Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, History

This dissertation explores roots of the current urban crisis in the United States. Most scholarly explanations associate the problem, particularly of high levels of African-American poverty, with deindustrialization, which has stripped cities of the factory jobs that once sustained working-class communities. My account deviates from the standard tale of black male unemployment by focusing on shifting patterns of African-American women's labor—both paid and unpaid. Using Baltimore as a case study, it argues that public rather than industrial-sector employment served as the foundation of Baltimore's post-World War II African-American middle and working classes. Women outpaced men in winning government jobs. Concentrated in social welfare agencies, they used their new influence over public policy to improve the city's delivery of public services. Black women's efforts to build an infrastructure for sustainable community development put them at odds in municipal policy-making battles with city officials and business leaders intent upon revitalizing Baltimore through investment in a tourism industry. The social services workers scored some important victories, helping to alleviate poverty by shifting to the government some of the responsibility for health, child, and elder care women earlier provided in the private sphere. The conservative ascendancy of the 1970s and 1980s, reversed many of the gains African-American public-sector workers had won. Intent upon resuscitating the United States' status in the global economy, American presidents, influenced by conservative economists and their elite backers, made macroeconomic and urban policy decisions that justified extensive public-sector retrenchment and cuts or changes to social programs. Public-sector workers and their unions, most notably the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), fought with limited success to prevent the transformation of American public policy. Neoliberal policies ero (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kevin Boyle (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, American Culture Studies

Roughly 62% of Americans identify as middle-class but do not meet the middle-class characteristics long depicted in the national imagination: homeownership, savings, disposable income, and a comfortable retirement. Forty percent say they cannot cover an unexpected bill of $400. Because relying on objective characteristics like median family income, profession, and homeownership often ignore the nuances of class consciousness, this project hypothesizes a correlation existing between class and the physical environment, specifically that of post-industrial and residential landscapes. This project seeks to answer, “how does the built environment influence class identity?” Using the neighborhood of Canaryville, Chicago as a case study, this project uses an interdisciplinary methodology, historical and visual analysis, ethnography, and landscape theory, to examine the landscape's influence on class identity. It determines that a new identifiable landscape, defined as an urban suburb, can exist. An urban suburb is a densely populated urban area that alters its landscape to masquerade as suburban for class and racial identity affirmation. Urban Suburb demonstrates the performativity of landscapes. By looking at stereotypical attributes of suburban landscapes, Urban Suburb argues the transposition of those stereotypes is not confined by geographical location. Furthermore, performing the stereotypical suburban landscape is a subtle way to demonstrate both class and racial identity. Identification of the urban suburb adds to the growing body of research of understanding how race is reflected in the built environment, the performative nature of suburban landscapes, and the influence the built environment has on class identity.

Committee: Timothy Messer-Kruse (Advisor); Carolyn Tompsett (Other); Benjamin Greene (Committee Member); Rebecca Kinney (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Architectural; Ethnic Studies; Geography; History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2012, History

Local civil rights organizations of Columbus, Ohio, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Columbus Urban League, and the Teenage Action Group, served as the engine for urban educational reform in the mid 1960s. Activists challenged the Columbus School District to create equality of educational opportunity for its black residents. But civil rights groups ran up against a socially conservative city and school district that had little interest in dismantling the unequal neighborhood school system. Racial tensions ran high as African Americans faced persistent discrimination in employment, access to public accommodations, housing, and schooling. Frustrated by an intransigent district, which spurned even moderate reforms proposed by the NAACP and continued with its unequal school construction policy, the Columbus Urban League presented a radically democratic proposal in 1967. The document reimagined the image of the city by simultaneously challenging both racial and class-based barriers, primarily through the concept of the educational park—large K-12 campuses consisting of centralized resources and thousands of students. The school board snubbed this new civil rights initiative as they had with all previous proposals and instead commissioned a report by the Ohio State University in 1968. The OSU Advisory Commission on Problems Facing the Columbus Public Schools presented incremental, targeted reforms to specific issues only and thus perpetuated the district's traditional resistance to reform. In essence, by drawing on legitimized social science professionals, the district manufactured support to maintain the city's historical unequal school system. In the end, although Columbus was a relatively economically stable city and did not experience the deindustrialization of its rustbelt brethren, meaningful school reform proved impossible despite the best efforts of several civil rights orga (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steven Conn PhD (Advisor); Daniel Amsterdam PhD (Committee Member); Kevin Boyle PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American History; Black History; Education History; Education Policy; Land Use Planning; Public Policy; School Finance; Urban Planning

