History Commons^™

Central American Migration Patterns: How The Actions Of The United States Have Impacted Emigration From The Northern Triangle Of Central America, Sydney Newby

Honors Projects

This paper is based on the fact that there is a growing number of Americans who feel negatively about immigrants, especially from Latin America. However, these people do not consider what role their own country plays in these migration patterns. There has been an increase in migration from Central America, specifically the countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras and there has been research by experts on what has caused this migration surge. Some of these reasons include political and economic instability. However, a lesser explored reason in the field and a reason that is likely not considered by the …

Title Ix: An Analysis Of Its Effects On Collegiate Athletics, Hanna Laube

Honors Projects

Title IX has had a monumental impact on the development of women’s opportunities in sports. I conducted three interviews with women athletes who competed in college from 1967-71, 1995-99, and 2009-2014. I also analyzed some primary research on how female athletes remember Title IX and some secondary research on remembering Title IX. In the interviews I found that all the athletes were very appreciative of Title IX, but did not know much about it and therefore could not think very critically about it. In contrast, scholars were very critical of Title IX and pointed out the shortcomings in the law. …

A Conscious Image Of Liberation: Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Eta) In The Late Franco Regime, Through The Lens Of The Press, Sebastian De Lasa

Honors Projects

The rise of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) in the early 1970s coincided with the rise of national liberation movements across Europe, which largely were inspired by notable examples of resistance throughout the Global South in the decades prior. ETA’s growth over this period, and in the years prior, was heavily dependent on the image created of the organziation in the local, domestic, and international press, including through documents distributed by the group itself. By comparing ETA’s external presence to the group’s internal strife, it becomes clear that ETA made efforts to align itself with the popular revolutionary language of the …

Sexual Knowledge In Late-Colonial Bombay: Contested Authority, Politicized Sciences, Rahul Prabhu

Honors Projects

Sexuality was at the fulcrum of various issues facing late-colonial India from social reform projects such as child marriage, women’s rights and birth control to concerns of socioeconomic, physical and sexual weakening. The question of sexual modernity became implicated in imaginations of the modern post-colonial nation, setting the stage for a period of energized, linguistically plural projects of sexual knowledge production. While science was used to authorize such projects in the West, where could authority be located in a context where science held plural meaning and authority itself was highly contested? This paper asks how scientific authority was understood, deployed …

Enlightenment As Global History: The Reception Of Confucianism In Eighteenth-Century France, Rachel Yang

Honors Projects

While the Enlightenment was once seen as a unique product of Western intellectual heritage, recent scholars have started to challenge this Eurocentric notion with the concept of a “global Enlightenment” by considering how it was shaped by cross-cultural encounters. To contribute to this body of scholarship, I trace the reception history of Confucianism in eighteenth-century France and examine how Chinese philosophy played a part in shaping and stimulating Enlightenment discourse. My research starts with the Jesuit missionaries who served as the intellectual intermediaries between China and Europe. Through a close reading of Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, a Latin translation of …

Building Home In Diaspora: New York’S Jewish Left And The History Of The Bronx Housing Cooperatives, Micah Benjamin Wilson

Honors Projects

This thesis investigates three predominantly Jewish housing cooperatives that emerged in the Bronx in the late 1920s. The Amalgamated Housing Cooperative, the United Workers Cooperative Colony (the “Coops”), and the Sholem Aleichem Houses offered garment workers utopian retreats from the drudgery of Lower East Side tenements where Jewish immigrants arrived in droves between 1890-1920. With each cooperative housing a distinct faction of the Jewish Left––from socialists to communists to Yiddish nationalists––the Bronx housing cooperatives, more than experiments in communal living, were the site of a highly contested battle over competing Jewish cultural and political worldviews across the 1930s and 1940s. …

"A New World For Instrumental Art": An Exploration Of The Nineteenth-Century Saxophone Quartet And Its Repertoire, Laney Sheehan

Honors Projects

This Honors Project examines the major characteristics of the nineteenth-century saxophone quartet and its repertoire through the lens of four musical works: Hector Berlioz’s Hymne (for six wind instruments of Adolphe Sax), Jean-Baptiste Singelée’s Premier Quatuor, Jérôme Savari’s Quatuor pour Saxophones, and Caryl Florio’s Quartette (Allegro de Concert).

The American Immigrant Experience Through A Photographic Lens, Olivia Sevits

Honors Projects

My goal is to assess how the photographic medium has historically been used to document the American immigrant experience. Then, I will create my own photo book to provide a different perspective and serve as a response to these traditional portrayals. As the granddaughter of Hungarian immigrants and refugees, I often reflect on my grandparents’ experiences and how they impacted my own life.

