University of Mary Washington – Department of History and American Studies
Friday, April 21, 2023
SESSION ONE. Monroe 111. 9 AM—Foreign Wars, Imperial Entanglements, and US Foreign Relations in Historical Perspective
Moderator: Dr. Will Mackintosh
Jordan Leahey, “Ferdinand Marcos and the U.S. Congress: Power vs. Ideals”
Ricky Muñoz, “An Empire to Be: American-Dominican Relations and the Spectre of Imperialism”
Daniel Walker, “One Percent Ideology and the War in Iraq”
Department of History and American Studies Symposium – Fall 2022
University of Mary Washington
Friday, December 2, 2022.
All sessions will be held in Monroe Hall.
SESSION ONE. 9 AM. Monroe 210. New Perspectives on Local History
Moderator: Professor Erin Devlin
Olivia Foster. “Singapore, Michigan: The Life and Legacy of Michigan’s Most Famous Ghost Town”
Ashleigh Fritcher. “Rebuilding Idaho: A Case Study in Religion and Disaster Relief”
Caperton Beirne. “Significance of Historical Imagery in Civil Rights Protest in Richmond, Virginia”
SESSION TWO. 10 AM. Monroe 210. Native Americans, Land Management, and Political Legacies
Moderator: Professor Will Mackintosh
Delaney Dunnigan. “James Monroe’s Forgotten Legacy”
Katrina Smith. “The Taking of Indigenous Land for the Creation of Yellowstone National Park “
Lukas Trick. “Wanton Destruction and Unmitigated Evils: How Fire Suppression Policies Marginalized Native Americans in the Early Twentieth Century”
SESSION THREE. 10 AM. Monroe 111. Cultural Productions: 18th c. Japanese Puppet Theater and World War Two Propaganda
Moderator: Professor Susan Fernsebner
Kayla Savoie. “Gender and Passion in 1700s Japanese Puppet Theater”
Audrey Schroeder. “For the War: Propaganda and Public Opinion in World War II Era Films” [JM]
SESSION FOUR. 11 AM. Monroe 210. Culture, Race, and Politics in U.S. History
Moderator: Professor Steven Harris
Anthony Adams. “Northern Teachers, Northern Biases”
Sam Weinstein. “Equality in Sports: How Business Brought Integration”
Bryan Rivas. “Johnson’s Road to Victory in the 1964 Presidential Election”
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”
University of Mary Washington — Department of History and American Studies
Friday, December 3, 2021. All sessions will be held in Monroe Hall.
Seating will be limited and all audience members will be required to wear face masks for the event in keeping with campus safety policies.
SESSION ONE. 9 AM. Monroe 210 – Early Modern Perspectives: The Grim Sultan, 16th c. Kitchens, and Gift Giving at the Queen’s Court
Moderator: Professor Allyson Poska
Jarod Markle. “Yavuz Selim: Rise of the Grim Sultan”
Nancy Couturier. “Sixteenth Century Kitchens and Dining at Topkapı Palace and Hampton Court Palace: A Comparison”
Shannon Kehoe. “Gift Giving at the Court of Elizabeth I”
SESSION TWO. 9 AM. Monroe 111 – Education: Then and Now
Moderator: Professor Erin Devlin
Morgan Gilbert. “The Pupil Placement Board Records and Desegregation of Chesterfield County Public Schools”
Haylie Stevenson. “The Best Practices to Effectively Teach African American History in Virginia Public Schools with the Standards of Learning”
SESSION THREE. 9 AM. Monroe 110 – Giving the Middle Kingdom the Middle Finger?: ‘New Women’s’ Memoirs and Activist Blogs in China
Moderator: Professor Bruce O’Brien
Erica Banks. “New Women in 20th Century China”
Chris O’Neill. “Seeking Justice in Ai Weiwei’s Citizen Investigation”
SESSION FOUR. 10 AM. Monroe 210 – Civil Rights
Moderator: Professor Claudine Ferrell
Ashleigh Eileen Liang Foster. “The Fearsome Power of Love: Interracial Love as a Weapon Against White Supremacy”
Samuel Hartz. “’Under Color of Law’: Housing Segregation and Perpetual Poverty in Norfolk’s St. Paul’s Quadrant”
Sophia Hobbs. “Gum Springs, Then and Now: The Fight for a Hidden Treasure in Fairfax County”
SESSION FIVE. 10 AM. Monroe 111 – Witch Trials and Inoculation Controversies
Moderator: Professor Jason Sellers
Allison Love. “Diabolical Witches and Wizards: How the Devil Reinforced the Patriarchy in the Salem Witch Trials”
Emma Whitaker. “The 1721 Boston Inoculation Controversy”
SESSION SIX. 11 am. Monroe 210 – Selected Papers in U.S. History
Moderator: Professor Will Mackintosh
Hunter Dykhuis. “Perspectives on the Battle of Hampton Roads”
Janis Shurtleff. “A Sign of the Times: An Analysis of the Creation and Significance of the 1946 Film The Best Years of Our Lives”
Ashley Dimino. “History, Culture, and the Contributions of Animated Film with an Exploration of Indigenous Cultures Represented in Disney Animated Films”
SESSION SEVEN. 11 am. Monroe 111 – Cultural History and Global Perspectives
Moderator: Professor Nabil Al-Tikriti
Sydney Morrison. “Making Russian Music: Uncovering Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Musical Ideas through His Letters”
Patrick Mackay. “Blokadniki Experiences and American Media Coverage on the Siege of Leningrad”
Antonio DeGeorge. “International Perspectives on the Soviet War in Afghanistan”
History and American Studies Symposium
University of Mary Washington – Department of History and American Studies
Friday, April 30, 2021. All sessions will be on zoom.
