Recent Dissertations

2025
Althoff, Joshua 

"Vincennes in Myaamionki: Constructing and Contesting Indiana's Past in Miami Homelands," advised by David Aiona Chang and Jean O'Brien

Farrell, Jessica 

"Abolition through Recapture: Unfreedom, Necromancy, and Re(-)formation in Nineteenth
Century Liberia," advised by Helena Pohlandt-McCormick and Allen Isaacman
 

Chavkin, Eliana 

"'The Monument Does Not Remember': America's World War I Memorials and the Struggle to Create History from Memory," advised by Saje Mathieu

Cicek, Fikri 

"Children of Crisis: Politics, Science, and Faith in a Cross-Cultural Ottoman Druze Family, 1585-
1703," advised by Giancarlo Casale

Oker Toprak, Sultan  

"The Alcohol Networks of Ottoman Istanbul in the Seventeenth Century," advised by Giancarlo Casale

Sierra, Ana Joanna Vergara 

"Contested landscapes: displacement, belonging and sovereignty making in revolutionary Venezuela (1783–1821)," advised by Sarah Chambers

2024

Sommer Collins, Heather 

"Louis XVI, Royalism, and Republicanism in Early America, 1775–1800," advised by Kirsten Fischer

Magnolia, Alexander 

"Byzantium and Beyond: The Byzantine World through the Letters of Patriarch Nicholas I
Mystikos, 901-925 CE," advised by Andrea Sterk

Badger, Elizabeth 

"Gaming Culture: Intellectual Property, Capitalism, and Their Impacts on the Culture and
Gendering of Video Games, 1970-1995," advised by Tracey Deutsch

Hansen, Benjamin 

"Between Trepidation and Hope: A Study of Palestinian Christians after the Arab Conquests, ca.
630-797," advised by Andrea Sterk

Kinney, Jayne 

"The Heart of the Nation: The Roles of Female Leadership Networks in Mandan and Hidatsa," advised by Jean O'Brien

Ulep, Catherine 

"Makaʻāinana Wāhine: Clothing, Power, and the Sex-for-Goods Trade in Nineteenth-Century
Hawai’i," advised by David Aiona Chang

Nyachega, Nicholas 

"Seeing Like Borderlanders’: Border(lands) Controls, Mobilities, Contestations, and Everyday
Life in North-eastern Zimbabwe, 1880s to Present," advised by Allen Isaacman

2023

Saladin, Christopher  

"Carthago Servanda Est: Landscape, Memory, and Identity in Roman Carthage, 146 BCE - 439 CE," advised by Andrew Gallia
 

Chavana, Adrian

"Reclaiming Tribal Identities in the Land of the Spirit Waters: the Tāp Pīlam Coahuiltecan Nation," advised by David Aiona Chang and Jimmy Patino
 

Pierpont, Katherine

"The Public Body: Sex Work in 12th and 13th Century Southern France," advised by Ruth Karras and Kathryn Reyerson
 

Seda, Abraham 

"A Contested Ring: African Boxing, Social Control, and "Subversive Culture" in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1890-1980," advised by Allen Isaacman and Helena Pohlandt-McCormick

 

Shin, Anthony

"The Hammer and the Ottoman Anvil," advised by Howard Louthan
 

Pawlicki, Sarah

"'I Hear that God Saith Work': Mortality, Temporality, and Labor in New England, 1619-80," advised by Jean O'Brien

 

2022

Payne, Gabriale 

"'Making 'The Cut': Kikuyu Conceptions of the Body, Gender, and Ethnicity, and the Invention of Modern Gender/Sexuality in Kenya, c. 1895 to the Present," advised by Helena Pohlandt-McCormick and Allen Isaacman
 

Cuellar Cuellar, Paula Sofia

"Salvadoran Women Speak: Female Accounts of Their Struggle Within a Revolution, 1981-1992," advised by Patrick J. McNamara and Sarah C. Chambers

Gao, Ruchen

"Tobacco, Western Education, and the Japanese Army: Globalization in a Northern County in China, 1900-1950," advised by Liping Wang and Ann B. Waltner

Herbert, Jason Wayne

"Beast of Many Names: Cattle, Conflict, and the Transformation of Indigenous Florida, 1519-1858," advised by David Aiona Chang

Schwartz, Allison P

"Banking on a Woman’s Worth: Personhood and America’s New Patriarchy of Debt, 1968-2008," advised by Elaine Tyler May and Barbara Young Welke

2021

Dorst, Jesse

"Bumfodder: Cheap Paper, Ephemeral Print, and the Unsettled Nation, 1651-1720," advised by JB Shank

Hampton, Melissa

"Women, Gender, and the Politics of Refugee Resettlement in the Cuban Mariel Migration of 1980," advised by Regina Kunzel and Barbara Young Welke
 

Jaywant, Ketaki Umesh  

"Secularizing Caste: Mapping Nineteenth-Century Anti-caste Politics in Western India," advised by Ajay Skaria

Lummus, Wesley

"One Nation, Two Languages: Latinization and Language Reform in Turkey and Azerbaijan, 1905-1938," advised by Giancarlo Casale

Malauene, Denise

"A History of Music and Politics in Mozambique from 1890s to the Present," advised by Allen Isaacman 
 

Quijada, Pedro

"The Forgotten El Salvador: A Study of the Emergence and Downfall of the "Bright Spot" of Central America, 1948-1978," advised by Patrick McNamara

