Our students & the History major
The Hendrix College history faculty are teacher-scholars who have an abiding interest in training students to become historians in their own right. Our courses and requirements are designed to teach students the historical method and give them opportunities to research, think and write like historians. Our courses offerings range broadly, from Modern Europe to Mao and the Chinese Revolution, and from Crime and Punishment in Medieval Europe to American Environmental History. Our senior-level research and writing course mentors students engaged in original research with primary source material. Many of our students present their findings at national conferences such as NCUR. Other students have published their findings.
Internships/Outstanding students
Many of our students engage in summer internships and public history projects. Students have interned at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Mosaic Templars archive in Little Rock, the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the Dallas Heritage Village and the Heritage Farmstead Museum in Plano, Texas ("living" history museums), the Arkansas State Supreme Court, and the State of Arkansas' 20th District Prosecuting Attorney's Office. History major Courtney Taylor ('10) was the curator for the October 2009 exhibit "Protest and Parody: A Native American Response to Americanization" at the Dr. J.W. Wiggins Gallery of Native American Art in Little Rock.
Other students spend their summers engaged in research. In the summer of 2007, Lawrence Laman ('08) received an Odyssey award to travel to India to study that country's history of terrorist attacks on the railways. In the summer of 2008, Blake Smith ('10) received an Odyssey award to travel to France to conduct research at the Bibliothèque Nationale on French theatrical representations of China during the 17th and 18th centuries. Blake also received a Fulbright Research Award to return to France for 2010-2011 to continue his research by looking at representations of India during the same period.
History students also participate in national conferences, including the First Annual ACS Conference on China Studies, the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, and the Phi Alpha Theta Biennial Convention.
Honors and Awards
The T.S. Staples History Prize is given annually to the senior history major who has ranked highest in departmental courses.
The Richard B. Yates Prize is given annually to a senior history major who has submitted an outstanding paper based on original historical research.
The David Larson Prize in historiography is given annually to the student who has demonstrated outstanding ability in History 300: Historiography.
Departmental Distinction in History is awarded to those graduating seniors who have achieved at least a 3.5 GPA in history courses taken at Hendrix and who have performed exceptionally well in their capstone.