Outstanding Paper by a Graduate Student2026 Outstanding Paper by a Graduate Student Winner:Jordan Virtue, of Stanford University, won the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award for her paper, “’The Lyre of War’: Black Civil War Memory in Paul Laurence Dunbar.” Andrew L. Slap, Chair of the Prize Committee, presented the award during the opening reception of the 2026 SCWH conference in Richmond, VA. The $500 award is sponsored by the Society of Civil War Historians and is part of the Graduate Student Council's mission, “to encourage graduate student participation at the Society of Civil War Historians Biennial Meeting. Professional and social events will enhance networking opportunities and increase the presence of graduate students within the SCWH.” Previous Winners:2024: Rachael Nicholas, “Virginia Should Not Call in Vain": Borderland Perceptions and Experiences of Slavery and Freedom during the Maryland Campaign" 2022: Lindsey R. Peterson, "'Distinguish[ing] Mankind from the Brute Creation': How Western Union Veterans used Commemorative Rituals to Bolster Settler Colonialism" 2018: Keith D. McCall, "A 'Veritable Africa' and the 'State of Jackson': Migration, Region, and the Geography of Race in the Reconstruction South" 2016: Kathleen Logothetis Thompson, "'That the soldier was insane is not established': Insanity and Suicide in Civil War Pensions" 2014: Patrick Doyle, “‘Replacement Rebels: Confederate Substitution and the Issue of Citizenship” 2012: Evan Rothera, “‘Our South American Cousin’: Domingo F. Sarmiento and the Case for Comparative Reconstructions” |