Digital Commons Network^™

The Postwar American Occupation Of Japan: A Re-Evaluation In The Context Of The Cold War, Karen E. Knudson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

It was all about the Cold War, when as soon as Germany and Japan surrendered in World War Two, Soviet Premier Stalin abandoned the alliance and became an enemy of the West. In Japan, he attempted to acquire Japanese territory as the spoils of war. However, President Harry S. Truman was determined that Japan would be reformed into a democratic, capitalist state firmly situated in the Western political and economic sphere. During the seven years of the American occupation of Japan, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) and the Japanese government extensively remodeled the Japanese government, economy, and …

“What So Many Millions Before Us Have Borne”: Loss, Grief, And The Revolutionary Turn Of The Founding Father, Michael S. Desmond

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Loss, instability and grief provided a crucial interpretative framework for understanding George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, particularly in the years surrounding their emergence as revolutionaries in the early 1770s. Rather than treating their political commitments to the Whigs as the product of ideology alone, this study argues that deeply personal experiences with setbacks and loss shaped the crucial timing of their decisions to become revolutionaries.

For Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, grief was not a single event followed by an emotional response; it was a formative process that began with the setbacks and losses of their childhoods. In adolescence, …

The End Is Proof Of The Beginning: Heloise And Abelard The Unseen Architects Of Intention In Medieval Philosophy, Abby Brook Edwards

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The scandal surrounding the eleventh century love story of Peter Abelard and Heloise has eclipsed the depth of their individual intellects which has resulted in many scholars devoting their writings to the couple’s overly eroticized narrative. Following the castration, public humiliation, and academic ignominy of Abelard and after Heloise, a “fallen woman,” commissioned herself into a convent, the connection between tutor and tutee continued through written correspondence. Through an examination of their personal writings, this dissertation aims to expand upon the notion that Abelard was an eclipsed philosopher who should be standing alongside “giants in the field” of philosophy, but …

Writing The Boundaries Of Power: Amicus Briefs And The Judicial Construction Of Presidential Power & Immunity, William C. Henderson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation undertakes a critical analysis of the dynamic interplay between presidential power and constitutional accountability, foregrounding the interpretive authority of the Supreme Court and the underappreciated role of amicus curiae briefs. By tracing the trajectory of amicus participation from the Reconstruction Era to modern day, this study contends that constitutional crises have recurrently compelled the Court to delineate the limits of presidential power and immunity. At pivotal junctures, amicus briefs submitted in landmark cases have exerted a profound influence on the Court’s jurisprudence, providing historical context and structural arguments that shape doctrinal understandings of presidential immunity, the separation of …

Enforcing Freedom: President Grant, The Ku Klux Klan, And Reconstruction In York County, South Carolina, Nicholas P. Branyon

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study investigates Reconstruction policies under Ulysses S. Grant in York County, South Carolina, an area affected by severe Ku Klux Klan violence in the early 1870s. It explores whether federal enforcement efforts effectively suppressed organized violence and brought stability to the region. This dissertation contends that Grant’s use of federal authority—especially through prosecutions and military action—substantially reduced Klan activity and led to a noticeable drop in violence by 1873, despite inconsistent implementation and limited long-term political stability. York County is a vital case study because of its high levels of racial violence and organized opposition to Reconstruction. The findings …

From Christology To Ontology: A Diachronic And Exegetical Evaluation Of A Maximalist Sacramental Interpretation Of John 6:51–58, Andrew R. Johnson

Masters Theses

John 6:51–58 occupies a central place in the debate regarding the ontological nature of the Eucharist, frequently serving as a primary scriptural warrant for sacramental realism such as articulated by the Council of Trent as it concerns the dogma of transubstantiation within the Roman Catholic tradition. This thesis conducts both an evaluation of historical reception and a critical exegetical analysis to determine whether the Evangelist’s primary intent was to establish sacramental doctrine in this passage or to further develop already pervasive Johannine soteriological and christological themes.

