History Commons^™

From Revolution To Laïcité: How Anticlericalism Has Defined Modern France For Muslim Women, Jake T. Mcardle

Senior Theses

This paper explores the developing definition and approach to secularism, referred to in France more strictly as laïcité, and its disproportionate impact upon French Muslims, in particular, Muslim women. The French roots of anticlericalism and resulting Revolution provide necessary context as to why the French are so apprehensive about religion, which led to the establishment of a secular state in 1905. Exploring relevant literature on the topic of French secularism, with a particular focus on the development of the headscarf debate in France from 1905 to 2023, context is provided regarding why the French care so deeply about the wearing …

Echoes Of Imperialism: The Philippines And America In The South China Sea, Victoria Elise Ruiz Sogueco

Senior Theses

This paper provides an overview of the conflict between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, Philippine history following its liberation from Spain to its independence from America, and the continuing impacts of American imperialism on the modern day Philippines. While it is argued that American military intervention on behalf of the Philippines is necessary in order to protect its territories in the South China Sea, this would only strengthen its legacy of imperialism on the Philippines. By analyzing case studies of sexual assaults perpetrated by US troops, such as the Jennifer Laude case and the Subic rape …

“Not The Mecca We Know”: Analyzing The Spiritual And Cultural Ramifications Of Contemporary Commercialism In Saudi Arabia, Hanif Azam Amanullah

Senior Theses

The Islamic Hajj, one of the world's most prominent religious pilgrimages, has in recent decades faced increasing scrutiny due to its rapid and persistent commercialization under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s government. To make way for this commercialization, researchers estimate that over 95% of Islamic heritage sites have been destroyed, the justification for which often lies in Wahhabi attempts to avoid idolatry. The few remaining sites have been renovated beyond the point of recognition. Amid the drastic transformation of both Islam’s holiest city and holiest ritual, this thesis finds that the Kingdom’s fundamentalist Islamic interpretations and extreme commercial developments have …

Administering Authoritarianism: The Birth Of The Free Market Model In Pinochet’S Chile., Meghan A. Haggerty

Senior Theses

This research paper aims to dissect the origins of the free-market in Chile and its institution through dictatorship. The purpose of this paper is to analyze privatization as an instrument of conservative governments– specifically the Pinochet regime (1973-1990). It outlines how the authoritarian government arose in the geopolitical context of the Cold War which led to a series of neoconservative fiscal policies inspired by Milton Friedman and the “Chicago Boys.” This paper goes on to analyze the structural transformation that drastically changed the economic output of the country. The case study highlighted is the Chilean Water Code and the privatization …

A Path To Achieve European Energy Security, Nicholas Wolf

Student Theses 2015-Present

The apparatus of Europe’s energy security has collapsed. The Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, hydrocarbon market turmoil, and the ever-growing threat of climate change has thrust the continent into crisis. As the risks of severe recession, acute energy shortages, and climatic disasters have begun to materialize, the member states of the European Union (EU) have been left scrambling to secure novel energy supplies. In the short-term, these developments pose severe risks to the EU and its member states. Yet, opportunity often presents itself in the midst of hardship, and the European Energy Crisis of 2022 is no different. This essay …

Breaking Point: The Ironic Evolution Of Psychiatry In World War Ii - Appendix A, Rebecca Schwartz Greene

History

This book informs the public for the first time about the impact of American psychiatry on soldiers during World War II.

Breaking Point is the first in-depth history of American psychiatry in World War II. Drawn from unpublished primary documents, oral histories, and the author’s personal interviews and correspondence over years with key psychiatric and military policymakers, it begins with Franklin Roosevelt’s endorsement of a universal Selective Service psychiatric examination followed by Army and Navy pre- and post-induction examinations. Ultimately, 2.5 million men and women were rejected or discharged from military service on neuropsychiatric grounds. Never before or since has …

Breaking Point: The Ironic Evolution Of Psychiatry In World War Ii - Appendix B, Rebecca Schwartz Greene

History

This book informs the public for the first time about the impact of American psychiatry on soldiers during World War II.

