The Western Oregon University History Department initiated the Senior Seminar in 1997 as a requirement for all history majors. The university provost had requested that each academic department develop a means to ascertain whether its majors had achieved the goals of its program. The history faculty quickly recognized that the research, interpretation, and writing were the goals and competencies we wished that our majors achieve. To this end, the faculty created the Senior Seminar. In this course students undertook research projects of their choice, worked closely with professors in developing the project, and then wrote journal-length articles.To help students develop their research, interpretive, and writing skills, the faculty also created a junior-level course titled, “History Research and Writing.” Furthermore, in all upper division courses faculty emphasize the above-mentioned competencies.

John L. Rector
Professor of History

Senior Capstone Papers:

Seminar papers since 2012 are posted online through the Digital Commons at Hamersly Library: digitalcommons.wou.edu/his/

[section=2012]

AUTHOR	THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
Amanda Cirillo	The Growth of Labor Relations during World War II: A Comparison of Henry Kaiser and Henry Ford
Josephine Colburn	Gender and Salem Witch Trials of 1692
Greg Garcia Jr.	Who put the “Cuba” in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Michael Granat	Without Bread or Work In the New Millenium: Effects of Argentine Economic Policy in the Crash of 2001
Christopher Malmberg	New England Order: A Discourse of the Society that Developed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Patrick Melby	Insatiable Shipyards: The Impact of the Royal Navy on the World’s Forests, 1200 – 1850
Travis Robinson	Red Cross: Results of Service
Jennifer Ross	Projections of Complicity: Narratives of Rape Survivors in Wartime Bosnia 1992 – 1995
David Siewell	The Riurikid Relationship with the Orthodox Christian Church in Kievan Rus
Dan Sprinkle	Young Ernesto Guevara and the Myth of Che
Jessica Strawn	Mount Taishan and its Pilgrims
Devan Walsh	In Depth Analysis of Peter the Greats Social Reforms and the Justification of the Reactions from the General Public

[endsection]

[section=2011]

AUTHOR	THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
Robert Richards	Colonization of Cryene: A Historiographic Perspective
Jaxon Saunders	“Alexander the Great: A Lesson Taught by Roman Historians”
Andrew White	“The Role of Marius’s Military Reforms in the Decline of the Roman Republic ”
Jeffrey Larson	“A Fork in the Road: The Catilinarian Conspiracy’s Impact on Cicero’s Relationships with Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar”
Clara Scillian Kennedy	“Caves, Water and Corn in Ancient Maya Myth”
Jennifer Newby	“Jane Addams and Children: Educating the Future One Child at a Time”
Helen Chaffee	“The Gaucho: Contradictions and the Construction of a National Symbol”
Jonathan Moch	“Women in Nazi Propaganda”
Stephen L. Calkin	“A Marriage of Convenience: the Prewar Relationship between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia”
Emma Thomas	China’s One-Child Policy: The Party’s Rationale and the People’s Response”
Melanie Pinard	“Women in Oregon in the 1960s”
Sarah Goldsworthy Berry	“Pancho Villa and the Lord of the Skies: Narcocorridos in the Mexican Corrido Tradition”

[endsection]

[section=2010]

AUTHOR	THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
Alexandra Chapman	Transformation: Twilighting Forks
Austin Preller	The Extinction of Bison Culture
Christopher Perkins	“Descend, descend, and be damned throughout the ages.”: Pope Gregory VII and the Dictatus Papae
Hannah Marshall	Voluntary Food Conservation: The United States Home Front in WWI
Heather Wright	Roman Woman, Culture, and Law
James Holmes	Julius Caesar’s Invasions of Britain
Jennifer Wright	The Propaganda of Vespasian
Jordan Kasler	“Say Uncle” Reagan Doctrine and Nicaragua
Kathryn Wagner	The Political Position and Symbolism of Ancient Rome’s Vestal Virgin
Kira Noble	Nationalism, Human Rights and John Paul II: The First Papal Pilgrimage to Poland, June 1979
Kristopher Schendel	Stalin’s Collectivization: From an Idealistic View to a Defensive Stance, 1928-1934
Mary Katrina Shank	The Meaning of the Reliefs at the Temple of Abu Simbel
Sam Dollarhide	“In the Name of Almighty God” Gregory VII and the Investiture Controversy
Sammy Nordstrom	Bittersweet Independence: The Influence of the United States on Cuba’s Independence
Sarah Hardy	Temperance and Beyond: The Oregon Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and Progressive Reform during the First World War
Scott Hagensen	Small Town Attitude
Stephanie di Bona	Food and Dining in Etruscan Funerary Ritual: Foreign Influence and Cultural Exchange
Toni Rush	The Role of Female Leadership within the Civil Rights Movement: Septima Clark and Fannie Lou Hamer
Zach Mintzer	“Pancho Villa and the Lord of the Skies: Narcocorridos in the Mexican Corrido Tradition”

