Hoosier Clio Award for Best History Honors Thesis

Each spring, the Department of History bestows the Hoosier-Clio Award on the author of the best honors thesis that year. The Hoosier-Clio Award for Best History Honors Thesis was first created by a beloved colleague, Richard T. Farrell, who was a long-time Associate Chair of the Department of History. Dick loved both undergraduate students and history so much that he wanted to honor them simultaneously with this annual award. The award is named the Hoosier-Clio Award because Dick was from Indiana (thus, the Hoosier) and Clio was the Greek Muse of History.

After Dick died in 1991, the Department of History continued to offer the award in his honor because he was the soul of institutional citizenship. He taught with fierce commitment and participated avidly in faculty governance. Not only was he an officer in the Department but he also served as chair of UMD’s University Senate in the late 1980s and as chair of the University’s curriculum committee in the mid-1980s. A specialist in nineteenth-century US History, he shaped the training of generations of history teachers through his work with local schools and the Maryland Higher Education Advisory Commission. Those of us who worked with Dick consider him a model for our own engagement with students, colleagues, and all neighbors everywhere.

History Honors Program