European History Commons^™

Border Fascism And The Fascistization Of Society, Nicholas P. De Genova

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

The massive destruction and social dislocation wrought by capitalist crisis has culminated, historically, in the brutal cataclysms of fascism and other forms of authoritarian rule. Today, across the globe, we are confronted with the aggressive advance and entrenchment of a variety of such authoritarian political projects. Anxious discourses about ascendant fascism have become perfectly mainstream. These developments command our acute attention and critical analysis. This essay addresses these dire questions and the conceptual vexations surrounding the concept of fascism, particularly as it has been elaborated in various Marxist analyses.  Specifically, much of the debate around fascism as an analytical category …

Negotiating Plurality: Korean Catholic Funerals As Lived Religion, Jieun Han

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines Korean Catholic funeral rites through the lenses of ritual

guidebooks and lived religion, arguing that Catholic funerary practice in Korea

has emerged through sustained engagement with Confucian and Buddhist tradi-

tions as well as modern nationalism. Focusing on Catholic manuals such as the

Sangjang yesik [Rites for Mourning and Funerals] and related texts, it traces how

officially sanctioned liturgical forms coexist with, accommodate, and reinterpret

indigenous ritual logics surrounding mourning, burial, ancestor veneration, and

care for the dead. Rather than viewing Korean Catholic funerals as a simple

localization of Roman rites, the article conceptualizes them as a …

Editor's Introduction, Brent H. Otto S.J.

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Pageantry In The Skies: Changes To The Hendon Raf Aerial Pageant Throughout The Interwar Years In The United Kingdom, Amy Zhou

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The Hendon RAF Aerial Pageants were held in Britain in the Hendon Aerodrome from 1920 to 1937. Initially established to promote airmindedness in the British public and legitimize the Royal Air Force so that it could remain an independent service, aerial theatre was utilized extensively to transform flight into a spectacle. As the interwar years progressed, the pageant developed complex “set pieces” that showcased elaborate simulations of military maneuvers such as strategic bombing against industrial and imperial targets, eliciting a mixture of awe and fear in the face of aviation’s destructive potential. By the mid-1930s, the focus had shifted to …

'A Hundred Times A Man': Chastity, Martial Culture And Manhood In Franco's Spain, Ava M. Golde

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Using the military as a case study, this essay seeks to understand how chastity became a symbol of complete regeneration for Spanish society, both in terms of a physical revival of a soldier’s health but also a moral and spiritual reawakening of the Catholic soul. In analyzing military magazines, instructional pamphlets, and the memoirs of soldiers, this paper unpacks the relationship between enforced male chastity and Francoist military masculinity, demonstrating how ideas of manhood were deliberately altered to fit a nationalist project of regeneration. Finally, I place this conception of the “New Spanish Man” within the broader context of militarized …

From Humanitarian Aid To “Counterrevolution”: Foreign Assistance To Pentecostals In Soviet Ukraine And Its Criminalization By The Gpu–Nkvd, 1932–1935, Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines foreign assistance to Pentecostal communities in the Ukrainian SSR and the mechanisms of its criminalization by Soviet state security agencies in 1932–1935. Drawing on GPU–NKVD criminal investigation files, secret police reports, party-state documentation, personal correspondence, and memoir sources, the study reconstructs transnational channels of humanitarian support, practices of resource distribution, and the transformation of survival strategies into objects of political repression.

Particular attention is devoted to two distinct models of foreign assistance. The Odessa case demonstrates a centralized system connected to the former leadership of the All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith and transnational Pentecostal networks …

Female Perpetrators In Nazi Germany: The Effects Of Nazi Ideology And Radicalization On Three Female Concentration Camp Perpetrators, Stephanie Afonso

Graduate Masters Theses

The Second World War in Germany saw the largest number of civilian German women participating in brutal violence against Jewish peoples. The combination of sources used aids in presenting a broader image of these women both within the concentration camps and during their trials. This thesis argues the effects of Nazi ideology and radicalization on the three main subjects, Irma Grese, Maria Mandl, and Ilse Koch. Equally as important is how the American public perceived them and their roles during their respective post-war trials--which looked at them through the lens of femininity and sexuality. Within that violence came the transgression …

From Print To Film: Political Censorship And Nationalism In Nineteenth And Twentieth-Century Central Europe, Kartik Joshi

The Ozark Historical Review

From Print to Film: Political Censorship and Nationalism in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Central Europe examines the relationship between emerging media technologies, state censorship, and nationalist political movements in Central Europe. Focusing primarily on Austria, the German states, and Hungary, this article traces how governments employed increasingly sophisticated systems of press regulation to suppress nationalist and subversive political discourse while political actors developed their own methods for circumventing those restrictions. The article considers censorship of newspapers, satire, lithographs, and other printed materials before examining the transformative effects of cinema in the twentieth century. As film became increasingly difficult to regulate through …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Awards For Outstanding Papers Written In 2026

