Pencak Paper Prize
The award, named for Bill Pencak (1951-2013), a former editor of Pennsylvania History and a prolific scholar and much-loved Penn State University history professor, is designed to honor the year’s best written undergraduate paper in history. Donations to the award fund can be made on the website or be sent to Sarah Piccini, PHA Business Secretary / P.O. Box 20011 / Scranton, PA 18503.
The Pencak Award includes a certificate from the Pennsylvania Historical Association for high achievement in Pennsylvania and mid-Atlantic history, a cash award of $150, and an opportunity for publication on the Pennsylvania Historical Association’s website or its journal, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. Award recipients are encouraged to attend the Association’s annual conference in the fall to speak about their scholarship.
October 2022
Jacqueline Wu, The Chinese Labor Experiment: Contract Workers in the Northeastern United States, 1780-1880
October 2021
Lindsay Richwine, “Comity at the Crossroads How Friendships Between Moravian and Native Women Sustained the Moravian Mission at Shamokin, 1745–1755.”
October 2020
Nikol Damato, “Urban Renewal in the ‘Human Renaissance’: Race, Law, and the Environment in Pittsburgh, PA.”
October 2019
Jubilee Marshall, “Race and Public Health in Philadelphia’s Burying Grounds, 1750-1792.“
October 2018
Anne Morgan, “The Philadelphia Riots of 1844: Republican Catholicism and Irish Catholic Apologetics”
October 2017
Frank Grumbine, “Inundation of the Heartland: Tropical Storm Agnes and the Landscape of the Susquehanna Valley”