Graduating Undergraduate Honors Scholars’ Research Covers the Globe

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Of the many History majors who were graduated on May 8, twenty-two History majors graduated either as Honors Scholars or with Latin honors – some with both.

Five Honors Scholars shared their thesis abstracts with the department: one evaluates the impact of President Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress on US foreign policy toward Chile; another examines the reversal of fortune for the English monarchy in the 13th century; and another investigates a possible connection between queer/queercore zines of the 1980s-2000s and radical queer politics. Another thesis analyzes the Kurdish nationalist movement in the 20th century, while another scrutinizes the impact of the Enrollment Act of 1863, the first national draft in United States history.

 

Harrison Fregeau '16, undergrad honors History majorHarrison Fregeau

Abstract: Facing the threat of communism spreading throughout Latin America after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, President Kennedy enacted a sweeping re-imagination of US regional foreign aid: The Alliance for Progress. Designed to thwart the spread of communism through improving continent-wide economic and social development, it represented a peak in US ambitions to affect policy changes abroad. This paper combines an analysis of US foreign policy towards Latin America, with more specific foci on Chile, US-Chile bilateral relations and the Chilean housing sector. Ultimately, the paper examines the relations between the two governments, particularly during the presidency of Eduardo Frei, an ambitious, pro-US reformer. Using housing policy as a case study, the paper examines how reformist aims contributed to counterproductive results, including the first democratic election of a Marxist president in the Western hemisphere.

 

Joseph Fusco

Joseph Fusco, History BA, Honors Scholar
Joseph Fusco

Abstract: After the reigns of Henry II and Richard I, the prestige of the English monarchy was at an unparalleled high. The kingdom owned large stretches of land in western France and after Richard’s prominent role in the Third Crusade the monarchy could scarcely be more respected. In the beginning of the 13th century the kingdom was ruled first by King John, and then by Henry III. Despite the power of their predecessors, both kings saw a massive downturn in their authority. The barons of England were constantly rebelling and they stripped much of the power away from the crown, until at one point the king was little more than a puppet with his son Edward held hostage and Magna Carta signed and sealed to preserve future limits on the King’s power. Many historians both then and now attribute this to the weaknesses of John and Henry III. However, while this was certainly a major factor, my research has uncovered an underlying theme of greed for power on behalf of the English nobility that I believe exceeds any weaknesses the monarchs had. This paper identifies how and why the English nobility stole power from the king, and to what degree the nobility were fighting for their own glory, and not the glory of their country.

 

Adam Kocurek

Adam Kocurek, History BA, Honors Scholar
Adam Kocurek

Abstract: In an effort to further historicize queer anarchist politics in the 20th century, this thesis worked to establish a connection between the queer/queercore zines of the 1980s-2000s and radical queer politics. Zines from the Queer Zine Archive Project database were closely examined and compared in an attempt to distill the radical politics that manifested in the space of queer punk, homopunk, and queercore. Through an exploration of these artifacts, it became evident that the radical leftist politics of the early Gay Liberation movement were transformed and founded renewed invigoration in the queercore scene, wherein authors expressed their thoughts and feelings on topics ranging from capitalism, homonormatism, racism, and normative gay integrationalist and assimilationist politics aimed at normative liberal moves towards citizenship.

 

David Luchs

“A State Denied: Kurdish Nationalism and the Problems of Ethnic Coordination”

David Luchs, History BA, Honors Scholar
David Luchs

Abstract: In this paper, I examine the history of the Kurdish nationalist movement in the 20th century. I propose that Kurdish nationalist movements that have the ability to encourage Kurds to self-identify along ethnic lines will have the most success in attracting support and achieving their goals. As a result, countries like Iraq where there is no unified sense of national identity will foster stronger Kurdish national movements. On the other hand, countries like Turkey where the state can counter Kurdish identity will be able to resist the demands of even strong Kurdish movements such as the PKK, which limits its support base by identifying itself as an ideological as well as an ethnic movement. In particular, states like Iran which successfully foster non-ethnic identification are successful in dissuading Kurds from joining Kurdish nationalist movement. This research suggests that ethnic nationalist movements which have a purely ethnic appeal for support are most likely to succeed, while those that also try to assert other messages (religious, ideological, social, etc.) are less likely.

