Congratulations to the 2025 History Writing Prize Winners!

The History Faculty is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 History Undergraduate Writing Prizes, honoring excellence in historical research and writing. The two awards, of $300 each, honor MIT historians John W. Dower, Pauline Maier, and Bruce Mazlish.

This year’s recipients are:

Sophie Thompson ’26
Title: Censorship, Systemic Problems, and the Symptoms of the 1917 Russian Revolution
Course: 21H.244 – Imperial and Revolutionary Russia: Culture and Politics, 1700-1917

Feli Xiao ’26
Title: The Vulnerable Body: Gender, Race, Religion & the Colonial Claim to Protection
Class: 21H.358 – Colonialism in South Asia and Africa: Race, Gender, Resistance