Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2024, History

Between 1896 and 1938 Cleveland developed into one of the nation's leading Industrial centers. Cleveland's population of 262,353, which ranked tenth in the nation in 1890, increased to 900,249 by 1930 and reflected this industrial growth. Tom L. Johnson, mayor of the city from 1901 to 1909, often considered the greatest American mayor of the period, built a municipal government that attempted to deal with the urban conditions manifested by this industrial growth. At the same time, Cleveland's business and civil leaders argued that the physical city needed to project an image of modernity and progress that matched the industrial and economic production that had transformed the way of life for the residents of the nation's “sixth city.” Clevelanders had begun to realize that their city, with its growing population and accumulation of wealth due to it industrial prominence, was capable of emulating and rivaling some of great cities of Europe. This elite vision, when realized (first in the Group Plan of government buildings, and later with the Cleveland Union Terminal) often discarded and pushed to the periphery the poor (working classes) and “immoral” who lived, worked, and shopped in the spaces that were demolished and reconstructed in the creation of an imagined community of progress and modernity.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2024, History

This thesis argues for an interdisciplinary examination of the origins and subsequent appearance of the Wassermann blood test, the first test developed for detecting syphilis, in eugenics initiatives and medicolegal mandates. When this seemingly impartial medical tool intersected with preexisting social and cultural biases regarding syphilis its story became one of blood purity initiatives for the preservation and proliferation of white normativity. Reframing the Wassermann as more than a passive medical tool highlights how ostensibly impartial medical processes can produce institutional violence in masculinized spaces of control. While the Wassermann offered a source of hope for protecting against syphilitic infection, in application, the serodiagnostic tool served as a source of scientific validation when misapplied as a quantifiable method for justifying medicolegal interventions in the 20th century US. This examination traces the bioethical legacy of the Wassermann from its 1906 development in Berlin to its appearance in eugenics-based legal mandates in the US. Through an analysis of scientific publications and court records at archives across the East Coast this paper centers those who didn't benefit from the Wassermann and investigates how scientific authority derived from an imperfect diagnostic test was harnessed to reproduce and reinforce the sociocultural biases that linger today.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2024, History

For the first century of its existence, colonial Puritanism in New England embraced anti-Catholicism. It first emerged out of anti-Catholic efforts to continue the Reformation in England, by removing Catholic rituals, symbols, ideas, and people from the English church, state, and society. Through the processes of migration and settlement-building in the unique contexts of the New England borderlands, their once “English” anti-Catholicism evolved and became “Americanized.” Puritans felt this new “Americanized” anti-Catholicism on an everyday basis, making colonial Puritan anti-Catholicism more intense than its English counterpart. Embracing an anti-Catholic “errand” into the New England borderlands, a region filled with new people and geography that was far from the reaches of the English state, colonial Puritans experimented with and crafted their religious, political, and social institutions, practices, and identities on anti-Catholicism. Catholics became “the Other,” imagined as violent and oppressive tyrants, plotters, murderers, and even the anti-Christ, from which colonial Puritans defined their community in opposition. Constant conflict with Indigenous peoples, New France, and “popery” raised anxieties and fears over the very survival of Puritan communities. As a result, New Englanders passed stranger laws—regulations, oaths, and other means to control the presence of alien peoples—to restrict Catholic “strangers” within their colonies. By exploring the relationship between the colonies of New England and Ireland, it becomes clear that the English language of civility and violence, which was employed in New England against both Indigenous peoples and Catholics, originated within the process of Irish colonization. This language was thus tied to that colonization's virulent anti-Catholicism, which was then transported to New England.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Theatre

Over the past decade, especially in the United States, there has been a significant increase in what has commonly come to be known as athlete activism. Examples of this phenomenon include such moments as Colin Kaepernick's anthem protest in the National Football League (NFL) and the campaign for pay equality undertaken by the United States Women's National Team (USWNT). Though these examples, and many others like them, have affected important and tangible social change, there are many in the United States who claim that the practice of sport activism only serves to unnecessarily politicize the realm of sport. Opponents of sport activism often argue that sport should be kept separated from more serious matters such as pressing social and political issues. However, this argument is predicated on the assumption that sport is inherently apolitical or that it somehow exists independently of societal structures, which is demonstrably false. In “Finding Hope at the Arena: A Performance Studies Approach to Sport,” I make use of performance studies frameworks to investigate sport as a meaning-making mode of live performance with utopian potentiality. Using performance scholar Jill Dolan's theorization of the utopian performative as a theoretical framework, I examine several key moments and eras in United States sport history to interrogate the notion that sport is, or ever has been, separate from social and political issues. Through archival and performance analysis methods of research, I interrogate the ways in which sport, as a genre of live performance, produces myriad utopian visions of the country that often serve to uphold or critique the dominant social order. Moreover, I imagine this study as a step towards what I call a model of utopian sport spectatorship. Utopian sport spectatorship facilitates a form of engagement with sport similar to that of a theatrical production. In this model of spectatorship, participants, both those involved in the aspects of athletic c (open full item for complete abstract)

