History, American Studies, and Sociology Symposium
University of Mary Washington – Department of History, American Studies, and Sociology
Friday, December 5, 2025
Monroe Hall
SESSION ONE – 9 AM. Monroe 210 – Selected Projects in History and American Studies
Moderator: Dr. Will Mackintosh
Christian Adams, “Rewriting Betrayal: The Political Memory of Andrey Vlasov and His Russian Liberation Army”
Keller Dillman, “Crisfield, Maryland – An Informed Path Forward”
SESSION TWO – 9 AM. Monroe 111 – Empire, Biography, and Local Studies
Moderator: Dr. Nabil Al-Tikriti
Orion van Rooy, “Manifest Destiny and Lebensraum Parallels and Inspirations”
Jojo Cobb, “Rafael De Nogales Soldier of Misfortune”
Sophia Burns, “Book Bans vs. Virginia: A Tale of Two Cities”
SESSION THREE – 10 AM. Monroe 210 – Religion, Power, and Gender
Moderator: Dr. Jason Sellers
Miranda Lenihan, “Islam and Acculturation: The Presence of Shamanism and Indigenous Ritual Practice in the Post-Conversion Ilkhanate”
Zoe Mueller, “Images of Allegiance: The Qizilbash Identity and the Making of Safavid Legitimacy”
Amelia Earl, “Wedded to Power: Dynastic Marriages and the Hidden Diplomacy of Women in Early Modern Europe”
SESSION FOUR – 10 AM. Monroe 111 – History, Memory, and the Arts: Three Studies
Moderator: Dr. Krystyn Moon
Alden Rowe, “Art in Communist China: Visualizing the People’s Republic of China’s Changing Policy on Taiwan through Propaganda Posters”
Donald Glander, “A Trip to the Faire: The Reimagination and Reclamation of the Past within the Contemporary American Renaissance Faire”
SESSION FIVE – 11 AM. Monroe 210 – Selected Projects in History and Sociology
Moderator: Dr. Eric Bonds
Ava Bredehoeft, “Turning the Lens Inward: The Transformation of Public Trust in Cold War Spy Films”
Charlie Julian, “Backcasts: Fisheries Development and Trout Stocking in the Rocky Mountain West”
Aaliyah Anderson and Tabitha Van Doren, “Invisible Isolation: Solitary Confinement in Virginia’s Regional and City Jails”
SESSION SIX – 11 AM. Monroe 111 – Legacies of Anti-Fascism From Political Repression to Cold War Reinvention
Moderator: Dr. Erin Devlin
Kaine Beaumont, “Seeger and Ohta’s Fight against Fascism and Experience of Political Repression”
Maxwell Hiznay, “Two Wars Against Fascism: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and World War II”
Oliver Marcel, “America’s Nazis: Denazification, the Cold War, and Operation Paperclip”
