Awards

Student Awards

Celebrating Success

The History Department gives six annual undergraduate awards, and one graduate award, to recognize outstanding achievements. Click on the boxes below to learn about the different awards and award winners! (Pictured: Tuere Storks (MA '24, Ibrahim Award Winner) and Dr. Michael Slaughter)

Awards and Awardees

Pemstein Award

The Walter Pemstein Award is given to the graduating senior(s) with the highest ��ɫ�� in their cohort.

Pemstein Award

Type of Award

Outstanding Senior

Requirements

History major; Senior standing; graduated in fall or spring of same academic year; highest ��ɫ�� GPA in cohort; must graduate no later than spring of same academic year as award

Decided By:

All History Department tenured and tenure track faculty attending the meeting for this purpose

Past Recipients

2024-25: Steven Sprague and Edison Wang
2023-24: Madison Vaughn
2022-23: Conor Entus and Ryan Baffoni
2021-2022: Robert Reed, David Garcia Urquiza and Amber Santoro
2020-21: Jennifer Escobedo Sigala and Shelby Spelman
2019-20: Summer Viets
2018-19: Kristin Kosareff and Ethan Gauthier
2017-18: Kyle Colon and Adilene Cortes
2016-17: John Dang
2015-16: Brendan Nafarrate
2014-15: Isis Quan
2013-14: Gina Risetter
2012-13: Brittany Tardiff
2011-12: Valerie Straw
2010-2011: Andrew Greer

Kershaw Award

This award is given to the History major(s) who have demonstrated outstanding service (e.g. through leadership in History Club and Phi Alpha Theta)

Kershaw Award

Type of Award

Service to Department

Requirements

History major; service to department; nominated by Phi Alpha Theta advisor and History Club advisor

Decided By:

All History Department tenured and tenure track faculty attending the meeting for this purpose

Past Recipients

2024-25: Ignacio Linares, Samantha Hernandez, and Richard Gonzalez
2023-24: Jeremy Kuettle
2022-23: Giancarlo Abejero
2021-22: Samantha Miranda
2020-21: Shannon Dolan and Samantha Miranda
2019-20: Manpreet Bhandal and Destinee Sparks
2018-19: Breanna Coelho
2017-18: Katrina Hernandez and Alejandro Martinez
2016-17: Isabel Melendez and Monique Fitch
2015-16: Caitlyn Guesnon and Marco Covarrubias
2014-15: Julio Pizano
2013-14: no award given
2012-13: Michael Santos
2011-12: Jocelyn Hahn
2010-2011: Silvia Cheng

Brundage Award

The Brundage Award is given to the student who has written the most outstanding senior thesis of the year.

Brundage Award

Type of Award

Senior Thesis

Requirements

History major; best completed senior thesis in academic year; nominated by faculty who have taught senior thesis in academic year

Decided By

Selection committee consisting of tenured and tenure track History faculty who have not taught senior thesis in academic year of award

Past Recipients

2024-25: TBA
2023-24: Bryce Malally, "From Picket Line to Political Forefront: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's Dual Legacy"
2022-23: My T. Quach, "From Saigon to Chinatown: A Historical Study of the Chinese-Vietnamese American Community in Southern California"
2021-22: Anthony Clark, "Coercive Volunteerism: The Government, Women and the Nationalist Drive for Food Production in California during World War I"
2020-21: Nicholas Alanis, "Dismantling Chinese Exclusion: Chinese Diplomats, the American Republics, and the Fight against Discrimination in the 1930s and 1940s"
2019-20: Destinee Sparks, “Reclaiming My Time: Slave Compensation Suits in Virginia, Missouri, and Louisiana, 1776-1860”
2018-19: Kristin Kosareff, "'To Combine the Old with the New': Molokan Women in America, 1904-2004" AND Danielle Tate, “How Alexander the Great used Persian Culture to Elevate the Kingship”
2017-18: Patricia O'Leary, "Fontucky: Making Steel & Race in Kaiser's Fontana, 1943-1983"
2016-17: Matthew Callebs, "Sailors and the State: Resistance to British Naval Impressment in the Atlantic during the Long Eighteenth Century"
2015-16: Isabel Melendez, "The Power of Pawns: An Analysis of Parisian Identity and Loyalty during the Anglo-Burgundian Occupation, 1420-1436"
2014-15: Isis Quan, ”The Women of the Kojiki and Nihongi”
2013-14: Kevin Laurell, “African Warrior Culture: The Symbolism and Integration of the Avtomat Kalashnikova in Mozambique and Zimbabwe”
2012-13: Jonathan Lee, “Back to the Future: the Flying Car & Postwar America”
2011-2012: Raquel Robles, “Triumph Over Adversity: A History of San Francisco’s (Other) Great Bridge”
2010-2011: Gabriel Gutierrez

Yu Award

The Sean Yu Award is given to the student who has written the most outstanding paper on a topic related to environmental history during the past academic year.