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

This dissertation project used an interpretivist qualitative research design to study how the right-to-read claim made by seven teenagers attending Detroit public schools in 2016 reflects, addresses, or describes contemporary discussions about educational access. Using situational analysis (SA) as a theory/method, the entirety of the claim comprises the situation of the social phenomenon being studied, not the people. This research combines critical race theory (CRT) with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems and uses situation analysis to map historical discourses to conduct a study that examines the history of a present situation of inquiry as presented by this question: How does the 2016 right-to-read claim made by high school students in Detroit, Michigan reflect, address, or describe contemporary discussions about educational access? The study collected data to allow me to construct a prosopography that articulates an answer to the question that claims access to literacy is a public school policy right. Because situational analysis (SA) is designed to open research data to aspects of a circumstance that may have been overlooked, marginalized, or silenced, I was not certain the research results would answer this exact question. Additionally, critical theory and SA were used to conduct this qualitative research, examining historical data that addresses the right-to-read claim as a Foucaultian programmatic social problem. As such, it seeks to understand the complexities of recurring and historically situated education practices that limit actualizing U.S. education policies that embrace access to basic literacy skills as a human right. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

PHD, Kent State University, 0, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Because few previous scholars included Classical Chinese texts, when they studied the intersection between anti-Chinese movement and citizenship in California in the 19th century and 20th century, we don't know much about Chinese-led renegotiation of masculinity that responded to American racism during the Progressive Era. My dissertation focuses on the sources written in Classical-Chinese—that is, by the Chinese themselves—to add a new layer of the studies of racial dynamics and power struggles concerning citizenship in the American West through exploring Chinese Californians' masculinity identity formation and negotiation. By approaching Chinese-language sources through the lens of identity studies theory, my dissertation suggests that during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Chinese American men developed a new sense of masculinity when they experienced the hardship of social barriers of the American West, which encouraged them to resist social injustice in the host land and uplift their racial and ethnic groups. My dissertation begins by outlining the experiences of Cantonese migrants to the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century who came to California in the mid-nineteenth century due to their established migration chain and their response to Western imperialism, natural disasters, and the news of the Gold Rush of California. Cantonese communities later memorized this large wave of migration as an adventure of seeking masculinity in the Old Mountain (San Francisco). However, in reality, they found little manly honor but encountered complex racial relations in the West, which deepened their masculinity crisis. Responding to this situation, they broke traditional barriers between village and clan to develop a new Chinese identity. These men came to identify as Chinese workers to defend their masculinity collectively. However, they faced a dual attack on their manhood: mainstream American society continued to deny their masc (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2024, Education

I conducted qualitative research utilizing a descriptive method while also conducting an historical comparison analysis. The purpose of this research was to uncover parallels and understand the economic, population and political similarities between the 1970s/80s and the United States today, while also discovering how the current economic, population and political realities impact the recruitment and enrollment of students to higher education today. I collected data through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and document content analysis of a small, institution in central Ohio's higher education enrollment trends from the past decade. I interviewed a total of 13 participants, with five identifying as females and eight identifying as males, and of the 13, 12 identified as Caucasian and one as African-American. From my research I discovered that there are numerous commonalities between the 1970s/80s and the United States today and that there is a lot of uncertainty that exists for the future of higher education. I also found that the economic, political and demographic events and conditions of society directly contribute the enrollment and recruitment of students to higher education.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, History

One Nation Under My God studies the issue of Christian Nationalism through the institutional histories and political activism of the United Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist Convention. By looking at these histories, this work argues that Christian Nationalism is not always overt but can be subtle and quiet. The overt support for pro-America ideology from the Southern Baptists and the subtler moralism from United Methodists contrast in these ways. This study also discusses regional identity between North and South in the United States and how religious and political affiliation perpetuates regional division.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Music

