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History Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Cashing the Check of Democracy The American Revolution and Citizenship in the Black Freedom Struggle 1960-1970 , Zachary Earle Clary

“All the Rights of Native Cherokees”: The Appearance of Black People in Cherokee Society , Ayanna Goines

“We Are Created Inferior to Men”: Leveraging Horsemanship to Reinforce Gender Expectations, 1830-1861 , Gabrielle Marie McCoy

The Widened Hearthstone Urban Playgrounds as the Infrastructure of Public Mothering, 1900-1930 , Alexandra Miller

Piratical Transportation: Highlighting Silences in Carolina’s Enslavement and Exportation of Native Americans , Jordan Stenger

Lunatics, Liberals and Bloodthirsty Haters: The South in the 1972 Presidential Election , Thomas Clayton Strebeck

In Her Possession and Keeping Revolutionary War Widows and the Politics of Family Archives, 1820–1850 , Riley Kathryn Sutherland

Colored Lawyer, Topeka: The Legend and Legacy of Elisa Scott , Jeffery Scott Williams

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

The Presbyterian Exception? The Illegal Education of Enslaved Blacks by South Carolina Presbyterian Churches, 1834-1865 , Margaret Bates

Roy Acuff, Democratic Candidate , Henry Luther Capps III

Before the Storm: Youth Hockey in North Carolina Ahead of the NHL’s Arrival , Sarai ShareI Dai

Flying Saucer of the Smokies: The Debate Over National Park Architecture and Wilderness Values in Clingmans Dome Observation Tower , Michelle Fieser

“I Like a Fight”: Margaret Sanger and the First Birth Control Clinic in the United States , Rebecca Linnea Hall

Who Has the Right to Reproduce? Forced Sterilization in South Carolina in the Early Twentieth Century , Kathryn Pownall

Sex (Work) And the City: Sex Work in Columbia, South Carolina, 1860-1880 , Presley McKalyn Ramey

Resurrecting a Nation Through Silk and Diplomacy: American Material Culture and Foreign Relations During the Reconstruction Era , Paige Weaver

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Building a New (Deal) Identity The Evolution of Italian-American Political Culture and Ideology, 1910–1940 , Ryan J. Antonucci

“It Seemed Like Reaching for the Moon:” Southside Virginia’s Civil Rights Struggle Against The Virginia Way, 1951-1964 , Emily A. Martin Cochran

“We are Going to be Reckoned With”: The South Carolina UDC and the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Museum, 1986-2000 , Caitlin Cutrona

Enslaved Rebellion and Abolitionist Imperialism in Britain’s Atlantic World, 1807-1884 , Lewis Eliot

Religion, Senses, and Remembrance: Brooklyn’s Sumter Club in Postbellum Charleston, S.C. , Michael Edward Scott Emett

Praying Soldiers: Experiencing Religion as a Revolutionary War Soldier Fighting for Independence , Roberto Oscar Flores de Apodaca

Engraved in Prejudice: How Currency Displayed the Mindset of the South , Holly Johnson Floyd

The Governor’s Guards: Militia, Politics, Social Networking, and Manhood in Columbia, South Carolina, 1843-1874 , Justin Harwell

Patients’ Rights, Patients’ Politics: Jewish Activists of the U.S. Women’s Health Movement, 1969-1990 , Jillian Michele Hinderliter

Joshua Gordon’s Witchcraft Book and The Transformation of the Upcountry of South Carolina , E. Zoie Horecny

“The Once and Future Audubon:” The History of the Audubon Ballroom and the Movement to Save It , William Maclane Hull

A Culture of Control: Progressive Era Eugenics in South Carolina as a Continuation of Created White Supremacy , Hannah Nicole Patton

Shaping a Queer South: The Evolution of Activism From 1960-2000 , A. Kamau Pope

The Robber Barons of Show Business: Traveling Amusements And The Development of the American Entertainment Industry, 1870- 1920 , Madeline Steiner

Charlotte's Glory Road: The History of NASCAR in the Queen City , Hannah Thompson

Foxy Ladies and Badass Super Agents: Legacies of 1970s Blaxploitation Spy and Detective Heroines , Carlie Nicole Todd

Media Combat: The Great War and the Transformation of American Culture , Andrew Steed Walgren

“Hungering and Thirsting” for Education: Education, Presbyterians, and African Americans in the South, 1880-1920 , Rachel Marie Young

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Gendering Secession: Women and Politics in South Carolina, 1859- 1861 , Melissa DeVelvis

The Chasquis of Liberty: Revolutionary Messengers in the Bolivian Independence Era, 1808-1825 , Caleb Garret Wittum

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Learning Church: Catechisms and Lay Participation in Early New England Congregationalism , Roberto O. Flores de Apodaca

Useful Beauty: Tiffany Favrile, Carnival Glass, and Consumerism at the Turn of the Twentieth Century , Chelsea Grayburn

Restoring America: Historic Preservation and the New Deal , Stephanie E. Gray

For the Common Man: An Analysis of the United States Space and Rocket Center , Patrice R. Green

Made to Be Forgotten: The Chevalier DE Saint-Sauveur & the Franco-American Alliance , Katelynn Hatton

Leaders in the Making: Higher Education, Student Activism, and the Black Freedom Struggle in South Carolina, 1925-1975 , Ramon M. Jackson

Exclusive Dining: Immigration and Restaurants in Chicago during the Era of Chinese Exclusion, 1893-1933 , Samuel C. King

Complicating the Narrative: Using Jim's Story to Interpret Enslavement, Leasing, and Resistance at Duke Homestead , Jennifer Melton

“Unknown and Unlamented”: Loyalist Women in Nova Scotia from Exile to Repatriation, 1775-1800 , G. Patrick O’Brien

Raising America Racist: How 1920’s Klanswomen Used Education to Implement Systemic Racism , Kathleen Borchard Schoen

Learning the Land: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in the Southern Borderlands, 1500-1850 , William Cane West

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Beyond Preservation: Reconstructing Sites Of Slavery, Reconstruction, And Segregation , Charlotte Adams

Reading Material: Personal Libraries And The Cultivation Of Identity In Revolutionary South Carolina , Gabriella Angeloni

Politics and the Built Environment: Civic Structures of Eighteenth Century Williamsburg, Virginia and Charles Town, South Carolina , Paul Bartow

The Lost Ones: The Cold War State, Child Welfare Systems, And The Battles Over The Rosenberg Children , Megan Bennett

“Catering To The Local Trade”: Jewish-Owned Grocery Stores In Columbia, South Carolina , Olivia Brown

If This Be Sin: Gladys Bentley And The Performance Of Identity , Moira Mahoney Church

“I Hope They Fire Me:” Black Teachers In The Fight For Equal Education, 1910-1970 , Candace Cunningham

Constructing Scientific Knowledge: The Understanding of the Slow Virus, 1898-1976 , Burke Hood Dial

Ayatollahs And Embryos: Science, Politics, And Religion In Post-Revolutionary Iran , M Sadegh Foghani

Of Cannonades and Battle Cries: Aurality, The Battle of The Alamo, and Memory , Michelle E. Herbelin

Anti-Sabbatarianism in Antebellum America: The Christian Quarrel over the Sanctity of Sunday , Kathryn Kaslow

A Divisive Community: Race, Nation, And Loyalty In Santo Domingo, 1822 – 1844 , Antony Wayne Keane-Dawes

“Remember Them Not for How They Died”: American Memory and the Challenger Accident , Elizabeth F. Koele

Garagecraft: Tinkering In The American Garage , Katherine Erica McFadden

Black Power And Neighborhood Organizing In Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Way Community Center, 1966-1971 , Sarah Jayne Paulsen

The Popular Education Question in Antebellum South Carolina, 1800-1860 , Brian A. Robinson

Perks Of Perkins: Understanding Where Magic And Religion Meet For An Early Modern English Theologian , Kyle Sanders

Black Men, Red Coats: The Carolina Corps, Race, and Society in the Revolutionary British Atlantic , Gary Sellick

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Skin Deep: African American Women and the Building of Beauty Culture in South Carolina , Catherine Davenport

Funding South Carolina’s Monuments: The Growth of the Corporate Person in Monument Financing , Justin Curry Davis

Sex and the State: Sexual Politics in South Carolina in the 1970s , Jennifer Holman Gunter

Within the House of Bondage: Constructing and Negotiating the Plantation Landscape in the British Atlantic World, 1670-1820 , Erin M. Holmes

Odor and Power in the Americas: Olfactory Consciousness from Columbus to Emancipation , Andrew Kettler

From Rice Fields to Duck Marshes: Sport Hunters and Environmental Change on the South Carolina Coast, 1890–1950 , Matthew Allen Lockhart

Potential Republicans: Reconstruction Printers of Columbia, South Carolina , John Lustrea

Lamps, Maps, Mud-Machines, and Signal Flags: Science, Technology, and Commerce in the Early United States , James Russell Risk

Rebirth of the House Museum: Commemorating Reconstruction at the Woodrow Wilson Family Home , Jennifer Whitmer Taylor

Buy for the Sake of your Baby: Guardian Consumerism in Twentieth Century America , Mark VanDriel

Environmental Negotiations Cherokee Power in the Arkansas Valley, 1812-1828 , Cane West

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

A Call To Every Citizen: The South Carolina State Council Of Defense And World War I , Allison Baker

National Register Nomination for the Waikiki Village Motel , Jane W. Campbell

“Antagonistic Describes the Scene:” Local News Portrayals of the New Left and the Escalation of Protest at the University of South Carolina, 1970 , Alyssa Jordan Constad

Ahead of Their Time: Black Teachers and Their Community in the Immediate Post- Brown Years , Candace Cunningham

Deserts Will Bloom: Atomic Agriculture And The Promise Of Radioactive Redemption , Chris Fite

Restoring the Dock Street Theatre: Cultural Production in New-Deal Era Charleston, South Carolina , Stephanie E. Gray

In Search Of Granby: A Colonial Village Of South Carolina , Kathryn F. Keenan

Preserving The Architectural Legacy Of Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle & Wolff, 1948-1976 , Casey Lee

Looking for Remnants of Rice Cultivation at Manchester State Forest Through the Use of LIDAR , Sarah Anne Moore

Uncle Sam’s Jungle: Recreation, Imagination, And The Caribbean National Forest , Will Garrett Mundhenke

G.I. Joe v. Jim Crow: Legal Battles Over Off-Base School Segregation Of Military Children In The American South, 1962-1964 , Randall George Owens

Radioactive Dixie: A History of Nuclear Power and Nuclear Waste in the American South, 1950-1990 , Caroline Rose Peyton

A Culture Of Commodification: Hemispheric And Intercolonial Migrations In The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1660-1807 , Neal D. Polhemus

Rediscovering Camden: The Preservation of a Revolutionary War Battlefield , Gary Sellick

The “Forgotten Man” of Washington: the Pershing Memorial and the Battle over Military Memorialization , Andrew S. Walgren

Proslavery Thinking In Antebellum South Carolina: Higher Education, Transatlantic Encounters, And The Life Of The Mind , Jamie Diane Wilson

Colonialism Unraveling: Race, Religion, And National Belonging In Santo Domingo During The Age Of Revolutions , Charlton W. Yingling

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

"Very Many More Men than Women": A Study of the Social Implications of Diagnostics at the South Carolina State Hospital , Clara Elizabeth Bertagnolli

Forgotten Science of Bird Eggs: The Life Cycle of Oology at the Smithsonian Institution , Katherine Nicole Crosby

Shifting Authority at the Confederate Relic Room, 1960-1986 , Kristie L. DaFoe

Boundary Stones: Morbid Concretions and the Chemistry of Early Nineteenth Century Medicine , Edward Allen Driggers Jr.

Main Street, America: Histories of I-95 , Mark T. Evans

National Register Nomination for St. James the Greater Catholic Mission , Diana Garnett

They Held Their Fists Up: The Myth of the Violent Black Panther and the Making of the Angola 3 , Holly Genovese

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Directory of History Dissertations

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College of Arts & Sciences

Completed Dissertations

2020-present.

Broadus, Victoria Latin American History “ Vissungo: The Afro-Descended Culture of Miners and Maroons in Brazil’s Diamond District, 1850s-2020s “ Advisor: Bryan McCann

Mensah, Tracey African History “ ‘Shopping for All Pocket’: A Business History of Indians in Ghana, 1890–1980 “ Advisor: Meredith McKittrick

Nanavati, Abhishek East & Central Asian History “ Co-Producing ‘American Dreams’: Dependents Housing, Hydroponic Farming, and the Militarization of Everyday Life in Occupied Japan, Okinawa, and South Korea, 1945-1950 “ Advisor: Jordan Sand

    2022-2023

Akgül, Önder Middle East & North African History “ Ecology, the Accumulation of Capital, and Dispossession in Late Ottoman Western Anatolia “ Advisor: Mustafa Aksakal

Chan, Paula Russia & Eastern European History “ Eyes on the Ground: Soviet Investigations of the Nazi Occupation “ Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Grams, Benan Middle East & North African History “ Damascus in the Time of Cholera: The Impact of Communicable Diseases on the Transformation of an Ottoman Provincial Capital 1840-1920 “ Advisor: Mustafa Aksakal

La Lime, Matthew African History “ Land, Informality, and Security: A Material History of West Africa’s Futa Jallon Massif (1650-2019) “ Advisor: Meredith McKittrick

Norweg, Emily United States History “ Mass(achusetts) Incarceration and Higher Education: the Deep Origins and Contested History of College Behind Bars in the Bay State “ Advisor: Marcia Chatelain

Steir, Kate Transregional History “ Provisions of Power: Food and Scarcity in Jamaica 1730-1790 “ Advisor: Alison Games

    2021-2022

Christensen, Robert Latin American History “Worlds in Conflict: Indigenous Peoples, Environmental Challenges, and the ‘Conquista del Desierto’ in the Making of Argentina, 1870-1900” Advisor: Erick Langer

De Vries, Jennifer European History “‘In the Manner of the Beguines’: Regulating Beguine Life in the Low Countries, 1200-1600” Advisor: Amy Leonard

Dingman, Jacob East & Central Asian History “‘The Unknown Country’: Tibet in the Western Imagination, 1850 – 1950” Advisor: James Millward

Hudson, Chelsea East & Central Asian history “‘To Absent Us from Humanity’: Ainu and Population Counts under Russian and Japanese Administration” Advisor: Jordan Sand

Loyd, Thomas Russian and Eastern European History “Black in the USSR: African Students, Soviet Empire, and the Politics of Global Education during the Cold War” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Proctor, Dylan Environmental History “Multidisciplinary Approaches to Infectious Disease History in Twentieth-Century Africa” Advisor: Timothy Newfield

Tarasov, Stanislav Russian and Eastern European History “Noble Feelings of Dissent: Russian Emotional Culture and the Decembrist Revolt of 1825” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Torres, James Latin American History “Trade in a Changing World: Gold, Silver, and Commodity Flows in the Northern Andes, 1780-1840” Advisor: Erick Langer

Thacker, Molly United States History “‘Are We Not Children Too?’: Race, Media, and the Formative History of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children in the United States Advisor: Katherine Benton-Cohen

Young, Cory United States History “For Life or Otherwise: Abolition and Slavery in South Central Pennsylvania, 1780-1847” Advisor: Adam Rothman

    2020-2021

Barraza Mendoza, Elsa United States History “Catholic Slaveholders, Enslaved People, and the Making of Georgetown University, 1792-1862” Advisor: Adam Rothman

DeLorenzo, Christopher Latin American History “Coca Substitution and Community Response in the Yungas of La Paz, Bolivia, 1920-1988” Advisor: Erick Langer

Eames, Anthony Transregional History “Public Diplomacy For the Nuclear Age: Anglo American Grand Strategy in the Late Cold War” Advisor: Kathryn Olesko & David Painter

Feldman, Benjamin United States History “Liberation from the Affluent Society: The Political Thought of the Third World in Post‐War America” Advisor: Michael Kazin

Gornostaev, Andrey Russia and Eastern European History “Peasants ‘on the Run’: State Control, Fugitives, Social and Geographic Mobility in Imperial Russia, 1649-1796” Advisor: James Collins

Holekamp, Abigail Russian and Eastern European History “Citizens and Comrades: Entangled Revolutions and the Production of Knowledge between Russia and France, 1905-1936” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Johnson, Matthew Environmental History “Temples of Modern Pharaohs: Environmental Impacts of Dams and Dictatorship in Brazil” Advisor: John McNeill

Kang, Sukhwan European History “Between Peaceful Coexistence and Ongoing Conflict: Religious Tolerance and the Protestant Minority in Seventeenth-Century France” Advisor: James Collins

Kaymakci, Said European History “The Constitutional Limits of Military Reform: Ottoman Political Writing During the Times of Revolutionary Change, 1592-1807” Advisor: Gabor Agoston

McQueeney, Kevin United States History “The City that Care Forgot: Apartheid Health Care, Racial Health Disparity, and Black Health Activism in New Orleans, 1718-2018” Advisor: Marcia Chatelain

McRae, Douglas Latin American History “From Fluvial City To Hydro-Metropolis: Water, Sanitation, and Metropolitan Environment In São Paulo, Brazil (1850-1975)” Advisor: Bryan McCann

O’Neal, Jennifer United States History “Beyond the Trail of Broken Treaties: The International Native American Rights Movement, 1975‐1980” Advisor: David Painter

Patel, Trishula African History “Becoming Zimbabwean: A History of Indians in Rhodesia, 1890-1980” Advisor: Meredith McKittrick

Perry, Jackson Environmental History “The Gospel of the Gum: Eucalyptus Enthusiasm and the Modern Mediterranean, ca. 1848-1900” Advisor: John McNeill

Schwertner, Hillar Latin American History “Tijuandiego: Water, Capitalism and Urbanization in the Californias, 1848-1982” Advisor: John Tutino

Singh, Amarjot Transregional History “The Shadows of Command: Military Command in Ancient Sparta and Athens” Advisor: Alexander Sens & Jordan Sand

    2019-2020

Belokowsky, Simon Russian & Eastern European History “‘Youth Is to Live in the City!’: Rural Out-Migration in the Black Earth Region under Khrushchev and Brezhnev” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Cano, Daniel Latin American History “Frontiers of Education: The Making of the ‘Literate Indian’ in the Mission Schools of Chile and Bolivia, 1880-1950” Advisor: Erick Langer

Famularo, Julia East & Central Asian History “‘Fighting the Enemy with Fists and Daggers:’ The Chinese Communist Party’s Counterterrorism Policy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region under Xi Jinping, 2012-2019” Advisor: James Millward

Foley, Thomas United States History “An ‘Odious Aristocracy:’ Energy, Politics, and the Roots of Industrial Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania” Advisor: David Painter

Frazier, Chad United States History “From Subjects to Citizens: The University of Puerto Rico and the Citizenship Revolution in the Greater United States, 1898-1935” Advisor: Katherine Benton-Cohen

Hock, Stefan Middle East & North African History “Policing War and Sexuality in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, 1908-1938” Advisor: Mustafa Aksakal

Goffman, Laura Middle East & North African History “Disorder and Diagnosis: Health and Society in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula” Advisor: Judith Tucker

Kondoyanidi, Anita Russian & Eastern European History “The Prophet Disillusioned: Maxim Gorky and the Russian Revolutions” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Macartney, Alexander European History “War in the Postwar: Japan and West Germany Protest the Vietnam War and the Global Strategy of Imperialism” Advisor: Anna von der Goltz

