Classics Commons^™

As Sacred As The Laws Of God: Property As The Link Between Cicero, Jefferson And Adams, Adam Mattison

Graduate Masters Theses

Gilbert Chinard’s publication of Thomas Jefferson’s legal commonplace book in 1926 and literary commonplace book in 1928 introduced a new question into the study of the American Founders: what was the relationship between the Founders and the authors of the classical world? Through the twentieth century, the historiography of that question has resolved into three separate streams represented by Bernard Bailyn’s Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Meyer Reinhold’s Classica Americana and Carl Richard’s The Founders and the Classics. These three scholars argued respectively; that the Founders were not influenced by the classics and only used them as ornamentation …

Ruins And Remedies: Hospital Site Archaeology In Medieval Southeast Asia, Karen Hill

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Awards For Outstanding Papers Written In 2026

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

African or Middle Eastern History

American Indian Studies Indigenous History Award

Bertis L. and Anna E.C. Embry Award in Global Latter-day Saint History

Cultural History Award

De Lamar and Mary Jensen Award in European History

Eugene E. Campbell Award in Utah History

Family History Award

Fred R. Gowans Award in 19th Century American West History

Faith and Reason Paper Competition

History of Empire Award

History of the Family Award

Latin American History Award

Latino/Latina History Award

Leroy R. Hafen Award in North American History

Mark R. Grandstaff Award in Military History

Sechin Jagchid Award in Non-Western History

Women’s History Award …

Co-Opting Modernity: The Semantic Retooling Of Faith At The 1893 World’S Parliament Of Religions, Erik P. Palmer

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago served as a high-stakes arena where the boundaries of religious legitimacy were redrawn through the intentional adoption of social science vocabulary. Staged within the Neo-Classical architecture of the White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the event was more than a civil gathering; it functioned as a “Museum of Faiths” where religious traditions were curated, categorized, and evaluated against the perceived benchmarks of Western civilization. The physical environment of the Fair, a monument to industrial triumph, was built to display things that worked. The organizers demanded that religions demonstrate they were useful …

Moving Forward, Looking Back: How Mormon Women Sought To Carry Their Polygamous Past Into A Progressive Future Article, Evan Janis

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The influence of woman is fully recognized.” These words, spoken by Emily S. Richards, echoed the shared mission of Utah women at the World’s Congress of Representative Women: to overturn the public perception of them as ignorant, crude, and barbaric. After decades of legal and social campaigns against the so-called “second barbarism” of polygamy, the reputation of Mormon women had been one of its greatest casualties. Cast as too homely to marry a respectable man, too naive to resist deception, and too submissive to think for themselves, the Utah delegation to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair sought to redefine their …

Letters From The Levant: An Astellian Reading, Tanner Stott

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Among the more startling friendships of early 18th-century London’s literary scene is that of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Mary Astell. Their commonalities—remarkable self-education, political activism, and prolific writing—are dwarfed by vast differences of class, politics, and character. Astell, a curiously conservative woman nearly twenty-three years Montagu’s senior, spent her unmarried life squarely in the middle class. Montagu, on the other hand, began her life in England’s loftiest social echelons—the daughter of a Duke, she eloped with untitled Edward only to see him become one of England’s wealthiest men. Montagu lived colorfully with “principles,” according to Lady Irwin, “as corrupt …

Civilizing The Russian Frontier: Ferdinand And Elisabeth Von Wrangell’S Impact On Russian America, Ariel Brown

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the early 19th century, the Russian colonies in North America struggled due to alcoholism, limited health care, violent attacks from Native tribes, extramarital relations, rat infestations, and weather-induced architectural decay. It is no wonder then that Ferdinand von Wrangell, the sixth governor of Russian America said, “It was our duty or rather we considered it as such, to introduce the concepts of decency and mores to this remote corner of the globe.” He believed his wife Elisabeth would also play a large role in that endeavor, stating, “In the absence of European females our ideas, conventions of civilization and …

From Cotton To Canyons: An Analysis Of The Historic Industries Of Southern Utah, Brielle Beardall

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On October 6, 1861, Brigham Young stood before Latter-day Saints gathered in the Old Salt Lake City Tabernacle and called 300 missionaries on an ambitious undertaking: Over three hundred families would leave their homes and settle in the Utahn southwestern desert; a region that earned the nickname of “Utah’s Dixie” for both its southern location and its punishing heat. Their mission was to cultivate cotton and increase Utahn economic independence from the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Allen Joseph Stout recalled in a personal journal about his experience learning of the call to Southern Utah, “My neighbors reported that …

Narrating The Bucolic South: How Southern Living Reflected And Shaped The South In The 1990s, Krista C. Wright

