Awards archive

John Highbarger Memorial Award for the best doctoral dissertation

Year	Name	Dissertation Title	Awardee's Title
2025	Samuel Roberts	"A Miserable Quilt of Confused Erudition": The De perenni philosophia of Agostino Steuco
2024	Hannah Peckham	American Outposts: Rethinking U.S. Higher Education Abroad, 1908-1972	Pre-Award Program Manager, Notre Dame Research, University of Notre Dame
2023	Istvan Szepesi	Unspoken Accommodations: A Century of Religious Coexistence in Cologne, 1517–1617	Visiting faculty, Messiah University, Mechanicsburg PA
2022	Sejoo Kim	American Postcolony: Imperial Citizenship and the Rise of Garment Metropolis in the Pacific, 1944–1999	Assistant Professor, Gyeongin National University of Education, Incheon, South Korea
2021	Nicholas Roberts	A Sea of Wealth: Sayyid Sa‘id bin Sultan, His Omani Empire, and the Making of an Oceanic Marketplace	Law Clerk, Cleveland OH
2020	Nicholas Bonneau	Unspeakable Loss: New England’s Invisible Throat Distemper Epidemics, 1735–1775
2019	Jonathan Riddle	Prospering Body and Soul: Health Reform, Religion, and Capitalism in Antebellum America	Assistant Professor, Seaver College, Pepperdine University, Malibu CA
2018	Samuel K. Fisher	Fit Instruments: Gaels, Indians, and the Diverse Origins of Imperial Reform and Revolution	Associate Professor, Catholic University of America, Washington DC
2017	Adam Foley	Homer’s Winged Words and Humanist Latinity: The Task of Translating Homer in the Italian Renaissance
2016	Benjamin Wetzel	American Crusade: Lyman Abbott and the Christian Nation at War, 1861–1918	Associate Professor, Taylor University, Upland IN
2015	Courtney Wiersema	All Consuming Nature: Provisioning in Industrial Chicago, 1833–1893	Senior Director, Professional Development and Outreach, University of Chicago, Chicago IL
2013	Maria Rogacheva	The Soviet Scientific Intelligentsia from Stalin to Gorbachev, 1956–1985: A History of A town That Did Not Exist
2012	Melinda Grimsley	Politics, Professionalization, and Poverty: Lunatic Asylums for the Poor in Ireland, 1817–1920	Assistant Director, Office of Scholar Development Staff, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green KY
2011	Danielle Dubois	Before the Culture Wars: Conservative Protestants and the Family, 1920–1980	Archivist, National Archives, Baltimore MD
2010	Nicholas P. Miller	The Religious Roots of the First Amendment: Dissenting Protestantism and the Separation of Church and State	Professor, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs MI
2009	David R. Swartz	Left Behind: The Evangelical Left and the Limits of Evangelical Politics	Professor, Asbury University, Wilmore KY
2008	Steven Schroeder	Reconciliation in Occupied Germany, 1944–1954	Associate Professor, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford BC, Canada
2007	Thomas Rzeznik	Spiritual Capital: Religion, Wealth, and Social Status in Philadelphia, 1880–1950	Professor, Seton Hall University, South Orange NJ
2006	Margaret Abruzzo	Polemical Pain: Slavery, Suffering, and Sympathy in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Moral Debate	Associate Director of Campus Ministry, Catholic Campus Ministry, Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX
2005	Darren Dochuk	From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Southernization of Southern California, 1939–1969	Professor, University of Notre Dame
2004	Bonnie Mak	(Re)defining the Page for a Digital World	Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois, Champaign IL
2004	Darin Hayton	Astrologers and Astrology in Vienna During the Era of Emperor Maximilian I (1493–1519)	Associate Professor, Haverford College, Haverford PA
2003	Daniel B. Hobbins	Beyond the Schools: New Writings and the Social Imagination of Jean Gerson	Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame
2002	Rachel M. Koopmans	Dispute, Control, and the Individual Voice: The Making of Miracles at Christ Church, Canterbury, 1080–1220	Associate Professor, York University, Toronto ON, Canada
2002	Mark A. Jantzen	At Home in Germany? The Mennonites of the Vistula Delta and the Construction of a German National identity, 1772–1880	Professor, Bethel College, North Newton KS
2001	Nicole Mische Gothelf	Persecution, Identity, and Politics: The English Protestant Martyr Narrative and Oppositional Politics in Early New England and Pennsylvania
2000	Barbra M. Wall	Unlikely Entrepreneurs: Nuns, Nursing, and Hospital Development in the West and Midwest, 1865–1915	Professor Emerita, School of Nursing, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA
1999	Michael G. Clinton	The French Peace Movement, 1821–1919	Professor, Gwynedd Mercy University, Gwynedd Valley PA
1999	Steven M. Nolt	German Faith, American Faithful: Religion and Ethnicity in the Early American Republic	Professor, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown PA
1998	Vladimir Janković	Meteors under Scrutiny: Private, Public, and Professional Weather in England, 1800–1850	Reader (equivalent to Professor), University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Philip Gleason Prize for the best published article by a graduate student in History