Ryzhkovskyi, Volodymyr Russian & Eastern European History “Soviet Occidentalism: Medieval Studies and the Restructuring of Imperial Knowledge in Twentieth-Century Russia” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Scallen, Patrick Latin American History “‘The Bombs That Drop in El Salvador Explode in Mount Pleasant:’ From Cold War Conflagration to Immigrant Struggles in Washington, DC, 1970-1995” Advisor: John Tutino & Joseph McCartin

    2018-2019

Al-Saif, Bader Middle East & North African History “Reform Islam? The Renewal of Islamic Thought and Praxis in Modern and Contemporary Arabian Peninsula” Advisor: Yvonne Haddad

Berry, Chelsea Transregional History “ Poisoned Relations: Medicine, Sorcery, and Poison Trials in the Contested Atlantic, 1680-1850 ” Advisor: Alison Games

Brew, Greg US History “ Mandarins, Paladins, and Pahlavis: The International Energy System, the United States, and the Dual Integration of Oil in Iran, 1925-1964 ” Advisor: David Painter

Cornwell, Graham H. Middle East & North African History “ Sweetening the Pot: A History of Tea and Sugar in Morocco, 1850-1960 ” Advisor: Osama Abi-Mershed

Dannies, Kate Middle East & North African History “ Breadwinner Soldiers: Gender, Welfare, and Sovereignty in the Ottoman First World War ” Advisor: Judith Tucker

Horn, Oliver US History “ From Model to Menace: U.S. Foreign Aid, Development, and Drugs in Cold War Colombia, 1956-1978 ” Advisor: David Painter

Kates, Adrienne Latin American History “ The Persistence of Maya Autonomy: Global Capitalism, Tropical Environments, and the Limits of the Mexican State, 1880-1950 ” Advisor: John Tutino

Mellor, Robynne Environmental History “ The Cold War Underground: An Environmental History of Uranium Mining in the United States, Canada, and the Soviet Union, 1945-1991 ” Advisor: John McNeill

Porta, Earnest Middle East & North African History “ Morocco in the Early Atlantic World, 1415-1603 ” Advisor: Osama Abi-Mershed

Raykhlina, Yelizaveta Russian & Eastern European History “ Russian Literary Marketplace: Periodicals, Social Identity, and Publishing for the Middle Stratum in Imperial Russia, 1825-1865 ” Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov Shi, Yue East & Central Asian History “ The Seven Rivers: Empire and Economy in the Russo-Qing Central Asian Frontier, 1860s-1910s “ Advisor: James Millward

    2017-2018

Abbott, Elena Transregional History “ Beacons of Liberty: Free-Soil Havens and the American Slavery Debate, 1813-1863 ” Advisor: Adam Rothman Denning, Meredith Environmental History “ Connections and Consensus: Changing Goals for Transnational Water Management on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, 1900-1972 ” Advisor: John McNeill

Hull, Catherine US History “ The Machine has a Soul: American Sympathizers with Italian Fascism ” Advisor: Michael Kazin

Husain, Faisal Environmental History “ Flows of Power: The Tigris-Euphrates Basin Under Ottoman Rule, 1534-1831 ” Advisor: John McNeill

Kaplan, Isabelle Russian & Eastern European History “ The Art of Nation-Building: National Culture and Soviet Politics in Stalin-Era Azerbaijan and Other Minority Republics ” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Maurer, John US History “ An Era of Negotiation: SALT in the Nixon Administration, 1969-1972 “ Advisor: David Painter

Mevissen, Robert European History “ Constructing the Danube Monarchy: Habsburg State-Building in the Long Nineteenth Century ” Advisor: James Shedel

Reger, Jeffrey Middle East & North African History “ Planting Palestine: The Political Economy of Olive Culture in the 20th Century Galilee and West Bank ” Advisor: Judith Tucker

Smith, Jordan Transregional History “ The Invention of Rum “ Advisor: Alison Games

Taylor, Stephanie US History “ ‘I Have the Eagle:’ Citizenship and Labor in the Progressive Era, 1890-1925 ” Advisor: Joseph McCartin

Walter, Alissa Middle East & North African History “ The Ba’ath Party in Baghdad: State-Society Relations Through Wars, Sanctions and Authoritarian Rule, 1950-2003 ” Advisor: Judith Tucker

Yeaw, Katrina Middle East & North African History “ Women, Resistance and the Creation of New Gendered Frontiers in the Making of Modern Libya, 1890-1980 ” Advisor: Judith Tucker

    2016-2017

Amelicheva, Mariya Russian History “ The Russian Residency in Constantinople, 1700-1774: Russian-Ottoman Diplomatic Encounters “ Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Benton, James US History “ Fraying Fabric: Textile Labor, Trade Politics, and Deindustrialization, 1933-1974 ” Advisor: Joseph McCartin

Biasetto, Bruno Latin American History “ The Poisoned Chalice: Oil and Macroeconomics in Brazil (1967-2003) ” Advisor: Bryan McCann

Calisir, M. Fatih European History “ A ‘Virtuous’ Grand Vizier: Politics and Patronage in the Ottoman Empire during the Grand Vizierate of Fazil Ahmed Pasha (1661-1676)” ” Advisor: Gabor Agoston

Davies Lenoble, Geraldine Latin American History “ Filling the Desert: The Indigenous Confederacies of the Pampas and Northern Patagonia, 1840-1879 ” Advisor: Erick Langer

El Achi, Soha European History “ Children and Slave Emancipation in French Algeria and Tunisia, 1846-1892 ” Advisor: Osama Abi-Mershed

Gettig, Eric Transregional History “ Oil and Revolution in Cuba: Development, Nationalism, and the U.S. Energy Empire, 1902-1961 ” Advisor: David Painter

Gungorurler, Selim European History “ Diplomacy and Political Relations Between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran, 1639-1822 ” Advisor: Gabor Agoston

Megowan, Erina Russian & Eastern European History “ For Fatherland, For Culture: State, Intelligentsia and Evacuated Culture in Russia’s Regions, 1941-1945 ” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

Mullins, Sylvia European History “ Myroblytes: Miraculous Oil in Medieval Europe ” Advisor: James Collins

Pitts, Graham Transregional History “ Fallow Fields: Famine and the Making of Lebanon, 1914-1948 ” Advisor: John McNeill

Polczynski, Michael Russian and Eastern European History “ The Wild Fields: Power and Space in the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian/Ottoman Frontier ” Advisor: Andrzej Kaminski & Gabor Agoston

Rabah, Makram Middle East and North African History “ Conflict on Mount Lebanon: Collective Memory and the War of the Mountain ” Advisor: Osama Abi-Mershed

Shen, Yubin East and Central Asian History “ Malaria and Global Networks of Tropical Medicine in Modern China, 1919-1950 ” Advisor: Carol A. Benedict

Sicotte, Jonathan Russian and Eastern European History “ Baku: Violence, Identity and Oil ” Advisor: Michael David-Fox

    2015-2016

Danforth, Nicholas Modern European History “ Memory, Modernity, and the Remaking of Republican Turkey:  1945-1960 ” Advisor: Mustafa Aksakal

Dixon, Patrick US History “ The Hamlet Factory Fire and the Political Economy of Poultry in the Twentieth Century “ Advisor: Joseph McCartin

England, Christopher US History “ Land and Liberty: Henry George, the Single Tax Movement, and the Origins of the 20th Century Liberalism “ Advisor: Michael Kazin

Gardner, Zackary US History “ Uniforming the Rugged: Gender, Identity, and the American Administrative State during the Progressive Era, 1898-1917 “ Advisor: Katherine Benton-Cohen

Gratien, Christopher Middle East & North African History “ The Mountains Are Ours: Ecology and Settlement in Late Ottoman and early Republican Cilicia, 1856-1956 “ Advisor: Judith Tucker

Gregory, Eugene John East & Central Asian History “ Desertion and the Militarization of Qing Legal Culture “ Advisor: James Millward

Hammond, Kelly East & Central Asian History “ The Conundrum of Collaboration: Japanese Involvement with Muslims in North China, 1931-1945 “ Advisor: James Millward

Johnson, Glen Russia & Eastern European History “ The Reflection of Byzantine ‘Political Hesychasm’ In The Literature of The Second South Slavic Influence ” Advisor: David Goldfrank

McCarron, Barry US International History “ The Global Irish and Chinese: Migration, Exclusion, and Foreign Relations Among Empires, 1784-1904 “ Advisor: Carol A. Benedict

Ngo, Lan, S.J. East & Southeast Asian History “ Nguyen-Catholic History (1770s-1890s) and the Gestation of Vietnamese Catholic National Identity “ Advisor: Sandra Horvath-Peterson

Pimenov, Alexei Russia & Eastern European History Dissertation Title: “ German Romantic Nationalism and Indian Cultural Tradition ” Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Roe, Alan Russian & Eastern European History “ Into Soviet Nature: Tourism, Environmental Protection, & the Formation of Soviet National Parks, 1950s-1990s “ Advisor: John McNeill

Veloz, Larisa Latin American History “ ’Even the Women Are Leaving’ Gendered Migrations between Mexico and the United States: Revolutionary Diasporas, Depression-Era Depatriations, and Wartime Bracero Controls, 1900-1950 ” Advisor: John Tutino

Wen, Shuang Transregional History “ Mediated Imaginations: Chinese-Arab Connections in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries “ Advisor: John Voll

Williams, Elizabeth Middle East & North African History “ Cultivating Empires: Environment, Expertise, and Scientific Agriculture in Late Ottoman and French Mandate Syria ” Advisor: Judith Tucker

    2014-2015

Adler, Paul US History “ Planetary Citizens: U.S. NGOs and the Politics of International Development, 1965-1993 “ Advisor: Michael Kazin

Kueh, Joshua Eng Sin Transregional History “ The Manila Chinese: Community, Trade and Empire, 1570-1770 “ Advisor: Carol A. Benedict

Packard, Nathan R. US History “ The Marine Corps ‘Long March’: Modernizing the Nation’s Expeditionary Forces in the Aftermath of Vietnam, 1970-1991 “ Advisor: David Painter

Perez Montesinos, Fernando Latin American History “ Poised to Break Liberalism, Land Reform, and Communities in the Purépecha Highlands of Michoacán, Mexico, 1868-1913 “ Advisor: John Tutino

Perrier, Aurelie E. Middle East & North African History “ Intimate Matters: Negotiating Sex, Gender, and the Home in Colonial Algeria, 1830-1914 “ Advisor: Judith Tucker

Stewart Mauldin, Erin US Environmental History “ Unredeemed Land: The U.S. Civil War, Changing Land Use Practices, and the Environmental Limitations of Agriculture in the South, 1840-1880 “ Advisor: John McNeill

Taylor, Brian M. US History “ ‘To Make a Union What It Ought to Be’: African Americans, Military Service, and the Drive to Make Black Civil War Service Count “ Advisor: Chandra Manning

    2013-2014

Bowlus, John V. US History “ Connecting Midstream: The Politics and Economics of Oil Transportation in the Middle East “ Advisor: David Painter

Doucette, Siobhan Russia & Eastern European History “ Mightier than the Sword: Polish Independent Publishing, 1976-1989 ” Advisor: Andrzej Kaminski

Fernandez, Rodolfo Latin American History “ Revolution and the Industrial City: Violence and Capitalism in Monterrey, Mexico, 1890 to 1920 “ Advisor: John Tutino

Gooding, Frederick W. Jr. US History “ American Dream Deferred: Black Federal Workers in Washington, D.C., 1941-1981 “ Advisor: Michael Kazin

Hill, Michael R. Transregional History “ Temperateness, Temperance, and the Tropics: Climate and Morality in the English Atlantic World, 1553-1705 “ Advisor: Alison Games

Hower, Jessica S. Transregional History “ Tudor Imperialism: Exploration, Expansion, and Experimentation in the Sixteenth-Century British Atlantic World “ Advisor: Alison Games

Hower, Joseph E. US History “ Jerry Wurf, the Rise of AFSCME, and the Fate of Labor Liberalism, 1947-1981 “ Advisor: Joseph McCartin

İşçi, Onur Middle East & North African History “ Russophobic Neutrality: Turkish Diplomacy, 1936-1945 “ Advisor: Mustafa Aksakal

Puente Valdivia, Javier Latin American History “ Closer Apart: Indigenous and Peasant Communities and the State in Capitalist Peru, 1700-1990 “ Advisor: Erick Langer

Wiley, Christopher J. Modern European History “ Textbook Diplomacy: East German Student Exchange and the GDR’s Bid for Global Legitimacy, 1951-1990 “ Advisor: Aviel Roshwald

Williams, Andrea Elizabeth Middle East & North African Environmental History “ Planting Politics: Pastoralists and French Environmental Administration in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean “ Advisor: John McNeill and Gabor Agoston Yoder, April R. Latin American History “ Pitching Democracy: Baseball and Politics in the Dominican Republic, 1955-1978 “ Advisor: Bryan McCann

    2012-2013

Corcoran, John M. Russia & Eastern European History “ Power in the Provinces: The Evolution of Local Government Practices in Imperial Russia, 1825-1917 ” Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Francis-Fallon, Benjamin US History “ Minority Reports: The Emergence of Pan-Hispanic Politics, 1945-1980 ” Advisor: Michael Kazin

Harrison, Jennifer Pish US History “ Teacher Unionism and Civil Rights in Boston, 1963-1981 ” Advisor: Joseph McCartin

Hazelton, Andrew J. US History “ Open-Shop Fields: The Bracero Program and Farmworker Unionism, 1942-1964 ” Advisor: Joseph McCartin

Kern, Darcy A. Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ The Political Kingdom: Parliamentary Institutions and Languages of Legitimacy in England and Castile, 1450-1520 ” Advisor: Jo Ann Moran-Cruz

Krache Morris, Evelyn F. US History “ Into the Wind: The Kennedy Administration and the Use of Chemicals in South Vietnam ” Advisor: David Painter

Landry, Marc D. Modern European Environmental History “ Europe’s Battery: The Making of the Alpine Energy Landscape, 1870-1955 ” Advisor: John McNeill

Lurie, Guy Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ Citizenship in Later Medieval France, C. 1370- C. 1480 ” Advisor: James Collins

Scarborough, Daniel L. Russia & Eastern European History “ The White Priest at Work: Orthodox Pastoral Activism and Social Reconstruction in Late Imperial Russia ” Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Toprani, Anand US History “ Oil and Grand Strategy: Great Britain and Germany, 1918-1941 ” Advisor: David Painter

    2011-2012

Apel, Thomas A. US History “ Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds: Yellow Fever and Common-Sense Natural Philosophy in the Early American Republic, 1793-1805 “ Advisor: Adam Rothman

Connell, Tula A. US History “ Frank Zeidler and the Conservative Challenge to Liberalism in 1950s Milwaukee “ Advisor: Joseph A. McCartin

Coral Garcia, Emilio M. Latin American History “ The Mexico City Middle Class, 1940-70: Between Tradition, the State, and the United States “ Advisor: John Tutino

Guenther, Rita S. Russia & Eastern European History “ One Local Vote at a Time: Electoral Practices of Kazan Province, 1766-1916 “ Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Gurkan, Emrah S. Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ Espionage in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean: Secret Diplomacy, Mediterranean Go-Betweens and the Ottoman Habsburg Rivalry ” Advisor: Ágoston, Gábor

Higuchi, Toshihiro US History “ Radioactive Fallout, the Politics of Risk, and the Making of a Global Environmental Crisis, 1954–1963 “ Advisor: David Painter

Hofmeister, Björn Modern European History “ Between Monarchy and Dictatorship: Radical Nationalism and Social Mobilization of the Pan-German League, 1914-39 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Johnston, Shona Transregional History “ Papists in a Protestant World: The Catholic Anglo-Atlantic in the Seventeenth Century “ Advisor: Alison Games

Maureira, Hugo A. Latin American History “ Los Culpables de La Miseria:’ Poverty and Public Health during the Spanish Influenza Epidemic in Chile, 1918-1920 ” Advisor: Erick Langer

McKenna, Catherine J. Russia & Eastern European History “ The Curious Evolution of the Liberum Veto: Republican Theory and Practice in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1639-1705 ” Advisor: Andrzej Kaminski

Murphy, Curtis G. Russia & Eastern European History “ Progress without Consent: Enlightened Centralism vis-a-vis Local Self-Government in the Towns of East Central Europe and Russia, 1764-1840 ” Advisor: Andrzej Kaminski

Noorlander, Danny L. Transregional History “ Serving God and Mammon: The Reformed Church and the Dutch West India Company in the Atlantic World, 1621-1674 “ Advisor: Alison Games

Wang, Tao US History “ Isolating the Enemy: US-PRC Relations, 1953-1956 ” Advisor: Nancy B. Tucker

Yousef, Hoda A. Middle East & North African History “ Contested Knowledge: The Politics of Literacy in Egypt at the Turn of the 20th Century “ Advisor: Judith Tucker

    2010-2011

Al-Arian, Abdullah A. Middle East & North African History “ Heeding the Call: Popular Islamic Activism in Egypt, 1970-1981 “ Advisor: John Voll

Bowman, Matthew B. US History “ The Urban Pulpit: Evangelicals and the City in New York, 1880-1930 “ Advisor: Michael Kazin

Campion, Corey J. Modern European History “ Negotiating Difference: French and American Cultural Occupation Policies and German Expectations, 1945-194 9″ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Engelke, Peter O. Modern European History “ Green City Origins: Democratic Resistance to the Auto-oriented City in West Germany, 1960-1990 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering and John McNeill

Gummer, S. Chase Modern European History “ The Politics of Sympathy: German Turcophilism and the Ottoman Empire in the Age of the Mass Media, 1871-1914 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Robarts, Andrew R. Russia & Eastern European History “ A Plague on Both Houses?: Population Movements and the Spread of Disease across the Ottoman-Russian Black Sea Frontier, 1768-1830s “ Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Rotramel, Seth A. Modern European History “ International Health, European Reconciliation, and German Foreign Policy after the First World War, 1919-1927 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Vallve, Frederic Latin American History “ The Impact of the Rubber Boom on the Indigenous Peoples of the Bolivian Lowlands, 1850-1920 “ Advisor: Erick Langer

    2009-2010

Brandow-Faller, Megan Modern European History “ An Art of Their Own: Reinventing ‘Frauenkunst’ in the Female Academies and Artist Leagues of Late-Imperial and First-Republic Austria, 1900-1930 “ Advisor: James Shedel

Fulwider, Benjamin Latin American History “ Driving the Nation: Road Transportation and the Postrevolutionary Mexican State, 1925-1960 “ Advisor: John Tutino

Mamedov, Mikail N. Russia & Eastern European History “Imagining the Caucasus in Russian Imperial Consciousness, 1801-1864” Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Morrison, Christopher A. US History “ A World of Empires: United States Rule in the Philippines, 1898-1913 “ Advisor: Nancy B. Tucker

Palmer, Aaron J. US History “‘ All Matters and Things Shall Center There’: A Study of Elite Political Power in South Carolina, 1763-1776 “ Advisor: Alison Games

Sakul, Kahraman Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ An Ottoman Global Moment: War of Second Coalition in the Levant “ Advisor: Gabor Agoston

Sexton, Mary D. US History “ The Wages of Principle and Power: Cyrus R. Vance and the Making of Foreign Policy in the Carter Administration “ Advisor: David Painter

Shlala, Elizabeth Middle East & North African History “Mediterranean Migration, Cosmopolitanism, and the Law: the Italian Community of Nineteenth-Century Alexandria, Egypt”

Wilkinson, Xenia V. Latin Amerian History “ Tapping the Amazon for Victory: Brazil’s ‘Battle for Rubber’ of World War II “ Advisor: Erick Langer

    2008-2009

Abul-Magd, Zeinab A. Middle East & North African History “ Empire and Its Discontents: Modernity and Subaltern Revolt in Upper Egypt, 1700-1920 “ Advisor: Judith Tucker

