Czech Republic RPCV Michael Luick-Thrams wins 2003 Outstanding Project in the Public Humanities Award from Humanities Iowa
Outstanding Project in the Public Humanities
Caption: from left to right: John C. Fitzpatrick, HI Board of Directors Vice President, Dr. Michael Luick -Thrams, and HI Executive Director, Dr. Chris Rossi
A Mason City independent scholar and the organization he created have received the 2003 Outstanding Project in the Public Humanities Award from Humanities Iowa.
Dr. Michael Luick-Thrams, director of TRACES of 400,000, was presented with the award during Humanities Iowa's "Voices from the Prairie: The Fourth Annual Iowa Writers' Celebration" in Iowa City on September 19, 2003. The award was in recognition of a series of multimedia presentations entitled, "Iowa and the Third Reich."
The award recognizes "projects that demonstrate exemplary humanities programming for the public, show exceptional creative vision, exhibit outstanding community collaboration between volunteers, community groups and institutions, and have a great impact of the community."
"Dr. Luick-Thrams is an impressive and careful scholar whose organization has assembled a remarkable set of programs on Iowa's important but seldom discussed connections to wartime Germany," said HI director, Chris Rossi. "TRACES has helped to shed light on important aspects of Iowa's history."
TRACES, multi-media program, "Iowa and the Third Reich" was presented 150 times between 2000-2001, drawing more than 2,000 Iowans to public programs. Presentations included discussions led by Luick-Thrams on the thousands of German, Italian and Japanese POWs held in Iowa during the war. The traveling exhibit "The Third Reich in Iowa: German POW Art and Artifacts," displayed in conjunction with some of the presentations contributed to the public's understanding of the impact that the POW camps made on Iowans in places like Algona and Clinton. News articles about the programs were carried state-wide in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Des Moines Register, Mason City Globe-Gazette and nationally in The New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune and Chicago Tribune.
Stories of Iowa's connections to Nazi Germany were presented to several rural communities with connections to historic events--sites such as Anne Franks' Iowa pen pal's hometown, The Scattergood Hostel for European refugees in West Branch, and the German-POW base camp in Algona. Luick-Thrams has published several books in conjunction with his research.
Luick-Thrams grew up on a farm between Mason City and Clear Lake. He graduated from Iowa State University and earned a Ph.D. in Modern European History from Humboldt University in Berlin.
