Completed Theses

Completed M.A. Theses

To complete their M.A. degree, History students are required to write and defend a final research paper (40-60 pages) under the direction of a faculty mentor. Students concentrating in medieval history develop a proposal and research paper through the proseminar/seminar sequence. Students concentrating in modern history develop (normally within their coursework) a research proposal in the fall semester; in the spring, they complete the project by taking a research tutorial with a faculty member in which they produce a research proposal and paper.

2025

The Acquisition and Reception of the True Cross of Scheyern:  An Analysis of Documentation, Material Culture, and Memorialization from the 12th Century to the Present
Daphna Bendull
Mentor:  Dr. Nicholas Paul

St. Tammany's Transit:  The Political Machine that Built the New York City Subway
Ethan Bernstein
Mentor:  Dr. Daniel Soyer

Toying with Childhood:  Toy Guns and the Socialization of Children in Nineteenth-Century America
Alexia Lodes
Mentor:  Dr. Claire Gherini

2024

The French Revolution and the Politics of Beauty:  Theresa Tallien and Charlotte Corday
Ruby Archbold
Mentor:  Dr. Thierry Rigogne

Comfort Women as Military Supplies: The Origins, Structure, and Management of Comfort Women System in the Japanese Military (1931-1945)
Anna Bartsch
Mentor: Dr. Grace Shen

Permanent Petition: Towards a Mesohistory of the Archives of the United Trusteeship and Non-Self-Governing Territory Arrangements
Anthony Coxeter
Mentor:  Dr. Christopher Dietrich

Byzantine Latinity and Planoudes' Ovidiana Graeca
Qianyi Fu
Mentor:  Dr. Scott Bruce

Hagiographical Portrayal and Political Participation in the Passiones of Late Merovingian Burgundy
Ryan Sheehan
Mentor:  Dr. Scott Bruce

Racial Segregation and Housing Discrimination on Long Island (c. 1920- c.1970)
Blake Walton
Mentor:  Dr. Daniel Soyer

2023

The New York, Westchester & Boston Railway 1912-1937: The construction and collapse of a Unique Railroad in Historical Context
Reece Brosco
Mentor: Dr. Mattie Armstrong-Price

The Creation of the Enemy: The Dawn of the Inter-American Cold War Anti-Ideologies in the 1940s 
Francisco Javier Calderon Abullarade
Mentor: Dr. Christopher Dietrich

The Irish-Scots: Across and In Between the Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland During the Nine Years' War 
Kalyn Diehl
Mentor: Dr. Christopher Maginn

Vision & Change: A Regional Study of Student Activism in the American Midwest 1960-1964
Ryan Fallon
Mentor: Dr. Kirsten Swinth

Medieval Sovereign Debt: England During the Reign of Edward I and Genoa
Sally Gordon
Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

Visual Representations of Aristocratic Women's Identity and Power: An Examination of Sigillographic Sources of the Latin East
Kelley Kornell
Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

Revolutionary Therapy: The New Left's Response to Heroine Addiction in 1970's New York City
Jack McKernan
Mentor: Dr. Kirsten Swinth

Public Housing and the New Deal: The Unintentional Consequences of the Public Work Administration and United States Housing Authority on New York City's Deserving Poor 
Kraig Puccia
Mentor: Dr. Christopher Dietrich

Was the Croix de Feu a Fascist Organization? Evidence from Colonial Algeria and Contemporary Perspectives from 1934-1936
Atticus Williams
Dr. Silvana Patriarca

2022

Titles to Offices: The Subversion of the Annaly and Genesis of County Longford
Colin Bonnell
Mentor: Dr. Christopher Maginn

The Nuyorican Poet: Puerto Ricans and Group Recognition in new Yor City, 1945–1982
Germaine Harbaugh
Mentor: Dr. Stephanie Huezo

Magical Testimonies: An Examination of Female Witnesses of Witchcraft Trails in the Mexican Inquisition
Kristen Sindet
Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Penry

"Life Under Glass": Biltmore, Sunlight and Reframing the Gilded Age
Christopher Talarico
Mentor: Dr. Grace Shen

2021

The Commentary on Ezekiel Found in the Fordham Collection: An Examination on New Jerusalem in Nicholas of Lyra's Commentary
Felicity Richards
Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

In the Arms of Islam: Social and Political Islamization of the Gaza Strip and Formation of Hamas, 1967–1987
Cierra Bakhsh
Mentor: Dr. Ebru Turan

