History Commons^™

2nd Place Contest Entry: "Destablizing U.S.-Japan Relations: Nikkatsu Film Noir As Postwar Social Critique", Thomas Graham Buchanan

Eric M. Scandrett Graduate Library Research Prize

This is Thomas Buchanan's submission for the 2026 Eric M. Scandrett Graduate Research Prize, which won second place. It contains their essay on using library resources, a summary of their research project on how a generation of Japanese filmmakers in the 1950s and 1960s borrowed the formal strategies of Hollywood film noir to mount a critique of U.S. Cold War policy, and their bibliography.

Thomas is a student in the Master of Arts in Film & Media Studies program at Chapman University. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Emily Carman.

Thomas' thesis is the scholarship that emerged from the research discussed …

Cultural Memory And Colonial Legacies: The Pandemic Era In France, Kathryn (Kate) R. Cross

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

In the twenty-first century, how are former colonial powers addressing colonial legacies? Amidst the massive social movements of the pandemic years and greater representations of a new generation of politicians in major elections, the global zeitgeist was increasingly characterized by representation of disenfranchised and previously silenced memories and narratives. These shifts, especially in France, are a sharp contrast to the unofficial historic policy of amnesia maintained regarding traumatic legacies and build on movements that began at the turn of the century. The environment has facilitated an increased ability for cultural products to create, shape, and sustain cultural memories of colonial …

Oral History Of Ronald Lykins Conducted By Mallory Lough On March 12, 2026, Ronald Lykins, Mallory Lough

HIST 4798/5798: Recording Memory: Methods and Uses of Oral History

Ronald Lykins is a former professor within the College of Business at Ohio University. Raised in rural Adams County, Ohio, in a family facing significant economic hardships, Lykins grew up in a household with no running water or electricity. These early experiences shaped his work ethic, along with giving him a deep appreciation for helping others and granting opportunities. Ron enrolled at Ohio University as a first generation student, graduating with his MBA in 1967 and his PhD in 1971. Following his graduation, Ron developed a career in accounting and financial services, eventually founding his own accounting firm in 1969. …

The Transparent Crypt: Temporal Stratification, Materiality, And The Affective Archive In Jenny Erpenbeck’S "Kairos", Mallory Wooldridge

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

For Germany, the process of reckoning with the past is not a new one. Termed Vergangenheitsbewältigung in the post-war period and envisioned as a project extending beyond the academy into public consciousness, “dealing with the past” was first envisioned in response to the Nazi regime and its horrors. While already a disjointed project in the Nazi context, the question of how reunified Germany reckons with the former German Democratic Republic’s past remains unresolved.

In her 2021 novel Kairos, Jenny Erpenbeck proposes a different model of historical consciousness. Drawing on Theodor Adorno’s post-war theory of working through the past ( …

Presenting Yourself As A Historian: Career Preparation Assignment, Justin Behrend Ph.D.

School of Arts & Sciences

This assignment was developed by Professor Justin Behrend during the Fall 2025 semester.

Learning Objectives

• Students will prepare materials befitting a professional in the discipline.
• Students will evaluate their strengths in relation to the provided job posting.
• The class will provide critical feedback to improve students’ cover letters and CVs.

Ursinus Magazine, Spring 2026, Gundolf Graml, Steve Thomas, Jennifer L. Post-Whisted, Brad Drexler, Alyssa Kratz

Ursinus Magazine, 1995–Present

Gundolf Graml, Ph.D., named 20th President • $1.99 million grant boosts STEM pipeline • $1.49 million grant fuels APEX innovation center • Esports comes to Ursinus • Experiential Learning Week • Ursinus / Rochester partner on 4+1 business pathway • Ursinus launches global learning program • Students win America250PA innovation challenge • Athletics: A generous gift and a milestone • Bear2Bear Impact Award for leadership and service • Lenape Symposium returns to Ursinus • Wall Street on Main Street • Tuition Promise for Montgomery County students • Wrestler wins two Puerto Rico national titles • Paying it forward: A Montgomery …

Destruction, Possession, And Power: The Treaty Of Hartford As A Prototype For United States Indian Policy, Madyson Anne Buchalski

Theses and Dissertations

Amidst a growing interest in the field of Native American legal history, this article aims to bridge a gap in the scholarship between the colonial period and the United States’ nineteenth- and twentieth-century federal Indian Policy. By examining the terms presented in the lesser-known Treaty of Hartford, signed in 1638 following the Pequot War, it is demonstrated that many foundational legal precedents which reappeared in later centuries emerged much earlier than typically assumed. By highlighting this overlooked agreement and comparing it against later proceedings, this article takes a fresh approach to Native American legal history by drawing a throughline from …

