NSCDA-IL Presents Award for Graduate Study in American History | 2020

Every year, the Illinois Society's Patriotic Service Committee screens graduate degree candidates for our Graduate Study in American History Award. From an ever- expanding pool of applicants we recognize academic excellence, honoring an exceptional scholar with an award of $3,000 to further assist with academic pursuit. This annual award recognizes a well-deserving student of American History with great potential and scholastic merit.

In the 2019-2020 year, five candidates for doctorates in History applied for this Award, a record number of applicants. Two doctoral candidates were from Northwestern University, two were from Loyola University and the fifth was from University of Illinois at Chicago. This year, the Patriotic Service Committee has selected Alana Toulin of Northwestern University to receive the Award. Ms. Toulin plans to complete her dissertation this summer. She describes her topic as follows:

My dissertation, "Open Tables: Restaurants and Reform in Progressive Chicago," considers restaurants as contentious spaces where larger debates about gender, class, race and ethnicity, public health, and the role of the state were carried out between the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the 18th Amendment.

How prescient her topic seems as we stand today in the middle of a global pandemic, which has hit the City of Chicago particularly hard. In addition to our admiration for soon-to-be Dr. Toulin, the Ilinois Society notes how it has positioned itself during this tumultuous period - unable to meet together in person, we find ways to join together, with resilience, entrusted with history's future.