[endsection]

[section=2009]

AUTHOR	THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
Meagan (Poole) Button	Livia Drusilla: Deciphering Between Traditional Views of Rome’s First Lady
Sarah Beisell	Uranium Mining on Navajo Lands
Nolan Kinney	Positivism in Poland
Anna Keaton	Elizabethan Church Settlement: An Examination
Amber Ferris	Bartolome de Las Casas Revisited
Joe Lovatt	Sword and Spirit: Bushido in Practice from the Late Sengoku Era through the Edo Period
Ryan Brown	Marius’ Military Reforms and the War Against Jugurtha
Joshua Hall	Erythrean Sea Trade: The Origin of Rome’s Contact with China
Michael Myers	Carl von Clausewitz’s Military Theory: An Examination
Vanessa Hancock	Roanoke and Jamestown: A Comparative Analysis
Brandon Button	Augustan Rome: The Transformation of the Eternal City
Holly Hartman	Gender in Colonial America: Women and Witches
Bryan Smith	Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential Run: How the Political Climate of the 1850s Impacted Lincoln’s Presidency
Danile Wilson	The Jewish Question in the New Republic, 1919-1924
Kristin Johnson	Oversimplified Men: A Striking Comparision to Society in the 21st Century
Bayard McLeod	John C. Calhoun: One of America’s Most Influential and Misunderstood Politicians
Kelsey Hutchinson	The “War on Coca” in Peru: An Examination of the 1980s and 1990s U.S. “Supply Side” Policies
Richard Mansker	Augustan Propaganda: And Examination of the Ara Pacis Augustae
Betsy McDonald	Museum and National Identity: The Case of the Parthenon Sculptures
Mary Wright	Marius’ Mules: Paving the Way to Power
Phillip Myers	Theocratic Centralism: The Politics of Boniface VIII in the Thirteenth Century
Jeffrey Thompson	Sic Semper Tyrannis: Justification of Caesar’s Assassination
Beau Backman	“Fat Man”: Modern Nuclear Thought on Tactical Weapon
Caleb Yankus	Mao Zedong’s “Anarcho-Marxist” Vision Revisited
Cain Stoneking	The Decline of the Tainos, 1492-1542: A Re-Vision
Jennifer Patterson	“A Passionate Folly”: Alexander Hamilton’s Impact on the Election of 1800
Katherine Lankins	Sir Francis Drake in the New World: 1577-1580

[endsection]

[section=2008]

AUTHOR	THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
Ashley Barnes	Paintings in Roman Pompeii: Differences in Public and Private Areas of the Home
Jessica Bertling	Woman Suffrage Movement in Oregon
Matt Bond	Ivan the Terrible: Centralization in Sixteenth Century Muscovy
Rebecca Carlson	Don Juan de Oñate’s Prosecution for “Crimes and Excesses” in the Provinces of New Mexico, 1614
Sarah Coelho	Theoderic the Great vs . Boethius : Tensions in Italy in the Late 5 th and Early 6 th Centuries
Joshua Duder	Fort de Caroline, 1562-64 & Fort Raleigh, 1585-1590: Periphery Victims of Spanish Religious Intolerance
Mark Lowry	Boniface VIII and Philip IV: Conflict Between Church and State
Luke Martin	TITLE
Mindy Nichols	Did Ancient Romans Love Their Children?Infanticide in Ancient Rome
Jeffery Sawyer	Torture and its Consequences in American History
Anthony Sutton	Cuban Medicine through the 1990s
Jordan Wilde	Ancient Greek Hoplites and their Origins
Josh Woods	Homeland Insecurity: Truman, Hoover, and Intelligence

