History Commons^™

“Singular And Beautiful City”: Nineteenth Century English Travel Literature And Venice, John Sheehan

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Joseph Mallord William Turner was one of England’s most noteworthy artists in the early nineteenth century. Turner’s works, which included both domestic and foreign views, are known for expressing light and atmosphere in a unique way unlike other artists of the time. Turner took liberties with the topographic arrangements of the cities and landscapes that he painted, which again differed from many of the artists who preceded him. His foreign works were especially well received by critics and buyers alike in England. In 1815, many English artists including Turner set out for the newly reopened continent, with the intent of …

"Female Faithfulness Encouraged": Gendered Piety In Early American Print, Kadienne Sizemore

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Following the American Revolution, membership in Baptist churches grew exponentially and the influence of the Baptist persuasion was significant. As one of the fastest-growing Protestant denominations in early America, Baptists and their interests were often indicative of larger trends in religiosity. Conceptions of piety, including beliefs surrounding submission, faithfulness, and duty, were central to the structure of Baptist congregations and their proximate communities. This paper explores the role of gender in the discussion, presentation, and justification of Baptist notions of piety in their publications during the Early American Republic. To build on the work of historians exploring female autonomy in …

The Divine Comedy: A Work Of Medieval Mythology, Jamie Alexander

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Prior to The Divine Comedy (1308-1321), ideas about Purgatory were in the early stages of development. Purgatory had loose rituals surrounding its existence and it lacked depiction in written works. Yet in the following centuries, the fear of Purgatory and the practices of penance and indulgences reached a fever pitch, ultimately leading to the Protestant Reformation. Purgatory as a celestial location, and not just the “purgatorial fires” of the Bible, only began to develop in the twelfth century, but its fearful description and imagery in The Divine Comedy not only solidified previously nebulous understandings of Purgatory, but also increased anxiety …

Children Of The Grave: The Rise, Fall, And Experience Of Heavy Metal Music During The Latter Cold War From 1969-1991, Shelby Sibert

All Theses

The Cold War era saw the emergence of many different pop culture phenomena. Some were political, such as the Punk Rock and Hippie movements. Others were fashionable trends like Disco. However, Heavy Metal music is unique due to its opaque origins, skyrocketing popularity, and final disappearance after the end of the Cold War. Heavy Metal had a direct relationship with reflecting the fears and anxieties of the late Cold War period. It was a direct response to the Hippie activist counterculture rock n' roll of the 1960s, and it charters a new path of rock n' roll in the process. …

A Grim End For Europe's First Civilization: The Fall Of Minoan Crete, Ashley Arp

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Early popular theories about the collapse of the Minoan civilization center around natural disasters, but geoarchaeological research from the past few decades has disproved these earlier theories. It is evident that the Minoan civilization continued to thrive for around a century after the volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami that had previously been credited as the cause for the collapse. Evidence of manmade destruction has been uncovered across the island of Crete c. 1450 BCE and this period was quickly followed by a drastic cultural shift that included more Mycenaean elements than had been found on the island previously. These destructions, …

“‘With God For Us, We Must Be Successful’: Nationalism, Slavery, And Death In The Civil War Letters Of Robert Franklin Bunting”, Stuart James Priest

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Robert Franklin Bunting (b. 1828, d. 1891) was a preeminent Presbyterian minister, church planter, and Confederate chaplain. Before serving as a chaplain, he planted multiple churches in Central Texas. As a chaplain, he wrote numerous letters to various Texas newspapers. This thesis utilizes Bunting’s letters to understand how white southerners understood and interacted with the primary social issues in the Civil War. Specifically, it examines how Bunting understood nationalism, slavery, and death. His perception of these issues flowed from his religious worldview. As such, it highlights his religious interplay with these issues and contributes to furthering our understanding of religion's …

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium Fellowship Citation - Seamas Caulfield, Elaine Mahon

Other resources

Seamas Caulfield is Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at University College Dublin. He received his primary school education in a local two-teacher school in Belderrig, on the coast of north county Mayo where his father, Patrick Caulfield, was principal. Following five years in St. Nathy’s second level boarding school, Ballaghaderreen, he trained as a primary school teacher and taught in a rural school near Dublin from 1960 to 1968, attending University College Dublin at night to complete his primary degree in 1963 and his MA in Archaeology in 1966. In 1968 he became a lecturer in Archaeology at UCD and was …

Guaraní Sexuality And Contestations Over The Old Way Of Being, Robert Miles Berry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Jesuits in seventeenth century Guairá attempted to shift the sin of adultery and polygyny away from Guaraní men, and onto Guaraní women in their process of evangelization in Paraguay. The Jesuits did so because Guaraní men, as influential patriarchs within the missions, would revolt against the Jesuits or flee the Jesuit missions in response to Jesuit indoctrination that denounced the practice of polygyny. This is evident through two works of the Jesuit Antonio Ruiz de Montoya: one lexical, the Tesoro, and the other narrative, the Conquista. Montoya was directly involved in the founding and maintenance of the Guaraní missions, …

