History Majors Receive Top Academic Awards

This spring, three Stonehill College history majors received distinguished honors from the May School of Arts & Sciences in recognition of their outstanding academic achievements. 

Zachary Martins ’26

Zachary Martins ’26 received the Peter R. D’Agostino Prize for Excellence in History for his senior thesis, "The Great Bronze Age Reset: A New Narrative of Collapse in the Late Bronze Age." The award was established in honor of a faculty member from Stonehill’s Departments of History and Religious Studies who passed away in 2005.

Martins’ work offers a revisionist account of the “Bronze Age Collapse,” which devastated the eastern Mediterranean world between the 13th and 11th centuries B.C.E. Focusing on several civilizations in the region, Martins argues that what took place might more accurately be considered a reset. While some civilizations did indeed collapse, others survived by evolving and adapting to new circumstances and conditions.

"Zach channels a unique passion for history, combined with curiosity, humor and a prodigious memory. His thesis is a bold reinterpretation of the Bronze Age transformation and carries strong relevance for global crises in the contemporary world," said Associate Professor of History David Sander, who served as Martins’ thesis advisor.

Keith Shaheen ’26

Keith Shaheen ’26, who majored in both history and secondary education, received Stonehill’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Secondary Education. 

Professor of History Shane Maddock, who served as Shaheen’s thesis advisor, reflected on the recent graduate’s scholarly aptitude. 

"Keith demonstrated early on his potential to be a skilled researcher, especially in a paper on the Iranian Hostage Crisis he wrote during his junior year,” he said. “In his senior thesis, he looked backward from the hostage crisis and carefully weighed evidence from an array of primary sources to craft a persuasive argument that the roots of U.S. failures in Iran predated Jimmy Carter’s ascension to the presidency in 1977. He concludes that Carter’s predecessors as president gave such generous and unquestioned support to the Shah that they left Carter with few options to salvage U.S.-Iranian relations after the 1979 revolution in that country."

Nicholas Tarquinio ’26

Nicholas Tarquinio ’26 received the Thomas C. Clarke Award, which honors a graduating history major who demonstrates a commitment to the study of history, the principles of liberal arts education, and the mission and values of Stonehill. This prize is named after a retired professor who graduated from Stonehill during the institution’s early years. 

Tarquinio served as president of the Stonehill History Society, the Stonehill College Democrats and the Creative Writing Club. A Moreau Honors Scholar, he also was an altar server for Campus Ministry and a member of the Stonehill College Gaming Club. 

"Nicholas Tarquinio is a more-than-worthy recipient of the Thomas J. Clarke Award," said John Rodrigue, Stonehill’s Lawrence and Theresa Salameno Professor of History and Tarquinio’s academic advisor. "His record of both academic excellence and service to the College perfectly exemplifies the award’s defining principles. Whatever the academic subject matter or task at hand, Nick combined his dedication to scholarly inquiry with his commitment to his fellow students and to the mission of the College."