This dissertation explores how Motown Records' marketing strategies have shaped fans' recollections of 1960s music, and how fan engagement has shaped the legacy of the Supremes and Motown Records' place in popular music history. The Supremes were Motown Records' most successful girl group, and the trio was marketed to mainstream audiences as a model of "young America." Across the Supremes' career, their look, sound, and presentation changed to appeal to consumers across racial and class divides. Motown pushed the Supremes into every corner of public life through television appearances, concerts in high-end nightclubs, and placement in advertisements for popular consumer goods. The group's visibility and respectability attracted the attention of white fans and, by their accounts, started conversations about race, gender, and representation in fans' homes. The Supremes' fandom continues to present day, long after the group's breakup, and that engagement is still marked by Motown's colorblind presentation of the Supremes. The most intensely engaged fans show deep attachment to the music and to the Supremes themselves, and these fans have taken responsibility for the cultivation and curation of the group's legacy in tangible ways. These fans' histories of their relationship to the group offer a retrospective view of how Motown's marketing affected thinking about race, gender, class, and representation.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2024, Theology

Katherine Burton (1887-1969) is a forgotten, yet prolific US Catholic writer who wrote for average, middle-class, white women in the mid-twentieth century. From her conversion to Catholicism in 1930 to her death in 1969, Katherine wrote a monthly “Woman to Woman” column in The Sign for thirty-six years, over forty-four biographies and histories of Catholic men, women, and religious communities, and countless articles for other Catholic periodicals. Her books, as well as the Catholic periodicals in which her writing regularly appeared, had a large, nationwide readership. Katherine's words hold significance for religious scholars today seeking to further understand the faith lives of middle-class women in the pews during one of the most turbulent time periods in US history. Examining Katherine's writing provides scholars with a view into how Catholicism and Catholic womanhood were understood and presented by a laywoman to her mid-twentieth century laywomen audience. Katherine's writing is also a compelling example of how intricately an author's personal life is often entwined with their work and how studying the two side by side enriches the narratives they both tell.

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2024, Department of Humanities

The late nineteenth century's Gilded Age witnessed numerous changes within American society, economics, and government. It was in this atmosphere of controversial business practices, rapid economic fluctuations, collaboration between special interests and the government, and lasting effects from the Civil War period that two significant factions, the Populists and the Mugwumps, voiced criticism. The Mugwumps were representative of the classical liberal concepts of laissez-faire, sought the overall benefit of society at large, and rejected any use of government to aid one segment of society at the expense of others. The Populists promoted a unique “anti-monopoly” vision which strove to elevate the interests of the “common man” in response to the government favors which often benefitted politically connected business interests. While both the Populists and Mugwumps ultimately failed to enact their respective programs to completion, they each presented coherent alternatives which the American government and economy could have followed, and they repeatedly placed their principles above strict partisanship. This thesis analyzes the Populists and the Mugwumps both in their similarities and their differences, and concludes that while both factions differed philosophically, they shared similar methods.

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2024, Department of Humanities

Peace activism has had a constant presence within the broader landscape of social movements in American history. From the pre-revolutionary era to the present, there have always been Americans animated by the idea of peace and eager to agitate for it. Diverse perspectives abound, from strict religious pacifism to softer, secular, and politically motivated non-violence. The Vietnam war, combined with the cultural transformations of the long-1960s, thrust the undercurrent of peace advocacy into the spotlight, bringing what was once a niche movement to much greater prominence. This thesis concentrates on the rhetoric, politics, and tactical debates of the Vietnam-era antiwar movement from 1963-1971. The rise and fall of the movement's influence is analyzed as part of a greater trend in social activism, beginning in 1900. The peace movement of the Vietnam era was novel in its demographic makeup and ideological tapestry, but it did not come to life in a vacuum, and the activists responsible for its ascendance made conscious efforts to connect their movements with those that preceded them. To that end, this work makes use wherever possible of the writings of activists and leaders of the antiwar movement. Much of this material was retrieved from the Swarthmore Peace Collection, specifically the papers of Vietnam Summer, National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, New Mobilization Committee, Daniel and Philip Berrigan, and the papers of Cora Weiss. Additional primary material was retrieved digitally, in the cases of Students for a Democratic Society, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the War Resister's League. Utilizing these documents, this thesis demonstrates the commonalities of otherwise discrete antiwar organizations. Though the myriad antiwar groups of the Vietnam-era differed greatly in their makeup and ideologies, they retained a constant connection to the shared history of civil rights and peace activism of the twentieth century.

