Earlier this month, West Virginia University graduate and undergraduate students shared their research on historical topics ranging from politics to religion at conferences at home and abroad.
Eleven master’s and Ph.D. students from the WVU Department of History presented papers at conferences in West Virginia, Michigan, Virginia, and England with topics that ranged from slavery and the antebellum period in Virginia politics to Muslim education in colonial Bengal. And several undergraduates delivered papers at a regional conference held at WVU.
“It was quite an accomplishment to have more than 20 of our graduate and undergraduate students present their research at scholarly conferences during a single weekend, and it is a testament to the quality of their work,” said Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, chair of the Department of History. “Their participation in these conferences was made possible by the support from private donors, the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and the University.”
Master’s student Andrew Brown recounted the story about the Tongva people of the Gabrielino tribe in Southern California and the group’s attempt to save a sacred holy site called Puvungna from development in the early 1990s. His research discusses the impact of the community on the grassroots activists’ efforts in their hope to redefine the demography of Native American activism.
Master’s student Paul Stocker’s paper “Remembering to Forget: Holocaust Memory in Contemporary Estonia,” presented at the East European Studies Congress at Fitzwilliam College in England, sought to explain the politics of the Holocaust in post-Communist European countries seeking Western integration.
And Ph.D. student Jacob Ivey’s paper “The Great Breach Between Civilization and Barbarism: Natal’s African Population and Land and Labor Policies in a Mid-Nineteenth Century Colonial State,” addresses issues of land and labor within early colonial Natal by examining the impact of the indigenous population in the formation of Natal as a colonial state.
Ivey and four others presented at Central Michigan University’s International Graduate Students Historical Conference. Nilanjana Paul, a Ph.D. student from India, presented on “Muslim Education in Colonial Bengal: From partition to the establishment of the Dacca University, 1905 -1920.” Stephen Santelli, a Ph.D. student, will present “The Admirable and the Contemptible:” William Morris, Nationalism, and Preservation, 1877-1926.” Signe Seskena, a master’s student from Latvia in the Transatlantic Master of Arts Program in East-Central European Studies, delivered “One country, two peoples: the Bonn-Berlin debate and creating German unity after die Wende.” And Paul Banda, a WVU Ph.D. student from Malawi, presented “Intra-Party Relations and the Sustainability of Multi-Partyism in Malawi: 1964-2011.”
Brendan Muckian-Bates, a master’s student, presented at Marshall University’s STAND for Women Conference. His paper title is “Imago Virilis inter Occidentalem et Orientalem: A Study of Masculinity between the Crusading West and the Byzantine East.”
Four students delivered their research at Virginia Tech’s Brian Bertoti Conference. Charles Welso, a master’s student, presented “A Different Shade of Blue: The Draft, Volunteerism, and the Men of Northampton County in September 1862.” Adam Zucconi, a Ph.D. student whose presentation is supported by the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Vehse Endowment travel fund, presented “A Peculiar Detente: Slavery and Antebellum Virginia Politics.”
Katie Logothesis, a Ph.D. student, delivered “A Blending of Disciplines: Using Psychology and History to Study the Civil War Soldier.” Andrew Brown, a master’s student, presented “Save Puvungna: Activism, Urban Indians, and Community in Long Beach, CA, 1972-1995.”
Also this month, 10 WVU undergraduate students—Thomas Smith, Erryonna Leonard, David Smith, Michael Gallimore, Heather Hill, Paige Dalrymple, Victor Rendon, Nicole Jones, Jessica Fletcher and Carl Rice—delivered papers at the WVU Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference, held at WVU and sponsored by the WVU Department of History and the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
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