[endsection]

[section=2007]

AUTHOR	THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
Chris Breyer	Culpability and Concealed Motives: An Analysis of the Parties Involved in the Diversion of the Fourth Crusade
Kevin O. Collins	Expansionism and Religion: The Fatal Flaws of the Aztec Empire
Sarah Crocker	Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Female Body
Nolan Doyle	Rome’s Bloody Nose. The Pannonian Revolt, Teutoburg Forest and the Formation of Roman Frontiers
Lahia Marie Ellingson	The Bastards of Bataan: General Douglas MacArthur’s Role in the Fall of the Philippines during World War II
Erin M. Fleener	Peter the Great as a Constructive Revolutionary
Mark Haner	Bob Marley’s Spiritual Rhetoric, the Spread of Jamaican Culture and Rastafarianism
Derick Handley	Broadcasting a Revolution: Radio Free Europe and the Hungarian Revolution
Brian W. Jacque	Piracy in a Mercantilist Society
Eli Kem	The Making of Australian Federation: An Analysis of The Australasian Convention Debates, 1891, 1897-1898
Lindsay Kubin	The Importance of Fashion in Early Modern England
Tyler Yung Laughlin	The Controversy of Constantine’s Conversion to Christianity
Craig Lockhart	The Lost Legions of Augustus
Francesca E. Morrison	Paramilitaries, Propaganda, and Pipelines The NATO Attack on Kosovo and Serbia, 1999
Kelly Peterson	In Grave Danger: How the United States Responds to Threats to the Nation through Foreign Policy and Propaganda
Jared Quinones	Internment and the Economic Success of an Unwanted Minority Group
Austin Schulz	Capitalism in the American West: The Dalles, Oregon Surviving the Boom and Bust Cycle
Brian A. Sprague	The Parthenon Frieze: Viewed as the Panathenaic Festival Preceding the Battle of Marathon
Samuel Aubrey Summers	Leninism: Pathway to Dictatorship?

[endsection]

[section=2006]

AUTHOR	THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
JP Johnson	The 2nd Jewish Revolt: Cassius Dio Revisted
Matthew Jirges	Akhenaten’s Religious Revolution
Robert Moore	Charlemagne: A Frank Analysis of Imperialism in the 8th and 9th Centuries: An Examination of Charlemagne and The Frankish Empire
Janna Moser	Westerns: Creating the American West
Andrew S. Erickson	Fidel Castro and the Economic Dependence Cycle in Cuba
Justin Jacobs	Mark Antony: A Revisit of the Civil War of 43-31 B.C.
Katie Gray	Pope Gregory VII: A Church Reformer
Emily Holmes	From Side Eddies to Main Stream: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Section 504 Sit-Ins
Mat Leslie	Augustus Caesar and the City Plebs: How the Commoners of Rome Found Prosperity Under Augustus
Cory Minick	Terrorism: A Journey of Self Recognition and Overcoming Taboo
Kevin P. Jeffries	The Propaganda of Augustus Caesar: How Peace, Power and Stability was Achieved During the Age of Augustus
Jeffery Neal	The Rise of Muscovy
Ron Vorderstrasse	The Timber Industry and its Effects on the Pacific Northwest
Scott Seidler	Unabashed Patriotism: How Thomas Mann Came to Embrace the Weimar Republic
Kristoffer R. Standish	“We are the friends of the reform; but that is not reform”: The Conflicting Ideologies of Abolitionism and the Labor Movement in the Antebellum United States
Jessica Coltrin	Women and Baseball?
Kimberly McKeever	Women and the California Gold Rush
Travis Moore	An American Response to the European Revolutions of 1848: John C. Calhoun v. Reformists and Revolutionaries

[endsection]

[section=2005]

