Three graduate students in the Department of History have been selected to receive Phi Beta Kappa - Northern California Association (PBKNCA) scholarships in 2024. This is the first time that three students from one department have received the award, and the first time history students have received the award. Taylor Black, Louise Brandt and Yutong Zhang are the three 2024 awardees. The $10,000 scholarships are awarded annually.

Taylor Black is in the fifth year of the history Ph.D. and was inducted into PBK at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

Black's dissertation, "Between Faith and Force: Black Army Chaplains in the Age of Empire, 1865-1914," focuses on Black intellectual projects and military service at a critical moment in the history of emancipation and race relations in the United States. In it he considers how religious traditions forged in slavery times in the United States continued to shape people's desires, politics, and imaginations after slavery ended in 1865. The work's interdisciplinary focus on religious culture is a fruitful intervention into the wave of scholarship aiming to uncover the politics of freed people from the local to the transnational level, especially as they intersect with issues of colonialism and imperialism in the nineteenth century.

Louisa Brandt is in the fourth year of the history Ph.D. and was inducted into PBK here at UC Davis. 

In "A Full Measure of Devotion: California's Exceptional Commitment to the Union during the Civil War," Louise argues that the Civil War caused Californians, who had focused more on their Gold Rush economy during the first dozen years of the state's existence, to take a stand on the national issue of slavery and their relationship to the nation. Consulting diaries, letters, newspaper articles, and records of community organizations, she examines what ordinary people thought about the war, while taking into consideration issues of race, gender, and nationalism. California's place in the United States often continues to seem separate from the rest of the country. The Civil War can be a lens to understand how Californians came to define themselves as integral to, but distinct from, the nation.

Yutong Zhan is in the fourth year of the history PhD and was inducted into PBK at the College of William and Mary. Zhan received the PBKNCA Norall Family Scholarship.

Yutong's dissertation examines interactions between native Hawaiians and Chinese immigrants in the production and consumption of rice and taro in Hawai'i from the 1850s to the 1930s. Bridging Native American history and Asian American history, it brings insight into the complexities of U.S. colonial power and ongoing struggles for Indigenous food sovereignty. By teasing out the social networks between Chinese immigrants and Indigenous peoples, it will fill the gap of Indigenous history in the field of Asian American history.

About the PBKNCA Scholarships

The PBKNCA Graduate Scholarships are offered annually. Applicants must be graduate students in any discipline who are members of Phi Beta Kappa. The application process for UC Davis graduate students will be announced in December on the UC Davis Phi Beta Kappa website.