Byrnes, Melissa K. Modern European History “French Like Us? Municipal Policies and North African Migrants in the Parisian Banlieues, 1945-1975” Advisor: Aviel Roshwald

Granados, Luis F. Latin American History “Cosmopolitan Indians and Mesoamerican Barrios in Bourbon Mexico City: Tribute, Community, Family and Work in 1800” Advisor: John Tutino

Lauziere, Henri Middle East & North African History “ The Evolution of the Salafiyya in the Twentieth Century through the Life and Thought of Taqi al-Din al-Hilali “ Advisor: John Ruedy

Otovo, Okezi T. Latin American History “ To Form a Strong and Populous Nation: Race, Motherhood, and the State in republican Brazil “ Advisor: Bryan McCann

Rosu, Felicia Russia & Eastern European History “ Contractual Majesty: Electoral Politics in Transylvania and Poland-Lithuania, 1571-1586 “ Advisor: Andrzej Kaminski

Swanson, Ryan US History “Jim Crow on Deck: Baseball during America’s Reconstruction” Advisor: Michael Kazin

Wackerfuss, Andrew T. Modern European History “ The Stormtrooper Family: How Sexuality, Spirituality, and Community Shaped the Hamburg SA “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Wyrtzen, Jonathan D. Middle East & North African History “ Constructing Morocco: The Colonial Struggle to Define the Nation, 1912-1956 “ Advisor: John Voll

    2007-2008

Bulmus, Birsen Middle East & North African History “ The Plague in the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1838 “ Advisor: Kathryn Olesko

Elliott, Robin Gates Russia & Eastern European History “ Saddling the Cow: The Collectivization of Agriculture in Poland, 1948-1956 “ Advisor: Andrzej Kaminski

Fedyashin, Anton A. Russia & Eastern European History “Auchtotonous and Practical Liberals: Vestnik Evropy and Modernization in Late Imperial Russia” Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Lambert, Margo M. US History “ Francis Daniel Pastorius: An American in Early Pennsylvania, 1683-1719/20 “ Advisor: Alison Games

Lin, Catherine Kai-Ping East & Central Asian History “ Nationalism in International Politics: The Republic of China’s Sports Foreign-Policy-Making and Diplomacy from 1972-1981 “ Advisor: Carol A. Benedict

Ma, Haiyun East & Central Asian History “ New Teachings and New Territories: Religion, Regulation, and Regions in Qing Gansu, 1700-1800 “ Advisor: James Millward

Oyen, Meredith US History “ Allies, Enemies, and Aliens: Migration and U.S.-Chinese Relations, 1940-1965 “ Advisor: Nancy B. Tucker

Sbaiti, Nadya J. Middle East & North African History “ Lessons in History: Education and the Formation of National Society in Beirut, Lebanon, 1920s-1960s “ Advisor: Judith Tucker

Vann, Martin E. Modern European History “ Encounters with Modernity: Jews, Music, and Vienna, 1880-1914 “ Advisor: James Shedel

    2006-2007

Ameskamp, Simone Modern European History “ On Fire: Cremation in Germany, 1870s-1934 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Carter, Karen E. Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ Creating Catholics: Catechism and Primary Education in Early Modern France “ Advisor: James Collins

Gruber, Isaiah J. Russia & Eastern European History “ The Russian Orthodox Church and the Time of Troubles, 1598-1613 “ Advisor: David Goldfrank

Keller, Tait S. Modern European History “ Eternal Mountains–Eternal Germany: The Alpine Association and the Ideology of Alpinism, 1909-1939 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Scalenghe, Sara Middle East & North African History “ Being Different: Intersexuality, Blindness, Deafness, and Madness in Ottoman Syria “ Advisor: Judith Tucker

Snyder, Sarah B. US History “ The Helsinki Process, American Foreign Policy, and the End of the Cold War “ Advisor: Nancy B. Tucker

Stoneman, Mark R. Modern European History “ Wilhelm Groener, Officering, and the Schlieffen Plan “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Uchimura, Kazuko US History “ Miners without Unions: Life and Work in West Virginia’s New River Gorge Mining Towns, 1900-1933 “ Advisor: Joseph McCartin

Zickafoose, Virginia Paige Russia & Eastern European History “ Virtuous Crown, Virtuous Res Publica: The Henrician Constitutional Declaration of Poland-Lithuania Interregnum, 1572-1574 “ Advisor: Andrzej Kaminksi Zimmers, Stefan Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ Wisdom, Kingship, and Royal Identity: An Examination of the Discourse on Kinship and Rulership in the Anglo-Saxon Era “ Advisor: Jo Ann Moran Cruz

    2005-2006

Belli, Meriam Middle East & North African History “ Remembrance of Nasserian Things Past: A Window to the History and Memory of the Nasser Years ” Advisors: John Voll and James Collins

Du Quenoy, Paul Russia & Eastern European History “ Harlequin’s Leap: Performing Arts Culture and the Revolution of 1905 in Saint Petersburg ” Advisor: Richard Stites

Foley, Sean E. Middle East & North African History “ Shaykh Khalid and the Naqshbandyya-Khalidiyya, 1776-2005 ” Advisor: John Voll

Joseph, Sabrina E. Middle East & North African History “ The Islamic Law on Tenancy and Sharecropping in Late Sixteenth- through Early Nineteenth-Century Syria ” Advisor: Judith Tucker

Khachaturian, Lisa Russia & Eastern European History “ Cultivating Nationhood in Imperial Russia: the Periodical Press and the Formation of a Modern Eastern Armenian Identity ” Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Martin, Kevin W. Middle East & North African History “ Enter the Future! Exemplars of Bourgeois Modernity in Post-World War II Syria ” Advisor: Judith Tucker

Merrow, Alexander C. Modern European History “ The Catholic Historical Discipline in Imperial Germany, 1876-1901 ” Advisor: Roger Chickering

Negroponte, Diana V. US History “ Conflict Resolution at the End of the Cold War ” Advisor: Nancy B. Tucker

Norman, York A. Middle East & North African History “ An Islamic City? Sarajevo’s Islamization and Economic Development, 1461-1604 ” Advisor: John Voll

Roedell, Christopher A. Modern Europe “ The Beasts That Perish: The Problem of Evil and the Contemplation of the Animal Kingdom in English Thought, c. 1660-1839 ” Advisor: Kathryn Olesko

Shearer, Valerie J. Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ A Good Deed is Never Forgotten: Credit and Mutual Exchange in Seventeenth-Century France ” Advisor: James Collins

Vrtis, George H. US Environmental History “ The Front Range of the Rocky Mountains: An Environmental History, 1700-1900 ” Advisor: John McNeill

    2004-2005

Andreassi, Anthony D. US History “ ‘Begun in Faith and Grit and God!’: The Sisters of the Divine Compassion, 1869-1954 “ Advisor: Emmett Curran

Ari-Chachaki, Waskar T. Latin American History “ Race and Subaltern Nationalism: The AMP Activist-Intellectuals in Bolivia, 1921-1964 “ Advisor: Erick Langer

Brooke, George Mercer III US History “ A Matter of Will: Sir Robert Thompson, Malaya, and the Failure of American Strategy in Vietnam “ Advisor: Nancy B. Tucker

De Bryun Kops, Henriette (Rahusen) Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ Liquid Silver: The Wine and Brandy Trade between Rotterdam and Nantes in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century “ Advisor: James Collins

Rouland, Michael R. Russian & Eastern European History “ Music and the Making of the Kazak Nation, 1920-1936 “ Advisor: Richard Stites

    2003-2004

Bryne, Daniel US History “ Adrift on a Sea of Sand: The Search for United States Foreign Policy Toward the Decolonization of Algeria, 1942-1962 “ Advisor: David Painter

Class, James N. Russia & Eastern European History “ Russian Messianism in the Napoleonic Wars “ Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov

Coventry, Michael T. US History “ ‘God, Country, Home and Mother’: Soldiers, Gender, and Nationalism in Great War America “ Advisor: Dorothy Brown

Drummond, Elizabeth A. Modern European History “ Protecting Poznania: Germans, Poles, and the Conflict Over National Identity, 1886-1914 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Goldyn, Bartholomew H. Russia & Eastern European History “ Cities for a New Poland: State Planning and Urban Control in the Building of Gdynia and Nowa Huta “ Advisor: Andrzej Kaminski

Hill, Brendan L. Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ Puritans in the Public Sphere: The Societies for Reformation of Manners and the Continuity of Calvinism in Early Eighteenth Century England “ Advisor: Jo Ann Moran Cruz

Ivey, Linda L. US Environmental History “ Poetic Industrialism: Ethnicity, Environment and Commercial Horticulture in California’s Pajaro Valley, from the Progressive Era through the Great Depression “ Advisor: John McNeill

Linford, Rebecca R. Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ The Women of the Quarter Sessions: A Study of Women’s Involvement in Crime in Lancashire County, 1590-1606 “ Advisor: Jo Ann Moran Cruz

Nichols-Busch, Tracy Russia & Eastern European History “ A Class on Wheels: Avtodor and the Automobilization of the Soviet Union 1927-1935 “ Advisor: Richard Stites

Schutts, Jeff Richard Modern European History “ Coca-Colonization, ‘Refreshing Americanization, or Nazi Volksgetrank’: The History of Coca-Cola in Germany, 1921-1961 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Zejmis, Jakub Russia & Eastern European History “ Belarus: Religion, Language and the Struggle for National Identity in a Soviet-Polish Borderland, 1921-1939 “ Advisor: Richard Stites

    2002-2003

Abi-Mershed, Osama Middle East & North African History “ Domination by Consent: The Bureaux Arabes and Public Instruction in Colonial Algeria, 1831-1870 “ Advisor: John Ruedy

Belmonte, Monica L. US History “ Reining in Revolution: The United States Response to British Decolonization in Nigeria in an Era of Civil Rights, 1953-1960 “ Advisor: Nancy B. Tucker

Brewer, M. Jonah Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh: French Consuls and Commercial Diplomacy in the Ottoman Levant, 1660-1699 “ Advisor: James Collins

Caffrey, Patrick Joseph East & Central Asian Environmental History “ The Forests of Northeast China, 1600-1960: Environment, Politics, and Society “ Advisor: Carol A. Benedict

Davenport, Lisa E. US History “ Jazz, Race, and American Cultural Exchange: An International Study of U.S. Cultural Diplomacy, 1954-1968 “ Advisor: David Painter

DeLong-Bas, Natana J. Middle East & North African History “ Muhammed Ibn Abd al-Wahhab: An Intellectual Biography “ Advisor: John Voll

Dorsey, Jennifer H. US History “ Free People of Color in Rural Maryland, 1783-1832 “ Advisor: Alison Games

Ludes, James M. Modern European History “ A Consistency of Purpose: Political Warfare and the National Security Strategy of the Eisenhower Administration “ Advisor: Aviel Roshwald

Semerdjian, Elyse Middle East & North African History “ Off the Straight Path: Gender, Public Morality, and Legal Administration in Ottoman Aleppo, Syria “ Advisor: John Voll

Zalar, Jeffrey T. Modern European History “ Knowledge and Nationalism in Imperial Germany: A Cultural History of the Association of Saint Charles Borromeo, 1890-1914 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

    2001-2002

Abugideiri, Hibba E. Middle East & North African History “ Egyptian Women and the Science Question: Gender in the Making of Colonized Medicine, 1893-1929 “ Advisor: John Voll

Alvaro-Velcamp, Theresa Latin American History “ Peddling Identity: Arabs, Conflict, Community and the Mexican Nation in the Twentieth Century “ Advisor: John Tutino

Caplan, Gregory A. “ Wicked Sons, German Heroes: Jewish Soldiers, Veterans and Memories of World War I in Germany “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Duggan, Michael F. US History “ Chauncey Wright and Forward-Looking Empiricism, a History of Ideas “ Advisor: Emmett Curran

Hamilton, Joanna Early Modern & Late Medieval European History “ The Merchants of Vannes: 1670-1730 “ Advisor: James Collins

Hoerle, Scott Modern European History “ Hans Friedrich Blunck: Poetry, Politics, and Propaganda, 1888-1961 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Janik, Elizabeth Koch Modern European History “ Music in Cold War Berlin: German Tradition and Allied Occupation, 1945-1951 “ Advisor: Roger Chickering

Law, Randall Russia & Eastern European History “ Humanity’s Workshops: Progressive Education in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1856-1927 “ Advisor: Richard Stites

McGillivray, Gillian Latin American History “ Blazing Cane: Sugar Communities, Power, and Politics in Cuba, 1868-1948 “ Advisor: John Tutino

McGinn, John US History “ Balancing Defense and Détente in NATO: The Harmel Framework and the 1968 Crisis in Czechoslovakia “ Advisor: David Painter Sampsell, Catherine M. U.S. History “ ‘To Grab a Hunk of Lightning’: An Intellectual History of American Depression-Era Photography “ Advisor: Emmett Curran

    2000-2001

Carafano, James J. “ ‘Waltzing into the Cold War’: U.S. Army Military Operations in Occupied Austria “ Hill, Richard F. “ Pearl Harbor Month: Why the United States Went to War with Germany “ Jackson, Maurice “ ‘Ethiopia Shall Soon Stretch Out Her Hands Unto God’: Anthony Benezet and the Atlantic Anti-Slavery Revolution “ Skinner, Barbara J. “ The Empress and the Heretics: Catherine II’s Challenge to the Uniate Church, 1762-1796 “ Socolow, Michael J. “ To Network a Nation: N.B.C., C.B.S., and the Development of National Network Radio in the United States, 1925-1950 “ Taffet, Jeffrey A. “ Alliance for What?: U.S. Development Assistance in Chile During the 1960s “ Wall, Michael C. “ Chinese Reaction to the Portrayal of China and Chinese in American Motion Pictures prior to 1949 “

    1999-2000

Brüggemann, Julia “ Through the Prism of Prostitution: State and Society in Hamburg, 1800-1914 “ Burch, Susan “ Biding the Time: American Deaf Cultural History, 1900 to World War II “ Cline, Ruth Harwood “ The Congregation of Tiron in the Twelfth Century: Foundation and Expansion “ Dale, Melissa S. “ With the Cut of a Knife: A Social History of Eunuchs During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and Republican Periods (1912-1949) “ Davis, Rebekah “ Development as a Tool of Diplomacy: The Domestic Models for U.S. Policy in the Jordan River Valley, 1939-1956 “ Heineman, Paul “ In Defense of an Anachronism: The Cossack Question on the Don, 1861-1914 “ Khalafallah, Haifaa “ Rethinking Islamic Law: Genesis and Evolution in the Islamic Legal Methods and Structures. The Case of a 20th Century ‘Alim’s Journey into His Legal Traditions. Muhammad Al-Ghazali (1917-1996) “ Pisiotis, Argyrios K. “ Orthodoxy Versus Autocracy: The Orthodox Church and Clerical Political Dissent in Late Imperial Russia, 1905-1914 “ Pujals, Sandra “ When Giants Walked the Earth: The Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiles of the Soviet Union, 1921-1935 “ Reifowitz, Ian “ Civic Nationalism in a Multiethnic Society: Conceptions of a Supraethnic Austrian Identity, 1848-1918 “ Ritenour, Perry “ Chinese Banking and Foreign Trade (1949-1979) with a Focus on Guangdong “ Taylor, Karen “ Cher espoir de la nation sainte: The Maison Royale de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr “ Wiggers, Richard “ Creating International Humanitarian Law [IHL]: World War II, the Allied Occupations, and the Treaties that Followed “

    1998-1999

Arpaia, Paul “ Luigi Federzoni and the Italian Nationalist Association: From a Cultural Conception of Italy to a Neo-Conservative Political Program “ Foehr, Sherry “ Modernization for the Honor of the Estate: Die Deutsche Landwirtschaftsgesellschaft, 1884-1914 “ Healy, Róisín “ The Jesuit as Enemy: Anti-Jesuitism and the Protestant Bourgeoisie of Imperial Germany, 1890-1917 “ Kawamura, S.J., Shinzo “ Making Christian Lay Communities During the ‘Christian Century’ in Japan — A Case Study of Takata District in Bungo “ Ke, Yan “ Scholars and Communications Network: Social and Intellectual Change in 17th-Century North China “ Jain, Asha “ Kumarapala Chaulukya (r. 1143-74) of Gujarat, India: A Convert to Jainism in Historical Perspective “ Vladimirov, Katya “ The World Of Imperial Provincial Bureaucracy, Russian Poland 1870-1904 “ Powers, Daniel “ All Roads Lead to Rome: French and German Christian Democrats, the Nation-State and the Reconstruction of Europe, 1945-1950 “ Qualls, Karl “ Raised From Ruins: Restoring Popular Allegiance Through City Planning in Sevastopol, 1944-1953 “ Slater, Joseph “ Down By Law: Public Sector Unions and the State in America, World War I to World War II “ Veidlinger, Jeffrey “ Soviet Politics on the Yiddish Stage: Moscow’s State Yiddish Theater, 1919-1949 “

    1997-1998

Carpenter, Kim “ ‘Sechs Kreuzer sind genug für ein Bier!’ The Munich Beer Riot of 1844: Social Protest and Public Disorder in Mid-19th Century Bavaria “   Enriquez, Jonmikel “ Theodore White and the Remaking of Political Journalism “   Goedde, Celia J. “ The Artisan’s Approach to Modernity: The Political Culture of the German Artisans in Vienna and Augsburg “   Long, Loretta M. “ A Fellow Soldier in the Cause of Reformation: The Life of Selina Campbell “   Pendzich, Barbara “ The Burghers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the War of 1654-1667: Resiliency and Cohesion in the Face of Muscovite Annexation “   Phillips, Steven “ Restoration and Conquest: The Taiwanese Elite under Nationalist Chinese Rule, 1945-1950 “

Russell, Mona Lisa “ Creating the New Woman: Consumerism, Education, and National Identity in Egypt, 1863-1922 “

Scholz, Norbert “ Foreign Education and Indigenous Reaction in Late Ottoman Lebanon: Students & Teachers of the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut “   Tamari, Stephen “ Teaching and Learning in 18th-Century Damascus: Localism and Ottomanism in an Early Modern Arab Society “   Zehren, Maria “ The Dangling Scissors: Marriage, Family, and Work Among Italian Immigrant Women in the Clothing Industry in Baltimore, 1890-1920 “

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The AHA’s directories provide guides to many aspects of the profession. They allow historians to find examples of scholarship from the past and view snapshots of the profession as it exists today.

The Directory of History Departments and Organizations features comprehensive information about historians and programs. The AHA Directory Online provides for detailed searching of faculty/staff and their field specializations, as well as the ability to do benchmarking comparisons between departments. To add your institution to the Directory , or to make updates to your current listing, see the Listing in the Directory page. The print version can be ordered from Oxford University Press.

The most comprehensive information available on the state of doctoral education in history, formerly known as the Directory of History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada, can now be found as part of the main AHA Directory Online. The listings for departments offering PhD degrees include specific descriptions of the programs and statistics.

The Directory of History Dissertations contains more than 57,000 dissertations that have been completed or are currently in progress in the United States and Canada since 1873.

The Directory of History Journals is currently on hiatus. We hope to have it back up in the not-too-distant future.

Directory of History Departments and Organizations

Directory of History Dissertations

The Directory of History Dissertations contains over 57,000 dissertations that were completed or are currently in progress at 202 history departments in the United States and Canada. The entries extend from Charles Whitney's doctorate from Harvard University in 1873 to the latest dissertations earned this year.

The directory includes keyword searches of all titles. It also features a search by advisor, so users can see all of the students who received doctorates guided by that professor.

Member Directory

Department of History

Dissertations by year, 2010-present.