Methodologically, this study bridges the gap between historical reception and synchronic exegesis. The first …

Strategic Silence: The Greek Left's Avoidance Of The 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe During The Refugee Crisis, 2015–2019, Harry Courts

College Honors Program

This thesis examines why the Greek political left, and specifically the SYRIZA government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the time period from 2015 to 2019, made near-absent reference to the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe when addressing the refugee crisis of those years. The Catastrophe, in which approximately 1.3 million Orthodox Greeks were displaced from Anatolia, is the foundational trauma of modern Greek nationhood and a living presence in Greek political culture. When hundreds of thousands of Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi refugees arrived on Greek shores from 2015, the historical parallel was widely noted. That SYRIZA rarely drew it requires …

Old World Ranks On A New Frontier: Noncommissioned Officer Command In The United States Military, Robert K. Whillock

History Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the development of the United States Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Corps and the regulatory limits placed on its authority. The early American military adopted European traditions that reserved command for commissioned officers and confined NCOs to supervisory and disciplinary roles. Regulations reinforced this hierarchy by preventing NCOs from exercising autonomous command and limiting opportunities for advancement into the officer corps through merit. Over time, however, egalitarian reformers began to question whether these rigid distinctions served the needs of the evolving American military.

The paper argues that foreign military examples and operational necessity gradually challenged the established roles of …

Corazones Urbanos: Literary Cartographies And Southwest Cities In The Mexican American Spatial Imaginary, Jorge A. Hernández Jr.

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

Corazones Urbanos: Literary Cartographies and Southwest Cities in the Mexican American Spatial Imaginary examines how Mexican American writers from Tucson, San Antonio, and Albuquerque narrate, critique, and reimagine urban space across the U.S. Southwest in the twentieth century. Integrating literary studies, cultural geography, urban history, and critical regionalism, the project analyzes responses to racialized development, urban renewal, and gentrification that have displaced Mexican American communities from historic downtowns. Moving beyond borderlands and transnational models, it advances a critically regional approach attentive to local histories, municipal policies, and community pressures shaping urban life. Through close readings of creative and nonfiction texts …

How Regime Change In Syria Will Alter The Balance Of Power In The Middle East, Sebastian Victor Oprea

Senior Theses

Regime change often results in a state undergoing a drastic change of governance, largely due to dissatisfaction with the previous ruling government. It has been argued by international relations theorists like John Mearsheimer, that the motivation in a state’s action is derived from fear, power maximization, or self-interest. In the case of Syria, both the Ba’athist regime and the post-Assad governments are motivated by self-interest, which is reflected in their respective conduct of foreign policy. This thesis uses a cumulative methodological approach combined with ethnographic research to understand how the political and social changes in Syria influenced the change in …

An Exploration Of Oman’S Global Identity: Framework For Looking Beyond Colonial Narratives, Kailee G. Pierce

Senior Theses

This paper explores how Oman’s global identity has been historically constructed through religion and tribe rather than solely through modern state institutions or colonial encounters. Challenging eurocentric approaches to International relations, it argues that Oman’s global identity reflects long standing patterns of tribal, religious, and political authority that predates British, and even Portuguese involvement. Focusing on the Nabhani Dynasty, this paper demonstrates that political authority in Oman was never actually a rigid divide of a religious interior and secular coast; these geographical boundaries did not hinder these strong foundational identity forces that moved throughout different global ports and the Omani …

Erinnerungskultur And Pathways Of Division, Christopher C. Wacker

Senior Theses

This paper aims to explain the current political divide between East and West Germany and to investigate whether Erinerungskultur (memory culture) plays a role in this divide. This paper argues that Erinerungskultur played a crucial role in perpetuating the divide. After many years have passed since the reunification, several notable differences between the regions have persisted, particularly in politics. One such difference is the politics of both regions, especially after the most recent election demonstrated a clear blue sweep in the East. This paper will examine the history of both the Federal Republic of Germany (the Western and current state) …

