Cultural History Commons^™

Bibliography For "Commemorating The American Revolution 250 Years Later" Display, Victoria Perez, Sally Park

Library Displays and Bibliographies

A bibliography created to support a display about the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in fall 2026 at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University.

Las Otras Rosas: Mexican American Women Workers And World War Ii, Talisa Flores

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The image of Rosie the Riveter has become one of the most enduring symbols of patriotism, women's empowerment, and gender equality in the United States. Yet this iconic representation has obscured the experiences of many women whose wartime labor remains marginalized in both public memory and historical scholarship, particularly Mexican American defense workers. This thesis reexamines the history of Rosie the Riveter by centering the voices of Mexican American women employed in wartime industries during the Second World War. While the war undoubtedly shaped their lives, this study argues that the conventional Rosie narrative, one that portrays wartime employment as …

(Review Of) Monica Ciobanu And Mihaela Șerban, Eds. Between The Memory And Post-Memory Of Communism In Romania: Fluid Memories, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Monica Ciobanu and Mihaela Șerban's Between the Memory and Post-Memory of Communism in Romania: Fluid Memories.

Roundtable, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

"Many thanks to the editors of the Journal of Romanian Studies, Mihaela Șerban and Narcis Tulbure for organizing this roundtable focused on my recent book—Justice and Restitution in Post-Nazi Romania: Rebuilding Jewish Lives and Communities, 1944–1950—in this prestigious journal! I am extremely honored and grateful for the opportunity to respond to the insightful and interdisciplinary comments on my book from reputed scholars in the field of Romanian studies, Emanuela Grama, Grant T. Harward, Irina Livezeanu, and Mihaela Șerban."

Where Do Policy Demanders Come From? Protestants And Party Formation In The Antebellum Period, John W. Compton

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

The early 1830s were years of intense religious fervor, when well-organized moral reform movements seemed destined to remake the political landscape. Curiously, however, the party system that emerged from this period was premised on the exclusion of moral issues from party politics. How did the early Jacksonian Democrats and Whigs manage to construct an essentially amoral party system during a decade marked by large-scale moral reform movements? And why did the resulting system unravel in the mid-1850s? Answering these questions requires shifting the focus from party activists and elected officials to organized religion. Specifically, I show that the nation's largest …

Artifacts As Ambassadors: How Archaeological Artifacts Dictate Modern Diplomatic Relations And Repatriation, Emma Boyd

Honors Papers and Posters

In this thesis, I examine and re-center the roles of archaeological artifacts and conceptions of ownership in global politics, drawing on debates about cultural heritage and diplomacy. This thesis will emphasize debates around ownership and repatriation, articulating their value in international relations and diplomacy between Western countries and postcolonial nations, as well as between federally recognized Native American Indigenous Tribes and the United States government. The thesis review takes the Elgin Marbles, arguably the most debated subject, as a model for my case study analysis. I will explore complications driven by conversations of repatriation. Overall, this thesis will propose theories …

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 …

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 …

Opening The Door Of The Celluloid Closet, Melissa Hernandez

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

While watching the documentary, The Celluloid Closet, I was instantly intrigued by how queer people and cinema mixed. Going as far back to the black and white, silent films era, queer people have been used as comedic relief, but not in an appealing way. Constantly being the butt of the joke, disregard for queer people became so normalized that certain tropes started popping up in cinema. One trope that we can still see be used frequently in today’s films is the “bury your gays” trope (also known as the “dead lesbians syndrome”) where queer characters in cinema are not …

Black On Black Sounds: Music, Migration, And The ‘Nu-K Blak’ Identity Formation In Early 21st Century Britain, Monique Charles

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Examining literature on the under researched areas of Afrobeats and African migration to Britain, this article identifies significant internal shifts in the ethnic diversity of Black Britain —i.e., from Caribbean (predominantly Jamaican) to West African (Nigerian, Ghanaian) (ONS 2011). Interpreting literature and applying to the British context, it highlights how Afrobeats reshapes Blackness in Britain, particularly the incorporation of desirable Africanness through Afrobeats music. It argues that demographic and musical shifts in Britain result in a renegotiation of the Caribbean and US dominant 20th century Black Britishness — ‘UK Blak’ identity (as identified by Bradley 2013, Gilroy 1993 & Palmer …

[Review Of] The Trial Of A Nazi Doctor: Franz Lucas As Defendant, Opportunist, And Deceiver By Andrew Wisely. New York, Ny: Berghahn Books, 2024. Pp. Xiv+364. Cloth $150.00. Isbn 978-1-80539-530-0., Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