Breaking Point is the first in-depth history of American psychiatry in World War II. Drawn from unpublished primary documents, oral histories, and the author’s personal interviews and correspondence over years with key psychiatric and military policymakers, it begins with Franklin Roosevelt’s endorsement of a universal Selective Service psychiatric examination followed by Army and Navy pre- and post-induction examinations. Ultimately, 2.5 million men and women were rejected or discharged from military service on neuropsychiatric grounds. Never before or since has …

Jewish Life In The Bronx, Julian Voloj, Reyna Stovall, Sophia Maier

Bronx Jewish History Project

Fordham’s Bronx Jewish History Project: An Introduction Since 2015, Fordham has been building a Judaica collection. While the university already had an outstanding Holocaust collection—the Sydney Rosenblatt Holocaust Collection, which boasts over 10,000 items, including books, ephemera and material objects, and a teaching collection in Jewish history, with standard scholarly literature. It did not have a Judaica collection that would spotlight the historical and geographic breadth of Jewish culture. When I arrived in 2015, with a passion to teach with historical artifacts, with the support of the late Provost Stephen Freedman and Director of Fordham Libraries Linda Loschiavo, I began …

“The British Museum Had Lost Its Charm”: The Repatriation Of The Benin Bronzes And Nazi-Looted Jewish Art, Reeve Pacen Churchill

Senior Theses

The purpose of this research is to consider the question of Benin Bronze repatriation through the context of Jewish repatriation which has spanned the decades following World War II. By studying ownership and property rights, cultural heritage, and repatriation efforts of each movement, this study seeks to draw distinctions between European repatriation and African repatriation to show that success is limited in both cases because of the historic legality of looting in both cases. Ultimately, it becomes clear that a comparative repatriation study becomes problematic when European standards are superimposed on to African standards, when African countries struggle with vastly …

The Survival Of Dulles: Reflections On A Second Century Of Influence, Michael M. Canaris

Religion

This collection, marking the centenary of Avery Dulles’s birth, makes an entirely distinctive contribution to contemporary theological discourse as we approach the second century of the cardinal’s influence, and the twenty-first of Christian witness in the world. Moving beyond a festschrift, the volume offers both historical analyses of Dulles’s contributions and applications of his insights and methodologies to current issues like immigration, exclusion, and digital culture. It includes essays by Dulles’s students, colleagues, and peers, as well as by emerging scholars who have been and continue to be indebted to his theological vision and encyclopedic fluency in the ecclesiological …

Cold War Reckonings: Authoritarianism And The Genres Of Decolonization, Jini Kim Watson

Literature

How did the Cold War shape culture and political power in decolonizing countries and give rise to authoritarian regimes in the so-called free world? Cold War Reckonings tells a new story about the Cold War and the global shift from colonialism to independent nation-states. Assembling a body of transpacific cultural works that speak to this historical conjuncture, Jini Kim Watson reveals autocracy to be not a deficient form of liberal democracy, but rather the result of Cold War entanglements with decolonization.

Focusing on East and Southeast Asia, the book scrutinizes cultural texts ranging from dissident poetry, fiction, and writers’ conference …

Enhancing The Role Of Civil Society Organizations In A Post-Conflict Setting: A Review Of Central American Conflicts In The 1990s, Leticia Guadalupe Murillo

Senior Theses

The 1990s marked an opportunity for change for three Central American countries facing the end of their civil wars: Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Efforts to contribute to democratization and the reconstruction of war-torn societies grew with the increasing presence of United Nations missions and international organizations and donors, but the primary organizations overlooked in these efforts were local civil society organizations (CSOs). Based on the role of CSOs in the post-conflict phases, I intend to answer the following question: How can the role and image of CSOs be enhanced in a post-conflict setting? Improving the role and image of …

The Crack Epidemic And The Transformation Of Hip Hop: A Bronx Tale, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Jerusalem In The Stacks, Fordham University

