History PhD Wins Distinguished Dissertation Award

Sam Miner's Dissertation Recognized with Grad School Award

Congratulations to Sam Miner (PhD  2021  Advisor: Jeffrey Herf) has been awarded the Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award for dissertations completed in 2021. Sam's dissertation is titled: “The Exiles’ Return: Emigres, Anti-Nazis, and the Basic Law,” The dissertation was nominated for the prize by the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) in the category of Humanities and Fine Arts. A multi-disciplinary campus panel selected the dissertation as a winner. Sam will also receive a cash honorarium with the Award. 

Jeffrey Herf says of the dissertation: "Samuel Miner's dissertation, “The Exiles’ Return: Emigres, Anti-Nazis, and the Basic Law,” is, in part, a collective biography of German lawyers, including Jews and non-Jews, who from 1945 to 1949 contributed to writing the Grundgesetz, that is, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, also known as West Germany. They also played important roles in the early years of the West German judicial reckoning with the crimes of the Nazi regime. Some had been forced to flee into exile during the Nazi years. Others had been arrested, survived incarceration in concentration camps in Germany and Europe, or retreated from public life into what the Germans euphemistically called “inner emigration.” They were bound together by fierce opposition to Nazism and to dictatorship, by extensive legal expertise, support for liberal democracy, and commitment to the rule of law following an era of lawlessness that operated with the trappings of legalism. “Exiles’ Return” is a significant contribution to the history of what the Germans call the tradition of Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit or "working through and honestly confronting the past." 

The Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award will be presented to Sam and the winners in other categories at the Graduate School Fellowship and Award celebration on May 11 at 3:00pm in the Stamp Student Union. 

Photo: UMD Graduate School