History

Session I

Christian Cole, "How Do Black Women Navigate Their Roles and Maintain Well-Being in Predominately White Institutions and Societal Spaces?"

This research study focuses on understanding how Black women navigate their roles and maintain well-being in predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and societal spaces. Black women in higher education often face unique challenges related to their racial and gender identities, which can impact their academic performance, social experiences, and overall well-being. Demographic statistics reveal that Black/African American students constitute only 5% of the student population at the College of William & Mary. Within this small percentage, the experiences and perspectives of Black women are diverse and multifaceted, reflecting the rich tapestry of the African diaspora. Previous research has highlighted the presence of structural barriers and microaggressions that Black women encounter in PWIs, yet there is limited understanding of the strategies they employ to navigate these environments effectively. This study aims to fill that gap by exploring the unique challenges they face and the strategies they use to manage their identities and foster resilience.

Student Major: Public Policy

Advisor: Dr. Adrienne Petty

Nicholas Friedel, "Clearing Space in Atlanta: AIDS awareness through Southern Arts Media Education Project"

A unique combination of cultural, political, and social factors such as censorship, stereotyping, and even violence meant the Southern response to the AIDS crisis was markedly different. This led to out-of-the-box methods to spread health information. Theatre makers realized the potential of their medium to spread information, build community, and provide a space to mourn and reflect. Rebecca Ranson’s play Warren was staged in the summer of 1984 and was immensely successful in Atlanta, such that the CDC sponsored the show at a 1986 AIDS conference. Ranson and other theatre makers formed the Southeastern Arts, Media, and Education project (SAME) to use art to educate the public on AIDS. This research delves into the methods and efficacy of SAME’s mission and brings to light how SAME was able to harness the power of art for public education. The project asks what might be brought forward into today’s unique political situation. 

Student Major/Minor: Human Health and Physiology Major, History Minor

Advisor: Dr. Jay Watkins

Coran Goss, "'Rather the Works of God Than Men': Native Americans and Firearms in Early Colonial Jamestown"

The value of firearms to the Native American population of colonial North America has long been a source of conflict among historians of colonial America. Contentions between historians often focus on the benefits and drawbacks of Native Americans using firearms compared to bows or how big of a role firearms played in the process of displacing Native Americans in comparison to factors such as disease. This project seeks to answer how Native Americans reacted to and utilized firearms in the Jamestown region between the early and mid-seventeenth century while also exploring psychological reactions that both natives and Europeans had to European weaponry in the Americas. This project also uses the multiple primary documents created by English explorers and authors with firsthand accounts of interactions between Native Americans and firearms. Jamestown provides a unique point of intrigue, being the first lasting English colony in the Americas and an example of early contact between Native Americans and Europeans.

Student Majors: History and Computer Science

Advisor: Dr. Paul Mapp

Dawn Harris, "Beyond the Misconceptions of Food Insecurity: A Data-Driven and Oral Narrative Approach"

Many individuals suffer from little to no access to a variety of foods and a suitable diet; this experience is most commonly known as food insecurity. Government programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) were created to combat this pressing issue. However, these programs alone are not enough to prevent food insecurity. Local food banks and non-profit organizations act to provide for those still in need. Working alongside Candy Cares Inc., a non-profit food pantry local to the Hampton Roads area to conduct interviews, and using Python to synthesize data, this project will explore the demographics of food pantry recipients to make educated conclusions regarding disparities in food insecurity in Hampton Roads. Additionally, this research will raise awareness of the severity of the issue while providing insight into the non-profits that aim to minimize food insecurity and the growing number they serve.

Student Major/Minor: Computer Science Major, Data Science Minor

Advisor: Dr. Adrianne Petty

Devaughn Henry, "Aquaculture on Virginia's Eastern Shore"

This research will examine the history, evolution, and cultural significance of Black watermen on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, my home. My family is part of this region's rich tradition of Black watermen, and have been involved in aquaculture for at least six generations. Through oral history interviews with my family members, this study will explore generational knowledge, industry shifts, the impact of Jim Crow, and the economic and environmental challenges that have shaped aquaculture in the region. It will also investigate how local aquaculturists have adapted to changes in policy, climate, and market demands while maintaining traditions passed down over decades. Through personal narratives, this project aims to highlight the resilience, ingenuity, and deep-rooted connection between watermen and the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. The collected stories will not only preserve valuable insights into the industry’s past but also provide a broader understanding of the social, cultural, and economic impact of

aquaculture on Eastern Shore communities. Ultimately, this work seeks to contribute to historical preservation and inform future discussions on sustainable aquaculture practices in the region.

