Archie K. Davis Fellowships – List of Prior Winners

Since the spring of 1988, approximately 400 scholars have been awarded Archie K. Davis Fellowships in a targeted research program sponsored by the North Caroliniana Society. On a competitive basis, the program’s funding has supported hands-on research by young scholars spending time in North Carolina’s historical and cultural collections, both public and private.

Winners announced in the spring of:

2025

  • Chloe Landen (University of Texas at Austin): “Anti-Lynching Activism, Religion, and the Rise of Privatized Execution: A Look at the Legacy of The Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching”
  • Ashley LaRue Low (University of North Carolina, Greensboro): Tar Heels & Torah: Southern Jewish History in North Carolina, 1900-2010
  • Trevor McKenzie (Appalachin State University): You Soon Shall Hear: The Unsung History of Appalachia in 20 Ballads
  • Olivia H. Phillips (Indiana University – Bloomington): “Sometimes I’m in this Country”: Traditional Singing and Heritage Narratives in North Carolina’s Beech Mountain Community

2024

  • Emily Magness (William & Mary): “‘If you had paid attention, you would know’: The Sacred World of Eighteenth-Century Cherokee- Anglo Politics.”
  • Hunter Moskowitz (Northeastern University): Race and Labor in the Global Textile Industry: Lowell, Concord, and Monterrey in the Early 19th Century
  • Jordan B. Smith (Widener University): The Martin Family and a Violent Atlantic World
  • Joshua Strayhorn (National Park Service): Somewhere to Lay My Head: Black Mobility, Migration, and Landownership in Eastern North Carolina, 1861-1900
  • Francena Turner (Fayetteville State University): Carrying the Weight of the World: Black Women, Civil Rights, & Black Power at Fayetteville State University, 1960-1972

2023

  • Antonio Austin (Howard University): Under the Cloak of Secrecy: Relationships Between the Enslaved and Free Black Populations in Antebellum, North Carolina
  • Mia Edwards (University of Warwick): Masculinity, Physicality and Disability: Shifting Experiences and Ideologies within the Antebellum South, 1800-1861
  • Ashley N. Gilbert (University of North Carolina, Greensboro): Revolutionary Crossroads: Taverns in the Southern British Mainland Colonies, 1740-1781
  • Irene Adair Newman (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): First in Fight: North Carolina and The White Power Movement in the Late 20th Century
  • Casey Price (University of Tennessee-Knoxville): Given to This Land: Mapping Settler Colonialism in Kituwah, 1682-1810

2022

  • G. Jasper Conner (College of William & Mary): Twice a Problem: Black Disability in the Jim Crow
  • Stuart H. Marshall (University of North Carolina at Greensboro): Junaluska’s Odyssey: Eastern Cherokee Sovereignty in the Civil War Era
  • Cristiana Shipma McFarland (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): “Bettering” Humanity: A History of the Human Betterment League of North Carolina
  • David Silkenat (University of Edinburgh): Heroes of the Klan War

2021

  • Georgann Eubanks (independent researcher):  Bearing Witness: Paul Green, Playwright of the People
  • Barbara Ladd (Emory University): Writing in the North of the South: Moses Grande and Charles W. Chestnut
  • Benjamin Holtzman (Lehman College): “Smash the Klan”: Fighting the White Power Movement in the Late Twentieth Century
  • Noeleen McIlvenna (Wright State University): Dressed Pork: North Carolina and the Atlantic World Economy

2020

  • Katherine Elizabeth Burns (University of Edinburgh): “Keep this Unwritten History”: Mapping African American Family Histories in “Information Wanted” Advertisements, 1880-1902
  • Allison Fredette, Ph.D. (Appalachian State University): Murdering Laura Foster: Violence, Gender, and Memory in Appalachian North Carolina.
  • Ryan J. Johnson (Elon University): “Part II: Horace Williams, Gadfly of Chapel Hill” of Three American Hegels
  • LaQuanda Walters Cooper (George Mason University): Black Politics in Black Space: Black Industrial Fairs in North Carolina, 1879- 1930
  • Emily West (University of Reading, UK): Food, Power, and Resistance in US slavery

