The Dean’s Challenge Award recognizes students who have excelled while taking academically challenging courses and have contributed to the Mason community through research or outreach.

Dr. Roger Mellen, assistant professor of journalism at New Mexico State University who received his PhD in history from Mason in August 2007, was awarded an honorable mention by the American Journalism Historians Association for his dissertation.

Dr. Randolph Scully’s recent book, Religion and the Making of Nat Turner’s Virginia: Baptist Community and Conflict, 1740-1840, has been awarded the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for best first book in church history by the American Society of Church History.

One of our Western Civilization Postdoctoral Fellows, Dr. Nicole Hudgins, was recently awarded a CTAC grant from the Center for Teaching Excellence for her proposal, “Critical Thinking on the Web: Assessing the Value of the Internet to the Practice of History.”

Congratulations to Matt Romaniello (Russian) and Mary Gayne (early modern Europe), both Western Civilizaton post-doctoral fellows, who will be taking up tenure-track positions for next year. Matt will join the History Department at the University of Hawaii and Mary Gayne will be down the road at James Madison University.

Claudia Verhoeven received a Jean Monnet Fellowship for the academic year, 2007–2008. She will be in residence at the European University, Florence, Italy. A hat tip to Claudia.

Dan Cohen was one of five recipients of an American Council of Learned Societies’ Digital Innovation Fellowship for 2006-7, the first year of the competition.