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In December 1995 at a company Christmas party, previous editor Gary McCalla spoke with Emory Cunningham, sitting president and chair who oversaw the transition from the practical Progressive Farmer to a lifestyle magazine for the “New South.” Looking around the room, Cunningham remarked, “These young people have no idea where we came from.” McCalla recalled a memo he and John Logue, creative director of the magazine, had written in the early days, outlining “what we believed had to be done to save Southern Living.” At that moment, the two noticed the song playing in the background— “History” by Michael …

“Wak[Ing] Up A Sleeping Giant”: Zions Opinion’S Crusade For Independent Governance And Free Speech At Brigham Young University During The 1968–1969 School Year, Joseph Boysen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1968, university and college students across the United States demanded a larger voice in university governance. Sit-ins, rallies, and demonstrations were common, whether for civil rights, free speech, women’s rights, or against the Vietnam war and the draft. For instance, students took over the office of the President of Columbia University to protest the University’s appropriation of land that might have benefited the Black community. In this context, the students at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, had the chance to consider how they were going to pursue their own calls for change. Although they did not engage in …

Le Roi Shrinks Before La Nation And La Liberté: Feminine Allegories And The King In French Revolutionary Prints, Jared Cluff

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Printers in the early years of the French Revolution faced an unprecedented problem with new, unprecedented legal flexibility. Though the most cohesive government-coordinated efforts to overturn old symbols and refashion France’s national identity would not come until the Republican period, French engravers in the early years of the Revolution found existing Old Regime symbols and visual codes inadequate tools, so sought “a visual formula for [this] unprecedented historical change.” Furthermore, while the National Assembly did not completely do away with the Old Regime censorship systems that it ostensibly abolished with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, printers …

Reshaping Home: Chinese Immigrant Women’S Adaptation And Family Transformation Under Exclusion, Chloe Nicole 零星 Isom

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1941, Jew Law Ying arrived at the port of San Francisco with her infant daughter, Bak Heong, seeking admission to join her merchant husband, Yung Hin Sen, in the United States. Upon arrival, immigration officials detained Jew Law Ying and her daughter and required both her and her husband to answer nearly two hundred detailed questions about themselves to prove their identities and relationship. Officials designed these questions to uncover inconsistencies and expose fraudulent relationships, and they were so intricate that, despite their legal and legitimate marriage, Jew Law Ying and Yung Hin Sen had prepared extensively, memorizing answers …

From The Editor: Preface, Phoebe England Baker Editor In Chief

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. for a class. There, I experienced the life-changing Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Never had I attended a museum that was so well-curated. The museum started in the basement, a space intentionally designed with narrow passages, low ceilings, and dim lighting to evoke the conditions of a slave ship.

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

A Poetic Call For And A Reflection And Commentary On Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, And Compassion, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Finding a published poem I had written as a teenager, titled “The Heavens Weep.” this article uses that poem as the basis for a commentary that reflects on the state of the world today (2026),  As a commentary, the article uses the poetic and metaphoric words in the poem as a relevant "reality check" for what is still going on today.  In essence, the commentary is about a call for Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, and Compassion, or what I call Archetypal Energies, Higher Vibrational Energies that operate deep within our individual and collective psyches to creatively urge us to "see" …

The Kings Are Dead. Long Live The Kings: The Legacy Of Roman Kingship In The Republican And Imperial Periods, Dylan Hillebrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From Romulus through Tarquinius Superbus, Rome’s kings occupied a major place within the collective cultural imagination of the ancient polity long after the office was abolished. For generations, no accusation was as odious as “king” and the entire period was seen as a cautionary tale. While the legacy of the kings remained an essential part of Roman identity, how the people related to that legacy changed eventually resulting in a restoration of kingship. A complete picture of the establishment-rejection-restoration cycle becomes clear through examination of the works of Roman (and Greek) historians. Central questions which guide this study: Why were …

The Female Gothic And Marianne Dashwood: The Gothic Heroine Of Sense And Sensibility, Samantha Cottle

English (MA) Theses

In the late eighteenth-century, the rise of the English Gothic novel propelled an extension referred to as the Female Gothic. Through the complexity of the English Gothic genre, writers—particularly women writers—explore the intersectionality of gender, class, natural horrors, and race, creating a space where the heroines of these Gothic novels exist beyond the confinement of the domestic sphere. The Female Gothic was a way for these women writers to acknowledge the natural horrors that plagued the experiences of being a woman—it addressed the oppression of a patriarchal society in which the subversion of the female body was perceived as an …

Did Paul Preach “Another Jesus?” Gospels, Spirits, And The Christ Myth In 2 Corinthians 11.4, Nathaniel P. Desrosiers

Journal of Religious Competition in Antiquity

No abstract provided.

Putting The Domus In The Domus Ecclesiae, Mary Joan Winn Leith, Allyson Everingham Sheckler

Journal of Religious Competition in Antiquity

No abstract provided.