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Student Achievements, 2016-2017

Our students and former students have been busy this year! Check out some of the exciting accomplishments of our current undergraduate and graduate students and catch up on the news from our amazing alumni:

Student Achievements:

Nerissa Aksamit (PhD Student), was awarded a grant from Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) to attend the Goethe-Institut in Hamburg this summer. This fellowship will also give her an opportunity to do research at the Hamburg State Archives and the Bergen Belsen Memorial Museum in Germany. Last summer, Nerissa was selected to participate in the Second Global Humanitarianism Research Academy, which took place from July 11 to 22, 2016, at the University of Exeter, UK, and the Archives of International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.

 Pamela Curtin (MA Pubic History), worked as an Exhibit Development Intern at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. She was part of a team of curators and educators that planned several upcoming exhibitions. Among her tasks were archival research and developing interactive exhibit components.

Karina Esposito (PhD Candidate), was awarded the Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller Graduate Research Grant for 2016-2017 by the Department of the Navy's Navy History and Heritage Command.

Katy Ferrari (PhD Student), received the Kathryn Conway Preyer Fellowship for graduate study in history, awarded by Wellesley College. Katy plans to use the fellowship to do dissertation research in the State Archives, City Archives, and Royal Library in Turin, Italy. Katy also published article: “Kinship and the Marginalized Consort: Giovanna d’Austria at the Medici Court,” Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 11.1 (Fall 2016): 45-68.

Luke Gramith (PhD Candidate), was awarded the Cesare Barbieri Endowment for Italian Culture’s 2016 Trinity College Research Grant in Modern Italian History, which allowed him to travel to Italy to conduct research for his dissertation during the 2017 spring semester.

Lauren Griffin (undergraduate, honors) received a Boren Scholarship and will be in Japan next year.

Madeline Hall (undergraduate, Honors), was a recipient of the Boren Scholarship, which allowed her to travel to Amman, Jordan for seven months starting in January of 2017 to continue her study of Arabic. Maddie was also selected for a Critical Language Scholarship which sent her to Ibri, Oman from May 31-August 3, 2016, to learn Arabic intensively.

Karleen Kovalcik (MA Public History), worked as a Summer Intern in 2016 at the Nantucket Historical Association in Nantucket, MA. Her internship entailed working as part of the Visitor Experience Department, primarily on programs and activities, such as staffing a moving artifacts cart or assisting with evening events.

Jennifer Miller (PhD Candidate), was awarded the National Society of Colonial Dames of America Regional Scholarship for 2016.

Justin Power (PhD Candidate), spent the summer of 2016 researching and working as an intern at the Peqout Museum & Research Center in Mashantucket, CT, through the support of WVU’s Humanities Summer Internship program. The Humanities Summer Internship program is an innovative opportunity for doctoral students in the humanities to gain transferable skills for career paths inside and outside academia. 

Marc Sanko (PhD Candidate), was recruited by Latitude 36, an audio-visual production company out of London, to be the lead historian for North American Maltese migration for the Valletta 2018 interactive project on global Maltese migration. This project is part of the celebrations to be held in Malta’s capital city to commemorate their title as “European Capital of Culture” for 2018.” 

Elizabeth Satterfield (undergraduate, honors) was selected for the prestigious Bucklew Scholarship for 2016. Elizabeth is a history major from Trinity Christian High School. She was also selected to participate in the WVU Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), which supports students interested in graduate school within their disciple to complete research for 8 weeks during the summer under the direction of a WVU faculty mentor. This summer, Elizabeth will be working with Professor Jenny Boulware to increase her research experiences locally.

Katie Thompson (PhD Candidate), won Second Place and the People’s Choice Winner of the 2017 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, sponsored by WVU’s Office of Graduate Education and Life, for her dissertation, “War on the Mind: Trauma and Coping in the Union Army”. 

Chuck R. Welsko (PhD Candidate), won a General and Mrs. Matthew B. Ridgway Military History Research Grant from the U. S. Army Heritage and Education Center of the U. S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to help fund his dissertation research. Chuck also published an article: “Like a Dark Cloud”: Loyalty, Virtue, and War in Western Virginia, 1861–1863,” West Virginia History 10.1 (Spring 2016): 45-68.