The Formation Of Indian Health Services Within Imperial And Settler-Colonial Contexts, Jillian E. Grisel

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation examines the Indian Health Services as a Cold War biosecurity apparatus, showing how infectious disease was weaponized to dismantle treaty obligations, reorganize tribal lands into “service areas,” and reclassify Indigenous nations as surveilled populations. Against this carceral health economy, Indigenous nations refused. From the 1969 Alcatraz occupation to the 1976 Puyallup takeover of Cushman Indian Hospital, Native activists reclaimed health facilities as sovereign spaces, insisting that care is not a discretionary service but a treaty right grounded in land and kinship. Methodologically, I combine historical-legal analysis of congressional debates, Public Health Service reports, and IHS data with counter-archives …

The Seeds Of Empire: Endogenous Influences On The Politics Of Bakumatsu And Meiji Era Japan (1853-1912), Benedict M.D. Talley

History ETDs

In this thesis, I argue the roots of Japanese nationalism, exceptionalism, and imperialism long preceded renewed contact with the West following American Commodore Matthew Perry’s historic 1853 expedition. Rather, late Edo Period (1603-1868) and Meiji Era (1868-1912) intellectuals and political figures looked to and were inspired by endogenous forces, ideologies, and intellectual movements of the Edo Period. Through a synthesis of secondary scholarship and analysis of Bakufu and Meiji Era figures’ writing, I seek to uncover the endogenous influences and de-emphasize western influence on the development of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japanese nationalism and imperialism.

La Raza In The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: A Comparative Regional Study Of Mexican American Elite Identity-Making From Texan Independence To The Mexican Revolution, Davis Diego Massey

History ETDs

After the U.S. annexed much of Mexico following the Mexican-American War, Mexicans in  the incorporated regions began to think of themselves as a racial group within the U.S. rather  than a distinctive nationality. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised citizenship  rights to all Mexicans in the area. The Treaty promises rarely were put into practice, as they  were left up to the enforcement of territories and states. Even where enforced, the rights of  citizenship were restricted and defined on the basis of race. Local laws excluded  Afro-Mexicans and Mexican Natives from exercising the rights promised by the Treaty. This …

La Raza In The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: A Comparative Regional Study Of Mexican American Elite Identity-Making From Texan Independence To The Mexican Revolution, Davis Diego Massey

History ETDs

After the U.S. annexed much of Mexico following the Mexican-American War, Mexicans in the incorporated regions began to think of themselves as a racial group within the U.S. rather than a distinctive nationality. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised citizenship rights to all Mexicans in the area. The Treaty promises rarely were put into practice, as they were left up to the enforcement of territories and states. Even where enforced, the rights of citizenship were restricted and defined on the basis of race. Local laws excluded Afro-Mexicans and Mexican Natives from exercising the rights promised by the Treaty. This …

Within Melbourne: Landscape, Labor, And Material Culture In A Derbyshire Parish, 1650-1750, Mia Powell

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

In May of 1695, a group of inhabitants walked the grounds of the English locality of Melbourne (Derbyshire) and collected demographic data from every household within the parish boundaries. From this perambulation came a uniquely detailed census-type listing. Combining that listing with other available sources, including probate records, criminal litigation, property disputes, financial papers, antiquarian accounts, maps, and enclosure agreements from across seven record offices, this project uncovers the complex social and economic developments experienced by those who lived in Melbourne from 1650 to 1750. To analyze this well-documented parish, this thesis utilizes various methodologies. Nominal record linkage connects Melbourne’s …

Assessing Legacy Collections: Analyzing The Preservation, Recovery, And Interpretive Value Of Archaeobotanical Remains From Site 15le70 (Pine Crest Rockshelter), Lee County, Kentucky, Jennifer Carroll

Graduate Final Projects

This paper uses the archaeobotanical assemblage from Site 15Le70, a multi-excavated and extensively looted rockshelter in eastern Kentucky, while opening new lines of inquiry into gendered labor and practice during the Archaic-Woodland transition. Because legacy collections are often dispersed across institutions and/or research projects, the materials from any single site may be fragmented, as was the case for 15Le70. Such collections can be overlooked, yet this investigation into 15Le70’s archaeobotanical assemblage demonstrates that partial or scattered datasets can yield meaningful results and hold the potential to fill gaps in the archaeological record left by looting.

