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Jacksonian Democracy: Triumph Or Tragedy?, Gabe Blumer

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

This capstone paper analyzes Andrew Jackson's presidential impact on democracy and discusses its strengths and weaknesses as a whole. It goes over the impact on white men, black Americans, and Native Americans in particular.

Living Archaeology: A Comparative Perspective On How Archaeologists Can Study And Document The Present, Alia S. Moran

Honors Capstones

Archaeology has long remained a social science that has tended to exclude sustained consideration of contemporary societies in the analysis of material culture. In recent decades, approaches such as ethnoarchaeology and the archaeology of the contemporary have expanded the field to include the study of present-day societies through material culture. Inspired by my involvement in the Thais in Illinois Project, which focused on documenting the Thai American immigrant experience in the greater Chicago area to produce an oral history collection, alongside other goals, this thesis intends to further explore how archaeological practice can be used to understand everyday issues in …

The Development Of The Hagiography Of Saint Servatius: From The 6th To 16th Century, David Krista

Theses

This paper follows the development of the hagiography of St. Servatius from its foundation in the sixth century until the sixteenth century. In this analysis eight different hagiographical works on St. Servatius are discussed including a previously unstudied French Vie de Saint Servais produced in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. First, the foundational work which introduced St. Servatius to the world of hagiography by Gregory of Tours will be explored in order to understand who St. Servatius was. From here the paper moves onto the Latin vitae tradition which consists of the Vita Antiquissima, the Gesta Antiquiora, and …

Road To Brexit: History Of Euroscepticism In The United Kingdom, Jake M. Flowers

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

Scholars in recent years have attempted to understand why citizens of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2016, with many taking interest in the history of Euroscepticism in the country. Previous research on the topic has considered the impacts of geopolitical trends after World War II, Eurosceptical political activity in the 1980s, and longer-term historical attitudes. This paper examines the long history of Brexit to consider these events as a whole instead of as separate parts. As this is a history research project, the primary methodology is an analysis of speeches and primary sources from across …

Nails In The Confederacy's Coffin: The Wilson Raid And The End Of The Civil War, Chad A. Bowen

History

Over the course of this thesis, I argue that the Wilson Raids of March-April 1865 played a decisive role in ending the Civil War and beyond it. With this raid, Wilson denied the Confederacy access to the last of its major industrial cities, forcing the Confederate government to concede defeat. The raid, however, faded into the background both due to the proximity of the events to the end of the war and the lack of reporting conducted on the operations. This led to the rise of two groups that sought to deliberately misinterpret events to garner support for Southern writers …

Changes In Medical Knowledge And Patent Medicine, Anna Mcnamee

Caravel Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper examines advertisements for patent medicines and nostrums, from the Colonial Period to the Food and Drug Act of 1906.  The Pure Food and Drug Act represented the triumph of the medical profession over state legislation and unsupervised patent medicine manufacturing. Tracing these advertisements alongside the historiography of science, medicine, and advertising; this paper argues that advertisements for patent medicine represent a shift in the culture of healing and the growth of medical knowledge in the United States. By the end of the nineteenth century, science and medicine made great advances and medical professionals began influencing both state and …

Doubt And Deception: Public Opinion Of The Warren Report, Will Fox

Caravel Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Jewish Athena: The Political Genesis Of The State Of Israel, Julius Sykes, Roger Deal

Caravel Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

"Pee Wee" Gaskins And The Subjectivity Of History, Henry Capps

Caravel Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Florence Normal College Quarterly, Faculty Of Florence Normal College

Documents

Faculty Quarterly Journal of Florence Normal College, January 1910.

Florence Normal College Quarterly, Faculty Of Florence Normal College

Documents

Faculty Quarterly Journal for Florence Normal College, October 1909.

*Press of The Florence Times*

Florence Normal College Quarterly, Faculty Of Florence Normal College

Documents

Faculty Quarterly Journal of Florence Normal College, January 1911.

Florence Normal College Quarterly, Faculty Of Florence Normal College

Documents

Faculty Quarterly Journal of Florence Normal College, October 1910.

Florence Normal College Quarterly, Faculty Of Florence Normal College

Documents

Faculty Quarterly Journal of Florence Normal College, May 1910.

Florence Normal College Quarterly, Faculty Of Florence Normal College

Documents

Faculty Quarterly Journal of Florence Normal College, March 1910.

*Press of The Florence Times*

Florence Normal College Quarterly, Faculty Of Florence Normal College

Documents

Faculty Quarterly Journal of Florence Normal College, March 1911.