"Sinn Fein Rising: Criminal Madness" versus "Ireland in Arms, Fighting for Freedom:" The Public Reaction to the Easter Rising in Ireland and America
John Hansen III
Mentor: Dr. Christopher Maginn

David Kearney, Archbidshop of Cashel: Problems and Responses to the Early Enactment of Tridentine Reform in Ireland, 1605–c. 1620
Alexander DeWitt
Mentor: Dr. Christopher Maginn

A Historiographic Understanding of Modern Political Culture in Spain
Patrick Rizzi
Mentor: Dr. Salvador Acosta

Before War in El Salvador: The Origins of Violence Pre-Civil War in Official and Unofficial Documentation, 1977–1980
Jared Brooks
Mentor: Dr. Stephanie Huezo

Contested Visions: Graphic Propraganda, Political Caricature and the Mexico City Student Movement of 1968
Nathan Niehaus
Mentor: Dr. Salvador Acosta

2020

Queens of the Night: Reinterpreting the Stonewall Riots
David Marchionni 
Mentor: Dr Kirsten Swinth       

 

  • 2019

    Combat Support in the Armies of Edward III, 1339-1360
    Ronald W. Braasch III
    Mentor: Dr Maryanne Kowaleski

    Marriage and the Sex Trade in the Outremer Legal Corpus.
    Sean W. Loritz
    Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

    Official Misdeeds: A Study of the Hundred Rolls and Local Administration in Medieval England
    Taylor Dickinson
    Mentor: Dr. Maryanne Kowaleski

    Suburb in the City: Negotiating Change on Staten Island, 1960-1990
    Emily Horihan
    Mentor: Dr. Daniel Soyer

    Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations in the British Empire During the Interwar Period: An Analysis of Their Activity and It's Effects on Empire
    Jeffery Leighton
    Mentor: Dr. David Hamlin

    Your vow will be the death of me: Crusader Culture in La Queste Del Saint Grall of the Old French Vulgate Cycle
    Aurora Pfefferkorn
    Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

    Manufacturing Polish Identity: Antisemitism in Upper Silesian Press in the Leadup to the 1921 Plebiscite
    Agata Sobczak
    Mentor: Dr. Magda Teter

    2018

    Veiled Agendas: The Crusade of Varna (1444) Rivalry Over the Balkans in the Fifteenth Century
    Sajia Hanif
    Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

    Proxy-Wars of Religion: Neo-Conservative Christianity and U.S. Foreign Policy in Central America
    William Hogue
    Mentor: Dr. Sal Acosta

    Envisioning Suffrage: The Visual Culture of the New York State Suffrage Campaign, 1910-1917
    Jordyn May
    Mentor: Dr. Kirsten Swinth

    Such a Splendor of Brightness: The Establishment of Ringsted in Liturgical Texts as the Site of Knud Lavard's Cult
    Martin Nelson
    Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

    2017

    In the Eyes of My Father: Germany, Armenia, and the Morgenthau Plan
    Scott Brevda
    Mentor: Dr. Ed Bristow

    Sir Thomas Boyleyn: A Man Of Power In His Own Right
    Amanda Haney
    Mentor: Dr. Christopher Maginn

    Fullness of Power: The Ecclesiology of Innocent III and Papal Relations with the Armenian Church and State
    Andrew Kayaian
    Mentor: Dr. Ebru Turan

    The Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council, the Glossators, the Liber Extra and Their Reception in the Schools of Canon Law
    Michael Lipari
    Mentor: Dr. Wolfgang Mueller

    The Armed Forces Disapprove Strongly of this Sort of Thing: Japanese Skulls and Teeth Mentioned in American Newspapers, 1884-2012
    Jason McDonald
    Mentor: Dr. Kirsten Swinth

    The Stage at Acre: The Players and Their Roles During the Siege
    Joseph McKenna
    Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

    Crime and Punishment: Hanjian Trials After The Second Sino-Japanese War
    Patrick Nolan
    Mentor: Dr. Grace Shen

    The Evolution of the Third Republic and its Army: French Military Reforms and Society, 1871 - 1914
    Thomas Schellhammer
    Mentor: Dr. Rosemary Wakeman

    2016

    Pursue One Great Decisive Aim with Force and Determination: Prussian and Russian State, Economic and Military Reform, 1806-1815
    Robert Effinger
    Mentor: Dr. David Hamlin

