Issue link: http://uwashington.uberflip.com/i/723819
Each year, with the help of the Thomas M. Power Prize Fund for Excellence in History, the department recognizes an outstanding graduating senior. This year there were two students whose intellectual curiosity and dedication to history earned them this distinction. Hal Schrieve has excelled in his coursework and thrived in the Honors in History program, in which he completed a thesis on the collaboration between South Asian immigrants and U.S. radical groups in the 1920s. His adviser, Professor Purnima Dhavan, noted, "Hal's work displays the subtleties of cultural analysis and sensitivity to historical context and perspectives. The lives, ambitions, and inner worlds of the people he researches come sharply alive. His lively intellectual curiosity is infectious, and joined with the interest and obvious pleasure he takes in engaging with other students during discussions, makes classes [with him] a pleasure for everyone." Beyond the classroom, Hal has served as secretary for Phi Alpha Theta. His commitment to building community among undergraduates in the department is worthy of great admiration, as are his intellectual talents. Julia Tesch is a double major in History and Mathematics. She is president of Phi Alpha Theta and has been an active member of the History Fellows program. Beyond the department, she has also been deeply involved in the UW Dream Project. Professor James Felak describes her as a "thoughtful, engaging, and self-reflective scholar, who is not afraid to ask hard questions of her research material, and of herself." Likewise, Professor Moon-Ho Jung writes, Julia "was one of the most organized and disciplined students I have ever taught." He adds that in her research on the discourse of "loyalty" among U.S. officials and Japanese- Americans during World War II, she refused to settle for easy answers and "pored through particular words and phrasings to reveal how the language around 'loyalty' helped U.S. officials justify the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans, in ways not possible if they had used 'citizenship' instead." The department was pleased to recognize Brendan McGovern with the York-Mason Award for his research project, "From the Club to the Classroom: A History of Inequality in Seattle Jazz Education." McGovern's work demonstrates how racial tensions and economic factors shaped jazz education in the city of Seattle, ultimately restricting access to formal training to wealthy and predominantly white students during the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. McGovern dispels the popularly held notion among former students and teachers that jazz education was free of racial tensions. Instead, by looking at the history of jazz education at both local high schools and the University of Washington, where the first professors of jazz music were denied tenure, he uncovers a longer history of bias and a wide range of factors that together prevented jazz from bridging the divide between the African-American community and white communities. He also sheds light on how the African-American community, in particular, sought to challenge these divisions. R EDISCOVER ING THE FORGOT TEN HISTORY OF SE AT TLE JA ZZ HISTORY DOUBLES UP ON DE AN'S MEDALISTS! Each year UW College of Arts & Sciences awards its prestigious Dean's Medal to one exceptional graduating senior in each of its four divisions. This year not one but two history majors were named Dean's Medalists: History and Comparative History of Ideas major Jennifer Smith and History and American Ethnic Studies major Dustin Abrahamson. Congratulations to you both! OUTSTANDING GRADUATING SENIORS D E P A R T M E N T O F H I S T O R Y 3