Background
Charles Z. Adamson served as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Cleveland for 35 years. A lifelong learner, after his retirement he earned a master’s degree in history from Cleveland State University. The Charles Z. Adamson Memorial Scholarship in Modern European History is awarded annually to the graduate student who wrote the best graduate student research paper on an aspect of European history.
The 2021 Adamson Memorial Scholarship is awarded to Cheyenne Florence for her research ““Je me suis fais avorter”: Placing Abortion in the Public Sphere” in the digital humanities course HIS 555 “Gender in European History.”
Cheyenne Florence, a graduate student at CSU working on a Master’s degree in Museum Studies. She did her undergraduate studies at CSU, completing her degree in three years. From her experience as an undergrad, Cheyenne knew that she wanted to return to the History department for her graduate studies. Her particular interests are in gender history and social history. Once she achieves her Master’s degree, Cheyenne would like to obtain a job in a museum or in public history for a few years, after which she hopes to earn a doctorate in History.
One of Cheyenne’s most memorable experiences as an undergraduate was working for three years with a student feminist organization. From this experience she learned invaluable lessons about community organizing and the impact of grassroots actions. In addition, Cheyenne also had the pleasure of meeting a wide variety of people from across the country through conferences and events. This summer she is looking forward to doing an internship with the Center for Public History and Digital History. In her free time, Cheyenne loves to read fiction book (particularly by F. Scott Fitzgerald), watch films, listen to music, and explore the downtown Cleveland area.
Dr Rose has taught Cheyenne both as an undergraduate and graduate student, and she speaks very highly of Cheyenne’s concern for marginalized voices from the past. She lauds Cheyenne for “construct(ing) creative narratives in both her essays and digital humanities work . . . (and for not being) afraid to choose learn new tools or explore new methods in order to craft narratives that defy the mainstream.” In one of her projects, Cheyenne demonstrated” her talent for comparative methods in history and combining her knowledge of French to shed new light on the topic of abortion and the languages used by people who have had an abortion, their advocates, and their critics.” She has also contributed to the Cleveland Teaching Collaborative ” where she has been a resource for the leadership team for digital publishing.”
