History and American Studies Symposium
University of Mary Washington – Department of History and American Studies
Friday, April 22, 2022.
SESSION ONE. Monroe 210. 9 AM—Art, Politics, and Cinema in American Life
Moderator: Dr. Will Mackintosh
Bonnie L. Akkerman, “Courage and Cowardice as Depicted in WWI Films”
Carson Berrier, “How the AfriCOBRA Movement Art Helped Redefine the ‘Black Aesthetic’”
Antonio Hicks, “The Commodification of Black Power”
SESSION TWO. Monroe 211. 9 AM—Monarchs, Conspiracies, and Witches in Medieval Europe
Moderator: Dr. Claudine Ferrell
Sophia Looney, “The Influence of Religion in King Alfred the Great’s Reign of the Anglo-Saxons”
Samantha Melvin, “Unearthing the Witch: Reckoning with Gender, Magic, and the Unusual Dead within Anglo-Saxon Deviant Burials”
Briana Ryan, “The Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy: A Flemish Merchant amongst European Monarchs”
SESSION THREE. Monroe 210. 10 AM— Economic History in Comparative Perspective
Moderator: Dr. Steven E. Harris
Gus Kasper, “The Decline of Commerce, Industry, and River Transportation in Walkerton, Virginia”
Parker Siebenschuh, “Soviet Agriculture and the Causation of the so Termed “Stagnation Era”
Jonathan Zwemer, “The Mediatization of the French Economic Recovery, 1930-1939”
SESSION FOUR. Monroe 211. 10 AM—Intersections of War and Entertainment
Moderator: Dr. Nabil Al-Tikriti
Timbila Kabre, “Adventuring Together: The American RPG Community in the 1970s”
Ryan Armel, “Rock ‘N’ Rolling Thunder: The Vietnam War Experienced through Rock ‘N’ Roll”
SESSION FIVE. Monroe 213. 10 AM—Race and Class in American History
Moderator: Dr. Susan Fernsebner
Ashleigh Eileen Liang Foster, “What’s Love Got to Do with It: How White Supremacy Aims to Obstruct Interracial Love”
Madison Kidwell, “The Lowell Offering: A Comparative Perspective”
Lily Silva, “Whiteness and Thinness of Yoga in America”
SESSION SIX. Monroe 210. 11 AM—Historical and Contemporary Studies of American Life and Politics
Moderator: Dr. Bruce O’Brien
Gray Boland, “Disease as a Tool: How Malaria and Yellow Fever Created New Horrors in South Carolina Enslaved Society”
Mallory Karnei, “Puritan Familial Relations: A Study of Familial Structure in Puritan New England from the Seventeenth to Early Eighteenth Century”
Adam Plawin, “President Trump and the Rise of Populism in the 21st Century United States”
SESSION SEVEN. Monroe 211. 11 AM—Exile, Sports, and Ethnography in Russia’s 19th and 20th Centuries
Moderator: Dr. Allyson Poska
Elizabeth Debes, “The Development of the Narod: The Influence of Narodnik Ethnographies on Socialist-Revolutionary Knowledge of the Peasantry”
Theron Gertz, “What the West Got Wrong (and Right): Responding to Misconceptions Regarding Soviet Sport from the Early 1960’s to the End of the Cold War”
Griffin Nameroff, “The Fall of Imperial Russia: How Siberian Exile and the Russian Prison System toppled the Tsars”
SESSION EIGHT. Monroe 346. 1 PM—Explorations in Digital History
Moderator: Dr. Jeffrey McClurken
James Farmer Hall Project
Olivia Foster, Jesse Frye, Sophia Hobbs, Yenevi Garcia
Dr. Venus Jones Mural Project
Timbila Kabre, Jamie Van Doren, Jenna Gilbert, Kelly Pedigo, Logan Kurtz
UMW’s Name Changes & Time as Part of the University of Virginia
Alyssa Snellings, Laura Baldwin, Madison Williams, Ryan Armel
Pvt. Schwartz Scrapbook Project
Brandon Rojas, Gus Kasper, Janis Shurtleff, Morgan Gilbert
UMW Digital History Project Archive
Ashley Dimino, Carson Berrier, Eugene ZT Hlaing, Lyndsey Clark
SESSION NINE. Monroe 210. 2 PM—Topics in Virginia and World History
Moderator: Dr. Jason Sellers
Jack Kurz, “Virginia Runaways From 1730 to 1830: A Study of Fugitive Slave Advertisements”
W. A. Spage, “A Materialist History of British Interventionism and the Greek Revolution”
Drew Underwood, “Trauma and the Memoir: A Case Study of The World of a Tiny Insect”
SESSION TEN. Monroe 211. 2PM—The Civil Rights Movement and Black Culture in US History
Moderator Dr. Krystyn Moon
Sydney Baylor, “‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’: The Power of the Black National Anthem and its Historical Importance in Black Culture and Society”
Jayden H. Jordan, “The Eisenhower Administration and the Civil Rights Act of 1957”