History Awards Over $440,000 in Scholarships and Prizes

Created in 1977 as one of the first endowed scholarships at the University of Washington, the Maurice D. and Lois M. Schwartz Scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic excellence and a commitment to the study of non-Western history.

While a student at the University, Mr. Schwartz became fascinated with the Middle and Near East. In 1934, Professor Pollard, head of the Department of Oriental Studies, secured funds to support a promising undergraduate who would serve as a reader to him as well as attend to clerical tasks within the department. That student was Maurice Schwartz, and nobody could have imagined just how big that little investment would one day pay out.

The Schwartz Fund has been a vital source of tuition support to the students of this department for many decades. Now, due to a final bequest from their estate, the impact of their generosity will be even stronger. This year, and going forward, we are able to give out the equivalent of 63 quarters of resident tuition, or essentially award an entire year of tuition to 21 resident students! We will forever be grateful for the generosity of Maurice and Lois, and it is an honor to present these awards in their name.

Alec Benson, Kyle Clark, Brionna Dulay, Aidan Dveirin, Saul Gonzalez, Eleanor Hoffman, Katherine Hoffman, Clara Kehoe, Sophie Knight, Ellen Koselka, Heidi Longwell, Lauren McClintock, Sarah Newman, Tam Nguyen, Vee Nguyen, Moniva Pal, Tate Parker, Amber Pilgreen, Dakota Riley, Laurel Rovetta, Samuel Shepard, Harjot Singh, and Maia Sullivan

Established by Professor Emeritus Daniel C. Waugh in memory of his maternal great-grandfather, this fund provides travel aid for students studying the languages and cultures of Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Near and Middle East, and North Africa.

Isaac Bronfine (Germany), Eleanor Hoffman (Poland), Olivia Tinettie (Slovenia)

This award supports students in their study of the languages and cultures of the Middle East.

Zinnia Hansen

Established in memory of UW alum Dale Roger Corkery, this fund honors his love of history by offering support to undergraduate history majors studying ancient history.

Zinnia Hansen

Established in recognition of a friendship spanning over twenty years, it is the hope of this donor that the support provided by this fund will help students as they gain rich experiences through their education. 

Lauren McClintock

This scholarship is made possible through the generosity of Faye Wilson, who directed that a portion of her estate be used by the UW Department of History to assist outstanding undergraduates with tuition costs.

Tessa Chittendon, Selma Sukkary, and Katarina Vena

Nancy (Freedman) and Ben Remak began this scholarship to assist history majors who face the high cost of non-resident tuition. Nancy herself had come to the UW from out of state and recognizes the financial burden such students face. 

Emma Inwalson

UW History alumna Marilyn Montgomery began this award to support undergraduate history majors in their studies.

Harjot Singh

Otis Pease was a professor and department chair of UW History. This scholarship honors his memory and provides tuition support to undergraduates pursing a major in history.

Jacob Krell

Herman and Rose Sleizer endowed this scholarship in memory of their son, Larry Lee Sleizer, with the hope that supporting many future generations of students would serve as a fitting memorial in his name.

Charlotte Bergevin, Brionna Dulay, Saul Gonzalez, Eleanor Hoffman, Cheyenne Jenkins, Jacob Krell, Heidi Longwell, Lauren McClintock, Natalie McLaughlin, Elliot Miller, Vee Nguyen, Moniva Pal, Tate Parker, Laurel Rovetta, and Harjot Singh

These funds are made possible through generous donations from our alumni and friends.

Maia Sullivan

This prize is given for an outstanding paper or project written on the history of African Americans, with a preference for African Americans in the American West.

Nolan DeGarlais
“Multiracial Labor Organizing and Community Building in Roslyn, Washington, 1888-1907”

In this extensively researched, well-written, and tightly argued essay, DeGarlais presents a comparative study of two strikes in the coal-mining town of Roslyn, Washington: a failed 1888 strike by the Knights of Labor, a union comprising immigrant white workers, and a successful one by the United Mine Workers in 1904. As DeGarlais shows, the mine workers by 1904 were an integrated union, and in significant ways Roslyn had become culturally integrated as well. While Black miners were brought to Roslyn as strike breakers in 1888, they remained to guide the newly arrived Americans into the institutions of American life. Thus, in a period that saw the entrenchment of Jim Crow laws and the renewed rise of the Klan, Roslyn saw a diverse community make common cause. When better prospects led most Black workers to leave Roslyn, they were for the most part remembered by history only as strike breakers. DeGarlais has done the crucial work of history in uncovering and explaining a more complicated story. His work represents the best of our undergraduates’ scholarship, and the Department’s commitment to the careful study of race and labor in historical contexts. 

