Eight members of Hastings College’s Alpha Gamma Sigma chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, a national history honorary, presented papers at the honorary’s regional conference in Omaha, Nebraska, March 2-4, with two members receiving awards.
A ninth member of the group presented a paper at a session of the Missouri Valley History Conference organized by the Society of Military Historians, which was also in Omaha over the weekend.
The following students presented papers at the conference:
Brian Whetstone of Omaha, Nebraska, presented “To Strengthen the Kingdom of God: Architecture, Moral Authority, and Institutional Identity at Hastings College” and received 1st place honors as the best undergraduate paper of the conference.
Laurel Teal of Castle Rock, Colorado, presented “The Pursuit: Changing Definitions of the Pursuit of Happiness in American Thought” and was awarded 3rd place among undergraduate papers.
Duane Carr of Grand Island, Nebraska presented “The Chinese Pirate Way.”
Tyler Hopper of El Cajon, California, presented “Jean Lafitee: Lost in the Legend.”
Ryan Miller of Lincoln, Nebraska, presented “Eustace of Boulogne: The Forgotten Monk.”
Jordan Colony of Omaha, Nebraska, presented “Unexpected Tales of Siberian Exile in the Russia of Catherine the Great.”
Nathan Kosmicki, a 2016 graduate from Grand Island, Nebraska, presented “Abbie Hoffman and the 1960’s Radical Left.”
Joseph Prickett of Hastings, Nebraska, presented “Humanizing the Past: Memorializing Social History via Kinesthetic Method in Living History Museums.”
In addition, Ryan Smolko, of Phoenix, Arizona, presented “The Ostmedaille: Commemoration and Memory of Germany’s Eastern Front” at the Missouri Valley History Conference.
Hastings College is a private, four-year institution located in Hastings, Nebraska, that focuses on student academic and extracurricular achievement. With 64 majors and 15 pre-professional programs, Hastings College has been named among “Great Schools, Great Prices” by U.S. News & World Report and a “Best in the Midwest” by The Princeton Review. For more, go to hastings.edu.
