Category Archives: Students

IPhD Student Wins Award from the Missouri Conference on History

IPhD student, Jisung Lee, receiving an award from the president of the Missouri Conference on History, Dr. Jeremy McNeely.

IPhD student Jisung Lee won the Lynn and Kristen Morrow Missouri History Student Prize from the Missouri Conference on History. His essay, “The Abandoned West: The First Year of the Western Sanitary Commission, 1861-1862,” was awarded the Morrow prize for the best student paper on an aspect of Missouri History presented at the conference. This essay is part of Lee’s dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Diane Mutti Burke and was written in Dr. Drew Bergerson’s Fall 2022 Research Seminar.

Lee was recognized during the Missouri Conference on History awards ceremony on March 17, 2023 in Springfield.

Guadalupe Centers Centennial Project Wins National Accolades

Kansas City’s Guadalupe Centers: A Century of Serving the Latino Community has been recognized with 2 awards from the American Association for State and Local History.

This multifaceted Public History project is a collaboration from the Guadalupe Centers, Inc., the History Department and Center for Midwestern Studies, UMKC Latinx and Latin American Studies Program, Tico Productions, LLC, and the Kansas City Public Library. Their efforts included an exhibit, a documentary, public programming, and an ongoing archival project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the organization.

The Guadalupe Centennial project received AASLH’S Award of Excellence, and is one of three projects recognized with the History In Progress Award. The HIP Award is given to projects that are “highly inspirational, exhibits exceptional scholarship, and/or is exceedingly entrepreneurial in terms of funding, partnerships, or collaborations, creative problem solving, or unusual project design and inclusiveness.”

In addition, the project was selected as an honorable mention for the Alice Smith Public History Prize from the Midwestern History Association.

Congratulations to Dr. Sandra Enríquez, Dr. Theresa Torres (LLAS), graduate student Hunter Albright, our Public History students who worked on the project, and all of the collaborators!

Making History Exhibit Wins Two Awards

MA Public History Emphasis students Leah Palmer, Kate Carpenter, Samantha Hollingsworth and Taylor Bye receiving their award at the NCPH conference in Las Vegas in March 2018.

The UMKC History Department and Center for Midwestern Studies are proud to announce that six of our MA students in the Public History Emphasis—Taylor Bye, Kathryn Carpenter, Samantha Hollingsworth, Leah Palmer, Kevin Ploth, and Jennifer Tufts—have received two awards for their exhibit Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights. The project chronicles Kansas City’s pivotal role in launching the LGBTQ movement prior to the Stonewall riots, and began as part of Dr. Christopher Cantwell’s Public History Theory and Method course in Fall 2016.

Making History was awarded the National Council on Public History’s Student Project Prize. NCPH gives the award to “an outstanding public history student project initiated as academic coursework and implemented and recognized beyond the classroom for its contribution to the field of public history.” In addition, the exhibit won the the Alice Smith Public History award from the Midwestern History Association.

Making History is currently touring different libraries and universities across the region. For more information visit info.umkc.edu/makinghistory.