Established in memory of UW alumnus Thomas M. Power, the Excellence in History awards recognize exemplary scholarship in history and encourage study in the discipline. This award acknowledges undergraduates who have produced outstanding research papers within a UW history course.

Nicole Grabiel
“’Nadie Ganaba’/ ‘Nobody Won’: El Salvador, Argentina, and the Transnational Roots of State Terror”

Using primary and secondary sources in both Spanish and English, in this essay Grabiel argues for the influence of Argentina on El Salvador in the embrace of a policy of violent repression of political dissent in the late 1970s. Pointing to a moment of contingency when it was still possible for El Salvador’s ruling powers to engage with their left-wing opponents, the essay shows how a panoply of influences, from the advice of Argentine military attaches, offers of financial and technical support, and the promotion of Argentine policy as exemplary of political stability tipped the balance towards state terror and ultimately the deaths of more than 40,000 of El Salvador’s population of about four and a half million people. The essay draws extensively on newly-declassified Argentine chancery records as well as a mastery of primary and secondary sources. It draws on, and contributes to, a new Cold War historiography of Latin America, one which decenters the influence and demands of the United States to look for continental contributors. The paper exemplifies excellence in historical research and writing. 

Selma Sukkary honorable mention
“One Strange Brew: a Look Back on San Francisco’s Psychedelic Art Movement”

This essay exemplifies one of the most important attributes of good history: the ability to rediscover and explain the network of mutually-defining elements that constituted a relevant context at some time and place in the past. Here, the time is the mid-1960s and the place is San Francisco, home to a graphic tradition of posters celebrating the contemporary music scene. Sukkary appeals to histories of psychedelic substances, counterculture politics, art history, and abstract impressionism, literature, computing history and the San Francisco cultural scene, all flourishing briefly before the construction of a counter-counter-culture in the name of Cold War efficacy and conventional economic progress. Nicely balancing the cold rationality of historical argument and the evocation of alternate realities, this essay is fully deserving of recognition.

Established in memory of UW alumnus Thomas M. Power, the Excellence in History awards recognize exemplary scholarship in history and encourage study in the discipline. This award acknowledges the superb work of graduating seniors within the history major.

Nicole Grabiel  
Nicole is an exceptional student, graduating with a 3.99 history GPA, 4.00 global and regional studies GPA, and 3.92 UW cumulative GPA.  Along with her sophisticated research abilities, Nicole has exhibited remarkable leadership, commitment to social justice, and language fluency in her extracurricular activities. Specifically, her advanced Spanish skills that led to her position at the UW’s Center for Human Rights. Nicole’s thesis adviser, Dr. Ileana Rodríguez-Silva, states, “The center regularly assists civil groups in Central America, especially El Salvador, in their judicial claims against state terror. Nicole is the only one at the center exclusively dedicated to Central American research tasks, labor central to rural communities’ claims for reparations and restitutions from the government.” 

History Department lecturer, Dr. Kyle Haddad-Fonda, has provided this stunning assessment of Nicole’s academic skills and achievements: “Nicole is the best student I’ve ever taught, at the UW or anywhere else. She is a force both inside the classroom and beyond it—a person who combines an impressive intellect with a remarkable ability to communicate and a sincere desire for her scholarship to promote justice, dignity, and respect. She’s also a kind and caring person who exemplifies the best of what this university has to offer.” Nicole has a grant to conduct research this year through the Hoover Institute at Stanford University.

Established in memory of UW alumnus Thomas M. Power, the Excellence in History awards recognize exemplary scholarship in history and encourage study in the discipline. This award acknowledges a graduating history major or a history graduate student, for integrating the study of history with community and public engagement. It builds on the sense that many of our students are drawing on their studies to do important work beyond the classroom.

