History Commons^™

The People Are A-Changin’: The Political Groupings That Built American Folk And Country Music, Nicholas Taubenheim

CMC Senior Theses

Since the Civil War, American folk and country music have become deeply political cultural mediums. This thesis posits that the history of the folk-country family can be broken down into three distinct “eras.” During the first era, the post-Civil War South gave rise to a new form of “Dixie,” or “hillbilly” folk music derived from traditional European folk ballads. In the second era, the Dust Bowl migrants of Southern California pioneered the “Okie” sound, which built upon Dixie/hillbilly music. And in the third era, the political and cultural dissidents of the 1960s produced a new type of folk music in …

Piano Instruction: Reframing The Master-Apprentice Model Through The Integration Of Dialogic Processes, Rebecca Holman Williams

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Private piano instruction is a niche field within the broader spectrum of pedagogy with idiosyncrasies that separate it from the traditional classroom. The learning in a private lesson encompasses cognitive, affective, and motor skills, often all at the same time, in a relatively intimate setting. Historically, this teaching and learning environment has followed the master-apprentice model of instruction. However, with newer research in learning sciences supporting social constructivist frameworks for student learning, a blended pedagogical approach is suggested. Dialogic pedagogy and cognitive apprenticeship are used in tandem with traditional precision training methodologies to foster student learning outcomes of metacognition, agency, …

La Floresta; An Appreciation And Reimagination Of My Barrio, Ana Rodríguez

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is a love letter to my barrio, La Floresta in Quito, Ecuador. I have divided it into three different sections: a creative writing piece where I walk readers through my barrio and my life in it, a historical section where I analyze its history and the reasons for its uniqueness and current identity, and finally a project proposal for a community center called "Casa La Floresta".

Cultural Perceptions Of Janissaries In The Ottoman Empire And Beyond, Meghana Garcia

Scripps Senior Theses

The Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire were a group of Christian slave soldiers. They had political and social control in the imperial court and were also formidable soldiers who were successful in battle due to their highly organized structure. They were subjects of many travel journals, memoirs, accounts, and works of art that originated both inside and outside the Ottoman Empire. This thesis argues that in accounts originating from both inside and outside the Ottoman Empire, Janissaries are described as ruthless and powerful. Further examinations reveal that these accounts, despite their frequent negative connotations, are rooted in admiration and envy …

Paul R. Williams At Work In Photographs: Tarrying With Cites/Sights/Sites Of Trouble, Denise M. Johnson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Ariella Azoulay and W. J. T. Mitchell have called for a new users’ manual for photographs, urging that theory finally wrest itself from the authoritative singular gaze of the patriarchal imperial photographer so that the plurality inherent within the ontology of viewing photographs be engaged. Azoulay cogently argues that the photographer is not the only person to act when a photographic event takes place. By turning critical analysis to the photographic subject and advising viewers to both watch and listen to photographs rather than gaze, a space of appearance is activated in which the photographic subject engages in dialogue with …

Public Health And The Politics Of Haussmannization In Nineteenth-Century Paris, 1830-1870, Mikaela Malsy

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Throughout the Second Empire, Napoléon III and his Prefect of the Seine, Georges Haussmann, engaged in a series of urban reform projects that transformed Paris. These projects, often collectively referred to as Haussmannization, entailed the construction of boulevards, expansion of the sewer system, and clearance of what the state considered insalubrious housing. This term was largely prescribed to worker-class housing and used as a medical justification to target and destroy working-class communities. However, as this paper discusses, the understanding of insalubrity was shaped by hygienists' pathologization of poverty, crime, and working-class militancy in response to the arrival of cholera and …

Evil No More: The Image Of The Witch And Women In The United States From Seventeenth And Twentieth Centuries, Morgan Taylor Peacha

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Women in both colonial America and the twentieth century United States were impacted by the notions of witches and witchcraft. There was an integral change in witchcraft during the era of growing feminism and equality in political status. In the colonial period, what was once a disguise for women's oppression, has become a tool for women's liberation.

As Below So Above: Reconstructing The Neo-Babylonian Worldview, Heather Marie Burrow

CGU Theses & Dissertations

To add to our knowledge about a Near Eastern culture, this project examines through textual evidence how the early first millennium BCE Neo-Babylonians thought, reasoned, and wrote in order to partially reconstruct the shared, generally held worldview of the Neo-Babylonian people using the transdisciplinary approach of worldview analysis. Worldviews are what we use to think with, not what we think about. Underlying surficial cultural behaviors are deeper levels of cognition regarding how to reason, perceive the world, prioritize values, prescribe behavior, and explain all of life. Specifically, this work examines the language and logic reflected in the textual archive, believing …

