History Commons^™

Medieval Writings On Sex Between Men. Peter Damian’S “The Book Of Gomorrah” And Alain De Lille’S “The Plaint Of Nature,” By David Rollo, Kersti Francis

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

2026-05-12 Minutes, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress meeting minutes from May 12, 2026.

Kattam Choreography- A Facade Of The Virgin Islands, Kiyani J.M. Ottley

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Kattam Choreography reimagines a historic building in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI as a vibrant cultural hub that celebrates dance, memory, and commerce. Rooted in the embodied traditions of the qudrille folk dance, this project explores adaptive reuse as a performtive act—where architecture becomes a living archive of movement and heritage.

The design treats the building’s layered history not as a static artifact, but as a choreographic score. Quadrille’s spatial logic—its symmetry, rhythm, and communal gestures—informs circulation, program, and atmosphere. The building unfolds as a triptych: a dance pavilion, multi-purpose educational spaces, and a gift shop. Each element responds to …

When Healing Becomes Horror: Medical Malpractice And Institutional Fear, Taryn Prater

COD Library Student Research and Award Symposium

I studied medical malpractice through the lens of Monster Theory, examining how systemic failures, institutional silence, and cultural ideals shape harm in healthcare. I learned that malpractice is not only a legal issue, but a structural and ethical one, where fear and lack of transparency erode trust and impact both patients and providers.

Monstrous Medicine website

Faculty Sponsor: Professor Aleisha Balestri

Ramen: A History Of The Globally Loved Delicacy, Abigail Hendricksen

COD Library Student Research and Award Symposium

This project examines the history of ramen, tracing its development from Chinese noodle traditions to its adaptation in Japan and its global spread through industrialization and postwar change. It highlights how migration, war, and globalization shaped ramen into a widely consumed food and a symbol of cultural exchange and adaptation.

Faculty Sponsor:  Professor Maria Ritzema

The Battle Between Freedom And Enslavement On The Great Plains, Faith E. Poggioli

Undergraduate Research Journal

The Great Plains region in the United States has many stories embedded within its past that depict the lives and actions of individuals who left a notable mark on American history. While some of these stories may be uplifting, others embody the harsh realities of national tension and human cruelties that took place in a bygone era. Perhaps one of the most well-known aspects of the Great Plains was the issue of slavery in the 1850s. During that time, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, allowing settlers within the new territories decide if they wanted slavery to be permitted by voting …

Closing The Revolution: The Criticize Water Margin Campaign And The Politics Of Surrender In Mao’S China, Yaowen Dong

Asia Pacific Perspectives

The mid 1970s witnessed a massive Maoist campaign to attack the late imperial vernacular fiction Water Margin, which had been previously favored by the Chinese Communist Party because of its elements of rebellion and egalitarianism. The paper examines the Criticize Water Margin Campaign in 1975 and 1976 that interpreted the fiction as class-reconciliation and surrender. I argue that the dramatic shift of the narratives surrounding Water Margin manifested the deeply embedded paradox between rebellion and normalization in the communist revolutionary project. Such paradox of revolution is not only the product of the infringement of the coming neoliberal world order, …

Confederate Women In The Field Of Nursing And Their Impact On Southern Women’S Roles In Society, Laura Leigh L. Prater

Theses

During the Civil War, Confederate women had the opportunity to go to work as nurses. The majority of these women had never been allowed to take on roles beyond the domestic sphere in antebellum society.  Despite most of these women having limited medical training, they developed an expertise in nursing, extraordinary organization skills and gained respect for their achievements.  Their achievements proved that women were able to do far more than many in the South believed prior to the war.  This paper will show how the demands of war opened doors of greater opportunity for women in the South for …

Care, Control, And The Racial Regulation Of Black Women’S Reproduction In American Medicine, Rheya K. Wilk

Honors Thesis

Black women in the United States continue to experience disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality, negative reproductive healthcare experiences, and documented disparities in medical treatment. From slavery through the twenty-first century, American medicine has repeatedly positioned Black women’s reproduction as a site of regulation, rather than care, making medical mistrust among Black women a rational response to a long history of institutional conflict embedded in American medicine. Drawing on medical history and bioethical analysis, this thesis traces reproductive abuse across distinct, yet connected, eras. Beginning with antebellum gynecological experimentation on enslaved women, it demonstrates how racialized assumptions about pain and …

