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Topics of Past MA Theses and Projects

2020’s Graduate Theses and Projects

Quinn Zachary Anderson
“Re-Mediating Nature: Environmental Entropy, Urban Parks, and the Boise River Greenbelt”
August 2023

Rachel Klade
“Decolonial Public History in Practice: A Collaborative Project on the Role of Indigenous Women in the Fish Wars of Washington State of the 1960s and 1970s”
May 2023

Elliott D. Sauerwald
“Men of the Forgotten War: The Korean War and American Masculinity”
August 2023

Rachel Taylor
“Locating Queer Possibilities: LGBTQ+ Folks Negotiating Community and Belonging in Idaho, 1969-2011”
August 2023

Ian Garrett Morris
“To Build a Hero: Douglas MacArthur and the War That Wasn’t”
May 2022

Thomas P. Albritton
“The Myth of the Vanishing Race: Interpreting Historical Photographs of Native Americans”
May 2021

Jacob Todd Bernhardt
“Anti-Fascism, Anti-Communism, and Memorial Cultures: A Global Study of International Brigade Veterans”
May 2021

Kole A. Dawson
“Freeport, the Environment, and the Amungme: An Environmental History of the Freeport McMorRan Copper and Gold Mine in Papua, Indonesia”
May 2021

Gregory B. LeDonne
“’Original Environmentalists’: Rancher Environmentalism, Rewilding, and the Buffalo Commons”
May 2021

Inaki Sagarna Urzelai
“The Marsi: The Construction of an Identity”
May 2021

Noah Szajowitz
“‘We May Not Be Goliath But We Have David’s Sling’: Media and the Perception of the New Zealand Home Guard, 1940-1942”
May 2021

Emily Fritchman
“Finding Common Purpose: A History of Community Organizing in Boise, Idaho”
May 2020

Kyle Giovannini
“The Vietnam Syndrome and Its Effects on the U.S. Public and Foreign and Domestic Policy Decisions During the Post-Vietnam Era Between 1975-1991”
May 2020

Aimee Rollins
“Quiet and Faithful Preservation: A Historic West Kootenai Street Study”
May 2020

2010’s Graduate Theses and Projects

Marnie Nichole
“The Art of Healing: Mary Gove Nichols’s Crusade for Women’s Wellness”
May 2019

Sherry Lynn Mason
“Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine: Political Motherhood in the Middle Ages”
May 2019

Julie Ann Vance
“Pioneers at the Edge of Their Universe: Japanese Railroad Workers in Idaho and the Intermountain West”
August 2019

Joseph M. Green
“Vauban in the Wilderness: The Military Revolution and the Seven Years War in North America”
December 2019

Jared Dane Johns
“Becoming a Knight: The Social Transformation of Common Mounted Soldiers into Noble Warriors”
May 2018

Michelle Gizinski Earwicker
“Seventeenth-Century Basque Witchtrials: The Interaction of Socio-Religious Norms within the Contact Zone of the Accused and the Inquisitor”
May 2018

Victor D. Higgins
“Unpolished Emeralds in the Gem State: Hard-Rock Mining, Labor Unions and Irish Nationalism in the Mountain West and Idaho, 1850-1900”
August 2017

Elizabeth R. Drennon
De Consecrationibus: Abbot Suger’s Consecrations of the Abbey Church of St. Denis”
August 2016

James Willis
“The Elberfeld System: Poor relief and the Fluidity of German Identity in Mid-Nineteenth Century Germany”
August 2016

David Mock
“The Realities of Foreign Humanitarianism and the US Military: Nineteenth Century Roots”
May 2015

Philip Tadeusz Turner
“The Evolution of Prometheanism: Jozef Pilsudski’s Strategy and Its Impact on the Twentieth-First Century World Affairs”
May 2015

Molly Lorraine May
“‘Right From Hades’: Water and Politics in Boise, Idaho”
December 2015

Carolina Valderrama-Echavarria
“Fragmented Tills: Colombian Immigrant Experiences”
May 2014

Michael Rebecca Yadlin
“Radical Politics of Rich People: British Upper Class Support of Interwar Communism and Facism”
May 2014