Makenna Page
Makenna serves as editor-in-chief of UW’s The Historical Review, our student-run undergraduate journal featuring writing and research in history. This journal was started several years ago, and Makenna has helped introduce new elements to The Historical Review. As Dr. Ileana Rodriguez- Silva wrote, “I have been impressed with their work with the history journal and the ways in which they are ushering in some changes and collaborating with students outside the department to bring other dimensions to historical thinking.” Some examples of these collaborations and changes include hosting writing workshops that encouraged students to hone their writing through feedback on pieces they were writing for submission to the journal; holding social events; pairing with UW Poetry Club to incorporate poetry into the journal; and this year’s Historical Review board is largest since its founding. Beyond Makenna’s work with The Historical Review, as an honors in history student, Makenna completed a thesis entitled, “Scotland’s Outer Hebrides: A Colonial Oxymoron.” As part of their research, Makenna was able to visit the archives in Scotland. During this archival visit, they found an incredible primary source, a letter, in an unexpected book while visiting the archives.

Each year, the College of Arts & Sciences chooses Dean’s Medalists to represent the College. These students are the top graduating seniors in each division and are nominated by their departments.

Nicole Grabiel

Established in memory of UW alumnus Thomas M. Power, the Excellence in History awards recognize exemplary scholarship in history and encourage study in the discipline. This prize is given to a graduate student who had produced a masterful research paper in a University of Washington history course.

Sierra Mondragón 
“Belonging Possibilities: Santa Clara Pueblo Women Confronting Colonialism and Rethinking Sovereignty”

This ambitious essay looks at the tensions between tribal sovereignty and Native identity among the Santa Clara Pueblo. Part of the essay studies the policy, established in 1939, by which tribal membership could descend through the patriarchal line but not through the matriarchal line, if only one parent was a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo. When this policy was challenged in federal court in 1978 on the grounds that it discriminated against women, it was upheld by the Supreme Court on the grounds of tribal sovereignty. The second part of the essay draws on a program of oral history interviews to establish what Mondragón refers to as “Belonging Possibilities,” that is, strategies for female empowerment and identity worked out within the community in order to make places for women within the community.

This essay works on every level, thoroughly and creatively researched, imaginatively interpreted, sensitive to place and space, and respectfully engaged with the informants who emerge as partners in the process of collecting oral histories. Mondragón represents the best of what we hope for our graduate students in the Department of History.

Ari Forsyth honorable mention
“Problem Students at the New York School of Social Work”

In this paper, Forsyth shows how various categories of “problem students” came to be defined at the beginning of the 1920s, and to be applied to trainee social workers who operated in the field as student-workers. Engaged in the business of establishing social work as a middle-class profession predominately for white women, setting those manifesting what were regarded as problems, such as other racial identities, physical characteristics and capabilities, language facility, or relative intelligence, outside the professional boundary undergoing construction. The essay cannily makes use of administrative records, rather than students’ personal files, and pays close attention to the minutiae of such office work. Here the differences between annotated drafts and final copies, and between handwritten and typed reports, or the peculiar status of informal minutes of informal conferences all bear weight in the argument. 

Anandi Bandyopadhyay

Anandi Bandyopadhyay is a veteran teaching assistant in the department with experience teaching a variety of courses both in South Asian history (her own area of specialization) as well as U.S. and European history. One of Anandi’s recent faculty supervisors considered it her “good fortune” to have had Anandi as a TA and noted that she “greatly contributed much to the overall success of the course….I could not have asked for a better teaching partner.”  The faculty praised Anandi’s “superior skills” as a discussion leader, classroom manager and teacher, “Anandi does a fantastic job! She’s excellent at interacting with the undergrads. She works super hard. I am very grateful to have had her working with me!” 

Named for former University of Washington Department of History faculty member and Pacific Northwest historian, Robert Burke, this prize is given to the graduate student deemed to have amassed the most meritorious record during the year in which they complete their MA in U.S. history. 

Sierra Mondragón
Sierra completed her MA in 2023 under the supervision of Professor Josh Reid. Sierra’s research focuses on the Pueblos and other Southwest peoples. Sierra’s MA seminar paper, “Indigenous Women and Everyday Negotiation and Resistance at Carlisle Indian School,” examined the experiences of Pueblo girls in the Indian boarding school system and how the schools impacted the students and their communities, as well as how these students were able to develop strategies to challenge and succeed within the boarding school system.
For her PhD program, Sierra will continue to explore the themes of race and gender in Indigenous history, the legacy of colonial violence, Indigenous resistance and feminist activism, in particular Pueblo women’s efforts to shape, theorize, and historicize what it means to be a Pueblo woman within the overarching theme of Indigenous Belonging.

Named for UW History emeritus professor Thomas Pressly and his wife Cameron, this prize recognizes remarkable teaching of history and social studies at the high school level in the state of Washington. Nominations are made each year from undergraduate and graduate students through short essays describing the talents of their favorite high school history teacher.