Intimate Networks: Sapphic Women’S Activism In Revolutionary Dublin 1916, Justine Nicole Rennekamp

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the often-overlooked role of sapphic women in the Easter Rising of 1916, arguing that queer intimacy and political activism were deeply intertwined within Irish revolutionary networks. While traditional historiography has privileged male, Catholic nationalist narratives of the Rising, this study foregrounds the lives of Dr. Kathleen Lynn, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, Margarett Skinnider, Elizabeth O’Farrell, and Julia Grenan to demonstrate how women’s same-sex relationships influenced their political participation, modes of survival, and visions of national belonging. Drawing on diaries, letters, witness statements, photographs, and archival silences, this thesis employs queer theory to read practices of visibility, gender performance, and …

“Get Out To Vote, No Time To Stay At Home”: Grassroots Pedagogy And Political Organizing Of The Johns Island Citizenship School, Anne Elizabeth Mineri

Theses and Dissertations

The 1957 Johns Island Citizenship School emerged from the everyday actions of local leaders like Esau Jenkins, Septima Clark, and Bernice Robinson as a foundational site of grassroots pedagogy and organizing that reshaped the political landscape of the South Carolina Sea Islands. Situated within the critical years between 1957 and 1961, a formative moment in the modern Black freedom struggle, the school demonstrates how local activism laid the groundwork for broader regional and national movements. In a state where literacy tests functioned as mechanisms of disenfranchisement, learning to read and write became a direct challenge to systems of exclusion. Through …

The Enchantment And Disenchantment Of The Virgin Mary From Late Middle Ages Through The Reformation, Quentin Jameson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the Virgin Mary’s role in late medieval and early modern high magic, arguing that her presence and absence in magic display cases of enchantment and disenchantment. Starting in the twelfth century, debates on Mary’s immaculate conception and purity gradually reshaped and elevated her status in Latin Christendom. This enabled Mary to be an active agent within magic as a purifier and advocate. However, early modern natural philosophers and leaders of the Reformation removed these divine abilities from Mary, producing a disenchanted Virgin within high forms of magic.

This thesis applies Karen Barad’s concept of intra-activity and continuous …

The Secondary City: Georgetown And The Waccamaw Neck Within A Global Maritime Perspective, 1740-1850, John Paden Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Georgetown is not and has never been the primary city on the South Carolina coast. Its harbor is shallow and muddy and its urban development lacks the commercial density found in more prominent Atlantic port cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Despite all indicators to the contrary, this marshy backwater outpost became the second richest port in the United States prior to 1850 through rice and indigo exportation. As a result, the port drew people, goods, and ideas from around the Atlantic. Despite its small size and limited cultural relevance, Georgetown was a regional node for international …

Strengthening Students' Political Thinking Skills By Researching The Annexation Of Texas, Rebecca Macon Bidwell, Jeremiah Clabough

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The unit plan in this manuscript uses best practices from the C3 Framework published by the National Council for the Social Studies and Wayne Journell’s ideas about political thinking to engage students in discussion of the politics leading to the nomination of Governor James K. Polk as the Democratic Party nominee for president in the U.S. 1844 presidential election. Students explore the impact of candidates’ views of the annexation of Texas during this election as well as the influence of President Jackson on the nomination process in the Democratic Party. Ultimately, the election pitted Governor James K. Polk, the dark …

Making Social Studies Work In The Age Of Ai, Angelo Letizia

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this paper is to first outline a more embedded stance toward AI use, which I have labeled invisible philosophy and history as DNA and use this embedded framework as a backdrop for a more concrete discussion of skills and dispositions in regard to the use of AI in the social studies classroom and beyond. This dual positioning, one more theoretical and one more concrete, calls attention to the fact that AI should not simply be seen as some flashy tool divorced from a more nuanced and embedded understanding of its role in society. A list of practical …

Hitler Must Be Killed: A Wwii Case Study, Jeffrey Byford, Presley Shilling, Alisha Milam

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social studies education during the 1960s experienced an educational renaissance known as the new social studies movement. Over 50 projects were funded by the National Science Foundation or private corporations to interject a student-centered curriculum into K-12 classrooms during this period. Nearly 60 years later, can student-centered decision-making activities be used in an era of high-stakes testing and planned curriculum? This article attempts to rekindle students' interest in decision-making and discussion by exploring elements in Moral Reasoning: The Value of Life from the Harvard Social Studies Project (HSSP). The activity called "Hitler Must Be Killed" helped students bring the content …

Mapping A World’S Fair: A Comparative Analysis Of Native American Experience At The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Margaret Jones