Mysteries Of The Gothic, Addison Duvall

CMC Senior Theses

By examining the histories of the Notre-Dame and Chartres cathedrals, I will consider three academic schools of thought regarding the high Gothic Cathedrals: the balanced and rational feat of engineering, the communal and social rituals that bond humans to this space, and the iconographic manifestation of the supernatural. Functionalist engineering paradoxically lays at the heart of these cathedrals' capacity to open the human consciousness to the sacred by using recurrent symbolic patterns from nature, music and mathematics to create divine ratios that transport us. Integrated into these larger architectural designs the repeating visual patterns exalting both biblical and supernatural icons …

Translating "La Parola Ebreo": Rosetta Loy And A Child's-Eye View Of Italian Fascism, Amelia Muniz

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is a translation of an excerpt from the 1997 memoir of Italian author Rosetta Loy, La Parola Ebreo, and an accompanying paper which explains my translation process, gives historical context and provides an argument for the continued relevance of the text. La Parola Ebreo recounts Loy’s memories of growing up in Rome, Italy, under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist rule. This translation is not meant to be an official English version of the memoir, as it is only a short excerpt, and was not done in collaboration with Loy’s estate or publishers. Instead, it is intended to bring attention to …

The Stateless Agent: A Multidisciplinary Analysis Of Transboundary Air Pollution In The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez Region Of The U.S.-Mexico Border, Elizabeth Hernandez

CMC Senior Theses

The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez (EPJ) region has a history of nonattainment for ozone and particulate matter. Given transboundary air pollution in the EPJ region is not confined to the U.S.-Mexico border, it is important to implement a transnational response that accounts for the health and safety of everyone, including marginalized communities in EPJ. This thesis assesses the state of air quality and transboundary air pollution in the EPJ region through a multidisciplinary perspective that focuses on issues of data monitoring, environmental governance, and transnational environmental justice. Analysis of the quantity and placement of ambient monitoring stations reveals EPJ residents near …

Failing History: How Multinational Institutions Cannot Prevent Cultural Racketeering, Molly Luce

CMC Senior Theses

Cultural racketeering, the looting and trafficking of cultural heritage sites to fund conflict, violence, or terrorism, has become a prevalent issue across the globe in recent years. This paper identifies the main actors, the sellers and buyers, of the looted antiquities and outlines several cases. Sellers, such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda, pillage and traffic sites of cultural, religious, or historic importance as a funding source for their illicit activities. Buyers, which include museums and elite private collectors, purchase these antiquities and inadvertently fund terrorism. The international community has condemned these actors and implemented policies in response. The conventions that multinational …

Doris Stevens: A "Fascist" Feminist? Stevens, The Inter-American Commission Of Women, And The Unión Argentina De Mujeres, 1936-1939, Jeannette Hunker

Scripps Senior Theses

Doris Stevens (1888-1963) was a U.S. feminist, suffragist, and member of the National Women’s Party. After the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920, Stevens, among other U.S. feminists, involved herself in Latin American politics, working to pass women’s suffrage legislation in multiple countries. Stevens was chair of the Inter-American Commission of Women (IACW) from 1928 to 1939. Eventually, a number of Latin American feminists, as well as members of the Roosevelt administration, sought to remove her from the IACW when her political tendencies posed a threat to both. Accused of being a “fascist,” Stevens was voted …

Vulnerable Culture: Protecting History In War And Peace, Molly Luce

CMC Senior Theses

Cultural, historic, and religious sites and objects have a strong correlation with the identity of the community they belong to, in addition to that of humanity. Rosilawati et al. assert that “Cultural heritage and social identity exists in correlation and are interconnected. The shared identity associated with one’s cultural background and historic setting may initiate feelings of pride in one’s culture.”^[1]Essentially, the looting and destruction of such sites and antiquities is not only an attack on the tangible, but the very essence of a population. As the War in Ukraine rages on, Ukrainian cultural heritage sites and historic …

Tragedy And Martyrdom: Greek Drama And The Passion Of Ss. Perpetua And Felicitas, Miranda J. Acuna

Scripps Senior Theses

A religion of the late ancient Mediterranean, Christianity evolved at the cross-sections of the Hellenic and Hebrew legacies as it gradually gained followers across the Roman Empire. Between attracting converts and resisting prosecution from imperial authorities, the Jesus movement was compelled to juggle the pagan world with its monotheistic convictions. This paper contributes to the growing scholarship that identifies how Christianity competed with the Greco-Roman world and its enduring pagan culture. Namely, it identifies characteristic similarities between early Christian martyrdom narratives and Classical Greek tragedy. Examining one of the oldest Christian martyrdom hagiographies, the Passion of Ss. Perpetua and Felicitas …