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

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2023, History

This dissertation examines the development of encyclopedic authority in historical study from Diderot to software bot. This dissertation focuses on the evolution of encyclopedic authority from Greek scholar to Diderot, and to software bot. It draws upon a wealth of centuries-old publications in digital archives, records of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), original interviews from influential historians, assessment guides of the American Historical Association (AHA), and previously unpublished memos from the AHA Research Division to analyze the observations of historians about encyclopedias, the changing nature of their professional assessments over time, and the emergence of the geographical based encyclopedia of history as an infrastructure for spatial thinking in the digital age. From one perspective, the encyclopedia format has showed remarkable adaptation to changing technologies, as evidenced by the proliferation of digital encyclopedias, which in 2021 were consulted by millions of knowledge seekers daily through their computers, phones, and other smart devices. From another perspective, historical scholars have considered the encyclopedia format as something as an outlier since the creation of the AHA, as evidenced by the history of their professional assessments, and have generally resisted encyclopedia writing and editing as a qualification for faculty tenure. iv I argue that lack of consensus within the academic community over what constitutes quality in the digital age has stifled the production of vetted, scholarly work, in urban encyclopedias to the detriment of the profession, given that Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world and generates popular authority through billions of viewers annually. Public authority has increasingly forced urban encyclopedias to compete with the volume and speed of Wikipedia content updates, which requires no original thought from its contributo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Grabowski (Advisor) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation analyzes the evolution of summer camping programs directed by settlement houses from the Progressive Era through the late twentieth century. Focusing on the shifting ideologies and techniques of reformers and professional social workers, it answers environmental historian Richard White's call for “an examination of how all work, and not just the work of loggers, farmers, fishers, and ranchers, intersects with nature.” Settlement house workers and the children attending their summer camps knew nature through social work rather than labor or recreation, which reframes how historians understand marginalized populations' engagement with nature in the twentieth century. This dissertation asks three questions which drive its argumentative framework. First, it asks why settlement house workers created summer camping programs in the Progressive Era. Second, it questions why so many camps lasted throughout the following decades. Finally, it asks why those camps which lasted until the late twentieth century came to serve either working-class minority children or white children from middle- and upper-class families, but rarely both. Settlement house leaders created summer camps in the Progressive Era to provide working-class children with a temporary respite from the smoke, pollution, and congestion of the industrial city, also creating an isolated space in which to conduct social reform. As cities curbed pollution and immigration waned in the 1920s, settlement house leaders continued their camping programs because they provided them with a sense of accomplishment not always evident throughout their work. In the 1920s and 1930s, they used camping to strengthen Eastern European communities as second and third generation immigrants moved to different neighborhoods and minority communities subsequently moved in. At midcentury, they integrated their summer camping programs as interracial commingling grew unavoidable in northern cities amid the Second Great Mi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bartow Elmore (Advisor); Clayton Howard (Committee Member); Paula Baker (Committee Member) Subjects: History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Arts and Sciences: History

“Cities in Crisis” explores the experience of war in two Brandenburg cities during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). As a conflict of tremendous scope and violence, the Thirty Years' War presented substantial challenges for local and regional governments to navigate. For Altstadt and Neustadt Brandenburg, it brought violence, economic and demographic decline, and general instability. This project considers how the city governments and ordinary citizens within these communities navigated the complex circumstances of the war and found ways to endure. Drawing on hundreds of letters and reports to the central government, “Cities in Crisis” maps out the dynamics of cooperation and competition within and between the cities as petitioners relied on the rhetoric of equity and justice to pursue relief from the burdens of war. This study enriches the scholarship on war-time experience, agency, and political culture in Brandenburg through an analysis of the language of petitions and supplications from Altstadt and Neustadt. The mountain of correspondence from city leaders and ordinary citizens bore witness to the scale of ruin that threatened to swamp their communities. While there were often few practical options for resisting the tide of war, the endurance of the two cities—embodied in their persistent letter-writing—offers a strong demonstration of the importance of civilian agency in wartime. The language of equity and justice pervaded the cities' appeals as the cities collaborated and competed for relief. Over time, the demographic declines for both Altstadt and Neustadt encouraged autonomous action where early-war cooperation between the cities had been the norm. Within the community, individual petitioners mirrored the rhetoric of city councils as they contested the apportionment of increasing financial burdens of war and pursued financial restitution for military abuses. As a study of urban, war-time agency, this project provides necessary detail to th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sigrun Haude Ph.D. (Committee Member); Willard Sunderland Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mary Lindemann Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Haug Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

