History Major Achievement Scholarship

Each spring term, the History Faculty at Western Oregon University will award a $1,000 scholarship to a History major in their Sophomore or Junior year who will be returning in the following academic year as a History major. This scholarship is supported by a small endowment created in 1990 that grew through contributions from alumni and WOU faculty.

Applications should be submitted online through the WOU AcademicWorks Scholarship Management system: https://wou.academicworks.com/opportunities/4527

ELIGIBILITY AND SELECTION

1. The scholarship candidate must be a History major.

2. The candidates should have completed some history coursework at WOU, preferably at the upper-division (300 or 400) level.

3. Applicants must have sophomore or junior status to be eligible.

4. Normally, the scholarship should only be awarded once to a student.

5. GPA and completed history coursework will be considered in the review process.

6. Applicants should submit a paper (one) completed in a history course at WOU, preferably in an upper-division history course. Applications should include the essay and a cover sheet that contains the following information: name of applicant, the name of the course in which the paper was completed, the name of the faculty member who taught the course, and the term that the course was taken.

7. The application deadline is May 1st.

8. Applications will be reviewed by the WOU History Faculty.

9. The WOU History Faculty may choose not to award a scholarship in a given year if they determine that none of the applications merit a scholarship.

10. The scholarship winner will be announced by the end of the Spring term.

AWARD
A scholarship of $1,000 will be awarded to the candidate selected by the WOU History Faculty. The scholarship will be awarded through the Financial Aid office. The winner will receive the scholarship over the course of the subsequent academic year. The awarding of the scholarship will be subject to the availability of funds and the WOU History Faculty may choose to raise or lower the scholarship amount. The WOU History Faculty may also choose to offer multiple scholarships as funds become available.

Contact Professor David Doellinger, Chair, Department of History, at doellind@wou.edu if you have additional questions.

For assistance with AcademicWorks, contact the WOU Foundation.

History Research Grant

The History Department at Western Oregon University is pleased to offer a History Research Grant to history majors in their senior year. This grant is designed to support student research and the costs associated with that research for the History 499 Senior Seminar course. The grant amount varies year to year but has historically been in the range of $200-$350.

Students who have completed all of the Fall and Winter Senior Seminar requirements are eligible for the research grant.

To apply, history majors entering the History 499 Senior Seminar in the spring term should submit the following materials to the Chairperson of the Department of History no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday of the second week of spring term.

A one-page cover letter. The cover letter should include your name, the working title of your paper, a statement of your thesis and an outline of the revisions you are making to your original research paper. Please discuss the specific tasks that remain to complete the research for your senior thesis and how you would use this research grant to support the completion of that research.

A one-page budget. Provide an itemized list of your budget needs and a paragraph discussing how you would use the research grant funds. (Past examples have included photocopying, purchase of books or other research materials, travel to Portland or Eugene for archival or library research, etc.)

A copy of your most recent unofficial transcripts. You may use a print-out from your Wolf Web account.

A copy of your original paper.

The application materials must be submitted to the history chair by Friday of the second week of spring term. You may bring them to the Social Science Division office at HSS 231A during business hours.

The research grant will be awarded by the history faculty in a competitive process. In addition to the application materials described above, the history faculty will also consider the completion of fall/winter assignments such as the annotated bibliography.

The recipient(s) of this grant will be recognized at an awards celebration sponsored by the WOU foundation.

Contact Professor David Doellinger, Chair, Department of History, at doellind@wou.edu if you have additional questions.

History Essay Prize

The History Department is pleased to announce the creation of a History Essay Prize. Each Spring term (as funds are available), the History Department will award a $50 prize for the best essay written in an upper-division History course offered at WOU.

This prize is open to any WOU student, regardless of major or academic status. The essay must have been written for an upper-division (300 or 400) level history course in the preceding Spring, Fall or Winter term at WOU. Essays written in HST 499 are not eligible.

Each student may submit only one essay to be considered for this prize.

Applications should include the essay and a cover sheet that contains the following information: name of applicant, email address, phone number, the name of the course in which the paper was completed, the name of the faculty member who taught the course, and the term that the course was taken.

Applications are due by May 1. Please send the essay and a separate cover sheet to Professor David Doellinger, Chair, Department of History, at doellind@wou.edu.

The winner will be announced before the end of Spring term.

Contact Professor David Doellinger, Chair, Department of History, at doellind@wou.edu if you have additional questions.

