KU News Release

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas junior majoring in history is one of 30 students in the nation selected for an intensive one-week program at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City.

Hannah N. Ballard received a $1,500 scholarship to attend a Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Program to be held June 12-19. The Wellington High School graduate is the daughter of Joe Ballard of Wellington and Sharon Ballard of Winfield.

Ballard hopes to utilize her time in New York to begin research for an honor’s thesis in history that she will write during the upcoming academic year.

“Hannah Ballard is an excellent ambassador for KU’s history department,” said her honors thesis adviser, Jonathan Earle, associate professor of history. “She will meet fantastic scholars in New York and get a head start on her archival research for her thesis.”

Ballard plans to select an aspect of the religious revivals and reform movements of the 19th century, also known as the Second Great Awakening, as a thesis topic. She is interested in how that period created a reformative spirit among the middle class as the nation’s population expanded and moved west. The period saw a rise in evangelism as well as social activism that produced movements for abolition, temperance and suffrage, and advocates for reform of prisons, care for the handicapped and mentally ill.

“I find it particularly interesting how Americans have utilized religion, expansion and gender norms to define themselves as distinct from other groups of people,” said Ballard.

Ballard said she has loved history since middle school and that her ultimate goal is to earn a doctorate and teach at the university level.

Ballard is in the University Honors Program and has received the Edith M. Clarke Scholarship for outstanding juniors in the history department and the Harley S. Nelson Scholarship.

The week-long Gilder Lehrman program fosters an interest in American history through field trips, discussions with professionals about careers for history majors and lectures by leading scholars such as David Brion Davis, Christopher Leslie Brown and Pauline Maier.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization improving and enriching American history education through programs and resources for students, teachers, scholars and history enthusiasts throughout the nation. To find out more, visit gilderlehrman.org.