Year	Name	Article Title	Awardee's Title
2025	Dennis Wieboldt	"Idea's With(out) Consequences?: The Natural Law Institute and the Making of Conservative Constituionalism During the Cold War, 1947-1951," Law and History review 43, no. 4 (November 2025): 847–875.	Dual Law/History PhD Student, The University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
2023	Jorge Puma Crespo	“The Nazas-Aguanaval Group: Radical Priests, Catholic Networks, and Maoist Politics in Northern Mexico,” The Americas 79, no. 2 (April 2022): 291–320.	Assistant Professor of History, Hope College, Holland MI
2021	Mihow McKenny	“The Art of Salvation: Sacramental Penance in Dante’s Commedia,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd series, vol. 13 (2016 [2019]): 71–139.
2020	Sejoo Kim	“‘With All Your Heart’: American Missionaries and the State in Mission Fields,” Diplomatic History 45, no. 1 (January 2021): 162–185.	Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Studies Education, Gyeongin National University of Education, Incheon, South Korea
2019	John William Nelson	“The Ecology of Travel on the Great Lakes Frontier: Native Knowledge, European Dependence, and the Environmental Specifics of Contact,” Michigan Historical Review 45, no. 1 (Spring 2019): 1–26.	Associate Professor, Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX
2018	Jorge Puma Crespo	“Small Groups Don’t Win Revolutions: Armed Struggle in the Memory of Maoist Militants of Política Popular,” Latin American Perspectives 44, no. 6 (November 2017): 140–155.	Assistant Professor of History, Hope College, Holland MI
2015	Belen Vicens Saiz	“Swearing by God: Muslim Oath-Taking in Late Medieval and Early Modern Christian Iberia,” Medieval Encounters 20, no. 2 (2014): 117–51.	Associate Professor, Salisbury University, Salisbury MD
2013	Michael T. Westrate	“The Self against the State: Valery Abramkin and the Destruction of Dissident Identity,” Acta Slavica Iaponica, International and Interdisciplinary Journal of the Study of Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia 31 (January 2012): 105–21.	Assistant Vice Provost, Graduate Education & Research, Villanova University, Villanova PA
2011	Heath W. Carter	“Scab Ministers, Striking Saints: Christianity and Class Conflict in 1894 Chicago,” American Nineteenth Century History 11, no. 3 (2010): 321–49.	Associate Professor, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton NJ
2009	Michael Lee	“Higher Criticism and Higher Education at the University of Chicago: William Rainey Harper’s Vision of Religion in the Research University,” History of Education Quarterly 48, no. 4 (November 2008): 508–33.	Associate Professor, Templeton Honors College at Eastern University, St. Davids PA
2007	Sarah C. Davis-Secord		Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM
2005	Matthew J. Grow		Director of Publications, Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Brigham Young University, Provo UT
2003	David C. Mengel		Provost, University of Portland, Portland OR
2001	David S. Bachrach		Professor, University of New Hampshire, Durham NH
1999	Angela Gugliotta