SESSION ONE. 9 AM—Court Politics and Education in Medieval Europe and the Ottoman Empire
Moderator: Dr. Erin Devlin
Nic Ford, “Education in Medieval Europe: Influences, People, and Institutions”
Dalton Harley Coffey, “Capitularies of the Carolingian Period and their Impact on Carolingian Governance”
Jean-Pierre Maldonado, “The Spanish Monarchy: Campanella’s Blueprint for World Empire laid out by the Ottoman Sultanate”
Department of History and American Studies
University of Mary Washington
Fall 2020 Symposium – Friday, December 4
The Department of History and American Studies will present its Fall 2020 Undergraduate Research Symposium on Zoom on Friday, December 4, 2020. For more information, please contact Dr. Susan Fernsebner (sfernseb@umw.edu).
9:00-9:50 AM
SESSION ONE. “The American Dream, Social Injustice, and Ideologies of Dissent: Selected Papers” – Moderator: Dr. Erin Devlin
Mariah Morton. “I Love Lucy: Family and Gender Roles in the 1950s”
Gianna Banish. “Exploring the Transformation of Malcolm X Ideology”
Cody Bowler. “Watts and Rodney King: More Than Riots”
SESSION TWO. “Historical Studies on World War I and II” – Moderator: Dr. Porter Blakemore
Sarah Pietrowski. “A Comparative Analysis of the Responses of the United Kingdom and the United States to the Jewish Refugee Crisis Prior to World War II”
Michael Mallery. ““The Experiences of Thomas Callaway in the Second World War”
Megan Mydlow. “Admiral Nimitz: His Strategic Mindset and Leadership Role in the Pacific Theater”
10:10-11:00 AM
SESSION THREE. “Dragon Myths, Medieval Literacy, and the Role of the Tournament: Selected Papers in European History” – Moderator: Dr. Bruce O’Brien
Kassie Phillips. “The Conceptual Evolution of the Dragon: The Convergence of Greek, Germanic , Celtic, and Christian Mythologies and the Modern Dragon”
Matthew Abbot. “Early Medieval European Literacy: Francia and England”
Daniel Noel. “The Role and Effects of the Tournament in Medieval Western Europe”
SESSION FOUR. “Of Bound Feet and Flying Witches: Topics in East Asian Studies” – Moderator: Dr. Susan Fernsebner
Katie Molina. “Western Influences in the Anti-Footbinding Movement, 1860-1912”
Alison Poisson. “Gender & Miyazaki’s World: Witches, Feminists, and Other Scary Things”
11:20 AM – 12:10 PM
SESSION FIVE. “Gender, Race, and the Environment: Themes in U.S. History” – Moderator: Dr. Jason Sellers
Christina M. Cowart. “Breaking Through the Barriers: Women in Early Jazz”
Thomas Bascom. “Race, Citizenship, The Frontier, and American Identity in 20th Century Scouting Movements”
Justin L. Binns. “Undamming America: A Regional Case Study”
SESSION SIX. “Selected Papers in United States History” – Moderator: Dr. Allyson Poska
Jordan Petty. “Glass Nast: How Nineteenth-Century Cartoonist Thomas Nast Is a Window into Postbellum America”
Paul Hogue. “Tulsa Race Riot: Accessing Economic Envy and Fear of Interracial Sex in Jim Crow Era Oklahoma”
Kimberly Eastridge. “The Patriarchy Discussed Through I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, and Leave It to Beaver.”
