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36th Annual Young Historians Conference Program, Portland State University History Department, Portland State University Challenge Program

Young Historians Conference

This is the 2026 Young Historians Conference schedule and abstracts.

Rex Gothorum, Patres Conscripti, Et Senes Barbarorum: Balancing Monarchical And Aristocratic Power In The Ostrogothic Kingdom, Max Deloach

Honors Theses

The fourth and fifth-century migrations of “barbarian” peoples from beyond the Roman frontier to the heart of the Empire exacerbated an already unparalleled crisis of self in Roman society. With the settlement of these “barbarians” in the West, the facade of Roman dominion over its own territory and institutions had crumbled. In Italy, the Roman Senate, along with the Catholic Church and the Eastern Roman Emperor, became essential to the peninsula’s “barbarian” kings. At the same time, post-Roman monarchs were obliged to patronize their own nobility—the elite military class. This work evaluates the trilateral negotiation of power between post-Roman monarchs, …

Human Dignity In The Foundational Political Documents Of The United States, Kalista Roades

Honors Theses

Human dignity is integral to modern discussions of human rights and liberties, but this connection can be found stretching back through history to the early developments of human rights. This paper begins with modern philosophical definitions of human dignity, especially from Rosen and Kateb. Rosen discusses four “strands” of dignity- Intrinsic Dignity, Status Dignity, Manner Dignity, and Respect Dignity. This paper then uses that framework to find human dignity implicit within the founding documents of the United States including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, as well as “Common Sense” and the Magna Carta to …

The Flaming Cross Of Kildare: A Model Of Gender And Power In Early Irish Christian Identity, 470-1220 A.D., Patricia M. Hendrick

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation examines the development of early Irish Christianity through the lens of gender, monasticism, and cultural synthesis, centering on the figure of Saint Brigid of Kildare and her foundational role in shaping one of Ireland’s most influential religious institutions. It argues that the Christianization of Ireland was neither abrupt nor uniform, but rather a gradual, negotiated process that fused indigenous Gaelic traditions with emerging Christian structures. Within this unique context, Ireland’s ecclesiastical organization diverged markedly from continental models, privileging monastic networks over episcopal hierarchies and enabling alternative configurations of spiritual authority. Importantly, this is seen in Kildare Abbey, a …

Under The Guise Of “Benevolent Assimilation”: The United States Genocide In The Philippines, Samuel S. Cao

Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II

No abstract provided.

The Guatemalan C̶I̶V̶I̶L̶ ̶W̶A̶R̶ Genocide, Francesca Tapper

Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II

No abstract provided.

Rosenzweig's Elements And Universal History, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper uses Rosenzweig’s conception of the three elements of God, World, and Human from The Star of Redemption in a model of universal history. The model also has some relation to Rosenzweig’s geopolitical essay, Globus, which is very different from the meta-historical Star. Based on a systems-theoretic schema of events and processes, the model views human history in terms of three linked processes: a primary process labeled “World” – the origin and development of human society embedded in nature, a secondary process labeled “God” – the origin and development of the Axial religions and philosophies, and a …

Regional And Temporal Variation In The Function Of The Castles Of The Norman Conquest, Leah A. Perdue

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Following the Norman Conquest in 1066, a castle-building project of unprecedented scale transformed the landscape of England. This paper investigates how these structures supported the establishment of Norman rule over England, and how their role changed over time. Through examining case studies, the paper concludes that in the early years following the Conquest castles were primarily used in military operations, but in the following decades became essential administrative sites and seats of local government, as well as symbols of Norman power. The paper also concludes that castles on the border with Wales have a more complicated history, fluctuating in function …

Communist Yugoslavia: Non-Alignment, Solidarity, And Webs Of Diplomacy, Morgan Dillon

Honors Projects

The Non-Alignment Movement has been covered extensively in Cold War scholarship, yet the relationship between Yugoslavia and Indonesia is often underexplored, especially in the realm of IR theory. This project examines Yugoslavia and Indonesia between 1945 and 1966 to propose an imagined community, as conceptualized by Benedict Anderson, that serves as a microcosm for a wider Non-Aligned community in the Third World. This is achieved by using Social Constructivism to synthesize the histories, foreign policies, and national/political identities of these two nations, and then placing the theoretical community against Yugoslavia’s relationships with the U.S and the USSR for contrast. Through …

Aristophanes And Athenian Society During The Peloponnesian War, Joshua Schmidt

Senior Honors Theses

At the end of the fifth century BC, Greek society underwent major changes as a result of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. While the origin of the war and its course of events are described in contemporary sources, the impact of the war on Athenian society is mostly overlooked. However, another contemporary source, the comedies of the Athenian playwright Aristophanes, provides an alternative perspective from which to consider Athenian society. A thematic study of Aristophanes’ eleven extant plays offers a window into changes in various aspects of Athenian society during and immediately after the Peloponnesian War, such as …

The War On War: Desensitization's Effects On Society's Moral Fabric, Chelsea E. Johnson, Andrew J. Cudden

The Penguin Review

In an era of constant connectivity, violence is no longer distant or intermittent. Wars, political repression, mass shootings, and humanitarian crises now unfold in real time, shared instantly through twenty-four-hour news cycles and social media. Never before has global suffering been so visible. Yet this unprecedented access has failed to produce sustained moral urgency or collective responsibility. Instead, violence becomes increasingly utilised as fleeting content–viewed, shared, and then displaced by the next trending event. This paradox raises a pressing ethical question: how can a world more informed of suffering become so morally disengaged from it?

Gathering Places: Indigenous Resources, Economies, And Diplomacy In The Northeastern Great Plains, 1650 – 1806 Ce, Matthew D. Busch

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Centuries before European arrival in the Great Plains region of North America, Indigenous exchange networks connected people within the continental interior to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Gulf Coast. Throughout this vast Native Space, Indigenous peoples sought new resources and opportunities to create sustainable and successful lifeways by harnessing the spiritual, economic, and political power of place as they journeyed across the landscape.

The Coteau des Prairies centrally located between the Missouri, Mississippi, and Hudson's Bay watersheds within the Northeastern Great Plains represents a unique place of power. This imposing glacially modified landscape characterized by numerous lakes, fertile …

"A Pre-Eminently Christian Life": The Seventh Earl Of Shaftesbury As A Guide For Modern Political Engagement, Clara Kernodle

Harding Undergraduate Research Conference

Society has suffered in the absence of Christian courage. Today, an antagonistic culture is feeding an increasingly antagonistic government. Christians do not know how to “win” – we do not even know how to engage. Rod Dreher's "The Benedict Option" encourages us to give up and retreat. Andrew Isker's "The Boniface Option" encourages warfare-style aggression. But Dreher’s and Isker’s approaches each take an aspect of the solution and expand it out of proportion. The proper solution is found in the historic Christian tradition. The Church has always understood her role within culture as one not of fear and loathing, but …

Patriots And Protestant Dissenters: Early Religious Disestablishment In Revolutionary South Carolina, Nathan James Shull

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1778, the newly independent government of South Carolina broke with more than a century of precedent and disestablished the Church of England by enacting Article XXXVIII of its State Constitution. This thesis weaves together the interconnected stories of Patriots such as William Tennent, Christopher Gadsden, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Oliver Hart, Richard Furman, and William Henry Drayton, demonstrating how they converged on disestablishment. While the historiography has focused on one or another religious or political group, this thesis asserts that an array of South Carolinians from across the political spectrum coalesced around disestablishment as a pragmatic solution to a variety …

Manufacturing Collapse: American Power And The Dissolution Of The Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia, Jonah Michael Hillmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that the United States systematically worked to destabilize the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and initiate regime change through economic sanctions, propaganda campaigns, funding of political opposition movements, and the facilitation of NATO bombing campaigns. Through an examination of recently declassified U.S. government documents, National Security Council briefings, and diplomatic correspondence, a more complicated reality of U.S. involvement in Yugoslavia emerges. Evidence reveals that the Clinton Administration leveraged the real humanitarian crisis in Kosovo to advance post-Cold War strategic interests, particularly the political and economic unification of Europe under NATO. Organized into three thematic chapters: Militaristic Involvement, Economic …

Book Bans In U.S. Prisons: A Legacy Of The Prisoners' Rights Movement, Allison Jansen