Vincent P. DeSantis Prize for the best unpublished paper by a graduate student in History

Year	Name	Paper title	Awardee's Title
2025	Margaret Berry	"Reborn on Skis: Dolores LaChapelle and the Spiritual Worldmaking of Euro-American Alpinists in the Rocky Mountain West, 1945-2007"	Ph.D. candidate, University of Notre Dame
2024	Ella Hadacek	“‘Our Joan of Arc, Margaret Haley’: Gender, Union Busting, and the Fear of Catholic Power in the Loeb Affair, 1915-1917”	Ph.D. candidate, University of Notre Dame
2023	Gavin Moulton	“From Church Riot to Sit-Down Strike: Polish Catholics and Collective Action in South Bend, 1885-1940”	Ph.D. candidate, University of Notre Dame
2022	Benjamin (Jack) Young	“See You at the Pole: Evangelical Youth Culture and the Search for Sacred Space in 1990s America”	Assistant Professor, Northern State University, Aberdeen SD
2021	Sean Raming	“We Shall Not Alter It Much by Our Words: The Press and the International War Crimes Tribunal of 1967”	Ph.D. candidate, University of Notre Dame
2020	Jorge Puma Crespo	“The Nazas-Aguanaval Group: Radical Priests, Catholic Networks, and Maoist Politics in Northern Mexico”	Assistant Professor, Hope College, Holland MI
2019	John William Nelson	“Sigenauk’s War of Independence: Anishinaabe Resurgence and the Making of Indigenous”	Associate Professor, Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX
2018	Tomás Valle	“Crafting the map of Orthodoxy: The Case of Eilhard Lubin”	Assistant Professor, Benedictine College, Atchison KS
2017	Jonathan Riddle	“All Catholics Are Spiritualists: The Boundary Work of Mary Gove Nichols and Thomas Low Nichols”	Assistant Professor, Seaver College, Pepperdine University, Malibu CA
2016	Elizabeth A. Baker	“Suffragette Palace: Sophia Duleep Singh, Hampton Court Palace, and Votes for Women”	Assistant Professor, Saint Vincent College, Latrobe PA
2015	Samuel K. Fisher	“Fit Instruments in a Howling Wilderness: Colonists, Indians, and the American Revolution”	Associate Professor, Catholic University of America, Washington DC
2014	Belen Vicens Saiz	“Swearing by God: Muslim Oath-Taking in Late Medieval and Early Modern Christian Iberia”	Associate Professor, Salisbury University, Salisbury MD
2012	David Russell Komline	“‘If There Were One People’: Segregation, Race, and Ethnicity in Reconstruction-era American Catholicism”	Professor of Church History and Coordinator for Strategic International Initiatives, Western Theological Seminary, Holland MI
2011	Eleanor (Pettus) Schneider	“The Stripping of the Classrooms: The Reformation and the End of English Humanism”	Independent Scholar & Scholar in Residence at the Newberry Library
2010	John Cirilli	“Truthful Deceptions and Omissions of Sin: On the Intent and Possible Intended Printing of Henry Garnet’s ‘A Treatise Against Lying and Fraudulent Dissimulation’”	Proofreader/Editor, Writer
2009	Joshua Kercsmar	“Absence does not Make the Heart Grow Fonder: The Conflicted Legacy of Perry Miller and the Re-visioning of Early New England”	Vice President, Preserve Rural Maine
2008	David Morris	“Babylon and the Evolution of Medieval Exegesis”	Director of the Souvay Memorial Library at Kenrick Glennon Seminary, St. Louis MO
2006	Martina Cucchiara		Professor of History, Bluffton University, Bluffton OH
2005	Justin Poché		Associate Professor, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester MA
2004	Margaret Abruzzo		Associate Director of Campus Ministry, Catholic Campus Ministry, Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX
2002	Steven Schroeder		Associate Professor, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford BC, Canada
2000	Christine Caldwell Ames		Professor, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC