History Commons^™

Graduate Portfolio, Cody Miller

Graduate Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Indigenous-Industrial Heritage: Centering Indigenous Voices In Minnesota's Iron Range, Larissa A. Juip

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Industrial heritage refers to the material remains, sites, landscapes, and practices associated with industrial and extractive activities. As a field, it has historically been concerned with the conservation, management, and interpretation of industrial sites and activities and forms a central narrative within Minnesota's museums. Yet such accounts often privilege object-centered narratives while silencing the presence, knowledge, and contributions of Indigenous and Descendant communities, obscuring their enduring relationships to extractive landscapes. In recent decades, critiques of traditional industrial heritage approaches have identified gaps in the discipline related to the exclusion of marginalized populations, including Indigenous Peoples. Minnesota is home to eleven …

Mocking The Malicious: Investigating John Heartfield’S Anti-Nazi Photomontages, Abigail J. Emory

Capstone Showcase

In this paper, I will discuss John Heartfield’s Dada infused photomontages, which he made in the 1930s following the rise of Adolf Hitler. During their ascension to power the Nazi regime used propaganda to glorify Hitler. The Nazi party also used a visual campaign to attack their enemies and people they deemed “inferior.” Throughout this time of media poisoning, John Heartfield created his photomontages that attacked everything the Nazis stood for. His anti-Nazi works for the Communist magazine Arbeiter Illustriere Zeitung (AIZ), covered a variety of angles including mocking Hitler as a person, pointing out the party’s greed, and exposing …

Cascadian Independence: A Rising Movement For An Independent Northwest Amid Growing Regionalism In The United States And Canada, Elias V. Savitt

Capstone Showcase

Because of the Civil War, secession is a sore topic to many Americans. However, the idea of secession has not been confined to this notorious example. My essay focuses on the idea that Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia could be the basis for a unified autonomous or even independent entity called Cascadia. First, I discuss the history of secession as such, and the arguments that have been made pro and con as to its legality and under what situations. I then situate this within the histories of the United States and Canada and the phenomena of regionalism and independent movements. …

Operation Dumbo Drop: Cultural Memory, And Representations Of The Vietnam War In The 1990s, Sylvie Kromer

Scripps Senior Theses

In 1995, the film Operation Dumbo Drop was released by Walt Disney Pictures. This film, based on a true story of elephants being airlifted across Vietnam in 1968 by the American military, holds a unique position as a rare family-friendly comedy about the Vietnam War. As a reflection of 1990s-era cultural memory of the Vietnam War, the film rehistoricizes and sanitizes the war, following a similar trend in other pieces of media from the same era. Operation Dumbo Drop must be seen in this context and as a product of the moment in which it was made. In taking a …

Queer Life In Nineteenth-Century America: A Historical Literature Review, Vivian Wright

SURF Posters 2025

In recent political discourses, queerness has often been treated as a modern phenomenon, and many people tend to think of queerness as a twentieth-century invention. Historians, however, have shown this to be false; an extensive amount of historical work details the lives of those who did not conform to sexual or gender norms in nineteenth-century America. This review surveys such works, analyzing nearly twenty different works spanning the course of nearly fifty years. By examining these works chronologically, the development of the field of queer history can be understood in the context of social and political developments occurring in the …

U.S. And Russian Responses To The Syrian Civil War: A Comparative Analysis, Grace Dewitt

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Syrian Civil War was among the most devastating conflicts in the 21st century and was defined by the involvement of various international actors, including the United States (U.S.) and Russia. The Syrian conflict was sparked by the Arab Spring movement. The Asad regime, which controlled the Syrian government at the time of the Arab Spring, reacted violently to the civilian protests and calls for reform. This led to the formation of organized rebel groups, creating a complex and violent civil war. The U.S. and Russia, as well as other international actors such as Turkey and Iran, became involved in …

From Segregation To Censorship: The Evolution Of "States’ Rights" In Shaping American Educational Policy And Its Role In Contemporary Culture Wars, Halle Wright

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper traces the rhetoric of “states’ rights,” “local control,” and “parental rights” as evolving tools for shaping American public education. Using legal, political, and cultural sources, it constructs a historical timeline that shows how this rhetoric transformed from an explicit defense of segregation into a central weapon in contemporary culture wars. I begin with the post–Brown v. Board of Education era and Massive Resistance of the 1950s and 60s, when Southern officials deployed states’ rights language to resist desegregation and recast segregationist goals as “local control” and “freedom of choice.” I then examine how these arguments persisted through the …

