Six History Students Present Research at Regional Conference

Six students from the Department of History, Geography, & Philosophy shared their research at the 2026 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Regional Meeting of Louisiana Chapters, March 6-7, 2026.

Undergraduate History majors presenting at the conference were Ethan Campisi, “Assimilationist Athletics: Indigenous Football and Masculinity at the Chemawa Indian School”; McKenna Schoeffler, “Names in Stone, Voices in History: Remembering Japanese American Soldiers and Their Families at Home”; and Emma Thomas, “The Racialized Construction of Chess Culture in the United States.” History master’s students presenting included Mary H. Baudoin, “Between Promise and Reality: The Louisiana Road Home Program and the Struggle to Return After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita”; Ezra Jett, “The Llano Way: Ideology in the New Llano Cooperative Colony, 1917-1938”; and Morgan E. Pierce, “Governors at Odds: Vigilantism, Authority, and Unionism in Civil War Louisiana.”

UL Lafayette’s Epsilon-Xi chapter of Phi Alpha Theta hosted the regional meeting, which featured twenty-nine student presentations from across the state, including Loyola University New Orleans, McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, LSU-Shreveport, Tulane University, and the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, is a professional society whose mission is to promote the study of history through the encouragement of research, good teaching, publication, and the exchange of learning and ideas among historians. It seeks to bring students and teachers together for intellectual and social exchanges, which promote and improve historical research and publication by members in a variety of ways.