Seniors present at annual History honor society conference

Five History seniors were invited to present April 6 at the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference held at Bowie State University.

Senior Zach Paugh, History major from Easton, Maryland, won second prize in the American history division for his paper titled "John F. Kennedy’s Leadership: A Diplomatic Prevention of Nuclear War," which marked the 12th time since 2007 that a McDaniel student has won a prize at the conference. Paugh, who has been accepted to the University of Baltimore School of Law for the fall, also presented his paper during McDaniel College's April 29 Academic Symposium.

Other students who presented at the conference:

• *Zach Brown, senior Biology and History major from Taneytown, Maryland, presented "Over the Top, Under the Microscope: World War I and the Redirection of Clinical Microbiology."

• Emily Fiackos, senior History major from Hampstead, Maryland, presented "Aren’t I a Woman Too? Womanhood, Race, and Sexuality through the Eyes of Harriet Jacobs and Mary Chestnut."

• *Sydney Lewis, senior English and History major from Poquoson, Virginia, presented "The Conception of Seventeenth-Century Puritan Marriage and Sexuality in Context with Twentieth-Century American Culture."

• Devon Reown, senior History major from Baltimore, presented "Black Skin, Lavender Lives; Race and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance."

*Zach Brown and Sydney Lewis also presented at McDaniel's Academic Symposium on April 29.

The annual conference is open to students from colleges and universities in Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. McDaniel's Phi Alpha Theta chapter advisor Jakub Zejmis, senior lecturer of History, accompanied the students to the conference.

The mission of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor society is "to promote the study of history through the encouragement of research, teaching, publication, and the exchange of learning and ideas among historians."

To be eligible for the honor society, students at McDaniel must be nominated and selected by faculty of the history department, as well as complete a minimum of four courses in history, achieve a minimum overall GPA of 3.0, achieve a minimum GPA of 3.1 in history courses taken at McDaniel, and must be in the top 35 percent of their class.

• Learn more about Honor Societies at McDaniel.