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2025 History Department Commencement Ceremony

Updated: Jun 10


Commencement Weekend took place May 16-18. Congratulations to our graduate and undergraduate degree recipients! 


starting from front row to back row, left to right: Professors Joan Rubin, Tanya Bakhmetyeva, Molly Ball, Laura Smoller, Ruben Flores, Jean Pedersen, Brianna Theobald, Melanie Chambliss, Mike Jarvis, Matt Lenoe, Stewart Weaver, Tom Devaney, and visiting scholar, Marika Räsänen
starting from front row to back row, left to right: Professors Joan Rubin, Tanya Bakhmetyeva, Molly Ball, Laura Smoller, Ruben Flores, Jean Pedersen, Brianna Theobald, Melanie Chambliss, Mike Jarvis, Matt Lenoe, Stewart Weaver, Tom Devaney, and visiting scholar, Marika Räsänen

Commencement speaker James Kinde addresses the UR Department of History's Class of 2025.


Congratulations to our 2025 Graduates

May 21st, 2025, original date of publication

 

Class of 2025 History Majors:

  • Finnian Abbey 

  • Amna Arain 

  • Kirsten Bell 

  • Merrill R. Bukowski 

  • Nora Culver 

  • Maya Doichev

  • Mikayla Duck 

  • Eryn Eiseman 

  • Ada Alora Eubanks 

  • Matthew Freeman 

  • Yunan Gao 

  • Jack Garside 

  • Evan Gravdahl 

  • Dariel Guerra 

  • Neha Iyer 

  • James Kinde 

  • Ruoyan (Stone) Li 

  • Harry Liuson 

  • Allison Lloyd 

  • Yutong Lu 

  • Madeleine McCurdy 

  • Paige McCurdy 

  • Puck Moser 

  • Malcolm Orrange 

  • Benjamin Perry 

  • Joseph Pons 

  • Yijin Qu 

  • Jake Scinta 

  • Ellis Siepel 

  • Diego Adrian Turner


Class of 2025 History Minors: 

  • Ahmed A. Chaudhry 

  • Livia R. Connell 

  • Skylar C. DiBlasi 

  • Jacob I. Friedman 

  • Alka Ghimirey 

  • Cole M. Kerner 

  • Lena V. Lederman 

  • Frayda R. Lieber 

  • Ziruo Liu 

  • James B. Mills 

  • William Paine Murray 

  • Nora A. Rooney 

  • William S. Safford 

  • Sarah R. Tierney 


Department Graduation Photo Collection 

To view the undergraduate commencement photos, taken by I. Marianetti of I. Marianetti Photo, go to https://app.box.com/s/qbta5kswg7crfiz8zxg6w7gopjt6ccl1


Top left to bottom right: Professor Stewart Weaver, Professor Ruben Flores with graduates, Ada Eubanks, Paige McCurdy, Matthew Freeman, Mikayla Duck, Kirsten Bell, & Evan Gravdahl


Undergraduate Prizes and Awards in History


Coates Senior Honors Essay Award

To the senior student who has written the best senior essay in the department this year. 

James Kinde

"Vice Versa: Female-to-Male Transsexuals

in the Erickson Educational Foundation (EEF) Era, 1964-1977" 


N.B. Ellison Prize

To the member of the senior class concentrating in history who has done the best work in the department. 

Nora Culver & James Kinde 


History Seminar Prize

To the History major who has written the best HIS 300W-level seminar paper 

Emely Duraes

"The Human Rights of Incarcerated Individuals and Civilians:

A Look into El Salvador" 


Eugene H. Webb Prize

To the undergraduate student who has done the best work in a course dealing with the Black experience in America. 

Kaylie McGuckin 


Herbert Lawrence Sadinsky Memorial Prize

To the best undergraduate or graduate history paper on an aspect of World War II. 

Amy Hanson

"Beyond the Myth of the Soviet Heroine:

A Comparative Analysis of Women in WWII Soviet Film" 



Christopher Lasch Fellow in History

Each year, the department invites a select group of senior History majors to become Christopher Lasch Fellows. Lasch Fellows enroll in the demanding graduate level course Problems in Historical Analysis during the fall semester of their senior year.

