Digital Commons Network^™

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2026

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Complete issue of the Gettysburg Historical Journal 2026

Front Matter

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Front matter of the Gettysburg Historical Journal 2026

Little Better Than One Of The Savages, Michael J. Aaron

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Western Pennsylvania was one of the earliest frontiers in US history, but is often overlooked and oversimplified. The frontier just west of the Appalachian Mountains was a complicated place of settler and Native American interaction, varied permanent settlement, and wilderness. The journal and letters of Major Ebenezer Denny show a complicated frontier of danger, wilderness, and chaos that is often not seen within historical views of the region. Through Denny and other Western Pennsylvania settlers, this paper complicates the common view of the Western Pennsylvania as a simply and quickly colonized region by showing the area as an unsettled frontier …

Certifying Widowhood: Lizzie Booth And The Making Of Black Widow Pension Entitlement During The Civil War, Michael B. Cox Ii

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This article argues that Mary Elizabeth Wayt Lanning Booth, most commonly known as Lizzie Booth, played a decisive and underrecognized role in securing pension rights for Black widows during the Civil War. In the wake of her husband’s death at the Fort Pillow Massacre in 1864, Booth personally lobbied President Abraham Lincoln and Senator Charles Sumner for pension reform, catalyzing the passage of the Supplemental Pension Act. This reform permitted formerly enslaved women—whose marriages had been deemed extralegal—to prove their unions through eyewitness testimony and access federal benefits. Drawing primarily on pension files, the article demonstrates that while the Act …

Always Green, Ever Living, Anna Plante

Honors Theses

The Creative Honors Thesis, “Always Green, Ever Living," is an experimental essay film that explores the complexities and contradictions of environmental conservation, up against the contemporary climate crisis. The film is centered on Muir Woods National Monument and follows a young girl's relationship with nature. The film reflects on how protected natural spaces are influenced by systems of funding, access, and interpretation, as well as broader environmental pressures. Using a combination of archival footage, original imagery, narration, and ambient sound, the project adopts the essayistic structure that prioritizes reflection over linear storytelling.

Leadership And Creative Placemaking In Central Appalachia: Morehead, Kentucky, Toni C. Hobbs

Theses and Dissertations--Arts Administration

In rural Appalachia, longstanding patterns of extractive economic development, coupled with limited public investment and uneven institutional support, have contributed to persistent economic stagnation and a diminished sense of pride among residents. These conditions reflect deeper structural challenges, including economies shaped by resource extraction and external control. Addressing these conditions is critical to fostering economic growth, promoting cultural heritage, and enhancing overall well-being in the region. By cultivating resilient communities, leaders can create environments in which both the economy and local pride can thrive, contributing to a more prosperous and unified Appalachian region.

This study investigates the organizational and leadership …

Opera Houses In Aberdeen, Huron, And Watertown, Sd: 1880-1910s, Janet M. Meyer

Dissertations and Theses

In the 1880s, many newcomers arrived in Dakota Territory for a new start in Aberdeen, Huron, and Watertown. Their arrival coincided with the popularity of opera houses, so it was not surprising that entrepreneurs built opera houses in these new towns. The early opera houses included several benefits. They provided important gathering places for growing communities to hold meetings and social functions. The settler-colonial society included people from foreign countries and eastern states. Opera houses were also beneficial by providing familiar shows and concerts, perhaps some shows the residents previously enjoyed in their homes back east. Knowing that an entertainment …

Between The Past And The Future: Operation Castaña–The Urgency Of Oral History For Tejanos, Manuel F. Medrano

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Not Like Us: Afro-Germans And The Myth Of The "Germanness", Kahron Gaul Blakley

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Significant Women: From Spiritual Narratives To Modern Advocacy, Mary Melissa Henderson

Doctor of Ministry

Significant Women addresses the need for congregational advocates who support and empower women in ministry. This advocacy is rooted in a renewed perspective on women’s roles within both Scripture and the modern church.

Research reveals that tradition, rather than theology, is the primary catalyst for gender limitations in the Church—often driven by a fear of disrupting established operations. Another key insight is that Jesus acts as the "antithesis of patriarchy," intentionally elevating and empowering women to carry the Gospel. While academic resources are plentiful, a significant "white space" exists for non-academic resources designed for laypeople and everyday churchgoers. Stakeholders most …

Good Grief: Implementing Solace And Support Of Bereavement Ministry Within A Resource-Constrained Church In Chicago, Illinois, Celeste Haynes

Doctor of Ministry

Grief is a universal human experience that occurs at some point in everyone's life. This body of work explores the various benefits of implementing a bereavement support ministry in a resource-constrained church in Chicago, Illinois. The research will outline how a bereavement ministry can offer emotional support, spiritual guidance, and provide educational resources, community building, outline a budget proposal, and a grant opportunities, partnership with local agencies, training for volunteers, and practical help to bereaved members in a church, as well as the bereaved community.

Bereavement is an inevitable part of the human experience, and churches have historically served as …

Visual Word Recognition And The Role Of Diacritics: Evidence From Arabic Vowelization., Maram Alharbi

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the role of vowelization diacritics in Arabic visual word recognition and their contribution to early stages of lexical processing. Across writing systems, diacritical marks differ in their functional role and in whether they are part of letter identity, raising fundamental questions about how such features are encoded during word recognition. Arabic provides a particularly informative testing ground for these questions: vowelization diacritics in this language carry rich phonological information yet are systematically absent from the texts that skilled readers encounter daily. This interaction between the linguistic value of vowelization and its near-total omission in naturalistic reading positions …

Everyone's Table: Growing Polycultural Leadership Through Mutually Facilitated Peer Learning, Joel Bert Zantingh

Doctor of Leadership

Despite multiculturalism being an official policy in Canada since 1971, significant challenges remain in achieving genuine belonging among immigrant communities, particularly within leadership structures. This project responds to the marginalization of diasporic and newer-to-Canada leaders within evangelically aligned Canadian organizations, focusing specifically on leadership culture.

Grounded in biblical and theological scholarship that advocates for unity amid cultural diversity, this project articulates a normative and interpretive framework rooted in the Christian theological tradition. It also integrates insights from sociological and organizational studies that examine power, ethnocentrism, and the psychological experiences of visible minorities within dominant cultural contexts. I found how implicit …

Women In Leadership Seminar Series, An Integrated Approach, Diane B. Tuttle

Doctor of Leadership

Need Problem Opportunity (NPO) Statement

Women of faith aspiring to leadership positions in the nonprofit sector need to be strategically equipped with specialized knowledge, experience, and interpersonal awareness.

Key Insights That Emerged From Research

When this journey began, I envisioned my project focusing on executive leadership transitions in nonprofit organizations. However, through interactive discovery in this doctoral program, I realized that the scope was too narrow. Women at different career levels wanted to learn, grow, and have opportunities to connect with other women. This led me to develop a seminar series intended for women interested in personal and professional growth. …

5.4.1. Cultivating Cross-Generational Leadership, Shela Ammani Sullivan

Doctor of Leadership

Need Problem Opportunity (NPO) Statement

In the current corporate landscape, there is a lack of effective leadership models for the developing Millennial and Gen Z leaders.

Key Benefits from Research

Research and prototype testing yielded several key discoveries. While digital formats such as vlogs and ePlaybooks offer accessibility and relatability, the strongest outcomes emerged from in-person engagement. Stakeholders’ feedback emphasized the importance of relational depth, experiential learning, real-time feedback, and recommended digital supplements to enhance accessibility and reduce costs. These findings confirm that leadership development initiatives must integrate adaptability with relational practice to achieve sustainable and meaningful impact. The project …

Beyond Rugged Individualism: A Narrative Intervention For Men Languishing In Isolation, Chad Edward Warren

Doctor of Leadership

My NPO (Need, Problem, or Opportunity) addresses the problem that an exceptional number of men in Northwest Montana languish due to prolonged social and emotional isolation.

