History Commons^™

The Wehrmacht Experience In World War Ii, Tyler Masterson

Theses and Dissertations

German soldiers who were in the Wehrmacht during World War II faced many different experiences from the beginning of the war when it seemed they were in control to later parts of the war were they were being driven back by the Allies. Along with the different experiences from different times of the war, they also faced different experiences when it came to what front they were fighting on. Fronts and theaters that stretch from North Africa and the Mediterranean Campaign to Eastern Europe and Russia to Western Europe. When it comes to the troops that were fighting in the …

When We're Coming From What Would An Hiv Doula Do? On Pandemic Time(S), Alexandra Juhasz, Theodore Kerr, Jennifer Brier, Olivia Polk, Alex Fiahlo, Pato Hebert, Salonee Bhaman

Publications and Research

“When We’re Coming From” is a conversation across time and place among a group of writers and artists who are members of the What Would an HIV Doula Do? Collective. Seven of us have come together to have an asynchronous conversation about how our decades-long work to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic shapes our experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we share six individual assessments of pandemic time to suggest ways that pandemics(s) shape our sense of time(s). What follows are our meditations on how and when we see ourselves, and the transitions of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19: “AIDS out of …

The Livornese Slaves In Algiers: The Jewish Question And Political Theatre In Late Eighteenth-Century Tuscany, Francesca Bregoli, Andrea Addobbati

Publications and Research

This essay analyzes a recently discovered French play, Les esclaves livournais à Alger, authored by François Gariel in Livorno in 1786. The protagonist of the piece, which is full of allusions to contemporary Tuscan and European events and subtle references to classics of French Enlightenment literature, is a virtuous, Algiers-based Jewish merchant who preaches toleration for all peoples and religions and greatly admires the grand duke of Tuscany. Important context for understanding Gariel’s play and the Jewish question in Livorno is provided by the relocation in the 1780s of prominent Algerian Jewish families who had built their fortunes on the …

Introduction, Francesca Bregoli

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Engl 157: Great Works Of Global Literature, Scott R. Kapuscinski

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for a general education course bringing together celebrated texts by Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head, and Marjane Satrapi. Survey of perspectives beginning during the "scramble for Africa" via Conrad, through postcolonial writers Achebe and Head, and finally making a connection via dehumanization to Orientalism and undoing monocultural presumptions in the near East through Satrapi's Persepolis.

Hist 190 Writing & History, Tracey L. Billado

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

From the fall of Islamic Išbīliya in 1248 to the conquest of the New World, Seville was a nexus of economic and religious power where interconfessional living among Christians, Jews, and Muslims was negotiated on public stages. From out of seemingly irreconcilable ideologies of faith, hybrid performance culture emerged in spectacles of miraculous transformation, disciplinary processionals, and representations of religious identity. Ritual, Spectacle, and Theatre in Late Medieval Seville reinvigorates the study of medieval Iberian theater by revealing the ways in which public expressions of devotion, penance, and power fostered cultural reciprocity, rehearsed religious difference, and ultimately helped establish Seville …

Preservando La Playa Del Pueblo, Tasha A. Sandoval

Capstones

After more than 80 years, the only queer beach in New York City, the People’s Beach at Jacob Riis, is in danger. In 2022, the city announced the demolition of the Neponsit Hospital, a long-abandoned structure that shelters the beach from the street, creating a sense of privacy and safety. Can Riis Beach live on as a safe and joyous utopia for queer communities without the presence of the hospital buildings? Some beach-goers are campaigning to ensure that whatever replaces the hospital space centers the queer community and preserves the beach’s queer history, including the legacy of Ms. Colombia, a …

Pixel Predicament, Francisco J. Lahoz

Capstones

If the art that affected you greatly in your youth was under the risk of fading away, wouldn't you do anything to preserve it? Gamers are tired of seeing the art of video games be neglected by their copyright holders and are making efforts to find, catalogue, and preserve their artform in multiple ways.