Roy J. Ellsworth
“Israel, Iran, and the United States: A Precarious Alliance”
May 2014

Timothy A. Guill
“A Leatherneck in Congress: Melvin Maas’s Fight for a Modern Marine Corps Reserve”
May 2014

Ryan Andrew Schaff
“Joan of Arc and the Franco — Burgundian Reconciliation”
May 2014

Mark William Iverson
“Mass Rape in Foca: The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia vs. Dragoljub Kunarac”
December 2014

Michael S. Beaudoin
“Lawyers and Sawyers: Venetian Forest Law and the Conquest of Terraferma (1350-1476)”
December 2014

James David Duran
“Building the Modern World: Morrison-Knudsen Construction Company”
December 2013

LauriAnn Vaterlaus Deaver
“Dam Mormons: responding to the 1976 Teton Dam Disaster in the ‘Lord’s Way’”
December 2013

Mark T. Haggard
“Punishing Our Own Rascals: Great Britain, the United States, and the Right to Search During the Era of Slave Trade Suppression”
December 2013 

Samuel Jordan Kelly
“J. Gresham Machen and the End of the Presbyterian Controversy”
December 2013

Luke Clay Schleif
“Missions, Republicanism, and Anti-Catholicism: The Ideological Origins of the Methodist Church’s Support for the Mexican-American War”
May 2012

Martha Wharry Turner
“Hiding. Hunting, and Habitat: An Environmental Re-Analysis of the Slave Narratives”
May 2012

Anna B Holdorf
“Galvanized by the Gospel: Nineteenth-Century Baptist Missions and the Anti-Mission Response”
August 2012

Cletus R Edmunson
“A History of Warren, Idaho: Mining, Race, & Environment”
August 2012

Keegan J. Cothern
“Training for Empire and Modernity: Japan’s Development of Hokkaido from the 1870s-90s”
August 2012

Angela Ruth Bolen
“Christina of Markyate, Manly Woman of God: Mysticism, Monasticism, and Masculinity in Twelfth-Century England”
December 2012

Benjamin David Brandon
“Eusebius of Caesarea’s Oration in Praise of Constantine as the Political Philosophy of the Christian Empire”
December 2012

Christopher Lee Browne
“Flavius Iulius Crispus: The Tragic Prince”
May 2011

Kipley S. Fife
“The Fourth-Century Rediscovery of Christian Jerusalem”
May 2010

Rebecca Hawks
“‘Sore Vexation,’ The Utah Saints and the Gentle War: The Development of the LDS Church During the Civil War”
May 2010

Stacy Jo Nation-Knapper
“Trading in Spirits: European Alcohol and the Indigenous Population of New France”
May 2010

Aage Bent Nielson
“Dovcaine Vivant: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of a Cylindrical Survivor”
August 2010

Alicia Deseriee Martin-Cowger
“A Great Appearance of Force: Puritan Family Government in Colonial Connecticut, 1672-1725”
August 2010

Joseph Kruth
“Seditio Saturnini: The Sedition of Saturninus”
August 2010

Max Aaron Delgado, III
“Jesus Urquides: Idaho’s Premier Muleteer”
August 2010

Rodger Lee Huckabee
“Camp Cookie: The First Army Post in Montana — Success and Failure in the Missouri”
August 2010

Samuel David Lenser
“Between the Great Idea and Kemalism: The YMCA at Izmit in the 1920s”
August 2010

2000’s Graduate Theses and Projects

Joshua Michael Bernard
“History and Beauty: The History of the Idaho State Parks”
March 2009

Karen I. Wadley
“The King and His Council”
March 2009

Alissa Peterson
“Traditions in Transition: Basques in America”
May 2009

Kelly M. Orgill
“Conservative Conservationists: Water Rights, Wilderness, and Idahoan Political Identity”
May 2009

Olivia Umphrey
“From Screen to Page: Japanese Films as a Historical Document, 1931-1959”
May 2009

Theodore Wilbur
“American Friends Service Committee Efforts to Aid Japanese American Citizens During World War II”
June 2009

Tamara C. Mackenthun
“Continuity in Iranian Leadership Legitimization: Farr-I Izadi, Shi’ism, and Vilayet-I Faqih”
August 2009