From Central To Refinery: Labor And Hierarchy In The American Sugar Empire (1919-1962), Ben Woloch

History Honors Projects

From 1919 until 1962, the American Sugar Refining Company (ASRC) oversaw an empire, stretching from two Cuban sugar estates (centrales) to its Brooklyn refinery. The relationship between workers at both poles of the ASRC’s empire constituted a transnational labor hierarchy. Divergent management programs at the Brooklyn refinery and the centrales Jaronú and Cunagua confined the workers to distinct social positions. Brooklyn workers pursued labor-management collaboration in support of the sugar industry’s exploitative system, while workers in Cuba reimagined the sugar empire's power structure. The transnational workforce of the ASRC maintained a disunified relationship, which fractured the possibilities of working-class solidarity.

Perceptions Of German Eugenics: An Analysis Of German Eugenics In The Eugenics Review, 1920-1945, Ally Iandolo

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research examines how the eugenics movement in Germany was perceived by academic peers. I utilize entries from the British journal, The Eugenics Review, from 1920-1945 to create a database of all journal articles, book reviews, correspondence, and other entries that mention German eugenics. Then, using this database, I determine how German eugenics was perceived and which topics were identified by the journal’s contributors. Further, I analyze the careers of the authors who wrote these articles to understand the scope of interest in German eugenics from the Eugenics Review.

Conservative Protest And The Cortland Student: How Suny Cortland Redefines Our Understanding Of National Student Activism In The 1960- 1970 Period, Dahlia Spilka

Transformations: Presentation Slides

My project examines how student activism movements at SUNY Cortland in the 1960s and 1970s redefined our understanding of student voice and protest. Focusing on the ten-year period from 1960 to 1970 (often heralded as the heyday of civil rights activism), I analyzed archival documents, campus publications, student theses, oral histories, and conducted interviews to understand how Cortland students understood their role and voice at the time. Culminating in a thesis-length research paper, my research contrasts these student movements with the broader narrative of student activism, signifying how Cortland's history both paralleled and redefined the national protest culture. Cortland's history, …

Who Can Dance If They Want To?: Intersections Of Dance, Gender, And Political Control In Late Archaic And Early Classical Athens, Adeline P. Strickler

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This thesis investigates the evidence for women's public choruses in the polis of Athens and the wider Greek world prior to the 6th century BCE and their decline in Athens following the Kleisthenic reforms of 509/508 BCE. Emphasising analysis of visual sources through Athenian fabric vases in the Beazley archive, and supporting literary evidence, this research seeks to establish a base of evidence for a neglected area of dance and women's research in the classics. Additionally, by analyzing the significance of choral dance in polis social and political life, this research seeks potential reasons for the lack of a culture …

Let's Play A Lovegame: How College Hookup Culture Came To Be, How It Functions On A University Campus, And The Greek Organizations That Perpetuate It At Butler University, Ella Gray Tucker

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

“Let’s Play a LoveGame” examines how hookup culture functions, is perpetuated, and impacts students on a college campus. By understanding the historical context of its creation, I analyze the multitude of factors that aided it to evolve into what it is today. Although hookup culture is considered part of the undergraduate “college experience”, it is negatively impacting students' mental well-being and their understanding of romantic relationships. With Butler University as my case study, I have come to find that Greek Organizations within the National Panhellenic Conference and Interfraternity Council hold events that enable hookup culture to permeate Greek row which …

Unmaking And Remaking Crimean Tatar Identity Stalin’S Deportation, Sürgün Stories, And The Claiming Of Indigeneity, Milo A. Clarkson

International Studies Honors Projects

The Crimean Tatars exist within a framework of historical and modern Russian settler colonial oppression. By examining their preferred form of identification, this thesis argues that claiming indigeneity holds promise for combating this colonial structure. Further, it identifies the construction of collective memories of the Sürgün (1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars) in virtual museum project Tamirlar’s oral histories as a form of discursive decolonization—the reclamation of cultural, linguistic, and historical representation and primacy on the land. Novel analysis of fifty interviews with Sürgün survivors preserves indigenous Crimean identity and challenges the retrospective settler colonial construction of Crimea as “Russian.”

"It's A Book You Grab And Squeeze, And Blood Comes Out.” Modernization Of The Colombian Army's Training During U.S.- Funded Plan Colombia And Security Policies: Falsos Positivos And Bodies As Merchandise (2002–2008), Maria Isabel Palacio Cano

ELIN Graduate Theses

No abstract provided.

