Recent Theses

2024-2025

  • Thomas Ernst
    “Etajima: Officer Development in Imperial Japan”
  • Erin Hvizdak
    “Death Becomes Her: Posthumous Evocations of Legendary Women of Color From the 18th and 19th Century Atlantic World”
  • Ray Matsumoto
    “Constructing Identity Through Power” Analyzing War Responsibility Discourse Through Zainichi Koreans and Abandoned Japanese Settlers in Manchuria”
  • Elizabeth Smith
    “Beauty in the Face of Horror: Fashion, Femininity, and Identity during the Holocaust”
  • Alison Moon
    “Ecumenical Protestants, American Orientalism, and Interfaith Dialogue, 1890-1968”

2023-2024

  • Berit Davis
    “Testing Their Mettle for Metal: Masculine Adventures, Gender, and the Economic Exploitation of Miners in the Cariboo Gold Rush, 1862-1867”
  • Kenzie Deppe
    “Midwest Drag: Black Community, Resistance, and Perseverance”
  • Camilla Nisco
    “Shaping Japanese Society Through Childhood” Themes of Change and Continuity in Cultures of Education and Play in Japan 1945-1952″
  • Timothy Varney
    “Macarthur’s Forgotten Children: the Allied Occupation of Japan and the Burakumin”

2022-2023

  • Madison Barben
    “Between Brethren and Fatherland: German Methodist Relations with Nazi Germany and American Methodism, 1933-1939”
  • Victor Moore
    “The Style, the Song, and the Celebration: Black Power and the Changing Cultural Dynamics of Trinidad and Tobago, 1969-1973”
  • Jessica O’Rourke
    “Newcomers in Latah County, Idaho: A Public History Approach on Cultural Adaption in the American West, 1871-1921”
  • Anne Schobelock
    “‘Where Women are News’: Dallas and Houston Feminist’s Periodicals and Activism on the Era, Abortion, and Antirape; 1970-1981”

2021-2022

  • Kyley Canion-Brewer, MA
    “’What Remains?’: Decolonization and Erasure of Memory in the History of the AfricaMuseum, 1897-2020″
  • James Cornelius, MA
    “Executive Influence and the Opposition Discourse of John Taylor of Caroline: A Contextual Study in American Party Development, 1793-1794”
  • Adam LaPorte, MA
    “How the Eagle Blocked Out the Sun: American and Japanese Aeronautical Engineering and Aircraft Production During World War II”
  • Delaney Piper, MA
    “Farm Bound: Landscapes of Self-Sufficience, Dependency, and Penalty in Pacific Northwest Poor Farms”
  • Mario Vega, MA
    “A Citizen Same as You and I”: Japanese American Student Relocation to Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Wa 1942-1945

2020-2021

  • Cole Robinson, MA
    “Negotiating Sovereignty Within the British Atlantic: Text Mining the Discourse of Colonial South Carolinian Elites, 1869-1776”
  • Qianni Shen, MA
    “Behind the Glory: Revealing the Hidden Memory of Chinese Air Force Pilots and Japanese Kamikaze Pilots 1931-1945”

2019-2020

  • Halderman, Christopher, MA
    “The Militarization of the Puget Sound: A Gateway to the Pacific, 1880-1900”
  • Hitchen, Matthew, MA
    “A Republican Education: The Politics and Ideology of Education in Columbia City, New York. 1777-1850”

2018-2019

  • Edgerton, Samantha, MA
    “Better Than Being on the Streets: Oregon, Idaho, and the Battered Women’s Movement.”
  • Hagadone, Zachary, MA
    “Palantines and Print Culture: Imagining Migration and Identity in the British Antlantic World.”
  • Johnson, Amy, MA
    “Wanapum Dispossession and Persistence on the Mid-Columbia in the Atomic Age.”
  • Johnson, Joshua, MA
    “When Bretheren Walk Together: Immanuel Tremellius (C. 1510-1580) , Jewish-Christian Conversion, Christian Hebraism, and Reformed Christianity.”
  • Menard, John (JT), MA
    “Scottish Ale: Bert Grant and the Rise and Fall of the Yakima Brewing Malting Company 1982 – 2005.”
  • Schroeder, James, MA
    “Programs of Denial: Unlocking the Gates to Skilled Immigration Through Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1947”

