Holland Schmitz Receives Multiple Awards

History Honors Student Awards and Opportunities

Holland Schmitz, graduating History Honors Student, has had their work in the Honors Program recognized with three awards, a Library Award for Undergraduate Research, a Winston Family Honors Best Student Paper Award, and the Hoosier Clio Award for the best Honors thesis written by this year's cohort. Holland's thesis is titled "Shaping the Sapphic City: New York City Lesbianism and Lesbian Pulp Novels 1945-1968."  Holland traces the circulation of lesbian-only publications as well as pulp novels, originally aimed a male audience but with the unintended consequence of helping to shape lesbian identity.

Holland's entire thesis was considered for the Winston Family Honors Best Student Paper Award and the Hoosier Clio Award. They received the Library Award for Undergraduate Research for a chapter of the thesis titled "Lesbian Newsletters, Pulps, and Manuals: A Primary Source Analysis." 

In addition, Holland has been awarded a $500 travel grant from the Department of History to present a paper at the New York History Conference at the New York State Museum, Albany, NY. Their paper is titled "Constructing the Sapphic City: New York Lesbianism and Lesbian Pulp Novels, 1945-1968." Another student from the 2025 Honors cohort will be on the same panel at the New York History Conference. Taylor Mason will present “‘F’ is for Feminism”: Social Conflict and Sesame Street.” Taylor also received a $500 travel grant from the Department of History. In addition Taylor was awarded a Library Award for Undergraduate Research for her thesis "F is for Feminism: Understanding 1970s Social Conflict through Sesame Street." 

James Schmidtlein, another graduating Honors student, also received a Winston Family Honors Best Student Paper Award, for his Honors thesis “Christians in a Pagan World: Understanding the Construction of Early Christian Identity from a Pagan Past and Custom."