History Major Wins American Historical Association National Essay Competition

Hailey Giczy has won the Raymond J. Cunningham Prize for the Best Article by an Undergraduate for her published senior thesis "The Bum Blockade: Los Angeles and the Great Depression." The American Historical Association, the largest and most important organization of professional historians, offers the Raymond J. Cunningham Prize for the best article written by an undergraduate student and published in a history department journal. This prize is a major national award from the nations premier historical organization, evidence that the History program is a vital part of Chapman University's rise to national prominence.

Hailey and her senior thesis mentor, Professor Leland Estes, will attend the American Historical Association's annual awards banquet in Boston this coming January to receive the award. The winning author and the winning journal each receive a $200 prize.

Hailey's article was published in the first issue of the History Department's award-winning on-line historical journal Voces Novae. You can read the article in Voces Novae.

Hailey's article had also previously won the Phi Alpha Theta Nels Andrew Cleven Prize, another prestigious national undergraduate award.

Her paper explores a little known aspect of Los Angeles History in the depths of the Depression. In 1936 the Chief of Police decided to erect a "bum blockade" both at home and on California's borders to rid the city of dust bowl migrants and others thought to be undesirable, and to keep these sorts of people from coming in the first place. However, though it only lasted a month and drew the fire of many on the left, it nonetheless seems to have had a considerable popular backing. Hailey, in fact, argues that the blockade was indicative of a spirit in this state at the time to go to considerable and perhaps even unconstitutional lengths to preserve its "imagined" view of itself as a sort of middle class utopia against what was widely seen as tide of unwashed Okkies flooding in from the east.

Hailey did a considerable amount of primary research, and she was aided in this research by a special grant from the Chancellor's Office. She used memoirs, newspapers, magazines, and also spent a considerable amount of time in the archives of the Los Angeles Police Department.

History Department Majors and Minors Celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Chapman University with a Special Issue of their Award Winning Voces Novae.

Voces Novae, Chapman University's award winning student historical journal, will publish a special issue in the spring of 2011 devoted to the history of the university, especially its meteoric rise to national prominence in the last 30 years.  This special issue will take full advantage of its Open Journal Systems software, with its extensive audio and video capabilities, to present creatively this history as a series of interviews with those people who were centrally involved in this rise--key professors, administrators, staff members and trustees.  While this vast project will be overseen by the members of the Department of History, including journal advisor Lee Estes, the actual task of preparing for and doing interviews, as well as editing and putting these interviews online, will be in the hands of History majors and minors formally trained in the required skills by Jana Remy, Associate Director of Instructional Technology.  This special issue of Voces Novae will be debuted at the Southern California Regional Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society Conference, to be held here at Chapman on April 9th, and again at the 150th Birthday Party and Campus Open House on May 7th. 

Isn't it wonderful when history repeats itself? Our Alpha Mu Gamma Chapter has done it again – winning the 2009 -2010 Best Chapter Award from the Phi Alpha Theta National Honors Society. This prestigious award was given to our PAT chapter for the whole range of its many activities including hosting the second annual Alpha Mu Gamma Student History Conference in March and publishing the prize-winning Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review. In addition, PAT members won four of the five undergraduate paper prizes at the Southern California Regional PAT Conference in California State University-Bakersfield, several faculty sponsored Student Research Grants from the Office of the Chancellor and the Faculty Research and Development Council, and four of the five Leatherby Libraries Undergraduate Research Prizes. Twelve members also presented research papers at the PAT bi-annual convention in San Diego. The Chapter also won for its many contributions to the University and the wider community including volunteering as a group cleaning up Seal Beach, helping out at the Thanksgiving Food Bank Drive, and providing much of the labor that helps make the many Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education events so successful. The Department of History would like to particularly thank William Cumiford and Brenda Farrington, Faculty Advisors for PAT this past year, Dr. Lee Estes and Robert Slayton who mentored the students as they completed their research papers, as well as the chapter officers.

Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review
wins first prize

Hailey Giczy, History student wins National Prize for paper

Hailey Giczy has won the Nels Andrew Cleven Prize for her paper, "The Bum Blockade: Los Angeles and the Great Depression." The Nels Andrew Cleven Prize, given by Phi Alpha Theta (the History Honor Society), is one of the most prestigious national awards available to an undergraduate in History and usually leads to publication in The Historian.