Honors Projects

The 1950s-1970s saw an unprecedented spike in organized resistance by American prisoners. This long era of rebellion, along with thousands of judicial appeals, made up the “prisoners’ rights movement”-- a political, legal, and social struggle that challenged the conditions of American incarceration and its penological paradigm. The timeline of the movement is abstract and difficult to measure. Nonetheless, what is certain is that it lost its momentum by the 1980s due to overhauling policy changes that quelled prisoner activism without achieving meaningful progress. This research examines the evolution of prison censorship policies within that paradigm shift and how they sought …

Bravery And Bayonets: The Nigerian Regiment And The Battle Of Bweho Chini, September 1917, Paul Cronin

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The First World War in East Africa spanned the entirety of the war, from 1914 to 1918, and by the end of the war nearly all of the personnel on both sides were African. Understanding how the war in East Africa was different geographically and militarily from the western front helps to shed light on the unique experience of the men who fought there. My thesis builds on the thesis of Ibiang O. Ewa, that the Nigerian Regiment was crucial to allied victory in the campaign, in his chapter in Africa and the First World War: Remembrance, Memories, and Representations …

Challenging Patriarchy: Female Agency Through Religious Roles In Ancient Babylonian Societies, Emily Wilson

2026 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents & Media

In ancient Babylonian societies, gender roles were shaped by patriarchal structures that prioritized male authority in just about every sector. However, women created spaces for themselves that gave them influence and autonomy, particularly through religious institutions. Temple complexes like the Shamash temple in Sippar and the Esagil temple in Babylon were not only centers of worship but also powerful economic and administrative hubs, and women who served them occupied positions of privilege. The nadītu of Sippar, for example, lived in separate quarters where they were not only expected to remain celibate but were also allowed to own property, lend money, …

Calculated Self-Presentation: Japan At Twentieth Century American World’S Fairs, Mary Rose Comerford

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

World’s fairs are places of innovation, culture, and technology. They are places where visitors go to be wowed by the innovations of other countries, but do they have a deeper meaning? In this thesis I will argue that world’s fairs serve a purpose beyond the sharing of culture and innovation. They allow national commissions to control the narrative of their country through a careful curation of displays that meet the objectives of their government. Countries’ objectives at world’s fairs change all the time, depending on their position in the world and what serves their best interest. The fairs themselves each …

Long Live The Good King: A Niebuhrian Analysis Of Arthur’S Ethical Kingship In The Once And Future King, Camille Bewley

Tenor of Our Times

The classic The Once and Future King, written by T.H. White, is a selection of four fantasy novels with one, linear plot: the story of Arthur, the mythological King of England. Reinhold Niebuhr’s book Moral Man and Immoral Society details the Christian realism of a world in need of justice without the ability to achieve perfect application. Through good education, Arthur is well endowed with Niebuhr’s requirements for a functional society: knowledge, honor, wisdom, and compassion. Such king-like qualities make him one of the most influential mythological characters in history, and a grand exemplar for maintaining ethical goals and personal …

In The Eyes Of Empires: Depictions Of Ancient Illyria, Maeve Quinlan Miller

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

Illyria, called Illyricum under Roman governance, was an area in the ancient Mediterranean which extended across the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. Situated north of Greece, west of Macedon, and across the ocean from Rome, Illyria occupied a critical place in the world, and yet it remains underdiscussed in scholarship. The sources that have survived into the modern era come from non-Illyrian voices, like Livy from Rome, Polybius, a Greek historian, or Arrian, who took great lengths to record the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Without affiliation or deep understanding of Illyrian ways, places like Rome, Greece, and Macedon …

Let's All Go To The Lobby: Examining The American Cold War Experience Through Film, Renaldo Gonzales Jr.

GLI MA in American History Student Works

The films of the American film industry produced and released during the Cold War are as varied as the complex events that occurred throughout the entirety of the conflict. These films can provide an understanding of how the feelings and attitudes of the American people shifted and evolved as the Cold War progressed. This work will examine a small sample of these films, focusing on one film from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. By providing critiques and reviews of the film from the time of its original release, information about the motives of the director of the films being …

Giovanni Da Legnano’S Reception Of Thomas Of Ireland’S Manipulus Florum (1306) In The Prohemium To The Somnium, Chris L. Nighman

History Faculty Publications

This article demonstrates the reception of the influential florilegium Manipulus florum in Giovanni da Legnano’s Somnium, a discovery that has major implications for future scholarship on not only this text, but all of this author’s surviving works. It also reports some very unusual, probably unique, contextual evidence for his reception of the Manipulus.

