History Commons^™

Lobster Palaces In Times Square: The Public Stage Where America Discovered Itself Through Play And Leisure, Lydia E. Ravnikar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Between 1870 and 1920, the period known as the Gilded Age, New York City became the acknowledged national leader in finance, manufacturing, technology, and entertainment. As the country’s leader, it attracted both new millionaires who wanted to validate their social importance in an attempt to rid themselves of a small-town past and immigrants, who were searching for better opportunities. However, to New York’s elite society, the Four Hundred, led by Mrs. Astor, both groups were not welcomed. While the immigrants proved easier to control physically, the new millionaires, however, were indeed a legitimate threat. With this real threat including pressure …

The Impact Of State Violence On Women During The 22 Years Of Dictatorship In The Gambia, Isatou Bittaye-Jobe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis investigates the gendered dynamics of dictatorship in The Gambia by exploring the impact of state sanctioned violence on women during former President Yahya Jammeh’s twenty-two years of tyranny in the country. During the two-decade long brutal reign under Jammeh, Gambians from all walks of lives faced gross human rights violations and abuses that inflicted collective national trauma on the population. Therefore, this project examines how Jammeh’s tyrannical rule affected women’s rights, health, and wellbeing. Using a content analysis approach coupled with semi-structured interviews with victims and survivors, I argue that although the dictatorship affected all sectors of the …

The Surreal Voice In Milan's Itinerant Poetics: Delio Tessa To Franco Loi, Jason Collins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the course of Italy’s linguistic history, dialect literature has evolved a s a genre unto itself. The scope of research presented in this study examines the question of dialect literature as a valid genre which bears lines of demarcation that would assign it the distinction of genre. Research reveals that in fact the simple election of a language, or dialect, does not itself constitute a genre; moreover, most dialect literature bears characteristics that would neatly place it in another genre.

To examine this verity, this research compares two dialect poets who employ Milanese as a means of transmission …

Smashing Solidarity: Two New York Strikes At The Start Of The Postwar Wave, Joseph D. Parziale

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Two strikes in New York at the beginning of the massive 1945-46 strike wave—one by elevator operators in commercial buildings and another by dock workers throughout the Port of New York—can help us better understand a moment when workers exhibited a profound sense of themselves as a class, while their rivals in the shop, the corporate boardroom, and the halls of power fought vigorously to dispel the notion that workers divided by geography, industry, race, nationality, and gender were right to see their fates as intertwined. Historians’ focus on the economic issues at stake in the major strikes of the …

The One-Armed Viewer: Voyeurism And Masturbation In Nudist Imagery And Film Spectatorship, Benjamin Eleanor Adam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nudist magazines and newsletters were among the first commercial, legal, and widely-available images of nudity which circulated in the late Comstock Era. To evade censorship, producers developed framing strategies that obscured the sexualized nature of these images, even as they also enabled the viewing practices their sales relied upon. This dissertation traces these framing strategies as they evolved through nudist still-imagery, camp films, and nudie cuties, and considers the evolution of spectatorial pleasures associated with Russ Meyer's early nudie cuties.

Between Kurdistan And Damascus: Kurdish Nationalism And Arab State Formation In Syria, Alexander K. Mckeever

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the fall of the Ottoman empire, Kurdish nationalism has developed as an ideology within a regional state system where Kurds lack national representation or recognition. This ideology has manifested itself into a fractured movement where the contemporary state borders that separate the Kurdish population at large have proven to be both a limiting and a creative factor. This thesis examines the history of Kurdish nationalism in Syria with a focus on both the local context as defined by Syria’s borders in addition to the broader region, for the politics of Kurds in Syria have clearly been shaped by interactions …

