History Graduate Student Conference

Travis Arnold:

Sports Icons, Nationalism, and National Identity in Interwar Germany and The United States: A Case Study on Max Schmeling and Babe Ruth

Kristy Wilson:

Black Voices of a Movement: Living with Racism, Discrimination, and Violence in London – 1958-1980

Immigration into London flourished after The Nationality Act of 1948. This increase in West Indians in London created a definitive color line in the city. This led to racism, discrimination, and violence that ran rampant throughout the city. The use of archival interviews, archival footage, documentary interviews, newspapers, and government documents will assist in the analysis of the thoughts and feelings of those who lived through and experienced racially motivated violence and discrimination in London. Violence against the West Indian community in London came from varied factions throughout the city: violence, racism, and discrimination came from the White Londoners, Commonwealth Officials, and the Metropolitan Police. In response to riots, violence, demonstrations, and the rise of the Black Power Movement in London, the British Commonwealth passed numerous laws and resolutions, expecting to quell the problems occurring throughout the country. The voices and narratives of the Black Londoners speak to the violence, racism, and discrimination that they were affected by from 1958- 1980; the voices of these activists, artists, and leaders continue to reverberate throughout London, and beyond, even today.

Jen Mills:

Saris, Dhotis, and Saffron Robes: The Hare Krishna Movement and Challenges to Easter Religious Traditions in the United States since the 1960s

Protestant religious traditions have dominated American religious history. However, since the 1960s the religious landscape has become more diverse especially with the influx of South Asian immigrants to the United States. The arrival of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1965 and the establishment of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness tested the limits of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and highlights the challenges eastern religious traditions face in the United States. This paper will focus on the establishment of ISKCON in the 1960s through the struggles and controversies of the 1990s. The first section will focus on the beginning of the movement and the death of Bhaktivedanta. The second section will focus on the struggles and push back the movement received from parents and anti-cult groups during the 1980s and the last section will focus on the court’s role from the late 1970s through the early 2000s in the acceptance of ISKCON as a religious movement. By focusing on the development and controversies surrounding the ISKCON movement I will show the complicated history of religion in the United States and how orientalist ideas about Hinduism in particular frame our understanding of eastern religious movements in the United States.

Jeff Turkowski:

Kashubians

The Kashubian population from the northern area of Poland, known as Pomerania, often escapes the historical narrative in both American and World history. The origin of the Kashubian population cannot be proven with the available evidence, however, maintains traditions closely related to Sarmatism, with Slavic, German, and Swedish contributions. Closely related to their Polish neighbors the nationalized classification has overlooked a subaltern population of people that struggle to emerge from centuries of cultural oppression, forced labor, and internal colonization policies from Polish, Prussian, German and American governments. Through this process the Kashubian identity is strongly associated to its dialect of the West Lechitic language, and its unique religion that strongly identifies as Catholic. With the synchronization of the Baltic traditions, and influence from its preferred governance of the Slavic Polish Kingdom, the Kashubian population held onto a unique set of beliefs that they brought with them when they immigrated to the United States. Though many of these traditions were no longer practiced upon their arrival to the United States and Canada, Kashubian folklore ranged from the belief in gnomes, ghosts, demons, witches, werewolves, and the danger of vampires rising from the dead to feed off of the family and Catholic parish community. However, in direct conflict with the fraudulent work of historian Jan Perkowski, many of the immigrants remember these tales from the stories of their childhood without actually practicing them. It remains important to understand that many of these traditions were seen as entertaining fiction and imaginative tales without actually believing they were real. Much like Santa Claus and elves in American popular culture. Today these descriptions are seen as harmless superstitions and fun Halloween tales, but to late nineteenth century America, the newspapers reprimanded these beliefs and superstitions as Polish ignorance.

Upon arrival in the United States through contract labor and labor trafficking the Kashubian immigrants did not simply embrace assimilation, however, were accustomed to the process through German and Prussian laws. Many Kashubian immigrants were not convinced they were able to be Catholic upon arrival, let alone practice the ceremonies and traditions of Kashubian folklore. After the Polish American Church Wars and the two different World Wars, the Kashubian population publicly resigned into their national classification of Pole, Pollack, or Polish in the United States and Poland until its reemergence in 2005 with a recognition of the Kashubian population by the Polish government. Through their faith, religious ceremonies, and language the population of Kashubian Americans endured through the policies of Ostsiedlung, serfdom, Kulturkampf, and American nationalism to enable the Kashubian population to reemerge from Western civilization and modern classifications.

Josh Van Sanford:

Plant Teachers, Ceremonies, Medicines, and Drugs: An Investigation of Entheogen Usage in Ritual, Health, and Everyday Life

Psychoactive chemicals are convincing experiences, and they always leave users with long-lasting effects, usually positive, sometimes negative but assuredly religious or spiritual in tone. Psychoactive chemicals without a doubt affected humans from Neolithic periods to the present, and the long-lasting effects must be further understood because they range from mental, physical, and spiritual health benefits. This thesis showcases the issues surrounding not just the term “psychedelics” but their religious and historical contexts as well; entheogens and psychoactive substances have clearly been present throughout most of human history, yet historians fail to recognize and recontextualize their usage by numerous peoples, especially in the advent of religious ceremonies and beliefs.  Even when they do receive study, Western perspectives still muddy the discussion of entheogens from becoming fruitful for all academia; this bias combined with colonization and racism directly corrupted honest investigations.

Jeff Turkowski:

A Historical Genealogy of Dr. Wong “Wing Tsue” Fee Lee: The Multicultural Society of Deadwood South Dakota

The history of Chinese population is much more complicated than the history of San Francisco, and must be analyzed well before the establishment of the 1868 Burlingame-Seward Treaty that provided the ability for Chinese and American citizens to freely travel from one country to another. The involvement of Chinese Americans in the production of railroads and mines across the country as employed by white conglomerates was indeed, an oppressive system of contract labor, compounded with government immigration policies that were based on racism. However, the individual experience of each Chinese population throughout the United States deserves its own historical analysis and monography to include the individual experience of Chinatowns across the country. In Deadwood, South Dakota the early advocacy and relationship of Coon Sing, Judge Granville Bennet, Dr. H.A.L. Wendelsteadt, Grand Master Mason Sol Star and Fee Lee Wong, or Dr. Wing Tsue, created the conditions for a multicultural community that was able to navigate through Chinese celebrations, mining contracts, indoor plumbing and infrastructure, and the legitimacy of the benevolent Chinese Freemason society. According to the publication by the South Dakota State Historical Society by Liping Zhu called Ethnic Oasis, “Perhaps the most powerful guardian of Chinese interests was Deadwood’s mayor [and University of Michigan Alumni] Sol Star.” The relationship that began within the nexus of the University of Michigan that produced government officials that are directly related to the policies within Chinese immigration to include Anson Burlingame of the Burlingame-Seward Treaty, and James B. Angell, U.S. Minister to China 1880-1881, whose revision to the treaty inadvertently enabled the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.[1] In addition, the University of Michigan produced government officials in South Dakota, and other states in the West. Importantly, South Dakota Congressman Eben Martin and other members of Washington that enabled the anomalies of a respected Chinese community with citizenship, ownership, and agency within the not so wild west community of Deadwood, South Dakota.

Erin Rogers:

Children In Northern Ireland: The Stories and Effects of “the Troubles”

In Northern Ireland, from the mid-1960s to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, there was a period of violence between Protestants and Catholics referred to as “the Troubles.” Over the last 20 years, more adults have started to speak out about the experiences they went through as children during this period. With stories pouring in, more research has begun as to what, if any, trauma may have occurred to the children during this time.

This essay aims to add to that research and gathering of stories. From a historical perspective, stories are being shared by both book publications and the gathering of oral histories. While from a psychological perspective, the stories are used to see what trauma many of the children might have suffered. Through conversations with a survivor of the attacks, this paper will compare his story to others. It will add a new unheard story to the already growing oral histories, but it will also look at if he might have suffered trauma and, if he did not, what made his childhood different. This study will heavily rely on primary sources in the style of oral histories and the children's stories during this period. The primary source is a conversation with a “Troubles” survivor named Colin McFarland. It will also look at how those children might have handled the period and its effect on them.

Kristine Henrich:

Middle-of-the-Road Interior Design in East Germany Under the German Democratic Republic

The propagandistic campaign to brand the East German nation under one united design did not work. Officials from parties like the SED, the Soviet Housing Delegation, the U.S. State Department, and various designers from the Ministry of Culture (RfF) attempted to implant an unaffordable, politicized design into domestic spaces of the German Democratic Republic. In response, East German dwellers decorated with heirloom objects, antique items, and do-ityourself techniques they observed in magazines like Kultur im Heim. Nevertheless, this influx of design influences, concentrated within the 1950s and 1960s, meant to sway German citizens. In reality, it created a more complex hybridity of interior design options from modern to antimodern for GDR occupants and paved the way for a middle-of the-road interior design that lasted for the duration of the German Democratic Republic.