SESSION SEVEN. “New Military Histories: Local and Global” – Moderator: Dr. Nabil Al-Tikriti
Lauren Frye. “Culpepper, VA: Caught in the Crossroads”
Maddie Shiflett. “‘On the Verge of Liberty’: The Impact of Advocacy and Federal Policy at the Point Lookout Contraband Camp”
Dennis Gill. “NATO’s Long, Bloody Road to the Kosovo War”
12:30-1:20 PM
SESSION EIGHT. “The Inscribed Canvas of History: Sweethearts, Notorious Dictators, and Prison Tattoos” – Moderator: Dr. Steven Harris
Shannon Payne. “London’s Sweethearts or Most Notorious Criminals: The Kray Twins”
Tara Scroggins. “Converging Lives: A Comparative History of Hitler and Stalin”
Cathryn Kinde. “Sex, Stars, and Stalin: An Examination of Russian Prison Tattoos in the Soviet Era”
SESSION NINE. “Topics in 19th and 20th Century History” – Moderator: Dr. Claudine Ferrell
Amanda Huber. “Dr. Charles West and the New World of Pediatric Medicine”
Anne-Marie Guelcher. “‘Something Beautiful’ – The Horses, Heroes, and History of Operation Cowboy and Race to Save Austria’s White Gold”
Corey Harrison. “American ‘Devil Dogs’: Newspapers and Perceptions of the Marine Corps in World War I”
History and American Studies Symposium
University of Mary Washington – Friday, December 6, 2019
9:00 am – 1:00 pm
SESSION ONE. 9 AM. Monroe 210 – Writing, Texts, and History
Moderator: Dr. Krystyn Moon
Carolyn Stough. “Gender and Perspective in Eighteenth-Century Women’s Travel Writing”
Justin Curtis. “Performing Imperialism: Dime Novel Representations of Wild West Folk Heroes”
Kyle Moore. “Shanghai as a Representation of China in 1930s Chinese Fiction”
SESSION TWO. 9 AM. Monroe 111 – Infernos and Fevers in United States History
Moderator: Dr. Jeffrey McClurken
Connor Carmichael. “The Great Conflagration of 1871: A Social History of the Great Fire’s Aftermath in Chicago”
Nicole Stell. “Presidential Illnesses of the Twentieth Century and the Role of the White House Physician”
SESSION THREE. 10 AM. Monroe 210 – Selected Papers in American Studies and U.S. History
Moderator: Dr. Erin Devlin
Cassiel Haynes. “Migrant Labor through the Eyes of Braceros”
Courtlyn Plunkett. “Americanization at Hull House”
Rebecca A. Akers. “Dolley Madison: The Real First Lady”
SESSION FOUR. 10 AM. Monroe 111 – Military History and World War II
Moderator: Dr. Susan Fernsebner
Jack Hagn. “Early United States Military Aviation: How American Aviation Stalled Out”
Devin Wright. “Moral Courage: German Resistance against Hitler and the Nazis during World War II”
SESSION FIVE. 11 AM. Monroe 210 – Religious History: Of Mothers, Converts, and the Messiah
Moderator: Dr. Allyson Poska
Samantha Hampton. “Khadija: The Mother of the Believers”
Jacob Spencer. “Conversos and the Spanish Inquisition”
Alec Cameron. “Sabbatai Sevi: Kabbalah and the Messiah”
SESSION SIX. 11 AM. Monroe 111 – New Perspectives in American Studies
Moderator: Dr. Steven Harris
Ellora Larsen. “‘Only a Footnote in History’: Native Americans in Decline of the Western and the Rise of Red Power, 1950-1970”
Ginny Bixby. “The Complicated Legacy of a Segregationist: The Renaming of Mills E. Godwin Middle School”
Sherronda Robinson. African American Involvement in the ‘Just Say No’ Campaign.
SESSION SEVEN. 1 PM. MONROE 210 – Environment and U.S. History
Moderator: Dr. Porter Blakemore
Cole Hogan. “History of the Rappahannock River”
William Roszell. “Urbanna Oyster Festival: A History of Celebration through the Festival”
Nick Skibinski. “Secessions in Succession: Contrasting South Carolina and Virginia in the Secession Crisis”
SESSION EIGHT. 1 PM. MONORE 111 – Famine, War, and Labor
Moderator: Dr. Nabil Al-Tikriti
Erica Piper. “Ukranian Resentment: The Famine of 1932-33 Recounted by Ukranian Peasants” [S. Harris]
Timothy Shinkle. “Soviet-Afghan War: Understanding the Complexity Surrounding the War through the Soviet Perspective”
Will Everett. “A Long and Bitter Fight: The Interplay of Socialism, Organized Labor, and Nationalism during the Irish Revolution, 1912-1923”
