National scholarship will allow UW student to continue inventive historical research

In his undergraduate research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Axell Boomer has expanded on the adage that “history is written by the victors.” His scholarship explores how history also is written by the worshippers of victors.

“I am interested in the formation and reproduction of U.S. historical memory, and how Christian Americans have navigated the idolatry of secular figures,” writes Boomer, in a statement about his research.

It’s a line of inquiry that has led to numerous academic honors for Boomer, the latest of which is a 2024 Beinecke Scholarship.

The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 by the Sperry and Hutchinson Company to support the graduate education of students with exceptional promise. Each award provides $35,000 for graduate study in the arts, humanities or social sciences.

Boomer, a senior from South Beloit, Illinois, is one of 20 college undergraduates nationwide to receive a Beinecke Scholarship this year. He is majoring in history and religious studies with honors in the liberal arts and honors in history. He anticipates graduating in the spring of 2025 and intends to pursue a doctorate in history.

Boomer says a high school AP U.S. History course spurred his interest in exploring the ways people understand their communities based on the histories they’ve been told. Since the fall of 2022, he has been developing a history of the greater Rockton, Illinois, area that analyzes how his hometown’s pageants, school culture, historical reenactments and statuary “have communicated a false narrative of Indigenous removal that absolves settler-colonials of responsibility for Indigenous genocide.”

The work began as a sophomore-year term paper, for which Boomer received the Andrew Bergman Writing Prize from the History Department for the best undergraduate paper written for a history course. The paper is expected to be published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society in 2025. This month, Boomer is presenting it at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association’s Annual Conference in Bodø, Norway.

Boomer is currently working on a senior thesis that analyzes the memorialization and veneration of Abraham Lincoln among American Christians.

“Axell is one of the most gifted and accomplished undergraduate students I have taught in my 21-year teaching career,” says Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, the Merle Curti and Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of History and Boomer’s senior thesis advisor. “His intellectual talents are matched with an earnestness, hunger for learning and humility that make him an excellent scholar and an absolute joy to work with.”

Additionally, Boomer is a research assistant to Matt Villeneuve, an assistant professor of history and American Indian Studies, on a project that examines the history of a former federal Indian boarding school. Boomer also is an intern with the UW–Madison History Department’s Nonviolence Project, where he researches and writes public-facing histories published on the project’s website.

“Axell’s academic accomplishments are already extraordinary,” says Julie Stubbs, director of the UW–Madison Office of Undergraduate Academic Awards. “The Beinecke Scholarship, one of the most prestigious undergraduate honors in the country, will allow him to further his novel research. As an institution, we could not be happier for him or prouder of the work he has done here.”

Outside of class, Boomer is a house fellow and the host of a show on WSUM student radio that engages the audience in discussions of historical protest movements through period music.

UW–Madison’s last Beinecke Scholars were Lauren Schilling (psychology and education studies, 2020), Brontë Mansfield (art history and English, 2014) and Joanna Lawrence (anthropology, 2013). A complete list of UW–Madison winners can be found online.