Progress Narratives In Trans Internationalism: Surveying A Collected Archive Of The Global Trans Movement, 2008–2018, Flora P. Wolpert Checknoff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Trans liberation as a global movement began to be documented in public reports in the mid-2000s. Gathered together from their first decade (2008-2018), publications produced by three trans INGOs—Transgender Europe (TGEU), the Asia Pacific Trans Network (APTN), and Global Action for Trans* Equality (GATE)—demonstrate the cultivation of a global trans imaginary and materialize records of a coalescing struggle. The publications depict tensions between an evolving global trans imaginary and the construction of a rights deserving trans population in the development sector. The seeking of international action and resources has compelled the unification of messaging through rhetoric and data aggregation across …

Auto®Ficción Latinx De Nueva York (1999–2020), Jacqueline Herranz Brooks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research on the intersection of Literary Criticism, Latino Studies, Persona Studies, and Performance Studies has led me to question the accepted definitions of autoficción (Doubrovsky, Gasparini, Alberca, Casas, Schlikers) and expand that definition into a more multifaceted and operational term. Hence, I created auto®ficción, a new term describing the hybrid creations of a group of underrepresented contemporary Latinx authors living/producing/circulating their work in New York City, during the first two decades of the 21^st Century. For these authors, their life experiences and quotidian uses of this city’s spaces are the subjects of their work. Auto®ficción draws attention …

Silences Of New York History: Legacies Of The New York Slave Revolt Of 1712, Jelissa N. Caldwell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Silences of New York History is an interactive website project dedicated to the study and uplifting of little-known historical narratives of Black history weaved within the main narrative of New York City history. It is designed to be an accessible platform of primary and secondary sources for 4^th-12^th grade students wanting a supplementary archive of information and histories that may not be directly taught in public school education. This project focuses on the New York Slave Revolt of 1712 because it is the first recorded Black, enslaved uprising in the city’s history. By focusing on this early …

Article 6.21, Tatiana Stolpovskaya

Theses and Dissertations

Article 6.21 is a short documentary film that aims to examine the state of censorship around queerness in Russia today and its effects on personal lives in the queer community.

Twenty years after Russia decriminalized homosexuality, on June 30th in 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed Article 6.21 "for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values", also known as the "Gay Propaganda Law". Its broad and ambiguous wording allows the government significant leeway in deciding what kind of public queerness is punishable.

In 2020 Russia passed multiple constitutional amendments that affect many areas …

Morkovcha [Korean Carrot Salad], Lidiya A. Kan

Theses and Dissertations

Morkovcha, Korean Carrot Salad is a short documentary that tells a story of ethnic Koreans from Russia and the post-Soviet territories making their new home in New York City. The history of the diaspora is told through conversations with my mother, personal stories, fragmented memories, and my family photo archive. This very personal film is my attempt to revisit the 160-year history of the Russian Korean diaspora and to record and preserve our unique fusion of cultures in the melting pot that is the United States. Its purpose is to help to process and accept the tragic past of my …

The National Interest And The Roots Of American-Saudi Diplomacy, Oliver B. Wiegel

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the beginnings of diplomacy between the United States and Saudi Arabia during the interwar years and World War II. It explores how national interest was decided upon, how oil companies affected American foreign policy, and the American government’s strategic interest in Saudi oil reserves.

Us, Abundantly: From Africa To The Americas, Karisma Jay

Theses and Dissertations

"Us, AbunDantly," a Live theatrical dance performance and film, delves into the African Diaspora and its influences. An artistic and academic project built upon the amplification of Black excellence and Black pride, this paper contextualizes a work within the oral histories and contemporary dance studies of a powerfully ancestral community.

The Historian's Craft, Yaari Felber-Seligman

Open Educational Resources

An example of a zero-textbook cost syllabus for Historian's Craft, the history department's introductory course on historical research, writing, and practice.

Animal-Human Vocabulary Builder, Domenick Acocella, Rene Cordero

Open Educational Resources

The assignment helps students individually build a usable, expanding vocabulary of terms and concepts, enabling each to further contribute to the ongoing, evolving written, oral, and visual conversations centered on the use of and thought about animals for food, clothing, work, entertainment, experimentation, imagery, and companionship.

