Oklahoma Historical Society Awards and Honors
Linda Williams Reese Award
Outstanding Dissertation or Thesis on Oklahoma History
This award recognizes outstanding dissertations or theses on Oklahoma history completed during the previous year. The Oklahoma Historical Society has recognized dissertations and theses since 1993. In 2021, the distinction was officially named the Linda Williams Reese Award. The awardee receives $500 and a plaque of recognition.
View the nomination form (PDF)
| Year | Title | Author | University and Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | “Indian Removal and the Native Nations of Northeast Oklahoma” | Sheldon Yeakley | Oklahoma State University, 2024 (dissertation) |
| 2023 | “‘The Modern Frontier’: Oklahoma Settler Memory in the mid-Twentieth Century” | Martha Beliveau | University of Oklahoma, 2023 (dissertation) |
| 2022 | “Gathering Around a New Fire: The Bemo Family, Interracial Marriage, Race, and Power in the Mvskoke Nation, 1870–1897” | Michelle M. Martin | University of New Mexico, 2022 (dissertation) |
| 2020 | “Pei on the Prairie: Urban Renewal in Oklahoma City, 1960–1990” | Zachary A. Anderson | University of Central Oklahoma, 2021 (dissertation) |
| 2019 | “Culture on the Prairie: Celebrating Oklahoma’s Art Museums and Their Contributors in the Twentieth Century” | Bradley Fritch | University of Central Oklahoma, 2020 (thesis) |
| 2018 | “The Frontiers of Science Foundation: Transforming Math and Science Curricula in Oklahoma Secondary Schools, 1957–1964” | Rick Moore | Oklahoma State University, 2018 (dissertation) |
| 2017 | “The Race of Races: Ethnicity, Gender, Class, and Performance in Pawnee Bill’s Wild West” | Alyce Webb | Oklahoma State University, 2018 (dissertation) |
| 2016 | “Scandal and Reform: A Historical Study of Corruption and Reform in Oklahoma’s Court System, 1956–1967” | Lee Card | University of Oklahoma, 2016 (dissertation) |
| 2015 | “Playing Between the Lines: An Examination of Negro League Baseball in Oklahoma, 1892 to 1965” | Willard Jacob Cornwell | Oklahoma State University, 2016 (thesis) |
| 2014 | “A Mansion at the Athens of Indian Territory: Hunter’s Home, 1845–1991” | Jennifer Michelle Frazee | Northeastern State University, 2015 (thesis) |
| 2013 | “Make Us Independent: The Education of Young Men at the Cherokee Male Seminary, 1851–1910” | Natalie Panther | Oklahoma State University, 2013 (dissertation) |
| 2013 | “The Big Break: Race and Gender in Pawnee Bill’s Wild West, 1888–1913” | Alyce Vigil | University of Central Oklahoma, 2013 (thesis) |
| 2012 | “Resources, Radicals, and Reactionaries: The First Red Scare in Oklahoma” | Michael Molina | University of Central Oklahoma, 2013 (thesis) |
| 2011 | “The Grumpy Old Man from Tulsa: R. A. Lafferty’s Literary Critique of Twentieth-Century American Progress” | Michael Joslin | Northeastern State University, 2012 (thesis) |
| 2010 | “The Latinization of Oklahoma: Case Studies on Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Guymon” | Jeffrey Michael Widener | University of Oklahoma, 2011 (thesis) |
| 2009 | “Saving Oklahoma: Redirecting Rural Education to Save Oklahoma’s Agrarian Ideal, 1907–1917” | Mark Allen Dolph | University of Tulsa, 2010 (thesis) |
| 2008 | “Music Heard Deeply: Song and Ethic Interaction in the Cherokee Ozarks” | J. Justin Castro | University of Central Oklahoma, 2008 (thesis) |
| 2007 | “Yìsaùm: Parker McKenzie’s Double Vision of Kiowa Culture and Language” | Thomas F. Roy | University of Oklahoma, 2007 (dissertation) |