Kory Matthews:

The Corruption of Max Weber: How White Protestant Leaders Attempted To Maintain Control in 20th/21st America

Protestant leaders in America during the 20th and 21st centuries reflected a corrupted form of Max Weber’s famous work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism established a perceived connection between the Protestant God, economic power, and race to justify domination of society, such as minorities and government institutions. Historical sociological and quantitive methodologies were utilized to discover why this was the case. These actions were undertaken to “preserve” an America that was rapidly changing due to immigration, minorities gaining greater political power, and economic growth outside the white American Protestant mainstream culture. Weber’s work explored how western capitalism was developed and formed through 16th and 17th century European Protestants. Before passing away, Weber’s magnum opus was the exploration of the major world religions and how they contributed to economic and societal developments. White American Protestants, through the manipulation of historical inspection of American events and figures, built upon Weber’s sociological/economic theories about Protestantism to justify their powerful societal positions. This intellectual and historical manipulation led to a corruption of American economic, religious, and political thought intended to keep a societal status quo of dominance that lingers today.

Will Franks:

“The Laws of God and the State”: Anne Hutchinson, Space, and the Puritan Political Polity

This paper is an examination of the events surrounding the Antinomian Controversy and the trial of Anne Hutchinson in New England at the time of the Puritans. Many historians have used the trial as a way of investigating or imagining their own ideas in history, and have cast Anne Hutchinson in a variety of different roles. My goal is to examine these different modes and to look at Hutchinson and the Puritans through the lens of space: specifically the power that space, both physical and metaphorical, can play in the political shaping of the world.

Sam Stansel:

The Rhetoric and Reality of Free Trade: Two Case Studies in Chinese History

The current wave of economic warfare being waged between the United States and China represents a situation in which the neoliberal rhetoric of free trade has been deployed to serve self-interested ends. This situation is not without precedent, as this paper will demonstrate. I present a comparative analysis of the US-China Trade War with the economic negotiations that occurred during the 1793 Macartney Embassy. Both case studies represent situations in which a rising power deployed free trade rhetoric, which appeals to the classic economic adage: “a rising tide lifts all boats.” In both case studies, the reality is much less simple–free trade rhetoric manifests as a one-sided version of free trade wherein barriers are lowered for markets, but in an asymmetrical manner, which is disproportionately beneficial to the rising power.

John McFarland:

Stuffy Old Dead Guys and Normandy: Clausewitz and Jomini in the Context of the D-day landings

There are many theorists who are taught to professional military officers today, but two stand out as the most important: Carl von Clausewitz and Antoine Henri de Jomini. Both wrote in the early nineteenth century when the battlefield was dominated by single-shot muskets, bayonets, and black powder cannons. Ships were made of wood and powered by the wind, and the aircraft would remain a mere theory for another century. However, despite the major technological innovations that have rewritten the character of the battlefield, the nature of war remains unchanged. Thus, the ideas of both Clausewitz and Jomini remain relevant in an era of warfighting via satellite and globally connected computer networks.

During the time the generals of World War Two were growing through the military ranks, Clausewitz and Jomini had fallen into disfavor; neither had been taught either at West Point or Sandhurst, or throughout the course of their professional development after commissioning.

This leads to the research question this paper seeks to answer: How did nineteenth-century military theorists Clausewitz and Jomini influence the landings at Normandy? With the two having been taught to the generals’ forebears, it seems likely they would have introduced ideas, lexicon, and ways of thinking about war that had been passed down through institutional knowledge, even if the original works were no longer studied. Despite the gap where neither was taught, an examination of primary source documents demonstrates the ways of thinking about war, the relationship between the soldier and the state, understanding the strategic and operational environments, and the actual methods of conduct of war had become so deeply ingrained into Western militaries that the influence of both theorists on the Normandy landings is palatable.

Trinity Parker:

Self-care is Sacred work: Intuition, Holy Spirit, and ritual healing practices

Midwives across time and space share a belief in Intuition as Authoritative knowledge. My research covers the careers of Patty Sessions, whose diary covers her career as a midwife from 1846-1888, and Pam Crowl, a midwife in Colorado from 1981-2019. Comparing Pam’s understanding of Intuition and Patty’s relationship with the Holy Ghost demonstrate similar characteristics. They both had similar ritual practices such as; Journaling, gathering with other women, and "taking space," which strengthened their faith in God, or more daringly, Ourselves.