Honors Projects

The Concrete Modernism of Oscar Niemeyer and the Paulistano Impulse Toward Cannibalized Urban Design and Performative Identity

Doris Zhao — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:20:18 PST

As introduced by the cultural elite of São Paulo, Brazil in 1922, the aesthetics of modernism drove Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx's designs of urban architectural projects in the mid-twentieth century. These architectural performances of a modern paulistano identity, evidenced in Parque Ibirapuera, provide insight into the challenges and ruptures of identify formation and memory for the residents of São Paulo. Using antropofagia as a lens of analysis, the call to cultural cannibalism complicates the processes of self-representation within the city. Historically, paulistanos believed themselves to be the socio-economic and cultural pioneers of the Brazilian nation but tracing the conflicting manifestations of modernism through various socio-political contexts demonstrates class tensions and local divergences from national programs of identity building.

"We are scattered, starved, hunted, half-naked, but we are not conquered": Masculinity, Race and Resistance in Bleeding Kansas

Cori Simon — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:10:22 PST

This project uses the dual lenses of race and gender to put the perspectives of white men fighting in Bleeding Kansas in conversation with the often silenced voices of African Americans and American Indians. Black abolitionists and soldiers in the territory articulated the conflict as central to the future of the free black community. American Indians participated in this conflict while resisting white conquest of Kansas. With these perspectives, this project argues that conceptions of masculinity, intricately tied to race, played a central role in fueling the border violence and determining the way it is remembered.

Agencies at War: Marshaling Places, Objects, and Sonorities in the Alta California Missions

Naomi R. Sussman — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:05:13 PDT

1769, Spanish Franciscan Junípero Serra initiated the missionization of Alta California. To transform California into a Spanish territory, Franciscan missions evangelized indigenous peoples. While traditional Alta California mission histories emphasize either Franciscan abuses or saintliness, reifying Native American subordination, most contemporary scholarship accentuates mutual hybridization but minimizes colonial power dynamics. Through archival and secondary research, this thesis argues that spatial interplay expressed neither syncretization nor unadulterated domination, but instead competing agencies within a physical and social “contact zone.” In this Alta Californian “contact zone,” material and sonic culture reinforced the continuous struggle for authority in the missions.

Organizing the World: Power Dynamics and “Civilization” in the British Museum

Katherine E. Steir — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:44:58 PDT

The British Museum has a long and complex relationship with the British Colonial project. Applying museum theory to case studies found in the museum, this paper explores the ways in which empire is reconstructed within the British Museum, and also investigates how public gallery spaces can engage with controversial history. In the 21^st century the museum struggles to reinvent itself as a universal institution presenting collections from around the world with sensitivity. However, the museum still expresses nostalgia for the imperial past, and presents a specific and homogenous image of the ideal British citizen.

War and Memory: The Role of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon

Bassam Khawaja — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:53:52 PDT

A Historiography of Chastity in the Marriage of Edith of Wessex and Edward the Confessor

Maren Hagman — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:28:01 PDT

A War Within World War II: Racialized Masculinity and Citizenship of Japanese Americans and Korean Colonial Subjects

Jeffrey Yamashita — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:09:10 PDT

Even though the Pacific Ocean stands as an aqueous wall between Japan and the United States, World War II exposed the shared relationship between these two nations in their utilization of racial minority populations for the war effort. I interrogate the intersections of gender identity, race, and citizenship of Japanese Americans and Korean colonial subjects in the Japanese Empire during World War II. Specifically, I compare Japanese Americans—soldiers of the segregated Japanese American100^th/442^nd Regimental Combat Team, draft resisters from Heart Mountain, and prisoners of war—with Korean colonial subjects—soldiers who fought for the Imperial Japanese Army— and hope to shed new insights on their experiences through examining the intersections of race, masculinity and citizenship.

Advisors: Dr. Peter Rachleff and Dr. Christopher Scott

Department: History

Being Seen: An Art Historical and Statistical Analysis of Feminized Worship in Early Modern Rome

Olivia J. Belote — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:29:58 PDT

Female saints in early Christianity found their place in public veneration often through violent means, martyrdom. These saints, while publicly suffering in the imitation of Christ, were the original agents to navigate the gendered hierarchy within the religion. Female saints created an avenue for later female worshippers to understand Christianity on a strictly feminine level. Through the frescoed depictions of these female saints in 18 churches throughout Rome, this paper historically and statistically analyzes how the artistic representations of female saints added to or created a space for feminized worship.

New Rhetoric, Old Practices: Combining Old and New Diplomacy in 1919

Natasha M. Leyk — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:10:54 PST

The idea of a "new world order" based on peace, justice and democracy is not unique to the post-Cold War era. President Woodrow Wilson utilized the same rhetoric when discussing the end of World War I and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Wilson's "new world order" provided a foundation to his conception of New Diplomacy. Yet 1919 was not the start of a "new world order" based on New Diplomacy. The Treaty of Versailles, negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference, became considered a harsh treaty that was not based on New Diplomacy. How did New Diplomacy fail in 1919, particularly regarding the Treaty of Versailles, and yet maintain a position within the foreign policy rhetoric of the United States?

I explore the puzzle by examining the inclusion of the rhetoric of New Diplomacy with the practices of Old Diplomacy using a historical institutionalist framework. This analysis is conducted in two significant sections after presenting of the framework and the literature. The first details the development of Old and New Diplomacy as opposing institutional paths within the institution of diplomacy. The second section explores the way the practices of Old Diplomacy were combined with the rhetoric of New Diplomacy within the Treaty of Versailles. The incorporation of Old and New Diplomacy is particularly evident in four major sections: the Paris negotiations, the war guilt and reparations clauses, the Covenant of the League of Nations, and the Mandate system. Ultimately, this paper concludes that New Diplomacy failed to become a new dominant path in diplomacy after 1919. The inclusion of the rhetoric of the New in 1919, however, provided the basis for its current use in contemporary United States foreign policy rhetoric.