Student Publications

Jerusalem in the Stacks

Highlights from the Fordham Collection

Spring 2021

Exhibition curated by and catalogue edited by

Sarit Kattan Gribetz

with contributions from

Students from THEO 4009 “Medieval Jerusalem: Jewish, Christian, Muslim Perspectives”

O’Hare Special Collections Walsh Family Library, Fordham University

A Guide For Instructors And Students: Mld Mapping Project, Maryanne Kowaleski

Digital Pedagogy: Medieval Londoners Mapping Project

This site contains instructions and other materials for a linked data digital project developed by Dr Maryanne Kowaleski and Ms Camila Marcone for two Fordham University courses in Fall 2020. The assignment required students to structure information found in medieval London property records into a spreadsheet that had columns corresponding to fields in the Medieval Londoners Database (MLD), an online searchable database of people who lived in London from c. 1190 to to c. 1520. Each person in the deed was noted in a separate row or record in the spreadsheet. Students next summarized the data about each property into …

A. Part I Mld Mapping Assignment And Instructions, Maryanne Kowaleski, Camila Marcone

Digital Pedagogy: Medieval Londoners Mapping Project

Notes the aims of the assignment, lists resources to help students do research on the deeds, and gives detailed instructions for A) structuring the data about people in the deed into the MLD Mapping Sheet and B) preparing the data about the property for entry into the online mapping platform, Layers of London, using the Layers of London Grid.

Who Is A Muslim?: Orientalism And Literary Populisms [Toc], Maryam Wasif Khan

Literature

Who is a Muslim? Orientalism and Literary Populisms argues that modern Urdu literature, from its inception in colonial institutions such as Fort William College, Calcutta to its dominant forms in contemporary Pakistan—popular novels, short stories, television serials—is formed around a question that is and historically has been at the core of early modern and modern Western literatures. The question—who is a Muslim—is predominant in eighteenth-century literary and scholarly orientalist texts, the English oriental tale chief amongst them, but takes on new and dangerous meanings once it travels to the North-Indian colony, and later to Pakistan. A literary-historical study …

2020 Medieval Object Assignment And Instructions, Maryanne Kowaleski

Digital Pedagogy: Omeka Medieval London

Assignment with instructions on researching the medieval object and loading metadata and images into the Omeka digital platform for each item and exhibition.

F. Layers Of London Grid Template, Maryanne Kowaleski

Digital Pedagogy: Medieval Londoners Mapping Project

Empty grid form to be filled out with data on each deed; the data entered are then transferred to an online Layers of London record.

B. Part Ii Mld Mapping Instructions, Maryanne Kowaleski, Camila Marcone

Digital Pedagogy: Medieval Londoners Mapping Project

Instructions for accessing and creating a record in the Layers of London digital mapping platform.

Reading Plague Images: Visual Literacy In The History Classroom, Katherina Fostano

Developing Pedagogy Graduate Student Showcase

In 2016 Peter Felten, Director of the Center for Advancement of Teaching and Learning at Elon University, wrote, “Our students live in a highly visual world, where images are fundamental in shaping their understandings of history before they ever enter our classrooms.” This observation prompted me to create a series of exercises that introduce students to general visual literacy skills in the History classroom. These exercises aim to help students use visual sources to make evidence-based interpretations of the past with rigor and efficacy. In this presentation, I focused on images of past plagues since the recent proliferation of plague-related …

Teaching The Black Death During Covid-19, Rachel Podd

Developing Pedagogy Graduate Student Showcase

On the 13th of November 2020, the Renaissance Society of America, in conjunction with Fordham University, hosted on a symposium, “Plagues, Pandemics, and Outbreaks of Disease in History”, including a series of presentations focused on pedagogical strategies related to the topic of disease in Early Modern History. As part of this pedagogy roundtable, Rachel Podd developed a variety of materials suitable for educators in secondary or higher education; these materials use the current pandemic, COVID-19, as a teaching tool and analytical lens for the study of historical pandemics and, more specifically, of the Black Death of the fourteenth century. Conceived …

