History Commons^™

From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Imagine an intimate room filled with people playing cards and casually chatting, while one of Chopin’s piano sonatas plays elegantly in the background. This scenario is characteristic of the atmosphere surrounding Classical and Romantic European salons. Salons served as havens of musical discourse from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. However, with the advancement of technology from the mid-twentieth century to the present, there has been a decline, or, arguably, even a cessation of salon life.

The aim of this project was to recreate the salon environment through the generation of the online discussion forum, "Music Soirée." To …

Nichter On Burr And Kimball, 'Nixon's Nuclear Specter: The Secret Alert Of 1969, Madman Diplomacy, And The Vietnam War', Luke A. Nichter

Presidential Studies Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Nixon's Nuclear Specter: The Secret Alert of 1969, Madman Diplomacy, and the Vietnam War by William Burr and Jeffrey P. Kimball.

1st Place Research Paper: Moviegoers And The Moon In 1953, Hannah E. Gary

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

"By analyzing the complicated production of the sexually-provocative The Moon is Blue in the early 1950s, this essay seeks to isolate the perspectives of censorship groups, artistic authorities, governmental legislatures, and the Production Code Administration (PCA) in their respective appraisals of the Hollywood industry’s movie-going public. Referencing communications between studio personnel and the PCA, as well as court documents and scholarly research, this paper highlights how the various organizations’ differing conceptions are relevant with regards to their Cold War context. This period inspired containment ideology in narratives celebrating 'universal ideals and patriotic or sacred causes' through the awareness of a …

Moving Back To The 18th Century View's Of Women's Role And Perception Of Their Lives: The Case Of Motherhood, Yelena Liepelt

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project will explore the role of French women of the 18th century, and specifically the problems they faced due to their gender. I will analyze the obstacles that made it difficult for strong women, such as physicist and author Madame du Châtelet, to obtain happiness. These include the complicated identity of educated and ambitious women who lived within a strict gender binary system.

I will compare Châtelet’s concept of happiness from a female perspective to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s view of women’s happiness and maternity. Rousseau believed women played an important role in society; however, their existence was always relative to …

Partisanship And Foreign Policy, Sauran Mussin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Throughout the Cold War era matters of US foreign policy have been met with increasing bipartisanship as a result of the looming threat of a possible military confrontation with the USSR. Divergence between the two parties was sidelined due to the necessity for unity on account of the military and economical threat that rivaled US interests. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, more recently post 9/11 era and the launch of the Global War on Terror there has been an increasing partisanship disagreement within the US government towards foreign policy. This research paper will attempt to explain the relationship …

Honorable Mention Research Paper: A “Land You Could Not Escape Yet Almost Didn’T Want To Leave:” Japanese American Identity In Manzanar Internment Camp Gardens, Mckenzie P. Tavoda

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

"While prior scholarship on Japanese American Internment during World War II has been prolific, few have researched the role the natural environment played within the camps and the impact it had on the internees. Some scholars have supposed that the environment was chiefly a negative influence, like Connie Chiang, but few have studied the resourceful accomplishments of the internees in designing and cultivating gardens that reflected both their ancestral identity and contemporary American sensibility. Scholars such as Kenneth Helphand argued that the gardens were strictly an act of defiance. Others like David Neiwert lay claim to the Japanese immigrant enclave …

1st Place Contest Entry: Moviegoers And The Moon In 1953, Hannah E. Gary

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Hannah Gary's submission for the 2014-2015 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won first place. She wrote about the industrial and cultural implications of the film The Moon is Blue during the heavily censored Cold War period. You can read the final essay that came out of her research here.

Honorable Mention Contest Entry: A “Land You Could Not Escape Yet Almost Didn’T Want To Leave:” Japanese American Identity In Manzanar Internment Camp Gardens, Mckenzie P. Tavoda

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is McKenzie Tavoda's submission for the 2014-2015 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won honorable mention. She wrote about Japanese American identity in the Manzanar Internment Camp gardens. You can read the final essay that came out of her research here.

3rd Place Contest Entry: "Make It A Woman's World": The 1911 California Woman's Suffrage Campaign, Sarah E. Smith

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Sarah Smith's submission for the 2014-2015 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won third place. She wrote about the internal politics of the 1911 California woman suffrage campaign, looking particularly at how suffragists negotiated gender roles and expectations in their attempt to win the right to vote.

Maestros De La Manipulación: Titiriteros De La Memoria Histórica En No De Pablo Larraín Y La Niña De Tus Ojos De Fernando Trueba / Master Manipulators: Puppeteers Of Historical Memory In No By Pablo Larraín And The Girl Of Your Dreams By Fernando Trueba, Polly J. Hodge

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

Se exploran dos obras cinematográficas, No de Pablo Larraín y La niña de tus ojos de Fernando Trueba, en función de sus raíces literarias y el concepto de la memoria histórica. Las obras basadas en eventos históricos intensos y violentos tienen la capacidad de retratar la dialéctica entre la memoria y la amnesia histórica. De esta manera se estimula el impulso por desenmascarar los sistemas de poder y dialogar con la sociedad actual. En el proceso, se descubren soluciones alternativas a la violencia para tratar los problemas políticos.

Historicity, Achronicity, And The Materiality Of Cultures In Colonial Brazil, Amy J. Buono

Art Faculty Articles and Research

"In this essay, I use three nontraditional forms from the visual culture of colonial Brazil—Tupinambá featherwork, Portuguese Atlantic mandinga pouches, and azulejos (tilework)— in order to meditate upon materiality and temporality as methodological problems with which our discipline should engage. Each of these art forms has historical trajectories that span cultures, continents, and centuries, a circumstance that raises questions as to how such diverse and stubbornly nonhistoricizable genres can be melded into a coherent historical narrative of the visual and material cultures specific to 'Brazil,' especially when two of them — the mandinga bags and azulejos — are not intrinsically …