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.

  • 2021 Undergraduate Symposium Presentations

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    • Wendy Alfaro-Cruz
      The Burden of Disease: The Ebola Pandemic in West Africa, 2013-2016
      Joseph Engwenyu, faculty mentor
    • Jennifer Besler
      From Tlatelolco to #Yosoy132: Student Movements, Repression, and the PRI in Mexico
      Mary G. Strasma, faculty mentor
    • Ryan Block
      Memories of a Vanished Land: The Yugoslav legacy in Modern Bosnia
      Mary G. Strasma, faculty mentor
    • Cody Chambers
      Chinese Investments in Africa: Myth, Fact and Reality
      Joseph Engwenyu, faculty mentor
    • Dylan Chrysler
      The Burden of Disease: Dengue Fever in Africa
      Joseph Engwenyu, faculty mentor
    • Susan Dodge-Doak
      Neurological Connections: Addiction & the Divine
      Mark Whitters, faculty mentor
    • JuliAnna Ebeling
      The Women’s Rights Project, The United States Court System, and Second Wave Feminism
      Mary G. Strasma, faculty mentor
    • Jordan Hammerberg
      The Roots of the Waterloo State Recreation Area
      Richard Nation, faculty mentor
    • William Hasey
      The Fight for the Copley Medal
      Mark Whitters, faculty mentor
    • Yanni Kefallinos
      The Home of Ossian Sweet
      Mary G. Strasma, faculty mentor
    • Alex T. King
      Resilient Women: Entrepreneurial Igbo Women, Nigeria
      Joseph Engwenyu, faculty mentor
    • Sister Mary Vianney Lyon, OP
      Fort Wayne, Indiana: City of Three Rivers
      Richard Nation, faculty mentor
    • John Milkovich
      History as Artistic Inspiration: Playwriting
      Ronald Delph, faculty mentor
    • John Paquette
      “Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Your Stories”: The Afterlives of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
      Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, faculty mentor
    • Nicole Rinkel
      Womanspace: The Creation of EMU’s Women’s Studies Program in the 1970s
      Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, faculty mentor
    • Michael Scheske
      “Don’t Worry, I’m Careful”: The Michigan Murders, 1967-1969
      Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, faculty mentor
    • Riley Shepherd
      Videla, Nixon, and Kissinger: Responsibility and Traumatization in Argentina
      Mary G. Strasma, faculty mentor
    • Katherine St. Amand
      Agricultural Settlement Patterns of French Canadians in Lower Canada and Michigan
      John Wegner, faculty mentor
    • Olivia Stuck
      “An Excellent Example of Wretched Bureaucratic Excess?”: Eastern Michigan’s Mascot Controversy
      Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, faculty mentor
    • Kirk Suchowesky
      Sleight of Hand: Soviet Anti-Religious Practices Continued in a Post-Communist Russia
      Jesse Kauffman, faculty mentor
    • Liza Jane Throne
      West African Troops During the Burma Campaign, 1943-1945
      Joseph Engwenyu, faculty mentor
    • Katie Tingstad
      Jewish Resistance to Anti-Semitism in Michigan During the Twentieth Century
      Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, faculty mentor
    • Nate Turner
      “I do not think it is alarming… there is no need of panic.”: Michigan’s 1918 Influenza Epidemic
      Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, faculty mentor
    • Nate Turner
      The Burden of Disease: Towards HIV/AIDS Universal Access Treatment in Botswana
      Joseph Engwenyu, faculty advisor
    • Ryan Williams
      The Florida Disaster: What Went Wrong for Al Gore in the U.S. Presidential Election of 2000
      Mary G. Strasma, faculty mentor
    • Joanne Wisely
      Contested Civic Space: The Piazza della Signoria in Medicean Florence
      Ronald Delph, faculty mentor
    • Nathaniel Yocum
      Hippocracy: Student Activism and the Human Rights Party in Ypsilanti
      Mary Elizabeth-Murphy, faculty mentor
  • 2021 Graduate Research Conference Presentations

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    • Wendy Shepard
      German Prisoners of War: Re-education in America 1943-1946
      Faculty Mentor: Dr. John McCurdy
    • Rachael Schnurr
      Race, Womanhood, and Adaptation to Settler Colonialism in the Diaries of Mary Hobart Williams
      Faculty Mentor: Dr. John McCurdy
    • Connor K. Ashley
      The Failure of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) in Namibia, 1978-1990: The Tragedy of anti-Apartheid, anti-SWAPO Politics
      Faculty Mentor: Joseph Engwenyu
    • Michael Seitter
      The emergence of the bus in Detroit
      Faculty Mentor: Ashley Johnson Bavery
    • Andre’a Ferrara
      Frantz Fanon Revisited: Concerning Violence
      Faculty Mentor: Dr. Joseph Engwenyu
    • Emily Murphy
      Guardians of Community: Detroit Jewish Women 1840 - 1930Faculty Mentors: John McCurdy and Ashley Johnson Bavery
    • Marie Sarnacki
      Hierarchies of Reform: Prioritizing Infant Mortality in the Early American Child Welfare Movement
      Faculty Mentor: Mary-Elizabeth Murphy
    • Carly Scarbough
      Out on the Town: The Lives of Sex Workers in Victorian New York City
      Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mary-Elizabeth Murphy
    • Cheyenne Travioli
      Indigenous Resilience: Indigenous Presence Within and Outside of Detroit
      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.

  • 2020-21 Honors Theses

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    • Katherine St. Amand, “Agricultural and Settlement Patterns of New France in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries." Faculty mentor Prof. Wegner.
    • Kirk Suchowesky, “Sleight of Hand: Soviet Anti-Religious Practices Continued in a Post-Communist Russia.” Faculty mentor, Prof. Kauffman.
    • Joanne Wisely, “Contested Civic Space: The Piazza della Signoria in Medicean Florence." Faculty mentor, Prof. Delph.
  • 2020-21 M.A. Theses

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    • Justin Krasnoff, "The Contributions of Edward A. Pollard's The Lost Cause to the Myth of the Lost Cause" (Steven Ramold, thesis chair)

    • Alex Logan, "The Formation of Greater Romania: A Study of the French Influence on Romanian Nationalism and Nation-State During the Great War" (Jesse Kauffman, thesis chair)

    • Lacey Opdycke, "'Women with Their Eyes on the Stars': The Women Airforce Service Pilots' Fight for Recognition, 1939-2016" (Steven Ramold, thesis chair)

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