History Undergraduate Research Conference

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The conference will be in Grise Hall 138 on the first floor, on  Monday, April 27, 2026. The full schedule is:

3:30 to 4:30 PM: Civil War & Race
Baity, Alex		Self-Emancipated Soldiers: How African American Regiments from Kentucky impacted the Civil War
Denham, Achilles		The relationship between the Klu Klux Klan of the 1920s and Catholic citizens of the United States
Wilkerson, Jenny		Mythologizing Antebellum Kentucky: The Establishment of My Old Kentucky Home in the 1920s
O'Daniel, Wilson		A Red America Starts in Spain: How American Catholics Framed the Spanish Civil War
4:45 to 5:45 PM: Law & citizenship
Miller, Luke		The Deaf Community and the Unfinished Promise of the ADA
Mulrooney, Kayden		Access Denied: How FOIA Became an Obstacle for the Press
Riggs, Ryan		Why don't we own our cells?
4:45 to 5:45 PM: Comparative histories (Early career students)
Davis, Max		US Revolution: Civil War or Foreign War?
Karasiewicz, Jessica (HCC)		Mali and the Mongols–A Comparative Analysis
Lancaster, Olivia (HCC)		The Role of Christianity and Islam in Dividing the East from West
Robey, Taronce		A Republic of Brothers: Fraternalism and the Making of American Citizenship
6:00 to 7:00 PM: Local & regional histories
Dheel, Sydnie		The Interpretation of Historic Homes: Women, Wealth, and Race
Lucas, Caden		Prohibition Beyond Repeal: Federalism, Local Option Elections, and Law in the Legal History of Prohibition and Alcohol Regulation in Bowling Green and Warren County, Kentucky
Taylor, Matthew		The Black Patch War: America's Only Populist Revolt
Wilson, Brooke		Identity through Liberation: When Injustice Fuels Dedication
6:00 to 7:00 PM: Change, culture, and conflict
Bisceglia, Joe		Two-Hundred Twenty-Three: A Potential Error in Judgement & The Path Not Taken
Brown, Ethan		Puritanical Parliamentarians: The Conservative Rationale of the English Civil Wars
DeLoe, Logan		How Cryptids and History Can Create Modern Monsters
Swenson, Ellen		Vampires and Tuberculosis: A Historical Perspective of Folk Belief and Disease History of New England in the 19th Century

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You should attend. Come see what historical research looks like in action. If you have not yet written a senior seminar paper, this is your chance to see what that can look like and get inspired! This is also a chance to support older students, meet and greet faculty, and also provide a friendly audience for your friends and peers. Parents, friends, and other supporters welcome! Please come!

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Thanks to the generosity of Carol Crowe-Carraco and other donors, all WKU students participating in the HURC are eligible for the following prizes:

• $300 for the Richard Troutman memorial prize winner for best overall paper
• $200 for the runner-up paper
• $100 for the second runner-up
• $300 for the Dr. John Hardin prize for the best paper in Black history

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Writing the presentation paper:
You do *not* have to submit your paper to the conference. However, to gauge time and prepare, you need to write it out fully in advance.
 
Your presentation should last 10-12 minutes. Most people (according to the internet) speak about 140 words per minute. That means your paper should (if you write it out fully) be about 1500 to 1700 words.
 
Papers certainly do not need to be memorized. You can present from a written-out version, notecards, or whatever memory aid you think best.
 
Preparing your paper for the conference:
You should make time to fully run the talk through more than once before you present to get a sense for how long you will talk. This will also make you less nervous.
 
When you present, it is best not to rush! Remember: you know your material much better than the audience will!
 
With 4 presenters per panel, papers will last 40 to 48 minutes of talks plus 12 to 20 minutes of questions. Do expect papers to be gently (but firmly) cut off after 12 minutes.
 
Presentation & slides:
All presentations need at least some visual aid to engage the audience and / or illustrate key points. Whatever you think will best help the audience understand your talk. For example:

• a map (if relevant) to show where you are in space
• a timeline (if relevant) to give the audience a sense of where you are in time
• photographs or other images of key people or events you are discussing (maybe with their birth / death dates, if relevant).
• visual primary sources you will analyze or unpack for the audience
• a key quotation from a written primary source that you want to explain / engage with

Remember: your audience is not the expert, you are! So you’ll want to help them understand with images as well as your words.
 
Don’t use the slides as the notes you read / speak from. You want the audience to be paying attention to *you* as the expert in the room. The presentation illustrates *your* performance.
 
PowerPoint is typical, but there are many options for displaying slides. There will be an internet-enabled computer in the room from which you can present.
 
Dress
A visible step above every-day going-to-class wear, please. If you want your audience to take your ideas seriously, you should dress like you take them seriously. Formal attire is not required, but not forbidden either! You are going to be the expert, so dress accordingly.
 
Questions after presentations
To make sure everyone has time to present their paper, questions will be held until after each session’s presentations are over. If you are presenting, it is expected that you take a few notes so that you can also ask questions of the other panelists assigned to your session.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Jeffrey Miner (conference coordinator) at jeffrey.miner@wku.edu