Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

History

Institution
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 1 - 30 of 3411

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Unsustainable Stories: Agricultural Knowledge On The Great Plains, 1880-1934, Philomena Shuffelton-Sobe Aug 2026

Unsustainable Stories: Agricultural Knowledge On The Great Plains, 1880-1934, Philomena Shuffelton-Sobe

History Honors Projects

This thesis explores stories about how people farmed and learned about farming on the Great Plains from 1880-1920 through three inter-connected narratives: the Allotment system, agricultural education programs at federal Indian Boarding Schools, and the rapid rise and fall of the Dry Farming movement. These systems were built on stories about how people should live with and on the land that promoted unsustainable, destructive ways of farming and knowledge production. This scholarship places Assimilation Era agricultural education for Native and non-Native farmers within the context of the increasing reliance on systems and science and the institutionalization of agricultural knowledge.


Front Matter Volume 2 No. 2, Editors Note Jun 2026

Front Matter Volume 2 No. 2, Editors Note

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This is yet another issue of the Zamani journal which takes on varied debates and discussions of historical importance through the contributions to the issue. As we embark on volume three of the new journal’s series, this volume carries six articles, varied in scope but interesting in terms of contribution and relevance to historical synthesis. As editors, we hope that the articles contained here will be of interest to a wider audience of not only historians but also of allied disciplines, practitioners and the general readership. As we publish this volume, we also note the advantage of expanding the scope …


Crises In The Nigerian Defence Sector In The Post-Civil War Period, Hussaini Jibrin Jun 2026

Crises In The Nigerian Defence Sector In The Post-Civil War Period, Hussaini Jibrin

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

History has it that post-war period in any country in the world appeared to be with many challenges of re-planning the defence system. It involves the reconstruction of pre-war institutions that are destroyed during the war for onward growth and development. Contrary to this tradition, this article explores that, in 1970 while Nigerians were celebrating about the end of the Nigerian civil war, fresh crises emerged in the country’s defence sector. Thus, General Yakubu Gowon’s government redirected its focus on addressing the crises. The crises are numerous, however, this article dwells on four only. These are demobilization exercise in the …


Performance Of Buffer Zones In Tanzania: A Case Of Maswa Game Reserve, 1950s-2010s, James Benedict Kuboja Jun 2026

Performance Of Buffer Zones In Tanzania: A Case Of Maswa Game Reserve, 1950s-2010s, James Benedict Kuboja

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

National parks as core protected areas are universally regarded as the most important wildlife conservancies as they are protecting pristine nature or untouched wilderness. For this reason, global conservationists, with the assistance of colonial governments, introduced buffer zones in a bid to protect important protected areas from poaching and habitat destruction. Despite the promulgation of these buffer zones from the 1950s, scholars have not exhaustively evaluated their effectiveness in the conservation of wildlife resources within core protected areas and wildlife ecosystems at large. Using the case of Maswa Game Reserve in the Serengeti Mara Ecosystem, this article argues that internal …


Historicising Nyerere’S Presidency In The Nyakyusa Mythical Narratives, Ignas Fedeo Jun 2026

Historicising Nyerere’S Presidency In The Nyakyusa Mythical Narratives, Ignas Fedeo

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Julius K Nyerere, the founding President of Tanzania, held office from 1962 to 1985. Much has been written about Nyerere's presidency, with the literature generally falling into two categories: strong advocacy for his decisions, actions, and ideas, and pointed criticism against him. Using narrative and new historicism theories, this article examines the recreation of the history of Nyerere’s presidency in local narratives, specifically Nyakyusa myths. The myths were collected using the oral history interviews from Kyela and Busokelo districts in Tanzania. The Nyakyusa believe that Nyerere was endowed with immense mystical powers, some of which embedded in his stick and …


Śaṅkha-Dvīpa And The Swahili Littoral: Reconstructing India–East Africa Contacts Before The Common Era, Narendra Vijayasimha Jun 2026

Śaṅkha-Dvīpa And The Swahili Littoral: Reconstructing India–East Africa Contacts Before The Common Era, Narendra Vijayasimha

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article is the first focused attempt to explore India–East Africa relationships in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, approximately two to three millennia before the Common Era (3000–300 BCE) from a puranic perspective. While extensive scholarship exists on medieval and later Indo–African exchanges, the pre-Common Era period has remained underexplored. Drawing on Purāṇic cosmographies, Greco-Roman geographical accounts, African archaeology, and Indian Ocean trade studies, this research reconstructs possible networks of contact facilitated by monsoon navigation and long-distance exchange. Methodologically, the article integrates textual exegesis, comparative cosmography, and archaeological correlation. The findings suggest that Indian conceptions of Śaṅkha-dvīpa reflect …


Labour Migrancy And Ethnic Stereotypes: Experiences From Mufindi Tea Plantation, Ca. 1920s To 2000s, Hezron R. Kangalawe Jun 2026

Labour Migrancy And Ethnic Stereotypes: Experiences From Mufindi Tea Plantation, Ca. 1920s To 2000s, Hezron R. Kangalawe

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

While tea plantations brought good fortunes to some parts of Southern Highlands in Tanzania such as Mufindi and Rungwe during the British mandate, its production sites became centres of ethnic contestations in relation to work discipline. The colonial and post-colonial enterprises labelled some ethnic groups as “reliable labourers” and others “unreliable”. This article, uses the tea plantations in Mufindi district, Iringa, to debate the labour question and ethnic identity in tea plantations between 1920s and 2000s. It argues that tea plantations were practical point of colonial stereotyping whose architects were anthropologists. Interviews in Mufindi tea plantations and factories, archival and …


Collaboration In The Spread Of Missionary Christianity In Africa: The Case Of The Apostolic Church Of Nigeria, Caleb Abiodun Adeleye, Oluwasegun Peter Aluko Jun 2026

Collaboration In The Spread Of Missionary Christianity In Africa: The Case Of The Apostolic Church Of Nigeria, Caleb Abiodun Adeleye, Oluwasegun Peter Aluko

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article explores the significance of collaboration in the spread of missionary Christianity in Africa through a historical study of The Apostolic Church of Nigeria (TACN). It examines how the partnership between British missionaries and Nigerian leaders produced a hybrid mission model that combined Western ecclesiastical structure with African spirituality. Drawing on historical records, church documents, and existing scholarship, the article adopts a narrative–analytical method to trace how figures such as Pastors George Perfect, Idris J Vaughan and DO Odubanjo negotiated issues of theology, finance and cultural identity. The study finds that collaboration initially fostered institutional growth and doctrinal development …


[2026 Honorable Mention] Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, Daylyn R. Reese Jun 2026

[2026 Honorable Mention] Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, Daylyn R. Reese

Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award

This research offers unique insights into the creation and development of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (N.M.S.) with a focus on indigenous populations’ roles (primarily Chumash and Costanoan). In this episode, I analyze what makes this NMS different from every NMS precluding it, how it recognizes a new goal in conservation (thrivability), and the areas in which improvements still must be made to authentically include and honor indigenous voices.


Hunting, Craftsmanship, And Migration: The Ethnobiology Of The Raute Nomads Of Nepal, Ramesh Prasad Adhikary May 2026

Hunting, Craftsmanship, And Migration: The Ethnobiology Of The Raute Nomads Of Nepal, Ramesh Prasad Adhikary

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This study explores the ethnobiology of the Raute nomads in Nepal, a dwindling hunter-gatherer group facing threats from modernisation, deforestation, and sedentarisation policies. Despite growing ethnobiological research on indigenous knowledge, there remains a scholarly gap in integrated analyses of how nomadic practices like hunting, craftsmanship, and migration interlink to promote sustainability, particularly in South Asian contexts. Drawing on six weeks of ethnographic fieldwork with a single Raute community (n=15 key informants via purposive sampling for interviews; 3 focus groups of 6-8 participants via convenience sampling), this research employs participant observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions to address this gap. …


Taxidermy And Technology: A History Of Climate Change Exhibitions At American Museums Of Natural History, Laura Haushalter, Amy Woodson-Boulton May 2026

Taxidermy And Technology: A History Of Climate Change Exhibitions At American Museums Of Natural History, Laura Haushalter, Amy Woodson-Boulton

Honors Thesis

My research is on the history of temporary and permanent climate change exhibitions at natural history museums in the United States. My primary research question is: How have natural history museums responded to human-caused environmental destruction through their exhibitions, and what, if anything, are natural history museums doing now to address our current environmental crisis? My research begins with a historiography of natural museums and examines how early 20th-century museums responded to a sense of environmental crisis and widespread threats of species extinction. In the early 20th century, museums shifted from Victorian-era glass cases to modern and artistic dioramas that …


An Alternative To Armageddon: O.P. Weyland And The Development Of Tactical Air Power, Paul Wells May 2026

An Alternative To Armageddon: O.P. Weyland And The Development Of Tactical Air Power, Paul Wells

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Theorists and advocates of air power argued that aircraft, not ground forces, would become the dominant platform for victory in war. They promoted the concept of strategic bombing, using aircraft to bypass ground forces and directly attack a nation's industrial capacity to wage war, hoping to ensure quick victory and avoid a repeat of the prolonged slaughter in the trenches of WWI. In 1947, led by advocates of strategic bombing, the United States Air Force (USAF) became an independent and equal branch of the U.S. military. The USAF developed the Strategic Air Command (SAC) to meet the requirements of the …


Internalizing Diasporic Peoples: How Do We Keep Native Hawaiians Connected?, Kallie P. Kaaihue-Paopao May 2026

Internalizing Diasporic Peoples: How Do We Keep Native Hawaiians Connected?, Kallie P. Kaaihue-Paopao

Whittier Scholars Program

In the attempt to better understand the grounds for the generation culture disconnect of identity in Native Hawaiians, I study the diaspora of my people. Diaspora is the dispersion of people from their native lands. I find interest in this aspect of my people because the most common studies blame our dispersion on socioeconomic status and as a Native Hawaiian that wishes to do more for her people, I want to express that while it plays a part that there is a disconnection between the social actions and reactions of Hawaiʻi’s people. Common questions that I find unanswered are, why …


George C. Roberts Award Recipients Apr 2026

George C. Roberts Award Recipients

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors Apr 2026

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha Rao Apr 2026

Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha Rao

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


The Unsovereign Citizen: The Reconfiguration Of Rights And Belonging In Fascist Italy, Roberta Pergher Apr 2026

The Unsovereign Citizen: The Reconfiguration Of Rights And Belonging In Fascist Italy, Roberta Pergher

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Modern political thought tends to associate citizenship with democracy, equality, and political participation. This article demonstrates that citizenship can be profoundly important also for authoritarian rule. In Fascist Italy, citizenship remained central to political life, not as a vehicle of democratic participation, to be sure, but as a category through which the regime redefined belonging, hierarchy, and sovereignty. Drawing on citizenship legislation, imperial ordinances, racial laws, police reports, and ministerial commentary between 1912 and 1943, this article shows how the dictatorship hollowed out liberal citizenship within the peninsula, stratified it across imperial territories, consolidated it across diasporic populations, and ultimately …


Reviewers And Referees Apr 2026

Reviewers And Referees

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


Why Publish With Mssj? Apr 2026

Why Publish With Mssj?

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


Volume 28, Issue 2 Full Contents Apr 2026

Volume 28, Issue 2 Full Contents

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


Mission And Editorial Policy Apr 2026

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


The Courts Closest To The People: The Battle Between Populism And Democracy In The U.S. District Courts, Shruti Rana Apr 2026

The Courts Closest To The People: The Battle Between Populism And Democracy In The U.S. District Courts, Shruti Rana

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The U.S. district courts have emerged as a critical site of contested terrain amid the chaos and controversies consuming American law and politics since the start of the second Trump administration. This article examines these frontline courts through the theoretical lens of populism, arguing that they have become a critical institutional flashpoint in the populist assault on constitutional democracy in the United States. As the courts closest to the people, the district courts occupy a unique structural position: They are the fact-finding courts, the most geographically dispersed and professionally diverse tier of the federal judiciary, and often the first institutional …


Author Biographical Notes Apr 2026

Author Biographical Notes

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


Editorial History Apr 2026

Editorial History

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


Call For Papers: 97th Annual Conference Of The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences Apr 2026

Call For Papers: 97th Annual Conference Of The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


Submission Guidelines Apr 2026

Submission Guidelines

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.


From Reclamation To Restoration: Remaking Nature On Portland's Peninsula, Theus Richards Mar 2026

From Reclamation To Restoration: Remaking Nature On Portland's Peninsula, Theus Richards

University Honors Theses

This environmental history of the North Portland Peninsula is a critical case study of a landscape in transition, where new "natures" have been constructed through shifting projects of reclamation and restoration. The Port of Portland, who controlled the Peninsula, transformed the marshy bottomlands near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers to accommodate greater networks of industrial infrastructure and expand their capacity for global trade. Beginning in 1967, the Port began dredging operations to fill Ramsey Lake to make way for the construction of Rivergate Industrial District. Through this process, Smith & Bybee Lakes were set aside as a …


An Expedition To Public Lands: Exploring The Black Hills Region, John Mcdermott Feb 2026

An Expedition To Public Lands: Exploring The Black Hills Region, John Mcdermott

CAFE Symposium 2026

This project explores 4 public land sites in southwestern South Dakota: Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Black Hills National Forest, and Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge. I researched each site's most popular recreation activities and contributions to American history, as well as economic data that shows the difference in management strategies between the National Park Service and the US Forest Service.


Fighting The Black Snake: The Dapl And The Case For Indigenous Environmental Stewardship, Kenny Moll Jan 2026

Fighting The Black Snake: The Dapl And The Case For Indigenous Environmental Stewardship, Kenny Moll

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis analyzes the current scope of environmental injustice on Native lands in the U.S. Specifically it examines The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and its impacts on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota. Western colonialism and capitalism have dominated North American ecosystems since their forcible introduction hundreds of years ago, causing the commodification of natural resources and leading to injustices such as that of the “Black Snake.” However, the story of The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s resistance will be analyzed through the framework of Indigenous philosophy and environmental justice. Chapter 1 analyzes the implementation of the DAPL and …


Colonial Whaling In Walvis Bay And In Southern Africa: Environmental Exploitation And Legacy Of South Africa’S Cetaceans, Jake L. Zarak Jan 2026

Colonial Whaling In Walvis Bay And In Southern Africa: Environmental Exploitation And Legacy Of South Africa’S Cetaceans, Jake L. Zarak

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This paper examines the colonial whaling industry in Southern Africa, with a focus on Walvis Bay, tracing its long term environmental and socio-economic impacts. From the 1700s to the 1900s, whaling operations, primarily led by American, British, and French enterprises, exploited the region’s rich populations of sperm and right whales, drastically reducing their numbers. The study contextualizes whaling within a broader colonial framework, analyzing its effects on whale migratory patterns, indigenous communities, and marine ecosystems. It explores as well, the transition from whaling as an economic endeavor to modern conservation efforts and the romanticization of whales in literature and art. …