The inquisitive Allie Miller

“IU has the most amazing library ever. It has so much information,” says Allie Miller, one of the 2025-2026 Burgess Award winners. An honors history major, Miller won the Sam Burgess Undergraduate Research Award for work she did as a freshman in Dr. McGraw’s H 270 What is History? course. 

Giving her personal tips on research, Miller suggests using as many filters available on IUCAT or on a database as possible. “The best way to find things is make sure that you have the correct years, and to fact check it every single time and ask yourself, ‘Does the filtering information at the top match?’” When you can't find something and get frustrated, Miller advises talking to your professor or a librarian. “Or look at secondary sources that have been written and see what primary sources they utilized.”

Prepared and curious

Miller took her H 270 course with a plan in mind. Being an honors student, she intended to start preparing to write her thesis. “I wanted a really good backbone as I started with my future endeavors because I knew it was a more research-oriented class.” She needed a solid introduction to research and H 270 delivered. “The information I learned from the library for research projects has obviously come in handy (in my other classes).”

“I do everything full out,” Miller admits, so when it came to researching her topic, she strove for excellence. “I went above and beyond for this because I wanted it to be really good work.” Dr. Jason McGraw, her professor, agrees. In his nominating letter, he wrote, “The amount of effort revealed by the entire research portfolio approaches early graduate level work.”

“Very minimal,” is how Miller describes her high school experience with databases and research. “It was genuinely just searching on the internet.” She says that H 270 taught her how to truly research. The course outlined the research process and had students work incrementally.

Miller attributes her writing skill to being an avid reader and writer while she was growing up. She says, “I loved journalism, and I would write for my family. I wrote about all these different events. I loved journalism. I didn't pursue that passion, but I loved writing.”

The research

“Acquiring Samoa and Puerto Rico: Identity Preservation and Protection of the Island Territories in the Midst of Conquest,” Miller’s portfolio of research, is an exploration of how these two territories were acquired and are in relationship with their conquering country, the United States. The paper idea evolved from H 270 class discussions on course readings. Fascinated by the topic of US territories, she narrowed her subject down from five to two of them. 

Miller contemplated a unique way of looking at the two territories. She landed upon the idea of looking at the acquisitional differences. Miller explains, “American Samoa was acquired after Puerto Rico. American Samoa has maintained their sovereignty a little bit more rather than Puerto Rico.”

It was important to Miller to get some primary source material into her research. “At this point, early in the research process, Allie did something unusual,” Dr. McGraw wrote in his nomination letter. She interviewed Dr. Fuentes-Rohwer whom she had seen at a Civic Leaders Center seminar. A law professor at the Maurer School of Law, Dr. Fuentes-Rohwer is “a specialist of voting rights, jurisprudence, Puerto Rico, and US overseas territories,” according to Dr. McGraw. 

Besides interviewing an expert on the topic, Miller searched IUCAT and the Library of Congress. She also used government websites. “Learning how to refine keywords, trace citations, and distinguish between types of sources introduced me to research strategies that I will rely on throughout my academia at the university,” she wrote in her methods essay for the Burgess application. Miller continues in her methods essay, “When I encountered difficulty locating specific texts or navigating unfamiliar databases, Wells Library staff members were instrumental in helping me identify appropriate tools and alternative search strategies. Their guidance not only helped me access the materials I needed but also increased my confidence in using library resources independently.” 

Miller used a record number of databases for Dr. McGraw’s course, interviewed an expert, and was led by her determination and curiosity to uncover information she did not know previously. “This project not only expanded my understanding of U.S. territorial history,” she wrote in her methods essay, “but also established a research foundation that will guide my academic work throughout my undergraduate career.”

Find Miller's research on IU ScholarWorks. It, along with other works from previous years, are in the Sam Burgess Collection.