| 2007 | “‘A Giant in Oklahoma Politics and Public Service’: The Political Life of Helen Cole, 1960–2004” | Julie Bennett-Jones | University of Central Oklahoma, 2007 (thesis) |
| 2006 | “Oscar Brousse Jacobson: A Swedish Immigrant Who Dramatically Changed Art Perception in Oklahoma” | Anne E. N. Allbright | University of Central Oklahoma, 2007 (thesis) |
| 2005 | “Cherokee Families: Cultural Resilience during the Allotment Era” | Rose Stremlau | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2005 (dissertation) |
| 2005 | “A Place to Call Home: A Study of the Self-Segregated Community of Tatums, Oklahoma, 1894–1970” | Rhonda M. Ragsdale | University of North Texas, 2006 (thesis) |
| 2004 | “Civilized Scribes: Voices of Opinion in the Choctaw Press, 1849–1852” | Richard Mize | University of Central Oklahoma, 2004 (thesis) |
| 2003 | “Race, Identity, Citizenship, and Land: The African-Creek Experience in the Indian Territory and Oklahoma, 1830–1910“ | Gary Zellar | University of Arkansas Fayetteville, 2003 (dissertation) |
| 2003 | “Three Prominent African-American Women Activists: Horton, Jacobson, and Houston, 1892–1945” | Helen M. Stiefmiller | University of Central Oklahoma, 2003 (thesis) |
| 2002 | “Labor Relations in Oklahoma’s Oil Industry from the International Workers of the World to the Mid-Continent Refinery Strike” | Diane M. Rubey | Northeastern State University, 2002 (thesis) |
| 2001 | “Choosing to Run: The Dynamics of Candidate Emergence in the State Legislature of Oklahoma” | Jeffrey W. Birdsong | University of Oklahoma, 2001 (dissertation) |
| 2001 | “A Socioeconomic Analysis of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1940–1980” | Amanda Coleman | Oklahoma State University, 2001 (thesis) |
| 2000 | “Cherokees Watching: Indian Autonomy and American Culture, 1839–1900” | Andrew Denson | Indiana University, 2000 (dissertation) |
| 2000 | “The Tulsa Liquor Conspiracy” | Tom Easley | University of Central Oklahoma, 2000 (thesis) |
| 1999 | “Douglas Henry Johnston and the Chickasaw Nation, 1898–1939” | Michael W. Lovegrove | University of Oklahoma, 1999 (dissertation) |
| 1999 | “‘It’s Mattress Making Time Again’: Remaking Farm Life from Urban Images, 1925–1940” | Jana S. Vogt | University of Oklahoma, 1999 (thesis) |
| 1998 | “Ordering the Elements: An Environmental History of West Central Oklahoma, 1889–1914” | Bonnie Lynn-Sherow | Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1998 (dissertation) |
| 1997 | “Separation of Church and Slate: A History of Religion in Oklahoma’s Public Schools” | John Little | University of Central Oklahoma, 1997 (thesis) |
| 1997 | “Wild Cat’s Bones: Seminole Leadership in a Seminole Cosmos” | Susan A. Miller | University of Nebraska, 1997 (dissertation) |
| 1996 | “Free Homes: David L. Payne and the Oklahoma Boomer Movement, 1879–1884” | Michael W. Lovegrove | University of Oklahoma, 1996 (thesis) |
| 1996 | “Contested Territory: Whites, Native Americans, and African Americans, 1865–1907” | Murray R. Wickett | University of Toronto, 1996 (dissertation) |
| 1995 | “The Desert Myth: The Great Plains Environment and Depression America” | Brad Lookingbill | University of Toledo, 1995 (dissertation) |
| 1994 | “The Impact of the New Deal on the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma: How Significant Was It?” | Timothy Posey | Oklahoma State University, 1994 (thesis) |
| 1994 | “Oil, Wheat, and Wobblies: The Industrial Workers of the World in Oklahoma” | Nigel Sellars | University of Oklahoma, 1994 (dissertation) |
| 1993 | “‘To Change Them Forever’: Schooling on the Kiowa-Comanche Reservation, 1869–1920” | Clyde Ellis | Oklahoma State University, 1993 (dissertation) |
