Student Work
This collection contains works by students in the Department of History at the University of Northern Iowa.
To go to the Department of History page, click here.
Events from 2026
How Peer Mentoring Impacts Teaching, Elivia Ditomaso
"The Queen's Grace Heartily Thanks You for the Quails:" Honor Lisle and the Role of Gift-Giving in the Education and Preferment of Her Children, Alexa Renee Gordon, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Submissions from 2025
A Personal Exploration of the Cultural Impact of Shinto and the Meiji Shrine on Japan, Ashley Uitermarkt, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Graduate Portfolio, Amber Ellen Hoodjer, Department of History, Open Access Graduate Research Paper
Graduate Portfolio, Cody Miller, Department of History, Open Access Graduate Research Paper
Outlaws, Lawmen, and the Emergence of Justice on the Western Frontier, Kaci Krier Open Access Poster Presentation
Outlaws, Lawmen, and the Emergence of Justice on the Western Frontier, Kaci Mae Krier, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Parting the Corn Rows: Nikita Khrushchev’s Visit to Iowa, 1959, Jordan Stiles, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Spring 2025 Graduate Portfolio, Alex Billman, Department of History, Open Access Graduate Research Paper
Women's Suffrage in the Cedar Valley: Professionalism and Women's Activism at the Iowa State Teachers College, 1860-1920, Amber Hoodjer
Events from 2024
Demonstration of Fashion Changes of UNI Students Over Time, Jude Beekman
Educational Achievement Rates in Urban Communities as a Result of Past Redlining Practices, Grant Pedersen
Government Spying and Abuse of Power Against Minority Groups, Addyson Kaune
Graduate Portfolio, Olivia Campbell, Department of History, Open Access Graduate Research Paper
Graduate Portfolio, Addy Kaune, Department of History, Open Access Graduate Research Paper
Redefining 21st Century Evangelicalism, Anna McDowell Open Access Poster Presentation
Soviet Space Race: Predictable Failure?, Jordan Stiles
We Did What? To Whom? An Analysis of How US Educational Materials Present the Philippine-American War and Occupation, Jude Beekman, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
"We've Known Each Other For Centuries": Theatrical History of the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Jude Beekman
“We've Known Each Other For Centuries” Theatrical History of the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice [Poster], Jude Beekman
Submissions from 2023
A Snapshot of War: First World War Postcards from the Cedar Falls Historical Society, James Alexander Schmitt, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Boundary Lines Crossed? Seeking Honor After the Vietnam War Took Their Sons, Hannah Ackerman, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Breaking the Marble Ceiling: The Construction of Athena in Greek Thought, Elizabeth Tulley, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis 2023 Award
Underground Iowans, Cyrus Emmet Cummings Open Access Poster Presentation
Submissions from 2022
Alexander the Great and Achilles: The origin of the connection between the Homeric hero and the king of Macedon, Katie Thessen, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Frank Capra's America: The fall of political ambiguity, 1930-1950, Lydia Lennice Pakala, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
"Land of the Silver Birch": Environmental attitudes and place-making in a Northern Minnesota Boy Scout camp, 1960-1975, John Mark Fretham, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The medieval ideal: Utopian medievalism in the life, thought, and works of William Morris, Benjamin Michael Kimball, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The path from paramilitary to politics: Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin, and the Good Friday Agreement: 1986-1998, Brenann Hamilton, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Women Provos: Women in the Provisional IRA and their impact on Irish republicanism and Northern Irish society during the 1970s, Sean Alexander Riley, Department of History, Thesis (UNI Access Only)
You can't live off pride: Welfare and farm aid in the Reagan era, Jeremiah David Brockman, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Events from 2021
All Eyes on Space: The Search for Environmental Safety and Pioneer 10: 1969-1974, Samantha Titus
"Beautiful Work": The Works Progress Administration Arts Programs 1935-1944, Dana Jamison
Emancipated from Tyranny and Oppression: America's Invasion of Canada During the War of 1812-1815, Alex Billman
Management of Water Recharge in the California Central Valley, Alex Augustine
On beauty: Ancient perceptions of beauty from classical Greece to Imperial Rome, Maya Jess, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Tearing Down the Veil: Demystifying Disease During the London Cholera Epidemic of 1854-1855, Peter Limbert
Theses/Dissertations from 2020
Advertising patriotism: Gender and sacrifice in Ladies' Home Journal, 1942-1945, Travis John Carrier, Department of History, Thesis (UNI Access Only)
Base & Summit: American Women's Right on Either Side of the Passing of the 19th Amendment, Abigail Fer Open Access Poster Presentation