By researching both traditional and contemporary photographers whose work focused on American immigrants, I can compare how these immigrants were presented through different lenses. With my own photography, my intention is to provide an honest look into …

In The Devil's Shadow: Sacred Agency, Cosmic Struggle, And The Cultural-Religious Clashes That Shaped Colonial New England, 1620-1693, Mark Laskey

Honors Projects

The diabolic portrayal of resident native populations featured prominently in the seventeenth-century colonial Separatist and Puritan worldview, with the Algonquian peoples cast as a corrupted race in the service of the Devil; a means by which God challenged religious complacency or chastised collective sin; and, in times of spiritual crisis and despair, a mortal threat to the "rule of saints" in the region. This study focuses on the real-world impact of the nonconforming Reformed Anglo-Protestant belief system and the resulting cultural-religious clashes that shaped New England's early colonial period.

Structural Delusion, Religious Anxiety, And A Melodramatic Priest: Exploring Macro And Micro Influences On The CóRdoban Martyrs, Emma K. Friesen

Honors Projects

After escaping the assassination of the Umayyad royal family in Damascus, a member of this family, Abd al-Rahman I, fled to the Iberian Peninsula to establish a new Umayyad Empire (756-1492 AD). Famous for its pluralistic polity, unparalleled scholarship, artistic prowess, and more, this empire rightfully established itself as a powerful political force. Many scholars emphasize the unique convivencia, or coexistence, that characterized Islamic Spain during these centuries while others thoroughly question this reality, concerned that it ignores the cultural strain that is inevitable in such a diverse society. In this essay, we find ourselves balancing a middle position, recognizing …

Folklore Of The Shenandoah Valley, Heather Good

Honors Projects

The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia has a long and storied history, which has resulted in the development of a rich folklore unique to the area. Stories and traditions have been passed down through generations, often by family and community members but also through the few texts that have been written on the subject. As a writer and local of the area, this cultural tradition has played a significant role in helping me to discover my own voice through looking at the voices that came before me.

This project will fist focus on two significant periods in the history of the …

A Comparative Analysis Of Bohemian And Irish Immigration During The Antebellum Period, Emily Suchan

Honors Projects

Compare and Contrast the immigration experience of an Irish and Bohemian (Czech) immigrant. This essay describes the history of both regions and analyzes the political and economic stressors for immigration during the second half of the nineteenth century. This essay specifically follows the Irish Famine immigrants and the Czechs who settled in Cleveland, OH

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story? A Marxist Analysis Of "Hamilton" And Its Relationship To The Broadway Economic System, Alana Ritt

Honors Projects

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s mega-hit Hamilton: An American Musical has been both a critical and academic darling since its premiere in 2015. A historical retelling of America’s inception through the eyes of an oft-ignored founding father, the musical weaves together a diverse cast and hip-hop musical stylings in order to tell the story of “America then, as told by America now.” While many critics and scholars alike have praised the musical for putting an exciting and accessible twist to American history, others have argued that the musical is not nearly as “revolutionary” as it claims to be. This essay is designed to …

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story? A Marxist Analysis Of "Hamilton" And Its Relationship To The Broadway Economic System, Alana Ritt

Honors Projects

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s mega-hit Hamilton: An American Musical has been both a critical and academic darling since its premiere in 2015. A historical retelling of America’s inception through the eyes of an oft-ignored founding father, the musical weaves together a diverse cast and hip-hop musical stylings in order to tell the story of “America then, as told by America now.” While many critics and scholars alike have praised the musical for putting an exciting and accessible twist to American history, others have argued that the musical is not nearly as “revolutionary” as it claims to be. This essay is designed to …

Bringing The Japanese Occupation Of Korea To High School Classrooms, Bree Rosenberger

Honors Projects

Bringing the Japanese Occupation of Korea to High School Classrooms is a set of three units on the occupation, designed using the Inquiry Design Model from the C3 Teachers. Each unit corresponds to a major time period in the occupation; unit one covers 1876-1919, unit two 1919-1931, and unit three 1931-1945. This project aimed to provide a way to teach the occupation in a manner friendly to high school students and presents an opportunity to align content more fully with the philosophy of social studies education. Finally, it presents a way to teach East Asian history actually from an East …

Teaching The Lessons Of The Vietnam War And Applying Them To The War In Afghanistan: Lesson Plans For A Sophomore Us History Class, Zoe Bond

Honors Projects

This project is a series of lesson plans for a 10^th grade US History class detailing the lessons of the Vietnam War and how they have and haven’t been used by President Obama in his decisions during the War in Afghanistan. The lesson plan uses Differentiation and Universal Design for Learning to accommodate every student in the class. The goal of this project was to teach original research in a way that promotes inquiry even if there is no correct answer at that time.