BA, Oberlin College, 2021, History

As one of the earliest man-made transit structures to run from the west to the east side of the city, the Regents Canal had and still has a profound impact on both Londoners and the city itself. By examining this waterway as more than just a brief moment in the greater development of British industrial transportation and instead focusing on the social and cultural legacy of this space, I demonstrate how the Regents Canal embodies E.P. Thompsons idea of the industrial transition, ultimately revealing how a rich history of community, connection, and conflict manifested in this liminal space during the 19th century and beyond. This study does so by first exploring the unique duality of this waterway and how it embodied particular characteristics of the city of London in this moment of transition towards the industrial. Then discussing how the lived reality along the banks of the canal was radically different from what the Regents Canal company so carefully planned as the designers seemed to overlook the fact that a canal would promote movement. This created conflict as previously separate classes of people were brought closer together than ever before and as the city of London progressed further in the process of industrialization. Finally, this paper seeks to understand the attempted forced cultural assimilation of canal workers through the 1877 and 1884 canal acts as the age of canals came to an end to shed light on the working-class agency and messiness present during this moment of radical industrial and cultural change.

Committee: Ellen Wurtzel (Advisor) Subjects: History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Arts and Sciences: History

The built environment is an open archive—a twenty-four-hour museum of the past. The tangible, experiential nature of the urban built environment—streets, valleys, buildings, and bridges—helps historians uncover stories not always accessible in textual sources. The richness of the built environment gives historians opportunities to: invigorate their practice with new tools to uncover the stories of the past, expand the historical record with new understandings, and reach a wider audience with histories that feel relevant and meaningful to a broad range of citizens. This dissertation offers a sampling of material, methods and motivations historians can use to analyze the built environment as a source for their important work. Each of the five chapters of this dissertation uses the built environment to tell a previously unknown piece of Cincinnati's urban history. The first chapter questions the inconvenient placement of the 1867 Roebling Suspension Bridge and uncovers the story of the ferry owner who recognized the bridge as a threat to his business. Chapter two explores privies, the outdoor toilets now missing from the built environment, and their use as sites for women to terminate pregnancies through abortion and infanticide. The third chapter uses patterns in the construction of public elementary school buildings to illustrate urban change though population growth, annexation, and political maneuvering. Chapter four uses The Delmoor, an apartment flat in Clifton, to explore the lives and work of two women whose achievements were enhanced by their choice to move into the Delmoor in 1919. Finally, chapter five explores the stories of three diverse religious congregations once embedded in the walls of the now-demolished Revelation Baptist Church. The dissertation closes with a brief discussion of the tools of public history and historic preservation which offer historians fruitful strategies for engagement outside the academy.

Committee: Tracy Teslow Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Tiya Miles Ph.D. (Committee Member); David Stradling Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jeffrey Tilman Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History

MA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

The ongoing populist backlash against the liberal-democratic world order has strong geographical dimensions and demands a reckoning with growing spatial inequality. Until now, economic geography has largely viewed the divergent trajectories of local and regional economies as a either a process of evolutionary selection or the byproduct of localized institutional structures. However, this thesis proposes a new framework to synthesize the two, conceptualizing geographical inequality as the result of agent-driven equilibrium selection within an evolving complex system. Using a post-industrial community in eastern Ohio as a case, three studies demonstrate the usefulness of this approach. First, an historical survey traces the rise, stagnation, and decline of the Youngstown area's economy as the result of changing competitive landscapes and the (in)ability of local institutions to coordinate a response. Second, a quantitative analysis relates initial community characteristics to outcomes following the Great Recession. Here, neighborhood economic norms and membership effects offered the most compelling explanation for why some communities were resilient in the face of the shock while others fared poorly. Third, a mixed-methods approach combines qualitative fieldwork with non-cooperative game theory and illustrates how institutional coordination failure has trapped much of the Mahoning Valley in a sub-optimal state of development. The overwhelming evidence from these studies leads to the conclusion that for place economies, evolutionary fitness should be considered synonymous with institutional fitness. That is, norms around cooperation and economic activity are the driving forces behind local development outcomes amidst macroeconomic change.