In this study, a small …

“Parties Vs. The People” Reconsidering The Voting Mechanisms That Entrench A Bi-Party System In American Democracy, John A. Guthrie

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis argues that while the founders accepted factions as inevitable within a free republic, the rise of plurality voting and the modern two-party system has distorted the constitutional balance they envisioned. By examining the emergence of America’s first political parties and the evolution of electoral systems, this thesis contends that electoral reforms such as ranked-choice, approval, and STAR voting may better preserve republican representation and reduce partisan domination.

Understanding How Teachers Define And Employ Civics Education In Non-Elective Social Studies Classrooms, Joseph Kyle

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study explored the perceptions of civics and civic education held by secondary school teachers of non-elective social studies classes in four schools within the same school district. Using a qualitative approach, this study examined how veteran teachers understood and defined civics, the ways in which they employed civics education in their teaching methodology and daily lessons, and the challenges or obstacles they perceived, if any, incorporating lessons reflecting a progressive experimentalist methodology. The study was undertaken in response to popular and governmental rhetoric reflecting a lack of civil discourse and alleging a lack of civics in public education, as …

Thomas Mann’S Unbound Bodies: A Formal Analysis Of Disease In The Magic Mountain, Julia Shi

Student Theses and Dissertations

My senior thesis argues that disease is a formal element in Thomas Mann’s novel, The Magic Mountain, through the lens of a newly theorized genre: the “Bindungsroman” (“binding-novel”). The scholar Jonas Rosenbrück proposed the Bindungsroman as the successor genre to the Bildungsroman after the latter fell out of public favor after World War I.  Whereas the Bildungsroman narrates its hero’s maturation as a process of integration into society, the Bindungsroman’s hero is ontologically unstable and does not achieve normative resolution. This paper examines The Magic Mountain’s protagonist’s development as defined by the doubled play of binding and …

Vietnamese American Anti-Imperialism: South Vietnamese History And Analysis Of Publications Pre-1975, Jeannie Nguyen

Master's Theses

During the Vietnam War, citizens contested US imperialism at multiple levels. In South Vietnam, citizens published newspapers and magazines to challenge their government and expose the depth of US aggression in South Vietnamese society and culture. Inside the imperial core, Black, Chicano, and Asian American activists formed solidarities to resist the war and challenge racial inequality. At the intersection of imperialism inside and outside its borders, lies a group of South Vietnamese students and scholars who became American, migrating during the war via state-structured projects. However, in response to the heightening of war and drawing inspiration from their ‘Third World’ …

“A Land No One Would Want”: Environmental Activism And The Rejection Of ‘Wasteland’ Narratives In Southern Nevada, Steven Butler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper traces events within the history of environmental activism in Southern Nevada. The first chapter discusses the proposed high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The second chapter examines the closure of the Reid Gardner Generating Station in Moapa, Nevada. The third chapter details the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Groundwater Development Project. Each of the three chapters is linked by common themes within the history of Southern Nevada environmental activism, including dedicated coalition-building and the refusal of “wastelanding” of the region.

