Adrian College Student Wins Military History Prize posted 4/8/10
Senior Amanda Liske recognized for WWII paper

ADRIAN, Mich. - On Saturday, March 27, 2010, the Alpha Beta Delta Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta (the National History Honors Society) hosted the Phi Alpha Theta Michigan Regional Conference at Western Michigan University. Adrian College is pleased to announce that senior Amanda Liske not only attended this prestigious conference but won an award.

Liske took home the “Military History Prize” for her paper based on her grandfather’s letters to his wife during WWII. Liske’s grandfather was drafted in1942, soon after he and her grandmother were married. He sent her grandmother letters during the three years he was at war and she saved them all. Liske found the letters last summer and began reading them as well as researching some of the information they contained.

Liske was excited to hear that her paper had been honored.

“I think it’s a good accomplishment for me to be recognized for the hard work as well as the topic as it is personal to me,” she said.

In her paper, Liske talks a lot about a “point system” in which her grandfather mentions quite a few times throughout his letters.

“Many people know very little about this topic and it’s very difficult to find any research on it,” she said. “According to my grandfather’s letters and what little information I have found on the subject, soldiers could earn points and that’s how it was determined who was sent home and when.”

The Phi Alpha Theta Michigan Regional Conference included three sessions, each consisting of five panels, and featured research papers by 41 undergraduate and graduate students from 11 colleges and universities in five states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio).

These panels ranged widely in subject, geography, and chronological scope and panels included such diverse topics as revolutions, Native American cultural interchange, Great Lakes regional studies, kingship and queenship, women's reform movements in the 19th century, special populations in changing times, diplomacy and conflict, 19th century U.S. reform, biographical history, issues in African history, gender in history, European racial and ethnic tensions, the Second World War, religion in history and historiography, and labor history. 

Each panel was chaired by faculty members from Western Michigan University, Oakland University, Northern Michigan University, University of Michigan-Flint, Eastern Michigan University, and Carroll University.

Amanda Liske, who is from Oak Harbor, Ohio, will graduate from Adrian College this May with a double major in history and political science. She plans to attend the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, studying in library and information sciences specializing in archival records management.