https://flahoz.com/2023/01/24/pixel-predicament/

In A Country Obsessed With Mexican Food And Culture, Why Do Mexican People Not Receive The Same Reverence?, Elba T. Rodriguez

Capstones

For centuries, the U.S. has had a complicated relationship with immigration policies and people of color. And the U.S./Mexican border has long been a source of contention. From Operation Wetback to Trump’s “Build the Wall” campaign, Mexicans have faced outright prejudice and hate. This work will delve into the contradictory policies of the U.S. using Mexicans for physical labor while simultaneously deporting them back to Mexico. It will investigate the experiences of Mexicans in this country and the incongruity of many Americans that maintain anti-Mexican sentiments while also celebrating Mexican holidays, such as Dia de los Muertos or Cinco de …

Death Spaces And Distant Skies (Every Day We Say Goodbye), Renee Estee

Theses and Dissertations

Linking ideas and imagery of the Australian Outback, Hauntology and Orphism, my practice highlights myth-making and rituals surrounding mourning, celebration and commemoration. Operating as visual love letters and epitaphs, my paintings coalesce figuration and abstraction to conjure spaces where I can commune with the deceased and contend with future loss.

The Party’S Over: How Russia’S War On Queers Spelled Its Downfall, Lucy Papachristou

Capstones

The test of any democracy, the Russian philosopher and sexologist Igor Kon once wrote, lies in how it treats the citizens it most despises. In Russia, the government of Vladimir Putin has fashioned many enemies: migrant workers, ethnic and religious minorities, and women. But none have come under such vicious fire as the LGBT. As the war in Ukraine rages and Putin tightens his grip on power domestically, an almost obvious story unfolds: that this all began long ago, with the queers. And it is Russia’s queers — scorned, brutalized, shunned, and exiled — that can best tell the story …

“Together We Arrived And Together We Shall Leave”: The Gouverneur Parents Association And The Politics Of Race And Disability In Postwar New York, Jorge A. Matos

Publications and Research

This essay documents the history of the Gouverneur Parents Association (GPA), a group of mostly Black and Latinx parents whose disabled children were institutionalized at the Gouverneur Division of the infamous Willowbrook State School in New York City. The GPA, in coalition with Black, Latinx, and White parents and activists, led a campaign during the 1970s and 1980s to close Willowbrook, then part of a national network of sites denounced by disability activists during the heyday of the deinstitutionalization movement. In this essay I argue that the postwar migration of Black and Latinx communities into New York City amid an …

Review Of "The American 'Amigo' Nelson Rockefeller And Brazil" By Antonio Pedro Tota, Lorena B. Ellis

Publications and Research

Book review of "The American 'Amigo', Nelson Rockefeller and Brazil" by Antonio Pedro Tota, translated from Portuguese into English with a brief summary of all chapters and reviewers' comments. It is a great source for students of U.S. relations with Brazil, during and after World War II. Starting in 1945, Nelson Rockefeller used private and public efforts to stimulate Brazilian economic, promote political, and social change, always with idealism, love of art, and humanitarian concerns, especially preventing any Brazilian pursuits of Communism.

Japanese Society Since Wwii, Seiji Shirane

Open Educational Resources

This course examines Japanese society in the aftermath of World War II. How did postwar Japan's changing relations with the US and its Asian neighbors impact Japanese society? Topics include the US Occupation, Japan's Cold War alliances, high economic growth, the 1960s student protests, postwar pacifism and the Self-Defense Force, women and US military bases, discrimination against Korean minorities, the rise of "Cool Japan," and the "people's emperor."