2019

  • Evan Howard Ashford (State University of New York College at Oneonta): Cast Down Your Bucket and Cast Your Ballot
  • Robert J. Bell (New York University): American Influences in Iran from 1911-1963
  • Christopher Bonner (University of Maryland): Moses Grandy’s Pursuit of Freedom
  • Michael K. Brantley (North Carolina Wesleyan College):  Otway Burns
  • Heather R. Brinn (University of Massachusetts at Amherst): Black Families in Transition in the Reconstruction South
  • Georgann Eubanks (independent researcher):  The Wild South: Lost and Found
  • Jonathan A. Gomez (Harvard University): Black Musical Transformations of the Great Migration
  • Hannah K. Hicks (Vanderbilt University): Amazons and Viragos
  • Lucas P. Kelley (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Bordering the Borderlines
  • James W. Lester, Jr. (independent researcher): NC Mapmaker C. M. Miller
  • James MacKay (University of Edinburgh): Flight and Freedom in Revolutionary America
  • Elisabeth A. Moore (West Virginia University): Tourism in Western North Carolina Post WWII
  • Christopher Arris Oakley (East Carolina University): Maritime Indians
  • Jessica M. Parr (Simmons University): Evolution of Transatlantic Black Nationalism, 1760-1860
  • Raja Rahim (University of Florida): How African Americans Made US College Basketball, 1937-1970
  • Paul Sanchez (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary): William Louis Poteat and Liberal Religion in the Baptist South
  • Virginia L. Summey (University of North Carolina at Greensboro): NC White Women and White Supremacy in 1898
  • Lizabeth Wardzinski (North Carolina State University): Tennessee Valley Authority and Postwar Development

2018

  • Samuel T. Allen (University of Pittsburgh):  19th Century Conjoined Twins.
  • Daniel J. Burge (University of Alabama):  Manifest Destiny Opposition.
  • Madison W. Cates (University of Florida): Bulldozer Revolution in Post WWII South.
  • Laura Channing (Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge): Taxation and Transition from Slave to Non-Slave Economy.
  • Esther Cam-Ly Cyna (Columbia University):  Race, Education, Finance in 1970s South.
  • Ashley Foley Dabbraccio (University of Memphis): American Family, Home and Abroad.
  • Robert Hunt Ferguson (Western Carolina University): Post-Industrial South – Environment.
  • Jonathan Anthony Hanna (Claremont Graduate University):  Southern Federalist Persuasion.
  • Jonathan Scott Jones (Binghamton University): Opiates & Insanity in the Post-Civil War South.
  • Cynthia A. Kierner (George Mason University): Jane Spurgin and Family RW, North Carolina.
  • Crawford Alexander Mann III (independent scholar):  Franklin Richard Grist; Painter.
  • Laurie Medford (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Planter Families and Crisis.
  • Ashlie Richard (East Tennessee State University): Environmental Health, 58th Regiment, North Carolina, Civil War.
  • Bryan C. Rindfleisch (Marquette University):  Creek to Cherokee; Native American History.
  • Rodney J. Steward (University of South Carolina): Confederate Sequestration.
  • Brenda W. Stroud (University of Florida): Eugenics and Civil Rights.
  • Jason A. Tercha (Binghamton University):  Transportation Infrastructure in Pre-Civil War North Carolina.
  • Kaitlyn Wiley (West Virginia University):  Cherokee Economy in RW Era.
  • Timothy J. Williams (University of Oregon): Civil War Prisons and Intellectual History.

2017

  • Richard Berman (Oxford Brookes University): Freemasonry in North Carolina.
  • John Brannon, Jr. (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities): Cherokee Syllabary and Printing.
  • Robert Colby (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Slave Trading in the Civil War South.
  • Sara Collini (George Mason University): Enslaved Women and Midwifery.
  • Michael Hardy (independent): Richmond M. Pearson.
  • Nathaniel Holly (College of William & Mary): NC Emancipation Politics.
  • Tina Irvine (Penn State University): Americanizing Appalachia.
  • Stephanie King (University of Kentucky): Confederate Diaspora.
  • Michael Lynch (University of Tennessee at Knoxville): Manliness on the Rev. Frontier.
  • Joshua R. Shriver (Auburn University): Interpersonal Rel. and CW Soldiers.
  • Lewis M. Stern (independent scholar): Tommy Thompson, North Carolina Musician.
  • Rodney J. Steward (USC-Salkehatchie): Southern Rights Party in North Carolina.
  • Larry E. Tise (Eastern Carolina University): Maps of Colonial North Carolina.
  • Brandon K. Winford (University of Tennessee at Knoxville): Southern Regional Council.

2016

  • Richard Berman (Oxford Brookes University): 18h Century
  • Tyler Boulware (West Virginia University): Attakullakulla (Little Carpenter).
  • Victoria Coltman (University of Edinburgh, College of Art): Janet Schaw’s Journal at Yale.
  • Brian K. Fennessy (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Reconstructed Rebels: Republicans.
  • Andrea R. Gray (George Mason University): Retirement in the Early Republic.
  • Amanda Kleintop (Northwestern): N.C. Emancipation Politics.
  • William A. Link (University of Florida): Biography of Frank Porter
  • Mary McAvoy (Arizona State University): U.S. Workers’ Educational Theatre Programs.
  • Sha Vonté Mils (Penn State University): Charlotte Hawkins Brown.
  • Robert S. Richard (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Panic of 1819.
  • Ashley Schmidt (Tulane): American Revolution Black Pensioners.
  • Kimberly B. Sherman (University of St. Andrews): Scottish Network in N.C. 1730-1800.
  • Jason Stroud (University of North Carolina at Greensboro): Justice, Piedmont N.C., 1760-1810.
  • David C. Williard (University of St. Thomas): Post Civil War Plight of African-American Soldier.

2015

  • Rebecca Adams (George Mason University): Romance, Courtship, and Marriage Rituals and Traditions of Southern Women During the Civil War.
  • Jennifer Scism Ash (University of Illinois, Chicago): Individual and Group Acts of Civil Disobedience By African American Women on the Bennett College Campus.
  • Victoria Coltman (University of Edinburgh, College of Art): Scots in North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century.
  • Jesse George-Nichol (University of Virginia): The Secession Crisis As Seen Through Six Former Whigs in Border States.
  • Robert L. Glaze (University of Tennessee, Knoxville): The Army of Tennessee in War and Memory, 1861-1930.
  • Larry E. Tise (East Carolina University): Original Wachovia Maps, Original Graffenried Maps, and Hand-colored Thomas Harriot Editions in German and Swiss Libraries.
  • Matthew R. Blaylock (University of Tennessee, Knoxville): Appalachian Aristocrats: Hillbillies, Debutantes, and Tourists in Western North Carolina, 1880-1940.
  • Anne Marie Brosnan (University of Limerick): Black Education in North Carolina During the Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1861-1876.
  • Crystal R. Sanders (Penn State University): Bennett Belles in Jail: Villa Player and Black College Activism.
  • Timothy J. Williams (University of Oregon): Cool Brains: Intellectual Life in the Confederacy and Postwar South.

2014

  • Lindsay E. Beach (George Washington University): Native American communities in 18, 19 Century North Carolina
  • Thomas F. Brown, PHD (Virginia Wesleyan College): Lynch’s Sanctified Band: Societal reactions to a new religious sect in the 1890s.
  • Lindsey M. Cantwel (University of Colorado at Boulder): Diaries of Southern Slave-bolding Women.
  • Alex S. Cummings (Georgia State University): North Carolina’s Research Triangle
  • Bradley J. Dixon (University of Texas): Tuscarora Legal Aspects
  • Abby Chandler, PhD (University of Massachusetts Lowel: Loyalist Martin Howard
  • Randal L. Hal (Rice University): Resource Scarcity and Limits to Growth
  • Michael E. Harkin (University of Wyoming) The Lost Colony
  • Travis Jacquess (University of Mississippi): Fatherhood in the Eighteenth Century
  • Maurice Krochmal (Independent Journalist): Following James
  • Susan Hill McDowel (Independent Researcher): Plaid Production in Alamance County
  • Thomas Luke Manget (University of Georgia): Squatters and the commons system that supported them in southern Appalachia.
  • Alex Christopher Meekins (State employee): Civil War Blockade Running in Northeastern North Carolina
  • Marvin M. Richardson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Haliwa-Saponi Indian Rights
  • Darin J. Waters, Ph (University of North Carolina at Asheville): Post-emancipation experiences of African Americans in Ashevile and Western North Carolina
  • Emily Herring Wilson (independent scholar): Doris Betts’ Leters
  • Angela M. Zombeck (St. Pete College): Prisons During Civil War

2013

  • Jessica A. Bandel (North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources): Confederate camps of instruction in North Carolina.
  • Richard Bel (University of Maryland): Forced migration of slaves from North to South.
  • Matthew R. Blaylock (University of Tennessee): Relationships betwen Protestant conference centers and their communities in western North Carolina.
  • Erin R. Corrales-Diaz (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Depictions of disabled veterans of Civil War.
  • Tyler Greene (Temple University): Highway building and economic growth in North Carolina.
  • Antwain K. Hunter (Pennsylvania State University): Firearms, slaves, and freedmen in North Carolina, 1729-1865.
  • John Thomas McGuire (Teacher, College of Saint Rose): Gladys Tillett and 1950 Primary.
  • Noeleen Melvenna (Wright State University): “Colonial Democrats” in Old Albemarle.
  • Dan Pierce (University of North Carolina at Asheville): Moonshine in North Carolina.
  • Kristofer Ray (Austin Peay State University): Cherokees and Trans- Appalachian Empire in British Imagination.
  • Marvin M. Richardson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Haliwa-Saponi Indians, 1835-1971.
  • John Patrick Riley (Binghamton University): Experiences of American fathers prior to 1865.
  • Katherine E. Rohrer (University of Georgia): ‘Modern” families in Wilmington, 1820-1890.
  • Evan C. Rothera (The Pennsylvania State University): New Introduction to “The Impending Crisis.”
  • Rebecca T. Sherman (Emory University): Rural families, households, and kinship in North Carolina, 1900-1940.
  • Daniel Troy (The Ohio State University): North Carolina Revolutionary History.

2012

  • Joseph Bathanti (Appalachian State University): Alma Stone Williams and Black Mountain College.
  • Jordan R. Bauer (University of Houston): Research Triangle Park/ Post-World War II America
  • Adrian Brettle (University of Virginia): North Carolina and Confederate
  • Judkin Browning (Appalachian State University): Gettysburg and North Carolina/South Carolina
  • Benjamin Carp (Tufts University): Destruction of North Carolina during the Revolution
  • Clay Cooper (University of Florida): Masculinity in the 19 Century
  • Janet Davidson (Cape Fear Museum): Wilmington History.
  • Daniel S. Goldberg (East Carolina University): Civil War Pensions in North Carolina
  • Julia Gunn (University of Pennsylvania): Development of the Sunbelt South
  • Susan Holland (East Carolina University): Camp Glenn.
  • Thomas L. Howard (University of Virginia): Ratifcation of the United States Constitution in North Carolina
  • John James Kaiser (University of North Carolina, Greensboro): Walter Clark
  • Alex Leidholdt (James Madison University): Personal Newspapers, Moravian Falls.
  • Elizabeth Lundeen (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): African American College Presidents in the Civil Rights Movement
  • Marvin Richardson University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Haliwa-Saponi
  • Laura Sandy (Keele University (United Kingdom)): Slave Stealers.
  • Robert Shaphard (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): Longleaf Pine Forest in North Carolina
  • James Ruchala (University of North Carolina at Greensboro): Surry County Music

2011

  • Vivienne Westbrook (National Taiwan University) Sir Walter Raleigh’s presentation in art
  • Caitlin Verboon (Yale University) urban experiences in Raleigh, 1865-1875
  • Antonio L. Vásquez (Michigan State University) Mexican agricultural workers in North Carolina
  • J. Tortora (Duke University) Cherokees in the war for the southeast
  • Matthew P. Spooner (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) reconstruction of southern slavery, 1776-1808
  • Judy Scales-Trent (University at Buffalo Law School) biography of William Johnson Trent
  • Warren E. Milteer, Jr. (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) “Free People” in North Carolina and Virginia
  • R. Scott Huffard, Jr. (University of Florida) “Perilous Connections: Railroads in the Post-Reconstruction South”
  • Karen M. Hawkins (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) “Coastal Progress: Eastern North Carolina’s War on Poverty”
  • Kristal L. Ender (University of Cambridge, England) Desegregation of University of Texas, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Arkansas
  • Laura Kathryn Baines-Walsh (Boston College) Lutherans in Piedmont North Carolina