Resilience In Place Names: German-Hehe War Memories And Cultural Identity In Iringa Toponyms, Claudio G. Kisake, Sophilini M. Yisega, Spemba E. Spemba

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Toponyms, or place names, act as vital markers of historical memory, cultural identity and resilience. In Iringa, Tanzania, toponymy offers valuable insights into the enduring impacts associated with the German-Hehe War (1890–1898), and colonial encounters on indigenous communities. This study explores how place names—such as Kitanzini (‘a place with a noose for hanging people’), Ilundamatwe or Lundamatwe (‘a collection of slaughtered heads’), and Gangilonga (‘the speaking stone’)—convey narratives of Hehe war superiority, resistance, and survival. Using a qualitative approach, the research incorporates archival sources, oral histories, and linguistic analysis to investigate the stories behind naming and renaming, the role of …

Hunting, Craftsmanship, And Migration: The Ethnobiology Of The Raute Nomads Of Nepal, Ramesh Prasad Adhikary

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This study explores the ethnobiology of the Raute nomads in Nepal, a dwindling hunter-gatherer group facing threats from modernisation, deforestation, and sedentarisation policies. Despite growing ethnobiological research on indigenous knowledge, there remains a scholarly gap in integrated analyses of how nomadic practices like hunting, craftsmanship, and migration interlink to promote sustainability, particularly in South Asian contexts. Drawing on six weeks of ethnographic fieldwork with a single Raute community (n=15 key informants via purposive sampling for interviews; 3 focus groups of 6-8 participants via convenience sampling), this research employs participant observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions to address this gap. …

Resilience In Place Names: German-Hehe War Memories And Cultural Identity In Iringa Toponyms, Claudio G. Kisake, Sophilini M. Yisega, Spemba E. Spemba

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Toponyms, or place names, act as vital markers of historical memory, cultural identity and resilience. In Iringa, Tanzania, toponymy offers valuable insights into the enduring impacts associated with the German-Hehe War (1890–1898), and colonial encounters on indigenous communities. This study explores how place names—such as Kitanzini (‘a place with a noose for hanging people’), Ilundamatwe or Lundamatwe (‘a collection of slaughtered heads’), and Gangilonga (‘the speaking stone’)—convey narratives of Hehe war superiority, resistance, and survival. Using a qualitative approach, the research incorporates archival sources, oral histories, and linguistic analysis to investigate the stories behind naming and renaming, the role of …

Taxidermy And Technology: A History Of Climate Change Exhibitions At American Museums Of Natural History, Laura Haushalter, Amy Woodson-Boulton

Honors Thesis

My research is on the history of temporary and permanent climate change exhibitions at natural history museums in the United States. My primary research question is: How have natural history museums responded to human-caused environmental destruction through their exhibitions, and what, if anything, are natural history museums doing now to address our current environmental crisis? My research begins with a historiography of natural museums and examines how early 20th-century museums responded to a sense of environmental crisis and widespread threats of species extinction. In the early 20th century, museums shifted from Victorian-era glass cases to modern and artistic dioramas that …

Through The Lens Of “Kigo”: Understanding Japanese American Wwii Poetry, Grace C. Shields

Honors College Theses

In 1957, nearly ten years after the closing of Tule Lake Segregation Center in Newell, California, the last of the ten War Relocation Authority (WRA) concentration camps to close, author Keiho Soga writes on a piece of paper:

“Untitled”

By: Keiho Soga

Beyond the forbidding fence 

Of doubled barbed wire 

The mountain, 

Aglow with purple,

Sends us its greetings.