The Southampton Plot: The Case For Innocence (1415), Haley Buckles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the "Southampton Plot" of 1415, a famous conspiracy to overthrow King Henry V of England. While history often portrays the plotters as simple traitors against the government, this study reexamines original records to show a more complex story. By looking closely at how the English government handled the trials, the research reveals that the English Crown may have exaggerated the threat to strengthen the King’s political power before he invaded France. This study shows that what we call "treason" was often shaped by the government’s need to control its public image and hold on to power. Ultimately, …

Disney's Illusion Of Inclusion, Marissa Davis

All Theses

Walt Disney’s films were not simply entertainment, but a use of racial stereotypes as a profit strategy. Even scholarship that explores these tactics and critically analyzes his most problematic misrepresentations do not to consider the role of Walt Disney, as a man, in creating and promoting these narratives. These depictions, while somewhat in line with the culture when he first entered the business, failed to evolve as society changed. Rather, they were deliberate choices to attract white audiences and increase revenue.

Over time, these tropes became socially unacceptable, yet Disney maintained them for public consumption. While Disney and his company …

A Gift For The Emperor DawāʾIr Al-ʿUlūm Wa-Jadāwil Al-Ruqūm, A Mediaeval Graphic Encyclopaedia Of The 19th Century, Juan Acevedo, Inês Bénard Da Costa

Abdou Filali-Ansary Occasional Paper Series

The recent discovery of a 19th-century Arabic manuscript in the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, initiated a period of intense collaboration between the Museum and the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, culminating in the 2023–24 exhibition ‘Power of the Word V: Circles of Knowledge.’ The first part of this article describes the manuscript, while the second part looks at its contents, a striking visual encyclopaedia, mostly from Safavid sources, entitled Tuḥfat al-Khāqān: Dawāʾir al-ʿUlūm wa-Jadāwil al-Ruqūm (A Gift for the Emperor: Circles of Sciences and Tables of Numerals). Its sections range from cosmogony and alphanumeric cosmology to geography, geomancy and the …

The Log Cabin | Public Perception And Mediated Reality (1840 – 1980), Aspen M. Regan

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone examines the evolution of the log cabin from 1840 to 1980. At its core, the project questions the legacy of the log cabin from its origins as simply being a traditional dwelling typology to its establishment as a cultural icon or rather, an enduring vessel that established the American Dream and ideals of self-reliance, freedom, and individualism deep within the heart of American culture.

Chapter One situates the log cabin historically and architecturally, defining the popular frontier dwelling as being a single-pen horizontal log constructed cabin. It then explores the cabin’s emergence as a cultural image through political …

The Whaler’S Empire: Industry, Environment, And American Expansion In The Pacific Ocean, Andrew J. Hiner

All Theses

The American whaling industry reached its peak in the mid nineteenth century, numbering over seven hundred vessels and reaching from the South Atlantic to Arctic Oceans. The rise of this maritime trade coincided with the emergence of the nation’s industrial revolution at home, a revolution which employed the product of whaling—namely whale oil—as a lubricant for machinery. Historians have often overlooked the use of this commodity in manufacturing, focusing instead on whale oil’s use as an illuminant. Examining the relation between the whaling and manufacturing industries offers new insights into how ocean environments played a role in domestic production. It …

Demolition By Intent: Evaluating Charleston's Red X Placard Procedures, Enforcement Practices, And Communication Methods In The Loss Of Historic Structures, Jessica Stech

All Theses

This thesis examines whether the procedures, enforcement practices, and communication methods associated with the placement of Red X placards in Charleston, South Carolina, contribute to the demolition-by-intent of historic structures. Red X placards, also known as unsafe placards, are placed on the front façade of structurally unsafe structures by the Charleston Fire Department to inform first responders in the event of a fire or other emergency. Although these placards serve as a life-safety tool, they may influence how vacant structures are perceived by family or developer owners and the public.

Through using a qualitative approach, this thesis analyzes the outcomes …

Women In The Chancery Court Of Maryland From 1669 To 1679, Emily A. Cole

All Theses

This project examines women who appeared in the Chancery Court of Maryland from 1669 to 1679. This thesis used the Archives of Maryland Online and the volume of proceedings of the Chancery Court. Across the three chapters, I argue that historians have largely ignored these proceedings, and that women did not appear in court out of empowerment but rather out of legal duty and requirement. I examined how these women appeared in both their legal status and the types of positions they held. This included the life cycle women typically followed from wife to widow to remarriage. They also appeared …