The Undergraduate Program
Thesis Prizes and Honors
2022 Winners
Charles A. Beard Prize
Given by the Department for a senior thesis of distinction in any historical field or period.
Isaac Daly – A National Response: Widening Conceptions of Conservatism in Great Britain during the 1790s
Garrett Mattingly Prize
Given by the Department for a senior thesis of distinction in any historical field or period.
Rose Aydin – Water and Wellness: Cholera in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire
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.
Tunshore Longe – No Justice, No Peace, No Education: An Exploration of the Nigerian Student Leader Contribution to the April 1978 Crisis
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.
Claudia Wolff – ‘A Black Man in a White World’: The Duality of Jackie Robinson
Chanler Historical Prize (two recipients awarded)
Given by the College for the best essay submitted by a senior on a topic dealing with the history of the American civil government.
Marco Balestri – The Fight to Read, Write, and Vote: The New York State Literacy Test, 1922-1965
Matthew Chagares – Offensive Capability and Potential Usage: The American Biological Warfare Program During World War II
Albert Marion Elsberg Prize (two recipients awarded)
Given by the College for a sophomore, junior, or senior who has demonstrated excellence in modern history.
Francesca Barasch – The Privilege of Freedom: Disparities in Arrest and Sentencing Practices in Edgefield, South Carolina, 1865-1867
Noah Percy – The Age of Consent and Its Discontents: French Intellectuals and the Reform of Sexual Violence Law, 1968-1982
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.
Samuel Needleman – Consolidating the Carceral City: The Planning of Rikers Island, 1884-1925
Undergraduate Education Committee Prize
The Undergraduate Education Committee Prize is given to a thesis of excellence written in any field of history.
Madeline Zakheim – ‘The Sights I Would Have Preferred to Have Left Behind in Dunkirk’: A Comparative Study of Wartime British Memorialization of Operation Dynamo
Departmental Honors 2022
Rose Aydin – Water and Wellness: Cholera in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire
Francesca Barasch – The Privilege of Freedom: Disparities in Arrest and Sentencing Practices in Edgefield, South Carolina, 1865-1867
Isaac Daly – A National Response: Widening Conceptions of Conservatism in Great Britain during the 1970s
Beatrix Geaghan-Breiner – A New World Order Imagined: the U.S. Foreign Policy Establishment’s Invention of “Rogue States”
Tunshore Longe – No Justice, No Peace, No Education: An Exploration of the Nigerian Student Leader Contribution to the April 1978 Crisis
Elizabeth Love – War, Loss, and What they Wore: Gender, Class, and Clothing in the Civil War South
Kathryn Mokrynski – “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” – A “Disneyfied” Representation of President Lincoln at the 1964 New York World’s Fair
Samuel Needleman – Consolidating the Carceral City: The Planning of Rikers Island, 1884-1925
Noah Percy – The Age of Consent and Its Discontents: French Intellectuals and the Reform of Sexual Violence Law, 1968-1982
Beatrice Shlansky – ‘An Exercise of True Christian Stewardship’: Presbyterian Missionary Sheldon Jackson in Alaska (1877-1909)
Timmy Stabler – The Media Allies of the San Francisco Hippies, 1965-67
Claudia Wolff – ‘A Black Man in a White World’: The Duality of Jackie Robinson
A list of past years Prizes & Honors winners can be found here.