CU Denver History Department Alumni, Marina Mecham, graduated from our MA History Program in 2016. Mecham is now a PhD student at Indiana University Bloomington focusing on Middle Eastern History. We are excited to announce that she has received two summer research fellowships, the Ruth Lilly Research Fellowship and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. The Ruth Lilly Research Fellowship will fund Mecham's travels to Durban, South Africa from June 13th to August 10th where she will conduct preliminary dissertation research in Durban and surrounding cities. Mecham's work there will focus on oral histories of abortion in the 1970s under apartheid rule. Additionally, Mecham will be taking an intensive IsiZulu language course for six weeks while in South Africa. This course is paid for by the Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, which is a competitive academic award distributed by the United States Department of Education.

In addition to these fellowships and research opportunities, Mecham has also been appointed to a three person planning committee for the 2020 Paul Lucas Conference. Each year, the Indiana University History Graduate Student Association hosts this conference allowing local and regional scholars to present their research. The conference dates are still to be determined, but they are anticipating spring of 2020. The CU Denver History Department congratulates Mecham for these accomplishments and wishes her well as she begins her dissertation and conference planning.