PHILADELPHIA-- Four scholars from the University of Pennsylvania have been honored by the Organization of American Historians.

Mark J. Stern, professor of social work and co-director of Penn's urban studies program; Michael B. Katz, professor of history; and Penn doctoral candidate in sociology Jamie J. Fader have been named 2006 Binkley-Stephenson Award winners by the for best scholarly article published in the Journal of American History in the preceding year.  

Their article, "The New African American Inequality," appeared in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of American History.

OAH hailed the article as an ambitious and revealing essay that explored some of the most dramatic changes that occurred in America from the Jim Crow era through the end of the 20th century.  

Walter Licht, chair of Penn's history department, has been selected to receive the 2006 Merle Curti Award for best book published in American social history.  He and his co-author, Thomas Dublin of the State University of New York at Binghamton, are being honored for "The Face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century."  OAH called the book a model of social historical scholarship.

The awards will be presented at the organization's 99th annual meeting April 22 in Washington.