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

African or Middle Eastern History

American Indian Studies Indigenous History Award

Bertis L. and Anna E.C. Embry Award in Global Latter-day Saint History

Cultural History Award

De Lamar and Mary Jensen Award in European History

Eugene E. Campbell Award in Utah History

Family History Award

Fred R. Gowans Award in 19th Century American West History

Faith and Reason Paper Competition

History of Empire Award

History of the Family Award

Latin American History Award

Latino/Latina History Award

Leroy R. Hafen Award in North American History

Mark R. Grandstaff Award in Military History

Sechin Jagchid Award in Non-Western History

Women’s History Award …

Co-Opting Modernity: The Semantic Retooling Of Faith At The 1893 World’S Parliament Of Religions, Erik P. Palmer

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago served as a high-stakes arena where the boundaries of religious legitimacy were redrawn through the intentional adoption of social science vocabulary. Staged within the Neo-Classical architecture of the White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the event was more than a civil gathering; it functioned as a “Museum of Faiths” where religious traditions were curated, categorized, and evaluated against the perceived benchmarks of Western civilization. The physical environment of the Fair, a monument to industrial triumph, was built to display things that worked. The organizers demanded that religions demonstrate they were useful …

Moving Forward, Looking Back: How Mormon Women Sought To Carry Their Polygamous Past Into A Progressive Future Article, Evan Janis

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The influence of woman is fully recognized.” These words, spoken by Emily S. Richards, echoed the shared mission of Utah women at the World’s Congress of Representative Women: to overturn the public perception of them as ignorant, crude, and barbaric. After decades of legal and social campaigns against the so-called “second barbarism” of polygamy, the reputation of Mormon women had been one of its greatest casualties. Cast as too homely to marry a respectable man, too naive to resist deception, and too submissive to think for themselves, the Utah delegation to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair sought to redefine their …

Letters From The Levant: An Astellian Reading, Tanner Stott

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Among the more startling friendships of early 18th-century London’s literary scene is that of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Mary Astell. Their commonalities—remarkable self-education, political activism, and prolific writing—are dwarfed by vast differences of class, politics, and character. Astell, a curiously conservative woman nearly twenty-three years Montagu’s senior, spent her unmarried life squarely in the middle class. Montagu, on the other hand, began her life in England’s loftiest social echelons—the daughter of a Duke, she eloped with untitled Edward only to see him become one of England’s wealthiest men. Montagu lived colorfully with “principles,” according to Lady Irwin, “as corrupt …

Civilizing The Russian Frontier: Ferdinand And Elisabeth Von Wrangell’S Impact On Russian America, Ariel Brown

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the early 19th century, the Russian colonies in North America struggled due to alcoholism, limited health care, violent attacks from Native tribes, extramarital relations, rat infestations, and weather-induced architectural decay. It is no wonder then that Ferdinand von Wrangell, the sixth governor of Russian America said, “It was our duty or rather we considered it as such, to introduce the concepts of decency and mores to this remote corner of the globe.” He believed his wife Elisabeth would also play a large role in that endeavor, stating, “In the absence of European females our ideas, conventions of civilization and …

From Cotton To Canyons: An Analysis Of The Historic Industries Of Southern Utah, Brielle Beardall

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On October 6, 1861, Brigham Young stood before Latter-day Saints gathered in the Old Salt Lake City Tabernacle and called 300 missionaries on an ambitious undertaking: Over three hundred families would leave their homes and settle in the Utahn southwestern desert; a region that earned the nickname of “Utah’s Dixie” for both its southern location and its punishing heat. Their mission was to cultivate cotton and increase Utahn economic independence from the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Allen Joseph Stout recalled in a personal journal about his experience learning of the call to Southern Utah, “My neighbors reported that …

Narrating The Bucolic South: How Southern Living Reflected And Shaped The South In The 1990s, Krista C. Wright

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In December 1995 at a company Christmas party, previous editor Gary McCalla spoke with Emory Cunningham, sitting president and chair who oversaw the transition from the practical Progressive Farmer to a lifestyle magazine for the “New South.” Looking around the room, Cunningham remarked, “These young people have no idea where we came from.” McCalla recalled a memo he and John Logue, creative director of the magazine, had written in the early days, outlining “what we believed had to be done to save Southern Living.” At that moment, the two noticed the song playing in the background— “History” by Michael …

“Wak[Ing] Up A Sleeping Giant”: Zions Opinion’S Crusade For Independent Governance And Free Speech At Brigham Young University During The 1968–1969 School Year, Joseph Boysen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1968, university and college students across the United States demanded a larger voice in university governance. Sit-ins, rallies, and demonstrations were common, whether for civil rights, free speech, women’s rights, or against the Vietnam war and the draft. For instance, students took over the office of the President of Columbia University to protest the University’s appropriation of land that might have benefited the Black community. In this context, the students at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, had the chance to consider how they were going to pursue their own calls for change. Although they did not engage in …

Le Roi Shrinks Before La Nation And La Liberté: Feminine Allegories And The King In French Revolutionary Prints, Jared Cluff