Labor's unsettled vagrancy: The rise and fall of the hobo labor movement, 1865-1929, Laura Kathryn Carpenter, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Richard Walther Darré, National Socialism, and Bauernpolitik, Andrew P. Harnois, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The Presentation of Race at Mark Twain Historical Sites in Hannibal, Missouri, Anthony Wayne Birch, Department of History, Open Access Graduate Research Paper
Tolstoy & The Peasant, William S. Heaton
Vietnam: A soldier's story, Ryan Charles Villarreal, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Events from 2019
Can Human Rights be Ignored for a Price? An Analysis of Lobbying Power and U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Human Rights [Poster], Collin Lint Poster Presentation (Electronic Copy Not Available)
"Half-breeds," squatters, land speculators, and settler colonialism in the Des Moines-Mississippi confluence, Matthew Hill, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Tangled twilight. Destiny, horror, and transformation in nature: American culture of progress during the Vietnam War 1965-1975, Alexander Newkirk, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The legality of aerial bombing during World War II in Europe, Robert I. Umsted, Department of History, Thesis (UNI Access Only)
The price of progress: American agricultural innovations in relation to economic and social change, 1920-1989, Zachary Cass Moye, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 2018
From Bosnia to Waterloo, Iowa: Bosnian refugee and immigrant experiences, 1996-2017, Zijad Mahmutovic, Department of History, Thesis (UNI Access Only)
Land of the Free, Because of the Brave, Austin Bowman
The History of UNI Building & Grounds, Adam Nielson, Connor McKibben, Amelia Miller, Emily Amundson, and Maritza Pirwitz
Events from 2017
African-American Labor History in Waterloo: The Exhibit, Niria White Open Access Paper
"A special program for highly gifted students:" The evolution and growth of UNI's Honors Program, 1959-2009, Matthew Christian Miller, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Constructing identities in the West Branch landscape: Herbert Hoover's life and legacy as a common man, 1935-1992, Ryan Lucas Wurtz, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Inside Queen Victoria's household: The ladies of the royal nursery and schoolroom, 1839-1889, Kayla Jo Seppelt, Department of History, Thesis (UNI Access Only)
Iowa schoolmarms: The significance of rural schools and the feminization movement, 1865-1920, Ashley Nicole Loper, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
JFK: A body of evidence - 1955-1965, Vicki J. Simpson, Department of History, Thesis (UNI Access Only)
“Long Cold Days”: The Natural Ice Industry, 1880 to 1940, Andrew Olson Open Access Poster Presentation
Protests, pageants, and publications: Narratives of labor agitators, 1913-1914, Jayme Edmund, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Saving local communities using scrip money to fight the Great Depression in north central Iowa, Bryan Carl Bjorklund, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 2016
Dying to live forever Sophia Harris journal 1860 to 1861, Shirley Ilene Davis, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
From soprano to barking dog : John Cage, the avant garde, and the counterculture, 1940-1975, Heather M. McAlpine, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
"Rock Against Reagan": The punk movement, cultural hegemony, and Reaganism in the eighties, Johnathan Kyle Williams, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 2017 Award
The Civil Rights Movement through the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Hannah Lodge, Department of History, Honors Program Thesis (UNI Access Only)
Three men in the wilderness: Ideas and concepts of nature during the Progressive Era with Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and John Muir, Jeffrey A. Duke, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Unions in Waterloo, Iowa: How organization, political activism, and community outreach led to the rise and fall of organized labor, 1947-1990, Dylan Christian Krauter Keller, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 2015
An American's Paris: tourism and the American consumer, 1947-1961, Margaret Nervig, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
August Becker and traditional vs. modern culture in the first decades of the twentieth century, Michelle Lea Becker Smith, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Caged manhood : office culture and how Walter Camp's Daily Dozen revitalized the workforce, 1903-1940, Nick Sly, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Danish Cedar Falls : The immigrant experience, Carrie L. Eilderts, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
“God will deliver us” : human rights abuses from Guatemala to Iowa and back, 1980-2014, RaeAnn Lillian Swanson, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
In connection with all things : the memory of Alexander Humboldt and his works in the context of 19th century thought in Europe and America, Ray Joseph Werner, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
“Our Navy” : women accepted for voluntary emergency service at Iowa State Teacher's College, 1942-1945, Marissa Krein, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Rethinking the Conquest : an exploration of the similarities between pre-contact Spanish and Mexica society, culture, and royalty, Samantha Billing, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Stars, stripes, and swastikas : the American Turners and national identity, 1935-1945, Amy Rekward, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The disintegration of Yugoslavia and football, Adnan Kajtezović, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The early demagogues : the rise of the plebeian tribunate and their exclusive interests, c. 550-450 BCE, Conner James Brakeville, Department of History, Honors Program Thesis (UNI Access Only)
Theses/Dissertations from 2014
"Democracy put in action": Experiences of African Americans in the Women's Army Corps at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, 1942-1945, Rebecca Singer, Department of History, Thesis (UNI Access Only)
Dennis Mahony, "At the Disposal of Tyrants": An analysis of a newspaper editor's intentions during the Civil War, Ryan Robert Engelman, Department of History, Thesis (UNI Access Only)
Education at its corp, Steven Michael Pals, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Muddied waters: exploring Iowa's water policy and practices, Jorgen D. Rose, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 2013
A Midwestern culture of civility: Student activism at the University of Northern Iowa during the Maucker years (1967-1970), Christopher J. Shackelford, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
An American's Paris: Tourism and the American identity, 1947-1963, Margaret Nervig, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
From saeter to sod: Single women homesteaders of Norwegian descent farming their land in Dakota territory, 1862-1929, Sara Marie Skindelien, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
From sidebets to sideshow: The influence of gambling on the development of professional wrestling in America, 1870-1911, Lee Casebolt, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Memories of College Hill: A historical view, Emily Marie O'Loughlin, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
More than a quick and easy meal: convenience food advertising in Ladies' Home Journal, 1945-1954, Molly Franta, Department of History, Honors Program Thesis (UNI Access Only)
Playing by new rules: board games and America's cold war culture, 1945-1965, Matthew John Sprengeler, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The Chicago Americanization movement: Solutions to the immigrant problem, Heather Greel, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
"The most deadly spot on the face of the earth": The United States and antimodern images of "Darkest Africa" 1880-1910, Melinda Stump, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
“Unto You Who Fear My Name Shall the Sun of Righteousness Arise With Healing in His Wings”: The Popular Cultural Perceptions of Radium, 1900-1930, Tausha Nichole Fristo, Department of History, Thesis (Electronic Copy Not Available)
Theses/Dissertations from 2012
Baseball in the heartland: Semi-pro baseball survives in Iowa, Todd Michael Hospodarsky, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 2004 Award
The Crocker Street YMCA: A Legacy of Leaders, Michael P. Kates, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Thomas Jefferson and His Religious Beliefs in the Contexts of History and Today, Nolan Christian Hovland, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
“Where the Blazed Trail Crosses the Boulevard”: Gear, Fashion, and Outfitting in Early Recreational Wilderness Camping, 1880-1920, Brian Beauvais, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 2011
From a weak tribual to a branch of government: The Supreme Court of the United States from 1789 to Marshall, Dale Edward Paul Yurs, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 2012 Award
Girl's Basketball in Iowa: The Game of Six-On-Six and Its Impact on the State's Athletic Culture, Sarah Gronemeyer, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Raising good Soviets: Media depictions of Soviet life and upbringing under Khrushchev, Chelsea Miller, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Shockingly Absurd!: How EC Comics and Mad Magazine Contributed to the Counterculture, 1952-1960, Matthew D. Cossolotto, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
"With a Woman's Bitterness": Early Propaganda Against Female Rulers in Medieval Chronicles in the Twelfth and Fifteenth Centuries, Elizabeth Anne Wiedenheft, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 2010
Obscenity and pornography: A historical look at the American Library Association, the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, and the Supreme Court, Gretchen Brooke Gould, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Race, Colonialism, Gender and the Rwandan Genocide, Jessica Patrice Braccio, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Steamboat Bill : William J. Peterson: Iowa's river historian, Nathan J. Gruber Open Access Undergraduate Student Work
Theses/Dissertations from 2009
Those magnificent men or their flying machines?: Tradition and modernity in the 1928 National Air Races, Joshua James Waddle, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 2007
Cedar Falls Civil War, Cynthia Rae Huffman Sweet, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Neo Romance: Gender Renegotiation in Harlequin Romance Novels, Amanda L. Breeden, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
St. Peter Canisius and the Youth: Jesuit Educators in Counterreformation Germany, Kendra Anne Willey, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Thomas Jefferson's Biographers: Historiography and Sally Hemings, Courtney Ihde, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
Submissions from 2006
Striking Out: The All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League Failed to Break Gender Barriers, Lindsey Letcher, Department of History, Open Access Honors Program Thesis
“Votes for Women”: Gender, ‘Race,’ Class, and the Suffrage Cartoons of Life and Harper’s Weekly, 1890-1916, Mellisa Annesha Campbell, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Submissions from 2004
A look at the Little Rock Nine, Stacey Noble Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis
Submissions from 2000
The wrath of Poseidon: The influence of water on strategy and tactics of ancient Greek warfare, Ben Nietzel Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1999
The Commonweal in the heartland: Charles T. Kelly and Iowa's industrial army, Ryan James Sprau, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 2000 Award
Theses/Dissertations from 1998
The morality issue: How Darlan influenced the Allied unconditional surrender pledge in World War II, Brian Fiderlein, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 1999 Award
Utopia in Iowa?: Etienne Cabet and the Icarian Concept of Progress, John Davis Higdon, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1996
Invisible walls: Milliken v. Bradley and America's urban apartheid, Sonia E. Ingles, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 1998 Award
The Farmers' Holiday Association in Eastern Iowa, 1932-1933, Joel Dinger Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1995
Britain’s Only Offensive: An Assessment of the Influence of Bomber Command on British Morale, 1939-1942, Brian Keith Gulick, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Church and state in the early fifteenth century: Henry V's persecution of the Lollards, Heather Lee Martin Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis
Germany’s Foreign Policy and the Role of German Minorities: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland 1919-1929, Frederick William Hollister, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The generation gap: A comparison of the negative portrayals of hippies and Generation Xers, Greg Becker Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1994
Iowa's wolf in populist clothing: Norman Baker, 1925-1936, Eric Scott Juhnke, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 1995 Award
Mary Queen of Scots: The Legend Continues, Shari A. Herlein, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Submissions from 1993
Reversal of fortune: Dick Clark, John Culver, and Iowa politics in the 1970s, Clinton R. Boddicker Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis
Salus populi suprema lex: The impact of three major European thinkers on the Constitution of the United States, Corey W. Smith Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1992
A pretension of place: The industrialization of corn belt agriculture, 1940-1965, Philip Jeffrey Nelson, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 1993 Award
Submissions from 1990
The English Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century, Aaron T. Bicknese Open Access Presidential Scholars Thesis
The federal government and the Industrial Workers of the World, 1917-1918: An attempt to crush a labor union, Michael Torrance Prahl, Department of History, Open Access Thesis 1991 Award
Theses/Dissertations from 1989
Voices From the Cloister: Oral Perspectives on the Recent History of New Melleray Abbey, Benedict Julian Hussmann, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1987
United States Participation in the North Russian Intervention, 1918-1919, Michael Andrew Hudson, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1982
U.S. Military Small Arms of the World Wars: A Guide for the Small Museum, David C. Conzett, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1980
Consequences of Conquest upon Roman Political, Social, Economic, Cultural and Architectural Development during and after the Punic Wars, 2nd Century B.C., Deborah Carol Blinka, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1979
The Ethics of Business and Herbert Hoover’s Internationalism, Robin L. Hamilton, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1978
Dyarchy: An Unavoidable Transitional Stage in the Constitutional Development of India, N. Chiranjeevi, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Henry A. Wallace and China, Linda Eichmeyer Clarkson, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1977
An Analysis of the Concept of Divine Right of Kings in the Political Works of James I, Kenneth Francis Cox, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1975
Analysis of the Occupational Status and Choice Patterns of Women, Terry L. Besser, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
NA Tse KE: A Re-Evaluation of Some Major Trends in United States Apache Policy, 1847-1887, D. C. Cole, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
Theses/Dissertations from 1972
Stilicho: The Man and His Times, David Bliss Hanawalt, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
The Radical Pietists: Celibate Communal Societies Established in the United States Before 1820, Delburn Carpenter, Department of History, Open Access Thesis