It's a very wonderful paper on a little known aspect of Los Angeles History in the depths of the Depression. In 1936, the Chief of Police decided to erect a "bum blockade" both at home and on California's borders to rid the city of dust bowl migrants and others thought to be undesirable. However, though it only lasted a month and drew the fire of many on the left, it nonetheless seems to have had a considerable popular backing. Hailey, in fact, argues that the blockade was indicative of a spirit in this state at the time to go to considerable and perhaps even unconstitutional lengths to preserve its "imagined" view of itself as a sort of middle class utopia against what was widely seen as a tide of unwashed Okkies flooding in from the east.

As an inspection of her scholarly apparatus will show, Hailey did a considerable amount of primary research. She was aided in this research by a special grant from the Chancellor's Office. She has not only used the more accessible sources - memoirs, newspapers, magazines - but has also spent a considerable amount of time in the archives of the Los Angeles Police Department. This has allowed her to directly perceive both the motives behind the blockade and the exact mechanics of its implementation. This is quite an excellent paper that not only teases out the specific history of this event, but puts it into the widest framework of American History.

This paper was given to the First Annual Alpha Mu Gamma Chapter History Honor Society Conference at Chapman on March 21st. A final version was delivered at the Southern California Regional Phi Alpha Theta History Conference at UCLA on April 18th. You can read it yourself in Voces Novae.

Chapman's Alpha Mu-Gamma Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta has won its second in a row Best Chapter Award!

Our Alpha Mu Gamma Chapter has won the 2008-2009 Best Chapter Award from the Phi Alpha Theta National Honors Society. This prestigious award was given to our PAT chapter for the whole range of its many activites including the founding of its own Alpha Mu Gamma History Conference in March, and the publication of the first issue of Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review. In addition, PAT members won two of the three paper prizes at the Southern California Regional PAT Conference in UCLA, two faculty sponsored Student Research Grants from the Office of the Chancellor and the Faculty Research and Development Council, and all four Leatherby Libraries Undergraduate Research Prizes. The Chapter also won for its many contributions to the University and the wider community including thousands of hours volunteering as a group cleaning up Seal Beach, helping out at the Thanksgiving Food Bank Drive, and providing much of the labor that helps make the many Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education events so successful. The Department of History would like to particularly thank Brenda Farrington, the Faculty Advisor for PAT this past year, and the officers of the chapter - President Hailey Giczy, Vice President Ashley Duree, Secretary John Cowles, Treasurer Brittany Columbus, Historians Karl McEnti and Andrew Paul, As House Rep. Sarah Ganderup and Alumni Liaison Elizabeth Mack - for their many hours of dedicated services that made this award possible.

History majors win the second annual Leatherby Libraries Undergraduate Research Prizes

Congratulations are owed to the four history majors who were awarded with the Leatherby Libraries Undergraduate Research Prizes for the 2008-2009 academic year. 

First prize was awarded to John Cowles for "Vivez sans temps morts, jouissez sans entraves': The Carnivalesque Forms of Language and Action in the Student-Worker Action Committees of the May '68 Revolt.

Second Prize went to Brittany Columbus for "Bean na h-Eireann: Feminism and Nationalism in an Irish Journal, 1908-1911."

Third Prize was given to Haily Giczy for "The Bum Blockade: Los Angeles and the Great Depression."

Also receiving Honorable Mention, Kyle Nellesen for "Cavalry of the Clouds: Public Perceptions and Private Realities of American Fighter Pilots in World War i.

There were many brilliant papers written by Senior Seminar students this year, and the History Department honors their success and thanks to the faculty members who made these achievements possible.  

History majors honored with two of three undergraduate awards

Chapman History majors won two out of three undergraduate awards at the Southern California Regional Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society Conference held on April 18 at UCLA. The winners were Brittany Columbus for "Bean na h-Eireann: Feminism and Nationalism in an Irish Journal, 1908-1911" and Paul Fellman for "Battle of the Somme: How the 13th Division Avoided Disaster, 1 July 1916." Twenty-one Chapman students participated and all were astonishingly superior to those of other institutions. Bravo to the winners and all of our other fantastic students!

Professors Bill Cumiford and Carolyn Vieira-Martinez chaired conference sessions; Professor Brenda Farrington was in attendance as Phi Alpha Theta Advisor, and Professor Lee Estes was the mentor for the two winning students.

