Several graduate students in the UALR Department of History have received accolades from the Arkansas Historical Association and will receive their awards at the AHA annual conference this month.

The conference will be held in Helena-West Helena April 11-13. The theme is “Claiming Freedom.”

Andrea Ringer, who completed her M.A. degree in public history in 2012, earned the Violet B. Gingles Award for her article, “Purely personal and philosophical: Reaction and Response to Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller’s 1970 Commutation of Death Row Inmates.” The $500 award comes with a framed certificate and is presented to the historian who writes the best manuscript article on any Arkansas history topic.

David Sesser, an M.A. Public History candidate, won the Charles O. Durnett Award for his article “Disease in Civil War Helena.” The $240 award and framed certificate is presented for the best manuscript article on any aspect of Arkansas’s Civil War history.

Bryan McDade, who received his M.A. degree in public history in 2004 and is museum curator at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, won the award for best business history article with “The Crystal Bathhouse,” published in The Record by the Garland County Historical Society last year. The award consists of a Walter L. Brown Award framed certificate.

Wendy Richter, who received her M.A. degree in public history in 1986 and was recently appointed as head of special collections at Ouachita Baptist University, won an award for best community history article. The article, “150 Years Ago: A ‘Capital’ Time at the Spa,” was published last year in The Record by the Garland County Historical Society. The award consists of a Walter L. Brown Award framed certificate. Richter is the former state historian and director of the Arkansas History Commission.

Arkansas History Commission acting director Jane Wilkerson, who earned her M.A. degree in public history in 2009, won an honorable mention for best edited documents article with “Methodist Episcopal Church,” published in The Record by the Garland County Historical Society last year. The award consists of a Walter L. Brown Award framed certificate.

For details on the UALR History Department’s Master’s of Public History, contact program coordinator Dr. Charles Romney, email cwromney@ualr.edu or call 501-569-8154.