In this brief moment of reflection, Soga recounts his time in Sand Island Internment Camp, another of the Japanese American internment camps established during World War II by the United States government after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. …

From Farewell To Fáilte: The Voices Of Iowa’S Irish Daughters, Katie Hermanson

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Irish women’s immigration to Iowa brought rich culture and lasting impacts, despite their contributions being silenced by history. Women left Ireland for economic opportunity and education abroad to support their impoverished families. Millions emigrated between 1830 and 1915, spreading across the world. The Irish women who came to the United States encountered discrimination and cultural stereotyping as they worked in domestic service, developed religious orders, taught school, owned businesses and raised families. Women bore the burden of supporting their families in Ireland by sending remittances home and communicating between countries. Their cultural identity as exiles dwelled in guilt for leaving …

The Missing Half: Gender-Based Gaps In Holocaust Remembrance, Lyndsey Gilbert

Honors Theses

This study examines the multi-modal methods of memorialization of female Holocaust victims as well as women's absences in Holocaust memorialization. It identifies patterns of representation and omission, examines which histories are preserved, and evaluates gaps in gender-based Holocaust memorials. For this study, memorialization encompasses not only honoring victims but also shaping historical narratives through data and artistic expression. Because the Holocaust targeted men, women, and children within certain categories of Nazi-identified enemies, its memorialization presents a complex dynamic; however, existing narratives and memory practices often prioritize male experiences.

This study examines key methods of memorializing female victims that play a …

"For Their Effectual Exclusion": Oregon, Racial Exclusion, And Citizenship In The Mid-Nineteenth Century, Riley M. Littleton

Honors Theses

In light of Oregon’s admission to the Union as the only state to receive congressional approval with a racial exclusion clause in its constitution, this project seeks to examine the constitutional and cultural thought that ultimately led to the stamp of approval on the thirty-third state. In the past, Missouri had attempted a similar maneuver, seeking to bar free Black Americans from entry; Congress had not allowed it, believing that the provision violated the U.S. Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause. This project investigates what changed congressional opinion between Missouri and Oregon’s respective times.

In researching contemporary literature to understand local …

Ireland Since 1690, Stephen F. Haller Phd

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Sir Gawain, The Travelling Sun Of Medieval Literature, Leah H. Dascoli

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines Sir Gawain’s roles in Medieval Arthurian literature from various geolinguistical regions in Europe. Starting in the twelfth century and extending to the late fifteenth century, there is a shift in literary legends that can be glimpsed through understanding what roles the authors of the Arthurian genre use for Sir Gawain.

By incorporating evidence within the text and supplementary evidence of historical context during which the stories were written and translated, this study seeks to create a discussion between the more obscure sources and more circulating sources in which Sir Gawain is a common factor. It argues that …

The Battle Of Tupelo Hospital Cemetery National Register Nomination, Madeline K. Weems

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On July 14, 1864, the Battle of Tupelo, or the Battle of Harrisburg as it is also known, occurred within fifteen miles of the community of Palmetto in northeast Mississippi. As the battle ensued, wounded and dying soldiers were transported to different sites in and around Tupelo, including the home of Dr. William Henry and Jane Calhoun in Palmetto that served as the main hospital. The bodies of some of those soldiers still remain on the former Calhoun Plantation, including the grave of D. D. Drake. This public history capstone thesis evaluates this Civil War era cemetery’s history and integrity, …

"Maniac Murderer Of Six": Yellow Journalism In Early 20th Century North Dakota, Emma Kalk

Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Showcase

This project examines how early twentieth-century yellow journalism shaped public perception of crime in North Dakota through newspaper coverage of the Eugene Butler case. Following the 1915 discovery of six bodies beneath Butler’s former home near Niagara, North Dakota newspapers rapidly transformed the case into one of the state’s most sensational crime stories. Through analysis of regional newspaper articles, hospital accounts, and modern retellings, this project argues that journalists exaggerated details, repeated unverified claims, and relied on emotionally charged language to construct Butler’s public image as a violent “hermit” and “maniac.”

The project also explores contradictions within contemporary reporting, including …

Manufacturing A Confederate Martyr: John Yates Beall, John Wilkes Booth, And The Politics Of Postwar Memory, Corin M. Fyrdrian

Student Papers (History)

John Yates Beall, a Confederate naval officer and privateer executed by the United States in 1865, has often been remembered through a Lost Cause framework that casts him as a chivalric martyr and “victim of honor.” This thesis challenges that interpretation by situating Beall’s life, wartime actions, trial, execution, and postwar memory within competing ideas of honor, legality, violence, and Confederate nationalism. Through analysis of Beall’s military activities, legal arguments, newspaper coverage, personal writings, and later narratives, this thesis argues that his postwar image was not merely preserved but actively constructed. Lost Cause writers transformed his execution into a moral …