 

Melissa Traub

Melissa Traub, History BA, Honors Scholar
Melissa Traub

Abstract: As recruitment slowly dwindled as the Civil War dragged on, the North was forced to pass the Enrollment Act of 1863, the first national draft in United States history. For an already unstable nation, the national draft did little to heal the divides that split the country. The policies of substitution and commutation led to great resentment, eventually sparking the New York City Draft Riots of 1863. To many Union soldiers, drafted men and substitutes were “unscrupulous men” who lied, deserted, and shirked their duty to their country. Other volunteers however, urged their loved ones to escape the draft and to support the war effort from home. My thesis examines and analyzes the thoughts and attitudes of these Union soldiers, recorded in their diaries and letters, giving us great insight into the average soldier’s opinion on recruitment and the draft, a view that has often been overshadowed by the public’s.

2016 Commencement: Four Graduate with History PhDs

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Three of the History Department's 2016 PhD graduates.Doctoral dissertations must offer original contributions to knowledge and understanding. For historians this involves not only identifying fresh topics and source materials but exercising the diligence and imagination to reconstruct past lives and circumstances from necessarily fragmentary evidence. Their reward is to uncover unknown or forgotten aspects of the past, or to offer new and surprising perspectives on familiar subjects.

This past May, four scholars were awarded PhDs by the History Department, a number that should make a small liberal arts department very proud.

Two of these graduate students shed light on a pair of women who broke tradition and forged new paths personally and politically, another focused on the revelations of character and piety in the diary of an 18th century Congregational minister who despite inner doubts, brought peace to his flock. The dissertation of the fourth student examines the political, economic and cultural relationship between the United States and a region of Southern Italy over several centuries.

 

In her dissertation titled, “Janet Minot Sedgwick II and the World of American Catholic Converts, Erin Bartram, 2016 History Ph.D1820-1890,” Erin Bartram traces the history of the controversial conversion to Catholicism of Sedgwick. Raised by an elite New England Unitarian family. Sedgwick, who was born in New York City, found friendship and emotional support through her association with other female converts. Despite her family’s indifference (they eventually accepted her conversion) and what Bartram said were priests whose ideas “about gender and authority” conflicted with her own, Sedgwick found happiness and comfort with other converts and eventually worked to establish a Catholic school.

 

 

Allison Horrocks, 2016 History Ph.DThe woman studied by graduate student Allison B. Horrocks had a different, though equally groundbreaking life. Flemmie Kittrell (1904-1980) was a pioneer in the effort to establish the legitimacy of the study of home economics. The first African American woman to earn a PhD in that field, Kittrell taught the subject at many black institutions. But her work, according to Horrocks’ research, did not begin and end on college campuses. Kittrell developed home economics programs abroad. As the dissertation, titled “”Good Will Ambassador with a Cookbook,” points out, because of Kittrell’s accomplishments, her work should be viewed as providing a new understanding of women’s activism, gender politics and the legitimacy of the field of home economics in higher education and politics.

 

Anthony Antonucci’s dissertation examines the evolution of the relationship between the Mezzogiorno region of southern Italy (centered around the city of Naples) and the United State, dating back to 1785 when Thomas Jefferson was U.S. Minister to France, through author Herman Melville’s visit to Italy in 1857, six years after the publication of “Moby Dick.” The exchange of goods and ideas between the two regions “exerted a substantive influence on the economic and cultural development of both countries,” he writes of his thesis titled in part, “Americans and the Mezzogiorno: United States Relations with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.” Though largely overlooked, the examination of how Americans and southern Italians viewed and related to each other “offers a larger understanding of both cultures” of the late 18th and 19th centuries.

 

The depth and breadth of historical research becomes even clearer when one considers the dissertation Linda Meditz, 2016 History Ph.Dof Linda Meditz who chose to do a close examination of the life of Stephen Williams, through his own words. Titled “Captive: Piety and Ministry in the Diary and Life of Stephen Williams,” Meditz provides a close reading and analysis of Williams’ 4,000 page diary, which starts in1715 when he had just graduated from Harvard and ends in 1782, a week prior to his death. Though other scholars have concentrated on Williams’ comments on events of the period, Meditz focuses on the personal aspects of his inner piety and his belief that he was inadequate for the spiritual life. The diary, which Meditz calls “a hybrid literary form,” because of its mix of styles and materials, served as a “spiritual discipline,” through which the pastor looked into his soul and dealt with his self-doubts.

 

So there you have it: Four commendable scholarly works that take readers from international cities to the innermost workings of an individual’s soul. The results represent years of study, research, writing and rewriting by the four new PhDs, who have brought pride to their department and faculty mentors, and enlightenment to the field of history.

by Terese Karmel
Department of Journalism

Helen Stec (’18) Awarded SURF Grant

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Helen Stec ('18 History) and Charlie Smart ('18) at the UConn Archives. Photo credit: Peter Morenus.
Helen Stec (’18) and Charlie Smart (’18) at the UConn Archives. Photo credit: Peter Morenus/UConn Photo.

Summer Undergraduate Research Fund (SURF) Awards support University of Connecticut full-time undergraduate students in summer research or creative projects.

SURF awards are available to students in all majors at all UConn campuses. SURF project proposals are reviewed by a faculty committee representing various Schools and Colleges, and SURF award recipients are chosen through a competitive process.

Helen Stec ’18 received a SURF Grant for work on a project titled “Battle from the Homefront: How Two Northern Women Helped Fight the Civil War.” Her faculty mentor is Professor Peter Baldwin.

Stec was also featured in a UConn Today article in April, “Campus Radio Tells Story of Storrs.”

UPDATE: Helen’s research at the Mark Twain House, as part of her SURF grant, was featured in a UConn Today article in August, “A Summer with Mark Twain.”

Elena Boushée (’17) Recipient of Summer Research Funding

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Distance view of Paris, featuring Eiffel Tower
By Wladyslaw (Taxiarchos228) – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia

Elena Boushée has been awarded funding to pursue research in France in support of her honors thesis, tentatively titled “The Path to Legalized Abortion in France: A History of Reproductive Rights in French Political, Cultural and Social Life from 1967-1975.”

From Elena:

“I plan to go to France in the summer of 2016 to research my senior honors thesis, which will focus on the events leading up to the 1975 legalization of abortion in France. Between the legalization of contraceptive methods in 1967 and the enactment of the Veil laws of 1975, the Mouvement de Libération des Femmes was born out of the May 1968 revolutions, and second-wave feminism in France began. This research will look at the ways in which these movements, in combination with the events that unfolded in the late 1960s and 1970s, shaped French understandings of women’s bodies’ and women’s participation in the public sphere, and how these attitudes and understandings led to the 1975 legislation. I will also be examining the significance of class on the enactment, enforcement, and eventual destruction of the pre-1975 laws restricting reproductive rights.

This research will consider a few events in particular, including the highly publicized and controversial court case in Bobigny, in the northeast suburbs of Paris, in 1972. The case garnered widespread attention as existentialist feminist Simone de Beauvoir took to the stand for the defense, claiming that she had had an abortion but had not been prosecuted because of her wealth and social status. I plan to investigate how abortion policy in France previous to 1975 disproportionately may have targeted underprivileged women whose voices did not hold political, economic or social sway.

To research this project fully, I need to go to Paris in order to access a number of collections uniquely available at the Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand and the Bibliothèque Nationale. I also plan to go to the Université d’Angers, which has a renowned feminist archive. I plan to stay for one week, to photocopy and photograph these materials. These archives are not digitized and so the collections are not available in the United States. I spent the last full academic year (2014-2015) studying in Paris. I reached a high level of proficiency in the French language while abroad. This will allow me to conduct in-depth research in the French-language archival materials in Paris and Angers. This research project will be a valuable contribution to the humanities. It works at the intersection of a number of fields, including women’s history, the history of the body, the history of post-war France and the history of reproductive rights. I will examine how reproductive rights in France came to be so important not only politically, but also culturally and socially. I will explore the allegedly discriminatory abortion laws in France, and how these became a public concern with the “Manifeste de 343” and the trial at Bobigny. In order to create a more comprehensive understanding of how these and previous events such as the May 1968 revolutions lead to the legalization of abortion, I will study a variety of primary and secondary sources in order to understand the relationship between women’s bodies’ and French life and politics at the time.”