African American History To Emancipation, Aka: History In The Early Modern Atlantic World, Laurie Woodard

Open Educational Resources

African American History to Emancipation explores the history, memory, and representation of enslavement and abolition in the United States. The key questions we are posing are: how do we recover the unrecoverable and how do we remember the “unrememberable?” We will consider the history of enslavement in the Atlantic World, its legacies in the United States, the gaps in our knowledge, the global trauma of Atlantic World Slavery, and contemporary and contemporaneous representations. Key themes include: the formation of the Atlantic World, enslavement, the transatlantic slave trade, slavery in the United States, the formation of African American cultures, the emergence …

Misremembering Risk In The Age Of Hurricanes: The Rhode Island Coast In The 1930s-1950s, Kara M. Schlichting

Publications and Research

This paper explores the lost history of New England hurricanes and how the “return” of hurricanes challenged understandings of the environmental vulnerabilities of coastal communities and weather. A series of severe New England hurricanes from 1938-1954 forced Rhode Islanders to reassess coastal vulnerabilities and protection strategies. Before the hurricane of ’38, Rhode Islanders lived with the vulnerability of seasonal erosion and winter storms, but believed their state was, and would remain, safe from hurricanes. In a new era of the shore-at-risk, the Army Corps of Engineers re-wrote the forgotten history of coastal dangers. Dense development along Narragansett Bay and the …

U.S. Government And Politics In Principle And Practice: Democracy, Rights, Freedoms And Empire, Samuel Finesurrey, Gary Greaves

Open Educational Resources

This book is written for students early in college to provide a guide to the founding documents and structures of governance that form the United States political system. This book is called American Government and Politics in Principle and Practice because you will notice that what has been inscribed in law has not always been applied in practice-particularly for indigenous peoples, enslaved peoples, people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, those formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the working class within U.S. society. In designing this book, we have two goals. First, we want you to know what the founding documents …

Autorretrato De Un Idioma: Metalenguaje, Glotopolítica E Historia, José Del Valle, Daniela Lauria, Mariela Oroño, Darío Rojas

Publications and Research

This introduction to an anthology of texts from the history of Spanish presents the theoretical bases for writing language history from a glottopolitical perspective

Overture: Love—Love Is A Pink Cake, Or, Queering Chopin In Times Of Homophobia, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Abstract:

An introduction to the three essays included in this section. The article highlights the right to know whether Chopin was gay and contextualizes this inquiry in a very long and pervasive historiographical tradition, essentially two-hundred years long, dedicated to examine Chopin sexual orientation, on the one hand, and on the other the more recent tradition of queering western classical music composers. The main point is not to demonstrate categorically that Chopin was “gay” (a relative, modern identity marker in any case) but rather to highlight the discourses that have presented him as unequivocally heterosexual.

Resumen:

Una introducción a los …

Els Tristos Tròpics De Joan Bordoy, Emigrant A Amèrica I Terrorista Accidental, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

El 7 de novembre del 1933, Joan Bordoy va intentar cometre el que seria el darrer acte d’heroïcitat en la seva peripatètica vida. Aprofitant l’entusiasme d’una insurrecció popular a l’Havana, va unir-se a un grup de revolucionaris del grup ABC, considerats per alguns com a terroristes, per assaltar i ocupar la Jefatura de Policía de l’Havana. Si bé, l’atac en principi va tenir èxit, en qüestió d’una hora els militars van recuperar la caserna.

