Every spring, the History Department invites students to apply for awards and scholarships and holds an event to honor the recipients of each award. Read on to learn more each award and the incredible students that earned them! 

Curtis Award

Raaj Aggarwal, a senior History and Social Sciences Education major, received the Curtis Award. This award recognizes superior historical work that focuses on some aspect of the American Civil War or the History of Virginia. Raaj also earned an honorable mention for the History Prize. 

Raaj’s submission was a paper entitled “The Neglect of Progressive Educators Throughout the History of Testing in Virginia.” In it, he asks how the current public school assessment system in Virginia, what we know as the Standards of Learning (or SOLs), came to be and delineates how those who developed the SOL testing program repeatedly ignored concerns and arguments made by progressive educators for performance-based assessments. 

Upon learning he had received this award, Raaj said, “I'd like to thank Earl Cherry -- I first got the idea for my research from his class and he helped me whenever I needed support throughout the process. I'd also like to thank Dr. Winling for encouraging me to apply for this award.” 

Digital History Award

Senior history major Aidan Driscoll was the recipient of the Digital History Award. This award recognizes an individual who completed an outstanding digital history project as part of a history course.

Aidan’s digital project is titled “Please Look After This Bear: How Adults Sought to Rectify the Child’s Experience of World War II.” Aidan’s work intersperses narrative with images to examine the lives of British children during World War II and the ways adults tried to mitigate their experiences. Aidan focuses on the concern with providing children a safe and “proper” Christmas during the war. Postwar, she focuses on the explosion of children’s literature like the Paddington Bear series. 

Upon receiving her certificate of this award, Aidan thanked Dr. Ed Gitre for his help and also thanked Dr. Demmer for being her mentor. Aidan said Dr. Demmer "has shown me the kind of teacher I want to be."

History Prize

Jacob Troupe, a senior history major, won the History Prize. This prize recognizes the best paper in history – the paper must be historical in nature and can be on any historical subject. Jacob also received an honorable mention for the Curtis Award for his paper. 

Jacob’s paper is titled, “Whirling Through Winchester: The Role of Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign in Defeating the Confederacy." In it, he argues that while studies of the Civil War focus on Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas as crucial to the Confederacy’s defeat, the devastating psychological and economic effects of Sherman’s Valley Campaign in Virginia — one marked by a razing of every “farm field, barn, mill, and crop store in the Valley”— made it impossible for the region to sustain Confederate armies and was thus instrumental in Union victory.

Francis-Farrar Award

There was one award given that students could not apply for; instead, it was created to recognize students who have made remarkable turnarounds and/or contributions. The Francis-Farrar Award was named in honor of two beloved former department members: Jan Francis and Woody Farrar. 

This year, instead of giving the award to an individual student, we recognized an important group: the officers of the History Club. These students are: President Tyler Ripley, Vice President Aaliyah Cooke, Treasurer Grace Kostrzebski, Secretary Olivia Tingle, and Sergeant-at-Arms Vibeka Jensen-Oyaski. 

The History Club went through a few rough years when Covid interrupted the momentum of students regularly gathering. Over this past year, however, these 5 incredible students stepped into leadership roles to revive the club. They restarted the Stump the Chumps competition, collected and distributed free history books to students on campus, organized a Black History Month communal dinner, and set up a Women’s History Month movie night. They also hosted guest speaker Milo Rossi, created an active Instagram account, and they are already thinking ahead to plans for next year. 

James and Martha Banks Award

Jillian Sasso, who just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history and political science, received the James and Martha Banks Award. This award was established by Mac Banks in honor of his parents. James Banks is an avid history buff, and he and Martha are both involved in the Monroe County Historical Society. The award recognizes a history major with an exceptional academic record and particular interest in American history.

Jillian’s submission was a video describing three aspects of her work as Outreach Assistant for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. First, in her position with the VCCWS, Jillian helped coordinate many events, including the Civil War weekend, individual speakers’ visits, and the Civil War film series. Second, during her internship with the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park last summer, Jillian interpreted information to the public at multiple sites. She also researched, wrote, and led her own tour of the Fredericksburg National Cemetery. Lastly, Jillian has been an active and enthusiastic participant in the Civil War traveling trunk program, an initiative that introduces fourth graders to Civil War era clothing, books, and letters that students are allowed to touch and ask about.

Jillian’s love of history and communicating history are palpable in the way she speaks about her work with the Center. When receiving her award, Jillian thanked her professor, Paul Quigley. She said, “Dr. Quigley took me in as a sophomore who had changed her major and gave me so many opportunities -- it’s all his doing. I’m going to miss him when I graduate."

Patricia A. Gallagher History Scholarship

Lucas Fernandez, a junior history major, was this year’s recipient of the Gallagher Scholarship, which was established by Kathleen Gallagher Ray to support the academic careers of exceptional history majors in honor of her mother who was a “devoted student of history.” 

Lucas’s paper is titled: “Blaxploitation Cinema: The Repossession of Black Narratives." Starting at the intersection of the civil rights movement, an expanding entertainment industry, and the Cold War, Lucas focuses on the consequences to the Black community of the rise of a new film genre in the 1960s and 70s. Blaxploitation films, made primarily by white directors and producers, played on harmful stereotypes about African-Americans, even as their rise in popularity was partly a response to demands of a growing Black audience.

Lucas carefully lays out the debates between those who, then and now, have interpreted blaxploitation as racist and morally dubious versus others who point to the expansion of opportunities in the entertainment industry that followed for Black workers. He observes that, ultimately, the genre declined when audiences grew tired of its tropes.

Upon receiving this award, Lucas said, "This is an amazing honor. I could not have done it without my amazing history professors, especially Professors Zeide, Halpin, Percoda, and Ms. Nardine. The collective support I've received from this university to help win this award has truly made me feel part of not only a community, but a family."