Bennie Walthall Awards Program is Thursday

Texas A&M University-Texarkana will host the 2015 Bennie Walthall Awards for the best research papers written in A&M-Texarkana history courses Thursday, Oct. 8, at noon in the John F. Moss Library atrium on the third floor of the University Center on the A&M-Texarkana campus at 7101 University Avenue, Texarkana, Texas.

The late Dr. Bennie Walthall established an endowment fund to provide the annual awards of $1,000 in prize money to four students. The College of Education and Liberal Arts also will present each winner with a certificate.

Established in 2008, the contest has two categories: undergraduate and graduate student papers. Dr. Carr Winn, a retired A&M-Texarkana history professor, judged the papers and selected the winners.

The 2015 winners are as follows:

• The Best Graduate History Paper Award goes to Damon Page for “Historiography of Reconstruction, 1907-2007” (prize: $400)
• The Second Best Graduate History Paper Award goes to Rob Howard for “John Foster Dulles and America’s Decision to Create the Republic of Vietnam” (prize: $200)
• The Best Undergraduate History Paper Award goes to Jennie Miller for “Heinrich Böll: The Soldier, The Author” (prize: $400)
• The Second Best Undergraduate History Paper Award goes to Holden Fleming for “In Service to His Majesty” (prize: $200)

The Office of Student Life will provide refreshments for the event, which is open to the public.

The contest only considered papers that were a minimum of 1,200 words and had a minimum of four sources, three of which were primary documents or peer-reviewed articles or books. 

The minimum word-count for graduate papers was 1,800, and graduate students had to use at least five sources, four of which were primary documents or peer-reviewed articles or books.

For more information, contact Dr. Michael Perri, associate professor of history, at Michael.Perri@tamut.edu or (903) 223-3194.