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 …

The Affable Raphael: Milton's Surrogate Instructor In Paradise Lost., Beau Kilpatrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) is a beautifully written epic that continues to be a stalwart text in the English literary canon, with unlimited potential for interpretation. In this dissertation I propose that Paradise Lost can be read as a pedagogical lesson for Milton’s “fit audience,” where the author implements his views on education in the context of heaven, hell, and Paradise. In the poem, Milton presents three pedagogical methodologies: first, the wrong way to knowledge is presented through Satan’s manipulations of the fallen angels and Eve; second, the divine way to knowledge is illustrated via Michael’s prophecy to Adam …

The Utilization Of Grassroots Organizing By Black Women Pioneers To Achieve Reproductive Justice., Madison Ruth Ellsworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since enslavement in the United States Black women have cultivated different ways to fight for their Reproductive Justice. After emancipation Black women have continued to utilize the practices learned from our ancestors to obtain Reproductive Justice. Despite the women’s movement becoming mainstream in the 1960s many Black women continued to grassroots organize to adequately address the issues that were unique to them. The efforts of various Black women organizers tend to go unacknowledged because the mainstream women’s movement attracts the attention of most. In my research I focused on Byllye Avery, Loretta Ross, and Toni Bond to explore and showcase …

Cultivating Honor: How Indigenous Students Harness Resilience And Cultural Wealth To Thrive At A Borderlands University, Lourdes Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study sheds light on students' lived experiences regarding Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) at Borderlands University (BU), a Hispanic-serving institution on the U.S.-Mexico border where First Peoples lived for thousands of years. This study supports Indigenous students whose dismal national college graduation rates must be addressed. It recognizes studentsâ?? cultural wealth and richness (Yosso, 2005) and is grounded by the Peoplehood Matrix (Holm, 2003; Tachine, Cabrera, and Yellow Bird, 2017). This study was consistent with previous studies revealing that prioritizing student support raises equity and improves the overall academic experiences for all students in higher education (Tachine …

Children's Mercy: Dedicated To All Children, Everywhere, Heather Steel, Katie Dayani, Julia Mcbride, Keri Swaggart, Kim Weir

Posters

Children’s Mercy Kansas City was founded in 1897 by sisters Drs. Alice Graham and Katharine Richardson. Their primary objective was to create a hospital where the children of Kansas City and surrounding areas could be treated regardless of their religion, race, or ability to pay. By the early 1920’s segregation became a huddle to accomplishing this dream. To circumvent this problem Dr. Katharine Richardson partnered with Dr. John E. Perry and the staff at Wheatley Provident Hospital, the first private Black hospital in Kansas City, MO, to establish the Mercy Model Ward. This ward provided pediatric care for the Black …

From Tidewater To Tennessee: The Structuring Influences Of Virginia Schemata In The Settlement Of East Tennessee, Slade Nakoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For over two hundred years, historians have debated the historical importance of early Tennessee migrants in shaping the state’s history. These discussions center around North Carolina's impact compared to Virginia's. By shifting discourse to the retention of migrant mentalities, the overwhelming influence of Virginia emerges through the continuity of privilege and commodification schemata. This study employs an interdisciplinary methodological approach combining schema theory, memory studies, and material culture analysis to outline the retention of mentalities from Tidewater, Virginia, to East Tennessee during the early settlement period. By utilizing the case study of John Carter of Watauga (1728-1781), the research illustrates …

Sport, Community, And Racial Progress In 1950s Indianapolis: The Story Of Crispus Attucks High School Basketball, Jacob A. Sherer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Sports in our societies play a more crucial role than often given credit. Teams of any level can significantly impact the community they come from and those they make contact with. The all-Black Crispus Attucks High School basketball team is a prominent case study for this argument. Their state championships in 1955 and 1956 in Indiana put how sports can impact ways of thinking on display. A team led by future hall-of-fame player Oscar Robertson, the Attucks Tigers stormed to victory in games across the state. Indiana had long been influenced by the Ku Klux Klan activity that resurfaced in …

"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 …

Lawrence As An Orientalist Figure Of Empire In David Lean's Lawrence Of Arabia, Leen Khashashina

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this thesis, I examine the character of Lawrence in David Lean’s 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia. I seek to break apart the legend, examining his individual characteristics and interest in Arabia as well as his imperialist motivations, whether unconscious or not. Lawrence struggles to find his identity and this film is an exploration of that multitude. Many of the characters in the film have conflicting ideas about who Lawrence was because he did not even understand himself. The combination of Lawrence’s defiance of British orders and society as well as his obsession with becoming an Arab marks him as …

Wretched Refuse: Garbage And The Making Of New York City, Tina Peabody

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Wretched Refuse: The Making of New York City. is a social and economic history of waste management in New York City from the late nineteenth century through the 1990s. This dissertation uses waste management as a lens to examine the city’s social and economic life over the long twentieth century, and especially its class and racial hierarchies. Wretched Refuse argues that waste management was a critical part of New York City’s physical and economic growth over the course of the twentieth century. Sanitation was a public health problem that needed to be solved in order for New York to grow …