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Printers in the early years of the French Revolution faced an unprecedented problem with new, unprecedented legal flexibility. Though the most cohesive government-coordinated efforts to overturn old symbols and refashion France’s national identity would not come until the Republican period, French engravers in the early years of the Revolution found existing Old Regime symbols and visual codes inadequate tools, so sought “a visual formula for [this] unprecedented historical change.” Furthermore, while the National Assembly did not completely do away with the Old Regime censorship systems that it ostensibly abolished with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, printers …

Reshaping Home: Chinese Immigrant Women’S Adaptation And Family Transformation Under Exclusion, Chloe Nicole 零星 Isom

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1941, Jew Law Ying arrived at the port of San Francisco with her infant daughter, Bak Heong, seeking admission to join her merchant husband, Yung Hin Sen, in the United States. Upon arrival, immigration officials detained Jew Law Ying and her daughter and required both her and her husband to answer nearly two hundred detailed questions about themselves to prove their identities and relationship. Officials designed these questions to uncover inconsistencies and expose fraudulent relationships, and they were so intricate that, despite their legal and legitimate marriage, Jew Law Ying and Yung Hin Sen had prepared extensively, memorizing answers …

From The Editor: Preface, Phoebe England Baker Editor In Chief

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. for a class. There, I experienced the life-changing Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Never had I attended a museum that was so well-curated. The museum started in the basement, a space intentionally designed with narrow passages, low ceilings, and dim lighting to evoke the conditions of a slave ship.

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Historical Inquiry-Based Lessons In World History Classrooms: Creating Opportunities For Historical Thinking, Melinda Thatcher Lofland

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This Plan B project creates inquiry-based lessons that help students investigate the global tapestry of World History with its vast threads of transregional connections and diverse cultures that color our contemporary world and help prepare them to participate as global citizens. This project uses primary and secondary sources to create evidence-based lesson plans that will help history teachers provide opportunities for students to practice historical inquiry skills in Utah’s world history classrooms. These plans employ current scholarship and best teaching practices while following national and state standards for World History. In addition, these lessons were developed using inquiry-based historical thinking …

Genocide As Patriotic Duty: The Outcomes Of Ultranationalism And Dehumanization From World War Ii Genocide Orchestrators, Corie R. Blais

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The thesis provides a contribution to the field of history how nationalism

often transforms individuals during wartime to become dehumanizing

ultranationalists through patriotism and its connection to genocide.  Also, it gives

insight into the many ways that genocide orchestrators during World War II,

relied on propaganda of racism, religion, and “othering” in order to justify their

incentives to expand territories and dehumanize victims through medical

experimentations and sexual violence.  While research materials in the context of

Nazi Germany were ample, one challenge in my research was finding

documentations on Stalin’s People Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD)

police unit which carried …

The Kings Are Dead. Long Live The Kings: The Legacy Of Roman Kingship In The Republican And Imperial Periods, Dylan Hillebrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From Romulus through Tarquinius Superbus, Rome’s kings occupied a major place within the collective cultural imagination of the ancient polity long after the office was abolished. For generations, no accusation was as odious as “king” and the entire period was seen as a cautionary tale. While the legacy of the kings remained an essential part of Roman identity, how the people related to that legacy changed eventually resulting in a restoration of kingship. A complete picture of the establishment-rejection-restoration cycle becomes clear through examination of the works of Roman (and Greek) historians. Central questions which guide this study: Why were …

Book Review: A People Destroyed: New Research On The Roma Genocide, 1941–1945, Elizabeth Graham

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Student Awards

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Awards for Outstanding Papers Written in 2025

Dam Negotiations: Water, Diné Sovereignty, And The Navajo Dam, George Smith

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On July 30, 1958, contractors working for the Bureau of Reclamation broke ground on the Navajo Dam, located about 35 miles east of Farmington, New Mexico. Diné Tribal chairman Paul Jones had called the dam a “new hope for [his] people,” anticipating increased agricultural and industrial capacity from irrigation and flow management. Though officially approved in 1962, the contingent Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP) that was to provide those many of those benefits remained to be completed in 2024. By contrast, the San Juan Chama Project (SJCP), the other project contingent upon the dam, diverted water from the San Juan …

Marcion And The Crisis Of Second-Century Christianity, Samuel Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Almost a century after the death of Christ and his original apostles, the 2nd-century Judeo-Christian church found itself in a vicious struggle for survival catalyzed by an ongoing negotiation between the church’s traditional Jewish roots and establishing its own identity. The loose confederation of Jesus-believers fought to gather themselves into a functional body as they wrestled with questions surrounding the very nature of the Christian faith.

“No Hen Should Herald The Dawn Lest Misfortune Follow”: Gender, History, And Power Sima Guang’S Comprehensive Mirror, Zoe Ngan

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

It was not a particularly notable occasion when Emperor Gaozong 高宗 of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) established Wu Zetian 武則天 as a mid-ranked concubine in 654. Emperors, throughout Chinese history, were polygamous rulers who acquired no shortage of concubines per the Rites of Zhou 周禮, an ancient ritual text which proposed that rulers obtain 121 wives and consorts. Wu’s nomination signified the unpredictability of imperial favour and almost certainly did not turn heads when her appointment occurred.