EWU History Students Present Research at Conference

Students from the Eastern Washington University history program presented their research at the 2025 Phi Alpha Theta Northwest Regional Conference, hosted by the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana.

Seven undergraduate and four graduate students, along with four professors, represented EWU at the conference, held March 27–29.

Phi Alpha Theta is a national history honor society with 970 chapters and over 400,000 members nationwide. The conference brought together students from 30 different universities. All presented original research papers developed through their coursework.

“I am incredibly proud of all of our students who participated in the conference, one of them, Amanda Watson, even coming all the way from Ohio,” says Joseph Lenti, professor of history.

Among the standout presentations was a paper by undergraduate history major Preston Dyess, who received the Harry Fitz Prize for Best Undergraduate Paper.

Dyess’s paper was selected from among 65 undergraduate entries and will now be submitted for prize consideration at the Phi Alpha Theta national conference.

The paper, Into Eternity: Legacy of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion, explores the historical legacy of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion (Batallón de San Patricio), a group of Irish Catholic soldiers who deserted the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War.

Dyess’s work was one of many high-quality presentations by EWU students at the conference, with other subjects ranging from the contested legacy of Hannah Duston, the first women to be publicly commemorated in the U.S, to the counterfactual origins of the myth of the Bermuda Triangle. Some students presented work developed in Lenti’s winter quarter History of Mexico class, while others adapted papers written for previous courses.

Officers of the EWU Phi Alpha Theta chapter and its co-advisors, Lenti and Bill Youngs, who is also an EWU professor of history, dedicated long hours to helping students prepare, including coordinating the writing, revising, and presentation of their papers.

“In all cases, everyone worked extremely hard in developing their papers, extensively revising them, and fine-tuning their presentations prior to delivering them at the conference in Missoula,” Lenti says.

For most of the students, it was their first time presenting at a professional academic conference. Lenti expressed gratitude to Youngs, department chair Julia Smith, and department administrator Heather Harmon for their support in making the experience possible.

“We represented EWU very well as the largest contingent at the conference,” Lenti says.