Archibald, Elizabeth Pitkin

Methods and Meaning of Basic Education in Carolingian Europe

Brown, Elizabeth Gilliam

Origins of the Puritan Concept of Despair

Cameron, Sarah Isabel

The Hungry Steppe: Soviet Kazakhstan and the Kazakh Famine, 1921-34

Covert, Lisa Pinley

Defining a Place, Defining a Nation: San Miguel de Allende Through Mexican and Foreign Eyes

Dunlop, Catherine Tatiana

Borderland Cartographies: Mapping the Lands Between France and Germany, 1860-1940

Fitz, Caitlin Annette

Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions

Gin, Kathryn

Damned Nation? The Concept of Hell in American Life, 1775-1865

Greene, Alison Collis

“No Depression in Heaven:” Religion and Economic Crisis in Memphis and the Delta, 1929-41

Havens, Earle Ashcroft

Printers, Papists, and Priests: Roman Catholic Print Culture and the Religious Underground in Elizabethan England

Jean, Marie Martine Alix

Guardians of Order: Police and Society in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1907-30

Knudsen, Eden Rebecca

Race and Childhood in Fascist Italy, 1923-40

Lee, Sophia Z.

“Almost Revolutionary:” The Constitution’s Strange Career in the Workplace, 1935-80

McKenna, Rebecca Tinio

American Imperial Pastoral: The Baguio Scheme and United States Designs on the Philippines, 1898-1921

Morgan, Michael

The Origins of the Helsinki Final Act

Muchnick, Barry Ross Harrison

Nature’s Republic: Fresh Air Reform and the Moral Economy of Citizenship in Turn of the Century America

Prince, K. Stephen

Stories of the South: The Cultural Retreat from Reconstruction

Rosemblum, Stewart Gordon

Pursuing Order in the Wake of War: Southern State Supreme Courts 1860-1880

Ruddiman, John Anthony

Becoming Men of Some Consequence: Young Men of the Continental Army in Revolutionary War and Peace

Schaffer, Samuel Lonsdale

New South Nation: Woodrow Wilson’s Generation and the Rise of the South, 1884-1920

Weld, Kirsten Allison

Reading the Politics of History in Guatemala’s National Police Archives

Brueckenhaus, Daniel

The Transnational Surveillance of Anti-Colonialist Movements in Western Europe, 1905-45

Casey, Caitlin Marie

Vanguards of Globalization: Transnationalism in American Activism, 1960-75

Cherry, Haydon Leslie

Down and Out in Saigon: A Social History of the Poor in a Colonial City, 1860-1940

Corinealdi, Kaysha Lisbeth

Redefining Home: West Indian Panamanians and Transnational Politics of Race, Citizenship, and Diaspora, 1928-70

Huyssen, David Nicholas

Class Collisions: Wealth and Poverty in New York, 1890-1920

Jaboulet-Vercherre, Azelina

Wine, the Physician, and the Drinker: late Medieval Views on Wine’s Uses, Pleasures, and Problems

Kanfer, Yedida Sharona

Lødz : Industry, Religion, and Nationalism in Russian Poland, 1880-1914

Leslie, Grace Victoria

United for a Better World: Internationalism in the U.S. Women’s Movement, 1939-64

Luther Hillman, Betty

America Dresses for Culture Wars: The Politics of Self-Presentation, 1964-80

Marrero, Karen Lynn

Founding Families: Power and Authority of Mixed French and Native Lineages in Eighteenth Century Detroit

Matz, Brendan Alexander

Crafting Heredity: The Art and Science of Livestock Breeding in the United States and Germany, 1860-1914

McShea, Bronwen Catherine

Cultivating Empire Through Print: The Jesuit Strategy for New France and the Parisian Relations of 1632 to 1673

Morris, Robin Marie

Building the New Right: Georgia Women, Grassroots Organizing, and Party Realignment, 1950-80

Unterman, Katherine Ruth

Nowhere to Hide: International Fugitives and American Power, 1880-1915

Wang, Jinping

Between Family and State: Networks of Literati, Clergy, and Villagers in Shanxi, North China, 1200-1400

Wood, Julia Erin

Freedom is Indivisible: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Cold War Politics, and International Liberation Movements

Anderson, Mark

Hospitals, Hospices, and Shelters for the Poor in Late Antiquity

Curry, Helen

Accelterating Evolution, Engineering Life: American Agriculture and Technologies of Genetic Modification, 1925-60

Dinner, Deborah

Pregnancy at Work: Sex Equality, Reproductive Liberty, and the Workplace, 1964-93

Dlamini, Jacob

Putting Kruger National Park in its Place: A Social History of Africans and Conservation in a Modernizing South Africa, 1900-2010

Edel, Charles

Searching for Monsters to Destroy: The Grand Strategy of John Quincy Adams

Ford, Eugene

Cold War Monks: An International History of Buddhism, Politics, and Regionalism in Thailand and Southest Asia, 1940-76

Gonda, Jeffrey

Home Front: The Restrictive Covenant Cases and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement

Guarneri, Julia

Making Metropolitans: Newspapers and the Urbanization of Americans, 1880-1930

Hanser, Jessica

Mr. Smith Goes to China: British Private Traders and the Interlinking of the British Empire with China, 1757-92

Herman, Elizabeth

World Without End: Conceptions of Heaven in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Protestant England

Hogarth, Rana

Comparing Anatomies, Construcing Races: Medicine and Slavery in the Atlantic, 1787-1838

Reforming Orthodoxy: Russian Bishops and Their Church, 1721-1801

“Neither Indians, Nor Egyptians:” Social Protest and Islamic Populism in the Making of the Tobacco Movement in Iran, 1850-1891

Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy: China’s Cold War and the Tibeten Borderlands, 1959-1962

Kinkel, Sarah

Disciplining the Empire: Georgian Politics, Social Hierarchy, and the Rise of the British Navy, 1725-75

Tarrau: Coffee, Migration, and Nation Building in Rural Costa Rica, 1824-2008

Transgression in Roman Religion

McNeur, Catherine

The “Swinish Multitude” and Fashionable Promenades: Battles over Public Space in New York City, 1815-65

Mooney, Katherine

Race Horse Men: Slavery and Freedom at the Nineteenth-Century Racetrack

Nielsen, Philipp

Between Promised Land and Broken Promise: Jews, the Right, and the State in Germany between 1871 and 1935

Seth, Anita

Cold War Communities: Militarization in Los Angeles and Novosibirsk, 1941-53

Spence, Taylor

The Endless Commons: Indigenous and Immigrant in the British-American Borderland, 1835-48

Thomas, Courtney

Honor and Reputation Among the Early Modern English Elite, 1530-1630

Wehrman, Michael

De-emphasizing the Miraculous in Early Medieval Saints’ Lives, 590-800

Leisler’s Rebellion: Anglo-Dutch Imperial Politics in Seventeenth-Century New York

Democracy’s Guardians: Constitutional Justice in Postwar Germany, 1951-1989

The Marvelous Tale of Alis de Tesieux: Revenants, Reformation, Reform, and Revolving Meaning in a Sixteenth-Century Ghost Story

The Whole Nine Months: Women, Men, and the Making of Modern Pregnancy in America

Bringing Up the World’s Boys and Girls: American Child Welfare and Global Politics, 1945-1979

Chinese-Mexican Relations and the Chinese Community in Mexico, 1931-1971

Provisions and Profits in a Wartime Borderland: Supply Lines and Society in the Border Region between China and Korea, 1592-1644

Practicing Physicians: The Intern & Resident Experience in the Shaping of American Medical Education, 1945-2003

Black Market City: The Baratillo Marketplace and the Challenge of Governance in Mexico City, 1692-1903

“Our Native Soil:” Philadelphia Quakers and Geographies of Race, 1780-1838

Indians and the Colonization of Central California

Policing and Public Power in the Italian Communes

Enacting Communism: The World Youth Festival, 1945-1975

Judging the Judges: The Special Section of the Paris Courts of Appeals, 1941-1945

Making an English Caribbean, 1650-1688

The Impossible Americas: Argentina, Ecuador, and the Geography of U.S. Mass Media, 1938-1948

The Committee’s Report: Punishment, Power and Subject in 20th Century Panama

Men, Marriage, and Masculinity in Late Medieval Hagiography

War and the Imperial Imaginary: Museums, Exhibitions, and Visual Displays of the First World War in Britain, Canada, and Australia, 1941-1942

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Princeton University Library

Finding dissertations in history, what's in this guide, princeton dissertations, dissertations in progress.

• US, Canadian and British dissertations
• Foreign dissertations

Librarian for History and African American Studies

A great deal of highly specialized scholarship is never formally published and appears only as a thesis or dissertation. While recent U.S. and Canadian dissertations and theses are easy to locate -- thanks to centralized control at UMI/Proquest -- older dissertations, master's theses, and foreign dissertations can be difficult to find. Even when you can identify a dissertation that you want to read, it is not always possible to obtain a copy. Keeping that in mind, here are some tools that will help you identify and locate copies of theses and dissertations from U.S. and non-U.S. colleges and universities.

The University Archives holds copies of most Princeton dissertations: Access to Ph.D. Dissertations . For dissertations written from 1989 to the present, search the library catalog for "Princeton University. Dept. of History" as author; for earlier, try a keyword search for "history and thesis and princeton." A card file and a local database at Mudd may help in locating theses that are obscure or missing in the Main Catalog.

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• Dissertation

In consultation with the advisor, who also serves as first reader of the dissertation, students invite faculty members to join the dissertation committee, which is ordinarily formed no later than one term after the completion of the general exam. The committee is typically comprised of three readers , though a student may have as few as two or as many as four .

What is the Dissertation Committee?

The dissertation committee is composed of either three or four members, at least two of whom are ordinarily members or formal affiliates of the History Department. The adviser must be a member of the History Department.

• First Reader / Adviser: The Dissertation Committee is chaired by a member of the History Department who has been designated as the student’s adviser. The Adviser works closely with the student at all stages of the dissertation, from formulation of the topic through writing and defense.
• Second Reader: a senior or junior faculty member from the history department, or affiliated with the department as listed in the Courses of Instruction. If a student wishes to include a second reader who is not affiliated with the department, he or she submits a petition to the coordinator for approval by the director of graduate studies.
• Third Reader: may be a member of another department, faculty, or university. With the permission of the advisor and the DGS, a candidate may choose not to approach a third reader for academic reasons. If a student wishes not to have a third reader, he or she must make that decision known to the Coordinator of Graduate Studies by the end of the spring semester of their fourth year.
• Fourth Reader: optional; may be added toward the completion of the dissertation. Note: the dissertation defense committee will consist of the student's dissertation committee plus one additional member (see "Oral Defense and Defense Committee" below.)

Throughout the research and writing phase, students are urged to maintain communication with all readers, and submit chapters as they are completed to the committee as a whole.

To complete the administrative process of forming the committee, students submit the dissertation committee form to the coordinator. The form requires the signatures of each reader, so please begin collecting signatures as soon as possible.

Changes to the Dissertation Committee

After establishing a dissertation committee, a student may choose to replace a reader. This decision should be made after careful consideration and consultation with his or her advisor. The student should initiate discussions with the current and potential reader; and it is important there should be no ambiguity about the new reader’s agreement to serve on the Committee. The Graduate Coordinator, once notified, will update the official record of committee names.

Oral Defense and the Defense Committee

Students defend their dissertation before it is approved by the  dissertation defense committee .* The defense committee consists of the student’s dissertation committee plus one additional member drawn from the History Department, another Harvard department, or outside the University. Prior to the oral defense, each member of the defense committee may write a detailed report on the dissertation, but this is not required. The defense itself should last approximately two hours. It is open to the intellectual community of faculty and graduate students as well as friends and family of the candidate. Once the dissertation has been successfully defended, the members of the  defense committee  sign the dissertation acceptance certificate, and append their reports to it.

Defense Deadlines

The defense needs to be held before the GSAS dissertation submission deadline, and final dissertations must be submitted to the members of the Dissertation Defense Committee at least one month in advance to give them time to prepare their reports. This suggests the following timelines:

For a May Degree : Dissertation due at GSAS by mid-May . Therefore, the defense must occur no later than early May (again, with final draft submitted at least a month prior).

For a November degree : Dissertation due at GSAS by mid-September . Therefore, the defense must occur no later than early September (with final draft submitted at least a month prior).

Students can also apply for a March degree . The GSAS dissertation submission deadline for March degrees is in mid-January, which means that students aiming for the March degree will need to defend by mid-December, before the winter break.

Where do I submit my dissertation?

Online submission of the dissertation via ETD @ Harvard is required by the Graduate School. Dissertations must be received by 11:59 pm on the deadline date for the given degree period. NO EXTENSIONS TO THIS DEADLINE ARE PROVIDED.

http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/registration-enrollment-degrees/graduation-diplomas/phd-dissertation-submission

Dissertations should be submitted in their final format, in accordance with the guidelines listed in the Form of the PhD Dissertation booklet, and ready for publication. The Registrar’s Office will review the document for formatting compliance. Formatting errors may prevent the conferral of the degree and the student may need to apply for the next available degree period. A sample dissertation as well as the Top Ten Common Errors are provided for your convenience.

The following two surveys must be completed and completion confirmation codes provided during dissertation submission.

1. Survey of Earned Doctorates

2. GSAS Exit Survey of Postgraduate Plans

In addition to the electronic dissertation submission, an electronic copy of your signed Dissertation Acceptance Certificate must also be submitted. It must be signed by a minimum of three readers , two of whom must be members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The student name must match the legal name on file at the Registrar's Office .

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History: writing a history dissertation.

• Writing a History Dissertation
• Referencing and Style Guide
• Literature Search Plan

Starting a Literature Search

Conducting a literature search is a great way to find a viable topic and plan your research. It will also give you the opportunity to look for primary and secondary resources that can support the arguments you make in your dissertation. 

Starting your literature search early will help you plan your dissertation and give you an overview of all the resources you might want to consult. Below are examples of how you can start this process and how they can help.

Dissertation Books

Define your Topic

Start your search by identifying a broad subject area, such as a country, period, theme or person. You might do this by looking at reference works, such as a Very Short Introduction , Cambridge Histories , or Oxford Handbooks . These books will give you an insight into the many areas you can investigate in greater depth and they will also provide references to peer-reviewed material on more defined topics. 

Next , look at material which focuses more on the area you have identified from reference works. These might be books, chapters or articles which focus on a more defined area of the subject you have identified. Use these to formulate questions that you can answer in your research.

Then ,  read resources that will help you form your argument and answer the questions you have set. This material should focus on the topic you have chosen and help you explain what has been written on this area before.

Search for Secondary Resources

In order to successfully search for resources relevant to your study, you will need to use search-terms which will retrieve the best results. The tips below will help you do this:

Terms you have found in your reading

Keep a note of terms you have seen when you have been identifying your topic. This could be anything relevant your topic, including: places, people, jobs, religions, institutions, objects, periods, or events. Also, take note of terms that are related to your topic and had an impact on the area you are studying. Write down all the terms which relate to your topic and note which ones provide the most relevant results.

It can also be useful to keep a note of what you are not looking at so that you stay focused on your topic and do not retrieve too many results.

Authors who are written about the topic

You will start to notice that some authors are mentioned as specialists on the topic you are researching. Search a variety of catalogues to find what they have written on the subject in different formats. They might have contributed to edited works, written articles, given presentations to conferences or annotated works. They also might lead you to others who have written about your topic or research groups which are relevant to your studies.

Use subject searches

Most secondary resources have been indexed according to their subject. Through using these subject terms you can search catalogues more efficiently and find relevant resources without just searching the title or author. 

If you find a useful resources, try looking at its catalogue record. See if any of the subject headings look useful and note what terminology they use as this will be consistent across most databases. When you have found a useful term, copy and paste it into a subject search (or select the link) and see what other resources are available.

You can also use an online thesaurus to find search terms. The most commonly used terms are the Library of Congress Subject Headings  which provide uniform terms across international databases.

Use databases

The University subscribes to many databases that focus on different countries and topics. These will provide a comprehensive guide to what has been written in your area and may use different subject headings. Reference databases and bibliographies can be especially useful for finding citations of everything that has been written on a certain area of history. Biographical databases can also help find information about individuals and institutions. For a complete list of all the databases the University subscribes to, look at the A-Z of databases . 

Search for Primary Resources

There are plenty of primary resources that can be used in your dissertation. The University subscribes to many databases that provide access to primary resources and some of our libraries hold special collections which can be used in your research. Below are some examples:

The University subscribes to many newspapers from the past and present. They can be a really useful tool for finding contemporary accounts of events and provide more than just articles (including: advertisements, illustrations, family notices, sports, arts, court cases). Many newspaper databases will also include related content, such as pamphlets and newsbooks.

The University Library has a collection of print newspapers which can be consulted on site. The University also subscribes to electronic databases of national and local newspapers across the world. More information about the newspaper databases we subscribe to is available on our  dedicated website .

Special Collection Material

Many libraries and archives provide access to rare, unique and specialised collections of books and manuscripts. The University Library, for example, provides access to Manuscripts and Rare Books Departments , as do some of the colleges. Some of the more frequently used and important material is also available as part of an online library, such as Cambridge's CUDL .

Official Publications (Government Documents)

Documents produced by governmental and intergovernmental bodies can provide an insight into their decision making and governance. Several libraries in Cambridge have received official publications material and a lot of material is now available online. More information about the official material in Cambridge libraries is available on our Official Publications LibGuide .

Data and Statistics

Figures can be used to help illustrate a point and provide evidence as you answer the central question in your dissertation. You might chose to refer to census data, crime statistics, trade figures, or any other data set that relates to your area of history. This sort of information can be found in databases and replicated in secondary resources. 

Private Papers

If you are researching an individual (or someone who played a prominent role in the area you are focusing on) it is a good idea to see if they have deposited private papers in an archive. These might includes diaries, letters, draft works, or anything else that was kept and not published. These works are normally kept in an archive, so a good starting point is to look at a catalogue that might show where relevant papers are held (such as Archives Hub )

These can include maps, cartoons, paintings and photographs. Images are available both in print and online, but you need to be cautious of the copyright restrictions of images before you use them (check the information given by the source). Some databases will allow you to search images, like ARTstor , so use them as a good starting point for your search. 

Audio-Visual

Similarly to images, the University provides access to a variety of audio-visual resources, including interviews, recordings, radio and films. If there is a particular DVD you would like to use, try searching the title in iDiscover. For example, " Interviews with Historians " will take you to a comprehensive collection of DVDs available at the Seeley. Many films are also available online, such as British Pathe .

Organise and Save Your Research

You will be able to do a comprehensive and efficient literature search if you keep a record of what you have read, where you read it and what each item means to your research. The best way to achieve this is to:

1. Record the key ideas, themes and quotes from what you have read. Try to find a uniform way to do this as it will make it easier to find information when you come to write your dissertation. Some formats are freely available on the internet, such as the Cornell Note Taking System .

2. Save citations you have looked at so you do not struggle to find them again. Also, this will help you when you come to do your references. There are many reference managers available to help you store this information and create a fully formatted bibliography.

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Department of History

Best undergraduate dissertations 2019.

Since 2009 the Department of History at the University of Bristol has published the best of the annual dissertations produced by our final-year undergraduates. We do so in recognition of the excellent research undertaken by our students, which is a  cornerstone of our degree programme . As a department, we are committed to the advancement of historical knowledge and to research of the highest order. Our undergraduates are part of that endeavour.

Listed below are the the best of this year’s undergraduate history dissertations, with links to the dissertations themselves where these are available. Please note that these dissertations are published in the state they were submitted for examination. Thus the authors have not been able to correct errors and/or departures from departmental guidelines for the presentation of dissertations (eg in the formatting of footnotes and bibliographies). In each case, copyright resides with the author and all rights are reserved. 

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• Doctoral Dissertation

The dissertation is expected to be a mature and competent piece of writing, embodying the results of significant original research. Physical requirements for preparing a dissertation (i.e., quality of paper, format, binding, etc.) are prescribed online in the Guide for the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations ; a copy is also available in the Graduate School Office. For specific aspects of form and style, students are advised to use Kate L. Turabian's  A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations  (Eighth Edition, 2013). Special physical problems regarding preparation of dissertations should be taken up with the Assistant Dean for Student Programs.

Graduate students also have the option of submitting their dissertation electronically , to facilitate access to their work through online databases. Students must be registered at Duke during the semester in which they defend their dissertations and therefore must take their final dissertation examination while classes are in session. It is best to schedule a final examination (the so-called "thesis defense") early in the fall or spring semester. Examinations during the summer terms are almost impossible to arrange and should be avoided, if possible. Examinations between semesters are permitted only in exceptional cases.

Checklist for Doctoral Dissertation Defense

• Schedule exam during school semester; be sure to register.
• File the Intention to Receive Degree Form as required.
• Clear date and time with all members of your committee.
• Proofread your dissertation and have someone else do so.
• Provide committee with reading copies of your dissertation 2 weeks in advance.
• Format check a copy of your dissertation through the Graduate School Office several weeks in advance.
• Check with the DGSA that the Final Exam Form has been sent to the Graduate School a week ahead.
• Pick up Final Exam Certificate from the Graduate School and bring it to the defense.
• Come to exam with enough sleep and earn a clear pass.
• Have committee sign Exam Form, Dissertations, Abstracts .
• Return the original Exam Form to the Graduate School, and bring a copy of the form DGS office.
• Make corrections and submit 3 dissertation copies and abstracts.
• Pay for microfilming, binding, & (optional) copyrighting.
• Have brilliant academic career. Cover Duke with reflected glory.

Process, Forms & Procedures

The supervisory committee for the dissertation usually consists of four faculty, though a committee of five faculty is strongly recommended.  The committee must always have at least two regular History faculty, including the primary advisor, and a majority of its members must be Duke University faculty members .  The committee is chaired by the primary advisor, the person most involved in advising a student's research. If necessary, the committee may vary somewhat from the one that oversees preliminary certification, but changes must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) and the Graduate School at least 30 days before the examination.

Continuing members of the committee will have a copy of the dissertation prospectus from the oral phase of the preliminary examination. New members should be given a copy as soon as they join the committee. All committee members should be given subsequent revisions of the prospectus and kept informed about the progress of research and writing. The exact use a student makes of the members of this committee will depend on the committee members' availability and the student's needs. Each professor and student works out this relationship in a different way.

External Sources

Within the discipline of History, funding needs and opportunities vary widely. While foreign research is more expensive than most U.S. history work, there tend to be more funding prospects. Students who plan extended overseas research should familiarize themselves with specific opportunities. Advisors and committee members can help with this, as can more advanced graduate students and professors in other disciplines. A bulletin board in the Graduate Lounge displays funding opportunities, but students should also check with the Office of Research Support.

There are diverse foundation and government programs available but many of them are obscure. The dissertation prospectus can sometimes function as the core for a grant application. In searching out prospects, a student should consider all the different categories into which their research might fit in terms of chronology (e.g. Renaissance Studies), geography (e.g. Asian Studies), subject (e.g. Slavery Studies), or methodology (e.g. Medical History), as well as categories into which they themselves might fit that could qualify them for a fellowship (e.g. as an alumna/alumnus of a particular university).

Internal Sources

The Duke Graduate School has an annual program of awards and doctoral candidates in History. However, the resources are limited and the competition is very keen. The number and size of these awards vary slightly from year to year. The most recent information can be found at the Graduate School's Financial Assistance webpage. Other awards are made within the University and opportunities based in other departments where history graduate students are eligible may exist. Watch messages from the DGSA and the DGS, and from the Graduate School and other units of the university.

The History Department administers the Anne F. Scott History Research Travel Award, which is given to several recipients each spring to cover research expenses, such as travel. Applications are open to Duke Undergraduates and graduate students engaged in research relating to women's history. Notice of the competition is circulated by the History Department. Awards range from $200 to $3000.

Each year, the History Department also offers a special teaching stipend to an advanced graduate student to allow them to teach an undergraduate class as Instructor of Record in the field of military history, that is, the historical study of the military, war, and society. The stipend covers the salary for a student serving as Instructor of Record.

Selection Procedures

The Graduate School's selection procedures and schedule change slightly each year, but the following general rules apply to fellowships administered through the Graduate School:

• Nominations must come through the Department (the dates vary) so the application process is coordinated through the DGS office.
• The DGS Office will inform advisors and students of relevant nomination deadlines, and students are urged to watch carefully for these notices and remind their advisors of them.
• Depending on the fellowship, the department either ranks the applicants or makes nominations. For the most prestigious awards, the department is limited in the number of students it can recommend (usually to two). Either the DGS or the faculty members of the Graduate Committee prepare rankings and nominations.
• The DGS and DGSA usually ask students to submit applications several weeks in advance of the Graduate School deadline to facilitate the departmental selection process. Usually, students submit to the DGS and DGSA the documentation requested for the specific award, addressed to the Dean of the Graduate School, describing in some detail the nature of their work and the need for support. Keep in mind that this documentation will first be used by the DGS and the Graduate Committee to determine which students go forward to the Graduate School, and then will go forward to the Graduate School where a committee of non-historians will appraise applications from across the university. As always, write clearly and proof read well.
• Faculty nominators should be aware that their supporting letters will be read by informed, interested non-historians. Brief letters of mild support do not help much nor do letters that are too long. Recently the Graduate School has strongly urged a limit of one page for all recommendations.
• Once the Department has selected its nominees, the Graduate Committee will let them know if specific revisions would be helpful or necessary for the competition.

From time to time other awards are made within the University and it is important to keep an eye out for opportunities based in other departments where history graduate students are eligible. A bulletin board in the lounge and e-mails to the graduate student listserv announce some options that come to the attention of the DGS, but informal grapevines and networks help too.

Prior to or at the start of the semester in which a student intends to defend their completed dissertation, they must file an "Intention to Receive Degree" form with the Graduate School.   Students must file the form in the specific semester they plan to receive their degree. Forms are not transferrable so if plans change and a student is unable to finish, they will need to complete the same form again for the semester they plan to receive their degree in.

For the most current information on deadlines please follow the link below here: https://gradschool.duke.edu/academics/graduation-information-and-deadlines/

The DGS office is required to submit a formal defense announcement to the Graduate School Office at least a full week before the scheduled examination. This notice includes the student's name, dissertation title, and the names of the committee members, as well as the time, place, and date of the exam as agreed upon by the student, the primary advisor, and the committee.

Final Milestone Examination Certificate

After the exam form has been received by the Graduate School and the completed dissertation form has been approved by the Assistant Dean, the Graduate School will issue a " Final Milestone Examination Certificate " Graduate students are responsible for picking up their certificate from the Graduate School and then bringing the certificate to their defense. After the exam, the student is responsible for returning the original paperwork, with the appropriate committee signatures, to the Graduate School and providing a copy to the DGS office.

Most dissertation advisors will want to see chapters as they are drafted and a student should have at least one other committee member read parts of the early drafts as well. The process for commentary and feedback will differ with each dissertation and students should work with their advisors and committee, and when necessary the DGS, to be sure they receive the counsel they need.

A copy of the finished dissertation – complete with table of contents, full citations, page numbers, and bibliography – should be given to each member of the dissertation committee at least two weeks before the final examination. It is important that students provide their thesis to the committee to allow members time to carefully go through it. Given their other obligations, the sooner committee members have access to the student's work, and the better shape it is in when they receive it, the more the student can expect in the way of productive feedback.

The dissertation must be submitted to the Graduate School office at least 14 days before the scheduled final examination and no later than 5:00 p.m. on the deadline date. It should be accompanied by a 350-word abstract; the abstract will later be sent with the dissertation for microfilming to be printed in Dissertation Abstracts International.

Defense Process

The final examination is normally administered by the supervising committee of five members, though a four-member committee is permissible if the primary advisor is present. Only two members of a dissertation examination committee may participate by telephone; that member may not be the chair. The DGS must obtain the permission of the Senior Associate Dean for remote participation at least a week before the oral exam. This oral exam lasts between two and three hours. Since this is a public defense, other persons may attend to listen but they should notify both the student and the chairperson in advance. Questions and discussion concentrate primarily on the dissertation; however, the committee may also ask questions that relate broadly to the major field of study.

Once the exam is over, the candidate and any guests will be asked to leave so the committee can discuss the exam and vote by written ballot as required. If all of the members vote affirmatively, they sign their names on at least the first and second copies of the dissertation and on the title page of the original copy of the abstract, signifying the abstract is suitable for publication. The easiest and least confusing procedure if for the committee member to sign all of the copies. They then sign the final examination certificate, which is returned signed to the student who should promptly turn in to the Graduate Studies Office.

Four of five (or four of four) affirmative votes of those present – including the main supervisor – constitute a pass. The Graduate School Bulletin states that "A student who fails the final examination may be allowed to take it a second time, but no earlier than six months from the date of the first examination. Permission to take the second examination must be obtained from the professor who directed the dissertation and from the Dean of the Graduate School. Failure to pass the second examination renders the student ineligible to continue work for the Ph.D. exam at Duke University."

Revising and Correcting the Dissertation

The committee may accept the dissertation on the understanding that the student will make minor revisions and corrections to be reviewed and approved by their advisor before the dissertation is deposited with the Graduate School. In this case, they will sign the exam certificate and the abstract sheets and dissertation signature pages. The student will then have up to 30 days after the examination to make the requested changes and improvements.

NOTE: this 30-day period for corrections cannot be granted when there are fewer than 30 days left in the semester. In such cases you must check with the Graduate School to determine the deadline for submitting the completed dissertation.

Depositing the Dissertation

After passing the final examination, and making any necessary corrections and improvements, a student takes the original and first two copies (three sets in all) of the finished dissertation, with 3 abstracts signed by the committee, to the Graduate School office.

At this time the student will be required to sign a microfilming agreement and to pay a fee to cover microfilming costs. Duke dissertations are published on microfilm by University Microfilms (Ann Arbor, MI). At this time the student will also be required to pay to have the original and two copies of the dissertation bound in black covers with gold lettering on the spine. The original and one copy go on file in Perkins Library; the other copy goes to your dissertation advisor. Additional copies may be bound through the Duke Bookstore in the Bryan Center. The student may also pay to copyright their dissertation at this time; this is optional but recommended.

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• Researching your dissertation

When it comes to thinking about dissertations, it's useful to know how and where to look for material, both within Cambridge and further afield. The following is some guidance on finding various different types of material, whether primary or secondary.

Finding books in Cambridge

Finding books outside cambridge, finding articles.

• Unpublished material

Online sources

Subject gateways.

For further help our LibGuide has lots of information about how to carry out research in History.

Finding secondary material

The best place to begin looking for secondary material is a specialist bibliographical database covering your area of interest, eg. the Bibliography of British and Irish History . Teaching staff will be able to advise on what databases there are in your subject area. There may not be a specialist database covering your topic, in which case a more general literature search may be the best way to begin. Literature searches may also help you to find supplementary material, and to identify what is available within Cambridge.

Literature searches will help you to identify a viable topic of research, or a new angle from which to approach a subject, and they will also ensure that you do not duplicate work in progress. You will need to be compiling lists of material to consult at the same time as taking organised notes and writing; you should not wait to complete the reading before beginning to write.

For searching across library catalogues in Cambridge, use iDiscover ; as well as searching library holdings it also retrieves records for ejournals and ebooks, and can be extended to search databases such as JSTOR . You can also turn searches into RSS feeds (for alerts when any relevant items are added to the catalogue).

The University's ebooks@cambridge team subscribe to thousands of ebook titles, including key resources such as the Cambridge Histories and Cambridge Companions. These are searchable through iDiscover; if there is an electronic copy of the book you are looking for, it will have the phrase "[electronic resource]" in the record after the title, and you can follow the link in the record directly through to the text. Ebooks are easy to use, can be accessed from home and can normally have several users accessing the text simultaneously, so access is almost always available.

You may need to extend your search beyond Cambridge, to see if there is material available elsewhere which is not held by any of the libraries in the university. Library Hub Discover  is the best way for finding material held in libraries in the United Kingdom; it is the combined catalogue of the UK's major research libraries (including the British Library, National Library of Scotland and National Library of Wales), as well as various specialist research libraries and collections. The catalogue contains over 32 million records. It is possible to search by subject, author, title or keyword, and you can restrict your search by date, place published, type of material (eg. periodicals, maps), or language. Search results will display where an item is held, and provide links to an electronic copy, if there is a freely available one. 

The Document Delivery Service is available to help support students access difficult to locate material. This includes Inter-Library loan and Rapid Inter-Library loan.

If you are working away from Cambridge (for example, during the vacation), you may be able to get access to other higher education libraries in your area; visit SCONUL Access  for more information.

For catalogues of libraries outside the United Kingdom try WorldCat , a catalogue of over 10,000 libraries, which indexes 1.5 billion items.

You will need to look at journal articles as well as books, as journals are often where the latest, most up-to-date historical research is published. There are several citation databases which you can search for articles which might be relevant to your topic. As well as general historical databases, there are also more specialised ones, covering various regions, periods and topics. (Most of these will require a Raven password for off-campus access.) To search across the full range of electronic journals Cambridge subscribes to go to the ejournals@cambridge page. It is also possible to search across popular databases for article titles (as opposed to journal titles) on iDiscover.

Key general databases

• Historical Abstracts: This covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada). Published since 1954, it indexes over 3,100 academic historical journals in more than 40 languages; thousands of new citations are added every year.
• Scopus: This database is by far the largest citation database available to members of the University. It covers a range of disciplines and includes information about where articles have been cited.

Digital journal archives

• JSTOR: A digital archive of over 1,000 journals; it can be subject-searched and gives immediate online access to articles in titles to which the University subscribes.
• Project Muse: Full-text access to nearly 500 journals from over 130 scholarly publishers.

Region/country databases

• America: History and Life: A companion title to Historical Abstracts. There is not online access, but the print copy can be found in the University Library (North Front, Floor 6, classmark: P660.b.31).
• Bibliography of British and Irish History: A bibliographical database of historical writing dealing with the British Isles, the British Empire and the Commonwealth, from 55 B.C. to the present, containing over 500,000 records. (It is worth noting that it is not an exhaustive bibliography of works relating to the British Empire and the Commonwealth; it covers the relations of those countries in the Empire and the Commonwealth with Britain.)
• Bibliography of Asian Studies: A bibliographical database covering articles and book chapters on all parts of Asia published since 1971.
• Index Islamicus: A bibliographical database of books, articles and reviews on Islam and the Muslim world.

Chronological databases

• International Medieval Bibliography: A bibliographical database covering medieval civilization, containing over 440,000 records.

Topical databases

• ATLA Religion Database: A bibliographical database covering theology and church history, containing over 1.7 million records.
• Bibliography of the History of Art: A bibliographical database on European and American art from late antiquity to the present, covering material published between 1975 and 2007.
• History of Science, Technology & Medicine: amalgamation of a few separate bibliographies. Includes historiography and the role of science in society and culture from prehistoric times onwards.

Unpublished material (dissertations and theses)

There are several different databases for searching for university dissertations and theses, whether produced in the United Kingdom or further afield.

• History Online: Contains a directory of history theses and research Masters produced in the U.K. since 1970, along with a list of theses currently in progress.
• EThOS: The national thesis service: a British Library-administered database of over 300,000 theses from U.K. universities.  Those which have already been digitized can be downloaded for free, but if the thesis you want to look at has not yet been digitized, you will have to pay a fee.  (Cambridge dissertations are listed on Ethos but not supplied by the service.
• ProQuest Digital Dissertations: A database of 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations from 700 academic institutions worldwide, offering full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997.
• Apollo: Cambridge University's institutional repository.  Includes a collection of voluntarily deposited Ph.D. theses.

Finding primary sources

You can access more online resources through iDiscover and the UL's eresources@cambridge page , which includes links to visual and sound resources, film and video services, and newspapers (both archives and current).

Some examples of online collections of primary source material:

• American Memory (Library of Congress): online collection of documents for American history, comprising written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music.
• British History Online: digital library of primary and secondary sources for medieval and modern history of the British Isles
• Empire Online: online collection of original documents relating to empire studies, including exploration journals, periodicals, government papers, maps.
• First World War: Personal Experiences: database of digital images of original documents, including diaries, letters, personal narratives, scrapbooks, and visual sources.
• German History in Documents and Images: digital collection of original historical materials documenting German history from the beginning of the early modern period to the present.
• UK Parliamentary Papers includes over 200,00 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715, with supplementary material back to 1688.

In Cambridge

ArchiveSearch  provides finding aids and links to digital records for the majority of archives located in the city of Cambridge., including the archives of many colleges, and of the Churchill Archives Centre .

In the United Kingdom

You may need to visit archives outside Cambridge as part of your research. To find out what archival material is held where, there are various union catalogues of archive material:

• National Archives: Formerly the Public Record Office, this repository holds the national archives for England, Wales and the United Kingdom (there are separate national record offices for Scotland and Northern Ireland). They have extensive online catalogues , which can be searched by subject, and you can access their online collections and download copies of documents.
• National Register of Archives: A register of over 44,000 unpublished lists and catalogues, detailing the nature and location of manuscripts and historical records relating to British history. These are "non-official" archives covering the holdings of local record offices, national and university libraries (including Cambridge), specialist repositories, museums and other bodies in the United Kingdom and abroad, as well as papers held privately by individuals, firms and institutions. The research guides on the website explain how the National Register of Archives can be used for locating material on particular topics.
• Archives Hub: A national gateway to descriptions of archives of over 180 UK repositories (including Oxford and Cambridge); again, you can search by subject.

To search the holdings of archives outside the United Kingdom, try Archive Grid , a major catalogue of historical documents, personal papers and family history material held in repositories around the world; you can search for collections by topic.

Subject gateways are online portals to subject-specific resources, and can be excellent places to look for more information on your topic. Some gateways where the sites have been evaluated by experts include:

• History Online: Created by the Institute of Historical Research, this initiative indexes books and journal articles, details history lecturers in the U.K., digital history projects, and current and past historical research.
• History Data Service: This project collects, preserves, and promotes the use of digital resources, which result from or support historical research, learning and teaching.
• Connected Histories: A collection of digital resources on early modern and 19th century British history.
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Resources to Find Dissertations: Home

Description.

This page provides links to databases and websites to find dissertations. This includes links to general databases to find dissertations, databases focused on the humanities, foreign dissertations, dissertations on religion, and dissertations hosted by other universities.

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Humanities dissertations, foreign dissertations, religion dissertations, dissertations of universities, yale divinity library.

Science Dissertations

• Last Updated: Aug 22, 2023 5:35 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.yale.edu/dissertations

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Dissertation Reviews

Founded in 2010, Dissertation Reviews features overviews of recently defended, unpublished doctoral dissertations in a wide variety of disciplines across the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our goal is to offer readers a glimpse of each discipline’s immediate present by focusing on the window of time between dissertation defense and first book publication.

Each review provides a summary of the author’s main arguments, the historiographic genealogy in which the author operates, and the main source bases for his or her research. The reviews are also anticipatory, making educated assessments of how the research will advance or challenge our understanding of major issues in the field when it is revised and published in the future.

In addition to the public, non-critical review that is published on the site, authors also receive private, critical commentary from their reviewers designed to help authors during the manuscript revision process. Critical comments are not published on the site or circulated in any way. They are expressly for the author.

Dissertation Reviews also features reviews of and guides to archives, libraries, databases, and other collections where such dissertation research was conducted, to help scholars improve their ability to undertake current and future research.

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• Natural History in the Age of Revolutions, 1776–1848
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How to organise a history essay or dissertation

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Sachiko Kusukawa

There are many ways of writing history and no fixed formula for a 'good' essay or dissertation. Before you start, you may find it helpful to have a look at some sample dissertations and essays from the past: ask at the Whipple Library.

Some people have a clear idea already of what they are going to write about; others find it more difficult to choose or focus on a topic. It may be obvious, but it is worth pointing out that you should choose a topic you find interesting and engaging. Ask a potential supervisor for a list of appropriate readings, chase up any further sources that look interesting or promising from the footnotes, or seek further help. Try to define your topic as specifically as possible as soon as possible. Sometimes, it helps to formulate a question (in the spirit of a Tripos question), which could then be developed, refined, or re-formulated. A good topic should allow you to engage closely with a primary source (text, image, object, etc.) and develop a historiographical point – e.g. adding to, or qualifying historians' current debates or received opinion on the topic. Specific controversies (either historically or historiographically) are often a great place to start looking. Many dissertations and essays turn out to be overambitious in scope, but underambition is a rare defect!

Both essays and dissertations have an introduction and a conclusion . Between the introduction and the conclusion there is an argument or narrative (or mixture of argument and narrative).

An introduction introduces your topic, giving reasons why it is interesting and anticipating (in order) the steps of your argument. Hence many find that it is a good idea to write the introduction last. A conclusion summarises your arguments and claims. This is also the place to draw out the implications of your claims; and remember that it is often appropriate to indicate in your conclusion further profitable lines of research, inquiry, speculation, etc.

An argument or narrative should be coherent and presented in order. Divide your text into paragraphs which make clear points. Paragraphs should be ordered so that they are easy to follow. Always give reasons for your assertions and assessments: simply stating that something or somebody is right or wrong does not constitute an argument. When you describe or narrate an event, spell out why it is important for your overall argument. Put in chapter or section headings whenever you make a major new step in your argument of narrative.

It is a very good idea to include relevant pictures and diagrams . These should be captioned, and their relevance should be fully explained. If images are taken from a source, this should be included in the captions or list of illustrations.

The extent to which it is appropriate to use direct quotations varies according to topic and approach. Always make it clear why each quotation is pertinent to your argument. If you quote from non-English sources say if the translation is your own; if it isn't give the source. At least in the case of primary sources include the original in a note if it is your own translation, or if the precise details of wording are important. Check your quotations for accuracy. If there is archaic spelling make sure it isn't eliminated by a spell-check. Don't use words without knowing what they mean.

An essay or a dissertation has three components: the main text , the notes , and the bibliography .

The main text is where you put in the substance of your argument, and is meant to be longer than the notes. For quotes from elsewhere, up to about thirty words, use quotation marks ("...", or '...'). If you quote anything longer, it is better to indent the whole quotation without quotation marks.

Notes may either be at the bottom of the page (footnotes) or at the end of the main text, but before the bibliography (endnotes). Use notes for references and other supplementary material which does not constitute the substance of your argument. Whenever you quote directly from other works, you must give the exact reference in your notes. A reference means the exact location in a book or article which you have read , so that others can find it also – it should include author, title of the book, place and date of publication, page number. (There are many different ways to refer to scholarly works: see below.) . If you cite a primary source from a secondary source and you yourself have not read or checked the primary source, you must acknowledge the secondary source from which the citation was taken. Whenever you paraphrase material from somebody else's work, you must acknowledge that fact. There is no excuse for plagiarism. It is important to note that generous and full acknowledgement of the work of others does not undermine your originality.

Your bibliography must contain all the books and articles you have referred to (do not include works that you did not use). It lists works alphabetically by the last name of the author. There are different conventions to set out a bibliography, but at the very least a bibliographic entry should include for a book the last name and initials/first name of the author, the title of the book in italics or underlined, and the place, (publisher optional) and date of publication; or, for an article, the last name and initials/first name of the author, the title in inverted commas, and the name of the journal in italics or underlined, followed by volume number, date of publication, and page numbers. Names of editors of volumes of collected articles and names of translators should also be included, whenever applicable.

• M. MacDonald, Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety, and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
• William Clark, 'Narratology and the History of Science', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 26 (1995), 1–72.
• M. F. Burnyeat, 'The Sceptic in His Place and Time', in R. Rorty, J. B. Schneewind and Q. Skinner (eds), Philosophy in History , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 225–54.

Alternatively, if you have many works to refer to, it may be easier to use an author-date system in notes, e.g.:

• MacDonald [1981], p. 89; Clark [1995a], p. 65; Clark [1995b], pp. 19–99.

In this case your bibliography should also start with the author-date, e.g.:

• MacDonald, Michael [1981], Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety, and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Clark, William [1995a], 'Narratology and the History of Science', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 26, 1–72.

This system has the advantage of making your foot- or endnotes shorter, and many choose it to save words (the bibliography is not included in the word limit). It is the system commonly used in scientific publications. Many feel however that something is historically amiss when you find in a footnote something like 'Plato [1996b]' or 'Locke [1975]'. In some fields of research there are standard systems of reference: you will find that this is the case if, for example, you write an essay/dissertation on classical history or philosophy of science. In such cases it is a good idea to take a standard secondary source as your model (e.g. in the case of classics, see G.E.R. Lloyd's The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practices of Ancient Greek Science , Berkeley 1987).

Whatever system you decide to follow for your footnotes, what matters most is that the end-product is consistent.

Keep accurate records of all the relevant bibliographic information as you do your reading for your essay/dissertation. (If you don't you may waste days trying to trace references when you are close to submission deadlines.)

Consistency of style throughout the essay/dissertation is encouraged. There are many professional guides to thesis writing which give you more information on the style and format of theses – for example the MLS handbook (British) and the Chicago Manual of Style (American), both in the Whipple, and a booklet, H. Teitelbaum, How to Write a Thesis: A Guide to the Research Paper , 3rd ed., 126 pp., New York: Macmillan (& Arco), 1994 (in the UL: 1996.8.2620). But don't try to follow everything they say!

Every now and then you should read through a printout of your whole essay/dissertation, to ensure that your argument flows throughout the piece: otherwise there is a danger that your arguments become compartmentalised to the size of the screen. When reading drafts, ask yourself if it would be comprehensible to an intelligent reader who was not an expert on the specific topic.

It is imperative that you save your work on disk regularly – never be caught out without a back-up.

Before you submit:

• remember to run a spell-check (and remember that a spell check will not notice if you have written, for example, 'pheasant' instead of 'peasant', or, even trickier, 'for' instead of 'from', 'it' instead of 'is', etc.);
• prepare a table of contents, with titles for each chapter of your essay/dissertation, page numbers and all;
• prepare a cover page with the title, your name and college;
• prepare a page with the required statement about length, originality etc.

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• Work For Us
• History Dissertation Repository

The Northumbria Dissertation Repository was launched in October 2015 to share the best of the university's undergraduate research in History. While online repositories already exist for postgraduate theses, few include undergraduate research – despite the fact that many dissertations are original in conception, argument, and in their use of primary sources.

The History team at Northumbria is pleased to provide access to the excellent, archive-driven research undertaken by our final-year students. The dissertations included in this repository were all awarded first-class marks. They reflect the range of research expertise at Northumbria, as well as our commitment to research-based learning. Moreover, the pieces in this dissertation clearly testify to the skills, enthusiasm and hard work of our students.

We hope to add further examples of undergraduate research to the repository in subsequent years, thereby developing it as a useful resource.

If you have any further questions about the repository, please contact Dr Daniel Laqua  or Dr James McConnel .

Medieval and Early Modern History

• Hide, Rachel : Tribal Resistance in Northern England and Scotland from the Roman Conquest to the Building of Hadrian’s Wall, 43-122 AD
• Husbands, Benjamin : The Afterlife of Joan of Arc: Visual Representations of the Maid of Orléans
• Watson, Hannah : A Feminist Analysis of the Reinforcement of Patriarchal Strategies within Families of the Late Medieval Gentry

Early Modern

• Curry, Adam : The Arthurian Reformation: The Changing Image of the Arthurian Legend During the English Reformation
• Clarke, Lucy :  A Comparison of Female Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century London and Dublin
• Harrington, Helen :  Gender and ‘Crimes of Speech’ in Seventeenth-Century York
• Weightman, Peter : The Role of the Commons of Cumberland and Westmoreland in the Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536

Modern British History

• Green, Jyoti :  Female Same-Sex Desire in the Nineteenth Century: Approaches from Lesbian Feminist Theory
• Martin, Hannah :  ‘Tragedy, Death, and Memory’: The Commemoration of British Coal Mining Disasters in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century
• Riddell, Daniel : Tyneside and the Italian Risorgimento, 1848-1861 
• White, Oliver :  The Football League and the Game It Made: A Study of the Development and Transformation of Association Football, 1888–1914 
• Aldis, Francesca :  “They call this spring, Mum, and they have one here every year”: An Examination of the Evacuation Experience of Tyneside Schoolchildren 1939–1945
• Carr, Jessica :  Women’s Work in Munitions Factories during The First World War: Gender, Class and Public Opinion
• Isles, Scott :  More Than 'an Enemy's Name, Rank and Number': Information Gaines from Luftwaffe Prisoners of War and its Use for British Intelligence during the Battle of Britain, July - October 1940
• Macfarlane, Euan :  British Naval Innovation and Performance before and during the First World War: The 1916 Sinking of the HMS Invincible
• Timms, Mathew :  The North East and Economic Depression, 1935–1939: The Impact of the Team Valley Corporation
• Wickenden, Rebecca :  ‘For Home and Country’: The Role of the Women’s Institute in the Northumberland and Durham Counties during the Second World War
• Corrigan, Chloe : More Than the 'Fuddy Duddy Co-op': The Consumer Co-operative Movement in 1960s Great Britain
• Fairbairn, Lily : 'Born to Struggle': Working-Class Women's Activism in 1970s Britain
• Kundu, Victoria : 'Roaming Mobs of Mutants!': Anti-Nuclear Culture and Protest in Britain, 1979-1989
• Sumner, Billy :  Militant within Liverpool City Council 1983–1986: The Impact of and Reaction to a Left-Wing Political Movement in the Labour Party
• Tewson, Miles : The Process of Decolonization in Burma: Managing the Transition from Colony to Independent State

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• Harold, Danny :  Russian Exiles in Britain, 1918–1926: The Politics and Culture of Russia Abroad
• Heywood, Gareth :  Education, Sociability and the Politics of Culture in Fin-de-Siècle France
• McGowan, Abbie :  ‘Looted Art as an International Issue’: From Nazi Plunder to Restitution, 1939–1951
• Robertson-Major, James :  A Long Half-Life: Responses to Chernobyl in Soviet and Post-Soviet Society
• Serafin, Marcel :  Socialist Opposition in the Polish People’s Republic, 1964–1989
• Armstrong, Alasdair :  Words as Weapons: Black Nationalist Poetry in America during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s
• Foley, Lee : A Step Backwards: Nixon, Détente, and the American Space Program
• Henderson, Sophie :  Disobedience and Defiance: Massive Resistance in Mississippi in the 1950s and 1960s
• Keen, Gavin :  New York City’s Societal Influence on the Punk Movement, 1975–1979
• Lisle, Ben :  ‘In no other business in America is the color line so finely drawn as in baseball’: An Analysis of Black Baseball’s Failed Attempts at Achieving Major League Professionalism, 1887–1939
• McGuinness, Chloe: Bridging the Gap One Bite at a Time: A Food History of African American Activism, 1955-2015
• Paterson, Ewan :  Redefining Watergate: Surveillance, Paranoia and Pop Culture in America’s Long 1970s
• Watson, Lucy :  Representing the 1970s on TV:  That '70s Show
• Weaver, Alice :  Peace Activism and Women’s Politics: Women Strike for Peace in Context, 1961–1972

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150 Strong History Dissertation Topics to Write about

Writing a dissertation is one of the most challenging and exciting moments of an academic career. Such work usually takes a great deal of time, courage, and intellectual effort to complete. That’s why every step in your work process is essential.

It all starts with finding a good topic, which can be a challenge of its own. It especially matters when it comes to liberal arts subjects. In social studies, literature, or world history options are practically endless.

Coming up with history dissertation ideas, you need to think of historical events that interest you. We get it, choosing one is tough. There can be too much to wrap your head around. That’s why IvyPanda experts prepare some dissertation topics in history ready for you.

• How to Choose a Topic?
• Ancient History
• Medieval History
• Modern History
• Cold War Topics
• American History
• European History
• Indian History
• African History
• Performing Arts
• Visual Arts
• How to Structure

🧐 How to Choose a History Dissertation Topic?

Before examining our ideas for dissertation topics in history, you should get ready for this. You have to understand how to pick a history dissertation topic, which will ensure your academic success. Keep in mind that this is a vital step in your career.

So, check some tips on picking what to write about:

• Make sure that the topic fits in your field of study. You have to understand what you’re writing about. Basing your paper on existing knowledge and experience is a part of any dissertation. Working on an overly complicated idea can sound impressive but lead to failure. It will become a nightmare already on the stage of writing a dissertation proposal. How can you write the entire thing without comprehending it?
• Estimate whether you’re interested in the topic you intend to write on. Although this might seem obvious, yes. However, being actually invested makes a massive difference for your further work. There are plenty of students who settle for “easy but boring” topics and end up struggling twice as much.
• Ensure that your topic is specific enough. Your idea should have the potential for fruitful research. Narrowing down your area of study is essential for writing a good dissertation. It helps you to find the direction of your examination and enough sources to work with. Moreover, this way, you’ll be able to explore your topic in its entirety.
• Do some prior research. It will give you an understanding of how much literature on your topic is out there. Take notes of the materials for the reference list and your analysis. Checking history essay samples is a good idea, too.
• Don’t be shy to ask your dissertation advisor for some assistance. After all, they are here to help and guide you through the process. Besides, you have to see what ideas they consider relevant and appropriate.

👍 Good Dissertation Topics in History: Time Period

History is a subject as ancient and vast as the humankind itself. It’s only rational to study it according to a particular timeline. Here are some good history dissertation topics for different periods.

🏺 Ancient History Dissertation Topics

• Ancient Civilizations: The Maya Empire . The Maya was an incredibly powerful Empire with its prime around six century A.D., excelling in mathematics, calendar-making, astrology, and writing. It faced the decline of its city-states in nine century A.D., leaving a rich cultural heritage to the studies of subsequent generations.
• Women’s Roles and Gender relations in the Ancient World
• Greek City-States . Ancient Greece is the place where the first city-states were formed. How did the first governments in the ancient history timeline develop? How did people’s attitudes towards leadership change in that context?

• Ancient Near-Eastern Thought and the Old Testament
• The Inca Empire as a Great Civilization of Pre-Columbian America
• The Impact of Mongol Invasion in Ancient Arab
• The personality of Julius Caesar and His Effect on Rome
• The Role of Poets and the place of Poetry in Ancient Greece
• Mesopotamian Civilization . This was a fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It has been home to some of the world’s wealthiest and most advanced ancient cities. It can also make an excellent archaeology dissertation topic. There are plenty of fascinating sites that could be studied.
• History: Ancient Greek Olympics . Started in 776 BC, the Olympic Games were the most important cultural event in Ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus every four years. Besides, the Olympics were representative of the triumph of physical and spiritual power.
• Warfare and Violence in Ancient Times. Try to do a comparative analysis of warfare techniques used by different ancient civilizations. It could be a great dissertation topic.
• Burial Rituals in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece: a comparison
• Plutarch’s Vision on Alexander the Great
• Dissolution of the Roman Empire . The Empire sprawled from the coast of North Africa to the territories of the modern UK and Armenia. Once, it was the most powerful political entity in the entire Mediterranean. The empire, however, collapsed in 476 CE. What were the reasons for its eventual decline?

• How Geography Has Impacted the Development of Ancient Cultures
• Cause and Effect of Art on Classical Societies
• The Invention of Papyrus and its impact on the World
• Chichen Itza Archaeological Site . Chichen Itza is a great pre-Columbian archaeological site, home to the Maya civilization. It is a fascinating study case in many aspects. Consider the origins and Maya history. Analyze the cultural preservation issues that it faces nowadays.
• Egyptian Pyramid’s Importance in Egypt’s society
• The Stone Age Period and its Evolution

🛡 Medieval History Dissertation Ideas

• Cultural Exchanges in the Medieval Period . In the aftermath of the Roman Empire’s fall, new geopolitical conditions formed. The early Middle Ages period already marked the appearance of new trade routes. It fostered cultural exchange between nations.
• Rome in the Middle Ages and its cultural transformation
• The Development of Feudalism and Manorialism in the Middle Ages
• The Catholic Church and the Black Death in the 14th Century . During the high Middle Ages, the plague epidemic terrorized Europe. It was a dreadful challenge to medicine, religious institutions, and the social apparatus of the time. How did the Catholic Church deal with such a complex and disastrous medical phenomenon?
• Jews and Muslims in Medieval Spain . Christian, Islamic, and Jewish communities shared the Iberian peninsula in the early Middle Ages. It formed a vibrant cultural environment.
• London during the Roman Age: A Critical Overview
• Causes of the First Crusade of 1095-1099
• Twelfth-Century Renaissance, how Franciscans reacted to it and benefited from its development
• Business and Empire, the British ideal of an Orderly World
• The Black Death, Late Medieval Demographic crisis, and the Standard of Living controversies
• The Role of the Church in the life of the Middle Ages

• Medieval Siege Warfare . Exploring methods of defense used during the Middle Ages might be an interesting research project.
• The Conditions of Hindu and Islamic women in Medieval India
• Why the Crusades Failed
• The Mechanical Water clock of Ibn Al-Haytham, his philosophy of the rise and fall of empires
• The Renaissance and its Cultural, Political and Economic Influence
• The Dark Ages as the Golden Ages of European History . Plenty of facts demonstrate civilization’s decline during the Middle Ages. It was, nevertheless, the time of significant scientific, literary, and technological progress. For some interested in writing a medieval literature dissertation: think of Dante’s Divine Comedy . Da Vinci made his groundbreaking study projects during the Middle Ages. It was the time when first universities, such as Cambridge and Oxford, were founded. Overall, this period has a lot to offer!
• Japan’s Development Under Edo/Tokugawa Shogunate
• Historical and Theological Context of Byzantine Iconoclasm
• Medieval Convivencia: Document Analysis

🕰 Modern History Dissertation Topics

• World History: Enlightenment in Society and its Impact on Global Culture
• Nationalism and its 19th Century History
• Why Mussolini and the Fascists Were Able to Seize Power in Italy
• Religious Symbolism in Renaissance paintings . Renaissance is well-known as a period when fine arts were thriving. It was an early modern birthplace of many technological and cultural advancements. Religion, however, was still a central topic in visual art.
• Industrial Revolution and its Impact on Western Civilizations
• Principles of Liberalism and Its Connection to Enlightenment and Conservatism
• “History and Topography of Ireland” by Gerald of Wales . Looking for an incredible Irish history dissertation topic? Then this document might be an interesting prompt. Its somewhat controversial tone of describing contemporary Irish culture, history, and traditions can be subject to a comprehensive analysis.
• Moral treatment of Mental Illness . Over the 19th and 20th centuries, psychology has changed. Moving from a scientific periphery, it became one of the central subjects of scholarly discussions. Mental illnesses were highly disregarded in earlier centuries. People even considered them to be manifestations of demonic possession. How did this attitude change? Why did people rethink psychology as a scholarly discipline?
• A History of the Cuban Revolution

• Abraham Lincoln’s Historical Influence
• Role of Women During the Spanish Civil War
• Conquest and Colonization of America by European Countries . Colonization of America is one of the grandest enterprises in the world’s political history. What were its driving forces?
• Origins and Trajectory of the French Revolution
• Major Impacts of Consumerism in contemporary world history
• Coco Chanel Fashion: History of Costume . Probably not the first topic for a history dissertation that comes to mind. Chanel is truly an iconic figure in modern history, though. She revolutionized the fashion industry concerning gender as well.
• Causes of the Breakup of the Former Yugoslavia
• The Russian Working Class Movement . Before 1861, the agriculture and peasant-owning system were the foundation of the Russian Empire’s economy. Serfs made up a significant part of the population, accounting for over 60% in some regions. Then the serfdom abolition happened. A lot has changed in the economic and social life of the country.
• Segregation During the 1960s
• Historical Development of Feminism and Patriarchy
• Monetary and Fiscal Policy during the Great Depression

🔔 History Dissertation Topics on Cold War

• The Role of Cold War in Shaping Transatlantic Relations in the Period from 1945 to 1970
• The showdown between the United States and the USSR . Cold Was was essentially the power struggle between the US and the Soviet Union. It unleashed in the aftermath of World War II. This political precedent came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, the answer to the “Who won the Cold War?” question may be unclear.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis , its causes, and effects
• US Foreign Policy during the Cold War. Cold War, as a phenomenon, has many layers to it. Yet the one crucial is the contest of two ideologies: democracy and communism. How did the US shape its foreign policy and pursue its interests abroad? And how did the cultural and political setup within the country adjust to it?
• To what extent did the Cold War shape the US relations with Latin America?
• What was the importance of Berlin in the Cold War?
• Japan’s role since the end of the Cold War
• Cold War Politics, Culture, and War . Exploring the Cold War causes and effects can be quite a challenge. It is such a multifaceted phenomenon. It was a war led on many fronts. Both USSR and the US pursued their interests using a variety of methods.

• How did Cold War propaganda influence the film industry?
• What were the challenges in the post-cold war world?

🗺 History Dissertation Topics: Geographical Regions

Every country has its historical course, and so does every continent. Geography has always been an important factor when talking about history. It shapes historical trajectory in varied, unique ways.

Look at a dissertation topics history list based on geographical regions:

🦅 American History Dissertation Topics

• History of Hollywood, California . Oh, Hollywood. A place where American movie history was born. What about Hollywood’s history? Although a less traditional American history dissertation topic, it is still a fascinating one. Explore the way technological advancements in filmmaking were introduced over the decades. How did they influence the film’s general style?
• History: Migration into the United States . How did migration influence the economy of the time?
• The Relationships between the Settlers and Native Americans
• Literary works’ Views on Slavery in the United States
• Causes of the Civil War in America
• What is the real meaning of a cowboy?
• The United States military experience through the eyes of films
• Attack on Pearl Harbor: Effects of Foreign policy
• Causes of Depression in the 1890s
• Has President Obama’s Presidency changed the US?
• The role of Founding Fathers in American Society and Religion
• Post-Civil War reconstruction . Consider the way America’s economy, trade, and finance transformed in the aftermath of the Civil War.
• Principal causes and consequences of the Spanish-American War
• Why was the Declaration of Independence written?
• The Significance of the Frontier in American History
• How is a “new racial narrative” in the U.S.A created?
• American Revolution and the Crisis of the Constitution of the U.S.A. Rethink the origins of the American constitution, as well as the following events. It could be an exciting thesis idea for an American history dissertation.

• Growth and Development of San Francisco and Los Angeles after the Gold Rush
• The Role of Racism in American Art
• Drug Use and Abuse in America: Historical Analysis

🏰 European History Dissertation Topics

• Age of Discovery in Europe. The Age of Exploration in Europe lasted from the 15th to the 17th century. Over this period, Europe actively engaged with other territories and continents. Discoverers formed new international relations and expanded geographical knowledge. This topic could also make an excellent cultural history dissertation.
• Analyzing the Impact of British Colonization
• Nationalism in World War II
• Effects of the Industrial Revolution concerning World War I
• The Rise and Fall of Napoleon and the Cause of Revolution . Napoleon is one of the most prominent figures in French history. What has shaped his career as a political leader?
• History of Hitler’s Nazi Propaganda . Consider a brief history of Germany. Undoubtedly, the rule of Hitler and the Third Reich was its most devastating chapter. The “art” of propaganda flourished during the nazi regime. It penetrated the cultural, political, and social life of the country.
• Evolution of the IRA
• Napoleon’s Strategy and Tactics in his Invasion of Russia . For someone interested in writing a military history dissertation.
• Industrial Revolution Impact on Gender Roles
• Witchcraft in Europe (1450-1750) . Witch hunts took place as early as the Middle Ages in Europe. Held by the Church in most cases, witch hunts targeted those who were suspected of practicing black magic. Examine this both astonishing and problematic phenomenon.

• French Revolution: Liberal and Radical Portions
• West European Studies: Columbus’s Journey
• History of Feudalism . Feudalism dominated the European way of life during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. What were its distinctive features as a system? Why did it eventually fade away?
• Europe’s perception of Islam in the Early and Middle centuries
• Cold War Consequences for European Countries
• Mutated Medical Professionals in the Third Reich: Third Reich Doctors
• Was the Holocaust the Failure or the Product of Modernity?
• How did the use of print change the lives of early modern Europeans ?
• Early Modern England: a Social History
• Jewish Insight of Holocaust

⛰ Indian History Dissertation Topics

• History of the Indian Castes. The Indian Caste system is a complex and unique example of social stratification.
• Mahatma Gandhi’s Leadership . Gandhi is, for sure, among the greatest human rights advocates in the world’s history. His one of a kind leadership style is subject to many studies. While practicing a peaceful form of civil protest, he fought for equality, independence, and compassion.
• Political conflicts in India in the XVII century
• Impacts of the First World War on British Policies in India
• Movement Against the British rule in India. Led by Mahatma Gandhi, with the support of the National Congress, the movement took place in 1920-22. It sought to fight for the freedom of Indians.
• The Origin and Course of the Indian revolt of 1857
• The Issues of the Partitioning of India in 1947
• India Since 1900 . India is a region rich with unique traditions. Its spiritual and cultural heritage goes back to antiquity. The country’s authentic art and architecture, music, and cuisine have served as an inspiration worldwide. A considerable part of its history is, however, affected by British rule.

• Women in Hinduism and Buddhism
• The British East India Company

🌍 African History Dissertation Topics

• Ancient Societies in Mesopotamia and Ancient Societies in Africa: a comparison . Egypt is one of the most ancient African civilizations. Its origins go back to the third millennium B.C. Back then, the cultural exchange between Egypt and Mesopotamia was flourishing. What were the significant differences between the two civilizations? What did they have to offer to one another?
• Political Violence in South Africa between 1985 and 1989
• Did History of Modern South Africa begin with the Discovery of Diamonds and Gold?
• Nelson Mandela: “Freedom in Africa.” Nelson Mandela is, without a doubt, one of the central figures in African history. His devotion and tireless effort in fighting against apartheid were remarkable. Thanks to him, many sub-Saharan countries enjoy the freedoms and advances of a democratic society.
• The Cult of the Dead in West Africa: The Kongo People . African tribal rituals and traditions are unique and specific to their region. Cult of the Dead is prevalent in Western African culture. It can be notoriously known as the origin place of voodoo and other black magic practices. There is yet much more to this culture. Dismantling some prejudices could make an excellent African history thesis.
• Christianity, Slavery, and Colonialism: the paradox
• The Colonial War in Southwest Africa
• African-Europe Relations between 1800 and 2000
• Impacts of Slavery and Slave Trade in Africa
• African Communities in America

🎨 Art History Dissertation Topics

Art comes in all shapes and forms. To grasp it better, we can explore each kind separately. Here’s a list of art history dissertation ideas:

🎶 Topics on Performing Arts

• History and Development of Ballet . Ballet is an art form with a long history. Initially, a specific dance originated in Medieval Italy. It was later brought to France and Great Britain. Ballet thrived in the 20th century Russia, where Russian choreographers brought it to the highest level of mastery.
• The Life and Work of William Shakespeare: His Contribution to The Contemporary Theater
• Jazz Music in American Culture . Jazz is one of the most complex and exciting music genres of all time. It was born in the 20’s century black communities of New Orleans and quickly spread across America and then the world. The genre, however, will always be an integral part of African-American identity.
• The Instrumental Music of Baroque: Forms and Evolution
• Rock Music of the 1970s
• Michael Jackson’s Life as a Musician and Choreographer
• Development of the Symphony Orchestra in the 19th and 20th Century
• Woodstock Music Festival . This massive music festival that first took place in 1969 was the epitome of hippie culture. It has a rich history that once again underscores the importance of performing arts in Western culture.
• The History of Modern Chinese Music
• The Renaissance Theater Development. The era in which both visual and performing arts were thriving. It has a lot to offer for proper dissertation research.

🖼Topics on Visual Arts

• Art Period Comparison: Classicism and Middle Age
• Vincent Van Gogh: Changes in the Technique
• The Ambiguity of Mona Lisa Painting

• Orientalism in Western Art . It’s commonly associated with romanticism and some 20th-century artworks. Orientalism is a Western term that speculates the aesthetics of the Orient. Consider this concept as a prism through which Westerners viewed the Eastern world.
• Classical Art and Cubism: History and Comparison
• Postmodern and Modern Art . The 20th and 21st centuries have been a breeding ground for many forms of fine art to emerge and flourish. Some art movements presented their philosophy in the form of manifestos. These texts can be nothing but a pure treasure for someone writing an art history dissertation.
• Female Figures in Ancient Greek Sculpture
• Andy Warhol’s Career . Pioneer of pop-art, creator of Studio 54, and a style icon.
• Filippo Brunelleschi and Religious Architecture
• The Photographic Approaches Towards American Culture of Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand

📋 How to Structure Your Dissertation?

An adequately structured history dissertation can immensely help students. It ensures that they present their ideas and thoughts logically. Sticking to a particular dissertation structure is an essential element of such work.

The general plan of any dissertation type is the following:

• Title Page. A title page should only contain essential information about your work. It usually shows your name, type of the document (thesis, research paper, dissertation), and the title itself. A good history dissertation title is crucial! It’s the first thing a reader will see.
• Acknowledgments. Do you wish to give credit to someone for supporting you during the tiresome months of your work? This is the right part to do so, be it your family, friends, or professors. It is an excellent form to express gratitude to those who proofread your drafts. Or those who brought you another cup of coffee when you needed it.
• Declaration. This section is your written confirmation. You declare that all the research and writing is entirely original and was conducted by you. If someone intellectually contributed to your project, state it in the acknowledgments.
• Table of Contents. Essentially, it’s a brief structure of your dissertation. List every section that you’ve included in your academic paper here.
• Abstract. This is the section where you write a brief summary of your dissertation. It should describe the issue, summarize your core message and essential points. List your research methods and what you’ve done. Remember to make it short, as the abstract shouldn’t exceed 300 words or so. Finish the part with a few essential keywords so that others can find your work.
• Introduction. A dissertation introduction presents the subject to the reader. You can talk about the format of your work. Explain what you plan to contribute to the field with your research.
• Literature Review. The chapter reviews and analyzes pieces of scholarly work (literature) that have been made on the subject of your research. The sources should present relevant theories and support your thesis. Be sure to discuss the weaknesses and strengths of the selected area of study and highlight possible gaps in this research.
• a code of conduct;
• research limitations;
• research philosophy;
• research design;
• ethical consideration;
• data collection methods;
• data analysis strategy.
• Findings and Results. Restate everything you have found in your research. However, do not interpret the data or make any conclusions yet.
• Discussion and Conclusion. In this chapter, you should personally interpret all of the data and make conclusions based on your research. It is essential to establish a logical link between the results and evidence. Finally, conclude the overall study. You can add final judgments, opinions, and comments.
• References. This section contains a list of references to all the sources that you used. Write down every material, which you quoted, mentioned, or paraphrased in your work. Check your educational institution’s guidelines to see how to do so correctly.
• Bibliography. Similar to the reference section, a bibliography is a list of sources you used in your dissertation. The only difference is that it should contain even the sources you don’t directly mention in your writing. Whatever helped you with the research, you state here.
• Appendices. The section may include any supplementary information that explains and complement the arguments. Add pictures, diagrams, and graphs that serve as examples for your research subject.

Writing a dissertation is the right challenge for those with ambitions and lots of determination. It is a lot like a marathon, and it starts with choosing the right topic. We hope that you will find one for yourself on this list. Good luck! Share the article to help those who may need a piece of advice or some history dissertation topics.

🔗 References

• How To Write A Dissertation: Department of Computer Science, West Lafayette, Purdue University
• Ph.D. Thesis Research, Where Do I Start: Don Davis, Columbia University
• Writing with Power: Elbow P., Oxford University
• Writing a Thesis or Dissertation – A Guide to Resources: Gricel Dominguez
• The Elements of Style: Strunk, W. Jr., White, E.B., Angell, R.
• A Collection Of Dissertation Topics In American History: asqauditconference.org
• Yale History Dissertations: Department of History, Yale University
• Dissertation Outline: School of Education, Duquesne University
• Developing a Thesis Statement: The Writing Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Writing an Abstract: The Writing Center, George Mason University
• Formatting Additional Pages: University of Missouri Graduate School
• Reference List vs. Bibliography: OWLL, Massey University
• How to Write Your Dissertation: Goldsmiths University for The Guardian
• Tips on Grammar, Punctuation and Style: Kim Cooper, for the Writing Center at Harvard University
• Acknowledgments, Thesis and Dissertation: Research Guides at Sam Houston State University
• Thesis Formatting, Writing up your Research: Subject Guides at University of Canterbury
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Department of History

Doctoral dissertation.

• Ph.D. Program

The capstone, and most critical, project of the Ph.D. program is the doctoral dissertation.

The series of courses within the department dealing with professional development concludes with the dissertation prospectus seminar, which students take in the sixth semester, if they have passed their examinations.

Prospectus Seminar

The dissertation prospectus seminar provides a shared structure for the process of identifying viable dissertation projects, selecting a dissertation committee, articulating a project in the form of a prospectus, and, where appropriate, developing grant proposals based on the prospectus.

Dissertation Committee

The dissertation committee, the selection of which is a requirement of the course, consists of a director and two additional members.

Director of Graduate Studies

The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) will verify that the thesis director, who will normally also have been the supervisor of the student's major field examination, accepts the role of the student's major professor and dissertation advisor.

At the same time the DGS will nominate, with their written approval, two other professors who have been agreed upon between the dissertation director and student. In case of disagreement, the choice will be made by the department. With the consent of the dissertation director and DGS, the dissertation committee may include a person from outside the Department. This committee will be responsible for evaluating the student's detailed written proposal, to be presented no later than the end of the sixth semester, and for approving the final version of the student's dissertation.

A dissertation prospectus should be divided into the following four sections:

• historiography -- setting the proposed study in the context of the relevant historical literature
• methodology -- outlining the approach the student proposes to take
• types of sources to be examined
• significance -- the historical importance of the work and why we need such a study.

In addition, there should also be a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. If deemed unsatisfactory, the proposal may be referred back for resubmission by the end of the summer following the sixth semester. Students who have not presented their thesis proposal to their dissertation committee by the end of the summer following the sixth semester shall be considered not in good standing and may be ineligible for further financial aid from the department.

Postponement

Students must petition the department in writing for any postponement of the submission of their thesis proposal beyond the end of the sixth semester. Petitions must be accompanied by a recommendation of the student's dissertation advisor. Grounds for such an extension include protracted illness, teaching duties beyond those normally expected of second year and fifth semester students, or the discovery of unexpected difficulties with his/her thesis topic (e.g. a recently completed dissertation or book on the same subject).

Preparation and Examination

After passing the preliminary examination and obtaining approval of his/her dissertation proposal by the dissertation committee, doctoral candidates are encouraged to proceed with this research with speed and efficiency. As the research progresses, if unexpected discoveries about the nature of the sources or other unforeseen developments occur, the student and thesis director should confer in case redefinition of the topic seems necessary. During the research and writing of the thesis, it is the student's responsibility regularly to provide the thesis director with evidence of satisfactory progress towards completion. Such evidence will normally be provided in informal consultations between student and thesis director; if the student is absent from the campus, it should be provided by letter at least once each semester.

Presentation

All students will normally be expected to give a presentation before the History Workshop (or other similar group) of all or part of the dissertation (or other research).

The doctoral dissertation should be completed within four years after the student passes the preliminary examination. Exceptions to this rule will be granted only upon a written petition by the student to the Department.

A faculty member has the right to refuse to direct a thesis without stating specific reasons. However, once he or she has agreed in writing to direct a thesis, the directorship may not be relinquished unless both the student and the Department are informed of the reasons in writing. A student may ask the Department to appoint a new thesis director at any time.

If the Director Leaves

A thesis director leaving the University should state in writing whether he or she wishes to continue to direct doctoral theses already in progress. Even after leaving the University, faculty member is ordinarily expected to continue directing theses until their completion. But if the departing faculty member declines to continue the thesis direction, the student will be given every assistance in finding a new director.

Penultimate Draft

The student shall present a penultimate draft of the thesis to the Graduate Advisor no later than the fifteenth day of March in the year the student intends to graduate. The Graduate Advisor shall then distribute the thesis draft to the members of the dissertation committee, who shall have one month to prepare their evaluations. If all members of the committee agree that the thesis is acceptable, the student will then prepare a final copy and arrange for a thesis defense.

Revised Thesis

If one or more members of the committee judge the thesis to be unacceptable, the student will be asked to rewrite the thesis so as to satisfy the objections of the disapproving reader(s). If all members of the committee are then agreed that the revised thesis is acceptable, the student will then prepare a final copy and arrange for a thesis defense.

If the revised thesis is deemed unacceptable by a majority of the entire committee, it is considered rejected. If the revised thesis is deemed unsatisfactory by a minority of the committee, then the Department may decide either to overrule the objection and recommend approval of the thesis, or it may appoint a fourth reader. If the fourth reader rejects the thesis, then it is considered rejected.

In the case of rejection, the Department may decide either to permit the student to undertake a new thesis, or it may terminate the candidacy of the student.

The Final Defense (optional)

The Department expects each student to have a Final Defense with the approval of the graduate advisor, although in exceptional circumstances the director of the thesis may waive the defense. The defense will normally be conducted by the dissertation director, the readers of the dissertation, and the Dean of the Graduate School or his/her representatives. If the candidate so wishes, other graduate students may attend and participate in the discussion.

The defense will focus on the problems and potentialities of the thesis. Its purpose is to provide a forum not for approving the thesis (which has already been done) but for a general discussion of the thesis as a contribution to knowledge for the benefit of the candidate.

Dissertation Defense Information Form

Complete and submit to  Julissa Bautista  by March 15, or no less than 1 month in advance of your planned defense date.

Dissertation Defense Information Form (PDF)

Additional Dissertation Information

Grievance procedures and appeals, brown graduate school dissertation guidelines, additional ph.d. information, fields of study, funding and financial aid.

Home > College of Arts and Sciences > History > HISTORY_DISS

History Dissertations

Dissertations from 2024 2024.

