First LEOPOLD FELLOWS of the CHS--2008-2009
The Center for Historical Studies at NU announces a new undergraduate program that honors the teaching and scholarship of Professor Richard Leopold, a long-time member of Northwestern University's Department of History.

 

 

 

NU alumnus and lecturer Steven J. Harper, speaking at a     reception and book-signing of his new Leopold biography, Straddling Two Worlds: The Jewish-American Journey of Professor Richard W. Leopold  (January 25, 2008).

The portrait in the background is of Prof. Leopold.

 

 

 

The goal of the program is to provide a small group of able undergraduate students with an opportunity to engage in genuine historical research. Leopold Fellows will work on current faculty research projects, learning how to interpret archival and documentary materials. Successful candidates should demonstrate an interest in learning how to interpret complex primary data. Working under the guidance of a member of the Department of History, the Leopold Fellow will learn how scholars develop arguments out of diverse research materials.  
 
Each Leopold Fellow receives financial support as a Research Assistant ($9 per hour for a possible average of 8 hours a week). The program should not be confused with Work-Study. Financial need is not considered in the selection process. The program also funds travel or other expenses incurred by the Leopold Fellows.

 
Students apply to be Leopold Fellows for two or three quarters, which may include the summer quarter. The Leopold Fellows will meet formally as a group once a quarter to discuss their experiences.

The first Leopold Fellows have been selected. Due to the extraordinary response (32 applications for 10 research projects) and thanks to the generosity of Leopold donors, the History Department and the Office of the Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education, in this inaugural year we are able to support all 10 faculty projects. The first ever group of Leopold Fellows and their mentors met on June 2 at a celebratory lunch in the Allen Center.

FACULTY PROJECTS and 2008-2009 LEOPOLD FELLOWS
Note: More detailed descriptions of the projects and the research of the Leopold Fellow can be found HERE.

1. Professor Josef Barton: Mexican rural women and the reconstruction of community in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern U.S. between 1880 and 1930--Marcella CASTILLO (winter/spring 2009);
2. Professor Henry Binford: Small businesses in poor urban communities in Chicago and Cincinnati (from 1860 onwards)--Julia HOTOPP (Fall 2008/winter 2009);
3. Professor T.H. Breen: Colonial unrest and vigilante groups in towns of coastal Maine in the run-up to the American Revolution--Kate STEPHENSON (Fall 2008/winter 2009);
4. Professor Benjamin Frommer: Czechs and Czechoslovakia in the German narrative of suffering before and after World War II (a German-speaking student needed)--Cristina BURACK (winter/spring 2009);
5. Professor Robert Lerner: An edition of letters written by and to the noted historian Ernst Kantorowicz (1895-1963)--Stephanie DeNOTTO (winter/spring 2009);
6. Professor Edward Muir: Skepticism in early modern Venice on the basis of the Academy of the Unknowns, a debating society whose members published hundreds of books and pamphlets over a thirty year period in the early 17th C. (an Italian-speaking student needed)--Jasmine NAZEK (Fall 2008/winter/spring 2009);
7. Professor Sarah Pearsall: Polygamy and marriage in moments of cultural contact in early America--

Maggie DONNELLY (winter/spring 2009);
8. Professor Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern: The reaction of the western world to the rise of the Jewish messianic movement called Sabbateanism--Laura COLLEE (summer/Fall 2008);
9. Professor Michael Sherry: Book project on prisons and the punitive turn in American life from the 1970s onwards--Jack NEUBAUER (Fall 2008/winter 2009);
10. Professor Ji-Yeon Yuh: South Korean attitudes toward overseas ethnic Koreans, particularly Korean Americans, resident Koreans in Japan, and ethnic Koreans in China (Korean-speaking student needed)--

Huiju JEON (Fall2008/winter/spring 2009).