Internal Outsiders In The Domestic Cold War: The Impact Of Engineering U.S. Culture And Citizenship In Early Cold War America On Black And Jewish Identities, Helen A. Landau

Scripps Senior Theses

In the decade following World War II, movements for social change and Cold War paranoia grew simultaneously and were both reflected in popular culture. However, as the United States attempted to combat Soviet propaganda and present a very specific image of Americanism to the world, federal scrutiny focused on minority groups and individuals whose work drew attention to the complexities and inequalities within American society. In the shadow of the threat of communism, containment measures within the United States attempted to hinder flourishing new movements for social change and solidified a restrictive definition of Americanism. Frances Stonor Saunders explored the …

(Re)Constructing National Memory In Neoliberal Chile Through Patricio Guzman's The Cordillera Of Dreams (2019), Mica Barrett

Scripps Senior Theses

One of the most renowned Chilean exile filmmakers is Patricio Guzmán. Best known for his documentary work regarding the Allende years, Guzmán has continued to make films regarding his homeland in the decades following his initial exile.

The Cordillera of Dreams is the concluding film in a trilogy exploring the natural lands of Chile and their relationship to physical remnants of the human past. The initial and most renowned film in the series, Nostalgia for the Light, centers the Atacama Desert and Chileans’ relationship to the geography as a gateway to revealing artifacts of Chile’s recent history of genocide …

Memorial Museums: Politics, Spectacle And Interpretation, Deepthi Ponnaluru

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Memorial museums that commemorate the turbulent events of the 20th century claim as their main objectives the remembrance of victims and prevention of future atrocities through truth, education and advocacy. Their narratives are, however, sometimes skewed by politics and other influences that lead to exclusion and an exaggerated effect of the spectacle, which distorts on-site interpretation. Furthermore, memorial museums are increasingly blurring the lines between education and entertainment; displays that rely on their emotional effect can more easily manipulate the observer’s reaction and are less likely to encourage critical assessment. I make the argument that by acknowledging only a select …

A Fearless Set Of Men, Spencer Gregory Pirnik

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Formed from the 9th Louisiana Volunteers of African Descent, the 47th USCI (United States Colored Infantry) was one of many African American Regiments which saw service in the U.S. Army in the Civil War and was a participant at the battles of Milken’s Bend, the Yazoo City Expedition, the Siege of Fort Blakely. With very little in the way of surviving accounts from the regiment’s Black enlistees This project seeks to examine the challenges this regiment, like so many other USCT (United States Colored Troops) regiments, faced in terms of manpower, leadership, equipment, and health, arguing that the despite these …

Learning From History: Real And Perceived Threats To National Security, David Dupont

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Significant changes in American domestic security policies were generally associated with periods of military conflicts. Laws that would pave the way for legalizing the surveillance and internment of civilian populations have their origin in the Quasi-War. Likewise, the practice of state property seizure under the Office of Alien Property Custodian and limited internment programs were first established during WWI. Mass civilian internment came into existence leading up to WWII. This trajectory continued in modern times with the extensive system of domestic surveillance post-9/11. In this paper, I argue for gaining a historical comprehension of these issues by exploring their origins …

Herschel Walker, Black Voters, And The 2022 U.S Senate Race In Georgia, Janise Waites

CMC Senior Theses

The Republican Party is known as the Party of Lincoln, they emancipated African Americans from slavery and worked to grant them equalities and rehabilitate them into the US. However, over the next few decades, the GOP began to devalue the Black vote in favor of White Southerners. Black voters support candidates who advocate for their social, economic, and political prosperity. Their loyalty shifts when the party advocates for policies that are harmful to their overall development. Over time, Georgia remained a battleground state as the ideologies shifted in the Democratic and Republican parties. After being a Democratic stronghold for the …

Analyzing Marriage Statistics As Recorded In The Journal Of The American Statistical Association From 1889 To 2012, Annalee Soohoo

CMC Senior Theses

The United States has been tracking American marriage statistics since its founding. According to the United States Census Bureau, “marital status and marital history data help federal agencies understand marriage trends, forecast future needs of programs that have spousal benefits, and measure the effects of policies and programs that focus on the well-being of families, including tax policies and financial assistance programs.”[1] With such a wide scope of applications, it is understandable why marriage statistics are so highly studied and well-documented.

