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.

2023

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

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