2019 history graduate student award recipients

Wayne State's Department of History congratulates this year's student award recipients!

Merit awards

Dr. Gerald Dreslinski Award

For outstanding graduate work in early American history.

Christine Cook, for "'Your Little Madam Snip': The Impact of the Askin Women's Domestic Arts on the Askin Business and Trade Practices," which uses the correspondence of the wives and daughters of the Askin family to examine their role in making colonial settlement possible, and in enabling the Askin men's fur trade to succeed and prosper.

Rolf and Jennie Johannesen Endowed Memorial Award

For an outstanding paper in classical history or the classical tradition from the Middle Ages to the present.

Scott Cichowlas, for his essay in world history, examining Rome's amalgamation of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Joe L. Norris Endowed Award

For an outstanding research paper in a 7000- or 8000-level class, concentrating in American history.

Michael Wyner, for "'Hands Off': Cincinnati v. Minor and the Emergence of a Broad Approach to Religious Disestablishment," which examines the history and enduring legacy of an early court case from Ohio that challenged the dominance of Christianity in American public institutions.

Michael Wyner

Richard D. Miles Endowed Award

For an outstanding research paper in a 7000- or 8000-level class, in any topic, a tie this year.

Natheniel Arndts, for "French Tax Collectors, Disobedient Prussians, and Coffee-Sniffers: Finding a Prussian Identity in the Resistance to the Régie," which described the formation of a Prussian national identity that was rooted not in the stereotypical obedience to authority, but rather in widespread patriotic resistance to a deeply unpopular tax

Katie Parks, for "'When a Woman Thinks Alone, She Thinks Evil': The Malleus Maleficarum and Witchcraft in Early Modern Germany," which examined the role played by a foundational text of early modern witchcraft prosecution both in defining witches as nearly always female, and in shaping the legal process for trying accused witches throughout central Europe.

Katie Parks


Research awards

Thomas Frank Mayer-Oakes Annual Memorial Scholarship

Supports graduate research in Japanese history.

Sean O'Brien, for finishing his M.A. and getting ready to start his Ph.D. with us in the fall. Specializes in the history of comic book production, from a variety of perspectives including labor, race, and gender. O'Brien will be traveling to Japan this summer to pursue research for a project entitled "Hiroko Nagata: A Manga Manifesto."

Sean O'Brien

Dr. Gerald Dreslinski Research Award

Supports graduate student research in early American history.

Erik Noren, who is working on a dissertation project that will examine the history British colonization and settlement in the Lesser Antilles islands of the Caribbean, and British settler relations with the Kalinago (or Island Carib) indigenous population. Noren plans to travel to Antiqua, Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis to conduct archival research in the Warner family papers, one of the most prominent British settler families in the region during the 17th-18th centuries.

Erik Noren

Michael D. Patterson Memorial Award

Supports graduate student research in African-American history.

Rochelle Danquah, who is working on a research project that examines the Reformed Presbyterian Church and their active engagement in the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad. Danquah will travel to the Selma, Alabama, to conduct archival research on the Selma Reformed Presbyterian Church, in the Alabama State Archives and elsewhere

Charles F. Otis and Dr. Jeffrey L. Reider Scholarship in the History of Gender and Sexuality

Supports graduate research on the history of gender and sexuality.

Jamie McQuaid, who is starting work on a dissertation that will examine how the United Auto Workers represented LGBTQ workers throughout their history as a union. McQuaid will be using the award to find his research in the Walter P. Reuther archives, looking at the papers of several UAW locals.

Jamie McQuaid
McQuaid with Charles Otis and Dr. Jeffrey Reider.

Kruman-Lion Endowed History Graduate Student Award

Supports graduate research in any field.

Christine Cook, is working on a dissertation entitled "The Military Feminine Mystique: The Women's Army Corps' Evolution from a Separate Unequal Corps to Full Integration into the U. S. Army, 1948-1978." Cook will travel to the Army Heritage Education Center in Carlisle, PA, as well as the Women's Memorial and Museum in Washington, DC, to continue her archival research.

Alfred H. Kelly Memorial Research Award

Supports graduate research in any field.

Lily Wilson Szlaga, who is working on a dissertation project that examines how gender and class shaped the careers of women in the arts during the 20th century, particularly in connection with the foundation of the Freer Gallery of Art in the early 1920s. Szlaga will travel to the Smithsonian Institution Archives in Washington, DC, to continue her archival research, looking in particular at the papers of three women who were critical to establishing the Freer Gallery: Katherine Nash Rhodes, Louisine Havemeyer and Agnes Meyer.


Service awards

Antoine Durocher and Elizabeth Chevalier Annual Scholarship

Awarded to a graduate student with a record of consistent scholarly achievement and volunteer service to the department, WSU and/or the wider community.

Rachel Manela

Rachel Manela

Dr. Louis Jones HGSA award

Awarded by the officers of the History Graduate Student Association to a graduate student with a record of distinguished service to the HGSA and the History Department.

This year's recipient is Lily Szlaga.

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