The History Department has established three programs to recognize the hard work and commitment that students display during their time at Davidson: the Kendrick K. Kelley Award, the 480 Research Program awards, and the Earl Edmondson Award for Extraordinary Service.

The Kendrick K. Kelley Award
The Kelley Award is part of the Kendrick K. Kelley Program in Historical Studies, established in memory of Ken Kelley, a 1963 honors graduate in history who was killed in Vietnam in 1968. This year's recipient of the Kelley Award is Kevin Brendan Birney for his honors thesis entitled "A Dry New York: Theodore Roosevelt's Enforcement of the Sunday Excise Law, 1895." Kevin's excellently-written, deeply-researched and well-argued thesis examines a little known but crucial incident where New York City Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, unsuccessfully attempted to enforce a law restricting the Sunday sale of alcoholic beverages in the summer of 1895. Kevin shows how this episode launched Roosevelt's national political career, illuminates the ethnic, class, and political divisions of turn of the century New York, and highlights a period where the city started to become a center for nightlife and entertainment activities.

KEVIN BIRNEY - 2009 Winner of the Ken Kelley Award in History

The 480 Research Program Awards
For the majority of History majors not enrolled in the Kelley program, the capstone course is HIS480 taken in the fall of their senior year. After discussing the nature of primary sources and of different historiographic approaches, students define, research, and write a major research paper on a topic of their choice. The Department awards prizes to those senior majors whose work best exemplifies the nature of the historian's craft.

(L to R): 2009 History 480 prize winners, Omar Laafoura, Sarah Katz, Jennifer Drew Lindey, Emily Koons, Andrew Gorang

2009 Winners
First Prize

Andrew Gorang- "Failed Intentions: British Policy and the Kurds of Sulaimaniya, 1918-1932

Second Prize

Emily Koons - "'Spreading of the Contagion': The Paxton Pamphlets and Public Opinion in Colonial Philadelphia"

Omar Laafoura- "A Lesson in American Foreign Policy: The Perficaris Incident, 1904"

Honorable Mention

Sarah Katz- "'My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery': Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery, 1861-65"

Jennifer Drew Lindsey - "Preying on the Predator: The Phenomenon of the 1916 Jersey Shore Attacks and American Society in the Twentieth Century"

Earl Edmondson Award for Extraordinary Service to the Department of History

The Earl Edmondson prize rewards students or a student for extraordinary service to the History Department. This year the prize was awarded to Caitlyn Culbertson. Caitlyn ('09) was instrumental in helping the History Department become a member of Phi Alpha Theta and always eager to assist the Department in teaching out to potential majors.

2009 Earl Edmondson Award winner Caitlyn Culbertson