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Dr. Katherine Aaslestad recognized as a Benedum Distinguished Scholar

Dr. Katherine Aaslestad was recently named a 2016 Benedum Distinguished scholar, an honor which recognizes her high caliber of research and scholarly activity. 

Dr. Aaslestad expressed how honored she is for the recognition and her excitement to represent the Department of History in this time of austerity for humanities research. 

This award is a well-deserved tribute to Dr. Aaslestad’s impressive portfolio of scholarly work including two books: Revisiting Napoleon’s Continental System: Local, Regional, and European Experiences; Historica’s Women (London: Palgrave, 2014) and Place and Politics: Local Identity, Civic Culture, and German Nationalism in North Germany during the Revolutionary Era (Leiden: Brill, 2005).  She has also authored over twenty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in English, Spanish and German on republicanism, consumer culture, civilian war experiences, the commemoration of war, and war and gender. Highly competitive international research grants from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the Fulbright Scholar Program supported her archival research in Germany.

Her international reputation has brought her into many exciting collaborative research projects, including her role on the Advisory Committee for the research project “The Persistence of Civic Identities in the Netherlands, 1748-1848” at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and more recently an associate membership in the research group Offentlighet og ytringsfrihet i Norden, 1815­–1900 (The Public Sphere and Freedom of Press in the North 1815-1900) at the University of Oslo in Norway.

She is also involved with the Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift (Military History Journal) and Deutsche Presseforschung Beirat, (German Press Research Center) at the University of Bremen, and in collaboration with colleagues at the Historisches Institute, the University of Cologne, in Germany.

This summer, Dr. Aaslestad was accepted to the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Thanks to her Fulbright Fellowship, she will continue work on her project, “After the Wars: German Central Europe after Napoleonic Conquest, 1815-1848.”  The Benedum Distinguished Scholar will also assist in funding this research project. 

The Distinguished Scholar awards are given annually to faculty engaged in “creative research” and is funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. 

As Provost Joyce McConnell said ,“These are all scholars who are recognized nationally—or even internationally—for creative, game-changing work. We are very proud to have them here at WVU and to have the opportunity to recognize their achievements with this award.”

Other recipients in 2016 include Dr. Brad Humphreys (College of Business and Economics), Dr. Paul Lockman, (Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences), and Dr. Aldo Romero (Department of Physics and Astronomy).