Rhem/Schwarzmann Prize Winners

The Rhem/Schwarzmann Prize for Recognition of Student Research was established by Mrs. Ann Schwarzmann to honor William and Emily Rhem and Theodore and Ann Schwarzmann, the Rhem-Schwarzmann Prize annually recognizes outstanding research papers written by sophomores, juniors, and seniors at East Carolina University. Cash prizes in the amount of $750, $500, and $250 will be awarded to first-, second-, and third-place winners. Papers can be in any field of study, but must be based largely on primary sources held by J. Y. Joyner Library’s Manuscripts and Rare Books Department and University Archives.

Learn more about the Rhem/Schwarzmann Prize for Recognition of Student Research

2017

First Prize: Planning and Patronizing:  Urban Renewal and Race Relations in Greenville, N.C. in the 1960s by Jeanann Woodard.

Second Prize: Queer History: LGBT Activism at East Carolina University by Zachary Dale.

Third Prize: The Battle of New Bern: Trial by Fire by Andrew Turner.

2016

First Prize: A Senator from East Carolina: John P. East, Jesse Helms, and the 1980 United States Senate Election in North Carolina by Adam Caldwell.

Second Prize: ECU Riots and Protests: A Tradition of Student Activism by William Cheek.

2015

First Prize: Democratic Party Reformation in North Carolina: The Downfall of Furnifold Simmons and the Old South’s Political Stronghold in North Carolina by Blake Richards.

Second Prize: Capus Waynick and the 1948 North Carolina Gubenatorial Primary by Adam Caldwell. Written for Dr. Wade Dudley.

2014

First Prize: Imperializm and Intimacy: The Extraordinary Relationship between a Missionary Teacher and His Student by Megan Stimits. Written for Dr. Karin Zipf

Second Prize: Capus Waynick and the 1948 North Carolina Democratic Gubernatorial Primaries by Adam Caldwell. Written for Dr. Wade Dudley

Third Prize: Southern Honor as Exemplified in Correspondence and Diaries from the Old South by Ashley Ann Curry. Written for Dr. David Dennard

2013

First Prize: Clarence Leroy Shuping’s Role in the Democratic Party Following the Election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 by Cory Adam Noe. Written for Dr. Wade Dudley

Second Prize: Unfamiliar Territory: The Union Occupation of Northeastern North Carolina, 1862-1865 by Justin Phillip White. Written for Dr. Don Parkerson

2012

First Place: Political Divergence: A Brief History of the North Carolina Farmers’ Alliance by Patrick Breshears

Second Place: Lucy Cherry Crisp: 20th Century Art Practice by Alisha Beard

Third Place (tie): A New Voice: The Undiscovered Histories of the Frederick C. Douglass Ledgers by Jacqueline Kempfer

Third Place (tie): An Osteobiographical Analysis of the Foscue Plantation Burial Vault, Pollocksville, Jones County, North Carolina by Melinda Seeman

2011

First Place: Pearl Harbor: First Hand Accounts of December 7, 1941 by William Brown

Second Place: The Emergence of the Crop-Lien System in Eastern North Carolina by William O’Neal

Third place: Dethroning the Kings of Cape Fear: Consequences of Edward Moseley’s Surveys. By Baylus Cade Brooks.

2010

Joseph McCarthy: The Face of the Red Scare by Melissa Jones