The Undergraduate Program
Thesis Prizes and Honors
2021 Winners
Charles A. Beard Prize
Given by the Department for a senior thesis of distinction in any historical field or period.
Nicholas Loud – “Death of a Trolley Conductor”: Urban Landscape, Social Mobility, and Cross-Class Coalition in the Brooklyn Trolley Strike of 1895
Garrett Mattingly Prize
Given by the Department for a senior thesis of distinction in any historical field or period.
Coleman Sherry – Corporate Heads: Phrenology, Physiognomy, and the Character of Big Business, 1895-1914
Lily Prize
Given by the Department for the best senior thesis in history on a non-U.S. topic. Established by James P. Shenton in memory of his mother.
Isabel von Stauffenberg – “Verraten und Verkauft”: The Contested Politics of Germany’s Treuhandanstalt
Herbert H. Lehman Prize
Given to a General Studies student with an outstanding record of accomplishment in history courses at Columbia. Preference given to those with substantial coursework in U.S. History.
Yasemin Buharali – Re-imagining Education in the Early Turkish Republic: İsmail Hakkı Tonguç and His Transformative Educational Vision
Chanler Historical Prize (prize split)
Given by the College for the best essay submitted by a senior on a topic dealing with the history of the American civil government.
Alex Hempel – Trichloroethylene Contamination of American Military Bases: An Alternative Toxic Waste History
Mary Marsh – Setting the Scene in Japanese America: Post–World War II Visions of Transnational Politics and Culture
Albert Marion Elsberg Prize (prize split)
Given by the College for a sophomore, junior, or senior who has demonstrated excellence in modern history.
Ramsay Eyre – Land Hunger in the Abolitionist Imagination, 1865-1872
Christopher Mingo – Hidden in Plain Sight: Italian Concentration Camps in Cyrenaica: 1930-1933
Allen J Willen Memorial Prize
The prize is awarded to the Columbia College student who writes the best seminar paper on a contemporary American political problem.
Emile Warot – Dodging Antitrust: Nostalgia, Big Business, and the Baseball Monopoly
Undergraduate Education Committee Prize (Prize split)
The Undergraduate Education Committee Prize is given to a thesis of excellence written in any field of history.
Aisha Akoshile – An Age-Old Tug of War: Understanding the Intergenerational Conflicts of southern African Nationalist Groups
Departmental Honors 2021
Kayla Abrams – For the People?: The Role of Prosecutorial Misconduct in the Rise of Progressive Prosecution in Brooklyn, 1964-2019
Yasemin Buharali – Re-imagining Education in the Early Turkish Republic: İsmail Hakkı Tonguç and His Transformative Educational Vision
Jasleen Chaggar – Contesting Imperial Citizenship: The election of Dadabhai Naoroji as an MP in 1892
Emma Kateman – Capturing a Lifestyle: The Relationship Between the American Government and the American Film Industry 1945-1954
Zachary Kimmel – No Person Shall Be Deprived: Antislavery Due Process in New York State Courts, 1840-1860
Grace MacNeill – Reviving the Dead Letter: Attempts to Enforce Section Two of the Fourteenth Amendment after the 1920 Presidential Election
Willem Morris – Copper Democracy: An International Labor History of The Anaconda Company: 1945-1960
Ari Papahronis – En Solidaridad: Nicaraguan Solidarity and Reagan-Era Radical HIV/AIDS Activism
Vinzent Wesselmann – Imported Deviance: Conformity, Halbstarke, and American Youth Culture in Postwar Germany
A list of past years Prizes & Honors winners can be found here.