    Swamp or Climax Region? Congressional Perceptions of the Everglades, 1847-1989
    Grace Healy
    Mentor: Dr. Steven Stoll

    Alice of Schaerbeek: Leprosy, Sainthood, and the Use of Cistercian Inner-Outer Rhetoric in Her Vita
    Nicole Scotto
    Mentor: Dr. Alex Novikoff

    Cantors on Trial: The Jazz Singer and It’s Responses, 1927 - 1937
    Nicole Siegel
    Mentor: Dr. Daniel Soyer

    The Functionality of Fictionality: Matthew Paris and the Chronica Majora
    Tatum Tullis
    Mentor: Dr. Alex Novikoff

    2015

    Continuity Between the Tudor Queens: An Investigation of the Transition From Mary I’s Reign to Elizabeth I’s Reign
    Kimball Fontein
    Mentor: Dr. Christopher Maginn

    When St. Ignatius Met St. Joseph in St. Louis: The Story of the Jesuit Fight for Labor Justice in St. Louis, Missouri, 1891 - 1962
    Homan Kenneth, SJ
    Mentor: Dr. Mark Naison

    How to Make an American: Vocational Education, Immigration and the New York City Public School System, 1901 - 1925
    Nicholas LaRock
    Mentor: Dr. Daniel Soyer

    Torture in Early America
    Michael Mazullo
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    Vanishing in Plain Sight: Scot-Irsih Presbyterians in Wisconsin, 1830-1890
    Hannah Shepard
    Mentor: Dr. Nancy Curtin

    Exempt From Class: The Evaluation of Labor and Antitrust Law in Sports and their Impact on College Athletics
    Sai Srikanth
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    Audacious Villains: Crowd Actions in Colonial New Jersey, 1745 - 1752
    Anthony Urmey
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    2014

    The Development of Castle Renderability During the Champagne Succession War of 1216-1222: Crisis, Innovation, and the use of Force as a Political Instrument
    Rudy Hartmann
    Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Paul

    Julius Rockwell and the Massachusetts Gubernatorial Election of 1855
    Eoin Higgins
    Mentor: Dr. Paul Cimbala

    Failure to Compromise: Slavery and the Delegates of the Federal Convention of 1787
    Erik Johnson
    Mentor: Dr. Elaine Crane

    A Bad Time to be a Poor King: James, Charles and the Changing Character of Stuart Britain and the 17th CEntury Crisis of Militant Theocracy
    Tyler Lancaster
    Mentor: Dr. Christopher Maginn

    Emerging from the Sub-Cellar: John D. Rockafeller, Standard Oil and the Rise of Corporate Public Relations In Progressive America, 1902 - 1908
    Stephen Leccese
    Mentor: Dr. Christopher Dietrich

    The European Alternative: Oswald Mosely, Fascism, and European Unity
    Daniel Mallia
    Mentor: Dr. Silvana Patriarca

    Carter and the Iranian Revolution: Containment, Commitment and Collapse
    James Smith
    Mentor: Dr. Steven Stoll

    William of Rubruck: A Debate on Christendom, an Examination of Emerging Western Identity
    Thomas Valerio
    Mentor: Dr. Richard Gyug

    Giving Horses Their Sea Legs: The Naval Transportation of Horses in Medieval England
    Ruth Whaley
    Mentor: Dr. Maryanne Kowaleski

    2013

    Depictions of Violence in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
    Theodore German
    Mentor: Dr. Wolfgang Mueller

    IBM and the Westchester Landscape
    James Passarelli
    Mentor: Dr. Roger Panetta

    De Mortuis: Two Sermons on Death and Mourning by Jacques de Vitry
    Rachel Welch
    Mentor: Dr. Richard Gyug

    2012

    Japanese American Resistance During Internment in the Santa Anita Assembly Center
    Noel Cilker
    Mentor: Dr. Elaine Crane

    Something Like Understand: Lucy Maynard Salmon’s Radical Quest for Truth
    Miranda Hernandez
    Mentor: Dr. Elaine Crane

    Boy Scouts on Patrol: From Supporting to Challenging Britain’s Conservative Modernity
    Christine Malovrh
    Mentor: Dr. Silvana Patriarca

    New York African American Housing After World War II
    Alexander Maltezos
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    Abigail Adams: The Last Will
    Efrat Nimrod
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    Southern Violence and the Destruction of the Ku Klux Klan: Limestone County, Alabama, 1830-1871
    Patrick O’Neill
    Mentor: Dr. Steven Stoll