History Of European Conservatism Fall 2022 Syllabus, Jim Lewis

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for the class covering ideas of the political Right since 1789

Newtown Creek And New York City, Peter Spellane

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

"Prophecies Of Loss": Debating Slave Flight During Virginia's Secession Crisis, Evan Turiano

Publications and Research

This article examines debates over fugitives from slavery during Virginia’s secession movement. By considering these debates in the context of Virginia’s history of freedom seekers, the constitutional politics of fugitive slave rendition, and white fears of politically informed slave resistance, this article clarifies how proslavery Virginians understood the threat posed by interstate slave flight in 1861. In the wake of Abraham Lincoln's election, proslavery Virginians on both sides of the secession conflict agreed that runaways posed a grave danger to the future of slavery in the state. Early in the convention, southeastern planters and northwestern unionists forged an alliance based …

Humoring The Third Republic: Le Rire In French Politics And Popular Culture, 1894–1918, Andrew C. Kotick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies the illustrated satirical periodical Le Rire in its historical context between its debut during the Dreyfus Affair and the conclusion of World War I. Adopting a multivalent approach to the historical study of graphic humor, it argues that Le Rire constitutes a significant corpus of evidence for understanding the political, commercial, social, and cultural novelties of its time, and maintained an ambivalent relationship with the young institutions and functionaries of the French Third Republic. As France’s leading satirical periodical, Le Rire served as a powerful medium for broadcasting nascent and extreme ideas to a mass reading public …

Play: A Normative Theory Of Agency And Culture, Maxaie Belmont

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

From the beginning, people are introduced to many different attempts at engaging with various “cultures”, and of course, are born into their own. The extant literature of various fields in the social sciences have afforded us the realization that no one culture holds neither moral ground nor blueprint for how to be a culture, as our own culture is one of many, all a part of the world. Yet, because of the way our culture specifies how we are to engage and live, we tend towards the assumption that our culture has monopoly on the definition of culture. The following …

"Secession's Moving Foundation": Fugitive Slave Rendition And The Politics Of American Slavery, Evan Turiano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the political conflict over fugitive slave rendition from the era of the American Revolution through the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. It pays particular attention to the struggle over the legal rights due to African Americans accused of being fugitive slaves. Slaveholders claimed an absolute property right over accused fugitive slaves and argued that any recognition of legal remedies for accused runaways threatened that right. Free African Americans and their allies in the abolitionist movement asserted that Black people accused of having escaped slavery were due a legal process. This was a vital protection against …

Petroleum, Health, And Power: The Anglo-Persian Oil Company And The Colonial Dimensions Of Company Medicine In Iran, 1902–1931, Arman Azimi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Petroleum, Health, and Power: The Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Colonial Dimensions of Company Medicine in Iran, 1902-1931” investigates the medical and public health work of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC, later Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), and today BP P.L.C., or British Petroleum) in southwest Iran in the period prior to the Iranian central government’s assumption of control over public health in the region. To ensure that its operations functioned without disruption, the British-owned oil company constructed an extensive and integrated medical infrastructure and carried out substantial public health programs. Based on archival material from the BP Archive and the …

Decolonizing Genderqueer: An Inquiry Into The Gender Binary, Resistance, And Imperialistic Social Categories, Lauren E. Abruzzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines core metaphysical properties of nonbinary and genderqueer categories in dominant U.S. contexts. I address a prevailing argument that these categories, by definition, resist the gender binary and are therefore radical modes of existing. In response, I put forth a view of ‘nonbinary’ and ‘genderqueer’ that I call the Diachronic Approach, which describes these categories as yet another set of tools within an imperialistic gender system, much like ‘man’ or ‘woman.’ In other words, they are what I refer to as imperialistic social categories. While nonbinary and genderqueer people do not fall perfectly within the U.S. gender …

The Storytelling Cure: Medicine And Narrative From Galen To Shahrazad And Rousseau, Ryan A. Milov-Cordoba

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Are stories healing? This dissertation introduces and explores an idea that I call “the storytelling cure.” With this term I capture a set of related notions about the healing power of stories that span literary studies, intellectual history, philosophy, and medical practice. Through a comparative study I make the case for “the storytelling cure” as a cross-cultural, multiconfessional, and multilingual phenomenon of great age, complexity, and power, worthy of the most sustained attention by the contemporary field of Comparative Literature. Concretely, this dissertation presents three extended case studies of “storytelling cures” from three different kinds of texts (case history, frame …