Sites of Contested Histories: Mobilizing the Past in the British and Dominion Press during the First World War , Ryan Franklin

Imperial Modern: An Intellectual History of Béni Kállay’s Governing Strategy in Habsburg Bosnia , Matthew Blake Morley

Dissertations from 2023 2023

The Influence of Apocalyptic Thinking in the Early Phase of the German Protestant Reformation, 1517-1525 , Matthew Kasper

The Challenge of Transnational Feminism: The 1985 U.N. Third Conference on Women and NGO Forum in Nairobi, Kenya , Megan Neary

The Queer Revolution Was Televised: TV in the Age of HIV/AIDS, Bowers v. Hardwick, and the March on Washington , Martin Padgett

Their Heimat on the Periphery: German Settlers in Southwest Africa, 1828–1934 , Shawn M. Reagin

Dissertations from 2022 2022

"Cruel and Unusual Banishment": The Detention of Mariel Cubans and Resistance From Inside and Outside the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary , Leah Burnham

‘To the Farthest Ports of the Rich East’: Salem’s Maritime Trade between Massachusetts Bay and the South China Sea, 1785-1815 , David Joseph Doran

Geographies of Resistance: Interpreting Blank Spaces and Locating Marronage on Imperial Maps of Colonial Jamaica , Patrick J. Nichols

"El Derecho de Vivir en Paz": Revolutionary Chile and Transnational Solidarity with the People of Vietnam, 1964-1973 , Juan P. Valenzuela

Dissertations from 2021 2021

How the Car Won the Road: The Surrender of Atlanta's City Streets, 1920-1929 , Laura Drummond

Redefining Genocide: Memory, Jurisdiction, and Transnational Justice in the Guatemalan Genocide Trials , Alexander McCready

Heaven on Earth in Medieval Europe: Material Expressions of an Immaterial Realm , Christopher A. Tiegreen

Dissertations from 2020 2020

Encountering Christianity In Twentieth Century East Asia: A Case Study Of Jiang Wenhan And Takeda (Cho) Kiyoko , Linlin Victoria Lu

Chymical Collections: Seventeenth Century textual transmutations in the work of Arthur Dee , Megan Piorko

King James and the Intellectual Influences of the Witchcraft Phenomenon in England and Scotland , Lashonda Slaughter

"Unnatural Cruel Beasts in Women's Shapes": The Female Body in Early Modern England , Heather L. Welch and Heather Welch

Dissertations from 2019 2019

Unison and Harmony, Dissonance and Dissolution: German Choral Societies in an Age of Rising Nationalism, Mass Culture, and Social Conflict, 1870-1918 , Ruth L. Dewhurst and Ruth L. Dewhurst PhD

The Making of Mañana-Land: The American Mediterranean In The Age Of Jim Crow And The United Fruit Company , Joseph R. Floyd

American Poly: A History , Christopher Gleason

Catalan Modernism in Fin-de-Siècle Spain: Culture and Medicine , Helen M. Greeson

Off the Bloodied Grounds: The Civil War and the Professionalization of American Medicine , Nicolas Georges Hoffmann

Boston, New York, and Philadelphia in Global Maritime Trade, 1700-1775 , Jeremy Land

Negotiating Dutch Brazil: Portuguese Atlantic Vassals, Rebels, and "Wild Nations of People" , Suzanne Marie Litrel

"We Are Not Hired Help:" The 1968 Statewide Florida Teacher Strike, the Rise of Modern Conservatism, and the Potency of Teacher Power , Jody Noll

"A Luta Continua": George Houser in the Peace, Civil Rights, African Liberation, and Anti-Apartheid Movements , Zachary C. Peterson

The Draytons Of Drayton Hall: Land, Kinship Ties And The British Atlantic World , Barbara Spence Orsolits

Dissertations from 2018 2018

"They Ought to Wear Petticoats!": Male Support of Women's Suffrage in America, 1840 to 1920 , Kristina Graves

Demons of Discord: Violence and the Socio-political Growth of Colonial South Carolina and Georgia, 1690-1776 , Corrie N. Hand-Stephenson

Cicero's de Oratore from Antiquity to the Advent of Print , Joanna Jury

Heaven is Hard Work: The Nation of Islam's Economic Philosophy, Program, and Voices from the Pioneers, 1930-1975 , Nafeesa Muhammad

The False Promise of Individual Choice: Residential Segregation and Policy Discourse in Baltimore Public Housing, 1940-1970 , Sara Patenaude

An Islamicate History of the Alcazar of Seville: Mudejar Architecture and Andalusi Shared Culture (1252-1369 CE) , John Sullivan

Dissertations from 2017 2017

Music for the International Masses: American Foreign Policy, The Recording Industry, and Punk Rock in the Cold War , Mindy Clegg

“Still Here”; The Enduring Legacies Of Dorothy Bolden, Ella Mae Wade Brayboy, And Pearlie Dove’s Community Leadership In Atlanta, 1964-2015 , Christy C. Garrison

Pentecostalism, Populism, and the Historic Development of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) , Ovell Hamilton

Upcountry Yeomanry in Antebellum Georgia: A Comparative Analysis , Terrence Kersey

Complements to Kazi Leaders: Female Activists in Kawaida-Influenced Cultural-Nationalist Organizations, 1965-1987 , Kenja McCray

The Unknown Nationalists: Indian Migration, Integration, and Involvement in the Creation of the Kenyan Republic, 1895-1970 , Catherine Odari

Gay New Orleans: A History , Ryan Prechter

Tributary Subjects: Affective Colonialism, Power, and the Process of Subjugation in Colonial Virginia, c. 1600 – c. 1740 , Russell Dylan Ruediger

Creating Cultural Connections: A Renaissance in Midtown Between 1900 and 1983 , Susan Tindall

Race, Culture, and French National Identity: North African, West African, and Antillean Communities in Paris, 1950-1990 , Dennise M. Turner

Ballroom in the Big Peach: The History of Organized Ballroom Dancing in Atlanta, 1950-1984 , Roger Wiblin

Dissertations from 2016 2016

Regenerating Dixie: Electric Energy and the Making of the Modern South , Casey P. Cater

A Shared Authority? Museums Connect, Public Diplomacy, And Transnational Public History , Richard J. W. Harker

Envisioning Siberia: Siberian Regionalism through Evolution and Revolution , Anthony Johnson

"Ours is a Great Work": British Women Medical Missionaries in Twentieth-Century Colonial India , Beth Bullock Spencer

Suffrage Is Not The Goal: Medicine, Law, and Radical Thought in the Struggle to Legalize Birth Control, 1870-1930 , Lauren Thompson

Covering Africa in the Age of Independence: Divergent Voices in U.S. Print Media, 1957-1975 , Carrie L. Whitney

Dissertations from 2015 2015

Imagining Home: Tracing the Bond between African Americans and Africa from 1619 to 1936 , Darrell W. B. Kefentse

An Eccentric Place of Very High Quality: Ossabaw Island, Georgia as a Context for the Interpretation of Historical, Cultural, and Environmental Change on the Atlantic Coast , Linda O. King

Ambiguous Union: Madison, Jefferson and the Principles of '98, 1798-1834 , Jeffrey E. Morrison

Triangulating Racism: French and Francophone African Reactions to the African American Freedom Movement (1954-1968) , Allyson Tadjer

Selling Peace: The History of the International Chamber of Commerce, 1919-1925 , Shane R. Tomashot

Transcending Barriers: Race, Mobility, and Transportation Planning in Postwar Atlanta, 1944-1975 , John E. Williams

Dissertations from 2014 2014

School Desegregation, Law and Order, and Litigating Social Justice in Alabama, 1954-1973 , Joseph Mark Bagley

Fatherhood of God; Brotherhood of Man: Prince Hall Affiliated Freemasonry, Manhood, and Community Building in the Jim Crow South , Derrick Lanois

South to Freedom? Anti-Apartheid Activism and Politics in Atlanta, 1976-1990 , Lauren E. Moran

Creating Community: A History of the East Washington Community in East Point, Georgia , Lisa Shannon

Dissertations from 2013 2013

“My Zeal for the Real Happiness of Both Great Britain and the Colonies”: The Conflicting Imperial Career of Sir James Wright , Robert G. Brooking

The Atlantic Legacies of Zephaniah Kingsley: Benevolence, Bondage, and Proslavery Fictions in the Age of Emancipation , Mark J. Fleszar

Bible Translators, Educators, and Suffragists: The Smith Women, a Nineteenth-Century Case Study in America About Power, Agency, and Subordination , Laurel Koontz

The National Guard, the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice, and the National Rifle Association: Public Institutions and the Rise of a Lobby for Private Gun Ownership , Jeffrey A. Marlin

Lithuanians in the Shadow of Three Eagles: Vincas Kudirka, Martynas Jankus, Jonas Šliūpas and the Making of Modern Lithuania , Charles C. Perrin

Dissertations from 2012 2012

Halting White Flight: Atlanta's Second Civil Rights Movement , Elizabeth E. Henry

The Life of A Reputation: The Public Memory of Ulysses S. Grant , Richard G. Mannion

Forging the Civil Rights Frontier: How Truman's Committee Set the Liberal Agenda for Reform 1947-1965 , Edith S. Riehm

Dissertations from 2011 2011

Reconciling Memory: Landscapes, Commemorations, and Enduring Conflicts of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 , Julie A. Anderson

Nationalizing the Dead: The Contested Making of an American Commemorative Tradition from the Civil War to the Great War , Shannon T. Bontrager Ph.D.

Most Desperate People: The Genesis of Texas Exceptionalism , Michael G. Kelley

Finding their Place in the World: Meiji Intellectuals and the Japanese Construction of an East-West Binary, 1868-1912 , Masako N. Racel

The African-American Emigration Movement in Georgia during Reconstruction , Falechiondro Karcheik Sims-Alvarado

The Apocalypse will be Televised: Representations of the Cold War on Network Television, 1976-1987 , Aubrey Underwood

Dissertations from 2010 2010

The Nashville Civil Rights Movement: A Study of the Phenomenon of Intentional Leadership Development and its Consequences for Local Movements and the National Civil Rights Movement , Barry Everett Lee

"Our Good and Faithful Servant": James Moore Wayne and Georgia Unionism , Joel C. McMahon

Removing Reds from the Old Red Scar: Maintaining and Industrial Peace in the East Tennessee Copper Basin from the Great War through the Second World War , William Ronald Simson

The Path of Good Citizenship: Race, Nation, and Empire in United States Education, 1882-1924 , David Clifton Stratton

Dissertations from 2009 2009

How a Country Treats its Own Nationals is No Longer a Matter of Exclusive Domestic Concern: A History of the Alien Tort Statute Litigations in the United States for Human Rights Violations Committed in Africa, 1980-2008 , Harry Asa'na Akoh

Stand Up and Be Counted: The Black Athlete, Black Power and The 1968 Olympic Project for Human Rights , Dexter L. Blackman

The Formation and Development of Chinese Communities in Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah, Georgia: From Sojourners to Settlers, 1880-1965 , Daniel Aaron Bronstein

Demon of the Lost Cause: General William Tecumseh Sherman and the Writing of Civil War History , John Wesley Moody, III

From Countrypolitan to Neotraditional: Gender, Race, Class, and Region in Female Country Music, 1980-1989 , Dana C. Wiggins

Dissertations from 2008 2008

Dubbing Modernization: The United States, France, and the Politics of Development in the Ivory Coast, 1946-1968 , Abou Bamba

The "New Woman" on the Stage: The Making of a Gendered Public Sphere in Interwar Iran and Egypt , Fakhri Haghani

God and Slavery in America: Francis Wayland and the Evangelical Conscience , Matthew S. Hill

Stories of Lynwood Park , Veronica Menezes Holmes

Athens of the South: College Life in Nashville, A New South City, 1897-1917 , Mary Ellen Pethel

Dissertations from 2007 2007

Reconfiguring Memories of Honor: William Raoul's Manipulation of Masculinities in the New South, 1872-1918 , Steve Ray Blankenship

"Our Fight is for Right": The NAACP Youth Councils and College Chapters' Crusade for Civil Rights, 1936-1965 , Tommy L. Bynum

"A Tough Little Patch of History": Atlanta's Marketplace for Gone with the Wind Memory , Jennifer Word Dickey

Africans, Cherokees, and the ABCFM Missionaries in the Nineteenth Century: An Unusual Story of Redemption , Gnimbin Albert Ouattara

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: The African American Megachurch and Prosperity Theology , Charmayne E. Patterson

Public and Private Voices: The Typhoid Fever Experience at Camp Thomas, 1898. , Gerald Joseph Pierce

Spanish Orientalism: Washington Irving and the Romance of the Moors , Michael S. Stevens

Dissertations from 2006 2006

The Polish Army in France: Immigrants in America, World War I Volunteers in France, Defenders of the Recreated State in Poland , David Thomas Ruskoski

Dissertations from 1985 1985

Higher Education for Southern Women: Four Church-Related Women's Colleges in Georgia, Agnes Scott, Shorter, Spelman, And Wesleyan, 1900-1920 , Florence Fleming Corley

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History: dissertations.

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Find Dissertations

Find Dissertations by searching Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts) which indexes graduate dissertations from over 1,000 North American, and selected European, graduate schools and universities from 1861 to the present. Dissertations published since 1980 include brief abstracts written by the authors and some feature 24-page excerpts. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and some full text coverage for older graduate works. Older dissertations not available full text may be obtained through Interlibrary Loan or using the Request link in UC Library Search .

Resources for finding additional non-US dissertations include:

• Center for Research Libraries Dissertation Collection Choose the Dissertations tab. CRL has catalog records for over 800,000 foreign doctoral dissertations. These can be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Some of them have been digitized. More information about CRL’s dissertation collection can be found in the Dissertation Topic Guide at http://www.crl.edu/collections/topics/dissertations. Patrons from CRL libraries may request that CRL purchase a dissertation if it meets certain criteria. See: http://www.crl.edu/collections/collection-building/cooperative-resource-development/demand-purchase
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Doctoral student in history wins prestigious 2024 Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship

• April 24, 2024
• < 1 min. read

Melanie Lorenz, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History, was recently awarded a  2024 Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship . The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi annually awards 15 dissertation fellowships of $10,000 each to active members who are doctoral candidates and are completing dissertations.

Lorenz’s research on foreign-born midwives explores intersections between Americans’ ideas about immigration, gender roles and medical practices at the turn of the 20th century. Using records from state boards of health records, midwife registers, newspapers, birth records and contemporary medical journals, she investigates the personal consequences of the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth for midwives.

Although these women had received professional training in Europe, as immigrants their roles were attacked both by male doctors and nativists who presented midwifery as unhygienic and obsolete — frankly un-American — compared to their obstetrical practices. Lorenz’s research reveals these women’s experiences and those of their immigrant communities who were pressured to adapt and assimilate to American culture.

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Afrofuturism Explained: A Conversation with Curator Kevin Strait

Curator Kevin Strait answers questions about the museum’s latest exhibition,  Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures,  and shares what visitors can expect during their journey. 

Open to the public through March 24, 2024, the exhibition features more than 100 objects and reveals this evolving concept’s historic and poignant engagement with African American history and popular culture.

What is Afrofuturism?

Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures exhibition located in the Bank of America Special Exhibitions gallery until March 24, 2024.

Afrofuturism  is an evolving concept expressed through a Black cultural lens that reimagines, reinterprets, and reclaims the past and present for a more empowering future for African Americans. Afrofuturism expresses notions of Black identity, agency, and freedom through art, creative works and activism that envision liberated futures for Black life.

Afrofuturism was originally coined in scholarly circles to explore how Black writers and artists have utilized themes of technology, science fiction, fantasy and heroism to envision stories and futures of Black liberation and convey a more genuine and empowered image of the Black experience. 

Today, Afrofuturism has surpassed the boundaries of scholarship, evolving as a concept, and emerging as a philosophy, multimedia genre, aesthetic and cultural movement.

Why did the museum choose to take on the subject of Afrofuturism now?

We are in a moment where we can see examples of Afrofuturism’s influence and impact on our culture.  The term has entered our lexicon from the popularity of films like “ Black Panther ,” yet it has historically been a significant driver of African American culture and expression. 

From the cosmologies of ancient black civilizations, to era of slavery and to the present day, African Americans have re-imagined the futures and possibilities of black people across the globe through the dynamic lens of Afrofuturism and this exhibit explores how Black artists, orators, leaders and intellectuals have utilized themes of technology, sci-fi, space and heroism to envision futures of black liberation and convey an expansive image of the black experience.

What do you want your visitors to walk away thinking or feeling from this exhibition?

Our hope is for visitors to enjoy their visit and learn more about this dynamic topic by seeing the various ways that Afrofuturism connects with and influences American culture. 

The exhibition emphasizes a broader understanding of Afrofuturism, not simply as a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy, but as part of a larger tradition of Black intellectual history, with distinct roots that stretch across generations and the Black Diaspora. 

Our hope is for audiences to be immersed in the concept by exploring Afrofuturist expression through its various forms in literature, music, art, film, fashion activism and visual media to get a sense of Afrofuturism’s historic, and poignant engagement with African American intellectual history and popular culture.

Afrofuturism is not a new concept. Who were some of the historians that first talked about Afrofuturism? And what claims did they make?

Portion of the Afrofuturism exhibition featuring elements of space. 

[Cultural critic and writer] Mark Dery coined the term and it was conceived through his discussions with author Samuel Delany, critic Greg Tate and historian Tricia Rose and featured in his essay “ Black to the Future .” 

Sociologist Alondra Nelson and writers, technologists and artists like Sheree Renée Thomas, Paul Miller and Nalo Hopkinson developed an early list serv to research and develop the language of this new conceptual model, meant to analyze the intriguing ways that race, culture, and technology intersect within the broad nexus of Afrofuturism. 

What is your favorite item in this exhibition?

The ESP guitar from Vernon Reid that was used in the [band Living Colour’s] “Cult of Personality” video and the recording of their debut album, “Vivid.”

A custom electric guitar manufactured by ESP and owned by Vernon Reid. Reid played the guitar on Living Colour's debut album Vivid . Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Donated by Vernon Reid

Subtitle here for the credits modal.

Soft Material and Algorithmic Innovations for the Improvement of Existing and the Development of Future Wearable Devices

 Wearable electronic devices are growing in popularity because of their potential to portably interface with the human body and provide continuous user-specific sensing and feedback in new and unregulated environments. However, the algorithmic shortcomings and the rigid, bulky, or tethered form factors of wearable devices often cause them to be difficult to use and adapt poorly to various body types and environments, which limits their adoption. To unlock the full potential of wearable devices to be easy-to-use, portable, and accurate across users and environments, both material and algorithmic innovations are needed to develop wearable devices that are smarter and softer. To develop smarter wearable devices, studies have investigated novel integration strategies, sensor fusion algorithms, and the application of machine learning to improve wearable device usability and the robustness of on-body sensing methods. To develop softer wearable devices, studies have investigated new electrically, magnetically, and thermally responsive soft material architectures to enable new approaches toward sensing and actuation. In this dissertation, I consider these approaches and commonly utilized components for wearable devices such as inertial and magnetic sensors, magnetic materials, and optical sensors, and investigate algorithmic and material approaches to improve the usability, form factor, and adaptability of technology for wearable devices. This dissertation focuses on the introduction and investigation of (1) an auto-establishing kinematic framework for a network of wireless inertial sensors, (2) a magnetically responsive elastomer thin film that has two configurations of deformation in response to the state of an electropermanent magnet, and (3) a soft deformable magnetic ring system that can be used to measure normal and shear displacement on rigid and compliant substrates. Together, this work explores algorithmic and soft material innovations to take steps toward improving wearable device technology and further encourage their widespread adoption. 

Degree Type

• Dissertation
• Mechanical Engineering

Degree Name

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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