Committee: David Kaplan (Advisor); Jennifer Mapes (Committee Member); Nadia Greenhalgh-Stanley (Committee Member) Subjects: Economic History; Economic Theory; Economics; Geographic Information Science; Geography

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2017, College of Education and Human Services

The purpose of this historical case study was to explore, through the lens of knowledge transfer, answers to the following two questions: how did the Sister-educators from one community in Northeast Ohio prepare themselves for leadership, and when it became clear that the future of their urban school depended on transitioning to lay leadership, how did Sister-principals prepare their religious communities and their school communities for that change. This qualitative study focuses on six members of one active, engaged, service-based community which has supported schools Northeast Ohio for over a century. The research revealed that a successful Sister-to-laity leadership transition will have its foundation in charismatic love, encourage faith-filled mentoring of faculty and students, honor the mission of the founding community, and support an overarching leadership culture of magnanimity to all stakeholders. This model can be employed in other educational and nonprofit settings where non-hierarchical servant leadership would be an effective approach.

Committee: Marius Boboc Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Catherine Hansman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Elizabeth Lehfeldt Ph.D (Committee Member); Adam Voight Ph.D (Committee Member); Matt Jackson-McCabe Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education History; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Organizational Behavior; Personal Relationships; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious Education; School Administration; Teaching

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Arts and Sciences: History

Bluegrass music has long had strong associations with rural America and the Appalachian mountains in particular. The music itself, while often based on an idealized vision of rural America, developed in the urban milieu of the post World War II era. White Appalachians joined millions of other southerners in flooding north into urban cities in the 20th century. They brought with them some general cultural traits that often became exacerbated in the urban communities they joined. In short, as mountain migrants came north they often became more “southern” and more “Appalachian” as these character traits became identified by various urban groups. When migrants settled in cities, musical communities emerged that provided a sort of uplift for migrants and became a cultural marker for Appalachian-ness in many instances. This process did not develop in a vacuum, but rather the identification of the music with Appalachia became often a conscious choice by musicians, fans, reformers, and general residents in the urban communities. Cities like Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington D.C. all struggled to come to grips with what it mean to have these new mountain folk living in their midst. The first exposure to Appalachian identity for many urban residents occurred through the musical sounds associated with the mountains. In the midst of backlash against Appalachian culture, migrant communities continued to develop their own culture and lifestyles in the cities. Cities became bluegrass laboratories where migrants and musical enthusiasts from around the country met and mingled in new settings. As the music grew in popularity, fans and musicians alike both consciously and unconsciously pushed the music back into the mountains and developed it as an Appalachian sound. This dissertation examines how this process occurred in these cities. The intermingling of urban reform work, musical performance, migration, and an interest in the broad “f (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Stradling Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Wayne Durrill Ph.D. (Committee Member); Tracy Teslow Ph.D. (Committee Member); Curtis W. Ellison Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Medicine: Genetic Counseling

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is an important health concern for individuals of Appalachian background, contributing significantly to morbidity and mortality. Early promotion of risk recognition and behavior adaptations can be beneficial to mitigate health consequences, yet culturally tailored resources may not be readily available for this population. In this multi-phase study, a community-driven approach was implemented to explore the use of story circles to facilitate familial communication about T2DM. In Phase I, a group of ten individuals from a low income urban Appalachian community participated in a focus group to discuss and further tailor the study plan. In phase II, 18 individuals participated in one or more of three story circles to discuss T2DM experiences and conversations. Story circles were recorded and transcribed to allow for content analysis. Major themes identified included diabetes experiences, thoughts and attitudes about diabetes, conversations about diabetes, and sharing of information about diabetes. In addition, we found that a sense of support was generated between story circle participants. Phase III consisted of seven follow-up interviews with story circle participants that were part of family pairs that attended together. Transcription and content analysis revealed that all participants reacted positively to their participation and many described ways participating led to changes in their communication or behavior patterns or supported their previous efforts toward diabetes management/prevention and communication with family members. Asking people of urban Appalachian cultural background to share stories about T2DM experiences and conversations led to dynamic discussions that allowed participants to both develop a sense of mutual support and share their experiences and knowledge about diabetes. Although support may be needed to facilitate and monitor the accuracy of information shared, incorporating group storytelling can be an effective way t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lora Arduser M.F.A. (Committee Chair); Rebecca Lee Ph.D. (Committee Member); Melanie Myers Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Sciences