'God Loves The World' Documentary, Ilona Kitchen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The internet is a powerful place. People feel that they can share how they feel with no consequences. Hedviga Tkáčová (2021) argues that negative media portrayals of Christianity contribute to prejudice against Christian university students in Slovakia, which undermines social cohesion and highlights the need for greater support of religious diversity. From memes to viral videos, these digital interactions can feel like a personal attack, exposing how online spaces can betray the trust and faith of the Roman Catholic Church. As a Roman Catholic, I frequently encounter such issues when engaging with content in the media. In public settings, it …

From Curiosity To Controversy: American Perception Of Japanese Immigrants, 1853-1924, Chloe Elizabeth Curbelo

Theses and Dissertations

In the mid-nineteenth century, as the United States reached the Pacific through westward expansion, Asia emerged as a new stage for commerce and power. Japan, long isolated under the Tokugawa shogunate, became an object of American fascination when forced into relations. While early depictions cast Japan as an exotic yet uncivilized nation in need of Western guidance, Japan’s rapid modernization and the growing number of Japanese immigrants on the West Coast transformed curiosity into anxiety. My paper traces this evolution of perception from 1850 to 1924, arguing that shifting views of Japan and its people reflected America’s ethnocentric notions of …

Tangled Up In Red: The Smith Act, Cold War Repression, And The Trials Of Communists In New York And Detroit, Alan Sangster

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

A comparison of the 1949 Smith Act trial of Communist Party leaders in New York and the 1952 Smith Act prosecution of six Detroit communists shows that Cold War anticommunism in the United States was not uniform; instead, it was shaped by local political contexts. While some New York communist leaders had ties to Soviet intelligence, they were ultimately prosecuted for their political speech which, under the Smith Act, rose to a crime. Conversely, the Detroit defendants had no clear ties to any Soviet intelligence officers and were simply prosecuted under the Smith Act for their political speech and local …

Virginia Woolf And The Lesbian Literary Tradition, Hunter Candrian-Velez

English and Creative Writing | Senior Theses

Modernist English authors, such as Virginia Woolf in her novel Orlando: A Biography, built upon a pre-existing and long tradition of underground lesbian literature dating back to Sappho in Ancient Greece. Before Woolf, female writers of the 19th century continued this tradition by establishing the literary trope of the “Victorian Romantic Female Friendship,” which would later take on different shapes and connotations with discoveries made in the early 1900s related to sexology and homosexual inversion. These discoveries would lead writers to code their work in the hopes of avoiding censorship and government punishment. Writers such as Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Gaskell, …

Dies Legibiles V

Dies Legibiles

Welcome to the fifth volume of Dies Legibiles!

As always, I was blown away this year by the superb work undergraduate students submitted to this journal, some first forays into medieval studies and others final projects before pursuing a graduate degree in the field. If the submissions to Dies Legibiles are any indication, the next generation of medievalists are thinking deeply about the past, about which histories have been neglected, and about what those histories reveal about the present moment.

Safiyyah’ S War (2023) By Hiba Noor Khan & The Grand Mosque Of Paris (2009) By Karen Gray Ruelle & Deborah Durland Desaix, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Middle Grades Books

Suppose that somebody takes over your city and begins harming your friends and neighbors. How do you respond? When is it your responsibility to act, and what kinds of risks should you take? How do these new moral demands change your relations to your neighbors, people in authority, and even your family? How do you stay sane and resolved when your safety is under constant threat? Telling the story of how the Muslim community in Paris risked their lives to save hundreds of Jews when Germany invaded France in World War II, this middle-grades novel and picture book also tell …

In From The Cold: Notes On Sixteenth-Century English Catholic History, Freddy Cristobal Dominguez

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

English Catholic history continues to tread new ground, revisit old theories, and draw together theoretical and geographical frameworks. However, it continues to struggle to be accepted as part of the “mainstream” narrative of English history. In this review essay, I explore three key areas of growth related to the study of sixteenth-century English Catholicism: returning Catholics to the “high politics” of England; a renewed emphasis on gender, particularly the role of religious women; and an international/transnational orientation that reaffirms the close ties between Britain and the Continent. Recently reviewed works include Lillian Lodine-Chaffey, A Weak Woman in a Strong Battle: …

