We congratulate all the History majors who completed undergraduate research with faculty mentorship this past year. History major Sophia Mata and Sarah Rantala (Strategic Communication) worked with mentors Dr. Elizabeth Rodwell (Information Science Technology) and Dr. Kristina Neumann of the Department of History as 25–26 SYRIOS UX Scholars on “Designing an Effective Digital Timeline for Syrios: A UX Study on Ancient Syrian Coins.” According to Sophia Mata, “Completing this undergraduate research has been meaningful in providing a space for genuine discovery, allowing me to grow as both a researcher and a communicator.” For Sarah Rantala, “Presenting at Undergraduate Research Day was a culmination of how UX testing can shape software that truly helps people, while also reflecting the experience of building something from the ground up. It showed me new ways my communication degree can be applied and gave me valuable insight into departments and offices at UH where I can continue learning and potentially gain internship experience.” Both students are pictured discussing their research poster.
Elsewhere at the URD event, History student research ranged from the Gulf Coast to Peru. History major and Mellon Research Scholar for 2026 Jorge Palomo, pictured below with mentor Dr. Debbie Z. Harwell, presented “History The City of Immigrants: Immigration in Houston, the Impact, and What Could Be Lost,” supported by a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and recognized at the prestigious Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in January 2026.
We also celebrate Carlos Alvariño, mentored by Dr. Adela Cedillo in the Mellon Research Scholars 2025 cohort, with “No Other Place Where the Feeling of Nationalism Was More Lacking: Reasons for Peru’s Right-Wing / Reactionary Tendencies.” One of the flagship grant-funded projects of the Center for Public History, Sharing Stories from 1977, supported Esther Maina, Lauren Pennell, and Baila Walker, mentored by Drs. Nancy Beck Young and Sandra Davidson, in a study of “Intersectionality at the 1977 National Women’s Conference.” Grace Cruz and Vy Ngo, mentored by Dean Todd Romero, worked on “La Louisiane en Tejas: Gulf Coast Foodways in Southeast Texas,” as part of the Gulf Coast Food Project. Artemis Ward (winner of last year’s Murray Miller Undergraduate Scholarship in History) presented “Anti-Augustan or Pro-Augustan: The Ending of the Aeneid: An Inquiry Into Language” with mentor Dr. Richard Armstrong (Modern and Classical Languages). Keaton McGee, with Dr. Casey Dué Hackney (MCL), shared, “‘I, Miserable, Have Found Myself Female’: The Corruption of Gender and the Oikos in Sophocles’ Women of Trachis.” Tessa Lemkuil, mentored by Dr. Robert Zaretsky (Honors) in the SURF program, presented “How to Attend to One Another: A Weilian and Murdochian Solution to the Attention Economy.” Marcoantonio Vega, mentored by Dr. Andrew Werner (Honors), shared research titled, “Time and Speculative Reason in Hegel’s Psychology.” Interdisciplinary faculty mentorship strengthens the History major and allows our students to participate in and pursue cutting-edge research. Congratulations to all the presenters and mentors!