Prospecting the Past: 2026 History Symposium Puts Undergraduate Research in the Spotlight
Top left, clockwise: Student presenters Lily Rothweiler, Mark Cruz, Daphne Graham, and Naomi Heit at the 2026 History Symposium.
Saidjakhon Tursunov
In late April, 50 undergraduate students, primarily from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, gathered at the University of Arizona Main Library to present their original historical research to an audience of their peers, university faculty, friends, and families at “Prospecting the Past: The Arizona Undergraduate History Research Symposium.”
History professor Tyina Steptoe with student panelists from the 2026 History Research Symposium.
Conference panels were grouped by shared themes and included topics such as “Rogue Actors on the World Stage: Human Rights, Conflict, and Diplomacy in the 20th and 21st Centuries”; “Notes from the Past: Counterculture, Race, and Identity in the U.S. Through Music History”; “Legacy, Remembrance, and Historical Amnesia: History of Memory from Early Modern England to 20th Century Guatemala”; “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History: Cultural Histories of Gender in the 20th Century”; and “History as Art, Art as History: Architecture, Photography and Painting.”
The panel included a chair and discussants from the Department of History and across campus, including Susan Crane, Joshua Schlachet of East Asian Studies, and Patrick Baliani of the W.A. Franke Honors College. Discussants posed questions to presenters and led audience discussions, encouraging deeper engagement with the student projects.
David Pietz, Regents Professor in the Department of History and symposium organizer, spoke on behalf of the Symposium Steering Committee.
“We continually are impressed by student interest across campus in our symposium. Virtually every topic of academic research has a historical dimension to it. One of the important goals of the symposium is to encourage students to think about how their topic, no matter what the disciplinary field, is shaped by continuity in change,” Pietz said. “The symposium is also designed to give our students experience with the sorts of professional meetings that many of our graduates will encounter in their professional lives. The opportunity to engage with the work of peers and with faculty mentors were all components of the symposium experience we strove to nurture.”
The keynote speaker, Cherstin Lyon, PhD (University of Arizona), professor of history and dean of the Honors College at Southern Oregon University, spoke on “Taking It to the Streets: History in Unexpected Places,” the subject of her forthcoming book.
The Arizona Undergrad History Research Symposium is a professionally organized conference that offers undergraduate students an opportunity to present original research that explores the historical dimensions of virtually any topic — science and technology, food, migrations, environmental change, identities, politics, animal, economics, and more. This event is made possible by a grant from the University of Arizona Provost's Investment Fund.
###
The next symposium is planned for the 2027 spring semester. Undergraduate students from any department and engaged in historical research are encouraged to follow the U of A Department of History on social media for future information on how to apply. Questions? Contact David Pietz: dpietz@arizona.edu
This announcement was adapted from a press release written by Angela Corsa, a graduate assistant in the Department of History.