History Commons^™

Cotton: A Historiographical And Instructional Exploration: 1835-2020, Chad Joseph Rosenbloom

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I.Synthesis Essay……………………………...2

II.Primary Documents and Headnotes……...36

III.Textbook Critique…………………………...45

IV.New Textbook Entry………………………..49

V.Bibliography………………………………….53

Do Androids Dream Of Improvisation?, Aidan J. Samp

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Eyes On The Street: Racialized Bodies And Surveillance In Urban Space, Hana Parker Soule

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

The Public Bathroom: Tracing A History Of Architectural Symbolism And Social Control, Mayim Frieden

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Through a cross-disciplinary analysis of New York City's urban, architectural and infrastructural histories, this thesis explores the various sociocultural beliefs, dynamics and tensions that led to the architectural typology of the public bathroom. In turn, the controversies often associated with public bathrooms are contextualized, and the demarcating and influential capabilities of architecture are made apparent. This work spans from the 19th century and into the 2010s, demonstrating how architectural and urban design and planning can contain and uphold determinations made hundreds of years prior.

Who Is Anointed? The Psychological And Social Justice Implications Of Gifted And Talented Programs In The United States, Emma Caroline Gossett

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This paper explores the repercussions of gifted and talented programs in the United States, looking specifically at resulting psychological effects and social justice implications. This analysis is positioned within the discussion of global power struggles for technological advancement. After the success of the Russian Sputnik satellite in 1957, the United States bolstered initiatives in education to ensure they were producing students who could contribute to the prowess of the nation. Gifted programs allowed for a more in-depth focus on those children deemed useful to the labor market. This resulted in additional pressures placed on certain students to excel. The anointment …

The Artist's Diary, Anamae Gilroy

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Les Six Continents: An Exploration Of Political Visual Rhetoric In Public Sculpture, Olivia Liu Guillotin

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Les six continents series stands as remnants of the 1878 Exposition Universelle and as a visual marker of the cultural, social, and economic culture of the time period. The series, serving as public art, continues to inform and participate in its environment and space, as it is on display by the entrance of the Musée d’Orsay today. Personified representations of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania as allegorical female figures, the series offers insight into the colonial world where it emerged, and how its impact has visually been ingrained in contemporary society. By using these six statues …

The Spark Of Revolution: Lenin And Luxemburg On Spontaneity And The Revolution Of 1905, Maria Julia Hernandez Saez

Senior Projects Spring 2022

My project explores the debates between Lenin and Luxemburg on how to organize the working masses for revolution. I focus on the way they regard the spontaneity of the masses in this process. I analyze the ways their theory was put into practice, and proven right or wrong, in the Revolution of 1905.

History, Ritualization, And The Rhetoric Of Legitimacy In Decem Libri Historiarum And Wei Shu, Bo Wen (Kent) Zheng

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Historical scholarship since the Second World War has, in general, successfully challenged the nationalist notion that ethnic identities are essential and stable markers of self-hood. One of the most influential entries from this bibliography is Benedict Anderson’s seminal study on the “horizontal” affect of the nation-state, Imagined Communities(1983), wherein the author identifies print capitalism and mass literacy as key contributors to the birth of “national communities” in the modern parlance. Less well defined in Anderson’s story of the nation, however, is the potential effect of pre-modern historical experiences on trajectories of modern state-formation. In response, this thesis explores the …

Radical Folk Heroes: Anansi & Br’Er Rabbit’S West African Origins & Their Forced Pilgrimages, Sage Adia Swaby

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Imagined Realities: The Rise Of New Wave Cinema In Post-War Japan, Asia Miro Smudde Tom

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Project Submitted to the Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

My thesis explores cinematic representation in post-war Japan leading up the the New Wave movement. I examine the work of Yasujiro Ozu and Sun Tribe youth films and their relationship with conventions of cinema to bring awareness to narrative constructions of historical periods.