Mendel Sato Research Award Projects

This brief attempt to look into a few historical moments has demonstrated how quickly and dramatically the possibilities open to Native American people in the St. Louis region have changed over time. In 1904, to be a Native person standing at the entrance to the 1904 World’s Fair could mean a number of things, perhaps simultaneously: you were a tourist, you were returning to land you had been Indigenous to, you were visiting a part of the country you had never seen before, or you were a Native person at the largest celebration of American colonialism ever organized. This thesis …

Modernization Without The State: Plurality And Synthesis Of Chinese Medicine In Malaysia, 1929-2026, Shutong Wu , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Weather Rescue At Sea: Recovering Historical Weather Observations From 19th Century British Naval Ships, Praveen Teleti, Ed Hawkins, Clive Wilkinson

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Ship logbooks represent a critical source of historical meteorological data, providing valuable observations of barometric pressure, air temperature, sea surface temperature, wind force and direction, and other variables. Substantial quantities of these records are unavailable to climate science as they have not yet been transcribed. We present ‘Weather Rescue at Sea’, a citizen-science project which transcribed millions of weather observations contained in 19th Century UK Royal Navy ship logbooks. We describe the logbook structure and weather observation-taking instructions and discuss significant challenges with the translation of handwritten text into accurate data due to errors arising from ambiguous handwriting, historical terminology, …

Made In Ireland: A Postcolonial Analysis Of Irish Cultural Revival And Its Impact On Ireland’S International Relations, Emma Boyd

Political Science Student Papers and Posters

This thesis examines the impact of how British colonial rule led to the decline of Irish cultural components, such as Gaelic (Gaeilge), and how postcolonial revival efforts have shaped Ireland’s modern identity and its use of soft power in international relations. Drawing on mobilization and postcolonial theories, this paper defines key concepts, mobilization, remobilization, and postcolonial identity, to provide an analytical foundation. The analysis explores how colonial policies eroded Irish culture and language, intensified by the Great Famine, and how the Irish Diaspora serves as a global network for remobilizing Irish identity abroad. The ongoing conflicts in Northern Ireland will …

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 …

An Act To Establish Lagrange College, Mcguire, Henry, And Walker (State Printers)

Documents on Education and Progress of the University

This is the Establishment Act by the General Assembly of the State of Alabama for the creation of LaGrange College on Lawrence Hill in Franklin County, Alabama 9now Colbert County) on November 21, 1929. This act was adopted on January 19, 1830.

From Reclamation To Restoration: Remaking Nature On Portland's Peninsula, Theus Richards

University Honors Theses

This environmental history of the North Portland Peninsula is a critical case study of a landscape in transition, where new "natures" have been constructed through shifting projects of reclamation and restoration. The Port of Portland, who controlled the Peninsula, transformed the marshy bottomlands near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers to accommodate greater networks of industrial infrastructure and expand their capacity for global trade. Beginning in 1967, the Port began dredging operations to fill Ramsey Lake to make way for the construction of Rivergate Industrial District. Through this process, Smith & Bybee Lakes were set aside as a …

Editor’S Introduction, Michael D. Pante

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Amy Eagan Departs Lindenwood For Head Coaching Role With The New Mexico, Truman Griessel

Lindenlink (2012- )

No abstract provided.

Father Of The Bride: Shakespeare's Daughter Issues Played Out, Allison G. Lincicome

Global Tides

Shakespeare, throughout the majority of his plays, fixated on the relationship and expectation of obedience between fathers and daughters. Given the prevalence of his works in children’s media and secondary public education, recognizing the moral messaging of his works can help those who interact with his work better interpret and share this popular media in proper context. This essay analyzes three of Shakespeare’s plays, conduct literature from early modern England, and historical documents referencing Shakespeare’s own relationship to his daughters. These sources in conversation paint a more comprehensive picture of the expected behavior of daughters during Shakespeare’s time, and the …

Epochs Vol. 1 No. 2025 - Full Issue, Emma Pfannenstiel

Epochs Art History Journal

No abstract provided.

Madeleine Stegman: Elegant Juxtapositions Through The Creative Process, Claire Brown

Epochs Art History Journal

No abstract provided.

Tokio Ueyama: Japanese American Artist, Hannah E. Tinkel

Epochs Art History Journal

No abstract provided.

The Artist As Sorcerer: A Critical Analysis Of David Lomas’ Essay, Antoni Miquel

Epochs Art History Journal

No abstract provided.

The Veiled And The Idealized: Class, Gender, And Realism In Flavian Roman Portraiture, Elli Brandt

Epochs Art History Journal

No abstract provided.

Lessons From The Louvre, Claire Brown

Epochs Art History Journal

No abstract provided.