Joshua P. Haskett
“Hadrian’s Wall: Romanization on Rome’s Northern Frontier”
December 2009

Michael C. Moore
“‘A Bold, Hopeful, Tolerant, Progressive Way’ — Progressives in the Idaho Legislature, 1908-1915”
December 2009

Christopher S. Blanchard
“From Depression to War: The FSA Photographers and Idaho’s Landscape, 1936-1942” 
April 2008

Jeanette M. Jackson
“Grave Matters: A History on Canyon Hill Cemetery, Caldwell, Idaho”
April 2007

Audra Hoyt
“History in the Trees: The Basque Arborglyphs of Idaho and ‘The Grove on Grove Street’”
May 2007

Catherine Fraser Allen
“Wide Open Spaces: Idaho Panoramic Photographs ca. 1900-1940”
April 2006

DiAnne Elizabeth Iverglynne
“The Photographic Crayon Portrait: Nineteenth Century Icon of Absent Family Members and Present-Day Relic of the Latter-Day Saint”
April 2006

Matthew Joseph Recla
“Tessarakonta: The Birth and Growth of a Martyrdom Cult” 
April 2006

Edward Vanegas
“On the Brink of Place: The American Dream’s Attack on a Community and a Case Study of the Ustick Neighborhood in Boise, Idaho”
May 2006

Kelly A. Mitchell
“The Origins of the Finnish Landscape of Long Valley, Idaho” June 2006

Alina Lynn Pitman
“The Unwanted Desired: Boise’s Attempt to Contain Prostitution in the 1970’s”
October 2006

Carolyn Drake
“Birth Stories: Transforming Our Culture”
November 2006

Candace Kay Trautman
“Holistic Care of the Mentally Ill in Christian Healing Camps: Global Health Ministries’ Pharmacotherapy Project in Madagascar”
December 2006

Duke Staggs
“Killing the Soulless: Preconditions that led to the Rogue River War 1851-1856” 
March 2005

Jared Eugene Kenning
“Dialectics of Belief: Collaboration, Disappointment and the Origins of Protestant Dissidence in the Czech Lands”
April 2005

Jeremy M. Maxand
“Proposition One: Prototype of a Web-Based History of Idaho’s 1993 Anti-Gay Rights Initiative”
April 2005

Jose Gustavo Cardenas
“Changing Visions: The Status of Sioux Women Prior to the Reservation Era”
April 2005

Neal Knight
“Cyprian’s — De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate — Introduction, Translation & Commentary”
April 2005

Mary Katherine Mills
“Sun Valley: Nature and Tourism in the 1950s”
April 2005

Saundra Gosnell Schmidt
“Gender Activism at Boise State University 1970-2000”
April 2005

Paula Jo Connelly
“‘A Natural Dairy Producing Country’: The Southwest Idaho Dairy Industry, 1860-1940”
July 2005

Jennifer A. McClelland
“Sino-Iranian Relations: Contributions of Iranian Women in Diplomacy (1949-1979)”
August 2005

Korri De Ann Hogan
“Learning About Successful Living from George Washington”
October 2005

Tamara Marie Sands
“Men as Allies: An Inclusive Vision for a Feminist Future”
November 2005

Aaron J. Campbell
“Caracalla: The Making of a Tyrant”
April 2004

Jenel Carpenter Cope
“Congress, the FBI, and Aim: The April 1976 Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security Hearing to Investigate the American Indian Movement”
April 2004

Jerome D. Klena
“Accidental Exiles: Japanese Prisoners of War in World War II”
April 2004

Mary Kovel
“Speaking Through Ritual: Churching in Early Modern England”
July 2004

Darin W. Vrem
“A History of Idaho’s Dredge Mining Industry and the Dredge Mining Control Movement 1896-1970”
November 2004

Michael C. Hawkins
“A Turning Point: Filipino Nationalism Before and After the 1986 Edsa Revolution”
November 2004

Alicia Thomas
“To Riot or Not to Riot: Union Labor Strike in Wood River Valley, Idaho, 1880-1890”
November 2003

Janet A. French
“The Invisible Immigrants: A History of the South Asian Indians Community in Boise, Idaho”
April 2002

