At the second History and Geography Department Trivia Night of the year in the Historic Neighborhood, students tested their knowledge of African-American history in honor of Black History Month.
by Meg Malone ’20
On Thursday, Feb. 23, in Historic Neighborhood’s West Commons, students tested their knowledge of African-American history in honor of Black History Month at the second History and Geography Department Trivia Night of the year.
The event was co-hosted by the Historic Neighborhood and the Department of History and Geography.
Frank Hartfield, Jr., community director for Historic Neighborhood, said they want to make trivia nights a new tradition after last semester’s first trivia night was such a success.
“We decided to have a series of history trivia nights within the neighborhood hosted by the Department of History and Geography to get people out and let them compete for legitimate prizes,” Hartfield said. “We started this month with the Black History trivia … and in a more social location, here in West Hall with some music blasting. We had a good time.”
History professor Michael Matthews tested students with four rounds of challenging questions related to everything from Thurgood Marshall and Nat Turner to the Harlem Renaissance and Barack Obama.
Although not all of the questions were related to history or geography, Matthews said he and his department enjoy being a part of these events. “This is a form of outreach for the history and geography department to have a presence on campus and some sort of fun event related to our department,” Matthews said.
First year student Franceska Karasinski is a history major and was a member of the winning team. Before the event she said, “I’m ready to conquer, but I hope to learn some new things.”
But Karasinski and fellow trivia-conquerors walked away with more than just a sense of accomplishment because their victory earned them $75 in gift cards. The second-place team also walked away with $25 in gift cards.
Maia Salinger, a junior and another member of the first-place team, said she was thrilled by their victory. “I’m excited. I’m a history major, so it’s exciting to win something having to do with history,” she said.
The group said they were thinking of using their winnings to fund a movie night, complete with popcorn and plenty of sweet snacks.