Slade, Virgil

"Sport in South Africa: The 'Ideal Body' and the Limitations of Political Equality and 'Reconciliation' in the Post-apartheid State, c 1900 - 2020," advised by Helena Pohlandt-McCormack 

Snowden, Emma

"Briding the Straight: The Shared History of Iberia and North Africa in Medieval Muslim and Christian Chronicles," advised by Michael Lower and Ruth Mazo Karras

Wilz, Patrick

"In Cold Type: The New Technological Sublime and the Reimagining of Print Journalism in the United States and Britain, 1960-1995,” advised by Thomas Wolfe and Patricia Lorcin

Zhu, Tianxiao

"Secret Trails: Food and Trade in the Late Maoist China, 1960-1978," advised by Christopher Isset

2020

Contreras, Jazmine

"We were all in the resistance: Historical Memory of the Holocaust and Second World War in the Netherlands,” advised by Anna Clark and Mary Jo Maynes

Flynn, Christopher

“Unconquered Louis Rejoiced in Iron: Military History in East Francia under King Louis the German (c. 825-876)," advised by Bernard Bachrach and Kathryn Reyerson

Jahnke-Wagner, Joanne

"Captive Economics: Social Reproduction, Commodification, and Settler Colonialism in the Northeast 1630-1763," advised by Kristen Fischer

Li, Kan

"On the Road to a Modern City: New Transportation Technology and Urban Transformation of Tianjin, 1860-1937," advised by Liping Wang and Ann Waltner

Little, John

“Vietnam Akíčita: Lakota and Dakota Military Tradition in the Twentieth Century,” advised by Jean O'Brien

Poletti, Bailey

"Final Preparations: The Emergence of Human Agency in Christian Apocalyptic Speculation in the 10th and 11th Centuries," advised by Kathryn Reyerson 

Rene, Christopher

"In Search of a Confessional Identity: Dositheos Notaras, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (1669-1707), Confronts the Challenges of Modernity," advised by Theofanis Stavrou 

Sienna, Noam

“Making Jewish Books in North Africa, 1700-1900,” advised by Daniel Schroeter

Weber, Kent

“Chinese Exclusion and the U.S. Empire in Hawai’i and Cuba, 1874-1943,” advised by Erika Lee and David  Aiona Chang

2019

Depenbusch, Brooke

“Down and Out in the USA: General Relief and the Politics of Precarity in the Shadow of the Welfare State, 1935-1964,” advised by Barbra Welke and Tracey Deutsch

Dillenburg, Elizabeth

“Constructing and Contesting “the Girlhood of Our Empire”: Girls’ Culture, Labor, and Mobility in Britain, South Africa, and New Zealand, c. 1830-1930,” advised by Anna Clark and Mary Jo Maynes

Jiang, Yuanxin

“More than just a Drink: Tea Consumption, Material Culture, and ‘Sensory Turn’ in Early Modern China (1550-1700),” advised by Ann Waltner

Manke, John

“Granum Bonum: Grain Distribution and the Emergence of Popular Institutions in Medieval Genoa,” advised by Kathryn Reyerson

Thumbran, Janeke

“The ‘Coloured Question’ and the University of Pretoria: Separate Development, Trusteeship, and Self Reliance, 1933-2012,” advised by Helena Pohlandt-McCormick and Allen Isaacman

Vig, Paul

“Hunters and After Riders: A History of Hunting and the Making of Race in the Waterberg, 1840s-Present,” advised by Helena Pohlandt-McCormick and Allen Isaacman

2018

Arnett, Jessica

"Between Empires and Frontiers: Alaska Native Sovereignty and U.S. Settler Imperialism," advised by Jean O'Brien and Barbara Welke

Haker, Joseph

"The Rock of the Republic: The Ten Commandments in American Life from World War II to the Culture Wars," advised by Lary May, Elaine Tyler May

Hoyt, Andrew

"And They Called Them “Galleanisti”: The Rise of the Cronaca Sovversiva and the Formation of America’s Most Infamous Anarchist Faction (1895-1912)," advised by Donna Gabaccia

James, Elliot

“Sithutha Isizwe ("We Carry the Nation"): Dispossession, Displacement, and the Making of the Shared Minibus Taxi in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, 1930-Present,” advised by Allen Isaacman and Helena Pohlandt-McCormick

Jin, Hui-Han

"Emotional Death: Tombs and Burial Practices in the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644," advised by Ann Waltner

Kim, Jee-Yeon

“Korean War Memories,” advised by Hiromi Mizuno and Yuichiro Onishi

King, Matthew

"The Norman Kingdom of Africa and the Medieval Mediterranean," advised by Michael Lower

Nelson, Matt

"Relieved of These Little Chores: Agricultural Neighbor Labor, Family Labor, and Kinship in the United States 1790-1940," advised by Steven Ruggles

Taparata, Evan

"No Asylum for Mankind: The Creation of Refugee Law and Policy in the United States, 1776-1951," advised by Erika Lee and Donna Gabaccia

Wang, Luo

"The Gothic Saints and Their Mystical Songs: Performing Sanctity in the Thirteenth-Century Diocese of Liège," advised by Ruth Karras and Bernard Bachrach

Williams, Blair

"Making Japan’s National Game: Baseball, Bushidō, and Discourses of National Identity, 1868-2008," advised by Hiromi Mizuno

Older dissertations can be found in the Register of Doctoral Degrees.