Hammurabi’S Laws: Ancient Traditions Of Violence, Aaron Secrist

The Confluence

The tradition of enforcing private property through violence is truly ancient, and goes back thousands of years to the first civilizations. There exists a prevailing attitude that contemporary culture is more “civilized” than the first organized societies – and while it’s true in some ways, our laws are still remarkably similar to those practiced in antiquity. In the following essay, I analyze the Law Code of Hammurabi and examine its parallels to the way laws function today. First, I will provide context for the technological advances that made the first city-states possible, then give a cultural and economic overview of …

Silent No Longer: Pedro Albizu Campos And The Fbi, Noah D. Dubroff

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis explores the Puerto Rican revolutionary, Pedro Albizu Campos, and how he evolved from a typical independence-minded young man into a radical who actively rebelled against the colonial rule of the U.S. because of the pressures applied by law enforcement agencies, especially the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The United States annexed Puerto Rico in 1898 at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. Ever since, many Puerto Ricans have strongly advocated for their independence from the continental U.S., shaping the relationship into the present day. This article argues that the pressure and strain of such an imperial relationship influenced Albizu …

Identity And Ideology: Dolores Ibarruri's Reconciliation Of Motherhood And Communism, Marvin Black

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The Spanish Civil War remains a significant cornerstone of the historical narrative of the early 20th century, as it served as the political and military precursor to World War II. The war was far more complex than a simple conflict between two ideologies, with many political and military leaders often overlooked. One of these individuals was Dolores Ibárruri, a leader of the Spanish Communist Party, who called on her experiences as both a mother and a communist to galvanize support for the Second Republic. How these two facets interacted and were shaped by Ibárruri’s personal experiences is often overlooked. Through …

Remembering Carlo Ferarai: Life, Community, And Death In Industrial London, William W. Wilder

Masters Theses, 2020-current

During the 19^th century English medical schools relied on resurrection men to provide dead bodies for anatomical dissection. While resurrection men typically took bodies from graveyards, there were also those who committed murder in order to sell the bodies of their victims. Carlo Ferarai, an unhoused immigrant child, was the victim of just such a murder, and his death contributed to many legal and social changes which have been studied by historians. This paper recontextualizes Carlo’s death by exploring his life as a social history. Using court transcripts, newspapers, and other sources, alongside insights drawn from urban history, and …

The Chinese Red Record: Western Lynch Law And The Nationalization Of Racial Terror, 1853–1915, Kevin Hegg

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Between the California Gold Rush and the First World War, Chinese immigrants were subjected to a systematic regime of extralegal racial violence marked by lynchings, riots, massacres, and forced expulsions. Using a newly compiled dataset of anti-Chinese lynchings and related lethal incidents, this thesis reconstructs a “red record” of that violence and traces its spread from California and the Pacific Coast to the Mississippi Delta. In doing so, it expands the geography of what Ida B. Wells called “OUR country’s national crime” in “Lynch Law in America” (1900). These extralegal killings formed part of a Western anti-Chinese exclusionist regime that …

The Coffee Crisis: What Starbucks Coffee Company Teaches Us About Exploitation, Chloe Baker

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The average American consumer associates the coffee shop with an earth-toned color pallet, a comfortable seating arrangement, and a delicious beverage. American popular culture mimics that imagery, in television shows like NBC’s Friends and Frasier, and movies like You’ve Got Mail. Coffee shops are one kind of third place, a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg to describe tertiary spaces to work and home where people commune and form community. But a darker side of coffee shops exists relatively unnoticed. This thesis demonstrates how popular cultural portrayals of coffee and coffee shops—small businesses and Starbucks Coffee Company—have both …

Patterns Of Practice And Power: Urban And Rural Domestic Service In Western Canada, C. 1880–1920, Julia Stanski

Madison Historical Review

This study explores the daily lives and power relations with their employers of urban and rural domestic servants in Canada’s prairie west. It focuses on the lands now known as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba between approximately 1880 and 1920, when expanding settler populations were driving a strong demand for domestic labour and new economic and demographic pressures were transforming the profession. Based on newspaper archives and the autobiographical writings of two servants from early twentieth-century western Canada, the paper argues that throughout this period, the day-to-day lives of rural and urban domestics differed significantly in their types of work and …