Caponi
"The Spirit and the Law: The Two Reforms of the Twelfth-Century Irish Church"
2002
No Prize Awarded
2001
Mary Prina
"Women in the Easter Rebellion"
2000
No Prize Awarded
1999
Carol Ann Konrad
"Of Harps and Lutes: The Status of Music and Musicians in Medieval Irish Secular Society"
1998
Katherine M. Schott
"Taking the Gun out of Irish Politics: The Past and Present Issue of Decommissioning IRA Weapons"
1997
Melissa Pasteris
"The Early Irish Monastery: An Integration Between Rome's Christianity and Ireland's Pagan Roots"
Kurt Weiss
"Don't Lose Your Temper-Never Lose Your Head"
1995
Emily A. Mily
Sacrifice of Sovereignty: The Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland"
Senior Honors Thesis Award
2008
Jessica Nelson
"Shamrocks in Mexico: The Story of the San Patricio Batallion and Irish Assimiliatoin During the Mexican-American War"
Gregory Wagman
"Churchill's Secret Invasion: The British Balkan Scheme"
2007
Rachel Meeks
"Women and the Tibetan Refugee Community: Negotiating Deference and Promoting Nationalism"
Adam Snider
"Christ and Scripture in Christian-Pagan Dialogue, 180-410 AD"
2006
Michelle Garvey
"La Sorella Fascista: The Italian Occupation of Ethiopia through the Eyes of a Fascist Sister"
2005
Alexander Strittmatter
"An Empire Divided: The Dominions and British Policy Formulation during the Czechoslovak Crisis"
2004
Jacob Baska
"Damn Bastards: The Development of Identity in Colonial Vermont"
2003
Julie L. Schutte
"L'Esposizione Universale Di Roma 1942: The Embodiment of and Metaphor for the Italian Fascist State"
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