History

This thesis uses historical analysis to examine the memory of the Yellow Turban Rebellion 184 CE in the works of elite Chinese from the Late Han dynasty to the Ming dynasty. The Yellow Turban Rebellion was the catalyst that led to the end of the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) and began the period known as the Three Kingdoms (220-280 CE). This study reveals the changing perceptions of the rebellion throughout various periods of imperial Chinese history, analyzing the causes and repercussions of this change. The early official histories that provide a narration of the rebellion are the San Guo Zhi, written by Chen Shou in the 3rd century CE, and the Hou Han Shu, written by Fan Ye in the 5th century CE. These accounts show the typical style of official histories, providing political legitimation through the use of the historical record for the ruling dynasty. The study of the Zizhi Tongjian, an unofficial history written by Sima Guang in the 11th century CE, reveals a shift in the use of history from legitimization to political instruction for the ruling elite. The last primary source used, the Sanguo Yanyi, written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century CE, marks another shift in the purpose of history. The author wrote this text as a form of moral education in the form of a novel, embellishing on the historical narrative present in the previous works. All of these modern narratives of the rebellion draw predominantly from the Sanguo Yanyi, leading to a narrow and distorted understanding of the importance of the Yellow Turbans in Chinese imperial history. This is true of modern popular culture as well as academic works, which tend to analyze particular representations in the story of the Three Kingdoms. Modern scholarship has focused too strongly on the Three Kingdoms era, leading to a neglect of the Yellow Turbans in historical scholarship in the fields of Daoism, political history, and cultural history, among others. This thesis aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, how it is remembered, and various ways in which increased study could benefit the discipline of history.

This short paper (published by Berkeley Electronic Press), explores the social roles that teachers and children played during 1932-1933. These memories break down common conceptions of social barriers and examine the ways in which everyday people fought, survived, and interacted during the Holodomor.

Notions of ideal femininity in Western culture shifted during the Belle Époque (Beautiful Era), approximately 1871 to 1914. This article serves as a comparative historical study examining the shifting representations of women in art within Western society during that era. This study focuses on the transition from the image of the " modest maiden " (popular in the mid-nineteenth century) to the image of the " new woman " (emerging within the Art Nouveau movement, 1890 to 1910). From the Art Nouveau (New Art) period, the lush art of Alphonse Mucha stands out as an example of the time's idea of feminine beauty. Mucha's representations serve as social commentary, indicative of the shift toward modernity. Through the employment of symbolism, archetypes, and thematic ideas, Mucha depicted women as socially empowered, participating in masculine activities and very much present in the public sphere. Mucha's use of sensual imagery and floral motifs embody the idea of the emergence of sexually liberated women.

This paper engages in the politics of the body, colonized identity and selfhood through the lens of the exhibition of Sarah Baartman's body in Europe during the 19th century. Baartman who gained notoriety as the "Hottentot Venus" lived as a slave in South Africa before her case of steatogypia caught the attention of Europeans who capitalized on her condition as an oddity to display in freak show circuits in Europe and her "exoticism" to display for European voyeurs.  My research explores to what extent Sarah Baartman's body and identity reflects the larger notion of the colonized identity.

My research explores the implications of Oscar Wilde's literary fame and deviant social legacy. This essay dissects the manufacturing of his memorialization as it has been adopted and upheld by the LGBTQ+ community,  Roman Catholic organizations, and various media representations. The objective of this piece is to reveal the plasticity of the broader social discourse pertaining to the historical memory of Wilde.

The co-option of the gay liberation movement by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim political forces in Israel has painted immigrants (who are typically Muslim) of Palestinian origin as “homophobic” and therefore against the gay liberation movement in Israel. This paper seeks to utilize transnational feminist discourse as a means of examining the ways in which globalization, imperialism, colonization, and capitalism function and have functioned within and across the parameters of homonationalist states (the U.S. and Israel) and their pinkwashing campaigns.

Hardly definitional, conceptions of diaspora changed dramatically over the course of the 20th century, continually expanding and evolving as diasporic groups became increasingly deteritorrialized, homelands were reclaimed and lost, and diasporic members grappled with two or more – often competing – national identifications. Triggered by historical forces in their new homes and the homeland, diasporic groups formed mutual aid societies and ethnic organizations to assist with the diasporization process. Using The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) as a case study, this article examines the Society’s many uses of historical memory and preexisting networks in constructing a diasporic identification and space, which transcended geographical borders.

