History Commons^™

Iron Mixed With Clay, Partly Strong, Partly Brittle, Patrick Q. Czichas

WWU Graduate School Collection

The goal of this thesis was to critically analyze religious cultural exchange between the Seleucid rulers and the non-Hellenic subjects of the Seleucid Empire (ca. 300 - 64 BCE). The research focuses on Seleucid-Babylonian relations and Seleucid-Jewish relations, although there was some research done on earlier events of Jewish history, primarily the Neo-Babylonian period (ca.626 - 539 BCE). The main conclusion of this thesis is that the Hellenistic/Seleucid Period should no longer be categorized as a period of cultural assimilation, or “Hellenization” of ancient West Asian cultures. Instead, the research of this thesis proves that the cultures ruled by the …

Constructing Community: Heresy In The Twelfth And Thirteenth Centuries, Alexis Nunn

WWU Graduate School Collection

This work examines the formation of Cathar and Waldensian communities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It looks at how Cathars, Waldensians, and the Catholic Church thought about community and how they asserted their identities. All three communities showed a concern for boundaries and shared the same ideals based on a sense of unity within the community, even as the way they talked about those ideals changed over two centuries. They took Scripture as the basis of their identity, and they sought to share their interpretations with the laity through preaching and debate, bringing theological concerns to a wider audience. …

Orientalism In Ancient Literature And Its Transmission Into Modern Popular Culture, Alan Wheeler

WWU Graduate School Collection

This thesis is an examination of the bias writers in the ancient world had in their portrayals of Achaemenid Persians, how that bias permeated the written record for thousands of years to influence twentieth and twenty-first century historians, and how the accumulated bias in turn became part of modern popular culture. Orientalism, the mechanism for studying and understanding the negative portrayal of the Middle East in European texts conceived of by Edward Said, is applied throughout this work when discussing modern sources. These portrayals are always negatively comparing the Eastern world to the Western with Europe as the positive – …

"We Were There, We Were Visible, We Were Everywhere": A History Of Transgender Care In Washington State And British Columbia From The 1950s To The Present, Phoenix Walker

WWU Graduate School Collection

The thesis explores the emergence of transgender care within the United States and Canada focusing on Washington state and British Columbia. Walker discusses the social, medical, and political interactions between trans people, those who provide transgender care, and those controlling access to said care. He argues that by looking into these regional histories and examining the production of transgender care addresses the long, continuous struggle over who defines transgender bodies, the access and availability of transgender care, and the agency of trans people in establishing international care networks.

Humans And Their Environment: A Proposal For A New Perspective, Henry G. Schwarz

History Faculty and Staff Publications

The ultimate purpose of this essay is to persuade humans to adopt a new, more objective perspective of their relationship to their environment, including the universe, but the odds of approaching, let alone reaching, this goal during my life are close to zero. Therefore, I limit my goal by examining the perspective held by scientists in the field of astrophysics for two reasons: they spend most of their professional activities in astrophysics and they do that by employing the scientific method. The first part of this essay presents a brief description of the scientific method and its product, the current …

Archaeological Photography: The United Kingdom, Madeline Scholten

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Archaeological photography is an interdisciplinary aspect of archaeological endeavors that is key in allowing archaeological finds to be accessible to a general audience. This facet is key in data collection and distribution within the field as it is to the general public.

Photography is something that people are exposed to, possibly even partaking in, on a daily basis, but photography goes a lot deeper than simply capturing a still image. The history of photography, and the ways photography has improved so many disciplines are things that are just as important as the camera itself, and yet not necessarily needed to …

L'Esprit De Lascaux: Exploring Group Camaraderie In The Paleolithic Through Game Design, Logan Lemieux

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An investigation into the challenges faced trying to capture the unique sense of togetherness present in humanity during the paleolithic as a tabletop game.

Liberty Without Love: An Investigation Of Antebellum Slave Narratives And American Freedom, Hallie Rogers

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Liberty Without Love: An Investigation of Antebellum Slave Narratives and American Freedom investigates the social, political, and economic contexts in which some slaves chose to stay with their former enslavers after emancipation. For many, the decision relied on two factors, the historical events taking place, and a slave's perception and feelings about these events. Liberty Without Love investigates historical events such as the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments along with the creation of sharecropping, black codes and refugee camps. In conjunction is an investigation of personal narratives surrounding these events from the WPA "Born into Slavery" Collection.

A History Of China-Tanzania Relations: How China Became Donor, Friend, And Foe, Lucy Gentry

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

After colonial powers pulled out, brand-new states lacked the capacity and experience to effectively govern. African countries were suddenly faced with questions of nation building. Many countries, such as Tanzania, turned to China as a partner in many respects. This paper explores how the nature and motivation of China-Tanzania relations have not seen a significant change over time. This relational consistency and success refute current Western claims that China exerts predatory foreign policy on African countries.

Questioned Identity: Morisca Women And The Spanish Inquisition, Nathan Van Aken

WWU Graduate School Collection

The sixteenth century in Spain was a century of redefinition of religion and religious orthodoxy which terminated in the expulsion of the morisco community of Spain in 1609. Moriscos, former Muslims who were converted to Christianity and their descendants, faced severe persecution from the Spanish Inquisition and the records that their heresy trials leave behind are revealing. This thesis focuses on women who were tried by the Inquisition for morisco related heresies, with a goal of understanding the ways that morisca women adapted and survived in a climate where both Muslim religion and Islamic Iberian culture were outlawed. Particular …

"Eden Is On Puget Sound": Folk Music Stories In The Northwest, Rosie Lockie Everson

WWU Graduate School Collection

During the folk music revival period, roughly the early 1940s to the late 1960s, folk musicians, music collectors, and folk music insiders forged a connection between American folk music, the past, and ideas of cultural authenticity. In this national context of renewed interest in folk music traditions, folk music communities across the United States cropped up. This thesis analyzes the ideologies and activities of Pacific Northwest folk music communities in the 20th century, with a particular focus during and after the revival period. Typical narratives of the American folk music revival terminate at the end of the 1960s; however, in …

Ibn Taymiyya On The Frontier: Renewal, Resistance And Rebellion, Kenneth Meyer

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Muslim jurist Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328 CE) inspired those advancing into battle in his time, and inspires many on battlefields today. He lived on the physical frontier of his state, defended it, and in ideological terms defined it. The jurist is frequently portrayed in our time as an unyielding, hard-line, intolerant theologian and social critic. However, Part One of this work contends that when his positions are examined in the context of his times, a rational, realistic, methodical figure emerges.

Part Two of this thesis reviews the use of Ibn Taymiyya by several mostly well-known activists, Islamic revolutionaries and Jihadists. …

The Black Cauldron, A Curtain Of Fire, And The Sword Of The War God: Connections Between Nomadic Populations On The Ancient Eurasian Steppe, Shawn R. Armistead

WWU Graduate School Collection

Cultural connections between the ancient Xiongnu and the Huns have been disputed for over a century. This disputed topic has been approached in the fields of history, anthropology, linguistics, genetics, and archaeology. Though evidence for previous claims to connections between the two groups of nomadic pastoralists has been scant, research into the topic over the last 20 years has been robust. New evidence for connections between them has come from the previously listed disciplines, but rarely in an integrated form. By taking a multidisciplinary approach to this research question, this paper attempts to integrate the results into a cohesive narrative …

Stonewalls And Statues: A Personal Exploration Of Memorialization Culture Within The United States, Petra Mcdonnell-Ingoglia

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A personal exploration of Confederate memorials and the Lost Cause narrative. How and who has created these memorials is integral in understanding the rise of racial hatred and racial violence in the U.S., and is rooted in the creation of Confederate culture and memorialization. This paper explores those topics while also trying to reckon with where we go from here and how we unravel the mythical narrative that has had such an impact on our society.