St. Mary's Rotc, One Hundred Years Of Military Science, Pedro Martinez

Posters - 2026

The ROTC program at St. Mary’s has built a proud legacy of over a century of military tradition, leadership, and service. That distinguished chapter will evolve at the end of this semester as the program transitions from host institution status and becomes an extension of the University of Texas at San Antonio. While the program will continue to operate, this change marks both the end of one era and the beginning of another. Much of this rich history had long gone undocumented by the university and the battalion, until now, bringing together the key moments of its evolution, from its …

Unassuming Antiquity: The 1939-1940 New York World’S Fair, Mary Rose Comerford

History & Classics Student Scholarship

This paper examines the self-representation of Japan at the 1939 New York World’s Fair through the country’s displays and gifts to the United States. American world’s fairs were events that many countries wanted to participate in, to showcase their innovation, industry, and culture. It was a place for them to enter the international stage and control their image of themselves to the rest of the world. Japan’s choice of displays varied at different points in history depending on what would best serve the country’s diplomatic interests. In 1939, following its military aggression in China, Japan looked for a chance to …

Acquiring Egypt: Napoleon, Joséphine, And The Formation Of France’S Collections Of Egyptian Antiquities, 1792-1822, Anna E. Dow

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the seizure and acquisition of Egyptian antiquities by the French government between 1792 and 1822. During this period, the French government seized antiquities for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was to benefit the French people politically and financially and to support the French ideals of art and civilization. Egyptian antiquities were collected almost accidentally, as French armies confiscated the collections of the wealthy in Paris and the aristocratic collections in Italy. But the presence of the art prompted the curiosity of the French, which led to a greater interest in Egyptian antiquities. However, …

Review Of Chosen Peoples: Christianity And Political Imagination In South Sudan, John Ashworth

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

U.S. Arctic Sea Lines Of Communication (Sloc): The Imperative For A Maritime Complex And Corridor In The Bering Region, Samuel A. Krakower, Troy J. Bouffard

Joint Force Quarterly

This paper examines the current American capacity to defend its newfound Sea Lines of Communication in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The history, and importance, of Sea Lines of Communication trace back to great naval strategists such as Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir Julian Corbett, and consistent protection of these maritime corridors in times of war and peace led to the success of the United States. As the Arctic Region emerges as a new theater of geopolitical importance, the United States finds itself significantly disadvantaged or "strategically handicapped” in terms of presence, capability, and proximity to defend …

The Cyber Deterrence Dilemma: Parallels Between Cyber And Intelligence Special Operations, Jorge R. Kravetz Msc

Joint Force Quarterly

The dilemma of cyber deterrence, alongside its potential failures, has gained increasing academic attention, though its parallels with traditional special operations remain less examined. Cyber and special operations—often covert activities involving espionage, sabotage, and subversion, generally linked to strategic or military intelligence—typically evade standard deterrence mechanisms. Drawing on a theoretical framework of deterrence, academic literature, historical cases, and qualitative analyses, this article argues that deterrence tends to fail when deterrers manage to destabilize an adversary without causing significant strategic impacts on the target’s power, economic, or social dynamics, as well as on international relations. Retaliation, shaped by implicit agreements or …

Political Objectives, Nuclear Forces, And The Enduring Value Of U.S. Intercontinental-Range Ballistic Missiles, Michaela Dodge

Joint Force Quarterly

"Political Objectives, Nuclear Forces, and the Enduring Value of U.S. Intercontinental-Range Ballistic Missiles" by Michaela Dodge examines two critical components of contemporary U.S. and Ukrainian security strategy: the enduring value of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and the structure and operational evolution of Ukrainian special forces. ICBMs remain the most responsive leg of the U.S. nuclear triad, providing deterrence against nuclear and conventional threats, assuring allies, and supporting strategic flexibility in an era of rising nuclear competition from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. Despite aging systems and modernization challenges, ICBMs continue to underpin U.S. national security. At the same …