    Burning to Get to the Suburbs: Landlord Disinvestment, Abandonment, and Arson in the South Bronx
    Megan Roby
    Mentor: Dr. Elaine Crane

    Italian Criminality in Art and Media 1888 - 1932
    Diane Russo
    Mentor: Dr. Elaine Crane

    California and the Human Betterment Foundation: History Rewritten
    Aliza Schulman
    Mentor: Dr. Elaine Crane

    Willie Horton and the 1988 Presidential Campaign: A Tale of Two Narratives
    Jose Soba
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    An ‘Italian and White’ Victory: Italy’s National Insecurity and Its Consequences in the Great War
    Jeremy Soister
    Mentor: Dr. Silvana Patriarca

    Nativism, Nebraska, and Monopoly in New Jersey's 1854 Election
    Joseph Ventre
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    Hastings on Hudson The A typical Suburb Redefining Suburban Development and the Effect of Industry on 20th Century Suburbanization
    Frederick Wertz
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    2011

    Radio Waves: Father Coughlin and the Catholic Church
    Cecile Koehler
    Mentor: Dr. Doron Ben-Atar

    Gambling on Freedom: How Denmark Vesey went from Lottery Winner to Rebel Leader
    Jennifer Owens
    Mentor: Dr. Steven Stoll

    The Account Book of Ann Berier: A Window into the LIfe of Woman of the Early Republic
    Natalie Serkowski
    Mentor: Dr. Elaine Crane

    The Mariel Boatlift
    Marelys Sosa
    Mentor: Dr. Steven Stoll

    Past in Present: Walt Disney and the Animated Heroes of American Folklore
    Lauren Rusak
    Mentor: Dr. Barry Goldberg

    2010

    The Religious Concerns of a Lay Professional: Charity and Social Bonds in the Sermons of Albertanus of Brescia
    Carol Anderson
    Mentor: Dr. Richard Gyug

    The Use of Episcopal Residences in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296 - 1450
    Giancarlo Annese
    Mentor: Dr. Maryanne Kowaleski

    Continuity and Change: Trends in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century French Leprosaria Statutes
    Lee Bowden
    Mentor: Dr. Richard Gyug

    Rockefeller, Moses and the Limits of Power: The Story of the Rye-Oyster
    John Castaldo
    Mentor: Dr. Daniel Soyer

    Medieval Continental Penitential Literature to 829 CE: its Irish origins in citation, form and concept
    Justin Colvin
    Mentor: Dr. Richard Gyug

    The Caution of History: John F. Kennedy, the Test Ban, the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime: The Re-evaluation of Origins
    Brandon Gauthier
    Mentor: Dr. Daniel Soyer

    Hagiography and Authority in Cyprus: The Life of Demetrianos, Bishop of Chytri
    Jennifer Jamer
    Mentor: Dr. Richard Gyug

    Climbing Towards Harlem: Race, Power, Policing and Political Modernism in Progressive Era New York
    Jeff Johnston-Keisling
    Mentor: Dr. Barry Goldberg

    Joyce Junior: From Revolutionary America Through the Early Republic and into the Blogosphere
    Andrew Kordik
    Mentor: Dr. Steven Stoll

    The Future of our Roots: the Case of the Indigenous in a Globalized World
    Silvia Patalano
    Mentor: Dr. Steven Stoll

    Arguing the End: An Analysis of the Use of Propaganda Within Texts Related to Continental Apocalyptic Expectations in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries
    Bailey Poletti
    Mentor: Dr. Richard Gyug

    The Will of the Fuhrer: Motivation and Conscience in Einstzgruppe D
    Conor Schratz
    Mentor: Dr. David Hamlin

    Permeating Feminism: The Development of the Woman Question within the Fabian Society, 1884 - 1914
    Bridget Sweeney
    Mentor: Dr. David Hamlin

    Revolt of the Youth: How the Memory of Democratic Dialogue Legitimzed Dissent Against the Francoist Regime
    Louie D. Valencia
    Mentor: Dr. David Hamlin

    Portrait of a Drug: Representations of Crack in the New York Times, 1985 - 1995
    Noel Wolfe
    Mentor: Dr Doron Ben-Atar

    Resistance to Regulation, Commerce and Labor in the Political Philosophy of Edmund Burke
    Jonathan Woods
    Mentor: Dr. Nancy Curtin