A Delicate Balance: Us-China-Taiwan Relations Under The Nixon And Carter Administrations In The 1970s, Evan H. Matthews

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This project is guided by its research question of why and how the Nixon and Carter administrations decided to maintain unofficial relations with Taiwan, despite pursuing the normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China. President Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger struggled to answer this question and left it up to “historical evolutions.” The Carter administration believed in three fundamental principles, each spearheaded by different agents in the administration: (1) that the United States had a moral obligation not to jeopardize the future of the Taiwanese people, (2) that the United States must pursue normalization with the …

9/11: News Media As Prism, Luka L. Murro

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Weaponizing Ballet: An Episode In American Cold War Diplomacy, Remy Laray Naumann

Senior Projects Spring 2022

In October 1962, as American citizens were building bomb shelters in their backyards, the New York City Ballet toured the Soviet Union, receiving raving applause from Soviet audiences. The tour is just one example of the many ballet exchanges in the late 1950s and early 1960s between the United States and the Soviet Union. In these acts of cultural diplomacy, ballet companies became ideological weapons, selling their country's achievements to audiences abroad.

Tours such as the New York City Ballet’s 1962 trip have been acknowledged in analyses on cultural diplomacy between the US and Soviet Union in the Cold War …

“Nappy Hair, Don’T Care”: Storytelling Through Strands, Sasha D. Onyango

Senior Projects Spring 2022

There is a Kiswahili phrase that goes “intelligence/the mind is like hair, everyone has their own’. Following that logic, how Kenyan women relate to their hair is unique to the individual yet there remains collective and shared experiences. The questions that I raise throughout the paper explore: 1) how images and narratives of hair throughout Kenyan history have influenced the way women today understand how they interact with their hair, 2) the ways Kenyan women are taught about hair grooming and the journey of learning to care for their hair, and 3) Kenyan women’s understanding of their hair and how …

The Immigrant Nannies Of New York City: An Examination Of The Friendships Between Nannies And Mother-Employers, Esmeralda Paula

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This ethnography focuses on the emotions of the women of color who elaborated on their experiences working for wealthy, white families in ethnographic interviews. This project is interested in the connections formed between nannies and mother-employers with the goal of better understanding the positionalities of female domestic workers of color. Immigrant populations are frequently depicted by news outlets as overworked, underpaid, and poor. When interacting with nannies, I realized that these women did not consider themselves impoverished despite working in a role that is identifiable with servanthood. The labor that nannies perform calls back to a long tradition of women …

Madness In Islam: Cultural Dimensions And Medical Knowledge From The Medieval To The Postcolonial, Rachel Rose Petrarca

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Accommodation And Coping In Medieval Catholic England: A Historical Dramaturgy Casebook For The Chester Mystery Cycle’S Play 14: Christ At The House Of Simon The Leper, Christ And The Moneylenders, And Judas’ Plot, Andrew J. Roberge

Senior Projects Spring 2022

In this historically focused dramaturgy casebook for the medieval Catholic Chester Mystery Cycle's Play 14, Christ at the House of Simon the Leper, Christ and the Moneylenders, and Judas’ Plot, I offer suggestions for Play 14's production as it might have appeared in the cycle's final year of performance, 1575. I contextualize and grapple with the play's antisemitisms, and also offer a brief history of antisemitism in medieval Europe. I also analyze Play 14 and the Chester Mystery Cycle for their rhetorical appeals to the medieval vernacular language, contexts, and events, as well as their anachronistic temporal and geographic …

“We Had Become The Vc In Our Own Homeland:” Indigenous Veterans Of Vietnam And The 1973 Siege Of Wounded Knee, Margaret Curtin

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Victors Of Finance: How Federal Connections To Corporate Wealth Weakened Reforms In The 2008 Financial Crisis, Jordan S. Donohue

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This research details the economic policies enacted in the late twentieth and earlier twenty-first centuries which laid the groundwork for the 2008 financial crisis. It evaluates the degree to which the Federal Government’s policies were influenced by corporate wealth on Wall Street. The secondary mortgage market is emphasized as a key area in which the Federal government incentivized predatory lending. The research posits that the Federal government’s financial ties with Wall Street weakened reforms in the 2008 financial crisis. Further, that it caused a national loss of housing and wealth, particularly for residents of color.