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, History of Art

Scattered among the world's museum and library archives are a curious type of Tibetan art about which little is known: the indigenous paintings of Lhasa. These variegated works display the city's existing monuments, including the Potala palace, Jokhang temple, the great monastic centers and other recognizable sites from Lhasa valley and beyond, which drew so many monks, pilgrims and visitors over the centuries (themselves featured in the paintings engaged in a variety of activities and significant formal events). As visual images the paintings function in many realms and defy traditional modes of classification. These works are simultaneously representations of the physical world but also abstracted, selective and heavily edited re-imaginings. As distinct and individual artistic expressions, they reveal their makers' and their patrons' perceptions and desires about Lhasa, the cultural and spiritual heart of Tibet. These images are puzzling, for not much is known about the specific circumstances that produced them or the purposes they may have fulfilled. Until now, this unique sub-genre has not been studied in depth or collectively on the large-scale. This dissertation is an effort to fill that gap by drawing together dozens of Lhasa paintings for the first time, providing a body of material to be analyzed and explored. This study is divided into two parts. The first two chapters provide an analysis of what is seen is in the Lhasa paintings, their visual program and appearance. I show that, to some extent, this group had conventions of iconography and composition which simultaneously made their subject recognizable while also purposefully distorting and re-envisioning the subject. The last two chapters seek the broader contexts of art history, history and culture in which these works were situated. I show that the Lhasa paintings emerged as a distinct artistic genre in the 18th century, but have as their roots various distinct artistic traditions, including tradit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Huntington (Advisor); Karl Whittington (Committee Co-Chair); Julia Andrews (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Asian Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, History

A public understanding of the past is necessary in shaping the future of Columbus, Ohio's King Lincoln neighborhood. This project uses images and objects from King Lincoln to propose a museum exhibit that can communicate a narrative of the neighborhood's past to the entire Columbus community. The exhibit tells the story of continuous community formation in the face of outwardly imposed disadvantages by immersing the visitor in the sights, sounds, and people of King Lincoln's past. The exhibit also takes a stand amongst the scholarship pertaining to King Lincoln's history. The temporal scope of study has been widened to examine similarities in struggles across time, unweave interrelated community problems, and understand King Lincoln as a community of people rather than a geographically bounded neighborhood. Public history projects such as this exhibit allow both the King Lincoln and Columbus communities to better understand the root of contemporary problems in the neighborhood so that these problems may be solved.

Committee: Steven Conn PhD (Advisor); Clay Howard PhD (Committee Member); David Staley PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; History

Master of Arts in English, Youngstown State University, 2014, Department of Languages

The study of the documents involved in the planning of these American cities allows for an understanding of the methodology behind the design. With some interpretation, it is possible to draw out of the documents the kinds of things Americans expected from their city. While urban planning was not a field of study until the 20th century, a great deal of planning went into many cities. This was especially true for American cities. As with anything, certain things change with time and changes can be evidenced from the design plans over the centuries in the United States. A great deal of the society's wants and needs are embedded in these city plans as the designers of the city kept a keen eye on those requirements. With this consideration in mind, it is possible conjure an image of what each city's citizens were like through the writings. This thesis focuses on the cities of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Savannah, Georgia, Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois, each representative of a different time in American history to allow for the similarities and differences of American society to be illuminated. The goal is to identify these societal changes over the 300 years that spanned the founding of Philadelphia to the redesign of Chicago through the plans for the cities themselves.

Committee: Jay Gordon Ph.D. (Advisor); Steven Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stephanie Tingley Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Architecture; Area Planning and Development; Landscape Architecture; Language; Urban Planning

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2014, History (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis contributes to the historiography by locating active women of medieval Spain in sources that reveal the reality of women's actions as opposed to their ideal behavior. Evidence for women's activities comes from charters—legal documents that recorded property transfers—from various religious institutions in thirteenth-century Burgos, the historic capital of the Christian kingdom of Castile. Women participated in 60% of transactions. Empowering factors included connections to urban oligarchs, dense social networks, collective enterprise, and generous inheritances. Women were not inherently disenfranchised as property owners by virtue of sex, though their absence in the roles of witness and guarantor indicates efforts to exclude women from public space. Nonetheless, the valorization of private law and the commitment to patrimonial rights worked in women's favor to counteract (in part) the legal disabilities they faced on account of perceived feminine weaknesses. Socioeconomic status more greatly affected one's economic opportunities than did gender.

