News and Events
Student News
Shepherd University history alumnus Nick Redding wins major award
Nicholas A. Redding, executive director of Preservation Maryland, has been awarded the National Social Innovation Prize. Nick is a graduate of the history program where he concentrated in Civil War studies; he was also a McMurran scholar–the University’s highest academic achievement. The J. M. Kaplan Fund announced the ten prize winners in November 2019. According to Preservation Maryland, the historic trades program, for which Nick is being recognized, promotes the “hands-on preservation of America’s historic places relies on highly skilled masons, carpenters, and others trained in the preservation trades.” Yet, as Preservation Maryland notes, “this supply of craftspeople has been dwindling due to both a brisk construction market and a workforce that’s aging fast. Across the construction field, estimates suggest that at least 200,000 more workers are needed to meet current demand.” The Campaign for Historic Trades addresses this challenge by “bridging a gulf between preservation and job creation. In partnership with the National Park Service and its Historic Preservation Training Center, the Campaign supports six months of paid, on-the-job instruction in one of America’s national parks, plus post-training job placement services.” For more information on the award: https://www.jmkfund.org/awardee/nicholas-a-redding/
History major Delaney Conner’s Podcast
History major and president of Phi Alpha Theta, Delaney Conner, just completed an internship at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education. Delaney conducted extensive research in the Byrd archives, which resulted in a 20-minute podcast currently being featured here: https://www.byrdcenter.org/byrd-center-blog/appalachian-aspects-episode-1
Faculty News
Drs. Julia Sandy and Keith Alexander, both Associate Professors of History at Shepherd, received a $10,000 grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council. They used the grant to collect and present oral histories documenting the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents of West Virginia. Interviewees included local teachers and students from grades K-12, community members and business owners, university students, faculty, and administrators, and local government officials. Student interns working on the interviews over the summer presented the project on August 4, 2020 via Zoom. The presentation may be viewed here.
The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at the College of William & Mary has awarded Dr. Benjamin Bankhurst, assistant professor of history at Shepherd University, and Dr. Kyle Roberts, associate professor of public history and new media and director of the Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities at Loyola University Chicago, with a $5,000 Lapidus Digital Collections Fellowship for “The Maryland Loyalist Project.” The project is a collaboration between Bankhurst and Roberts that aims to make the letters and petitions of British loyalists who fled the American Revolution available in a digital archive a biographical database.
Dr. Bankhurst co-edited alongside Dr. Nigel Aston (University of Leicester, UK) a collection of essays on the topic of Protestant Nonconformity and the Hanoverian Succession of 1714. The book is entitled Negotiating Toleration: Dissent and the Hanoverian Succession, 1714-1760, and it is available through Oxford University Press.
Professor James J. Broomall and students from his course, “Civil War and Reconstruction,” appeared on C-Span as part of their classroom lecture series. To see the lecture: https://www.c-span.org/video/?453587-2/artist-james-hope-1862-battle-antietam
Professors Julia Sandy and Keith Alexander were the recent recipients of a Women Investing in Shepherd, or “WISH,” grant to fund their ongoing preservation efforts at the Catherine Weltzheimer house, or “Yellow House” as it is commonly known, located on Shepherd University’s campus. Dr. Alexander noted that they deeply appreciated “the generosity of WISH in funding our efforts to restore and interpret the Catherine Weltzheimer house.” Dr. Sandy noted that, “We can’t wait to get started on the next phase of the project.” More than 100 WISH members and guests were on hand to celebrate the grant awardees, including WISH member Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix, Shepherd president. For more information on the story: http://www.shepherd.edu/news/wish-awards-four-grants-to-community-nonprofits-shepherd-learning-projects/
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