Two University of Dayton students were awarded 2025 arts and humanities scholarships by the Council on Undergraduate Research, from a total of five U.S. awards.
Savannah “Sam” Smith and Caleb Molseed received awards to support their honors thesis projects from the council’s arts and humanities division, which offers annual scholarships to support undergraduate student research and creative inquiry projects at any stage of development up to and including presentation.
Smith is a senior from Cincinnati with a triple major in German, world language education and history. Her honors thesis looks at how German academic institutions, particularly at the primary and secondary levels, used folklore to perpetuate anti-Semitism during the Third Reich.
Molseed is a senior from Cleveland with a double major in history and English. His honors thesis examines the Stockbridge-Munsee, an Indigenous nation that emerged as a single community from the Stockbridge Mohicans from New York’s Hudson River Valley and the Munsee band of the Lenape from Pennsylvania’s Delaware River region.
“I am so proud of Sam and Caleb for being two of the five students who are receiving CUR Scholarships,” said Danielle Poe, UD College of Arts and Sciences dean. “This is an exceptional honor, as these awards are rare in the arts and humanities, marking their achievement as a true standout on a national level.
“Further, these awards are a powerful testament not only to the excellent work of Sam and Caleb but also to the exceptional quality of scholarship and dedicated mentorship provided by our faculty in the arts and humanities.”
Smith’s topic combines several of her interests, including the Holocaust and folklore, specifically fairy tales. She plans to teach German after graduation and enjoys learning about pedagogy and how it has developed across different cultures throughout history.
Her central question is, how systematic was anti-Semitism in Germany’s schools?
“To what degree were teachers being instructed to use fairy tales and other forms of folklore to underline the ‘danger’ of Jewish populations, if at all?” she said. “Or was it more systemic and teachers were doing this on their own from pre-existing bias? I hope that with the help of pedagogical magazines from Nazi archives in Germany I am able to figure out the answers to these questions.”
Smith did research this summer at archives in Berlin and Köln during her study abroad experience in Germany, where she took intensive German language courses. She received support for her trip to Berlin via the UD Department of Global Languages and Cultures’ Edward L. and Dr. Elke Hatch Assistance Fund for Students of German and the UD Honors program’s Hull International Fellowship.
She plans to use her Council on Undergraduate Research scholarship in December to continue her research at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum archives in Washington, D.C.
“Scholarships like this one allow student scholars to immerse themselves in the target culture while also giving them the opportunity to navigate their research trips all by themselves,” said Oliver Knabe, assistant professor in German studies, who is Smith’s thesis advisor. “That’s what Sam did, and I am extremely proud of her and am looking forward to her finished thesis.”
Molseed is exploring community-building and cross-cultural dialogue among the Stockbridge-Munsee Nation, which was formed during a period of displacement from 1784 to 1856 and led to a thriving entity that preserves the cultural distinctiveness of both peoples.
His research aims to answer the question: What contexts enabled the Stockbridge Mohicans and the Munsee to form a unified nation while maintaining distinctive differences from other Lenape and Mohican groups?
“Throughout my research, I found that overall, many of these groups’ histories focus on violence, broken treaties and hatred,” Molseed said. “But these aren’t the only histories. Just as we use art, food, music and storytelling today to pass the time, celebrate and come together as a community, this must also be true for these Indigenous histories as well.”
Molseed’s project combines historical archive research with literary analysis of Indigenous and colonial texts. He plans to use his Council on Undergraduate Research scholarship to visit the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation and examine treaties, oral histories and cultural artifacts at their archive in Wisconsin.
The project aligns with his career goal to work in museums, cultural institutions or nonprofits focused on public engagement with marginalized historical narratives.
“Caleb has crafted a project that engages with tribal archives and interviews, and in doing so, he will contribute to counternarratives against the erasure of Indigenous presence and their histories of intertribal collaboration from this region,” said Shannon Toll, associate professor and assistant chair of the UD Department of English, who is Molseed’s thesis advisor. “We also had productive conversations concerning how to not only execute archival work but how to approach these histories with respect and care.”
Top photo: Savannah “Sam” Smith
Middle photo: Caleb Molseed