4/29 – History Prize Day Celebrates Student Achievements

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The History Department again celebrated outstanding student achievement on Friday, April 29th in the annual History Prize Day Ceremony and Phi Alpha Theta Initiation with students, faculty, staff, donors, family and friends. With the generous support of the UConn Foundation and our donors, eighteen scholarships, prizes, and fellowships were awarded to sixteen deserving undergraduate and graduate students with remarks from faculty nominators and presenters. Eight new students were also inducted into the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honors Society for 2016, followed by keynote address “Facts n’ Stuff: Why History Helps” given by Prof. Alexis Dudden.

 

The 2016 History Prize Day Award Winners

  • Thomas G. Paterson Graduate Fellowship in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations: Frances Martin
  • Harry J. Marks Fellowship: Erik Freeman and Jessica Strom
  • Undergraduate History Excellence Award: Harrison Fregeau and Christopher Sacco
  • Roger N. Buckley Award: Harrison Fregeau
  • Graduate Student Teaching Excellence Award: Kevin Finefrock
  • Connecticut Celebration 350th Scholarship: Nathan Braccio
  • Hugh M. Hamill Graduate Fellowship in Latin American History: Orlando Deavila
  •  Albert E. & Wilda E. Van Dusen Scholarship: Jorell Melendez-Badillo
  •  Andrew W. Pyper Scholarship: Gabrielle Westcott, Katherine Hoskin, and Jeremy Timperanza
  •  Karl Z. Trybus Undergraduate Award for Exceptional Work in Modern European History: Zachary Stack
  •  Bruce M. & Sondra Astor Stave Prize in Recent American History: Matthew Guariglia
  •  Abraham and Faye Astor Scholarship: Yang Zheng
  •  Allen M. Ward Prize in Ancient History: Eric Medawar
  •  Albert E. and Wilda E. Van Dusen Award for Undergraduate Study and Travel in the Fields of Ancient Greco-Roman History and Classical Languages: Eric Medawar

 

The 2016 Phi Alpha Theta Initiates

Eric J. Mooney
Donovan P. Fifield
Gregory P. DiVito, Jr.
Collin C. Anderson
Kayla W. Gervino
Lynsey Grzejszczak
Joseph A. Hutton, Jr.
Zoe R. Kaufman
Julia Garavel
Ryan E. Kogstad
Duane Yuhas
Simon T. Walker
Samuel D. Surowitz
Robert A. Stickel
John H. Kelly

4/4-4/5, Ann Hughes, Spring 2016 Gender and History Series

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Prof Ann Hughes, Keele University (UK)Please join us for the Spring 2016 Gender & History series!

Professor Ann Hughes (Keele University)

“Gender Trouble: Women, Men and Politics in the English Civil War”

Mon 4/4 – 4:30-6pm
Wood Hall Basement Lounge
Reception immediately following.

 

Tue 4/5 – 10-11:30am
Wood Hall Basement Lounge
Scholarly Seminar w/ Professor Hughes
Discussion will focus on a pre-circulated work-in-progress, “Gender, Scribal Culture and Nonconformity in Late Seventeenth-century England.”

 

About Professor Hughes:

I am a historian of early modern England with particular interests in the culture, religion and politics of the English civil war – or English Revolution as I would prefer to call it.  In recent years my interests have included religious debate and polemic, print culture, gender and radicalism. In 2011, I completed a book, Gender and Politics in the English Revolution. I am now principally working on preaching during the revolution.

I am committed to interdisciplinary approaches and have gained much from working with the literary scholars Julie Sanders (Nottingham) on gender and royalism, and with Tom Corns (Bangor) and David Loewenstein (Madison) on the radical writer Gerrard Winstanley. Our edition of Winstanley’s Complete Works (the first ever) was published by Oxford University Press in December 2009.

“A Mongrel-American Social Science: International Relations” – 2/26

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Dr. Robert Vitalis, Political Science Dept., University of PennsylvaniaPlease join us for the Spring 2016 Foreign Policy Seminar, featuring

Robert Vitalis

Professor, University of Pennsylvania

 

About Professor Vitalis:

Vitalis received his Ph.D. in political science from MIT in 1989. His graduate work included a three-year residence in Cairo where he studied Arabic and researched the political strategies of Egyptian business firms. His first book, When Capitalists Collide: Business Conflict and the End of Empire in Egypt, was published in 1995.  The Organization of American Historians awarded him the Bernath Prize in 1996 for his work on Egypt’s political economy.

