Rachel Bram ’20 is currently a graduate student in the Dual Degree program at Simmons University for a Masters in Library Science: Archival Management as well as in History. Rachel hopes to become an archivist, making history accessible to all with an interest. At Lafayette, Rachel double majored in History and Religious Studies. In her senior year, Rachel won the department’s best thesis award for “Unsanctioned Slave Revolts of the Civil War: How Enslaved People Destroyed Slavery and Emancipated Themselves,” under the guidance of Professor Jeremy Zallen. She also won the Class of 1910 Award, the Colonel Wilson B. Powell ’32 Award, and the Ludwig and Beatrice B. Muhlfelder Prize.
The Lafayette History Department was so crucial not only to my development as a scholar, but also as a person living in a society. Every professor challenged me intellectually, but also had so much kindness and understanding when I struggled.I use the lessons I learned from this department in my graduate school studies all the time – whether it is a historical detail I remember from a specific class, a new way of thinking about history I learned from a particular professor, or even just something the discipline of history can share with everyone.