Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, History (Arts and Sciences)

My research explores the emotional resonance of the Kashmir dispute in South Asian politics. I trace the roots of this dispute back to the era of British imperialism when Kashmir was ruled by an Indian maharaja as part of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. Even in those days, Kashmir enjoyed a reputation for beauty and grandeur, which perhaps explains why the princely state to which the region belonged was so often abbreviated as simply “Kashmir.” In premodern times, the region was a favorite vacation spot of the Mughal emperors, who enjoyed the cool mountain air and spectacular views of Kashmir's environment. When the British intervened directly in Kashmir from 1885-1925, partly in response to the devastating 1877-80 famine in Kashmir, they opened the region to a broad range of tourists. Like the Mughal emperors of yore, these tourists sought in Kashmir an escape from the heat of the lowland regions of India. British colonial policy toward Kashmir during these four decades of direct intervention was designed to accommodate the needs of primarily Western tourists. Today, Kashmir's physical allure remains as potent as ever, despite the region's all-too-frequent descent into political violence. My research explores how Kashmir evolved into a region whose landscapes and air, but not its inhabitants, came to matter to more powerful outsiders. This dynamic, which we still see today, developed during the British colonial era.

Committee: John Brobst (Advisor); Haley Duschinski (Committee Member); Assan Sarr (Committee Member); Alec Holcombe (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; History; South Asian Studies; World History

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 0, History

Scholars have long prized Mercy Otis Warren as a subject of historical study because of her extensive correspondence, which shows how elite women expressed their support of the American Revolution. In this thesis, I show that her letters reveal something more fundamental than her patriotic impulse – they show her fear of losing her elite position. I demonstrate this by applying the insights of the history of emotions to the letters Mercy Otis Warren wrote between 1769 and 1780. In these letters, Mercy Otis Warren expressed the emotions of “spirit” and “sentiment” towards her family members, her community of Plymouth, and the Revolutionary cause sweeping over New England. But she expressed herself most passionately about her family's elite status and cultural power. Her letters reveal that Mercy was a product of her time, her class, and her family. In today's terms, we would call her “entitled.” Methodologically, this thesis draws on insights from social history, gender history, and the history of emotions. I place Mercy's correspondence (roughly sixty letters written and received in the period under study) into the context of her relationships with family, friends, and community. She was passionate in her letters because she and her correspondents were facing the destruction of their privileged lives. I argue that understanding Mercy Otis Warren's emotions is critical to understanding her determination to maintain her elite status (chapter 2), her unquestioning acceptance of the gender expectations of a woman in her position (chapter 3), her firm support of the Revolutionary cause (chapter 4), and her attempts to shape the nation's memory of the Revolution afterwards (chapter 5). Historians have implicitly argued that Mercy challenged the gender expectations of her day, but I find that she did not. She simply followed the lead of her male kin, who were extremely well educated and politically powerful.

Committee: Ruth Wallis Herndon Ph.D. (Advisor); Andrew Schocket Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christine Eisel (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Gender; History; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2019, History

This dissertation is a cultural history of the American reaction to the Upper Canadian Rebellion and the Patriot War. This project is based on an analysis of newspaper articles published by William Lyon Mackenzie and his contemporaries, diplomatic cables between Washington D.C. and London, letters, and accounts of celebrations, toasts, and public meetings which occurred between 1837 and 1842. I argue Americans and Upper Canadians in the Great Lakes region made up a culture area. By re-engaging in a battle with the British, Upper Canadians, and their American supporters sought redemption. Reacting to geographic isolation from major metropolitan areas and a looming psychic crisis motivated many of these individuals to act. And, even though the rebellion and Patriot War were ultimately unsuccessful, the threat of a rekindled conflict with Britain crept into North America while thoughts of the revolutionary Spirit of `76 invigorated the masses and served as a litmus test for maintaining peaceful international relations between the U.S. and Britain, a preface to Manifest Destiny, and a testament to the power of the nineteenth-century culture industry.

Committee: Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch PhD (Committee Chair); Kim Nielsen PhD (Committee Member); Roberto Padilla PhD (Committee Member); Rebecca Mancuso PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Canadian History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2018, History

This thesis examines the ways in which early modern medical texts presented the mind-body connection as it impacted child-bearing women in seventeenth century England. The medieval rediscovery of ancient Greek medical knowledge dominated understandings of health and healing for centuries but reached its widest audiences with the explosion of vernacular language printed materials in the early modern period. Foundational to these repurposed ancient medical theories was the belief that the mind and body interacted in complex ways, requiring frequent monitoring of emotional states to achieve good health. For practitioners concerned with women's reproductive health, women's emotional regulation was vital to desirable physical outcomes throughout the period of childbearing, lasting beyond modern designations of conception and childbirth. Thus, this thesis challenges assumptions of how early modern historians should mark the phases of reproduction and argues instead that childbearing, at least for women, continued through the first years of an infant's life.

Committee: P. Renée Baernstein (Advisor); William Brown (Committee Member); Cynthia Klestinec (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; Gender; Gynecology; History; Obstetrics; Womens Studies

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

This dissertation explores African market women's activities by analyzing and emphasizing the significance of their personal networks and connections, emotions, and spatial mobilities in sustaining their businesses and the informal economy in general. I argue that the social, economic, and political systems created by market women rest on their immediate ties to the household, their relationships, and wider networks of kin, friends, or other social connections as well as their performance and experience with emotions. I evaluate how these intricate connections impact women's success or failures in the market. I argue that competition and contestations over urban market spaces that are intensified by the Zimbabwean economic crisis led to different discourses by Zimbabwean citizens to claim spaces. Market women, for example, have used their life histories to make claims to the market and perceive ownership differently than other groups within the city. By primarily using life histories to recollect and explore women's experiences within the city and rural areas, I emphasize women's agency and perceptions of Zimbabwe's history. Starting in the 1960s when women nostalgically recollect their participation in markets, to the present, I follow women's markers of history and explore why they remember the past in that way. I expand debates on women's entrepreneurship and urban informality to emphasize why market women in Zimbabwe help us comprehend how women have reshaped urban spaces, economies, and political systems. In sum, I argue that in the different phases of Zimbabwe's economic volatility, market women have meritoriously supported the informal economy while bringing happiness to the residents.

Committee: Timothy L. Scarnecchia (Committee Chair); Sarah Smiley (Committee Member); Teresa A. Barnes (Committee Member); Elizabeth Smith-Pryor (Committee Member) Subjects: African History; African Studies; Aging; Economic History; Entrepreneurship; Families and Family Life; Gender Studies; History; Modern History

MFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

The exhibition detailed in this thesis is an offshoot of my explorations on identity, experiences of trauma, childhood, and understanding the criteria of innocence. This work is meant to create a relationship with the viewer and ask them to think about their own understanding of these terms and explore how they define them.

Committee: Peter Johnson (Advisor); Gianna Commito (Committee Member); Davin Ebanks (Committee Member); John-Michael Warner (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art Education; Art History; Fine Arts