In Search Of A State, Maeve Glass

Faculty Scholarship

This article offers a legal history of one of America’s earliest campaigns of state legislative resistance: the effort in Massachusetts to protest the national government’s perceived dismantling of an old Atlantic commercial order from 1803 to 1815. To date, scholars have either condemned this protest as a dangerous harbinger of the Civil War or vindicated it as an inevitable and salutary extension of the Founding. This article steers a different course. By focusing on the evolving language of protest and the complex hybrid of ideas and material realities from which this language emerged, this article illuminates how Federalist leaders who …

The Religious Policy Of The Russian Empire In The Captured Territories Of The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (On The Example Of The Volyn Province At The End Of The 18th-The First Half Of The 19th Century), Andrii Shevchuk, Oksana Markevych

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article investigates the peculiarities of the implementation of the religious policy of the Russian Empire in the territories that were captured as a result of the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, on the example of the Volyn province in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The role of local administration, in particular governors, in the implementation of the imperial confessional policy and the mechanisms of integration of the Orthodox Church into the state apparatus are analyzed. It is established that after the November Uprising of 1830-1831, religious policy was radicalized, which manifested itself in the forced liquidation of …

Memory And Religious Identity In Ivan Iv’S Letters: Constructing Orthodox Kingship In Diplomatic Correspondence, Srđan M. Jovanović

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines the use of religious memory and identity in the diplomatic correspondence of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible), particularly his letters to the Polish-Lithuanian nobility. Through a detailed analysis of these letters, the article demonstrates how Ivan IV invoked Orthodox Christian imagery, sacred history, and references to past Christian rulers to legitimize his reign and justify his political actions, such as military campaigns and territorial expansion. Ivan’s correspondence not only reflects his self-presentation as a divinely appointed ruler but also illustrates how religious rhetoric played a crucial role in constructing Orthodox kingship and shaping Russian national identity. The …

The Religious Factor In The Imperial Judicial Policy Of The Right-Bank Ukraine (1797-1830), Andrii Shevchuk, Oksana Markevych

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the religious factor in the imperial judicial policy on the territory of Right-Bank Ukraine (1797-1830). The transformation of the region's judicial system after its incorporation into the Russian Empire is analyzed through the prism of confessional relations. On the basis of archival materials and published sources, the peculiarities of the functioning of judicial institutions in the context of religious stratification of society are revealed. The specifics of staffing of judicial institutions by representatives of different denominations, particularly the dominance of the Catholic szlachta (nobility) in the county and major courts, are highlighted. The author traces the evolution …

The Transformation Of Religious Consciousness And Spiritual Practices Of Ukrainians During The Soviet Anti-Religious Campaign In The Khrushchev Thaw Period, Galyna Starodubets Doctor Of Historical Sciences (Dr. Hab. In History), Professor, Oleksandra Stasiuk Doctor Of Historical Sciences (Dr. Hab. In History)

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines the changes in religious consciousness and daily religious practices of Soviet Ukrainians during the so-called Khrushchev Thaw, based on sociological interviews. It is emphasized that despite the intensified atheistic propaganda and the closure of churches, religion remained a significant factor in people's lives. Religious beliefs were deeply embedded in the Ukrainian worldview, shaping their way of thinking and everyday life, which, in turn, influenced the norms and patterns of religious behavior. Risking harassment from their superiors or even losing their jobs, people continued to attend services, baptize their children, and celebrate religious holidays. Family upbringing traditions played …

The Church In The Fire Of The “Great Terror” Of 1937–1938, Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the mechanisms of implementation of the Great Terror in the Ukrainian SSR during the years 1937-1939. It reveals the scale of the repressive campaign by presenting quantitative data on the number of individuals repressed both within the Ukrainian SSR and across the entire USSR, including victims of religious persecution. Special attention is given to the persecution of clergy. The reasons for targeting church leaders are analysed, along with their operational pseudonyms and the roles some of them played cooperating with Soviet intelligence services. The study is based on archival documents and contemporary research, offering deeper insight into …

The Development Of The Trinitarian Charism In Poland And Its Realization, Maciej Kowalski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim of this article is to present the stages of development of the Trinitarian charism in Poland and to discuss the ways of its implementation, as well as to answer the question to what extent the Polish Trinitarians in their more than three hundred years of history have adapted the religious charism to their native conditions in changing historical circumstances. This, in turn, will allow better understanding of the heritage and activities of the Trinitarian Order in Poland, as well as to bring closer its multifaceted impact on various areas of Church and social life. The issues raised here, …

