Professor Orville Jaebker
1921-2008

The Jaebker Fellowship is a highly-competitive annual award, presented to the author of the outstanding History Department Senior Thesis proposal. The recipient may spend that money both on research and on expenses related to attending conferences. To date the winners of the Award have been:

• 2010: William Warwick – to conduct research on Labor Rights.
• 2011: Rachel Lawrence – to finance her research trips in Rumania, where she conducted research on Vlad Dracul, the original real-life inspiration of the Dracula story.
• 2012: Jillian Smith – to finance her research on World War One textbooks.
• 2013: Shannon Young – to finance her research on the Cathars.
• 2014: Rebecca Denne – to finance her research on American Genealogy.
• 2015: Jessica Newell – to finance her research on Nineteenth-century Spiritualism as an Alternative Religious Movement
• 2016: Lydia Crain – to finance her research on Depictions of Women on American Currency
• 2017: Elizabeth Niedbala – to finance her research on the Origins and Influence of Film Noir
• 2018: Sylvia Mcfadden – to finance her research on 20th century European wars
• 2019: Hannah Myers – to finance her research on Evansville and Prohibition
• 2020: COVID
• 2021: Kenlea Meeker – to finance her research on the KKK in Southern Illinois
• 2022: Katie Fox – to finance her research on the Impact of the AIDS epidemic on Indiana
• 2023: No Award

The fellowship is in memory and honor of Orville Jaebker, a professor who first came to the University of Evansville in 1952. Jaebker was a distinguished scholar and teacher who filled many roles at the University and who served the history department as chair for many years