The Cross And The Coat Hanger: Catholics For A Free Choice And The Rise Of A Religious Movement, Claire Elizabeth Brady

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Despite the hardline anti-abortion position of the Catholic Church, the majority of American Catholics have shown support for abortion and other reproductive freedoms since the 1970s. The organization Catholics for a Free Choice, now known as Catholics for Choice, is a prime example of such support in the face of Church opposition. I posit that the prominence, position, and impact of Catholics for a Free Choice in the 1970s and 1980s displays the existence of a distinctly Catholic pro-choice movement. This movement is set apart by its direct confrontation of Church hierarchy and its primary existence within the Catholic sphere; …

“Let ‘Er Buck!”: Race, Gender, And Performance At The Pendleton Round-Up, 1910-2000., Kylee Moneypenny

WWU Graduate School Collection

In Pendleton, Oregon in 1910, at a local Fourth of July celebration, cowboy Lee Caldwell’s brave bronc ride earned him a saddle and some local celebrity. Pendleton boosters, such as Roy Raley, saw an opportunity to host a frontier exhibition and the following year, Raley started the Pendleton Round-Up. The Round-Up grew to encompass three key events: the rodeo, the wild west show, and the parade. Each of these events offers a lens through which to examine shifting racial and gendered hierarchies of the 20th century. Rodeo at the Pendleton Round-up was a temporarily permeable space within which men and …

Larger Than Jelly Alone: Appalachian Reproductive Politics In The Depression Era, Katelyn Damron

WWU Graduate School Collection

This thesis focuses on an experimental birth control trial that was conducted in Appalachian Kentucky from 1936-1942. The experiment was designed to establish the effectiveness of a simple spermicidal lactic acid jelly to prevent pregnancy, and it was based on the assumption that poor mountain women reproduced excessively. The trial was funded by a wealthy eugenicist named Clarence Gamble and was guided by a volunteer organization known as the Mountain Maternal Health League (MMHL) in Berea, Kentucky. Though other works have distanced the MMHL from eugenic thought and practice, this thesis argues that Gamble and the women of the MMHL …

A Love That Dare Not Speak: Empire’S Impact On Sodomy Persecutions In Victorian London, Kristina Kelehan

WWU Graduate School Collection

The last few decades of 19^th Century Victorian London witnessed a dramatic spike in sodomy persecutions. Some of these trials are well known, such as Oscar Wilde, while many others are mere blots on the historical record. Historians have examined this period, and the corresponding trials, to outline the development of the modern homosexual identity in England. This thesis, rather, examines how this period witnessed a resurgence of heteronormative gendered expectations, particularly regarding masculinity. In outlining these changes, particular attention is focused on grounding the (in)famous Labouchere Amendment, or Clause 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, back …

The Americal’S Japanese Americans: An American Tale From The South Pacific, Roger R. Thompson

History Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

America’S National Guardsmen In The South Pacific And Forming The Americal: Globalizing State Militias In A Time Of Crisis, Roger R. Thompson

History Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Before The Americal (Part Two): Task Force 6814 And Saving The British And French Empires In The Asia-Pacific, 1940–1942, Roger R. Thompson

History Faculty and Staff Publications

Contributing Editor’s Note: Before the Americal in Vietnam was the historic formation of the Americal on New Caledonia after it arrived as Task Force 6814. But what were the conditions that shaped the Task Force to come to that part of the world which sealed the legacy of the Americal as a jungle-fighting infantry division? This article gives you the unique background to what was to become “The Americal Story.”

