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Awards

From left: Breanna Coelho, Danielle Tate and Kristin Kosareff (2019 award winners)

(Left to right): 2019 award winners Breanna Coelho, Danielle Tate and Kristin Kosareff

The History Department gives six annual awards for outstanding undergraduate achievement. Click on the boxes below to learn about the different awards and award winners!

Walter Pemstein Award for Outstanding Senior

Type of Award

Outstanding Senior

Requirements

History major; Senior standing; graduated in fall or spring of same academic year; highest CPP 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

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 Strawn
2010-2011: Andrew Greer

Wong Award for Outstanding Junior

Type of Award

Outstanding Junior

Requirements

History major; Junior with highest CPP GPA in cohort (3.5 minimum), having taken at least 24 CPP units, completed HST 1100 and enrolled in HST 3300 by the time of the award.

Decided By

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

Past Recipients

2022-23: Madison Vaughn
2021-22: David Pech
2020-21: No award given
2019-20: Robert Reed
2018-19: No award given
2017-18: Blake Almanza and Aaron Garcia
2016-17: Kyle Colon
2015-16: John Dang
2014-15: Brendan Nafarrate
2013-14: Isis Quan
2012-13: Gina Risetter
2011-12: Brittany Tardiff
2010-2011: Valerie Strawn

Kershaw Award for Service

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

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 for Senior Thesis

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

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

Lloyd Award for Historiography

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

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: Greogory 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
2011-2012: Joann Conger, “The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Historiographical Study”

Digital History Award

Type of Award

Digital History project

Requirements

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

Decided By

Selection committee of tenured and tenure track History faculty

Past Recipients

2022-23:
Jared Buck, "Country Music's African Origins"
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/3628d13473f44e979a68e39c61bb2a46
2021-22:
Jacob McConnell, "The Wearing of the Green: The evolution of the Irish-American Identity"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iYnfTerj8I
Amber Santoro, "Family, Faith and Perseverance: My Grandmother’s Memories of Three Generations of Mexican-American Women in Southern California”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1puPpjrLr7eHmvuMZWZb9cBbUxCrgRI85
2020-21:
Katherine Hinman, Bronzeville of Los Angeles: The story of one of Los Angeles’ forgotten neighborhoods, and what it reveals about racial landscapes in urban America
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/92f3c958ac544074b4297523cfdd37ed
2019-2020:
Nathan Acevedo, False Power through the Lens: Wang Shilong and Li Zhensheng in Maoist China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7W2wqXPUGY&feature=youtu.be
2018-2019:
Jose Quirarte, The Japanese American Internment Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX_AWZPNL88&feature=youtu.be
Summer Viets, (Re)Constructing Faces: The First World War and the Genesis of Modern Plastic Surgery
https://pomona.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=07f1820787824d23b3c9e52ab6bd113d