Banarasipan As Revelation: Immanent Utopias In The Performance Of Everyday Life, Bhargav Rani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation locates itself at the intersection of performance theory, South Asian studies and philosophy of history to examine the history of an urban consciousness known as banarasipan (literally, "Banarasi-ness") as performed by the people of Banaras in northern India. Over the course of the twentieth century, banarasipan, as a distinct way of being in everyday life, has been characterized by its valorization of heroic laziness, seditious laughter, subversive obscenities, and by its egalitarian subjectivity that overrides sectarian and class differences. In the context of South Asian history, this dissertation interrogates the theoretical premises of both Marxist and postcolonial modes …

El Poder De Las Tierras Estatales: Conflictos De Propiedad, Formaciones Estatales Y La Construcción De Los Llanos En Colombia, Julio Arias Vanegas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work examines different conflicts over the definition, delimitation, and use of state lands in Colombia. It focuses on the conflicts over three places, which have been produced as state properties and “baldíos” (public, untitled lands) from the 1940s to the 2010s in Los Llanos region. This dissertation departs from two premises. First, the making and unmaking of state lands are unique windows to examine how the limits between state and non-state properties, actors, and spaces are defined and disputed. Second, state lands, and especially baldíos, have been a key form of state territorialization and appropriation of marginalized regions. Thus, …

Katharine Bement Davis: Defying Expectations As A Woman And In The Study Of Women, Ella Hester

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Katharine Bement Davis’ (1860-1935) life and career as a highly educated scientist and Progressive activist placed her at the forefront of various moral panic debates at the turn of the twentieth century. Davis was born into a staunch abolitionist and suffragist family in upstate New York in 1860. Her family’s politics were grounded in progressive Protestant principles which allowed her to gain access to higher education as a white woman from a middle-class family. Her education left her poised to use the latest scientific research to shape Progressive dogma in the 1910s and 1920s. Davis’ education and the groundbreaking research …

Historical Ecology Of Norse Greenland: Zooarchaeology And Climate Change Responses, Konrad Smiarowski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis invokes Historical Ecology approach to better understand human impacts on marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and the creation of cultural landscapes and seascapes in Norse Greenland. It also investigates climate impacts on human economic strategies, as they vary substantially by island and region in the North Atlantic but were especially important in arctic Greenland.

The analysis centers on the animal bone data and uses both existing and newly generated zooarchaeological collections to contribute to the study of Norse Greenland and its place in human ecodynamics research. The newly analyzed archaeofauna shows that the culturally Nordic European settlers used to …

Female Spaces And Exceptional Women Under Fascism: Anna Banti’S Early Writings (1930s–1940s), Matilde Fogliani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation looks at the early literary production of Anna Banti during 1930’s and 1940’s in newspapers and magazines. Female Spaces and Exceptional Women Under Fascism studies how Banti was able to publish and portray women who did not always comply with fascist propaganda’s standards, despite the harsh censorship. Banti employed dissimulation using umorismo, in order to avoid the censorship. Many scholars attributed the use of irony to Banti’s early writings to ridicule her female characters. She instead used umorismo because it leads the readership to an initial amusement but later to a reflection on women’s conditions. This research …

The Important Role And Contradictions Of Italian Women Image In Fashion, Magazines And Cinema During The Fascist Period, Lu M. Gomezdelatorre

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper discusses the tools of propaganda used by the fascist regime in fashion and cinema, and it focuses on the sets of opposing images used within these tools, and how they contributed to shaping the identities of Italian women during the time of the fascism in Italy. Moreover, this thesis attempts to demonstrate that fashion and films that aligned with the values of the regime and were seen as models of the fascist culture were also full of contradictions. Therefore, instead of unifying the nation, increasing national pride, and eliminating social gaps, they engulfed the regime in a series …