"While we know a lot about the general framework of the trials of Nazi perpetrators, including of specific professional groups, the field of Holocaust, mass violence, and perpetrator studies still needs more in-depth studies on the careers, crimes, and the postwar whereabouts of individual midlevel Nazi officials who had power of life and death over thousands of inmates of Nazi camps and whose lives and careers were not thoroughly investigated by scholars. That is why the book authored by Andrew Wisely examining the case of the SS doctor Franz Bernhard Lucas as a long durée historical biography, is a much-needed …

Left Or Right, Loyal Or Disloyal: Ideology, Partisanship, And Empire In The Construction Of Interwar Japanese American Politics, Vivian Yan-Gonzalez

Asian American Studies Faculty Articles and Research

This article examines the first cohort of Japanese American voters in California in the interwar years, in order to explore the construction of racialized parameters on Japanese American political agency. Inter-imperial competition between the United States and Japan over the future of the Pacific, along with the popular and legal linkage of race and citizenship, produced a persistent distrust of Japanese American voters. Although Japanese Americans shaped their political strategies to appease these suspicions, militarized state demands for loyalty after the attack on Pearl Harbor sharply contracted their options from a range of diverse ideologies and partisanship to a narrow …

The Commander’S Crusade: Bush’S Campaign For War In Iraq, Aliyah Ramirez

Voces Novae

No abstract provided.

Acting Religion: Analyzing The Aids Crisis Through A Religious Lens, Anya Thaovan Nguyenkhoa

Voces Novae

No abstract provided.

Death, Violence, And Condemnation: The News Media Coverage Of The 1981 Prisoners’ Hunger Strike In Northern Ireland In The United Kingdom And Ireland, Tyler Coker

Voces Novae

No abstract provided.

From Pagan Chieftains To Christian Kings: Shaping Medieval Nordic Political Culture, Carissa Chinnery

Voces Novae

No abstract provided.

“These Are Not Ordinary Criminals!” The First War Crimes Trial At The People's Tribunal And Its Implications In Post-Holocaust Romania, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

This article examines the neglected war crimes trials of Holocaust perpetrators that took place at the People's Tribunal in early postwar Romania, focusing especially on the first trial (the “Macici group”). The article shows that in spite of the political interferences by the new pro-communist regime and the USSR, the Macici group trial in particular, and the first war crimes trials in general, were not Stalinist show trials or fake trials and they sentenced real war criminals and accurately captured Romania's participation in the Holocaust. Unlike the Antonescu group trial – that indicted the former pro-Nazi dictator and his closest …

Restitution Of Jewish Property In Northern Transylvania During The Early Postwar Years, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

The restitution of Jewish property in the multiethnic region of Northern Transylvania faced numerous challenges during the first post-Holocaust years as a result of the complicated wartime history, postwar demographics, legal status, interethnic dynamics, and occasional violence. Having the lowest rate of survival among all Jewish communities in Romania, most of the region’s Jews died during the deportation and did not return to their native places to claim their properties. This impacted the extent of restitution of individual private property. Some of the Aryanized property was restituted to the Jewish survivors or their heirs because the wartime beneficiaries fled the …

The Growing Rift Between Holocaust Scholars Over Israel/Palestine, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

"A chasm has formed between Holocaust scholars concerning Israel/Palestine, deepening immeasurably since 7 October 2023. Unlike previous controversies in the field, the divide is not just historical or methodological; it revolves around academics’ role in the world today, particularly the public stand they choose to take on Palestine/Israel and Zionism. Two main camps have formed. Put reductively, one camp defends Israel, while the other defends Palestinians, although differences between individual scholars within each camp make for more of a spectrum than a clear-cut divide. How, despite a diversity of ideas and foci within each camp, did two academic-political antipodes solidify …

“We Aren’T Dying Yet, But We’Re On The Hospital Bed.” An Analysis Of Scottish Culture And Desire For Independence, Emma Walker

Honors Papers and Posters

Scottish culture has long often been associated with barbaric clans and whiskey; however, there is much more to this culture than meets the eye. After centuries of oppression and pushback on expressing cultural aspects of Scottish identity post the Union of the Crowns in 1603, Scotland has now emerged as a leader in re-establishing its culture and protecting it as well. This paper will aim to analyze how Scotland's cultural pride over time has changed and how this uptick in pride has also led to a political movement for independence. I argue that the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, …

Justice And Restitution In Post-Nazi Romania: Rebuilding Jewish Lives And Communities, 1944-1950, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

On 23rd August 1944, following the collapse of the pro-Nazi dictatorship of Ion Antonescu, Romania changed sides and abandoned the Axis to join the Allies. Justice and Restitution in Post-Nazi Romania explores the hopes, struggles and disappointments of Jewish communities in Romania seeking to rebuild their lives after the Holocaust. Focusing on the efforts of survivors to recuperate rights and property, Stefan Cristian Ionescu demonstrates how the early transitional government enabled short term restitution. However, from 1948, the consolidated communist regime implemented nationalizations which dispossessed many citizens. Jewish communities were disproportionality affected, and real estate and many businesses were lost …

