History Department at Brown University

Recent Departmental Undergraduate Honors and Awards

Recent Honors Theses

Daniel W. Alexander forFrom Good Neighbors to World Warriors: U.S.-Cuban Relations from 1933-1941 (2012)

Chelsea L. Berry for Smuggling in the Public Eye: Perceptions of Illicit Trade and Colonial Identity in Rhode Island, 1755-1765 (2012)

George A. Brennan for The Mutual Security Act of 1951: Arms for Control of Latin American Militaries (2012)

Elizabeth G. Caldwell for The Financial Frontier: Slave Mortgaging and the Creation of the Deep South (2012)

Niwaeli E. Kimambo, Keeping It Together: Assessing the ‘Failure’ of Ujamaa at the Village Level (2012)

Eugenie D. Montaigne, Under the Banner of Reform: Autonomy and Autocracy in the Twentieth Century Prison (2012)

Robert G. Nelson, Public Power, Urban Lives: Antebellum Police Authority and Providence’s Underclass (2012)

Juan M. Ruiz Toro for Toward a Post-Nationalist Nation: The Origins of Puerto Rico’s Democratic Revolution, 1948-1964 (2012)

Kate I. Sapirstein for Comparing American Rabbinical Conceptions of Hitler, 1933-1945 (2012)

Emmanuel V. Steg for The Macedonian Army as a Social Organization under Philip II and Alexander the Great (2012)

Cos B. Tollerson for The Brazilian Military Regime’s Self-Legitimizing Discourse 1964-1974: Professing Western Exceptionalism and Projecting (2012)

Kathryn N. Vastola for Wakamatsu Remembered: Collective Memory at a Gold Country Farm, 1856-Present (2012)

Katherine A. Welsh for Mother Lions: Women in the American Patriot and Militia Movement of the 1990s (2012)

Susana Aho for "Breaking the Silence: The 1979 OAS Human Rights Commission Visit to Argentina and the Problem of the Disappeared" (2011)

Aaron Bartnick for "Building Britannia Verulamium, Vindolanda, and the Romanization of Britain" (2011)

Matthew Brag, "Myths, Meinertzhagen, and the Effects of Fraudulence on the Historical Imagination: The Legacy of British Intelligence's False Claims during WWI" (2011)

Jerry C. Choi, "Identities in Diaspora: An examination of the Ethnic Chinese Communities in British Columbia since 1858" (2011)

Jennifer Grayson, “As I saw in my time”: Abbasid Baghdad, Saadya Gaon, and the Synthesis of Jewish Philosophy, 750-942 (2011)

Katherine Hyland, "Progress toward Gender Equity in Intercollegiate Athletics during 1970s: Case Studies and Comparison of 4 Institutions Pursuing Different Pathways to Coeducation" (2011)

Clare Kim, "Math Derived, Math Applied: The Establishment of Brown University's Division of Applied Mathematics, 1940-1946" (2011)

Gabrielle Kim, "A House Divided: Pre-Post Liberation and the Struggle for Nationhood in Korea, 1919-1950" (2011)

Evan Pelz, "Jew(ish?): Ethiopian Jewry and the Alliance Israélite Universelle’s Construction of Jewish identity, 1867-1908" (2011)

Lisa Qing, "The Royal Rogue: James Hind and the Politics of Theft in the English Revolution" (2011)

Lindsay Reed, "A Place for Women: The Growth and Development of the Providence Lying-In Hospital, 1884-1934" (2011)

Sarah Rosenthal, "He that resisteth the king resisteth God: The Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Creation of an English Reformed Identity" (2011)

Max I. Straus, "Novel Crimes Against a Novel Sovereign: Sovereignty, Due Process and the Law of Treason in Early Modern England" (2011)

Simon van Zuylen-Wood, “The End of Ideology and the Beginnings of Neoconservatism: Daniel Bell to Norman Podhoretz" (2011)

Chelsea Waite, “The American Drink: Coffee and Mass Consumption in America from WWII to 1960s” (2011)

Margaret C. Weeks, "Negotiating Marginalization: Survival and Activism in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 20th C" (2011)

Rachel Weiler, “Blood Baptism: German Jewish Dueling Fraternities, 1886-1922” (2011)

Benjamin Asher for "Re-Thinking Music and Politics: The Legacy of the Congress for Cultural Freedom" (2010)

Amanda Bauer for "Defending Elizabeth: Mary, Queen of Scots, The Armada and the 'Monarchical Republic' Crisis of 1584-88" (2010)

Jason Bertoldi for "Conquering Spirits: Temperance, Nativism and the Know-Nothing Party in Antebellum Rhode Island" (2010)

Sam Bollier for "Fruitful Failure: Mountaineers, Volunteers, and Federally-Sponsored Community Action in Eastern Kentucky, 1960-1970" (2010)

Alexander Campbell for "Black Citizenship, Black Sovereignty: The Haitian Emigration Movement and Black American Politics, 1804-1865" (2010)

Sophie Elsner for "Big Dreams Versus Small Actions: The Argentine Response to the Jewish Refugee Crisis in the 1930s" (2010)

Jonathan Hiles for "Justice, Justice, Seek ye Always Justice; The Radical Legal Theories of the English Levellers" (2010)

Zachary Leonard for "A Church on Trial: The Role of the Anglican Clergy in Deterring Revolution" (2010)

Jeffrey Martin for "A Despotism in our Midst": Railroad Politics and Corporate Power in Antebellum America (2010)

William Martin for "Franco's Vanguard: Spanish Fascism and Its Impact, 1933-1945" (2010)

Brian Miller for "The (Re)creation of Class: The Middle Class, Leisure, and the Spectacle of Tourism at Newport, Narragansett Pier, and the Bowery, 1870-1910" (2010)

Forrest Miller for "The Floating Agents: Supercargoes in the Globalization of American Trade, 1785-1835" (2010)

Hannah Mintz for "A Prism of Defeat: The Shifting Impact of the 1967 War in Shaping the Memory of Gamal Abd al-Nasser in Egypt" (2010)

Joy Neumeyer for "Public Discourse, Private Lives: Love, Sex, and Family in Late Soviet Russia" (2010)

Rebecca Rattner for "The Formation of the Spartacus League: A Radical Alternative to Social Democracy and Bolshivism, 1900-1919" (2010)

Jason St. John for "Arguing for the End of the World: Wolfgang Aytinger's Commentary on Pseudo-Methodius' Apocalypse" (2010)

Linda Zang for "Nurseries of Patriotism": Brown University and the Making of Citizens and Soldiers in the Civil War (2010)

Anastasia Aguiar for "In Service to the State: United Nations Humanitarian Aid during the Violent Creation of Bangladesh" (2009)

Zoe Brennan-Krohn for "In the Nearness of Our Striving: Camphill Communities RE-Imagining Disability and Society" (2009)

Katelyn Cioffi for "The Exotic Works of Pierre Loti Defining the Self and Discovering the Other in Nineteenth-Century France" (2009)

Devin Cohen for "How to Start a Riot: A Historical Approach to the 1968 Democratic Convention Riots and the Chicago Conspiracy Trial" (2009)

David Frisof for "The Economics of Interest: Revenue Settlement and Private Trade under company Rule in Eighteenth-Century Bengal" (2009)

Caroline Landau for "Brazil, Show Your Face!": AIDS, Homosexuality and Art in Post-Dictatorship Brazil (2009)

Erinn Phelan for "To Think an Old Soldier Should Come to This...The Beginnings of Presidential Television Advertising, 1952-1964" (2009)

Amir Radjy for "Three Young Patriots: La Fayette, Noailles, Segur and the fall of courtier culture in France, 1750-1789" (2009)

Stefan Smith for "Soe Longe Unpunished: Homophobia and the Assassination of George Villiers" (2009)

Hillary Taylor for 'An Epidemicall disease...raigneth over the whole land': Separatist Disorder, Patriotism and the Early Royalist Press in 1640-42" (2009)

Jennifer Weissbourd for "Knowledge Saves from Suffering: Health Reform and Women's Rights in the Providence Physiological Society, 1850-1852"(2009)

Maha R. Atal for “Anglo-French Relations and Radical Politics: The Case of G.W.M. Reynolds 1835-53” (2008)

Yesenia Barrragan for “Woman as Mother, Woman as Other: The Political Philosophy of Luisa Capetillo” (2008)