Yu Award

Type of Award

Outstanding project in environmental history

Requirements

Best essay/project connected to environmental history, produced for a ��ɫ�� History class during the academic year; nominated by any History faculty

Decided By

Selection committee consisting of tenured and tenure track History faculty who did not teach a course with a nominated project

Past Recipients

Ibrahim Graduate Award

The Ibrahim Award is given to the graduating MA student with the highest GPA in their cohort.

Ibrahim Award

Type of Award

Outstanding Graduate Student

Requirements

��ɫ�� History MA student, graduating in fall or spring of the award academic year, with the highest graduate program GPA in their graduating cohort.

Decided By

All History Department tenured and tenure track faculty attending the meeting for this purpose

Past Recipients

2024-25: Adilene Cortes and Haytham Ibrahim
2023-24: Tuere Storks
2022-23: Aric Rosenveldt
2021-22: Kaitlin Baehr and Corbin Blanchard
2020-21: Stephen Lai and Eddie Pimentel
2019-20: Shifon Foster-Berumen
2018-19: John Dang
2017-18: David Dorantes

Lloyd Award (historic prize)

The Lloyd Award was given for the best historiography paper submitted for HST 300/3300.

Lloyd Award

Type of Award

Historiography

Requirements

History major; best historiographical paper produced in HST 300/3300 in academic year; nominated by faculty who have taught HST 300/3300 in academic year. Awarded in Fall.

Decided By

Selection committee of tenured and tenure track History faculty who have not taught HST 300/3300 in academic year of award

Past Recipients

2023-24: Kelsey Hughes, "Working Women, Labor Reform and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911: A Historiographical Study"
2022-23: Sawsana Beshai, "The Study of Medicine by and for Women in Ancient Egypt"
2021-22: My T. Quach, "The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882"
2020-21: Nayely Alcantara Vargas, "Malintzin, Myth, and Woman: A Historiographical Study"
2019-20: Jennifer Escobedo Sigala, “Trujillo: Understanding The Dictator’s Rise to Power and Methods of Control"
2018-19: Destinee Sparks, "African Americans in Baseball: A Historiography"
2017-18: Robert Salcido, "Entertainment and Culture: the Business of the Walt Disney Company"
2016-17: Richard Arguelles, "Historiography on the Paris Commune"
2015-16: Gregory Paguaga, "A Historiography on the Spanish Inquisition"
2014-15: David Dorantes , “His Truth is Marching On: A Historiography of John Brown”
2013-14: Jocelyn Murillo, “Parallels in Feminist Movements in Nicaragua and Beyond: A Historiographical Study.”
2012-13: Gina Risetter
2011-12: Joann Conger, “The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Historiographical Study”

Digital History Award

The Digital History Award is given to the student who has produced the best digital history project in one of the Digital Research Project classes (HST 4494, 4495, 4496, or 4497.

Digital History Award

Type of Award

Digital History project

Requirements

History major; best digital history project produced in HST 4494/4495/4496/4497 in academic year of the award

Decided By

Selection committee of tenured and tenure track History faculty

Past Recipients

2023-24: Pedro Castañeda,
2022-23: Jared Buck, ""
2021-22:
- Jacob McConnell, ""
- Amber Santoro, "F”
2020-21: Katherine Hinman, "
2019-2020: Nathan Acevedo, ""
2018-2019:
- Jose Quirarte, ""
- Summer Viets, "(Re)Constructing Faces: The First World War and the Genesis of Modern Plastic Surgery"

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Student Awards

Awards and Awardees

Pemstein Award

Kershaw Award

Brundage Award

Yu Award

Ibrahim Graduate Award

Lloyd Award (historic prize)

Digital History Award

History

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