Suzanne Rosario
“Of Tragedy, Terror, and Transitions: Politico-Educational Agendas in Chile, 1964-2000”
April 2002

Sarah R. Mawhirter
“Reclaiming Whore: A Cultural History Located at the Intersection of Feminism and the Sex Industry”
July 2002

Marilyn R. Wylde
Conversio (Conversion) versus Conversatio (Conversation) As Used in the Rule of St. Benedict”
October 2002

Richard Blaine Davies
“Historical Fiction: A Website Supporting Secondary US History Courses of Study — Idaho Department of Education”
November 2002

Stephen R. Olszewski
“Children in the United States History”
November 2002

Dylan J. McDonald
“The Moses Alexander Family: Including the Papers of the Office of the Governor (1915-1919), the Alexander family and M. Alexander, Inc. AR 20011 and MS 335”
December 2002

Susanna Forbes-Osgood
“A Means to an End: The Boise Basin Addition and Progressive Era Management of the Boise National Forest 1905-1934”
2001 

Alexandre Ilungu Ibongya Muzaliwa
“African Refugees in the United States of America: A Case Study of the Intermountain and Northwestern Region”
February 2001

Kathryn Ann Baxter
“Places in Time: A Portfolio”
March 2001

Alice J. Gould
“‘Brought to You in Living Black and White’–Early Television Broadcasting in Boise, Idaho”
May 2001

Jon Hanian
“Bosnia to Boise and Back”
May 2001

Raymona K. Maddy
“The Vietnam and American War: A Multimedia History on CD Rom”
June 2001

Steven N. Henderson
“Historical Rationale for Zealous Nationalism and Political Extremism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”
July 2001

Christopher K. Crain
“Operation Paukenschlag: The Battle of the Atlantic Revisited”
March 2000

Shera G. Kindall
“A Guide to the Cecil D. Andrus Collection”
May 2000

Anthony Miranda
“The Boise High School Archive Project”
June 2000

Joise Jane Fretwell
“Schemes and Dreams in the New West: promoting Idaho’s Irrigated Landscape”
July 2000

Robert Barrett
“Revolutionary Diplomats: An Historical–Literacy and John and Abigail Adams 1785-1788”
November 2000

1990s Graduate Theses and Projects

Randall Eric Williamson
“Tertullian: Rites and Practices of the Early Church”
February 1999

Carole Ann Schroeder
“The San Francisco Board of Education 1906 Action Excluding the Japanese from the Public Schools”
April 1999

John Cook
“Dutch Influence on Balinese Hinduism as Reflected in Temple Sculpture”
April 1999

John Carl Martinez
“Bullock’s Hitler: A Study of Lord Alan Bullock’s Biographies on Hitler and the Historians Who Influenced Bullock” 
April 1999

Troy Hamilton
“The Tree Trooper: The Problems that the Civilian Conservation Corps Encountered in Idaho”
July 1999

Rob Murdock
“Fort Lemhi: A Shoshone — Mormon Environmental Conflict”
August 1999

Aaron F. Christensen
“Sol Invictus: A Bridge from Paganism to Christianity”
April 1998

Heidi Miller
“The Women of east Germany as Victims of German Unification”
April 1998

Jason Gatliff
“The Role of Philosophy in the Apologetic Writings of Tertullian”
April 1998

Susan Pengilly Neitzel
“Unsettled Issues: Original Indian Title to the Boise and Bruneau Valleys, Southwestern Idaho”
April 1998

Anne Marie Martin
“Matilda, Countess of Tuscany: Champion and Devotee of the Papacy During the Investiture Controversy” 
May 1998

Derek Richard Shipley
“The First Triumvirate of Rome and the Crisis of the Late Republic”
June 1998

Beverly A. Miller
“What’s a Nice Lady Like You Doing in a Place Like This? The Life and Times of Emma Angell Drake”
July 1998

Chelli Bradshaw
“From Promise to Performance: Healthcare, Tax-exempt Finance, and the History of the Idaho Health Facilities Authority”
August 1998

Thomas M. Ansbach
“In Their Own Words: An Oral History of Boise State University” 
November 1998