This thesis will analyze American marriage patterns over the past 100 years as documented in the Journal of …

Harry E. "Indian" Miller: Spectacles Of Identity In The Early Twentieth Century American Southwest, Courtney Lamb

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Harry E. Miller was a self-styled historian, writer, lecturer, archeologist, sideshow impresario, zookeeper, and Route 66 curio shop owner who spent most of his adult life promoting himself as an Apache known as Indian Miller, Chief Crazy Thunder. Miller insisted on his Native American heritage despite the fact that he was born to a European-American family of pioneers, and for most of the early twentieth century, his audiences and customers apparently accepted the ruse. This paper examines Miller’s choice to engage in various kinds of what I define as spectacles of identity—performances dependent upon markers of ethnographic identity for their …

The Struggle For Land In Nineteenth-Century Bolivia: Triangulating Indigenous Demands Between The Republican And Colonial States, Siena Hinshelwood

Scripps Senior Theses

After Bolivia gained independence from Spain, many colonial systems continued, including the tributary pact between Indigenous peoples and the state. This thesis investigates how Andean communities in the nineteenth century instrumentalized legal systems, especially colonial land titles, to force the republican state to respect Indigenous land rights and all the worldviews they contain. This project looks closely at Indigenous apoderados and their triangulation on behalf of their communities between helpful colonial legacies, the republican state, and their own cosmovision. This connects to continuing movements of rebellion and uprising in Bolivia and the Andes to this day.

History, Memory, And National Identity; The Formation Of The Russian Nation After The Katyn Massacre, Juliana Messina

Scripps Senior Theses

The Katyn Forest Massacre is one example of an event where the recorded history and collective memory do not align. At times when events are misrepresented through media and intentional deception, those who remember what actually took place pass on the knowledge collectively, allowing a collective understanding that spites the historical record. These intersections are defining moments for national identity, where the image a state presents to the world conflicts with how their actions are actually perceived. This is true for Katyn. For decades, the event was denied and misrepresented by the Soviet Union who denounced accusations and convinced foreign …

Seeing Forced Isolation Through New Eyes: Covid-19, Anne Frank, And The Violence Of The Nation-State, Anna Raines

CMC Senior Theses

In my senior thesis, I explore the social, political, and cultural effects and consequences of forced isolation. Forced isolation is a strategy adopted by governments in order to deal with a range of issues in contemporary history, often resulting in exclusionary practices, the redefinition or assertion of national sovereignty and nation-state boundaries, contagion, detention, and imprisonment. As a consequence of these varied processes and actions, when an individual or a social group is forced into an isolated space and ostracized from society, they are cast out of routine socialization, and the effects of this can endure even if a return …

Domestic Arts, Dates, Drugs, And Dress Codes: Scripps College's Early Attitudes Towards Gender, Sexuality, And Women's Education, Kathleen Mchale

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how Scripps College's administration, faculty, and students dealt with expectations of gender roles and sexuality during the first two decades of the college's existence. It looks at the historical development of women's colleges, Scripps' curriculum and aims, architecture, residence life, rules and regulations, and applied these areas to discuss how students and other Scripps community members responded to norms about gender and sexuality.

Representing The Ali'i And Monarchy: Dress, Diplomacy, And Featherwork In Hawai'i, Tess Anderson

Scripps Senior Theses

When Native Hawaiians and haole (foreigners) first met, both participants belonged to fashion systems unknown to the other, composed of different materials, styles, tastes, standards, and construction techniques. As the outside world was introduced to the cultural heritage of Hawaiian hulu manu (featherwork), kūkaulani (chiefly fashion), and European skewed conceptions of Hawaiian indigeneity; the ali‘i (chiefs) and kama‘āina (commoners) received and adapted to incoming materials, technologies, and information. When these encounters transitioned into “prolonged contact” and settlement, dress and adornment proliferated in new ways. Analyzing the case studies of historic pā‘ū, holokū, ‘ahu'ula, and military uniforms shows the significance of …

We’Ve Been Here: A History Of Mexican And Latinx Communities In Anaheim Schools, Marycarmen Montanez

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis aims to explore the history of Mexican and Latinx students in Anaheim so that the community has a better understanding of the history of their people before them. This thesis is divided into three chapters, each exploring a different time period within Anaheim’s history and how the city and its schools navigated the Mexican communities who inhabited the city and its surrounding areas. The first chapter looks at the 1910’s to the 1920s, when school segregation and Americanization programs dominated Mexican education in Anaheim. The second chapter looks at the 1960’s and 1970’s when Anaheim school districts tried …

Mary Eleanor Spear's Importance To The History Of Statistical Visualization, Melanie Williams

CMC Senior Theses

This paper will demonstrate why Mary Eleanor Spear (1897-1986) is an important figure in the history of statistical visualization. She lead an impressive career working in the federal government as a data analyst before "data analyst" became a thing. She wrote and illustrated two comprehensive textbooks which furthered the art of statistical visualization. Her textbooks cover extensive graphing knowledge still valuable to statisticians and viewers today. Most notable of her works is her development of the box plot. In addition to Spear's career and contributions, this paper will also address the lack of female representation in science, technology, engineering, and …