Nora Culver, Evan Gravdahl, Jake Scinta


Phi Beta Kappa

Kirsten Bell, James Kinde


Phi Alpha Theta

Kirsten Bell, Nora Culver, Matthew Freeman, Evan Gravdahl, Allison B. Lloyd, Joseph P. Pons


Take Five 

Amna Arain, Kirsten Bell



left to right: History Department Chair, Professor Ruben Flores and UR graduate, Yijin Qu 
left to right: History Department Chair, Professor Ruben Flores and UR graduate, Yijin Qu 

Congratulations to our Honors Program participants!

The Colloquium held on May 5, 2025, was the culmination of this year's Honors program and proof of the innovative historical research being carried out by our students.


Honors Students and Papers


Nora Culver

"Performing Peacemaking: Divergent Methods and Motives

for Orchestral Exchange in the US and USSR, 1970-91" 


Matthew Freeman

"The Sun Rises on the British Empire: Loyalty in Tudor Ireland, 1530-1610" 


Evan Gravdahl

"A Tale of Three Cities:

The Twentieth-Century Emergence of Class-Based Neighborhoods

in Seattle, Portland, and Denver" 


James Kinde

"Vice Versa:

Female-to-Male Transsexuals

in the Erickson Educational Foundation (EEF) Era,1964-1977" 


Ellis Siepel

"Eva Jessye:

A Forgotten Prodigy in 1930s American Modernist Opera"



Professor Flores announces that Professor Laura Smoller has been awarded the Arthur R. Miller Professor of History professorship.
Professor Flores announces that Professor Laura Smoller has been awarded the Arthur R. Miller Professor of History professorship.

Graduate Degrees


MAs Awarded:

Brenna Bythewood 

Claire DeVinney 

Ewa Maria White


PhDs Awarded:

Marcia Cristina Esteves Agonstinho

"History of Brazilian Self-Esteem: the Roots of the Vira-Lata Complex*" 


Andrew Russo

"Valorous Defeat: North African Narrative of the Morisco Expulsion" 


Graduate Prizes and Awards in History 


Willson Havelock Coates Book Award

To the graduate student having among other qualifications, a conspicuous gift for historical imagination and the capacity for sustained and accurate research (in British history, European intellectual history, or philosophy of history) 

Claire Becker & Daniel McDermott 


Sanford Elwitt Memorial Prize

To a graduate student in European history for research and travel in memory of Professor Sanford Elwitt 

Claire Becker 


Harkins Prize

A prize in memory of William F. Harkins, Jr. to a graduate student who has written the best seminar paper 

Brenna Bythewood 


Donald Marks 'Dexter Perkins Prize'

This prize is to perpetuate the name of Dexter Perkins and to encourage and assist a worthy graduate student in his/her cultural and intellectual development 

Brenna Bythewood, Lizzy Carr, & Mauricio Garza


Meyers Graduate Teaching Award

To a graduate student who has excelled in teaching 

Katelyn P. Getchel


David Bruce Parker Memorial Prize

To the graduate student who best represents the dedication and courage which characterized David's participation in the graduate program 

Emmarae Stein 


Dorothy Rosenberg-Passer Graduate Fellowship

For the support of a graduate student pursuing a master's degree 

Grace Myers 


Lina and A. William Salomone Prize

To the graduate student who has done outstanding work in European history 

Beom Mo Koo 


Glyndon VanDeusen Award

To support travel and dissertation research and writing for a fourth year history graduate student 

Kerida Plaza 


Aida DiPace Donald Fellowship

To support a graduate fellowship in American History 

Claire DeVinney & Ewa Maria White 


Dr. Bruce F. Pauley Research Fellowship

To support graduate student research travel, with preference for students pursuing archival research in Europe 

Beom Mo Koo & Emmarae Stein 




University Commencement

For more information on commencement, visit the University of Rochester's Commencement page 


Department Graduation Photo Collection 

To view the undergraduate commencement photos, taken by I. Marianetti of I. Marianetti Photo, go to https://app.box.com/s/qbta5kswg7crfiz8zxg6w7gopjt6ccl1.  


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