A Reimagined Periphery: Environment And The Construction Of The French Colonial Empire In North Africa, Tyson A. Luneau

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the relationship between environmental knowledge and empire building in French North Africa during nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Since its 1830 invasion of Algiers, France engaged in a century-long conquest of the Maghreb, extending sphere of influence to the neighboring regions of Tunisia, Morocco, and the Soudan. Under the guise of the mission civilisatrice, colonialists stressed their conquest’s goal of spreading enlightened French civilization for the benefit of both the indigenous populations and the world at large. France’s conquest of North Africa was not, however, solely focused on the peoples and cultures of the region. Simultaneously, France engaged …

Confessions In The Salem Witch Trials, Caylie Mcaree

ALL - Honors Theses

As defined as one of the darkest moments in American history, the Salem Witch Trials serves as a haunting reminder of the human capacity of fear and manipulation over a community of people that led to mass hysteria and injustice. Through the mist of mass hysteria and chaos, the Court of Oyer and Terminer was established to maintain social control of the community and prosecute the accused through coerced confessions. Over a hundred and fifty people were accused of witchery and over one-third of the accused confessed to the crime. This paper dives into a deep analysis of primary and …

School Discipline, The Little Rock Crisis, And Aaron V. Cooper, Lauren Misco

ALL - Honors Theses

The Little Rock Crisis was a monumental event within the larger story of school desegregation and the civil rights movement. Governor Orval Faubus sent the Arkansas National Guard to Little Rock Central High September 1957 in the efforts of preventing integration. After much back and forth between the governor and president, Eisenhower then sent federal troops from the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Brown v. Board decision of 1954. In the background of the constitutional crisis, and amongst the troops in the building, the school administration dealt with backlash from angered segregationists both inside and outside the school. During …

“Know Your Facts Before Taking A Stand:” The Schenectady County League Of Women Voter’S Impact On Local Policy Through Civic Education, 1919-1945, Alice Russo

ALL - Honors Theses

This thesis explores the pivotal role of the Schenectady County League of Women Voters in shaping local policy and politics through civic education during the interwar years. Empowered by the principle “know your facts before taking a stand and going public,” the Schenectady County League educated both its members and the public on policy issues in a nonpartisan and all partisan way. The Schenectady County League’s strategic emphasis on nonpartisan civic education empowered its members to become well-informed advocates for policy change. By prioritizing issue-based stances over partisan politics, the Schenectady County League expanded its influence beyond traditional boundaries and …

Researching & Designing Marketing Materials For Rachel Messer & Connor Dale, Isabelle Bauer

Honors Projects

Isabelle Bauer’s Honors Project, “Researching and Designing Marketing Materials for Rachel Messer and Connor Dale” is split into two components. First, the research paper titled "The American West as a Cultural Phenomenon" explores the fascination with the American West and its integration into various aspects of American culture, particularly in music, film, and art. The essay discusses the historical significance of the West and its transformation into a cultural obsession. Focusing on the resurgence of Western aesthetics in modern country music, the project’s second component involves the creation of marketing materials for country artists Rachel Messer and Connor Dale.

The …

Dionysus The Barbarian, Deven Salisbury

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis analyzes the changes in the way the Greeks depicted foreigners and Dionysus, the god of wine, over a period of approximately four hundred years in their art and literature. It argues that ways in which the god and foreigners (also known as "barbarians") are closely linked and that the changes made to Dionysus' character are closely analogous to those they made to the characterization of the barbarian.

Book Review: Something In The Water: A History Of Music In Macon, Georgia, 1823-1980, Timothy Cole Hale

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Vice President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller And The Death Of Liberal Republicanism, Anthony Sterba

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller once stood as one of the most prominent figures in the Republican Party, standing as a champion of liberal Republicanism. But from the heights that he achieved with his ascension to the vice presidency, he fell from grace, not being re-nominated for the post alongside President Gerald Ford in 1976. This thesis seeks to explain why this occurred. In explaining this, Rockefeller's previous primary campaigns, vice presidential actions, and ideology are all explored to show the conservative opposition that rallied itself against him. In light of this, Ronald Reagan's challenge of Gerald Ford in 1976 for the …

The Controlled Narrative Of “Jane Roe:” Norma Mccorvey’S Life Beyond The 1973 Trial, Eleanor G. Strickland

Honors College Theses

Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, 1973, wrote two memoirs twenty years after the Supreme Court trial that surrounded her third pregnancy. These memoirs (I Am Roe, 1994, and Won by Love, 1997), along with the recent documentary AKA Jane Roe (2020), provide an insight into McCorvey’s life and how she was used by politicians and civilians during and after the influential trial. McCorvey lived a complicated life and was constantly being pulled in different directions spiritually, politically, and personally. This thesis shows how McCorvey attempted to re-write the narrative of her life using …

The Slidell Museum: Rebuilding Overlooked And Disregarded Narratives In Small-Town America, Gregory D. Scott

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The community of Slidell, Louisiana, sits across the lake from New Orleans on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Slidell quietly shrouds a multitude of fascinating historic narratives with roots that extend back to before the 1718 founding of New Orleans. The first documented European presence in the area near Slidell occurred in 1699 when Iberville camped at Goose Point a few miles west of present-day Slidell. This area would play a vital role in the survival, growth, and development of the early New Orleans settlement.