Kyiv Christianity In The Portraits Of Metropolitans: Artistic Language And Coding Of Identity In The 18th Century, Oleksandr Lukyanenko, Vitaly Dmytrenko, Vita Dmytrenko, Nazar Maistruk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the analysis of the iconography of the Kiev metropolitans of the 18th century as a unique phenomenon of religious Ukrainian Baroque art. The portraits of the bishops are considered not only as representative images of spiritual power, but also as carriers of cultural codes that record a special type of “Kyiv Christianity” formed on the border of Eastern and Western civilizations. Special attention is paid to Baroque aesthetics – the splendor of the bishop’s vestments, the ornamentality, theatricality of the compositions and at the same time the psychological depth of the portrayed. The study shows …

The Anatomy Of Efficiency: Changes In British Military Medicine On The Western Front, 1914-1918, Ricky Mather

Open Access Master's Theses

The Western Front of the First World War was a theater of tragedy and unprecedented loss. As thousands of mangled British bodies were evacuated from the front lines, medical officers, surgeons, nurses, orderlies, stretcher-bearers, and other staff worked tirelessly in an efficient and technical manner to restore soldiers’ fitness so they might be redeployed into the chaos, and continue servicing the war machine. This thesis looks at changes in medicine driven by the war. First, it examines the evolution of medical theory and practice as reflected in three medical manuals. The first was published in 1911, before the war, and …

Understanding Bosnian Komšiluk: A Study Of Neighbourhood Dynamics And Violence, Sandra Grudić

Student Publications [Scholarly]

The 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a top-down political project aimed at dividing the multiethnic state and it was characterized by neighbourhood violence. Following the war, scholars focused on understanding the meaning and significance of komšiluk (neighbourliness) in Bosnian culture, particularly in relation to how friendly neighbourly relations turned violent during the ethnic conflict. These scholarly debates have contributed to a better understanding of komšiluk, although it has typically been presented as a stable institution, often negotiated along an interethnic axis, and viewed as a concept that persisted unchanged over time, with near-universal characteristics throughout Bosnia. This paper …

El Doble Discurso Del Simbolismo De La (Pureza De) Sangre En El Diario Espiritual De La Donada Afroperuana Úrsula De Jesús, Yertty M. Vandermolen

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

Purity of Blood Symbolism and Double Discourse in The Spiritual Diary of the Afro-Peruvian Donada Úrsula de Jesús

Through a close reading of The Spiritual Diary, this study examines how the Afro-Peruvian donada Úrsula de Jesús—whose experiences and visions were recorded and transcribed by a group of literate nuns in her convent—employs discursive strategies to dismantle the discourse of blood purity and reformulate the meaning of the blood. Drawing on the Christian belief that all humans are created equally in the image of God and redeemed through the blood of Christ as promised for universal salvation, Úrsula constructs an egalitarian …

Christianity And Culture In North America, Dale E. Soden

History Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Athens, Jerusalem, And Places In Between: Secular Learning And Christian Faith In Historical Perspective, Arlin C. Migliazzo

History Faculty Scholarship

Author's preface:

This novella-length essay began life as an introductory chapter in the draft version of a text on pedagogical practices in church-related higher education. The project was made possible by a $25,000 grant received by the author in 1996 from what was then known as the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts (now the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities). Fordham University Press expressed interest in publishing the book but required that the opening chapter be shortened considerably. Consequently, what eventually became Teaching as an Act of Faith: Theory and Practice in Church-Related Higher Education (New …

Gvsu Press Releases, 2025, Grand Valley State University

University Press Releases, 1961-Present

A compilation of press releases for the year 2025 submitted by University Communications (formerly News & Information Services) to news agencies concerning the people, places, and events related to Grand Valley State University.

Civilian Manufacturing And National Defense: Strategic Planning For Globalization's Challenges, Izeck Kohler

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis examines the interconnection between civilian manufacturing and national defense within the context of globalization. The study aims to identify the challenges faced by the United States in maintaining its manufacturing capabilities and to propose strategic solutions to address these challenges. Through a comprehensive analysis of historical data, case studies, and policy recommendations, the research highlights the critical role of specialized and process manufacturing sectors towards national defense. The findings suggest that the creation of a federal executive department, strategic investment, diversification, policy re-evaluation, and collaborating with allies are essential for sustaining national defense capabilities. The study concludes with …