The Crisis Of Chad: Men’S Rights Movements And Contemporary Anti-Feminism, Kendrick Zapata

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis analyzes the relationship between the modern incel and manosphere movement, and its historical legacies in anti-feminist discourses in late 20th century men's rights movements. The manosphere is a collection of online videos, forums, blogs, and websites dedicated to raising awareness or promoting masculinist philosophies. Incels in particular are individuals that understand their lack of sexual interaction as inherent, and often interact in digital spaces with others. Incel beliefs range from calling for the reversal of women’s rights, to seeking advice on self-improvement forums that offer advice to young men seeking to improve their physique through diet and exercise. …

Henry Adams: An Education In Autobiography, Marcellus Richie

Dissertations and Theses

This essay will begin by breaking down Henry Adams’s starting sentence in his autobiography word by word, piece by piece – pondering its meanings and permutations in the context of subsequent chapters of this iconic memoir. The essay will then consider whether Adams’s Education should still be regarded as a classic of American autobiography or seen merely as an irrelevant and out-of-date artifact. In a nation radically transformed since Adams’s time, does the book still deserve its high flung reputation? In other words, which of the images cited above is most relevant to The Education: an image of optimistic youth …

The Jamaican Maroons Of The 17th And 18th Centuries: Survivalists Of The New World, Lance J. Parker Jr

Dissertations and Theses

The Jamaican Maroons, in the beginning, served as fugitive slaves avoiding captivity and liberating other enslaved people. To stop the Maroons from liberating other enslaved people, the British granting them freedom on the condition that they stop freeing slaves and even return runaways. Historians portray the Maroons as either freedom fighters or collaborators, sometimes even both. I argue that both narratives were a part of Maroon history, but I want to introduce them as survivalists. My research's significance is that I am exploring how the Maroons transitioned from freedom fighters to collaborators through notions of cultural identity. This project aims …

The Space Between “Seen” And “Unseen:” Queer People And The 1915-1945 New Negro Renaissance, Claudia R. Campanella

Dissertations and Theses

In November 1926, a group of Black artists, writers, and activists created the first and only edition of Fire!!, edited by novelist Wallace Thurman. Fire!! was created by a younger generation of New Negroes and “devoted to the younger Negro artists” who dissented from the mainstream ideas of the New Negro Movement and used the magazine to spread their own views on the 1915-1945 New Negro Renaissance. Fire!! and other texts speaking to this dissent against a Black intellectual middle class image of the movement will be studied in reference to showcasing the multi-faceted elements of the movement touching …

Harlem To Infinity: An Intellectual History And Critique Of Historical Frameworks On The New Negro Renaissance, Jeryl Raphael

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Model Minorities: Asian Americans And The White-Black Racial Paradigm, Jason Tom

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the racial wedge driven by Whites between Blacks and Asian Americans during the Cold War on to the present. Model minorities is a term coined by whites in the 1960s to suppress Civil Rights protests and Black demands. By elevating a minority group through success stories, whites constructed a means to suppress Black people’s organizing for change against systemic racism and oppression.

Tools For Thought: Artifacts From The History Of Comparative Psychology, Dylan Kerr

Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the history of comparative psychology through close readings of apparatuses used in seminal experiments on animal behavior, drawing connections between seemingly disparate areas of human culture—including art, architecture, mythology, and economics—and the development of the science, with a particular focus on behaviorist and cognitive approaches.

Repealed: Indigenous Fight For An Independent Press, Bryce A. Buyakie

Capstones

Indigenous Communities in the United States have historically been underserved by traditional mainstream news outlets. To fill this gap, many tribes created their own radio, television and print newsrooms to cover local politics and events, but between Supreme Court rulings and tribal law the press often falls under the influence of tribal governments that hold the purse and editorial strings. In the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, this was true. Their official news outlet, Mvskoke Media, fought to be independent of the government they cover for over a decade. Twice they succeeded. Twice they were under the thumb of censorship. …

16 Cents Per Hour: Corcraft And New York State’S Prison Labor System, Gus Fisher, Diana Kennedy

Capstones

If you’re a student or faculty member at CUNY, the desk you write at, chair you sit in, and shelves you use are likely being made by New York State prisoners, who are paid a starting salary of 16 cents per hour by the state-owned corporation known as Corcraft.

Link to Full Article: https://gus-fisher.medium.com/16-cents-per-hour-corcraft-and-new-york-states-prison-labor-system-2b687792a03d