The following are the History Major Achievement Scholarship recipients

2021-2022  Sam Speckman and honorable mention Audrey Manning,
2020-2021  Martin Hainz
2019-2020  Antonia Scholerman
2018-2019  Hudson Kennedy
2017-2018  Brant Cheeley
2016-2017  Spencer Welter and honorable mention James Masnov

The following are the History Research Grant recipients listed by year with titles of senior theses:

2020-2021
Martin Hainz, “Nazi Propaganda & The Beer Hall Putsch: An
Examination of the Shift of Nazi Tactics for Political Propaganda from 1920-1933”
Brandon Parsons, “Terror in Soviet Industry: Tensions between
Managers, Workers, and the Secret Police, 1930s”
2019-2020
Gabriel Yanez, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), A Unifier in the Late Sengoku Era
2018-2019
Hudson Kennedy, “Restraint and Patient Agency: Institutional Control at the Oregon State Hospital in the 1920s”
2017-2018
Jodi Harrison, “El Camino Real: Commercial Trade Route to Santa Fe”
Martin Salinas, “The Bracero Program and the Migration from Michoacán to Oregon: 1942-1995”
2016-2017
James Masnov, “The Power of Nine: Federalists, Antifederalists, and Natural Law Synthesis in the Ninth Amendment”
2015-2016
Michelle Smail, “W. G. Sebald: Giving Voice to Silent Destruction”
2014-2015
Brian Reese, “Forgotten Bravery: The San Patricio Battalion and the Irish Experience”
2013-2014
Zachary Jones, “There is No Law Here: Vigilantism, Militarism and Metropolitanism in Coos Bay, Oregon 1912-1913″
2012-2013
Kate Claussen, “Rural America is ‘On the Front’: Rural Civil Defense in the Midwest and Northwest During the Cold War
2011-2012
Jennifer Ross, “Projections of Complicity: Narratives of Rape Survivors in Wartime Bosnia, 1992-1995”
2010-2011
Sarah Berry, “Pancho Villa and the Lord of the Skies: Narcocorridos in the Corrido Tradition”
Jennifer Newby, “Jane Addams and Children: Educating the Future One Child at a Time”
2009-2010
Hannah Marshall, “Voluntary Food Conservation: The United States Home Front During the First World War”
Sarah Hardy, “Temperance and Beyond: The Oregon Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and Progressive Reform during the First World War”
2008-2009
Kristin Johnson, “Oversimplified Men: A Striking Comparison to Society in the 21st Century”
Joshua Hall, “Erythrean Sea Trade: The Origin of Rome’s Contact with China”
Mary Wright, “Marius’ Mules: Paving the Way to Power”
Nolan Kinney, “Positivism in Poland”
Richard Mansker, “Augustan Propaganda: An Examination of the Ara Pacis Augustae”
2007-2008
Matt Bond, “Ivan the Terrible”
2006-2007
Chris Breyer, “Culpability and Concealed Motives: An Analysis of the Parties Involved in the Diversion of the Fourth Crusade”
Nolan Doyle, “Rome’s Bloody Nose: The Pannonian Revolt, Teutoburg Forest, and the Formation of Roman Frontiers”
2005-2006
Emily Holmes, “From Side Eddies to Man Stream: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Section 504 Sit-Ins”
Kevin Jeffries, “The Propaganda of Augustus Caesar: How Peace, Power and Stability was Achieved During the Age of Augustus”
Tara Jones, “Footbinding in China”
2004-2005
Ashley Bell, “Neolin and Tenskwatawa: A Comparison of Two Nativist Prophets”
Daniel Van Winkle, “An Examination of the Use of History in the Rise of Ethnic Nationalism in the Former Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia”
2003-2004
Toni Kelly, “She Left an American: Hilda Satt Polacheck, Settlement Houses and Progressive Reform”
Clinton Trimmer, “The Salvation Army: A Case Study of How Industrialism Affected Charities”
2002-2003
Kalah Paisley, “The First Amendment According to Everson”
Kristin Williams, “The National Park Concessions System: A Case Study of Crater Lake National Park”
2001-2002
Christine Hull, “Belżec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Answer to the “Jewish Question”
2000-2001
Thomas Bahde, “The Trammels of Nationality: Re-examining the German-American Civil War Experience”
Andrea Blake, “Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt: Transformation from Medieval to Modern Warfare”
1999-2000
Nicole R. Miller, “Heresy and the Dialectics of Toleration in Languedoc during the Cathar Wars”
Isaac Stephens, “The English Reformation: A Historiographical Understanding”

The following are the History Essay Prize recipients:

2020-2021 
Cuauhtemoc Reilly
2019-2020   
Chloe Miller
2018-2019
Dayna Ragasa
Andy Alvarez
Cesar E. Tucux Lopez
2017-2018
Hudson Kennedy
Sara Madden
2016-2017
Alison Nelke
2015-2016
Spencer Welter
Jenn Hight