AUTHOR, THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
Ashley Bell           Neolin and Tenskwatawa: A Comparison of Two Nativist Prophets
Jeff Benson          The Olmecs: Where the Sidewalk Begins
Monica Fleener     The Significance of the Coronation of Charlemagne
Justin Gavette       The Mexican American War and Its Effects
Jenny George        Influenza Pandemic of 1918: Effects on the United States Military
Kathryn Horrocks    Where was the First Amendment? Trials Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts During World War I
Lucie Johnson       Influence of Returning Gods: Aztecs and Hawaiians
Katie Lane            Vikings in the East: Scandanavian Influence in Kievan Rus
Ronald Leslie        Hadrian’s Second Jewish Revolt: Political or Religious?
Shoshana Loos     Women and Unions During World War II
Lindsay McNeill     Romanization in Ancient Iberia: Religion and Ideology
David Meek          Return of the Judaeans
Sarah Rossos       Petticoats to Trousers: “True Womanhood” and California Gold Rush Women
Liz Saufley           Women in the German Democratic Republic: The Discrepancy Between Socialist Rhetoric and Daily Practice
Jonathan Tipton     Osama “The Terrorist”: A Shifting Silhouette
Ambera Tolbert      Merovingian and Carolingian Empires: An Analysis of Their Strengths and Weaknesses
Hiromi Uera         The 1947 Constitution of Japan: The Process of Democracy in Japanese Society
Daniel Van Winkle  An Examination of the Use of History in the Rise of Ethic Nationalism in the Former Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia

[endsection]

[section=2004]

AUTHOR, THESIS TITLE (and link to file)

Paul Angove

“Pope Pius XII and the European Conflict”

James Callahan

“The Workingmen’s Party’s Role During the Great Strike of 1877 in St. Luis”

Bret Cochrun

“NAFTA: Assessing Ten Years of Failure”

Jennifer Cournoyer

“Jews and the Former Habsburg Empire: Joseph Roth, Franz Werfel, and the Concept of Nationalism in Interwar Europe (1918 – 1938)”

 

Jessica Ferguson

“The Navajo: A History of Continued Adaptation and Survival through the Arrival of the Uranium Mining Industry”

 

Toni Kelly

“She Left and America”: Hilda Satt Polacheck, Jewish Assimilation, and the Role of the Settlement House”

David Shewey

“Athenian Ambitions for the Delian League”

Katie Tipton

“Roman Iberia: Architecture in the Presence of Cultural Change”

Nicholas Tipton

“CIA Involvement in Nicaraguan Drug Running”

Clinton Trimmer

“The Salvation Army: A Case Study on how Industrialism Affected Charities”

[endsection]

[section=2003]

UTHOR	THESIS TITLE (and link to file)
Michael J. Anderson	“Puppet Wars: The Nicaraguan Revolution in a Cold War Context”
Sam Burton	“Paranoia and Popular Culture in Cold WarAmerica”
L. Benjamin Cushing	“Paradigm Piracy: The EZLN and the Quest to Categorize”
Tara Dickey	“Keystones in the Pacific: The Strategic Importance of Iwo Jima and Wake Island During WW II”
Leslie Erin Dooney	“Radioactive Reindeer: The Effect of Chernobyl on the Saami People of Northern Europe”
Ellie Enos	“U.S. Propaganda During World War II: Its Implementation, Portrayl, and Impact on Women in the Industrial and Agricultural Sector with Special Emphasis on the Oregon Farmfront”
Elizabeth Gifford	“The Importance of Midwives and Healers, from Martha Ballard to Mary Peterson: An Examination of the History and Cultural Significance of Midwifery and Healing in Native, European and American Societies”
Bonnie Keady	“The Good War and the Bad Peace: Conscientious Objectors in World War II”
Brian S. Kittel	“The Evolution of Tactics: A Moral Look at the Decision to Target Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet”
Jesse Light	“100 Percent Americans: A Hard Proven Fact”
Tim Melcher	“On the Brink of Nuclear Destruction”
Erin Nickolson	“The Southern Way of Life and Planter-Class Women’s Perceptions of the Civil War”
Kalah A. Paisley	“Beyond Original Intent: The Reinvention of the Everson Ruling by Constitutional Historians”
McKenzie Powell	“The Influence of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Formation of the Cold War; 1946-1949”
John H.T. Watkins	“Truman: The Man Behind the Cold War”
Heath Wellman	“Sex and Lots of Erotic Art to Prove It: The Erotic Art ofPompeii”
Kristin Williams	“The Contradictory Mandate of the National Park Service:Crater LakeNational Park’s Distinctive Position”

 

[endsection]