To honor our students’ research and scholarly accomplishments the Department of History is please to offer several writing prizes, funded by generous donors. The recipients of prizes for writing completed in a given academic year will be chosen by the Fellowships & Scholarships Committee in the fall semester of the following year.
Nominations due: November 1st.
Kate Everest Levi Second-Year Paper Prize
For outstanding Second-Year papers. Nominations are made by the student’s Second-Year Review Committee.
Paul Glad Prize
Thanks to generous funding from an alumnus, the Department of History is pleased to offer two $500 writing prizes for History papers that use popular films or other visual media as primary sources. We are open to submissions from both undergraduate and graduate students. At least one of these prizes will be awarded for an undergraduate paper.
Baensch Award
For outstanding (unpublished) “theses or essays on some aspect of Wisconsin History.” Nominations are made by History Department faculty. This prize was established in honor of Judge and Mrs. Emil Baensch of Sheboygan.
Sandoway Graduate Writing Prize
For a paper or thesis chapter that addresses historical sources. Submissions may include a paper or thesis chapters that discuss the reasons for using particular sources and/or the criteria for robust historical sources; deals with issues of understanding and accessing historical sources that time and/or language have rendered obscure or fragmentary; discusses how to do a historical study with innovative or non-traditional historical sources; or displays how the author was motivated to pursue a particular line of research, or how their findings push back on standard interpretations. (paused for 2024-2025)
Schrag Prize in German Jewish History
For outstanding (unpublished) research papers on German Jewish history. Nominations are made by History faculty; self-nominations are also accepted. This prize honors the memory of Paul J. Schrag, an eloquent witness to the experiences of German Jewry in the twentieth century.
Jen Gramer Prize
The Jen Gramer Prize recognizes outstanding Second-Year papers examining European or cultural history, with a preference for students with a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 (or its equivalent) who are studying cultural writings on art, film, music, and gender studies. History faculty can nominate a paper, and/or students can self-nominate.