Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Uncovering Emotional Contamination: Five Sites Of Trauma, Abigail Zola

Masters Theses

“Emotional contamination,” describes residual feelings associated with a space where a negative or tragic event occurred to an individual or group either personally, historically, or politically. Emotional contamination affects people’s associations with place and informs their willingness to spend time in them. This project considers a set of design principles rooted in uncovering and acknowledging the lifespan of a site, and considers how this acknowledgment can exist as an urban system rather than an individual architectural artifact. My thesis work analyzes five case studies in Berlin where political and economic factors determined the result of intervention, and how these sites …

Soul Furnace / فرن الأرواح, Isa Ghanayem

Masters Theses

“This is the good washing, this is (the washing) which separates the dirty body from the pure body. This is like silver mixed with lead, it is separated from it by this (process): one makes for it a cupel of bones, which is what is called the “head of the dog” and of which the common name is kūja-which is the crucible—and this must be made of burnt bones. One melts the silver in it, one gives it a strong fire: the cupel will absorb and receive the lead, the fire will make its subtle (part) fly away and extirpate …

A Performance Of Disease And Its Cures: Lovesickness In Medieval Iberia, Lillian B. Sanders

Masters Theses

In the context of late medieval Iberia, lovesickness as a real disease was both treatable and threatening to one’s lived experience. Different forms of lovesick cures, from both learned and vernacular healers, arose from the Galenic regime of the humoral body. Cures such as charms, mixtures, and verbal expressions helped heal lovesick patients, as is shown in the archive through sources like remedy books and literary texts depicting lovesick affliction. Much of the current scholarship on lovesickness focuses on medieval medicine through the archive. Through the lens of performance studies, I argue that medieval Iberians enacted cures on lovesick patients …

In Penn’S Woods: Intersections Between The Moravians, Indigenous Americans, And Nature, 1741-1760, Jane J. Chang

Masters Theses

The Moravian presence among Native American communities during the early colonial period (1741-1760) provides a valuable glimpse into the intermingling of European and indigenous cultures along with an environmental epistemology. Cross-cultural and knowledge exchanges were not uni-directional by any means. Moravians negotiated with indigenous Americans and their natural landscapes to construct syncretic space not only in their missionary efforts, but also the establishment of settlements. Integral in this shared space was the role of Moravian women, who played a crucial role in fostering intimate bonds with their indigenous Sisters. In this study, I examine Moravian hymns, architectural plans, and diaries …

Heavy Metal In Medieval Europe, Sean M. Klimmek

Masters Theses

How and why did plate armor come to be widely used in Medieval Europe? I trace the historical development of armor in Europe from antiquity to the middle ages, and then identify the main causes that pushed European warriors to develop and adopt plate armor from the 14th to the 16th centuries. I rely on prior research by scholars and historians of arms and armor, as well as primary source documents that describe arms and armor and their use in tournaments and on the battlefield. I conclude that a combination of social, political, military, and technical factors pushed European warriors …

Lawful Violence: The Relationship Between Marriage And Conflict In The Wars Of The Roses, Hannah R. Keller

Masters Theses

England’s King Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. Edward’s sister Margaret of York married Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in 1468. Both marriages occurred during England’s fifteenth-century conflict, the Wars of the Roses. And both created conflict between Edward, Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, and France’s King Louis XI. Most historians regard this conflict as either a sign of or product of disorder. I, however, argue that both marriages could have been a calculated form of “lawful” violence known as disworship used to damage the political capital of Warwick and Louis and thereby instigate war with France. …

The Art Of Not Seeing: The Immigration And Naturalization Service’S Failed Search For Nazi Collaborators In The United States, 1945-1979, Jeffrey Davis

Masters Theses

From 1945 to 1979, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was responsible for identifying and prosecuting Nazi collaborators and potential war criminals in the United States. It failed in this task for a number of reasons. The first of these was that the agency was severely disorganized and mismanaged. Reliance on interagency cooperation, lack of manpower and resources, and lack of institutional support for “Nazi hunters” posed further problems. Morale crises among employees and the legal difficulties of actually prosecuting Nazi collaborators also hampered the agency’s effectiveness. Most importantly, the agency was overwhelmingly focused on policing the southern border and preventing …

Our Souls Are Already Cared For: Indigenous Reactions To Religious Colonialism In Seventeenth-Century New England, New France, And New Mexico, Gail Coughlin

Masters Theses

This thesis takes a comparative approach in examining the reactions of residents of three seventeenth-century Christian missions: Natick in New England, Kahnawake in New France, and Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico in New Spain, to religious colonialism. Particular attention is paid to their religious beliefs and participation in colonial warfare. This thesis argues that missions in New England, New France, and New Mexico were spaces of Indigenous culture and autonomy, not due to differing colonial practices of colonizing empires, but due to the actions, beliefs, and worldviews of Indigenous residents of missions. Indigenous peoples, no matter which European powers they interacted …

A Kingdom Of Co-Inherence: Christian Theology And The Laws Of King Magnus The Lawmender Of Norway, 1261-1281, Dillon Richard Frank Knackstedt

Masters Theses

This thesis explains a new interpretation of the law books written during the reign of King Magnus the Lawmender of Norway (1239-1280, crowned 1261, r.1263-1280). In the process it also teases out common themes in Norway’s early histories, Iceland’s early laws, and biblical exegesis and re-writes much of what is assumed about “church” and “state” in this era, beginning at Magnus’ coronation and ending with the fraught year following his death, 1281.

According to the new interpretation explored in these four chapters, the laws of Magnus the Lawmender were not an attempt at royal legitimization of the king’s exclusive right …

What We Expected From National Socialism: Hermann Rauschning And Danzig's Lnterwar Radical Right (1918-1942), Nima Lane

Masters Theses

This project uses Dr. Hermann Rauschning as a case study to analyze the transformation of the German intellectual right, stretching from his early career in the Weimar Era to the post-1945 era. Rather than offer a purely narrative biography, this study uses the figure of Rauschning to examine the fate of the German right from the Kaisserreich to the aftermath of World War II. Rauschning, born in 1887, was both a political and intellectual figure. However, these aspects of Hermann Rauschning are not necessarily separate. Although some historians see Hermann Rauschning as unique, I argue that he is in fact …

Die Bedeutung Der Defa Film Library Im Ostdeutschen Erinnerungsdiskurs, Konstanze Schiller

Masters Theses

The relation between memory and identity is significant, particularly if an identity-establishing entity such as a state has vanished. In the context of GDR memory, this pertains to the type of memory discourse: what is remembered, how, and by whom? What are the differences in the discourse about East German memory between the US and Germany?

Based on approaches of the Aleida Assmann’s approaches to individual, collective, and cultural memory this thesis seeks to examine the notion and impact of archives in collective memory processes and to analyze the extent to which the medium of film as a concrete and …

Stifling The Subversive Swing: An Austrian Perspective On The Nazi Jazz Ban, Colin J. Rensch

Masters Theses

This research investigates the rationale behind the Nazis’ suppression of jazz music during the Second World War. Existing scholarship explains the circumstances surrounding this suppression, but it does not explore why the Nazis did not completely eradicate jazz. The goal of this research is to reveal which aspects of jazz the Nazis particularly disdained and why they allowed this music to continue while they so vehemently suppressed other forms of art that they deemed undesirable.

In order for the arguments to be viewed in their proper context, the thesis first discusses the rise of jazz in Austria and the Austrian …

Tracing Their Journey: A New Beginning For Irish Immigrants In 1850 Cleveland, Kathleen M. Edwards

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Things Miraculous And Strange: A Poetic Interpretation Of The Death And Afterlife Of Agnes Sampson, Ann Mary Hart

Masters Theses

In this collection of poems, I tell the story of Agnes Sampson's 1591 trial for witchcraft, her torture and death, and her response to these events from the afterlife. Using persona perspectives and utilizing a variety of poetic forms, I reveal the voices, thoughts, and feelings of Agnes and others involved in the trials in hopes to give a full and well-rounded account of the events in a compelling and creative way. Included in the collection are erasures on some of James VI' s poems with the goal of turning them into responses to his actions from Agnes. Using this …

Life Among Good Women: The Social And Religious Impact Of The Cathar Perfectae In The Thirteenth-Century Lauragais, Derek Robert Benson

Masters Theses

This Master’s Thesis builds on the work of previous historians, such as Anne Brenon and John Arnold. It is primarily a study of gendered aspects in the Cathar heresy. Using inquisitorial registers from the mid-thirteenth century to the early-fourteenth, as well as a few poetic and prose sources, it seeks to understand how the Cathar “Good Women” were perceived by their lay believers. The methodology of prosopography is utilized throughout to measure witness testimonies against one another and to compare the connections between the Cathar constituency and the female ministers.

Two main inquiries are investigated: the sacerdotal and pastoral roles …

Incarcerated, Transported And Bound: Constructing Community Among Transported Convicts From Britain To The Chesapeake, 1739-1776, Michael I. Bradley

Masters Theses

"Incarcerated, Transported, and Bound: Constructing Community among Convicts Transported from London to the Chesapeake, 1739-1776" explores the movement, migration, the malleability of identities, and development of communal ties among transported convicts. This thesis utilizes information on more than 3000 convicts brought to the colonial Chesapeake region. Precise details are currently available for more than two hundred transported convicts. In many cases the convicts can be followed from their birthplace to London to their trial and imprisonment, continuing to their transportation to the Americas, their new lives in the Chesapeake, and, in some cases, their flight and return to Great Britain. …

Nightmare In The City Of Dreams: Civic Consciousness And Industrialization In Imperial Vienna, 1848-1881, J. Alexander Killion

Masters Theses

Since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, a distinct trend toward urbanization has continually reshaped history and society, yet the development and evolution of urban spaces has been largely overlooked by scholars until recent decades. This is especially true for the cities of the Habsburg Empire, although Vienna provides a good case study of industrialization’s impact on the urban landscape due to its history of rapid population growth, extensive environmental change, and established administrative structures. Although the logistical challenges associated with urban administration, such as importing adequate food, accessing clean water, and disposing of waste in a prompt manner were …

Butchered Bones, Carved Stones: Hunting And Social Change In Late Saxon England, Shawn Hale

Masters Theses

Textual, archaeological, and art historical evidence all point to a significant reorganization of Anglo-Saxon society in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Changes in landownership, the development of proto-urban centers, the growth of merchant and artisan classes, as well as the proliferation of occupations associated with royal and regional administration, collectively altered the Anglo-Saxon social order. This radical reorganization benefitted some groups of individuals and threatened others with decreased social standing. Established elites and the nouvuae riche utilized exclusionary measures to counter any degree of social mobility provided by economic and political changes.

Shifting hunting practices and perceptions are particularly emblematic …

The British Women’S Land Army: Gender, Identity, And Landscapes, Hilary M.K. Anderson

Masters Theses

The land girls who comprised the Women’s Land Army in Great Britain during the Second World War challenged cultural assumptions regarding gender and femininity. Through their work in agriculture, social anxieties were provoked regarding proper notions of femininity and separate spheres, which left these women in conflicting positions as they carved a spot for themselves in a war torn society. In order to carry out their work in the Women’s Land Army, land girls operated at the convergence of private and public spheres in a conjoined space. Living and operating in this conjoined space enabled them to blur the ideological …

The Monastery Of Saint-Michel Du Tréport And The Borderlands Of Northeast Normandy, 1059-1270, Eric Callender

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Michel du Tréport, situated in the county of Eu in Normandy’s northeast corner, from its foundation in 1059 until the death of Louis IX of France in 1270. Utilizing as its main source base the charters in the Cartulaire de L’abbaye de Saint-Michel du Tréport of P. Laffleur de Kermaingant, this project seeks to situate the monks of Saint-Michel du Tréport within their ecclesiastical context, to understand the monastery’s lay patronage, and to examine the secular and ecclesiastical borders of northeast Normandy and the lands surrounding them, particularly the relationship of the Norman …

The Social And Cultural Meanings Of Names In Late Antique Italy, 313-604, Eric Ware

Masters Theses

This thesis examines many uses of names in Italian culture and society between the years 313 and 604. Through an anthroponymic study of names in Late Antique Italy, I explore the relationships between names and religion, social groups, gender, and language. I analyze the name patterns statistically and through micro-historical studies. This thesis argues that, contrary to studies emphasizing the late antique decline of the Roman trinominal system, Italian names demonstrated continuity with classical onomastic practices. The correlations between saint’s cults and local names and the decline of pagan names suggests that saints’ names replaced pagan ones as apotropaic names …

“Wir Streiken!”: Music And Political Activism In Cold War Germany, John Tyler Patty

Masters Theses

Using print media such as band biographies, books, and journals that address youth, popular culture, and music in the German context, this thesis analyzes how music and musicians influenced political protest movements in West Germany during the Cold War and how, in turn, protest movements fostered the career of musicians. The relationship between music and social change in Germany throughout the Cold War is complicated and contains many aspects. This thesis focuses mainly on the effect American and British music had on divided Germany and examines how these influences helped shape the cultural climate in which political protests emerged. It …

Tunes, Textures, And Trends: The Transformation Of Johann Walther’S Geistliches Gesangbüchlein (1524, 1525, 1537, 1544, 1551), Emily Marie Solomon

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the contents of Geistliches Gesangbüchlein, a sixteenth-­‐‑ century German Lutheran hymnal by Johann Walther, published in five editions between 1524 and 1551, the contents of which were substantially augmented, particularly between the 1525 and 1537 editions. Specifically, this project focuses on the twelve hymns with multiple settings, one or more of which were published in the first two editions and replaced by one or more settings in the last three editions, while assessing the characteristics across the original and removed settings and noting discernable trends of revision employed by Walther. Observable revision trends include length increase …

Recovering The Saumurois: Lay Patronage To Saint-Florent Of Saumur, Ca. 950-1150, Adam C. Matthews

Masters Theses

In the mid-tenth century, the lay powers of the Loire valley established the abbey of Saint-Florent at Saumur with the local aristocracy welcoming the monks and forming spiritual and economic relationships through acts of patronage. The brothers remembered gifts of property, grants of rights, and exemptions in charters which were ultimately collected into the abbey's first cartulary, the Livre Noir. Despite this wealth of sources, historians have paid only cursory attention to Saint-Florent in recent scholarship. The present study incorporates the abbey's charter sources into broader debates concerning society in eleventh-century France. The use of case studies provides insight …

Sisters, Objects Of Desire, Or Barbarians: German Nurses In The First World War, Jennifer Sue Montgomery

Masters Theses

This is a study of German nurses during the First World War that examines the differing perceptions and representations of them that appeared during the war, focusing on those of British and American nurses and German soldiers that were at odds with the ideal image of nurses. I trace British and American nurses’ opinions using nursing and medical journals and investigate the complex relationship between German nurses and soldiers using soldiers’ newspapers as a main source base. I argue that representations and perceptions of German nurses that contrasted with the ideal image of a nurse are crucial to understanding the …

Blurring The Boundaries: Images Of Androgyny In Germany At The Fin De Siecle, Daniel James Casanova

Masters Theses

The following study inquires into the emergence and development of a positive, nonnormative homosexual identity in German social discourses regarding androgyny and same-sex desire during the Wilhelmine period. Literary works, medical journals, homosexual journals, and visual art in the late-nineteenth century reflect a growing interest in androgynous bodies throughout Germany’s developing homosexual community. Such primary media provide the evidence for this study. Of particular interest are the works and theories of homosexuals themselves with an emphasis on their organizational journals (such as The Own and The Annual Book of Intermediate Sexualities) and photographs. This project examines the dissemination and …

Agriculture, Influence, And Instability Under The Ancien Régime: 1708-1768, Adam J. Polk

Masters Theses

The French Revolution has been studied from myriad perspectives. The majority of scholarship focuses on the political and urban chaos of the times. Agricultural conditions and the influence of onerous taxation and stagnant agricultural options are given only a cursory examination in most research. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between agronomic and environmental conditions and the eruption of violence in urban centers during the French Revolution and the years leading up to it (1708-1768). This period prior to the French Revolution serves as a template to investigate the nature of the rural-agricultural influences, with a particular focus paid …

Die Zukunft Gehoert Dem Ingeniuer: Herman Soergel's Attempt To Engineer Europe's Salvation, Ryan Bartlett Linger

Masters Theses

Herman Sörgel devised a plan, beginning in 1927, to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for the whole of Europe. Atlantropa was his answer to the perceived threats that the European people faced from international competition, overpopulation, and lack of resources. The plan would have resulted in the lowering of the Mediterranean Sea and the ultimate creation of one continent comprised of the former Europe and Africa. Though the plan was never implemented, it poses a fascinating model through which historians may reconsider the time period between the end of the First and Second World Wars.

This …

"Videbantur Gens Effera": Defining And Perceiving Peoples In The Chronicles Of Norman Italy, Jesse Hysell

Masters Theses

The goal of this project is to analyze the ways different cultural groups in Sicily and southern Italy were depicted in a set of historical texts associated with the Norman takeover of those regions in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. To achieve that aim, I consider social vocabulary applied to three distinct peoples (native Italians, Greeks, and Muslims) in five sources written by Amatus of Montecassino, Geoffrey Malaterra, William of Apulia, Alexander of Telese, and Hugo Falcandus. Although recent scholarship has posited that medieval identity was often felt through a "self versus other" or "Christian versus non-Christian" dichotomy, I have …

Nutrition And Stature: The Residents Of The Island Of Gotland, Sweden Killed In The Battle Of Wisby, 1361, Michelle A. Miller

Masters Theses

This research examines stature in order to assess the socio-economic status of Gotland, an island (and municipality) off the coast of Sweden, before the 1360's. Gotland was known as a wealthy and autonomous peasant republic although it was loosely ruled by the Swedish Crown. In 1361, the Danish Army laid siege on the seaport city of Wisby to obtain its riches. Three days after the battle, the approximately 1800 dead Gotlanders were tossed haphazardly into five common graves. Archaeological excavations took place from 1905-1930 by Bendt Thordeman, among others. The human remains were analyzed in 1937. Osteological analysis in the …