Framing History At Three Commemorative Sites To Atrocity: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Whitney Plantation Museum, And National Memorial For Peace And Justice, Erin M. Escobar

WWU Graduate School Collection

In this work, I engage in comparative analysis of the institutional histories of three American commemorative sites to atrocity: the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., the Whitney Plantation Museum in Edgard, Louisiana, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Using comparative case studies and employing a narrative-focused analytical framework to analyze each site, I determine how the origins of each site influences the ways it uses atrocity, and how the specific framing of atrocity in each space shapes historical consciousness and collective memories for visitors. This thesis demonstrates the power of commemorative sites …

Oswald Of Northumbria: Pagan Hero, Christian Saint, Caleb Lyon

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An overview of Saint Oswald's depiction by Bede and the pagan characteristics visible in his ninth and tenth century Christian worship.

Before The Americal: Task Force 6814 And Saving America’S Asian Empire, 1940-1942, Roger R. Thompson

History Faculty and Staff Publications

Contributing Editor’s Note: Before the Americal in Vietnam was the historic formation of the Americal on New Caledonia after it arrived as Task Force 6814. But what were the conditions that shaped the Task Force to come to that part of the world which sealed the legacy of the Americal as a jungle-fighting infantry division? This article gives you the unique background to what was to become “The Americal Story.”

Inventing America: National Politics In The New Republic, Stuart Medalen

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Inventing America: National Politics in the New Republic by Stuart Medalen is a basic game manual for a "Reacting to the Past" academic game. "Reacting to the Past" is a system that gives players the opportunity to roleplay historical events as specific historical characters. Rather than simply reenacting these events, players attempt to realize their character’s goals, putting them in competitive play against other players. The chosen historical period and place is the first Congressional session of the United States.

A Republic In Its Own Time: The Re-Imagining Of Republican Theory In The Federalist Papers, Jonah Rink

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The American Framing was one rooted in Republican political theory, and through examining republican thought one can better understand the ideological framework of the American Constitution.

Piratical Actors: Origins, Motives, And Political Sentiments, C.1716-1726, Corey Griffis

Occam's Razor

In the middle months of the year 1720, Clement Downing arrived at the settlement of Saint Augustin in Mad­agascar, a midshipman aboard the Salisbury on its journey to trade in India. Led by ex-pirate John Rivers from 1686-1719, Saint Augustin was well-known as a resupplying depot for pirates operating in the region and, like other settlements in the immediate vicinity, was populated by “30 to 50 ex-pirates, or men waiting for a ship.”1 As ex-pirates, these men were said to have had “a very open-handed fraternity” with the Indigenous Malagasy populations; on rare occasions, the ex-pirates traded for enslaved people …

Occam's Razor Vol. 10 - Full (2020), Ally Remy

Occam's Razor

No abstract provided.

“We Know We Are Forgotten”: Re-Centering Women In The Study Of Economic Sanctions On Iraq, 1990-2003, Samia Saliba

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

From 1990-2003, the United Nations, largely at the direction of the United States., enforced a strict set of international sanctions against Iraq with the goal of eliminating chemical weapons in Iraq and weakening Saddam Hussein’s regime. While the impacts of these sanctions were widespread and devastating, this period also saw a specific loss of rights and worsening of social and economic conditions for most Iraqi women. In this paper, I examine these understudied gendered impacts of sanctions, particularly on women’s participation in the workforce, education, and political arena; as well as their impacts on family structures and marriage, genderbased violence …

Enslaved Midwives In The Long Eighteenth Century: Slavery, Reproduction, And Creolization In The Chesapeake, 1720 - 1830, Emily A. Lampert

WWU Graduate School Collection

This project is an exploration into the important role enslaved midwives played as both facilitators of and participants in the creolization of enslaved plantation communities in the Chesapeake during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Importantly, this project is geographically and temporally unique and serves to bridge multiple historiographies, including gender and slavery, slavery and medicine, and creolization. Using mainly slaveholder financial records, I have traced the dissemination of reproductive knowledge from local white midwives to enslaved black women beginning as early as the 1720s, as well as black women’s appropriation of reproductive spaces on Chesapeake plantations, a process largely …