Revisiting The Who And The Where: A Quest To Understanding The Identities Of Second-Generation Israeli-American Youth, Yuval Elbaz

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This is a study about identity formation patters on twelve second generation Israeli-Americans. The study will be divided into three sections: economic assimilation religious assimilation, and political assimilation. I will argue that living in the United States has a significant influence on the way participants viewed their Israeli identities. Although identity will be the focal point of this study, this is not to claim that identity is a fixed category, but rather is fluid and affected by various external and internal factors. In this study, identity is defined as the way people view themselves. For all participants, growing up in …

The Elusive Rainbow Nation: Assessing Post-Apartheid Reconstruction Strategies In Johannesburg, South Africa, Ashley May Eugley

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This paper examines how South Africa’s political and economic orientation following the nation’s democratization in 1994 enabled a continuation of Apartheid-era patterns in the City of Johannesburg. In particular, it contends that governmental decentralization, neoliberalism, and global city aspirations—enshrined in both local and national policy documents—turned attention away from addressing internal deprivations. Rather than redistributing social and economic power, uplifting the Black-majority, and allowing urban stakeholders to play a central role in policy formation and decision-making, Johannesburg’s City Government catered to elite outside interests, effectively introducing new forms of segmentation and disenfranchisement. Although the African National Congress committed to transform …

The Cultural Blueprint Of Laotian Society From The Contexts Of Traditional And Modern Music, Nandi Ampone Woodfork-Bey

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies and The Arts of Bard College

Navigating The Tide: Localism, Transnationalism, And Historiography In Zhejiang Chao, Sijin Gao

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Washington Consensus: Conceptions Of Power And Failure In Argentina, Samaira G. Wilson

Senior Projects Fall 2022

By holding great economic power over smaller states and justifying it by saying they are helping modernize them, the U.S. leaves many countries cleaning up a mess they helped make. The Washington Consensus failed systematically largely because of its failure to understand development in developing countries. The objective of these policies were to increase GDP in Argentina, yet economic growth favored the wealthy which led to more poverty, inequality and unemployment. The responsibility to promote democratic and equitable development, as well as sustained increases in living standards, was completely neglected. Why did U.S. policy fail to deliver on its goals? …

Karaoke Is The Best Medicine: The Immeasurable Value Of Hospital Recreation Workers Through The Early Twentieth Century, Fiona Rose Lacedonia

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The European Revolutions Of 1848 And Their Connection To The United States, Roman Peña

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………………………..2

II. Synthesis Essay Bibliography…………………22

III. Primary Documents and Headnotes………....23

IV. Textbook Critique……………………………....34

V. New Textbook Entry…………………………...38

The Treaty Of Versailles, Imperialism, And The Middle East, Eileen Deming-Mcnabb

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I.Synthesis Essay……………………………….. 3

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes……….. 32

III. Textbook Critique……………………………...51

IV.New Textbook Entry………………………….. 58

V.Bibliography………………………………….... 62

The Holodomor: Historical Perspectives On The Ukraine Famine Of 1932-33, Melissa Betts

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I.Synthesis Essay………………………………. 3

II.Primary Documents and Headnotes……….. 30

III.Textbook Critique……………………………...42

IV.New Textbook Entry…………………………...44

V.Bibliography………………………………….....47

Abolition Unabridged: A Closer Look At The History Of British Abolition During The Long 18th Century, Ariana Podesta

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I.Synthesis Essay………………………………..3

II.Primary Documents and Headnotes……….. 21

III.Textbook Critique……………………………...34

IV.New Textbook Entry…………………………..38

V.Bibliography………………………………….....40