Committee: Miriam Shadis (Advisor); Michele Clouse (Committee Member); Katherine Jellison (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Medieval History; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2013, History

The San Francisco Bay Area played a critical role in supporting military activities throughout the twentieth century. Due to its location, the Bay Area served as one of the key military staging grounds for the Pacific campaign of WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The region benefited from war-related industry, housing the largest shipyard west of the Mississippi and supporting the burgeoning postwar military industrial complex. Its demographics diversified dramatically as soldiers, Vietnam War refugees, and war workers migrated to the region. As part of the Sunbelt, the Bay Area benefited economically from generous military procurement spending. However, over the course of the 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s, the Bay Area shifted away from having a significant military presence to having practically none. Compared to the approximately thirty military facilities operating in 1980, today all but a handful are either closed or slated for closure. Residents, experts, and scholars wondered how could a single region in the Sun Belt, which benefited from significant federal defense investment, lose so much, so quickly? Many locals blamed the region's "liberal" people and politicians for inciting the military's wrath. Hence, a popular social narrative evolved. Many contended that the navy and Department of Defense deliberately targeted bases in the Bay Area for closure as a way of punishing the Bay Area for its anti-war intransigence. This dissertation challenges the narrative that the Bay Area was punished. It examines the causal factors that led to the elimination of the region's bases. Through three case studies covering base closures in three Bay Area cities, Alameda (Alameda Naval Air Station), Vallejo (Mare Island Naval Shipyard), and Oakland (Oakland Army Base and Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Oakland), a different explanation for the closures emerges. This project demonstrates that the passage of federal policies and legislation, urban encroachme (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephen Ortiz Ph.D. (Advisor); Douglas Forsyth Ph.D. (Committee Member); Gary Hess Ph.D. (Committee Member); Amy Robinson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Arts and Sciences : History

This dissertation examines the growth of tourism as a strategy for downtown renewal in the postwar American city. In the years after World War II, American cities declined precipitously as residents and businesses relocated to rapidly-expanding suburbs. Governmental and corporate leaders, seeking to arrest this decline, embarked upon an ambitious program of physical renewal of downtowns. The postwar urban crisis was a boon for the urban tourist industry. Finding early renewal efforts ineffective in stemming the tide of deindustrialization and suburbanization, urban leaders subsidized, with billions of dollars in public finances, the construction of an infrastructure of tourism within American downtowns. By the latter decades of the period, tourist development had moved from a relatively minor strategy for urban renewal to a key measure of urban success. This dissertation traces the development of postwar urban tourism in the cities of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Each city provides a case study for a different type of urban tourist development: hotels, convention centers, stadiums, and festival marketplaces. Such tourist development fulfilled a multiplicity of desires and needs in the postwar city. First, tourism catered to the growing consumerist ethic of postwar America, in which not only goods but experiences became consumer objects; thus cities were remade into easily consumable entities. Secondly, it offered opportunities for urban revitalization that required little in the way of sacrifice from middle-class Americans, an attribute that became especially attractive after the conservative backlash of the late 1960s. Finally, tourist development allowed city leaders to project an image of urban vitality even while much of their cities remained in dire straits. While much of the scholarship on urban tourism has either celebrated its ability to renew cities or condemned its inauthenticity and delocalizing tendencies, this dissertation argues (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Stradling (Committee Chair); Wayne Durrill (Committee Member); Tracy Teslow (Committee Member); Marguerite Shaffer (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Urban Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2004, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Community Planning

Through a synthesis of primary source records, this study explores the origin of the Bond Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the motivation of its developers in the Reconstruction Era (1865-1880). The suburban history reveals the role of teetotalers, cooperatives, building associations, railroads, and radical utopians in the founding of a commuter suburb on unincorporated land at the junction of several important transportation routes. The role of the cooperative founder, Henry Watkin, is especially documented. In less detail, this thesis provides a complete survey of the history of the Bond Hill area, from the post-Colonial period, through annexation in 1903, and till the late 1980s. Recommendations for the currently operating Bond Hill Community Council are included in the conclusions. (This study was presented as a thesis in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Community Planning (MCP) at the School of Planning, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), University of Cincinnati, June 11, 2004).

Committee: David Edelman (Advisor) Subjects: