ACHA Announces First Presidential Graduate Fellowship Winners

In 2010, the Executive Council approved the creation of a fund to assist graduate students who wish to travel to ACHA annual or spring meetings to present papers. Our requirements were that they be members of the Association, have papers accepted at the conference they wish to attend, and provide documentary evidence of their background and a letter of recommendation from a faculty member–preferably their dissertation director. Two grants of $500 each will be provided. The money was provided by generous donations from several former presidents and a $2,000 grant from the Association.

Our first honorees are:

Monica Mercado of the University of Chicago, who presented a paper at the Boston meeting entitled, ” ‘What A Blessing to be Fond of Reading Good Books’: Reading Circles and Catholic Women in Turn-of-the Century America.” This paper was drawn from the final chapters of her dissertation, Women and the Word: Gender, Print, and Catholic Identity in Nineteenth Century America.

Sheila Nowinski of the University of Notre Dame, who presented a paper at the Boston meeting entitled, “The Catholic Family in Postwar Rural France: L’exposition de la Maison Rurale, 1947-1950.” Ms. Nowinski is currently working on her dissertation, “Religion and Social Change in Postwar France: the Jeunesse agricole catholique, 1944-1968” under the direction of former ACHA president, Dr. Thomas Kselman.