History, Nationalism, And Public Opinion: The Memorialization Of George Mason, Kasandra Fager

Honors Projects

The George Mason Memorial , built on the National Mall in 2002, captures the accomplishments of George Mason, a Founding Father, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and he refused to sign the U.S. Constitution. Identifying Mason's history and exploring the motivations and struggles of the creation of the memorial opens a conversation for public opinion regarding the memorial's physical manifestation. The height of the Jefferson Memorial, the height of the George Washington obelisk, and the beauty of the Lincoln Memorial is seen as a testament of their god-like status in American history. So, where does this leave Mason’s …

From Memory To Present To An Uncertain Future: An Analysis Of History And Policy On Chinese Food Security, Justin Mascarin

Honors Projects

This paper seeks to analyze China’s historical relationship to famine to better understand contemporary Chinese policy on food security. The historical analysis focuses both at the political level and the level of the peasantry, with a particular focus on the Great Chinese Famine. This Chinese specific analysis in conjunction with an understanding of food security history helps to better understand two white papers on food security from the Chinese Government in 1996 and 2019. This paper finds these white papers to be response to deep rooted doubts in the ability for the Chinese Government to logistically support such a massive …

Ba'ath Party Archives And The Khmer Rouge Records: The Importance Of Cultural Accessibility, Elizabeth M. Thompson

Honors Projects

This paper contrasts the handling, provenance, and application of the Ba’ath Party Archives with that of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge Records. While similar in many facets, the events surrounding the Ba’ath Party Archives received heavy ridicule while the international community largely supported the handling of the Khmer Rouge records. The comparison of the Cambodian and Iraqi case studies’ distinct differences reveal why international opinion varies. It also emphasizes a gap within standard understanding concerning archival law and practices. This exploration will reveal that current archival dialogue focuses too much on a dichotomous relationship between international and national concerns. The author …

Jigs, Reels, And “Realness”: An Investigation Of Ideas Of Authenticity And Tradition In New England French Canadian Music, Lowell Ruck

Honors Projects

Franco-American culture is increasingly recognized as an integral part of the heritage of Maine and New England, and has attracted growing academic attention in recent years. But while many scholars and cultural promoters focus on the French language in their work on this subject, few studies have considered the position of traditional music in Franco-American communities in the 21^st century. This thesis examines French Canadian traditional music as it is played in New England and the ways in which musicians think about authenticity and tradition in their art. Using material from ethnographic interviews, it illuminates how musicians draw from …

The Jewish “Other” In Argentina: Antisemitism, Exclusion, And The Formation Of Argentine Nationalism And Identity In The 20th Century And During Military Rule (1976-1983), Marcus Helble

Honors Projects

Throughout the 20th century, Argentine leaders and social actors attempted to shape distinct national identities and a sense of nationalism that corresponded to their respective political ideologies. Beginning in the first couple decades of the 20th century, the formation of a Jewish “other” would be central to the construction of both Argentine national identity and nationalism. This thesis argues that the military dictatorship that led the country from 1976 to 1983 built on this othering of the Jewish community as military leaders sought to forge a national identity linked to Catholicism. It focuses first on three separate periods of the …

Promises Unfulfilled: Integration And Segregation In Metropolitan Philadelphia Public Schools, 1954-2009, Nina Nayiri Mckay

Honors Projects

Even though Brown v. Board of Education outlawed segregation in public schools in 1954, many American children still attend schools that are racially and, increasingly, socioeconomically segregated. Philadelphia, a northern city that did not have an explicit policy of segregating children on the basis of race when Brown was decided, nevertheless still has entrenched residential segregation that replicates in public schools. The metropolitan area became a segregated space in the years around World War II, when housing discrimination, employment discrimination, lending discrimination, suburbanization, and urban renewal started the years-long trajectory of growing white suburbs surrounding an increasingly non-white and under-resourced …

Alexander The Great And The Rise Of Christianity, Stephen M. Girard

Honors Projects

Alexander the Great and the Rise of Christianity focuses on the political, mythical, and philosophical connection between Alexander the Great's life and the beginnings of early Christianity. The first chapter of the text focuses on an analysis of mythical conceptions of Alexander the Great as “Son of God” as well as cultural perceptions of him as “Philosopher King” and cosmopolitan, and how these portraits of Alexander were influential for Christianity. The second chapter analyzes Alexander’s relationship with the Jewish people, and his appearances in the Old Testament apocalyptic Book of Daniel. The last chapter discusses Alexander’s relationship with Christianity itself, …