Student Majors: American Studies & History

Advisor: Dr. Adrienne Petty 

Oscar Linehan-Siu, "Colonial Theory and African Resistance in German Southwest Africa"

After German unification in 1871, German advocates for colonialism, anxious about large-scale, protracted emigration to the United States, argued that Germany should found a settler colony like the British dominions, which would provide an outlet for emigration while retaining loyal German subjects. After claiming Southwest Africa (today Namibia), the German state attempted to put this theory into practice, beginning a process of land acquisition for private German landowners. In 1904, this culminated in a protracted military campaign against the Herero and Nama peoples, widely recognized today as the first genocide of the 20th century. Using written sources by German state officials and colonial theorists housed in the Kolonialarchiv at the Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main, this project seeks to answer how the political and economic reality of German Southwest Africa clashed with the racialized ideology of German colonial advocates, and how arguments about settlement developed after 1904.

Student Major(s): History, Global Studies - European Studies

Advisor: Dr. Tuska Benes

Anne Masters, "From Palaces to Poverty: Female Ballet Dancers in 17th–18th Century France"

This project discusses the origins of ballet as a systematized industry. It primarily focuses on 17th and 18th century France, but the project also explores earlier time periods to contextualize ballet’s significance as a type of royal court dance and, later, royal concert dance. A labor history and women’s history lens is applied throughout. With the aid of current scholarship, special attention is given to how ballet dancers were portrayed in art and manuscripts at the time. Presented in a website form to make it more accessible to dancers interested in their own history, this project argues that during the 17th and 18th centuries, ballet declined as a royal-sponsored art form. French nobles sought entertainment in the opera houses miles away from Versailles. This prompted the rise of a labor force of impoverished young women and girls subject to the sexual and economic whims of their male managers and patrons.

Student Major(s): History

Advisor: Dr. Adrienne Petty

Session II

Elizabeth Adams, Joylyn Agbetiafa, Rin Braxton, Ragan Tankard, "The WMSURE: The Beginning Oral Histories Project"

The WMSURE: The Beginning Oral Histories Project examines the formative years of the William & Mary Scholars Undergraduate Research Experience (WMSURE). This is a program that was started to support students with gaining hands-on research experience, especially those from historically underrepresented and marginalized groups. Despite growing interests, there hasn't been detailed research done on how WMSURE has shaped scholars' academic trajectories and career paths. This ongoing project seeks to address this. By interviewing W&M alumni that were a part of WMSURE or adjacent to the program in its early year about their relationship with the program and how it has influenced and impacted them, the importance of WMSURE and similar initiatives will be highlighted and can be enhanced to make undergraduate research more equitable. 

Student Major(s)/Minor: Elizabeth: Psychology; Joylyn: Government; Rin: Africana Studies Major, Creative Writing Minor; Ragan: English

Advisor: Dr. Adrienne Petty

Will Larson, Jasper Lester, "Who Ran Away in Early America? Escaped Enslaved People and Runaway Servants in Eighteenth Century Newspapers"

This project investigates the question of how enslaved people engaged in freedom-making practices through legal, social, and physical means in early America. This project works with archival documents, both digital and physical, to track the actions related to enslaved people and servants who sought freedom. These documents include court records, laws and legislative proceedings, and newspapers containing runaway advertisements and capture notices. The findings have been used to create data sets with specific information regarding the enslaved people or servants mentioned in the advertisements or court records, as well as timelines and maps tracking laws and the number of enslaved people and servants who ran away from specific geographic locations. Through these findings, we have begun and will continue to discover which jurisdictions had harsher laws regarding runaways, and how that impacted the number of people who ran to and from said jurisdictions. These findings will help historians and all people visualize and analyze this data, while at the same time acknowledging each runaways’ individual journeys.