A Land with a People: Palestine under British Mandate

Marie Gray — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:11:17 PST

To Die a Noble Death: Blood Sacrifice and the Legacy of the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme in Northern Ireland History

Anne L. Reeder — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:50:55 PDT

In 1916, under the pressurized conditions of the Great War, two violent events transpired that altered the state of Anglo-Irish relations: the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme. These events were immediately transformed into examples of blood sacrifice for the two fundamentally opposed communities in Northern Ireland: Nationalists and Unionists. In 1969, Northern Ireland became embroiled in a civil war that lasted thirty years. The events of 1916 have been used to legitimize modern instances of violence. This paper argues, through the use of cultural texts, that such legitimization is the result of the creation of mythic histories.

Visible Civility

Maeve Kane — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:39:44 PDT

Orgolhs, Paratge, and la Gentils Toloza: Imagining Community in the Song of the Cathar Wars

Elizabeth Johnson — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:26:58 PDT

The Albigensian Crusade in Occitania (1208-1229), which targeted the Cathar heretics as well as their orthodox compatriots, impelled an otherwise disparate set of Occitan noblemen to unite in opposition to the invasion. This newfound cohesion gave birth to an Occitan political community whose members were united by common fears, goals, and virtues. Through my analysis of the second portion of the chanson de geste, The Song of the Cathar Wars, authored by an anonymous poet sympathetic to the Occitans, I suggest the emergence of this Occitan community based upon (1) the portrayal of the French crusaders as well as the Occitan resistance fighters, (2) the way the anonymous poet framed the conflict in terms of conquest rather than crusade and (3) the characteristics and ideals attributed each side, most notably paratge. The question of whether an Occitan 'nation' or community existed during the Albigensian Crusade retains its relevance today in light of recent Occitan movements whose goals range from inspiring an Occitan cultural renaissance to attempting to create a modern Occitan nation separate from France.

Mr. Gandhi Visits Lancashire: A Study in Imperial Miscommunication

Irina Spector-Marks — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:09:30 PDT

In September 1931, Mohandas Gandhi traveled to Lancashire, heart of the English textile industry, while his boycott of English cotton goods was at its height. Photographs of Gandhi surrounded by smiling mill workers appear in biographies of Gandhi, but historians have rarely given this visit any critical attention. In this paper, I examine the language used prior to the visit by Gandhi and by trade unionists and mill owners to express their expectations for the visit. Although both sides used similar language about friendly discussion and dialogue prior to the visit, their agendas for the visit were vastly different. The textile workers and mill owners expected that the discussion would focus on Lancashire’s poverty and would induce Gandhi to end the boycott. Gandhi saw the visit to Lancashire as part of a larger mission to explain the Indian National Congress’ cause to British citizens in the hopes of gaining electoral support for Indian independence. These divergent goals stemmed from distinct historical and cultural contexts. The expectations of representatives of the textile industry stemmed from a commitment to nineteenth-century patterns of production and trade. Gandhi’s hopes for the visit originated in a desire to transform the political and economic connection between England and India by fostering the swadeshi, or self-sufficiency movement, in India. The difference between Gandhi’s expectations for the visit and those of trade unionists is a striking example of how disenfranchised groups within the empire, though ostensibly trying to collaborate with each other, could be too locked within their own cultural context to communicate. This short visit, which participants deemed historically unimportant the minute it was over, is useful in shedding light on issues important both to historians of empire and historians of British labor.

Making District Del Sol: The Murals of Saint Paul's West Side

Jenna F. Harris — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:24:28 PDT

I explore Saint Paul’s West Side community and how its organizations, businesses, and artists have defined the neighborhood’s identity and history by means of community art since the 1960s. As this immigrant community has changed over the years, its identity and history has been presented differently through its art. The murals and sculptural works uniquely preserve these snapshots in the neighborhood’s history through changes in style, content and benefactor. By using the West Side as a case study, I discuss larger historical trends in public art, commodification of culture, ethnic enclaves, place making and authenticity.

U.S. Decision-making in the Korean Conflict: "Lessons of History" from Munich to Clinton

Roland D. McKay — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 06:26:56 PDT

This paper examines U.S. policymakers' use of historical memory in the decision-making process during three moments characteized by high tension: the U.S. response to the North's invasion of South Korea in 1950, the U.S.S. Pueblo crisis of 1968, and the successive nuclear standoffs of 1993-1994 and 2002-2003. Using government records and interviews with U.S. officials, I demonstrate how diverse "lessons of history" help constrain the formulation and implementation of some policy options while enabling others by shaping (1) the diplomatic and military options presented to policymakers, (2) policymakers' responses to setbacks on the ground, and (3) the extent of U.S. involvement. I suggest that historical memory is a constitutive part of the decisionmaking environment and a significant part of the internal setting of the decision-making process. I also conclude that the selective use of historical memory (analogical reasoning) in the process outlined above is more acute in time of crisis. In these situations, the decision period is shorter; the search for information is less thorough than during the normal course of events; the degree of urgency is high; and the decisions may be irrevocable. Because accurate intelligence on North Korean intentions has been a serious problem dating back to the Second World War, U.S. policymakers have been obliged to rely on other their cognizance of past North Korean behavior in order to derive policy options and make decisions. If we suppose that policymakers sometimes unconsciously reach for "lessons of history" when confronting situations in which "objective" information is scarce, then the Korea conflict, with all its uncertainties, ought to afford us a way of testing out this assumption.