Senior Honors Theses
History Department Honors Program
To achieve honors in history, qualified students in the major must complete a three-semester sequence of courses, culminating in the preparation of a substantial and original thesis of approximately 75 pages. The thesis is based upon sustained, individual research in archival and other primary sources. Developed in consultation with the departmental honors director(s) and supervised by a faculty advisor with expertise in their chosen area, theses consider a wide variety of topics – from the ancient to contemporary eras, and from all parts of the world – and employ diverse methodological approaches. Most honors students receive funding from the History Department, as well as from other University sources, to complete their research, and participate in a system of peer review throughout the writing process.
Department of History Honors Program students should complete this Author Agreement and submit it with their thesis. Once received, the electronic version of the thesis will then be uploaded onto this site.
Papers from 2008
Forgetting the Violence, Remembering the Report: The Paradox of the 1931 Kanpur Riots, Priya Agarwal
Reading Under the Folds: John Dickinson, Gordon's Tacitus, and the American Revolution, Alexander Bregman
World's Fairs in Chicago and Barcelona: Spectacle, Memory, and Nationalism, Uri L. Friedman
Consolidating the Mexican State: Constitutionalism during the Presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles, Pedro Gerson
An American Ambassador in Berlin: Observing Hitler's Gambles in Foreign Policy, 1933-1937, Kevin P. Glowalla
The Root of the Opium War: Mismanagement in the Aftermath of the British East India Company's Loss of its Monopoly in 1834, Jason A. Karsh
Their Nation Dishonored, the Queen Shamed, and Country Undone: Feuding, Factionalism, and Religion in the Chaseabout Raid, Rachel Omansky
The Affair or the State: Intellectuals, the Press, and the Dreyfus Affair, David Rimoch
Caught on the Periphery: Portuguese Neutrality during World War II and Anglo-American Negotiations with Salazar, Melissa Teixeira
The Silent Partner: How the Ford Motor Company Became an Arsenal of Nazism, Daniel Warsh
Papers from 2007
The First Line of Contact: The Young Christian Made Ottoman Slave in the Sixteenth Century, Andrew Dalzell
"When Nature Holds the Mastery": The Development of Biocentric Thought in Industrial America, Aviva R. Horrow
Skepticism and Belief in Early-Modern France: The Fideism of Bishop Pierre Daniel Huet, Anton Matytsin
The White Author's Burden: Justifications of Empire in the Fiction of British India, Leslie M. Reich
The "Schemes of Public Parties": Benjamin Franklin, William Smith, and the Struggle for Control of the University of Pennsylvania, Jennifer W. Reiss
“Though all women are women, no woman is only a woman”: Black, White, and Chicana Feminist Consciousness Development from 1955 to 1985, Amy D. Rublin
Ambassadors, Explorers, and Allies: A Study of African-European Diplomatic Relationships, 1400-1600, Andrea Felber Seligman
Authorial Disputes: Private Life and Social Commentary in the Honglou meng, Carina Wells