A Note from the Editor

By: Avery Calvert, University of North Alabama

Welcome to the second edition of The Willingham! Last academic year, the History Graduate Student Association (HGSA) restarted as a way for the history graduate students at the University of North Alabama (UNA) to connect with one another. On May 1st of last year, we published the first edition of The Willingham. Although we had never worked on a publication before, we created a magazine with the hope that future students would continue our work and grow our organization.

At the beginning of the academic year, our organization created goals, which included expanding our magazine and engaging with our online history community more. Throughout the year, our members have surpassed the goals set at the beginning of the year. To expand The Willingham, this edition includes the first “Undergraduate Corner” of our magazine. This section features an article from one of the excellent undergraduates in the UNA History Department. We hope that our undergraduates can engage with our graduate students to foster an encouraging environment throughout the department. To engage with our online community, we raised our followers from under 100 to over 130 on Instagram throughout this academic year. By following local historical sites and museums, we engaged with our community and shared the incredible work being done by our members. We hope to engage with our community even more in the future.

The theme of the second edition of The Willingham is “Turning Points in History: People, Places, and Ideas.” This edition features works from six different universities across the United States. Through reading this edition, we hope that our readers see the way history has been shaped through crucial turning points.

Overall, I would like to thank several people for their hard work and dedication. Thank you to the editorial board: Micki, Aubrey, Garrett, and Jessie. Thank you all for always going with all my crazy ideas and helping to make them work! Also thank you to all our members: David, Kurt, Kristy, and Stephanie. Thank you all for your hard work! Thank you to the UNA History Department for all of your support. Finally, thank you to our advisor, Dr. Dempsey for your guidance. We all worked incredibly hard on this magazine and I hope it was as great an experience for all of you as it was for me!