Fall 2018 Department Highlights

Fall 2018 has been a busy and exciting semester for History Department faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates both inside and outside of the classroom! From conducting research and publishing papers or books to presenting at conferences and working in the field, staff and students can take pride in their remarkable range of achievements.

Please join us in celebrating the following achievements and awards for History Department undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty during the Fall 2018 semester.

Undergraduate Students

History Major Matthew Pajor of the St. Joseph Seminary was a recipient of this year's Presidential Medallion. Pajor is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in History, Philosophy, and Political Science. The Presidential Medallion is awarded by the University's deans to students "who have exemplified a commitment to leadership, scholarship, and service throughout their time at Loyola."

The History Club was approved as a Recognized Student Organization thanks to the work of undergraduate Norman Frazier.

History Major Jacob Kreiner provided research for the Cook County Forest Preserve Historical Signage Project in the areas of Palos Preserves and Caldwell Woods.

Undergraduate alumnus Pedro Regalado published an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "What the narrative about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets wrong."

Alumnus Devin Leigh published an article entitled "The origins of a source: Edward Long, Coromantee slave revolts and The History of Jamaica" in the journal Slavery & Abolition.

Graduate Students

PhD Candidate Kelly Schmidt presented a poster on “Mapping Kinship in an Enslaved Community" at the Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science in Chicago, Illinois.

PhD Alumna Erin Feichtinger was elected to the Board of Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska.

Graduate students Jenny Clay and Nathan Ellstrand worked with the Women and Leadership Archives to create the Voices from Mundelein: Media Portal. Showcasing images alongside more than 30 interviews, the site shares the stories of women religious, students, staff, and faculty from Mundelein College.

Graduate students Kristin Jacobsen and Matthew Amyx were inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the Jesuit national honor society.

Masters Student Bryan Morey recently completed a wall case exhibit for the University Archives highlighting the life of Loyola’s founder, Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J. The exhibit is on the second floor of Cudahy Library to the right of the elevators, so be sure to check it out next time you're nearby!

PhD Candidate Kelly Schmidt presented on “Digital Pedagogy and the Radical Networks of Common Sense,” at the International Conference of Thomas Paine Studies in New Rochelle, New York.

Alumnae Rachel Boyle, PhD, has curated an online exhibit showcasing fifteen case studies of Chicago protests, spanning nearly 150 years of history, for the Chicago Collections Consortium. View the exhibit, "Place of Protest: Chicago's Legacy of Dissent, Declaration, and Disruption" here.

PhD Student Nathan Ellstrand published an article on “Ranchos" and PhD Candidate Kelly Schmidt published an entry on “Mourning Clothes" in The World of Antebellum America: A Daily Life Encyclopedia, Volume 1.

Graduate students Nathan Ellstrand, Emily Davis, Lisa Hartman, and Alexandra Gradwohl worked with the Rogers/Park West Ridge Historical Society on the two day Open Houses of Worship event, highlighting the religious diversity of Chicago's Far North Side.

PhD Candidate Kelly Schmidt presented on “Insights and Methodologies for Researching Slavery at Religious Archives" at the Association for Catholic Diocesan Archivists Conference in Mundelein, Illinois.

Jenny Clay and Nathan Ellstrand created a digital exhibit about the creation of Peace Studies at Loyola University Chicago in June 2018. Created with WLA Director Nancy Freeman and Sociology Professor Kathleen Maas-Weigert, the project uses oral histories to trace the development of the Peace Studies program as part of Mundelein College in 1989.

PhD Candidate Kelly Schmidt gave a speech on “Enslaved Experience among the Missouri Jesuits: An Update on Our Findings"  at the Province Day of the Jesuits US Central and Southern Province in St. Louis, Missouri.

Masters student Angela Rothman recently completed an internship as a Repatriation Researcher for the National NAGPRA program, and in August she finished a Repatriation Internship for the National Museum of the American Indian.

Masters Student Bryan Morey completed research and presented his work on the Eggers Grove Forest Preserve for the Cook County Forest Preserve Historical Signage Project.

Faculty

History Department Professor Timothy Gilfoyle Received Loyola’s 2018 Faculty Member of the Year Award

Dr. Elliott Gorn published his book, Let the People See: The Story of Emmett Till, which received great reviews from Publisher's Weekly and NPR's Fresh Air.

Dr. Aidan Forth's "sophisticated and beautifully written" first book, Barbed-Wire Imperialism, has been awarded the 2018 Stansky Prize for the best book in British Studies since 1800. Learn more about Dr. Forth's work in this interview.

Dr. Ben Johnson recently completed his five-year term as co-editor of The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Dr. Michelle Nickerson contributed to the new Oxford Handbook of American Women's and Gender History.

Dr. Theodore Karamanski, Professor of History and Director of the Public History program at Loyola, was awarded the Frederick Jackson Turner Award for Lifetime Achievement in Midwestern History.

Professor Emerita Dr. Barbara Rosenwein published The Middle Ages in 50 Objects with Elina Gertsman.