The Grizzly, May 7, 2026, Renee Washart, Sidney Belleroche, Dylan Mchugh, Andrew Mihniak, Adam Denn, Cassidy Denning

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Ursinus College Announces Shifts to Berman Museum • Ursinus Food Pantry: Coming Soon? • Students Learn From MLS Senior Director of Social Media Dan Stelly • Theater Department Presents Independent Capstone Production • Renee Washart Signing Off! • Adam Denn Signing On! • Sidney Belleroche Signing On! • AI: Humanity's Silent Killer • UC Sports Network Returns In Full Force • Ursinus Baseball's Miracle Run Comes to a Close

The Politics Of Sustainability: Corporate Environmental Responsibility And Policy Implications, Andy Tuholski

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

This literature review aims to examine how political factors influence corporate environmental responsibility (CER) initiatives and the subsequent policy implications for environmental sustainability. By synthesizing existing research, it will (a) provide a comprehensive overview of the political dynamics that shape CER and highlight the role of policy in promoting sustainable corporate practices; and (b) offer information for policymakers, corporate leaders, and environmental advocates on fostering sustainable corporate practices through informed policymaking.

Criminalizing Resistance: The Black Panther Party And State Terror In The U.S., Tyler Messinger

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the rise, suppression, and eventual collapse of the Black Panther Party (BPP) between 1966 and 1972, arguing that the organization was dismantled not primarily due to internal failures, financial issues, or criminal activity, but through a sustained campaign of state repression led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Using a document-based historical case study approach, the paper draws extensively on declassified FBI memoranda, COINTELPRO records, congressional testimony from the Church Committee, contemporary newspaper coverage, and the Black Panther Party’s own publications. Placing the BPP within the broader trajectory of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, …

The Myth Of The Italiani Brava Gente In Cinema Since 1945, Bradley P. Reimer

Honors Theses

The myth of the italiani brava gente has been intertwined with cinema since the end of the Second World War. This thesis aims to examine the ways in which these movies, from neorealist classics to disregarded comedies, are influenced by this myth.

By analyzing thirteen films of both Italian and American origin, clear trends begin to emerge between the socioeconomic state of Italy and the ways in which the myth is manifested on the silver screen. When Italy emerges from the war a rebuilding country, the films focus on the futility of war and the evil of Nazi Germany. During …

Penitential Systems In The Latin West And Byzantine East, Elijah C. Dodson

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the development and organization of penitential discipline in early medieval Christianity through a comparison of the penitential tradition associated with Theodore of Canterbury in the Latin West and the canons attributed to John the Faster in the Byzantine East. The study focuses on how these texts regulated sexual sin and what their structures reveal about the institutional role of the Church in different historical contexts. The analysis is based on a comparative reading of penitential texts, supported by patristic writings and modern scholarship. By examining how specific categories of sexual misconduct are classified and disciplined, this study …

Beyond The Bricks: The Friends Of The Burns-Belfry Online, Madeline M. Webb

Honors Theses

This capstone project was completed to offer a new website to the members of the Friends of the Burns-Belfry Museum and Multicultural Center. This project entailed research into the importance of a museum’s digital presence, the significance of community and cultural spaces for historically marginalized groups, and the role of community engagement initiatives for students and community leaders. All findings were considered and implemented into the website and website manual deliverables.

Jacksonian Democracy: Triumph Or Tragedy?, Gabe Blumer

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

This capstone paper analyzes Andrew Jackson's presidential impact on democracy and discusses its strengths and weaknesses as a whole. It goes over the impact on white men, black Americans, and Native Americans in particular.

Living Archaeology: A Comparative Perspective On How Archaeologists Can Study And Document The Present, Alia S. Moran

Honors Capstones

Archaeology has long remained a social science that has tended to exclude sustained consideration of contemporary societies in the analysis of material culture. In recent decades, approaches such as ethnoarchaeology and the archaeology of the contemporary have expanded the field to include the study of present-day societies through material culture. Inspired by my involvement in the Thais in Illinois Project, which focused on documenting the Thai American immigrant experience in the greater Chicago area to produce an oral history collection, alongside other goals, this thesis intends to further explore how archaeological practice can be used to understand everyday issues in …