Dissertations

2015

• Joseph Cialdella, Landscape of Ruin and Repair: Cultural and Environmental Change in Detroit, 1880 - 2010
• Sarah Gothie, (Her)itage: Interpretation, Literary Tourism, and the Popular Legacies of Louisa May Alcott, L.M. Montgomery, and Beatrix Potter
• David Green, "Out of This Confusion I Bring My Heart": Love, Liberation, and The Rise of Black Lesbian and Gay Cultural Politics in Late 20th Century America
• Frank Kelderman, Authorized Agents:  The Projects of Native American Writing in the Removal Era
• Natalie Lira, Of Low Grade Mexican Parentage: Race, Gender, and Eugenic Sterilization in California, 1928-1950
• Mejdulene Shomali, Moving Femininities: Queer Critique and Transnational Arab Culture.
• Jesse Carr,  States of Exceptionalism:  Race, Violence, and Governance
• Erik Morales, Machismo(s): A Cultural History, 1928-1984
• Rabia Belt, Disabling Democracy in America:  Disability, Citizenship, Suffrage, and the Law, 1830-1920 

2014

• Matthew Blanton Beyond the Playing Field: The Rise of College Football and the Educated Elite in the Progressive Era United States
• Annah MacKenzie The Architecture of Longing: Objects, Fantasy, and the Poetics of Home in Twentieth Century American Literature and Culture
• Wendy Michael Labor on Display: Ford Factory Tours and the Romance of Globalized Deindustrialization
• Hannah Noel Fear and Threat in Illegal America: Latinas/os, Immigration, and Progressive Representation in Colorblind Times
• Kiri Sailiata The Samoan Cause: Colonialism, Culture and the Rule of Law

2013

• Paul Farber Boundaries of Freedom: An American History of the Berlin Wall
• Isabel Millan (Play)Grounds for Dismissal: Ninas Raras in Transborder Children's Cultural Studies
• Alex Olson The People's Classroom: American Modernism and the Struggle for Democratic Education, 1860-1940
• Veronica Pasfield The Head, the Heart, and the Hands: Hampton, Carlisle, and Hilo in/as Circuits of Transpacific Empire, 1819-1887?
• Aimee VonBokel The Inevitable and the Invisible: Stories of Race and Class in Two New York Museums
• Alyssa Chen Walker Animal Print: The Literary Production of Humane American
• Stephen Wisniewski You Can't Make Palm Beach Out of the Bowery: Neoliberalsim and the Cultural Politics of Rust Belt Urban Revitalization

2012

• Christina Abreu Authentic Assertions, