DUS James Chappel recently announced the winners of two of the History Department's undergraduate prizes: the Kaiwar Prize, in its second year, and the Historical Fiction Prize, in its first year. Each of the winners receives $250 and is eligible for publication in Historia Nova, the Duke Historical Review.
The 2025 Kaiwar Prize is awarded to Thang Lian, for his paper entitled “Disentangling Empires: The Colonial Entanglements Between the Treaty of Ryswick, Spain, France, and Maroon Societies.” This beautifully written paper is very much in the spirit of Professor Kaiwar’s work on race and global empire. Lian shows how the Treaty of Ryswick, between France and Spain, attempted to divide the island of Hispaniola according to a logic of law and statecraft. On the ground, though, the story was very different: maroon societies created sites of resistance, outside the juridical logic of global empire.
The winner of our inaugural prize in Historical Fiction is Zachary Partnoy, for his story, “Thomas Nast Finally Sets the Story Straight on the Capture of Boss Tweed.” The judges, acclaimed fiction writers all, praised the “strong, confident, succinct voice” that is present in the story, as well as its “effective pacing and characterization.”
Congratulations to our winners, and to all of our entries; we received many outstanding applications! And many thanks to Sarah Balakrishnan, Katharine Dubois, and Mesha Maren-Hogan for agreeing to judge the historical fiction prize.