Illusions Of Freedom? A History Of Attitudes Toward Death, Dominick Bucca

All Theses

My thesis explores the historical question: “Is there any freedom from death?” through three figures within the Western metaphysical tradition: Thucydides (460-400 BCE), Augustine (354-430 CE), and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616). In so doing, my thesis suggests the following: for Thucydides, freedom from death arose through the immortality of empire; for Augustine, through the immortality of God’s grace; and for Cervantes, through the immortality of narratives/attitudes of immortality. Moreover, I nest my claim within an exploratory narrative. Which is to say that, lifting a page from Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), I have attempted to break away from the near total …

Racing The Tides: Three Virginia Islands Threatened By Climate Change And The Challenge Of Preserving Their Stories, Sean M. Restivo

History Honors Projects

Among the tidal marshes of Virginia’s York River, there are three relatively obscure groups of uninhabited islands, all with fascinating stories, and all rapidly disappearing: the Goodwin Islands, the Catlett Islands, and Poropotank Island. These islands have been almost entirely overlooked by existing historical and archaeological research, and they are all imminently threatened by climate change-induced sea level rise and erosion. In the summer of 2023, I embarked on an interdisciplinary research project to study cultural heritage sites scattered across the islands. Drawing on my experience of studying these islands, as well as other related case studies, I demonstrate that …

Georgia Ghosts: History, Folklore, And The Roots Of The Southern Gothic, Katherine M. Mcdowell

Master's Projects

There is something quintessentially human about ghost stories, yet particular regions tend to be more powerfully associated with haunted folktales than others. One of the regions is the southeastern United States. In fact, these oral traditions appear to have influenced the area's best-known literary subgenre: the Southern Gothic.

Why is the South considered haunted? Are there particular qualities in historical events that make them more likely to engender ghost stories? What makes the South's folkloric spirits so powerful that they appear even in modern literature? Most of all, what connects the region's history and folklore with the Southern Gothic? By …

The Family History Of Jeremy E. Peters, Jeremy E. Peters

Your Family in History: HIST 550/700

Jeremy E. Peters authored this family history as part of the course requirements for HIST 550/700 Family History offered online in Spring 2024 and was submitted to the Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. Please contact the author directly with any questions or comments: [email protected]

Noticing The Brush Strokes: Literary Markers In Hebrew Narratives, Shelbey Hunt

Masters Theses

As the people who set out to write, edit, and form the Bible may have used embellishments to enhance their narratives, could they also have left literary markers to help the reader chart a course between the historical and the enhanced? The purpose of this thesis is to find these literary markers. Exposing any potential grammatical or syntactical signpost can help the reader understand how they should view a given Biblical story and help reveal the messages the authors behind the scripture were sharing. The book of Jonah will be used as a case study to both discover and elaborate …

The Shaffer Thesis Arthur Harvey Shaffer: American Founding History And History Education, C. C. Mathis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Historian Arthur Harvey Shaffer (1936-2002) argued that the post-Revolution historians created a New England-centric nationalist history perspective of the American founding. He further argued they established a model of nationalist American history education to instill a virtuous national character and ensure the stability of the new republic. Though current trends show an increasing number of scholars reassessing New England primacy in American colonial and revolutionary era histories, Shaffer’s historical perspective and pedagogy appears overlooked. Shaffer’s historical perspective and pedagogy can be integrated into a unique historical lens for insight into the link between American history scholarship, history education, and national …

Witches On The Wind: Weather Magic In New England Folktales, Zephyros Quinn Craven

Thinking Matters Symposium

The English language folktales collected from coastal New England in the 19^th and 20^th centuries display a prominence of weather magic motifs compared with folktales from other regions of the United States. This paper aims to explain the success of the weather magic theme in New England folklore collections and to serve as a starting point for scholarly discourse on the subject, which has hitherto been sparse. This study utilizes climate research, both scholarly and popular collections of folktales, local travel guides, and colonial and labor histories. Through a combination of historical analysis, comparative study, and textual analysis, …

"Alas Poor Ireland!”: British Prejudice, “The Irish Precedent,” And The Origins Of The American Revolution, David Salzillo '24

History & Classics Student Scholarship

David Salzillo ’24, American Studies and History major
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Edward Andrews, History and Classics

Aesthetics Of Populism: The Impact Of Hairstyles And Makeup On The Electoral Success Of Populist Women In Europe, Christina Charie '25

Political Science Student Scholarship

Christina Charie ’25, Political Science major
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Casey Stevens, Political Science

Art As A Form Of Therapy: Afghan Women And Their “War Rugs” Highlight The Trauma And Violence Of The Soviet-Afghan War, Abigail Turano '24

