MSUM students are doing amazing things. Our students embrace diversity, challenges, opportunities, unique experiences and continue to produce incredible results. Our students participate in student organizations, attend and present at regional and national conferences, compete at regional and national competitions, collaborate on faculty-mentored projects, gain hands-on experience through internships, help coordinate community service projects, and more. Many have won prestigious scholarships for academic excellence and many have won awards for their stellar work inside and outside of the classroom. See what the students from the History Department are doing.
Bayley Kinner, History
"It's a really open environment. We're all allowed to share our opinions, ask questions, and relate our own knowledge to what we're talking about, even if it means relating it to current events today."
“The professors have been amazing. Since my freshman year, I’ve had good relationships with my professors and they know who I am. If we see each other in the hallway, we’ll have a short talk. I’m never afraid to go to one of their offices and ask a question about my classes, or an internship, or a job.”
Sean Taylor, History, and Peter Quinn, Social Studies, presented a talk entitled “Playing Games in Class: Using Historical Simulations to Facilitate Critical Thinking in the Classroom” at last fall's conference on higher education in Minneapolis. The presentation included a re-enactment of the Boston Massacre to demonstrate active learning and game-playing pedagogy in a classroom run by students.
Allan Branstiter, an MSUM senior History major from Cooperstown, N.D., won the Society of Military History Prize for the best paper in history by an undergraduate student, and the First Division Association Prize at the Northern Great Plains Conference, held in Grand Forks, N.D., last fall. Branstiter’s work about confederate diplomacy and the Palmerston government of Great Britain was extremely well received, according to Paul Harris, History. “We can be very proud of all three of the department’s students who presented—Allan, Spencer McGrew and Joel Drevlow,” Harris said. The three History students participated in a session on British Military History chaired by MSUM professor Margaret Sankey. The University of North Dakota hosted the 45th annual regional history conference. The conference hosts scholars working in a variety of fields, including those interested in European, Asian, African, Canadian, and American history.
Natasha Smith talks about her experience
