This spring demonstrated the remarkable resilience and commitment of our graduate students. These terrific professionals suddenly managed to also become expert teachers in a new format. At the end of spring break, they worked with their faculty members not only to become remote-learning students, but also to acquire new skills at break-neck speed to become instructors in online courses. They have our sincere thanks. Thanks, too, to our own Garrett Wright, Gabriel Moss, and Emma Rothberg of the Digital History Lab, whose expertise helped many instructors with this transition.
The novel coronavirus has made life much more challenging for our graduate students. It not only brought new demands on teaching and learning, but it also made their research significantly harder. The library closed without warning, leaving many without the materials they needed to continue their work. Thanks to the Deans of the Graduate School and the Library, some students were able to retrieve some of their books and papers from carrels. The prestigious grants they won have been deferred, the archives and libraries they needed to use have been closed, and the travel for research they had planned has become impossible. It will take them longer to complete the graduate program as they and their families struggle in a time of disease, economic recession, and political resistance.
Spring is a time of transition. Thanks go to outgoing Graduate History Society co-presidents Lucas Kelley and Max Lazar, and to all of the other GHS officers. Incoming co-presidents will be Emma Rothberg and Sarah Miles. We will also be welcoming 19 new graduate students to our program in August.
We were very sad not to be able to celebrate the end of the year and the amazing accomplishments of our new graduates. I have included a list of graduates and the awards they won during their time at UNC, a list that should have been included in the brochure that would have been distributed during the university graduation celebrations. We managed only a brief online thank you and farewell to acknowledge their hard work and scholarship, hoping there will be a huge celebration in the very near future.