Seniors in the Independent History Research (IHR) Fellowship program presented their research at the second annual IHR Symposium, Agency, Resilience, and Community: Sourcing Voices from the Past. The event included a gallery exhibition of ongoing research from junior fellows and formal presentations and panel discussions from senior fellows on their final research papers.

Dr. Sandra Smith, Spence History teacher and IHR faculty lead, opened the event remarking on what makes the IHR fellowship program distinctive: “IHR is a unique program and is different from writing a history paper in our history classes. In IHR, fellows learn how to conduct historical research using archives or source repositories. By partnering with several archives in the city over the past couple of years, we have figured out how to emphasize this approach even more.”

Eleven seniors presented their final findings to an audience of families, faculty, and peers. Organized into three categories—cultural history, local history, foreign policy and international policies, and women’s history—fellows’ topics of research included colonial Korea’s use of education as a tool for subjugation, the problematic language used to describe the Tulsa race massacre in 1921, the experience of black women in the great migration, and more. Individual presentations were followed by panel discussions moderated by IHR fellows. 

In her closing remarks, Director of Curriculum Michele Murphy shared what she had learned from IHR students’ observations about the program. “One student was inspired to learn more after working on a project in tenth grade. She said, ‘From that moment, I knew I would love to delve deeper into the topic when I applied to IHR.’ And then through her work in IHR, like lungs contracting and expanding, she narrowed her focus, refined her questions, and then looked for the larger implications of what she had discovered.”

Devin B. - “Rewriting America: How Second Generation Jewish Immigrants in New York City Transformed ”

Zoe D.B. - “Trailblazers: Black Women Pioneers of the First Great Migration”

Olivia D. - “Gardiner’s Island: A Tale of Land, Lore, and Deeds”

Hudson F. - “Education in Colonial Korea: A Tool for Subjugation”

Caroline G. - “Pointing Fingers: Radio Free Europe and the Hungarian Revolt of 1956”

Noa G. - “Despair Turns to Hope: Displaced Persons Following World War II”

Ada L. - “Riot or Massacre?: Reframing the Horrific Events of Tulsa, 1921”

Annika M. - “Scraping Away Simple Stories: The Representation of South Asians in American Media in Chronological Relation to the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act”

Izzy S. - “Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome: The Stage as a Sanctuary for Jewish Stories”

Amara S. - “Without Informed Consent: Mexican American Women’s Struggle for Reproductive Rights During the 1970s”

Livia Y. - “Being a Lesbian When the Term Was New: Women Navigating Love Bonds and Building Community, 1900-1940s”

About the IHR Fellowship
The Independent History Research Fellowship program is a two-year commitment open to rising juniors that offers students an opportunity to research a topic of their own choosing under the direction and guidance of members of the History Department. Guided by The Spence School History Department’s Transfer Goals, the purpose of the program is for each student to gain a deeper understanding of the historian's craft and to produce an original work of scholarship based on secondary and archival primary source research (at local archives as well as digital collections) that can be submitted for publication (e.g. Concord Review) or competition (e.g. History Day).