Scott A. Blumenkranz for “The Alvitre-Brown Affair: Manhood, Murder and Frontier Justice in Early Los Angeles” (2008)

Casey D. Bohlen for “Our Father, Who Art in Congress: The Political Beginnings of Father Robert F. Drinan, S. J.” (2008)

Fokion A. Burgess for “Calculus of the Flesh: Eugenics and the Sexual Pedagogy of American Empire” (2008)

Hannah N. Copperman for "A Flawed Attempt at a National Conversation on Race: President Clinton’s One America Initiative June 1997- September 1998” (2008)

Sara T. Damiano for “From the Shadows of the Bar: Law and Women’s Legal Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Newport” (2008)

David A. Fedman for “Weighing Guilt: The Executive Committee and the Crafting of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal” (2008)

Ryan A. Gise for “From Charity to Medical Care: The Evolution of the Modern Hospital in Providence, RI” (2008)

Anna K. Hermann for “Teaching Democracy: The Implementation and Outcome of the Re-Education of German Prisoners of War in RI During World War II” (2008)

Rachel G. Hoffman for “Arendt before Politics: Judging” (2008)

Henry S. Hoyle for “Looking Ahead to Harbin’s Prospects, How Can One Not Produce a Great Sigh? Liu Jingyan’s Chinese Harbin” (2008)

Adam M. Kriesberg for “Through King Philip’s Woods: Metacom’s Legacy and Historical Memory in Bristol, RI” (2008)

Madelyn A. Morris for “One Riot Becomes Many: A Media History of the 1968 Democratic National Convention and Rioting in Chicago" (2008)

Kenneth E. Seligson for “Sailing to the Ends of the Earth: The Growth and Decline of Ancient Roman Trade with the Indian Subcontinent During the First Three Centuries CE” (2008)

Elizabeth M. Sher for “Music Lessons: A Cultural Analysis of Leonard Bernstein and the Young People’s Concerts, 1958-1972” (2008)

Aaron M. Stanton for “The Periphery on the Vanguard: The Transatlantic Telegraph Cable and the West of Ireland” (2008)

Elisabeth A. Stelson for “Saving Women from Suffrage: Women Antisuffragists in Illinois, 1897-1913” (2008)

Nicholas A. Swisher for “The Recipe for Madness: Social, Economic and Political Satire by Mad Magazine, 1952-1960” (2008)

Jennifer E. Tarr for “Damnable driftes’? Witchcraft, Community, and Common Law in Elizabethan England” (2008)

Tyler G. Whitmire for “A Convergence of Hope: Radical Pacifists and Their Nonviolent Projects in Africa, 1959-1963” (2008)

Elizabeth K. Wilson for “Staging Civil Rights: Black Theater and White Critics in New York City, 1959-1968” (2008)

Recent Awards

Clarkson Collins Prize "for best paper dealing with the American Merchant Marine or Navy" for men in the junior or senior class.

Daniel W. Alexander for "From Good Neighbors to World Warriors: U.S.-Cuban Relations from 1933-1941" (2012)
Forrest Miller for "The Floating Agents: Supercargoes in the Globalization of American Trade, 1785-1835" (2010)
Adam M. Kriesberg, for "Through King Philip's Woods: Metacom's Legacy and Historical Memory in Bristol, RI" (2008)
Aaron M. Stanton, for "The Periphery on the Vanguard: The Translantic Telegraph Cable and the West of Ireland" (2008)
Christopher S. Dwight, for “Prize Cases in the War of 1812” (2007)
John G. Bourne, for “Pirates and Petty Princes: American Political Economy and the Barbary States” (2007)
Natan Zeichner for "Identity Construction in the Maritime Atlantic World" (2006)

Gaspee Chapter DAR Prize for a "woman student who presents the best paper written as a class assignment in an American history course."

Katherine Hadley for “Why the Color of Rice Doesn't Matter: The 'Black Rice' Debate, Its Shortcomings, and How to Move Forward ” (2012)
Anna Rotman for "Enslaved Men and Women as Economic Actors in the Antebellum South" (2012)
Chelsea Waite for “The American Drink: Coffee and Mass Consumption in America from WWII to 1960s” (2011)
Susan Beaty for "The Problems of Class and Gender: The Elite Women of the Providence Employment Society" (2010)
Jenny Weissbourd for "Knowledge Saves from Suffering Health Reform and Women's Rights in the Providence Physiological Society, 1850-851" (2009)
Linda Zang for "The Missing Men of Brown: Competing Memories of Wartime at one Northern University" (2008)
Laura J. Atkinson for "Structures of Deliverance and Dread: The Fallout Shelter Question in Public Debate, 1960-62” (2007)
Stephanie G. Clark for "The Evangelist and the Educator: The Abolitionist Philosophies of Theodore Weld and Francis Wayland” (2007)
Katherine E. Lamm for "Educating Citizens in a Changing America: Brown University, 1764-1860” (2007)
Kate L. Stoughton for "Morality and the ‘Market Revolution’: Family, Gender, Morality, and Failure in Antebellum America” (2007)
Kate Brandt for "The Rape of Nanjing American Discourse: From Front Page to 'Oblivion and Back Again'" (2006)
Cassaundra Coulter for "Art Imitating Life: Representation of Interracial Relationships in American Cinema" (2006)
Anya Goldstein for "U.S. Slavery: A Sexual Political Economy" (2006)
Suzanne Smith for "The Slavery of Their Wants" (2006)
Jamie Fleischman for "'Twice as Real...as the Peace that Followed': Walker Percey's Civil War" (2005)
Monica Martinez for "The Bracero: Mexico's Lost Resource" (2005)
Emily Nemens for an examination of the relationship between landscape painting and nationalism (2005)
Greta Pemberton for "Politea Americana: The Classical Influence on American Constitutions" (2005)
Sally Walkerman for "A Captain's Nightmare: The Arctic Whaling Disaster of 1871" (2005)

Marjorie Harris Weiss Prize for an "outstanding undergraduate woman majoring in History."

Anna Matejcek (2012)
Lisa Qing for "The Royal Rogue: James Hind and the Politics of Theft in the English Revolution" (2011)
Joy Neumeyer for "Public Discourse, Private Lives: Love, Sex, and Family in Late Soviet Russia" (2010)
Zoe Brennan-Krohn "In the Nearness of Our Striving: Camphill Communities Re-Imagining Disability and Society" (2009)
Yesenia Barragan for "Woman as Mother, Woman as Other: The Political Philosophy of Luisa Capetillo" (2008)
Sara T. Damiano for "Law and (dis)Order in the Eighteenth Century Chesapeake: the Ambiguous Status of the Single Woman” (2007)
Rebecca H. Jacobson for “Consumerism and Feminism: An Uneasy Relationship” (2007)
Mehtab Brar for "Second Generation South Asian Perspectives on Modern Arranged Marriage" (2006)
Dana Goldstein for her work on Paris and Modernity (2006)
Jennifer Lambe for her work on Modern Brazil (2006)
Caitlin Deangelis for "Proud to be an American: Patriotism and the American Military in Post-9/11 Popular Country Music" (2005)
Jessica Kremen for "Women, Infants and Medical Care in London Charitable Maternity Hospitals, 1880-1930" (2005)

Samuel C. Lamport Prize in International Understanding with an emphasis on cooperation and tolerance.