Brutal Encounters: Primitivity, Politics, And The Postmodern Revolution, Archer Thomas

Honors Projects

The switch from late modernism to postmodernism in Western aesthetic theory and criticism took place in the mid-to-late 20th century, radically changing the face of cultural criticism. Much has been written on how postmodernism broke from modernism, but what factors paved its way in the decades following the Second World War? This paper argues that postmodernism represents both a reaction to and a necessary evolution of late modernism, specifically as it manifests in architecture, politics, and the politics of architecture. It focuses on the crisis of confidence among Western left-wing circles following the upheaval of the Second World War and …

“The Speechmaking Of A Girl-Orator”: Reason, Gender, And Authority In Dorothy Hunter’S Free Trade Oratory, Erinn Elizabeth Campbell

Honors Projects

Dorothy M. Hunter (1881-1977) rose to prominence during the 1906 United Kingdom general election as a markedly “girlish” yet widely respected free trade orator. While men on the Edwardian public political platform typically built a reputation for oratorical prowess through theatrical displays of “heroic” masculinity, Hunter established her authority as a speaker through two very different (and apparently contradictory) strategies. Her performance of “charming” middle-class femininity helped demonstrate her right to speak on free trade as a “women’s question,” extending women’s traditional authority over matters of domestic consumption to include questions of political economy. Trusting in the power of education …

What Seoul Saw, What Gwangju Knew: Journalism And Censorship During The Gwangju Pro-Democracy Movement, Emily Ambrose

Honors Projects

This year marks the 40^th anniversary of the Kwangju Pro-Democracy Movement, a civilian protest in the city of Kwangju against the Chun Doo Hwan military dictatorship, which was brutally crushed by the military. This research focuses on the journalism that occurred during movement and attempts to analyze the relationship between the government and the media by gauging the extent of censorship. This is done by comparing censored national and local newspapers in Korea to uncensored foreign newspapers for differences in the information presented. Because of factors such as biases and differences in access to resources between newspapers and journalists, …

Investigation Of The "Cultural Appropriation" Of Yoga, Olivia Bartholomew

Honors Projects

With our world becoming increasingly globalized and cosmopolitan, practices that were once very traditional and spiritual are much different when they confront Western societies. Many yoga instructors and practitioners around the world are concerned about the issue of cultural appropriation within their practice. The researcher defines cultural appropriation to mean the process of a dominant culture manipulating aspects of a marginalized culture for its benefit. Traditionally, yoga comes from India, but it has become popularized throughout the world in our recent human history. Through interviews with nine yoga instructors, each from different yogic traditions, who teach in a variety of …

Out In The Cold: How Truman Killed Roosevelt's Vision For The United Nations, Nicholas Dwyer

Honors Projects

Following President Roosevelt’s death, the final negotiations and formative first years of the United Nations fell to Truman. Roosevelt intended the organization to address international crises, and Truman claimed Roosevelt’s legacy, however Truman’s decisions over his nearly eight years in office pushed the United Nations to become afterthought in American foreign policy. This paper examines how the vision for the United Nations changed from Roosevelt to Truman, and its consequences.

The Soviet And American Wars In Afghanistan: Applying Clausewitzian Concepts To Modern Military Failure, Artur Kalandarov

Honors Projects

This paper evaluates the validity of three concepts from Carl von Clausewitz’s On War as they relate to contemporary military conflict. Utilizing the Soviet and American Wars in Afghanistan as case studies, the paper also offers a model for comparative conflict analysis by expanding upon Clausewitz’s culminating point concept. It argues that – despite limitations to Clausewitz’s theory of war – his concepts of culminating points in military operations, mass and concentration, and changing war aims provide useful insights into counterinsurgency military failures. Chapter One identifies the Soviet and American culminating points. Concluding that the concept of a culminating point …

“The Spirit Of Turbulence”: East Indian Political Imaginaries In Early 20th Century British Guiana, Faria A. Nasruddin

Honors Projects

After the abolition of slavery, the Colonial Office instituted an indentured labor scheme that lasted from 1838 to 1917, in which they brought East Indians to the plantation colonies as laborers under five year contracts. Due to the planter class’ desire for permanent sources of labor in British Guiana, the Colonial Government incentivized East Indians to permanently settle. East Indians thus dominated the British Guiana’s agricultural landscape and became the single largest ethnicity in the Colony by 1920. This thesis explores the early negotiations of the meaning of diaspora and diasporic citizenship for East Indians in British Guiana. They comprised …