The Rise And Fall Of An Aryanization Bank: The Romanian Credit Institute, 1941–1951, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Probably the most important domestic project of the pro-Nazi Antonescu regime, the policy of Romanianization of the economy had ambitious goals. It aimed to seize Jewish-owned real estate and to redistribute it to “deserving” Romanians, state agencies, and welfare organizations and to increase the share of ethnic Romanian entrepreneurs and skilled employees through purchasing Jewish companies, adopting business and labour restrictions against Jews and “foreigners,” training and funding ethnic Romanian professionals and would-be entrepreneurs, and establishing new companies to displace minority and foreign competitors. While this project looked feasible on paper, in practice, it faced major obstacles, including a lack …

Review Of Repression, Resistance And Collaboration In Stalinist Romania, 1944–1964: Post-Communist Remembering, By Monica Ciobanu, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Repression, Resistance and Collaboration in Stalinist Romania, 1944–1964: Post-communist Remembering by Monica Ciobanu.

‘Samoye Vazhnoye’: Behind The Scenes Of Russian Cinema, 1908–1924, Katerina Ludwig

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

From the first decade of the 20^th century to the middle of the 1920s, cinema in Russia exposed how politics and the modern medium were inseparably intertwined. As works that were produced during a period of great turmoil and uncertainty, films revealed more than a unilateral relationship. Cinema was used in Russia in the late-Imperial and early Soviet eras as an active tool of entertainment, propaganda, art, education, and intellectual discussion. Studying its intersectional nature illuminates areas obscured by purely political or artistic perspectives, which tell either opposite or mutually emboldening tales. This thesis argues on behalf of both …

Review Of Post-Imperial Encounters: Transnational Designs Of Bessarabia In Paris And Elsewhere, 1917–1922, By Svetlana Suveica, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Post-Imperial Encounters: Transnational Designs of Bessarabia in Paris and Elsewhere, 1917–1922, by Svetlana Suveica.

3rd Place Contest Entry: From Film Sets To Front Lines And Back Again: Reinventing Star Image In Post-World War Ii Hollywood, Livia Belen Lozoya

Eric M. Scandrett Graduate Library Research Prize

This is Livia Lozoya's submission for the 2024 Eric M. Scandrett Graduate Research Prize, which won third place. It contains their essay on using library resources, their bibliography, and a summary of their research project on established movie stars who voluntarily left their lives of luxury to serve in World War II and returned to a changed postwar film industry, specifically James Stewart, Robert Montgomery, Marlene Dietrich, and Myrna Loy.

Livia is a student in the Masters of Arts in Film and Media Studies program at Chapman University. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Emily Carman. Her thesis, available here, …

Resistencia Artística Bajo Dictaduras En Argentina Y España A Través De La Lente De Las Teorías De Comunicación, Adrian Self, Adrian Self

World Languages and Cultures Student Papers and Posters

Under dictatorships in Spain and Argentina, artists used their mediums to criticize the actions of the Catholic church and oppressive conditions enforced by the government, using allegories, metaphors, and symbolism in their art. While many artists tried to create works that fell within authoritarian guidelines, others intentionally created cinema and literature criticizing the Argentine and Spanish governments, values, and practices, knowing the works would be banned. This investigation uses examples of cinema and literature created and published deliberately to be prohibited or censored under the regimen of Francisco Franco from 1939-1975 in Spain or the last civil-military dictatorship from 1976-1983 …

La Traducción Política: El Silenciamiento Narrativo Y La Traducción Inglés-Español Bajo Francisco Franco, Avery Austin

World Languages and Cultures Student Papers and Posters

We tend to live under the assumption that translations will always attempt to be faithful to their original texts, blindly believing in the infallibility of the translator. However, in doing so, we ignore how translation can be used to take advantage of the reader – how can one know that a change has occurred in a translated work if they have no knowledge of the text’s original language? This paper studies the power dynamics of translation, and how it can be used as a tool to aid censorship. By focusing on translated literary works under the Franco regime, this work …

Review Of La Roumanie Et La Shoah: Destruction Et Survie Des Juifs Et Des Roms Sous Le Régime Antonescu, 1940-1944, By Radu Ioanid, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of La Roumanie et la Shoah: Destruction et survie des Juifs et des Roms sous le régime Antonescu, 1940-1944, by Radu Ioanid.

Gin, Jesus, & Jim Crow: Prohibition And The Transformation Of Racial And Religious Politics In The South, John Compton

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Brendan J J Payne's Gin, Jesus, and Jim Crow: Prohibition and the Transformation of Racial and Religious Politics in the South.