Cos Tollerson for "The Brazilian Military Regime's Self-Legitimizing Discourse 1964-1974: Professing Western Exceptionalism and Projecting Western Values" (2012)
Evan Pelz for "Jew(ish?): Ethiopian Jewry and the Alliance Israélite Universelle’s Construction of Jewish identity, 1867-1908" (2011)
Daniel Wiener for “Reconstructing Public Memory: Modern Israeli War Film and the Formation of Anti-Conflict Identities” (2011)
Sophie Elsner for "Big Dreams Versus Small Actions: The Argentine Response to the Jewish Refugee Crisis in the 1930s" (2010)
Anastasia M. Aguiar for "In Service to the State: United Nations Humanitarian Aid during the Violent Creation of Bangladesh" (2009)
Rachel G. Hoffman for "Arendt before Politics: Judging" (2008)
Thalia K. Beaty for "Postcolonial Novels as a Revision of History” (2007)
Christina Koningisor for "In Pursuit of Justice: Post-Conflict Resolution in Sierra Leone” (2007)
Karen J. Kudelko for "How They Survived: Personal Histories of Liberian Refugees” (2007)
Jonathan S. Sidhu for “The Legacy of 1947: Nation-State Preservation and the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots in Delhi” (2007)
Jeffrey A. Yoskowitz for “Creating a Kosher America: The Orthodox Union’s Program to Reclaim Kashrut, 1945-65” (2007)
Brain Corcoran for "Mezi zpavou a pravdou-Between Information and the Truth: Havel's Intellectual Education" (2006)
Justin Glavis-Bloom for "Unwitting CIA Complicity: American Media Coverage of the Iranian Coup" (2006)
Constantine Haghighi for "A Proper View of History: Yasukuni Shrine in East Asia" (2006)
Oh-Yoon Kim for "The Untouchable Authentic and the Accessible Simulation: A History of Atomic-Bomb Witness in Japan and the United States" (2006)
Hilary Falb for "Internalizing Iran: The Post-Mosaddegh Era Intellectuals and the Coming Revolution" (2005)
Lillian Guenther for "Bohuslav Martinu and the Boston Symphony Orchestra: A Musical Collaboration, 1925-1959" (2005)
Katharine Moore for "The Rabbi and the Republic: French Jews and the Separation of Church and State: 1879-1906" (2005)
Takuro Noguchi for "Negotiating a Middle Ground" (2005)
Rebecca Simon for "Farmers and Political Thinkers: A Comparison of Hesiod's Works and Days and Nate Shaw's Stories in All God's Dangers" (2005)

David Herlihy Prize to the “best student in Medieval or Renaissance History.”

Alexandra Wolfson (2012)
Jennifer Grayson for “As I saw in my time”: Abbasid Baghdad, Saadya Gaon, and the Synthesis of Jewish Philosophy, 750-942" (2011)
Jonathan Hiles for "Justice, Justice, Seek ye Always Justice; The Radical Legal Theories of the English Levellers" (2010)
Hillary Taylor for "An Epidemicall disease...raigneth over the whole land: Separatist Disorder, Patriotism and the Early Royalist Press in 1640-42" (2009)
Kenneth E. Seligson for "Sailing to the Ends of the Earth: The Growth and Decline of Ancient Roman Trade with the Indian Subcontinent During the First Three Centuries CE" (2008)
Jennifer E. Tarr for "Damnable driftes'? Witchcraft, Community, and Common Law in Elizabethan England" (2008)
Lela P. Spielberg for "Veronica Franco and the Renaissance Courtesan" (2007)
Tara Lang for "Italian Renaissance Clothing: The New Meaning of the Phrase 'Fashion Victim'" (2006)

The Claiborne Pell Medal for excellence in United States history.

Elizabeth G. Caldwell for "The Financial Frontier: Slave Mortgaging and the Creation of the Deep South" (2012)
Clare Kim for "Math Derived, Math Applied: The Establishment of Brown University's Division of Applied Mathematics, 1940-1946" (2011)
Jeffrey Martin for "A Despotism in our Midst": Railroad Politics and Corporate Power in Antebellum America" (2010)
Etan Newman for "For Whose Benefit? Social Control and the Construction of Providence's Dexter Asylum" (2009)
Sara T. Damiano for "From the Shadows of the Bar: Law and Women's Legal Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Newport" (2008)
Samantha M. Seeley for "That pattern of a husband, a warrior and a fine gentlemen: Maine's Revolutionary War Veterans and the Pension Program of 1829" (2007)
Peiling Li for "Desertion and Disunity: The North Encounters the Civil War' (2006)
Sarah K. Bowman for "Constructing ‘Our Second Great Historical Epoch’: The Massachusetts Historical Society during the United States Civil War" (2005)

The John Thomas Memorial Award for best Honors thesis.

Kathryn N. Vastola for "Wakamatsu Remembered: Collective Memory at a Gold Country Farm, 1856-Present" (2012)
Gabrielle Kim for "A House Divided: Pre-Post Liberation and the Struggle for Nationhood in Korea, 1919-1950" (2011)
Samuel Bollier for "Fruitful Failure: Mountaineers, Volunteers, and Federally-Sponsored Community Action in Eastern Kentucky, 1960-1970" (2010)
Caroline Landau for "Brazil, Show Your Face!": AIDS, Homosexuality, and Art in Post-Dictatorship Brazil" (2009)
Maha R. Atal for "Anglo-French Relations and Radical Politics: The Case of G.W.M. Reynolds 1835-53" (2008)
Sara T. Damiano for "From the Shadows of the Bar: Law and Women's Legal Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Newport" (2008)
Anna K. Hermann for "Teaching Democracy: The Implementation and Outcome of the Re-Education of German Prisoners of War in RI During World War II" (2008)
Natan T. Zeichner for "Becoming a Vanguard: Student Activism and Popular Organizing in the Greater Sao Paulo Area During the Abertura Period of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship" (2007)

Yegen History Department Prize for outstanding Honors thesis.

Elizabeth G. Caldwell for "The Financial Frontier: Slave Mortgaging and the Creation of the Deep South" (2012)
Eugenie D. Montaigne for "Under the Banner of Reform: Autonomy and Autocracy in the Twentieth Century Prison" (2012)
Niwaeli Kimambo for "Keeping It Together: Assessing the "Failure" of Ujamaa at the Village Level" (2012)
Juan M. Ruiz Toro for "Toward a Post-Nationalist Nation: The Origins of Puerto Rico’s Democratic Revolution, 1948-1964" (2012)
Matthew Brag for "Myths, Meinertzhagen, and the Effects of Fradulence on the Historical Imagination: the Legacy of British Intelligence's False Claims during WWI" (2011)
Sarah Rosenthal for "He that resisteth the king resisteth God: The Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Creation of an English Reformed Identity" (2011)
Max I. Straus for "Novel Crimes Against a Novel Sovereign: Sovereignty, Due Process and the Law of Treason in Early Modern England" (2011)
Jonathan Hiles for "Justice, Justice, Seek ye Always Justice; The Radical Legal Theories of the English Levellers" (2010)
Jeffrey Martin for "A Despotism in our Midst": Railroad Politics and Corporate Power in Antebellum America" (2010)
Joy Neumeyer for "Public Discourse, Private Lives: Love, Sex, and Family in Late Soviet Russia" (2010)
Amir Radjy for "Three Young Patriots: LaFayette, Noailles, Segur and the fall of courtier culture in France, 1750-1789" (2009)
Casey D. Bohlen for "Our Father, Who Art in Congress: The Political Beginnings of Father Robert F. Drinan, S.J." (2008)
David A. Fedman for "Weighing Guilt: The Executive Committee and the Crafting of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal" (2008)
Henry S. Hoyle for "Looking Ahead to Harbin's Prospects, How Can One Not Produce a Great Sigh? Liu Jingyan's Chinese Harbin" (2008)
Elizabeth M. Sher for "Music Lessons: A Cultural Analysis of Leonard Bernstein and the Young People's Concerts, 1958-72" (2008)
Francesca P. Brady for “A Hundred Years of Steadfast Savoir-Faire: The First Century of Miss Porter’s School (2007)
Shannon M. Chow for “Greatness: Nitobe Inazo (1862-1933) and Prewar Japan” (2007)
Lela P. Spielberg for “She is my Baby and I Think a Great Deal of Her: Parents’ Voices in the Discussion of Mental Disability, 1903-1945” (2007)
Samuel Biagetti for "The Red Wine Rebellion: Louisiana, 1768" (2006)
Constance Choi for "Shostakovich and His Music: How We Read the Multivalent Meaning of "Red" Art" (2006)
Devon Dear for "Writing the Spectral State: The Poetry of Abdulhamid Suleimon Ughli Cholpon in Soviet Turkistan, 1917-1925" (2006)
Christopher Elias for "The Company Man: John Theodore McNaughton and the Vietnam War" (2006)
Dana Goldstein for "Remembering the Flaneuse: Women of French Panorama, 1830-1848" (2006)
Sarah K. Bowman for "Constructing 'Our Second Great Historical Epoch': The Massachusetts Historical Society During the United States Civil War" (2005)
David Petruccelli for "Detectives Under the Swastika: 'The Organization, Actions. and Men of the German Criminal Police During the National Socialist Period" (2005)
Alexander Provan for "Everything Connects: Harry Smith and the Anthology of American Folk Music" (2005)