Undergraduate Honors Program, Malone University, 2024, Honors Thesis

A historical analysis of the experience of both Confederate and Union female POWs and how mid 19th century societal gender norms influenced how these women were perceived by society.

Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University, 2024, History

Do extreme religious groups develop in a vacuum due to the leaders desire for power and the followers' ignorance? Or are there larger forces at play? The United States in the 1970s saw a rise in extreme religious groups characterized by charismatic leaders and catastrophe. Much of the American public believed these groups were formed because of their leader's desire for money and power. However leaders were often motivated by other forces, and followers were typically well educated and middle class, with no obvious reason to join these communities. If this is the case, what other explanation is there for the formation of extreme religious groups? In the case of the 1970s, this was due to the larger pressures of the “Me Decade.” The me decade was characterized by poor domestic conditions in the US, resulting from inflation, stagnation, fuel shortages and government scandal. As the quality of life for average Americans deteriorated, they lost faith in their government to solve these problems, and turned to other solutions. Oftentimes these were attempts at self improvement, hoping for personal improvement if the problems of society couldn't be solved. In other cases, new religious communities were formed, providing spiritual solutions as an alternative to political ones. An example of one such religious group was the Rajneesh, a spiritual community founded in central Oregon known for their 1984 bioterrorism attack. The “Me Decade,” as well as its impact on the Rajneesh can be seen through a number of sources, including the Rajneesh's newspaper, other local newspapers, and essays by writers of the time on the phenomenon of the me decade. In this way, extreme religious groups in the 1970s were not formed by the leader's desire for money and power, but due to larger political and cultural pressures, particularly in the case of the Rajneesh.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, History of Art

My dissertation, Communities of Color: The Life and Painting of Alma W. Thomas (1891-1978), examines the work of Thomas, particularly the abstract compositions she produced between 1960 and 1978, against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement and the contentious debates within the art world itself around different forms of representation. I am particularly interested in both the demands made during that period for greater representation of women and non-White artists in public museums and the widespread belief that arose more or less simultaneously that only representational or figurative art could adequately address feminist or anti-racist concerns. My dissertation aims to show that Thomas's paintings, although non-figurative, were intended to contribute to the goal of a more diverse and integrated society, principally by changing perception itself. Despite what initially appears to be their cheerful simplicity, Thomas's compositions are in fact subtly complex, inviting viewers' attentiveness to small differences in the elements' shape and color. In this way, they solicit a positive form of “discrimination,” one that discourages generalization and attunes us instead to individuality. Her paintings, comprised as they are of separate daubs of paint, stand as analogues, then, for other, even more complex communities of color.  Thomas's own life story is an interesting one: she spent most of her adult life teaching art within the Washington, DC public school system, turning to painting full-time only after her retirement at the age of sixty-nine. In addition to analyzing individual paintings by Thomas, I also investigate the artist's artistic biography, including her commitment to the tradition of European modernism, her affinities with the Washington Color School (particularly the artists Kenneth Noland and Sam Gilliam), and her fascination late in life with the Apollo space program, which I discuss as an early form of Afrofuturism. My ambition is to reveal the (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, History

This dissertation offers a new look at the Age of Jackson to better understand the influences that women and gender roles had on American politics during the 1820s and 1830s. It offers a counternarrative to a historiography that has focused predominately on Whig Womanhood, which developed in opposition to Andrew Jackson's presidency. Instead, it looks at the women who were passionate supporters of Jackson to see what drew the “common woman” to the complicated figure who was once heralded as being a champion of the “common man.” Additionally, this research looks at how conforming to normative gender roles was a useful political tool. Jackson's reputation as a martial figure often came coupled with the idea that he was a protector of women, and his supporters responded to this narrative. At the same time, Jackson's opponents argued that he was dangerous to women, while also denigrating the womanhood of female figures close to him. This dissertation thus argues that women were integral to the electoral strategies of the Democrats as well as the Whigs during the Jacksonian period, which, therefore, cannot be fully understood without far greater attention to the neglected Jackson women.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, History

