Student Research

The History Section strives to support and recognize our students' historical research and writing.

Undergraduate Symposium and Graduate Research Conference

Every year several of our students present their original research at EMU's Undergraduate Symposium and Graduate Research Conference. Sharing the results of your research at these events gives you the valuable experience of presenting at a conference and lets others recognize your scholarly work.

  • Undergraduate Symposium Presentations

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    2024

    • Paige Abdulla-Albasir, "Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: The 'Balance Sheet" of a Legacy" (Faculty Mentor: Joseph Engwenyu)
    • Zachary Anderson, "Compromise Amidst Chaos: Hans Welser’s Battle Compromise in 16th Century Augsburg" (Faculty Mentor: Mark Whitters)
    • Anna Bennett, "Consequences of the Beecher-Tilton Scandal on the 1874 Michigan Women’s Enfranchisement Referendum" (Faculty Mentor: John Wegner)
    • Carsyn Bruns, "The Use of Imagery in Early Sixteenth-Century German Witch Hunts" (Faculty Mentor: Ronald Delph)
    • Zayan Chaudhry, "Drollery, Drinking, and Dervishes: Alcohol Consumption and Pedagogical Humorism in Bektashi Practice" (Faculty Mentor: Mark Whitters)
    • Riley Coffee, "Democracy in Decline: The Rise of Sulla and Rome’s First Civil War" (Faculty Mentor: Ronald Delph)
    • Riley Coffee, "Under Seige: The Historic Military Actions Surrounding Detroit" (Faculty Mentor: John Wegner)
    • Parker Gregg, "Violence, Resistance, and Survival" (Faculty Mentor: Mark Higbee)
    • Sabrina Kean, "The East African Coast, the Interior, and the Indian Ocean, 1000-1500" (Faculty Mentor: Joseph Engwenyu)
    • Nicole Loshe, "Leymah Gbowee: How Peacemaking and Peacekeeping Changed Liberia and the World" (Faculty Mentor: Joseph Engwenyu)
    • Elise Nehasil, "The Seat's Edge: Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal (Faculty Mentor: Ashley Johnson Bavery)
    • Elise Nehasil, "Wedded to the Renaissance: Marriage and Married Women in Fifteenth Century Florence" (Faculty Mentor: Ronald Delph)
    • Asterius Olds, "EMU's College of Education and Place-Based Pedagogy Within Concurrent Histories" (Faculty Mentor: Ashley Johnson Bavery)
    • Asterius Olds, "Development of Nationalist Poetry During the NAHDA (1870-1950)" (Faculty Mentor: Matthew Penix)
    • Lauren Simpson, "HIV/AIDS During the Twilight of Apartheid in South Africa" (Faculty Mentor: Joseph Engwenyu)
    • Stephen Van Tuyle, "Sexuality and Gender in the Ottoman Empire" (Faculty Mentor: Matthew Penix)
    • Joslynn Ward, "Rivers of War" (Faculty Mentor: Matthew Penix)
    • Tori Zremski, "Camels, Clerics, and Commerce: The Grounding of Islam in Pre-Colonial Medieval West Africa" (Faculty Mentor: Joseph Engwenyu)

  • Graduate Research Conference Presentations

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    2024

    • Elizabeth Allen, "We All Live in Stories: Indigenous Representation and Survivance in Videogames" (Faculty Mentor: Mary-Elizabeth Murphy)
    • Chris Baker, "Reassessing King John: An In-depth Analysis of his Reign and Legacy" (Faculty Mentor: John McCurdy)
    • Charles Calcaterra, "Maintenance Deferred, Preservation Denied: Brown-Munson and Historic EMU Buildings" (Faculty Mentor: James Egge)
    • Nicolas Chretien, "Spirit Possession and Spirit Mediums in Africa: Nyabingi and Nehanda" (Faculty Mentor: Joseph Engwenyu)
    • Amy Coomer, "The Easter Rising of 1916: Decolonizing Ireland" (Faculty Mentor: John McCurdy)
    • Hannah Doty, "The Fair Housing Act and H.U.D.: Origins and Efficacy" (Faculty Mentor: Mary-Elizabeth Murphy)
    • Mackenzie John Kortes, "In the Shadows of the Rising Sun: Organized Crime in Japan" (Faculty Mentor: Roger Long)
    • Amy Sangster, "Violent Communist Rhetoric, Freedom of Speech, and the American Legal System: The Smith Act Prosecutions" (Faculty Mentor: John McCurdy)

Thesis and Independent Study

In addition to regular coursework, students may undertake a research project for credit toward graduation. Students considering a thesis or independent study project should talk with the professor with whom they would like to work.

  • M.A. Theses

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    2023-24 

    • Julia Moore, "Polish Women and Communism" (Jesse Kauffman, adviser)
    • Marie Sarnacki, "Save the Child and Honor the State: Moral Reconstruction, the Michigan System, and Progressive Child Welfare Policy" (Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, adviser)

    2024-25 

    • Charles Calcaterra, "In a Hell of Our Own Making: Spatial Context and the Wehrmacht's Genocidal War in Eastern Europe, 1941-1943" (Jesse Kauffman, adviser)
    • Mackenzie Kortes, "The Dark Forest: Polish, Jewish, and Ukrainian Partisan Relations on the Eastern Front of the Second World War" (Steven Ramold, adviser)

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