He has continued to develop and expand the scope of his interests in historical comparative analysis in his second book, America’s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier, which was published in October 2006 by Stanford University Press, and named a book of the year in the London Guardian.

Recent honors include fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center (2009), the Rockefeller Foundation (2003), the International Center for Advanced Study, NYU (2002), and the American Council of Learned Societies (2002). He was a MacArthur Award nominee in 1998.

His new book project, White World Order, Black Power Politics: the Birth of American International Relations (Cornell University Press, 2015), moves away from the Middle East to explore the unwritten history of disciplinary international relations and to recover the African-American internationalist tradition.

Prof Matt McKenzie (AVPT) named to History Working Group – US Delegation ICES

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Professor Matt McKenzie, History Department, UConn Avery PointThe International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is a global organization that develops science and advice to support the sustainable use of the oceans.

ICES is a network of more than 4000 scientists from over 350 marine institutes in 20 member countries and beyond. 1600 scientists participate in our activities annually.

Through strategic partnerships our work also extends into the Arctic, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the North Pacific Ocean.

ICES is committed to building a foundation of science around one key challenge: integrated ecosystem understanding of marine ecosystems. (From the ICES site)

Matt McKenzie, Associate Professor of History at Avery Point Campus, was named to the History Working Group of the United States Delegation to the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, based in Copenhagen.

As an environmental historian with interests in coastline, maritime, and fisheries matters Matt will contribute to the Working Group’s task of — in his words — “developing meaningful ways to use historical information to inform contemporary marine resource analyses, management research, and policy development.”

Foreign Policy Seminar Series Celebrates 30 Years

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The Foreign Policy Seminar Series here at the University of Connecticut has established a long, successful history of more than 30 years.

“This series puts UConn on the map for foreign policy education, which is something nice to have other than basketball,” said Prof. Frank Costigliola, who has been running the series since 1997.

Authors, professors, diplomats, historians, and political scientists come from around the country to speak here in Storrs, mostly to graduate students and faculty.

“Through having all these distinguished speakers travel to us has made UConn a regional foreign relation hub,” said Costigliola, who attended the first seminar in 1985 while he was a professor at the University of Rhode Island.

The purpose of these seminars is for history graduate students to build connections with professional members in the field, but also provides book authors an opportunity for feedback from the attending audience.

“Intellectual life needs to always circulate with new perspectives on history, and I believe we have a successful formula for doing so – a quality experience that’s easy to understand and gets great feedback,” said Costigliola.

Thomas G. Patterson, Costigliola’s predecessor, first started the lecture series by bringing in Arnold A. Offner to speak on Vice President Hubert Humphrey and ever since then the series has continued to be successful.

For the 30th anniversary in November, Costigliola invited Offner back to discuss Harry Truman’s foreign policy with the students, which went over very well.

Gwendolyn Hay, a history graduate student who regularly attends the seminars, greatly appreciates the opportunity to learn from such distinguished figures.

“Going to the lectures has been my favorite part of the graduate experience because there is so much to learn from these individuals,” said Hay.

12/3-12/4 – “A Woman Living with Contradictions: The Life and Photography of Dorothea Lange”

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Please join us for the Fall 2015 Gender & History Seminar series!photot taken by Dorothea Lange

Linda Gordon (NYU)

“A Woman Living with Contradictions: The Life and Photography of Dorothea Lange”

Thu 12/3 – 4:30-6pm, Konover Auditorium (Dodd Research Center)
A reception will follow.

 

Fri 12/4 – Scholarly Seminar w/ Dr. Gordon:

“Free Space: The Settlement-House Movement”
10-11:30am, Wood Hall Basement Lounge

 

About Dr. Gordon:

Linda Gordon is a professor of history and a University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Her early books focused on the histoDr. Linda Gordon, NYUrical roots of social policy issues, particularly as they concern gender and family issues. More recently, she has explored other ways of presenting history to a broad audience, publishing the microhistory The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction (Harvard University Press, 1999) and the biography Dorothea Lange: A Life beyond Limits (W.W. Norton, 2009), both of which won the Bancroft Prize. She is one of only three historians to have won this award twice.