In 1964, white members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in Cleveland began politically organizing poor white and Black citizens around bread-and-butter issues. Within two years, SDS women made Northeast Ohio the site of SDS's most effective interracial antipoverty campaign. This dissertation argues that the Cleveland Community Project succeeded because SDS women interpreted participatory democracy in a way that allowed them to see poor white and Black single mothers' daily struggles as sites of political and collective action. SDS women were firmly committed to the idea that those who lived under public policies should have significant influence over their crafting and implementation. A natural extension of that belief was SDS women's recognition that their role was to empower, not lead, impoverished women in a movement for economic justice. The history of SDS women in Cleveland illustrates that the welfare rights movement had multi-racial dimensions that previous scholarship has overlooked. As SDS women forged an interracial movement of the poor with white and Black welfare recipients, they formed the grassroots origins of Cleveland's welfare rights movement. Many of the impoverished women who collaborated with SDS founded the National Welfare Rights Organization. Recognizing white SDS women's intellectual contributions to participatory democracy sheds light on why interracial cooperation persisted in Cleveland at a time when multi-racial coalitions in other cities crumbled under the weight of racism.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2024, History (Arts and Sciences)

This paper examines the antislavery stance of Catholic Archbishop of Cincinnati John Baptist Purcell and his brother, Father Edward Purcell, during the American Civil War. Purcell is an anomaly in that he advocated for the immediate end of slavery when most prominent Catholics did not. This study situates Purcell in state, national, Catholic, political, and social contexts, and shows how Purcell's thoughts on slavery developed in the antebellum and Civil War years. Purcell developed a distinctly Catholic antislavery position that drew from Catholic theology and experience. He received much criticism from other prominent Catholic persons and publications for his stance. This study examines the debates between Purcell and his critics and discusses their impact on the ecclesial unity of the Catholic Church in the United States.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, American Culture Studies

Monstrous animals occupied a prominent role in the imaginations of the 18th and early 19th century European settlers in what would become the United States of America. This preoccupation with monsters among early Americans is clearly reflected in the life and career of Thomas Jefferson. A close examination of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), scientific papers prepared for the American Philosophical Society, documentation relating to the Louisiana Purchase, financing of the Louis and Clark Expedition, and personal correspondence all reveal a persistent obsession with living mastodons, giant moose, and colossal lions among other curious creatures. As a key American representative of the western intellectual tradition known as the Enlightenment, Jefferson's conviction that the North American interior harbored such monstrous forms of undiscovered animal life may seem counterintuitive as one would presume Jefferson would be nothing but skeptical of the reality of fantastic beasts. However, Jefferson saw evidence for the reality of such hitherto unclassified species of megafauna in an amalgamation of fragmentary fossil remains, euhemerist interpretations of Indigenous American legends, and tall tales told by early pioneers; the same type of ephemeral evidence marshaled by today's cryptozoologists to prove the existence of such creatures as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. It is with this later observation in mind that this dissertation seeks to reframe Jefferson as a pioneering cryptozoologist while also considering the important role which cryptozoological monster lore has played in the formation of American culture.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, History

This dissertation uncovers how, why, and where the modern pet dog originated. The average dog's transition from a working animal to a nonworking companion in the nineteenth-century United Kingdom constituted the dog's most radical alteration of purpose since their initial domestication prior to the establishment of agricultural civilization. This dissertation contends that the modern family dog originated during the long-nineteenth century (1780-1920) primarily in Victorian Britain—the initial nation altered by the interlocking forces of industrialization and urbanization. These processes provided the necessary cultural and material preconditions to reconceptualize this traditional working animal as a nonworking companion. These phenomena also provided the necessary infrastructure to manufacture commodities—from biscuits to soap—that became necessary to maintain dogs. Family dogs altered domestic and urban environments, individual and collective habits, local and global economic markets, and traditional human and canine behaviors. British pet culture surged beyond national boundaries to become the global norm governing appropriate human-dog interaction. Fundamental English practices—such as leash laws—remain normal today alongside British breeds that garner worldwide favor. Despite their integral presence in modern Western culture, however, there remains no holistic—nor interdisciplinary—narrative explaining how the typical dog transformed from a working animal to a nonworking companion. In this sense, this project rectifies this pronounced historiographical absence and knowledge gap for the broader dog-owning public. Answering this question necessitates adopting an interdisciplinary perspective entangling humans and nonhumans since Britons were not solely responsible for creating pet dogs. Rather, dogs actively shaped this process. Understanding dogs in their own right—their cognitive, sensory, and physical capabilities—hinges on including insights from animal s (open full item for complete abstract)