Slidell has a rich history of people, places, and events. In 2005, the devastation …

Stories Of Motivation And Values Of Small-Scale Farmers In Jamaica And The United States, Raquel Taylor

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Small-scale farmers add to global and local food systems through various means such as connecting communities to local food and support economies. Small-scale farms can address issues related to food and nutritional security. However, farming can be a challenging career to engage in, especially for those who are small-scale farmers. Matters related to succession, higher paying off-farm employment, policies, and more can make it challenging to engage in farming. Leaving the question of what would motivate someone to engage in small-scale farming. Motivation can be viewed through multiple lenses; this study chose to use self-determination theory to understand the motivations …

Make America(N Cinema) Great Again: The Rhetoric Of Nostalgia In Trump Era Cinematic Multiplicities, Courtney J. Dreyer

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation investigates the rhetoric of nostalgia in politics and popular Hollywood cinema during the Trump era. I argue that MAGA Cinema, the contemporary trend of reboots, remakes, and sequels related to properties from the late 1970s to early 1990s, both respond to and strengthen attachments to an imagined version of the 1980s. However, this illusory golden age more closely reflects the world as depicted in the cinema of the 1980s rather than the reality of American in the years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Through a close analysis of David Gordon Green’s Halloween Reboot series, Top Gun: Maverick, and …

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, …

A Comparative Analysis Of Hiv/Aids In France And The United States: Historical Context And Preventative Actions, Rebecca A. Liebsack

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the result of transmission of a zoonotic disease known as simian immunodeficiency virus. The pandemic has had profound social and economic consequences and continues to be present today. France and the United States’ response to the discovery of HIV will be compared and the impact that HIV/AIDS had on their countries and future responses. They had rather similar responses, however, the United States had a slower initial response compared to France. Both had similar takeaways such as aiming at improving prevention and utilizing tactics developed during the start of the pandemic like frequent testing and vaccines.

Christianization In The Roman Empire: Politics, Culture, And Architecture During The Reign Of Emperor Constantine I, Peyton Connor

History

The Christianization of the Roman Empire under Constantine I (306–337 C.E.) marked a turning point in Late Antiquity. It was an era defined by the legalization, expansion, and integration of Christianity into Roman life. After the Edict of Milan in 313 C.E., Constantine’s policies—including but not limited to his participation in church councils, alliances with bishops, and several administrative reforms—advanced Christianity’s political and social standing while preserving elements of traditional religion. Yet Christianization was not purely a imperial endeavor. Ascetic and monastic movements resisted state influence, and everyday believers adapted their faith within familiar cultural frameworks. Additionally, architecture revealed the …

Curriculum Response To An Evolving Society: An Analysis Of Family And Consumer Sciences Education At Murray State University From 1928 To 2023, Lauren Ervin

Honors College Theses

This research aims to identify and explore the changes in the family and consumer sciences (FCS) education program at Murray State University from 1928, when the major was first offered, until 2023. The following questions were answered:

• What are the notable changes in Murray State University's FCS education program, involving curriculum, from 1928 to 2023?

• What are the notable themes, topics, and changes to the overarching FCS field from 1928 to 2023?

• How have the events in society and the FCS field influenced the FCS Education program at Murray State University?

The researcher noted the changes in the Murray State …

Reconstructing The Narrative Of Slavery In The United States: Acknowledging The Complex Exploitation Of Forced, Free, And Semi-Free Labor Beyond Race And Ethnicity And The Several Communities Who Endured Systemic Labor Exploitation And Injustice In The United States, Amma Terrece Sims

Theses (2016-Present)

This thesis explores the deconstruction and modernization of the narrative surrounding slavery in the United States by recognizing the multifaceted exploitation of labor beyond racial limitations. Through an assessment of representations and historical instances of forced, free, and semi-free labor in the United States, this study explores various forms of systemic subjugation and discrimination endured by diverse communities of immigrants. Specific consideration is given to examples such as indentured servitude of the colonial era and the experiences of “new immigrants” of the industrial period in challenging the established racial paradigm correlated with slavery. The experiences of specific European ethnic sub- …

The Use Of Whole Blood In Increasing The Survivability Of Combat Wounded Troops From 1940 To 1953, Devin Sweet

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Humans have been experimenting with new ways to kill each other for millennia, and for just as long, doctors have been experimenting with methods to improve survivability of those wounded. The 20^th century was one of the bloodiest period in human history; war claimed over one hundred million lives. With the scourge of disease more easily managed, the medical communities came to address the one wound that historically cost most lives – bleeding to death. Shock and exsanguination can kill a person within thirty seconds to two minutes, and finding ways to mitigate that outcome has been the subject …

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …