The Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award was established to honor teachers of history who taught, guided, and inspired their students in a way that changed their lives. Mentoring is as important to the discipline of history as fine scholarship and good teaching. The ideal mentor is forthright, supportive, and constructively critical, committed to the student as a person, regardless of age or career goals.
While it is difficult to formulate a precise definition of this multifaceted process, there are some essential elements:
- belief in the value of the study of history and commitment to and love of teaching it to students regardless of age or career goals
- consistent personal commitment by the mentor to the student as a person
- honesty and integrity of the mentor
- mentor’s contribution to the process of mentoring as a one-to-one partnership in learning that is comfortable to both, that is likely to endure and develop beyond the initial context as each learns from, gives to, and shares with the other, enriching both professional and personal lives
The Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award is given on a three-year cycle: graduate mentors (including combined graduate and undergraduate teaching); secondary school teachers, and undergraduate mentors (both two-and four-year colleges). The 2025 award is for secondary school teachers.
The current prize amount is $1,000.
Application Process
Log into your MY AHA account at historians.org/myaha and click “Available Application Forms” in the AHA Awards, Grants, and Jobs section. If you don’t have an account, create one for free at historians.org/createaccount. If nominating someone else, select the Nominate button and search for the nominee’s existing record or create a new record.
- Fill in the application form, which includes the nominee’s contact information.
- Upload an Application Packet as a single PDF. Include the following documents:
- CV (up to 5 pages) highlighting educational experience, teaching, and advocacy of the nominee
- Nomination letters (3 letters, no more than 3 pages each). These letters can be from students, former students, parents, colleagues, and others. There is no set proportion or formula on the “right” mix of letters. Multiple signatories on each letter are acceptable. The letters can be included in the application packet or solicited through the application form.
Generally, one individual serves as the organizer for the nomination, writes one of the letters nominating the individual, procures the nominee’s CV (condenses to 5-page limit as necessary), and contacts individuals to write additional letters of support.
Please Note: The competition will open in mid-March. Entries must be received by May 30, 2025, to be eligible for the 2025 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2025 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2026 AHA annual meeting in Chicago.
For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.
Nancy Lyman Roelker
Nancy Lyman Roelker (1915–93) was professor emerita at Boston University. She supervised, both officially and informally, many graduate students at Harvard, Tufts, Boston University, Brown, and Stanford, becoming over a period of 30 years a mentor to several generations of scholars. As a testimonial to her inspirational influence, the Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award was endowed by friends, colleagues, and former students on the occasion of her 75th birthday.
Past Recipients
Current Recipient
Susan Pedersen, Columbia University
Susan Pedersen’s graduate students and colleagues agree that she is a gifted, generous, and gracious mentor. A superb undergraduate lecturer who readily offers engaged office hours to freshmen and seniors alike, her originality as a graduate instructor truly sets her apart. She is the moving spirit behind the New York–Cambridge Training Collaboration in Twentieth-Century British History, a program known for its rigor and intellectual openness. Her mentorship of early career scholars has been invaluable, especially since she is especially attuned to their individual needs. Her students seek her advice concerning their forthcoming publications for decades after attending her graduate seminar. In sum, she is an astute presence across their entire careers as historians.