This project compliments a historical paper, which examines the 1921/22 Volga famine and the 1932/33 Holodomor as experienced by Soviet Germans and understood by their co-ethnics in the West. Using German, Russian, and English language primary document this project nuances the current historiographies of both famines via analysis of the German experience. Several scholars have accurately demonstrated the class motivations for and genocidal nature of the Soviet terror famine(s). However, this paper extracts the underlying, often obscured, ethnic experiences of and motivations for class based genocide. The argument is two-fold. As part of its program against kulaks and unruly nationals, Soviet officials targeted ethnic German colonies for grain requisitions, resulting in a subsequent ethnocide(s). Secondly, the paper implies that 1921 famine in the Volga region may have served as a training ground for its successor—the Holodomor. One stark difference remains. Lenin, realizing the catastrophic consequences of his policies, allowed the West to offer aid during the 1921 famines. Stalin, fully aware of the 1921 context, refused Western aid and blocked foreign intervention.

The GIS element of this project demonstrates the geographic relationship between the famine zones and ethnic German populations. Moreover, it seeks to analyze the impact of the famines at the village level. Data for population analysis is incomplete; however, remnants of the 1897 Russian census, village censuses conducted prior to 1921, and the 1926 census of the Soviet Union remain. Unfortunately, the Soviet government postponed the 1933 census, which was completed in 1937. After which, the government ordered its destruction. Several scholars have speculated that this was an attempt to obscure population losses after forced collectivization and the Holodomor which numbered in the millions. The multi-village Am Trakt settlement and the Volga Mother Colonies serve as examples of this methodology.

This paper explores the intersection of gender and teaching in late nineteenth and early twentieth century American society through teacher-preparation institutions. Normal schools were first established in the United States in the 1830s as means for state and local governments to quickly increase the ranks of teachers— professionals increasingly expected to be women. As one of the few fields open to women at this time, teaching capitalized on predominant gender roles while simultaneously providing rationale for admitting women students to institutions of further education. Understanding the impact of normal schools on women’s advancement in education requires uncovering and examining student life. I explore the experiences of women students at Colorado State Normal School, from its founding in 1889 through its transformation into Colorado State Teachers College in 1911. Yearbooks, enrolment and alumni records, newspapers, personal records, and curricula illustrate the integration of women as students and instructors, a growing sense of camaraderie as women, and the use of their experiences to leverage influence in civic life. Throughout the period, normal schools provided the space and resources for women to learn, share, and connect with one another. Compared to universities, normal schools provided more enrollment, enrichment, and employment opportunities, thus developing a sense of group consciousness. Created to enforce and continue the assumed role of women as teachers (and only that), I argue state normal schools significantly contributed to the overall advancement of women in education and society.

Teaching in early-twentieth century Alberta meant surrendering a significant amount of one’s privacy. In a province with one-room schools scattered about a rural landscape, teachers played a central role in the life of many communities. As such, teachers were closely observed. While this fusion of private and public lives among rural teachers has been well documented, how teachers-in-training prepared for lives of such attention and the ways in which they experienced that transition has remained largely hidden. For most Albertans, becoming a teacher required attendance at a provincial normal school. Faculty used both academic and extra-curricular influence to emphasize the students’ transition to adulthood and teaching while they simultaneously reinforced the importance of appropriate conduct in a way that reflected the place of faculty in loco parentis. This paper explores the shifting social structures and customs of student life at Alberta’s normal schools. I pay particular attention to how normal school faculty constructed a transitional space for Normalites and the ways in which Normalites complied with and rebelled against such structures set by faculty. Yearbooks, alumni publications, and the questionnaires of Robert Patterson’s Project Yesteryear illuminate the uncertain boundaries of personal and public lives of teachers-in-training.

This research paper is an examination of the account of Cabeza de Vaca, a would-be conquistador who was shipwrecked along the Gulf Coast of Florida and spent about ten years traveling from Tampa Bay to northern Mexico. In some cases, his account is the only primary source document that describes the people, customs, and territorial range of the indigenous tribes that he encountered. The focus of my paper was the extent to which readers may have confidence in the veracity of Cabeza de Vaca.

Los Zetas are an offshoot of the Gulf Cartel, and have become one of the dominant Mexican cartels. They include many veterans of the Mexican military and are known for tactics that are brutal even among gangsters. Because of their rise to prominence in the drug wars that are presently raging Mexico and the southwestern US, the cartel has a significant influence on the international relations between the United States of America and the United Mexican States.