Student Awards

Every Spring the history department recognizes the achievements of members of its community. The department awards prizes for outstanding junior and senior in the history major, the best historical essay and the best honors thesis, and contribution to the history community at Colby. Each prize winner receives a financial award and a book authored and signed by a member of the department.

These prestigious awards are decided by faculty of the history department, with the winners announced at the end of the academic year. The faculty of the history department selects the award winners on the basis of grade point average, evidence of hard work and intellectual ambition, quality of contribution to class discussions, excellent historical writing, and a willingness to take intellectual risks. 

William J. Wilkinson was a beloved professor of European history at Colby from 1924 to 1945. “Wilkie”—as students endearingly called him—embodied the quintessential college professor, often seen “wearing a fine-checked brown tweed jacket, taupe shirt and plain, harmonizing tie.” He taught European history in a turbulent era of the continent’s history, marked by the rise of fascism, Soviet Communism, and National-Socialism, the impact of the Great Depression, and of course the experience of World War II and the Holocaust. Reflecting upon these events at his retirement, Wilkinson asked: “of what use are [modern] inventions if they are to be used to destroy what civilization has created and built during centuries.” Emphasizing the importance of the Liberal Arts, he imparted to his students that while “we have made vast progress in the physical sciences, we have not made commensurate progress in the social sciences.” It was his hope that a Colby education would enable his students to “render a better and more intelligent account of their citizenship than did their predecessors in the era which is coming to its cataclysmic end.” Wilkinson’s trust in Colby’s students lives on in the prizes in his name.

These two prizes are awarded annually to a senior student who has authored the best honors thesis and a student who has written the best seminar essay within the history major. A committee consisting of history faculty members selects the winner, who is announced at the end of the academic year. Students have to apply for the Foner Prizes by submitting their work to Arnout van der Meer, the Chair of the History Department. The deadline for submission of the best honors thesis is Friday, April 26, 2024, and the deadline for the best seminar essay is Friday May 3, 2024.

Jack Foner was a labor historian who taught at Colby from 1969 to 1976 and was responsible for founding what we now know as the African-American Studies program, one of the first of its kind in the nation. It is important to note that his career was marked by an unflinching holding to the truth and to integrity. A stance that cost him a great deal, for you see, he was blacklisted as a Communist in the early 1940’s and couldn’t get work as a Professor until Colby broke ranks in 1969 and hired him. A bold act but not nearly as bold as his principled stand for history as a discipline and for telling the story of the oppressed in America – especially when America didn’t want to listen. When he retired in 1976 he was a much beloved teacher, scholar, and member of the Colby community. It is in his honor that we give the prize for the best senior research project.

Annually awarded in recognition of a student’s dedication and organization towards the social and intellectual life of the history major. The history faculty members select the winner, who is announced at the end of the academic year.