2017-2018

  • Briere, Laura, MA
    “More Than Meets the Eye: The Shoshone-Bannock Response to Education at Fort Hall, Idaho 1904-1946.”
  • Cassiere, Katrina, MA
    “Assobiando Dixie: Confederate Exiles in Brazil.”
  • Gumm, Sarah Beth, MA
    “Tis the Best Joy that Anyone Can Ask: Progressive Era Women’s Clubs in Tacoma, Washington.”
  • Oller, Emily, MA
    “Righteous Violence: Gender and the Stormtroopers, 1923-1933.”
  • Smith, Taylor, MA
    “Closeted Tongues of Fire: The Holiness Movement, Pentecostalism, and the Rise of Evangelical Cooperation in the 20th Century.”
  • Svehla, Amanda, MA
    “Communication and Power: Letter-Writing and the Elizabethan Court.”

2016-2017

  • Gilleran, Sean, MA
    “Carl Sagan’s Groovy Cosmos: Public Science and American Counterculture in the 1970s.”
  • Ockerman, Megan, MA
    “It’s the Water”: A History of the Olympia Brewing Company, 1896-1983.”
  • Torres, Renee, MA
    “Emissaries for the Lord: American Protestant Women Writers and Missionaries, 1930s”
  • Webb, Brianna, MA
    “Helmut Kohl: In Search of a Unified Past”

2015-2016

  • Anderson, James, MA
    Thesis Title:  “Seeing America’s Alps: Visual Media and the Creation of North Cascades National Park”
  • Hogstad, Jason Thomas, MA
    Thesis Title: “Splitting Hares: Eastern Oregon Pest Control and the Urban/Rural Divide, 1900-1925”
  • Rau, Calen Edward, MA
    Thesis Title: Of Monumental Importance: World War II, Hungarian Nationalism, and the Commemorative Landscape of Budapest
  • Dennis, Michael (Mickey), MA
    Thesis Title: “An Un-American” Objection: Mennonite Conscientious Objectors and American Antagonisms in Kansas During World War I”

2014-2015

  • Ford, Joni, MA
    Thesis Title: “Lowered Expectations: Mary Walker and the Disappointments of Mission Life, 1839-1848”
  • Kinsella, Tyler, MA
  • Runyan, Nyssa, MA
    Thesis Title: “The Greatest Adventure: American Volunteers from Leland Stanford, Jr. University and the University of California, Berkeley, in the American Field Service, 1916 – 1918”
  • Schraeder, Sarah, MA
    Thesis Title: “The Long Road to Memorialization: A History of the Development of the Esterwegen Memorial, 1945-2011”
  • Stack, Brian, MA
    Dissertation Title: “Sodomists and Citizens: The Washington State Sodomy Law at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”
  • Wells, Jacob, MA
    Thesis Title: “The Devotio Moderna; The Radical Reformation, and the Ideal of Inner Spirituality: 1374 – 1554”

2013-2014

  • Franklin, Robert, MA
    Thesis Title — “Matanuska? Mister, She’s Tough”: New Deal Agricultural Settlement in Alaska, 1933-1940
  • Grube, April Mae, MA
    Dissertation Title — From Honeymoon to Massacre: Memory and Remembrance of Marcus Whitman, 1847-1962
  • Patterson, Katherine Joyce, MA
    Dissertation Title — Inferiority, Sexuality, and Motherhood: Methods and Representations of Female Holocaust Rescuers
  • Vickoren, Daniel Joseph, MA
    Dissertation Title — Seeing Red From the Pulpit: Shifting Perceptions of Mormons and Pentecostals in American Society During the First Red Scare