Mark Tomasetti, Camas High School
Mr. Tomasetti has been teaching history at Camas High School for 24 years, even doing his student teaching there, as well. He has been named Camas Teacher of the Year twice and has frequently been chosen by the graduating seniors to speak at their ceremony. He established AP courses in both world and U.S. history, and he serves as the social sciences department chair as well. Mr. Tomasetti’s nomination for this award received enthusiastic endorsement from former students and from the leadership at Camas High School. 

This award is named in memory of UW professor of history, William J. Rorabaugh, and it honors Bill’s incredible legacy and loyalty to the department. It is given each year to a student along with a staff or faculty member.

Oya Aktas
Oya has been a leader since coming to the University in 2018. To name just a few of her accomplishments, she has served on the department’s Graduate Liaison Committee as well as the Diversity Committee, fulfilled the role of lead teaching assistant, and worked as a union representative. Oya is an advocate for fellow students, calling for health insurance and financial support for all. In her role as lead TA, her teaching and professional mentorship have been instrumental in the successful development of other graduate students’ pedagogical skills, and she has contributed to creating a culture of excitement and collaboration surrounding teaching and learning. Beyond her departmental service work, Oya has been a reliable source for institutional knowledge, as well as intellectual and emotional support, all of which has been indispensable to community building among graduate students. She has often attends and leads online meetings when away on research travel. 

Bianca Dang
Bianca is an amazing faculty member who has quickly made herself an integral part of the department since arriving in 2021. Bianca has served on a wide range of committees, including Diversity, Chair’s Advisory, Undergraduate Studies, and Digital History. Her dedicated and comprehensive labor on behalf of the community as an academic mentor and as a faculty member on the Diversity Committee has made a palpable impression on graduate students, faculty members, and staff. As an academic advisor, she displays excellence that exceeds expectations for faculty-student mentorship and demonstrates her commitment to service. Because of her obvious expertise as a researcher and instructor, her efforts to curate expertise to serve the needs of her students, and her refusal to turn down a student in need of academic mentorship, Bianca currently serves on multiple graduate students’ exam and dissertation committees and on many undergraduates’ thesis project committees. In this role, she goes out of her way to support the unique research interests of graduate and undergraduate students and to provide advice, resources, and encouragement at every stage of her students’ academic careers. Her concern for students goes beyond the formal academic world and demonstrates a commitment to shaping future academics, not only as competent scholars, but as capable community leaders and contributors to positive local change. 

In the course of only three years, Bianca has established a unique reputation as an academic advisor who supports her students holistically, cultivating and guiding student research and professional career development while also prioritizing students' mental, emotional, and physical health and well-being. She does critical work to facilitate a collaborative and supportive culture within the History Department. Bianca is a wise and compassionate advocate, using her position to connect people with resources and to facilitate department-wide policies and conversations to make the History Department a safe community for all students, faculty, and staff. Bianca’s commitment to service, equity, and inclusion spans goes far beyond the campus and is evident in her volunteer and community-building work in the broader Seattle community. Her efforts make our department an inclusive space that promotes community well-being.

Mark Weitzenkamp
Not only is Mark an incredible undergraduate advisor, but he has dedicated tremendous amounts of time to the careful watch of Smith Hall. In his role as building coordinator (a volunteer position) Mark served as guardian to Smith Hall during the pandemic, and he continues to watch over the building. He is thoughtful, patient, and incredibly detail-oriented in his understanding of what should and shouldn’t be happening in the building. He attends to countless requests, opens doors, meets people, answers emails and phone calls, handling with grace the many interruptions to his regular workflow. History is so grateful for all his behind-the-scenes work to keep the building safe and functioning. Mark is also a gifted adviser, who guides students through our large university. He is a tireless advocate for students and uses his deep knowledge of university systems to help connect students with resources and solve any logistical problems. His love of learning and discussing history and student interests is evident. Beyond this, Mark is an amazing and helpful team player in all aspects of his work. We are so fortunate to have Mark on our advising and history team!

Kum Cha (Tina) Vicente
Tina has been Smith Hall’s marvelous custodian, who is retiring this year. She has served us all incredibly well without much recognition. With great pride, she goes the extra mile to ensure our spaces are clean, and she has done an incredible job. We all wish her the very best in her well-earned retirement—she will be missed.