UL Lafayette History Department

Are you a graduate of UL Lafayette’s Public History Program?

Submit your application for Professional Development Grants of up to $750 to support career development opportunities, such as conferences, workshops, or professional certificates! Applications should include the following:

1. One-page proposal
2. A brief budget breakdown
3. Your graduation year
4. CV/Resume

First deadline is July 1, 2026. Send applications to [email protected].

One key takeaway, among many: "Itzkowitz recommends focusing on developing 'communication, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills,' while also learning how to exercise sound judgment — another deeply human skill that he said AI can't replace." As we've said before, these are the things we train our students to do! Be a history major and prepare for the new workforce.

Why the liberal arts can help young Americans prepare for the era of AI The advent of AI puts a premium on developing skills like critical thinking and communication, according to education experts. The liberal arts can help.

Sad news. Our alumnus Ruth Foote has passed away. Ruth left an indelible mark on her community.

We lost Ruth Anita Foote.
We're still trying to make those words feel real.

Ruth was a journalist and a historian — one of the best this place ever produced, and most people never knew the half of it. She co-founded Creole Magazine. She wrote about us when nobody else would. When Clifton Chenier passed, his family asked Ruth to write the King of Zydeco's obituary. That's who she was. When it mattered, you called Ruth.

She spent her life making sure our people made it into the record. She wrote the ending of our Hands of Heritage book. She was a champion for this culture long before it was in style, and she never needed the credit for it.

She was an honoree in our very first book — same book as Bryant Benoit, same book as Lee Allen. All three of them gone now, in one year. This is a major loss. Not for any one of us — for Creole culture, for Acadiana, for everybody coming after who will never get to sit in a room with her. The people who carry this culture are leaving faster than anyone is documenting them. Ruth understood that better than anybody. She spent her whole life fighting it.

We're just glad we didn't wait. She got to hold her flowers. She got to see her name in the book — the same book in Lafayette's time capsule, to be opened in 50 years, then again in 100. Somebody not even born yet will read her name and know she was here. That's all any of this was ever for.

From me, Milton: Ruth was my friend, my hero and my champion before I'd earned one. I'm heartbroken. I lost her, and the culture lost one of its best.

Ruth, thank you. For the words. For the truth (boi did it hurt sometimes). For all of it.

— Milton Arceneaux & [Co-Founder], Creole Culture

This is one from Ruth's book session that we never published. 📸 by Milton Arceneaux

Congratulations to Connor Benoit (MA, 2026), who won the 2026 Jefferson Caffery Research Award at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette! The following is from the University's press release:

Benoit, who earned a master’s degree in history from UL Lafayette this spring, submitted his winning historical research essay last fall as part of the Caffery competition. It is judged by a panel that includes members of the Edith Garland Dupré Library staff.

The Caffery Award is given yearly to an undergraduate or graduate student who conducts scholarly research using primary sources housed in Special Collections at Dupré Library. Special Collections is home to Caffery’s papers and other mementos of his career.

Benoit, who also earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University in 2024, claimed this year’s Caffery Award for “Alexandre Declouet: A Study and Re-examination of Chauvinistic Heritage in Antebellum Louisiana, 1812-1860.” He received a $500 prize for his winning essay.

In it, Benoit examines topics such as slavery, suffrage, the French Creole aristocracy and Creole identity, the American Civil War and Reconstruction. He filtered it all through the life of Declouet, a sugar planter and politician from St. Martin Parish who was born in 1812 and died in 1890.

As Benoit writes in his essay: “Declouet was a product of his cultural heritage. His upbringing and career as a member of the French Creole Aristocracy resulted in his reluctance and negative attitude towards assimilation into the United States. As the country started to drift towards a Civil War, Declouet’s identity as both an isolationist Creole and sugar planter guided his decision-making throughout his career to the eventual secession of the South.”

A key source for Benoit’s project was the Declouet Family Papers, which are housed in Special Collections’ University Archives and Acadiana Manuscripts Collection.

Materials in the library’s Jefferson Caffery Louisiana Room, the Louisiana Collection, the Rare Books Collection, Ernest J. Gaines Center, the Cajun and Creole Music Collection and microforms can also be used for Caffery competition research.

The Caffery Award is provided by a fund established in 1967 by Ambassador and Mrs. Jefferson Caffery. A 1903 graduate of UL Lafayette, Caffery served as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Columbia, Cuba, Brazil, France and Egypt.

Find more information about the Jefferson Caffery Research Award.

Photo caption: Connor Benoit (left) has won the 2026 Jefferson Caffery Research Award at UL Lafayette. Benoit is pictured with Dr. Zack Stein, assistant dean of technical services at the Edith Garland Dupré Library. It is judged by a panel that includes members of the Dupré Library staff. Photo credit: Doug Dugas / University of Louisiana at Lafayette

"Frey said earning a college degree is still worthwhile, as it imparts three core skills in which humans hold a competitive edge over AI: complex social interactions, creativity, and navigating complex environments." Sure, you can learn these things in a lot of places, but it's at college and university, and especially in the humanities and social sciences departments, that students fully develop them through intensive training. Our department is proud to be home to three of these foundational fields of study: history, geography, & philosophy.

Is a college degree still worth it? Here are 3 things it can teach you that AI can’t do | Fortune College can help safeguard employees from having their jobs offshored to India or the Philippines, Carl Benedikt Frey told Fortune.

Congratulations to Drs. Conque and Simpson on winning Research Intensive Semesters for next year!

We are pleased to announce the faculty selected for the College of Liberal Arts Research Intensive Semester program for the 2026–2027 academic year.

The Research Intensive Semester initiative is designed to support faculty scholarship and creative activity by providing dedicated time for sustained research productivity. These projects represent a wide range of disciplines and scholarly approaches across the college and reflect the remarkable intellectual energy of our faculty.

Please join us in congratulating these colleagues on their achievements and in wishing them productive and rewarding research semesters!

Congratulations to Emma Thomas (back row, second from left) for being named the College of Liberal Arts' outstanding graduate for Spring 2026. Thomas, of Metairie, has also been named our department's Outstanding Graduate, as well as winner of the W. Magruder Drake Senior Award for Excellence in History, the Guilbeau/Cusimano Award for Best Undergraduate Paper in History, and the Charles B. Allen Award for Contributions to Phi Alpha Theta and the History, Geography, & Philosophy Department.

Read more about Thomas’s outstanding work at the Outstanding Graduates announcement page: https://louisiana.edu/news/eight-ul-lafayette-students-recognized-spring-2026-outstanding-graduates

Did you know that History majors at UL Lafayette graduate with less debt than students from any other degree program? That's according to the Department of Education's College Scorecard website. https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?160658-University-of-Louisiana-at-Lafayette

“I think it’s communication, it’s critical thought. The fundamentals of a liberal education are probably more important than learning how to code in Java right now.”

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-05-05/college-students-are-in-search-of-ai-proof-majors