Phi Alpha Theta is recognized as Best Chapter in the Nation

At left: Dean of Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences Roberta Lessor presents Phi Alpha Theta President Hailey Giczy with Best Chapter of the Year award.

In May 2008, Chapman's Phi Alpha Theta history honor society was named best chapter in the nation among schools without history graduate programs. A reception was held on Monday, Oct. 27, 2008 in Roosevelt Hall presenting Phi Alpha Theta with the awared.

Click here for more photos of reception!

Chapman Hosts the 2008 PAT SoCal Regional Conference

Chapman History seniors Sarah Kuiken and Elsa Lindstrom won first and second places in the undergraduate history paper competition at the 2008 Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society Southern California Regional Conference, hosted by Chapman's Alpha-Mu-Gamma chapter of Phi Alpha Theta on Saturday, April 12, 2008. This is the second straight year that Chapman history majors mentored by Professor Lee Estes have won the top awards at the history honors regional conference. Paul Traska (05) who graduated with a degree in history and minored in honors, now a graduate student at California State Polytechnic University, placed second in the graduate student paper competition.

Twenty-three Chapman history majors either presented papers or served as panel commentators, a record participation rate by Chapman University in a regional history honors conference. Phi Alpha Theta faculty advisor Carolyn Vieira-Martinez, Professor Alex Bay, Professor Brenda Farrington and the Alpha-Mu-Gamma conference committee successfully organized the largest regional conference to date, drawing 149 student presenters and commentators, and faculty advisors from twenty-one regional Phi Alpha Theta chapters to Chapman's campus. Participating schools included California State University-Northridge, California State University-San Marcos, University of California-Riverside, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of San Diego, and the University of Southern California.

Kuiken's paper "Breeches and the Softer Sex, Gender and Seafaring in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Britain" and Lindstrom's paper "A Capponi Family Transaction: A Study of Lenders, Collateral and Interest in Sixteenth-Century Florence" were both written as part of their senior history theses. Lindstrom completed part of the research for her paper while studying abroad in Florence last spring.

Board of Trustee member David Henley provided financial support for the conference, along with Chancellor Daniele Struppa, Dean of Students Joe Kertes, Wilkinson College of Letters and Sciences Dean Roberta Lessor, Dr. Marilyn Harran, Stern Chair and Director, Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, and Dr. Robert Slayton, Henry Salvatori Professor of American Values and Traditions.

Dr. Don Will, Associate Dean, Wilkinson College of Letters and Sciences, and Jeanne Gunner, Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, welcomed the delegates to Chapman University.  The conference concluded with a banquet that initiated 21 new members into Phi Alpha Theta, and renowned historian Dr. Joyce Appleby, Professor Emeritus, UCLA, delivered an engaging keynote address on why disputes about history remain important in America. Dr. Graydon A. Tunstall Jr., Executive Director, Phi Alpha Theta also attended the conference, noting the phenomenal growth and performance of Chapman's Alpha-Mu-Gamma Phi Alpha Theta chapter which was only established four years ago. 

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Chapman University Students Present Papers at the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society 2008 Biennial Convention

History Department assistant professor Alexander Bay accompanied seven Chapman University students to the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society 2008 Biennial Convention held at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya, a high desert resort outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico from January 3-5, 2008. Over the three day conference, the students presented concise and well delivered papers based on research projects mentored by professors Lee Estes, Bob Slayton and Jennifer Keene.

Michelle Kanda, president of the Chapman University Alpha-Mu-Gamma chapter of Phi Alpha Theta and the recipient of the Tenaya Hills Research Award and a Chancellor's student research grant for her project, presented "A Society of Gentlemen: Enlightenment Arguments and Ulterior Motives in the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa." Other students presented on a wide variety of topics: Sarah Kuiken, "Breeches and the Softer Sex: Women at Sea in 18th and 19th Century Britain," Shannon David, "Confronting the Reality of Changed Lives: Love and Loss for Women in Civil War America," Matthew Leaverton, "From Private Company to Public Corporation: The BBC and the 1926 General Strike," Phu Mai, "The Kennan Plan: The Emergency Recovery Program Revisited," Sumit Raghuvanshi, "The Christian Influences in the Abolition of Sati in Bengal 1829," and Elizabeth Mack, "Malleus Maleficarum and King James: Infulences for the Early Modern Witch-Hunts in England and Scotland."

Student travel scholarships generously provided by Ludie and Board of Trustee David Henley funded the students' trip to the national history honors conference.