Graduate student Jama Grove has won the 2017 National Society of the Colonial Dames of America Regional History Award. Grove is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History and is also a pursuing a graduate certificate in African and African American Studies.

The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America Regional History Award is awarded to the best doctoral student in American history in the state of Arkansas.The award, which comes with a cash prize of $5,000 to support the student's academic career, was established by the National Society of the Colonial Dames to further an appreciation of American national heritage through historic preservation, patriotic service, and educational projects.Representatives of the Arkansas Chapter of the Colonial Dames presented Grove with her award on campus on November 7, 2017.

Grove's dissertation, "The Farmers' Federation: Regional Racial Mythologies as Agricultural Capital," explores the role that small agricultural producers in the early twentieth century had in creating racial ideologies and "myths," essentially white-washing their histories to eliminate African American voices and histories. She looks specifically at this process in Western North Carolina, especially the area around Asheville, where the Farmers' Federation leveraged Asheville's reputation as a tourism mecca.

Fulbright College also recognized Grove earlier this year as the winner of the 2017 J. Hillman Yowell Award for Excellence in Teaching by a graduate assistant.

About the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with 19 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students and is named for J. William Fulbright, former university president and longtime U.S. senator.

About the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America: The society is dedicated to furthering an appreciation of our national heritage through historic preservation, patriotic service and educational projects. The society was founded in 1891 as an unincorporated association of Corporate Societies. Today, the non-profit Societies are in 44 states and include almost 16,000 members nationwide. Since its inception, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America has been devoted to the preservation of the values that inspired the founders of our country in the Colonial period.For more information, see http://www.nscda.org