Across my research, the key insight was that isolation is sustained not only by personal circumstances but also by the cultural narratives that form men’s identities and expectations. Stories function as “maps of meaning,” shaping what men perceive as strength, weakness, and the good life. In this context, rugged individualism, understood as a self-reliance and isolation narrative that prizes toughness and minimal dependence, can foster admirable grit while also reinforcing shame around vulnerability, help-seeking, …

Evangelistic Preaching Essentials: Inviting The Next "Yes", Julie Ann O'Hara

Doctor of Leadership

Churches within the seventy-eight districts of the USA/Canada Region of the Church of the Nazarene do not have consistently effective evangelistic preaching. Evangelistic preaching is central to the denomination's historical identity, rooted in the holiness tradition of gospel proclamation that invites response. Educational pathways for ordination provide limited exposure to evangelistic preaching, relying instead on local-level practice, and opportunities are frequently limited. Consequently, many developing preachers enter ministry with passion but little experience in evangelistic proclamation.

Research conducted in response to the NPO highlighted several insights. First, growth in preaching requires repeated practice, not simply exposure to content. Second, practice …

Addressing Pornography Use Among Christian University Students: A Small Group Study Curriculum, Jeffery P. Styer

Doctor of Leadership

In the world of 24/7 access to the internet, it has been determined that Christian universities have students who struggle with a habit of viewing pornography impacting current and future relationships, with God, self, and others. These students graduate and are sent out into the world where they continue to struggle with pornography use and its accompanying guilt and shame. It is an injustice for the university and the church (worldwide) not to address this problem.

Research for this project confirms that pornography use is an issue both inside and outside the church. Christians are quick to identify pornography as …

Exploring Young Adult Absence Within Inner-City Churches In Syracuse, New York, Daren Christopher Jaime

Doctor of Leadership

Young adults (ages 25–39) in inner-city churches of Syracuse, New York are experiencing increasing disenfranchisement, resulting in diminished participation, increased distrust, and a significant absence from congregational life. Research conducted for this project revealed that young adult disengagement is shaped by generational disconnects, institutional rigidity, cultural irrelevance, and broader social disruptions intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing political and socio-economic instability. The findings also highlighted a major desire among young adults for authenticity, credible leadership, and spaces where their lived experiences are acknowledged rather than dismissed.

This project is situated within my ministry and vocational context which integrates …

Cultivating Trust, Communication, And Collaboration: A Relational Leadership Design For Intercultural Collaboration In Nouakchott, Mauritania, Elysse Audrey Burns

Doctor of Leadership

Foreign-led initiatives operating in Nouakchott, Mauritania, encounter challenges in collaborating effectively with local communities, hindering the growth of sustainable, locally driven leadership and contextually relevant initiatives. This doctoral project investigates how relational dynamics shape intercultural collaboration and responds through the development of a structured relational leadership certificate program grounded in the Mauritanian context.

Using documented discovery workshops and one-on-one interviews with Mauritanian and international practitioners, the research identified recurring concerns regarding decisionmaking authority, communication clarity, and the distribution of responsibility within foreignled initiatives. Participants described patterns in which expectations were inconsistently communicated, local voices were unevenly integrated into decisions, and …

Schelling & Spinoza, Michael Vater

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Schelling is notorious for having a fluid vision of systematic philosophy and its methods. In an age where philosophy is expected to result in one or two books, not years of discussions with students and colleagues--and certainly not a distillation of one’s way of life--Schelling’s thought has been called protean or restless, or in Hegel’s snarky verdict “an education pursued in public.” The same could be said of Socrates. But there is a truth in these comments; it is difficult to find in fifty-six years of publications, addresses and abandoned manuscripts the single argument that is Schelling’s philosophy. What provokes …

Music Interventions For Critically Ill Patients: Evaluating Effects Of Music On Psychoemotional Symptoms In Critically Ill Patients Receiving Respiratory Support, Allyson Crighton

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Critically ill adults receiving respiratory support in intensive care units (ICUs) frequently experience psychoemotional disturbances such as agitation, anxiety, and delirium, which contribute to prolonged ventilation, increased sedative use, and adverse patient outcomes. While pharmacologic management remains standard practice, associated risks including oversedation and delirium highlight the need for safe, complementary interventions. Emerging evidence suggests that music-based interventions may offer a non-invasive, cost-effective strategy to reduce psychological or emotional distress in this vulnerable population. This integrative literature review examined the effects of music interventions, including passive music listening and structured music therapy, on agitation and related psychoemotional outcomes in critically …

Philsongs: A Study Of Campfire Music Performed At Scouting America’S Philmont Scout Ranch (2014 To 2021), Ellyn Rager

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation focuses on Philmont Scout Ranch, a national Scouting America high adventure base in New Mexico and the largest youth camp in the world, arguing that music at Philmont serves as a cultural force that fosters an intensive communal bond among staff and campers by blending participatory and presentational music-making practices, while producing and reinforcing memories of Philmont through interpretive performances that negotiate the place’s historical narratives. Using surveys, interviews, and Thomas Turino’s framework of participatory and presentational music-making to interpret the author’s 100 hours of field recordings, this study examines aspects of Philmont’s musical habits between 2014 and …

Rural Black Church Leadership And Community Development In Midwest Illinois, Derrick Smith

Dissertations of Practice

This qualitative study examines the role of a rural Black church in leadership development and community sustainability within a Midwestern Illinois town. While extensive scholarship documents the historical significance of the Black church in civil rights, political mobilization, and social advocacy, limited research explores the founding of contemporary Black churches and the intentional processes through which they develop leaders and support community sustainability in rural or small-town settings. This study addresses that gap by investigating the establishment and evolution of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church (NHMBC) in DeKalb, Illinois, and its impact on leadership development and Black community development.

Guided …

Long-Distance Exchanges In The Art Of The First Millenium, Lawrence Nees

Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture

No abstract provided.

Indo-Gothic Architecture And The Reproduction Of Medieval Political Logic In Colonial Calcutta, Sreeja Chowdhury Frsa

Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture

No abstract provided.

Neuroaesthetic Frequency Tuning For Neurodivergent Populations: A Network-Informed Theory Of Music For Emotional Memory And Cognitive Regulation, Piper Hutson, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

Neuroaesthetic frequency tuning posits that deliberate selection of musical parameters can modulate large-scale neural systems to support emotional memory retrieval and cognitive regulation in neurodivergent populations. Drawing on contemporary evidence from network neuroscience, cognitive musicology, and affective science, the article synthesizes how rhythmic, harmonic, and lyrical structures align with Default Mode (DM), fronto-parietal control, salience, motor, and limbic systems, and how these alignments can be targeted to balance internally oriented mentation with task engagement. The theory further integrates autonomic and cellular mechanisms, describing how tempo and spectral energy shift arousal and heart rate variability, and how astrocytic ensembles contribute to …

Children Past Curfew: Surveillance, Resistance, And Childhood In Philippine Martial Law Children's Literature, Krisna Marie T. Balolong

Children's Literature (MA) Theses

This paper examines how two Philippine children's books depict state surveillance and its effects on a child's perspective of family, authority figures, and childhood. Through analysis of Augie Rivera's Isang Harding Papel and Sandra Nicole Roldan's At the School Gate, this project makes a connection between children's literature and surveillance studies, offering new framework to engage with children’s literature depicting authoritarian regimes and state violence, especially in cases where children were targets of their governments. Each book is examined by their representations of state surveillance during the Martial Law era of the Philippines, as well as each characters’ individual …

Finding Meaning And Value In Old Age, Jane Nell Morgan

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project addressed finding meaning and value in old age. The research conducted explored barriers to achieving meaning and value and how to overcome those obstacles. The research specifically focused on senior adults who reside in a Christian-based assisted living home located in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. In response to this problem, the researcher studied the lives of three older biblical characters, Jacob, the author of Psalm 71, and Anna, and reviewed relevant literature on barriers senior citizens face today. In addition, research included the damaging effects older adults face when they fail to find meaning in their lives and …

Spirituality And Psychological Well-Being In College Students: Does Resilience Mediate This Relationship, Kevin C. Snow, Jessica Starken, Lindsay A. Phillips

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

Given continued challenges of college transition and recent changes (e.g., COVID) leading to increased use of college counseling services and past studies exploring spiritualty/religion and resilience pertaining to psychological well-being (PWB), this study explored the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB in college students. Three scales, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, and the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale, were used to measure the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB. Results of this study showed support for the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB in college students. Results also lend support for future research exploring therapeutic incorporation of spirituality …