Phi Alpha Theta - History Honor Society

Member of the Association of College Honor Societies

Alpha-Kappa-Gamma Chapter at Nazareth College of Rochester

Phi Alpha Theta is a professional society whose mission is to promote the study of history through the encouragement of research, good teaching, publication and the exchange of learning and ideas among historians. We seek to bring students, teachers and writers of history together for intellectual and social exchanges, which promote and assist historical research and publication by our members in a variety of ways.

Phi Alpha Theta -NY West/Central Regional Conference

Saturday April 14, 2012

 Canisius College for the annual West/Central NYS Regional Phi Alpha Theta conference.   This turned out to be one of the largest, most competitive conferences in the past several years.  There were 43 papers presented, by students representing 11 colleges and universities in Western New York.  As Dr. Cordova and Dr. Lappas can attest, the judges session was one of the longest and most challenging in recent memory (at any given time 15 papers were in the running for an award).   Finally, 6 "Best of Conference" awards were selected and 4 "Honorable Mention" awards.   I am happy to report that Nicholas Patmore received an "Honorable Mention" for his paper on the depiction of Adolf Hitler in the film, Downfall.

All of our students deserve recognition for performing so well and representing our department with the highest level of professionalism and articulate communication of their research.  I also want to express my profound gratitude to Dr. Cordova and Dr. Lappas for giving up a full day at such a crazy time of the semester and for doing such a spectacular job of mentoring and encouraging our students.  I also want to thank Dr. Fisher for his work with the three students who worked on the Vietnam veterans' oral history project with him.

FYI--Next year's regional conference will be hosted by SUNY-Geneseo.  It is never too early to start working with one of your students in anticipation of this next conference.

Our presenters:

Adam Bradford, Standing Above the Rest: Miles Standish and Plymouth Plantation

Nicholas Patmore, Revisiting History on Film:Bruno Ganz’s ‘Human Hitler’ in the Downfall

Jeffrey Baxter,The Human Connection and Oral History: Tested and Strengthened by the Vietnam War

Theresa Oberst, The Living Legacy of the Vietnam War

Kristina Marie Morris,The Oral Histories of Life, Loss, and the Vietnam War: The Heroic Tale of William Parker