No Innocence Here: How Irish, Jewish And Italian New Yorkers Benefited From Their Whiteness In Post-World War Ii Nyc, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

No Innocence Here: How Irish, Jewish And Italian New Yorkers Benefited From Their Whiteness In Post-World War Ii Nyc, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Xenocitizens: Illiberal Ontologies In Nineteenth-Century America [Table Of Contents], Jason Berger

Literature

Sociality under the sign of liberalism has seemingly come to an end—or, at least, is in dire crisis. Xenocitizens returns to the antebellum United States in order to intervene in a wide field of responses to our present economic and existential precarity. In this incisive study, Berger challenges a shaken but still standing scholarly tradition based on liberal-humanist perspectives. Through the concept of xenocitizen, a synthesis of the terms “xeno,” which connotes alien or stranger, and “citizen,” which signals a naturalized subject of a state, the book uncovers realities and possibilities that have been foreclosed by dominant paradigms. Xenocitizens glimpses …

Textures Of The Ordinary: Doing Anthropology After Wittgenstein [Table Of Contents], Veena Das

Philosophy & Theory

Textures of the Ordinary: Doing Anthropology After Wittgenstein is an exploration of everyday life in which anthropology finds a companionship with philosophy. Based on two decades of ethnographic work among low-income urban families in India, Das shows how the notion of texture allows her to align her ethnography with stunning anthropological moments in Wittgenstein and Cavell as well as in literary texts from India. Das poses a compelling question – how might we speak of a human form of life when the very idea of the human has been put into question? The response to this question, Das argues, does …

Urban Formalism: The Work Of City Reading [Table Of Contents], David Faflik

Sociology

Urban Formalism radically reimagines what it meant to “read” a brave new urban world during the transformative middle decades of the nineteenth century. At a time when contemporaries in the twin capitals of modernity in the West, New York and Paris, were learning to make sense of unfamiliar surroundings, city peoples increasingly looked to the experiential patterns, or forms, from their everyday lives in an attempt to translate urban experience into something they could more easily comprehend. Urban Formalism interrogates both the risks and rewards of an interpretive practice that depended on the mutual relation between urbanism and formalism, at …

That Further Shore: A Memoir Of Irish Roots And American Promise [Table Of Contents], John D. Feerick

Biography

A rare and evocative memoir of a respected constitutional scholar, dedicated public servant, political reformer, and facilitator of peace in the land of his ancestors

John D. Feerick’s life has all the elements of a modern Horatio Alger story: the poor boy who achieves success by dint of his hard work. But Feerick brought other elements to that classical American success story: his deep religious faith, his integrity, and his paramount concern for social justice. In his memoir, The Further Shore, Feerick shares his inspiring story, from its humble beginnings born to immigrant parents in the South Bronx, going …

America's Last Great Newspaper War [Table Of Contents], Mike Jaccarino

Cinema & Media Studies

A from-the-trenches view of New York Daily News and New York Post runners and photographers who would stop at nothing to break the story and squash their tabloid arch rivals.

When author Mike Jaccarino was offered a job at the Daily News in 2006, he was asked a single question: “Kid, what are you going to do to help us beat the Post?” That was the year things went sideways at the News, when The New York Post surpassed its nemesis in circulation for the first time in the history of both papers. Tasked with one job—crush the …

Uniquely Okinawan: Determining Identity During The U.S. Wartime Occupation, Courtney A. Short

History

When the U.S. military landed on the shores of Okinawa in 1945, they faced not only a fierce and battle-tested Japanese force, but also 463,000 Okinawan inhabitants. Larger than any other civilian population encountered by the Americans during previous campaigns throughout the Pacific islands, the people of Okinawa also had a unique and complex historical and political relationship with Japan. Okinawa never experienced subjugation as a colony, yet its acceptance as a prefecture did not yield equal treatment for the people because of their Ryukyuan heritage. As the U.S. military prepared for the Battle of Okinawa, they faced dangerous uncertainty …