History & Classics Student Scholarship

Abigail Turano ’24, History major
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Margaret Manchester, History and Classics

Memories In Stone: Family History Research In The Western Pyrenees, Paul Woodbury

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

I stood in a small grove of trees, which afforded a respite from the misty rain. Streams of fog crept along the valley walls and covered the village of Aydius in foamy white waves. I admired the engravings decorating the lchante household- the heartfelt expression of a peasant farmer and shepherd. I would never have imagined that my internship and study abroad would culminate here, reading my ancestor's memoirs chiseled in stone. Yet here I was, thousands of miles from home, alone in a foreign country, away from the pristine comfort of the regional archives, reading Joseph lchante's legacy carved …

Foreword, Taylor Rice

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Last year I had the distinct privilege of serving as an editor for this fine publication. As the year was brought to a close, Elise Peterson, last volumes Editor-in-Chief, asked me if I would like to stay on with the 7hetean and be its next Editor-in-Chief. I readily agreed, though I was not convinced I was fully qualified. Elise left big shoes to be filled.

Considering The “Special Considerations”: The Treatment Of Female Inmates In The People’S Republic Of China Since 1994, Niklas Berry

Madison Historical Review

The purpose of this paper is to historicize contemporary gendered legal practices in the People’s Republic of China and to demonstrate that, despite rhetoric to the contrary, paternalistic assumptions rooted in Confucianism still inform the treatment of female prisoners today. Though China underwent massive political and economic shifts after the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, certain longstanding societal principles were preserved in modern China, including long-held paternalistic stereotypes about the physical and mental fragility of women. These precepts undergirded the PRC’s reforms of its judicial and criminal systems …

“Alas Poor Ireland!”: British Prejudice, “The Irish Precedent, ” And The Origins Of The American Revolution, David Arthur Salzillo, Jr.

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

Of all the claims in the Declaration of Independence, its surety about the existence of an intentional British “design to reduce” the colonists “under absolute Despotism” is perhaps the most questionable one to modern ears. Contemporary historians have largely dismissed such language, and the accompanying concerns about an alleged British plot to “enslave” its Atlantic possessions. However, this paper argues that such a view fails to properly consider the role of “the Irish precedent” of English imperial exploitation in sparking American resistance and rebellion. Namely, through a careful study of what American colonists read and wrote about in the …

Catalysts For Change: The Sacralizing Impulse Of The Second Great Awakening And Its Transformative Impact On American Higher Education, Blake S. Hart

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation delves into the profound impact of the Second Great Awakening on American higher education and its enduring social consequences. Examining the period from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, the research uncovers the core belief that drove the Awakening—that America and its citizens were chosen for a divine purpose, endeavoring to manifest the kingdom of heaven on Earth. It explores how Protestant-led revivalism and social reform movements fueled by this core belief influenced the establishment and evolution of American higher education. Through in-depth case studies of Andover Theological Seminary, Lane Seminary, and Oberlin College, the research …

Student Senate Meeting Minutes April 16, 2024, Student Senate-Winona State University

Student Senate Meeting Minutes

This document is the official Winona State University Student Senate Minutes for April 16, 2024.

Student Senate Meeting Minutes April 9, 2024, Student Senate-Winona State University

Student Senate Meeting Minutes

This document is the official Winona State University Student Senate Minutes for April 9, 2024.

Student Senate Meeting Minutes April 2, 2024, Student Senate-Winona State University

Student Senate Meeting Minutes

This document is the official Winona State University Student Senate Minutes forApril 2, 2024.

Spring 2024, Jeremy Murray

History Department Master of Arts Program Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Family History Of Greta A. Leader, Greta Leader

Your Family in History: HIST 550/700

Greta Anne Leader authored this family history as part of the course requirements for HIST 550/700 Your Family in History offered online in Spring 2024 and was submitted to the Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. Please contact the author directly with any questions or comments: [email protected]

The Family History Of Amy Marcoux, Amy Marcoux

Your Family in History: HIST 550/700

Amy Marie Marcoux authored this family history as part of the course requirements for HIST 550/700 Your Family in History offered online in Spring 2024 and was submitted to the Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. Please contact the author directly with any questions or comments: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

El Nacimiento Del Rock En Español: ¿Cómo Fue Que Este Género De Música Latina Tuvo Éxito?, Alejandro V. Martinez

World Languages and Cultures

This paper titled El nacimiento del rock en español: ¿Cómo fue que este género de música latina tuvo éxito? will cover information regarding the Spanish rock movement. This essay compares what is written in this paper to that of prior scholars to show that although they do bring valid points, there is a lot more than many of us realize. There are various articles and reports written about the movement, but many do not explain the creation of the movement, let alone its survival in the music industry as a new genre that some had never heard of or had …