Student Major(s)/Minor: Will: History Major, Geospatial Analysis Minor; Jasper: Government

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Dressler

Maya Meehan-Ritter, "Vanquisher or Vanquished: Seth as a Metaphor for Warlike Kingship"

The Ancient Egyptian god Seth has been identified by many scholars as a demon, deceiver, and dastardly villain. He is a god of chaos, storms, and war at odds with Ma’at, or order and justice, by his very nature. Because of Seth’s negative aspects and his association with foreigners, he is often identified as a godly outcast representing Egyptian fear of dangerous outsiders. However, while Seth is an instigator of violence and killer of gods, he is also their protector–the demon who slays demons. This paper will investigate Seth’s role in 1) religious contexts, with an emphasis on funerary texts, and 2) political iconography and titulary over time, in order to present a new interpretation of Seth as a necessary aspect of Egyptian dual kingship, the warlike counterpart to Horus’ merciful justice—no longer classified as a foreign deity, but as the force keeping their darkness at bay in Egyptian eyes. 

Student Major(s)/Minor: History & Classics Major, Creative Writing Minor

Advisor: Dr. Jeremy Pope

Leah Perlman, "The Institution of Motherhood: How Maternal Biblical Figures Informed the Practices of Mothers in Medieval Western Europe"

Mothers, like all women, are often left out of the historical record. Recent feminist scholarship has made great strides in combating this limitation by analyzing sources in a new light, resulting in a wave of historical scholarship set out to better understand motherhood as an institution—one that is deeply interconnected with Christianity. This project will build upon previous research on the development of the ideologies of Christian motherhood to explore the extent of division between the expectations and realities of the medieval mother in Western Europe. It will aim to answer questions such as: Was the Virgin Mary an unrealistic and confusing role model? If so, did this lessen the medieval mother’s ability to relate to her? Did mothers teach their children to read? How did mothers inform the spiritual development of their children? To find answers to these questions, this project will critically analyze a mixture of primary and secondary sources, with a special focus on diaries, letters, coroners’ reports, items of material culture, and contemporary depictions of biblical maternal figures.

Student Major(s)/Minor: History Major, Mathematics Minor

Advisor: Dr. Lu Ann Homza

Jackson Rippon, "Unveiling Memories: How Europe Commemorates Its Jewish Ghettos From World War II"

During the Second World War, Nazi Germany and its allies forced millions of Jews across Europe into small ghettos in major cities, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. However, what remains after the war tells an entirely separate story of Holocaust remembrance across Europe. This project examines the differences between Eastern and Central European cities with respect to how they commemorate its Jewish ghettos (for example, with monuments, preserved architecture, museums, etc.). To do so, I traveled to 9 European cities (6 countries) over the span of two weeks, documenting my observations through voice recordings, photographs, and an interview and tour with a Warsaw Ghetto scholar. My findings indicate that the differences in political control between each city play significant roles in the initiatives taken to remember the Holocaust. Understanding these differences allows society to recognize the importance of Holocaust remembrance to prevent future atrocities from occurring. 

Student Major(s): International Relations, Global Studies - Hispanic Studies

Advisor: Dr. Irina Gorbunova-Ford

Anna Saal, "Faith, Health, and Justice: Exploring the Coevolution and Contemporary Effects of the Catholic Church, Liberation Theology, and Social Medicine on Argentina"

Latin America underwent significant social and economic change during the early to mid-20th century. In a time marked by rapid urbanization, public unrest, and poor public health, two distinct yet ideologically connected movements emerged: Latin American social medicine and liberation theology. The former developed particularly in Argentina through Peronist health policies and through figures such as Juan César García. Liberation theology reached Argentina the country later on through its well-established relationship with the Catholic Church. Both movements questioned structural injustices, emphasized the dignity of the poor, and supported community empowerment to advance their missions. Argentina’s history is one explicitly marked by the Catholic Church, liberation theology, and Latin American social medicine. This research project explores the evolution of these influences and how they shaped  contemporary Argentina, particularly in the areas of governance, healthcare, and religious identity.

Student Major(s): International Relations and Religious Studies

Advisor: Dr. Betsy Konefal