Undergraduate Research Shines at 2025 “Prospecting the Past” History Symposium

Earlier this spring, 50 undergraduate students, primarily from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, gathered at the University of Arizona’s 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.”

Conference panels were grouped by shared themes, such as “All History is Local: Community Organizing, Corporate Interests, and Campus Culture in Arizona,” “Democracy vs. Authoritarianism on the World Stage: From Individual Resistance to Institutional Complacency,” “Imperial Symbols, Cultural Memory, and Gendered Narratives in East Asian History,” and “Canvas, Carvings, Quills, and Queens: History Through European Art and Literature.”

The panel included 12 faculty members and a recent Ph.D. graduate, all from the Department of History. Panel chairs — including John Bauschatz, Erika Perez and Katie Hemphill — posed questions to presenters and led audience discussions to encourage 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 were delighted to see the symposium grow by 10 more presentations than last year, affirming that our students respond enthusiastically to high-impact practices like undergraduate research when presented with these opportunities,” Pietz said. “The symposium goals included giving students across campus a chance to consider how historical processes shape the themes of their research projects, regardless of discipline.”

Pietz added, "The symposium was also designed to give our students experience within the sorts of professional meetings and conferences that many of our graduates will encounter in their careers. The chance to witness others’ work, converse with peers, and engage with faculty were all components of the symposium experience we strove to provide.”

Keynote speaker and guest scholar Dr. Megan Kate Nelson, the 2024–25 Rogers Distinguished Fellow in 19th-Century American History at the Huntington Library, shared her work exploring the lives of people in the Western U.S. and the places where she found inspiration. Referencing her 2020 book The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West, Nelson recounted her research adventures, using photos, maps, textiles, letters, and her journeys crossing different landscapes to tell the stories of people whose lives help deepen our understanding of histories that seem otherwise familiar to us. Her closing remarks inspired students to reflect on where they might go to tell stories of the past.

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, racial/gender/sexual 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 2026 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.

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Questions? Contact dpietz@arizona.edu 

This announcement was adapted from a press release written by Angela Corsa, a graduate assistant in the Department of History.