Margaret Diane Sankey
“‘England’s Teeming Womb’: The Stuart and the Hanover Dynasties in the Pan-German Marriage System 1600-1860”
April 1997

Mary Carter-Hepworth
“Special Collection Manuscripts Pertaining to Boise State University A Guide”
September 1997

Robert P. Tilley
“The Nationalization of Private Electrical Companies in Mexico”
September 1997

Sue Harley
“Vietnam: A Short History for Teachers Middle School and Secondary”
November 1997

Jimmie I. Carlson
“Remaking Idaho’s Capitol City: A Case Study in Urban Renewal”
February 1996

John Cantrell
“The Controversial Closure of the Bunker Hill Company — Revisiting the Question of Culpability”
February 1996

Thomas Henry Talboy
“Pudicus Atque Lascivus: The Sensuality of the Emperor Hadrian as Represented  in His Poetry”
April 1996

Rosemary L. Wimberly
“‘She Should Be Made An Example of…’: Gender, Politics, and Criminal Abortion in Idaho, 1864-1973”
May 1996

Diane Boleyn
“Origo Constantini Imperatoris: A Translation and Commentary”
July 1996

David H. Crain
“Loyalty Revealed, the Japanese American Community Before Pearl Harbor”
July 1996

Ila M. Greenfield
“The Progressive Party in the Idaho Election of 1942 with Special Emphasis on Canyon County”
July 1996

Teri A Deyoung
“The Changing Status of Chinese American Women in Portland, Oregon, 1900-1945”
July 1996

Suzanne Sermon
“‘Beyond Simple Domesticity’: Organizing Boise Women 1866-1920”
November 1996

Juan Wang
“Liang Shuming’s Rural Reconstruction Theory and Experiment”
July 1995

Patricia Fletcher
“‘The Basques’ A Curriculum Guide”
September 1995

Spike Robert Lewis Ericson
“The Southwest Idaho Intertribal Gatherings of the 1870’s and their Historical Context”
January 1994

Monte Joseph Muldoon
“The Halcyon Days of Intercollegiate Athletics at the College of Idaho”
March 1994

Jack Douglas Ferguson
“The Multiple Functions of Stained Glass in the Early and High Gothic Cathedrals and Churches of France (AD 1140-1270)”
April 1994

Deborah Jane Kennedy
“‘And I Thought When I Got a Job, I’d Get Away From a Darned Broom’ Recruiting and Maintaining the Female Work Force for Defense Industries During World War II”
August 1994

Jo Anne Russell
“A Necessary Evil: Prostitutes, Patriarchs & Profits in Boise City, 1863-1915”
August 1991

Carol Lynn MacGregor
“The Patrick Gass Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition”
July 1990

Rodney J. Valentine
“The Economics of Homesteading in the Boise River Valley, Idaho, 1869-78”
November 1990

1980’s Graduate Theses and Projects

Nicholas A Casner
“Leaded Waters: A History of Minning Pollution on the Coeur D’alene River in Idaho 1900-1950”
May 1989

Susan M. Stacy
“Economic Development and Federal Flood Control on the Boise River, 1943-1985”
May 1989

Gerard Papaux
“Gandhi’s Truth”
August 1989

Terry Cantrell
“Religion in Idaho History: A Unit in the Development of Research and Writing Skills”
October 1989

Robert W. Davis
“Using the Computer in Historical Research”
March 1985

Steve Tyree
“Our Heritage and the Law: The Interdisciplinary Infusion of Law-related Concepts into the United States History Curriculum”
June 1985

Ruth Vinz
“Unexplored Worlds: The Journey of a Thousand Miles, A Student Handbook for the Study of Eastern Civilizations”
October 1982

Laurence E. Bauwens
“The Creation of the Federal Reserve System”
April 1981

Sandra S. Savage
“Alaskan Aboriginal Art and Artisans, A Unit of Study”
April 1980

1970’s Graduate Theses and Projects

Elizabeth Bryant-Merrill
“Idaho Oral History Guide”
May 1979

Janet K. Adams
“Politics: Buttons, Banners, and Bumperstickers: A Course of Study on American Politics for Jr. High School Students”
May 1979