Murray State University History Department

10/13/2026

History Club is the student organization for anyone who loves history. Members may come from any major! We participate in campus and public history projects, field trips, movie nights, game nights, and other casual social gatherings. Our mission is to make history interesting and accessible to everyone. It isn’t just about textbooks and papers; it’s about the lives and cultures that have shaped our world. We strive to learn about the past and celebrate it.

Phi Alpha Theta is the History Honor Society, which often works with History Club to put on events and activities. To be eligible for PAT membership, you must:

✅ Completed at least 12 credits of History courses (grad, undergrad, dual credit/AP)
✅ Undergraduate Students: Have at least a 3.1 History GPA and a 3.0 overall GPA
✅ Graduate Students: Completed 30% of your MA program and a 3.5 GPA

To learn more about History Club and Phi Alpha Theta,
➡️ Follow them on instagram, they are at Murray State Phi Alpha Theta and History Club
➡️ Join their group on RacerConnect: Phi Alpha Theta/History Club
➡️ Check out their webpage https://tinyurl.com/325ccvus

10/06/2026

Join Murray State Phi Alpha Theta and History Club to help run our table at CHFA at Murray State Monster Mash!

🗓️: October 22
⏰: 9 AM and 2:30 PM
📍: TBC (but usually in the walkway outside Old Fine Arts)

It’s an exciting event with all kinds of goodies for sale, made by our fellow CHFA students. There will be plenty of candy and Halloween spirit, and this is an important fundraiser for the club to be able to take part in more activities!

Please scan the QR code on the graphic or click https://tinyurl.com/8az7dcyw to sign up for a 30 minute volunteer slot!

For more information, contact [email protected]

10/01/2026

Congratulations to History Alum Nick Jackson who passed the Kentucky Bar Exam and accepted a position to start practicing at the Law Offices of Steven K. Deig, LLC, in Evansville! Congratulations Nick!!!

Did you graduate from the Department of History and have professional news to share–please let us know! Send us a message with your updates for us to celebrate!
Murray State Alumni & Friends CHFA at Murray State Murray State University

09/22/2026

Teachers from Ballard, Graves, Hopkins, and Paducah schools joined Murray State pre-service teachers and history dept. faculty to explore the Declaration of Independence at 250! 🇺🇸
From the Declaration’s drafting to social contract theory, comparisons with the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and connections to U.S. women’s history, participants engaged in spirited conversation and practiced strategies like storyboards. We put our historical thinking skills to good use as we ended up with three different ways to tell the story of the Declaration!
CHFA at Murray State Murray State University Murray State Alumni & Friends Graves County High School Paducah Middle School

09/17/2026

Students in HIS 400: Senior Research Seminar recently explore archival material held by the Pogue Library to develop their research projects. The focus for this semester is the History of Death, and students reviewed local cemetery records, artifacts from WWI, accounts of mine disasters, material about the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and regional ghost stories (including paranormal activities on campus!)
CHFA at Murray State Murray State University Murray State Libraries

09/16/2026

Congratulations to the 2026-2027 Department of History Scholarship Awardees! Award winners were recognized at the Easley Lecture last week. Congratulations to everyone who received a scholarship!

James W. Hammack Jr. History Scholarship
Sierra Gee
Matthew Graves
Caroline Mikez
Trenten Moore
Daniel Sandefur
Shane Tanner

Dr. T. Wayne Beasley Memorial History Scholarship
Emma Alexander
Emmalee Knight
Sara Parkerson

Dr. Joe Fuhrmann Memorial Scholarship
Brielle Green
Shelby Howard
Jonathan Phillips
CHFA at Murray State Murray State University

09/15/2026

In addition to giving a great lecture, Dr. Sneff also met with a number of our students during her visit to Murray State. She met with students from Dr. Humphreys’s Early America: From Colonies to Constitution class to talk about her current research project and shared her experiences of transitioning from history student to a history professional with students from Dr. Lindner’s HIS 400: Senior Research Seminar class.
CHFA at Murray State Murray State University

09/15/2026

09/14/2026

Thanks so much to Dr. Emily Sneff for a wonderful lecture “When the Declaration of Independence was News” last week for the 2026 Sid Easley Lecture. Thank you to all of the students, former and current faculty, and community members who attended the talk and asked insightful questions. Thank you to Dr. Humphreys and everyone from the Office of Development for putting the event together, the Easley family for sponsoring the annual talk, all of the students who help out on the night, and the Wrather Museum for the use of the auditorium. This was a great way to recognize the 250th anniversary of the writing, signing, printing, translating and engraving of the Declaration!
CHFA at Murray State Murray State Alumni & Friends Murray State University