Awards

2026 Prize Day

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Professor Mark Healey welcomes attendees to Prize Day.

The History Department concluded our academic year with a celebration of student achievement at our annual Prize Day event on Friday, April 24th. Fifteen students received awards, sixteen students were inducted into Phi Alpha Theta, and seventeen students were recognized for their invitations to join Phi Beta Kappa, a national honors society.

Phi Alpha Theta is “a professional society whose mission is to promote the study of history through the encouragement of research, good teaching, publication and the exchange of learning and ideas among historians.” 

Students inducted into Phi Alpha Theta.

UConn’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Epsilon of Connecticut, was chartered in 1956. Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest honors society in the United States and the “ideal Phi Beta Kappa member has demonstrated intellectual integrity, tolerance for other views, and a broad range of academic interests.” New members will be inducted on May 2 in a separate ceremony.

Award winners were encouraged to invite their family and friends to the event, and several members of the History Department faculty and staff were in attendance. Awards were followed by a keynote talk given by Professor Brendan Kane, titled “The Perils and Promises of Public Engagement.” Professor Charles Lansing gave closing remarks and invited award recipients and their families to join us for refreshments.

Attendees of the 2026 Prize Day celebration.

Prizes and Recipients

  • Albert E. and Wilda Van Dusen Scholarship – Tim Brown (GS)
  • Bruce M. & Sondra Astor Stave Prize in Recent American History – Robert Dubovy III (GS)
  • Connecticut Celebration 350 Scholarship – John Guthrie ’26 and Ava Mitchell ’26
  • Graduate Student Teaching Excellence Award – Zhengyuan Ling (GS)
  • Hamill Graduate Scholarship in Latin American History – Javier Castillo (GS)
  • Heather A. Parker Award for Excellence in Writing – Elyssa Hume ’27
  • Karl Z. Trybus Undergraduate Award for Exceptional Work in Modern European History – Gwyneth Smith ’26
  • Maddalena and Joseph Perrella Scholarship – Olivia Esparza-Finsmith ’28 and Gianluca Latina ’27
  • Michael L. Dunphy Scholarship – Yusuf Mansoor (GS)
  • Roger N. Buckley Award – Adam Thiesen ’26
  • Sandra Rux Award – Everett Padro ’26
  • Undergraduate History Excellence Award – Jacob Flinchbaugh ’26

For a description of each prize and a list of previous recipients, please visit our Annual Events page.

Department Head Mark Healey Receives Academic Leadership Award

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Staff Faculty

The annual CLAS Faculty and Staff Awards recognize outstanding achievement across several categories.

The Academic Leadership Award honors exemplary leadership by an individual who oversees a CLAS department, school, center, institute, or program. At this year’s CLAS Faculty and Staff Awards, Department Head Mark Healey was recognized for his leadership in strengthening departmental climate, transparency, and academic success. 

For the complete citation and list of award recipients, please see the UConn Today coverage at “CLAS Honors Faculty and Staff for Excellence in 2026.”

The Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era awards 2026 President’s Book Prize to Manisha Sinha for The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic

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he prize was awarded at the Organization of American Historians meeting in Philadelphia on April 17, 2026. The prize citation reads:

Following a multi-tiered selection process, the committee selected The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860–1920 by Manisha Sinha as the recipient of the SHGAPE President’s Book Prize.

 Manisha Sinha’s The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic offers a sweeping and compelling reinterpretation of Reconstruction, significantly expanding both the temporal and geographic boundaries traditionally associated with the period. Sinha provides a major new synthesis of Reconstruction scholarship—one that will stand alongside the seminal works of Eric Foner and W. E. B. Du Bois as a benchmark for a new generation of historians. The book will serve as a central text in graduate seminars on nineteenth-century U.S. history for years to come. Grounded in extensive archival research but driven by a clear and persuasive argument about the broader scope and significance of Reconstruction, it will shape how historians and their students understand this critical era. It is a powerful and important work and fully deserving of the SHGAPE President’s Book Prize.

Lucas Ruiz ’23, inaugural Fellow of Oppenheimer Project, advocates for nuclear policy dialogue

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As a recent transfer student from Connecticut State Community College, Lucas Ruiz ’23 pursued his interest in history through courses with professors Alexis Dudden and Frank Costigliola – a decision that set him on a path that would eventually lead to publishing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, becoming the first-ever Fellow with the Oppenheimer Project, and convening meetings of world experts on nuclear weapons policy.

Lucas Ruiz, class of 2023. Mr. Ruiz is a young man with brown hair in a blue suit and tie with a white shirt.

Now, as an Oppenheimer fellow, Ruiz analyzes the complex and often volatile relationship between China, Russia, and the U.S. by examining the leadership of each state.

“I think that the personalities and the individuals that lead these states are of paramount importance,” Ruiz says. “I have found that no two people have the exact same perception of the world. When thinking about how the United States can engage Russia, you have to think about how can the president of the United States engage the president of Russia?”

For the full article covering Lucas’ path through UConn to the Oppenheimer Project, please see UConn Today‘s “Alum Lucas Ruiz Examines Nuclear Policy Among Global Powers.”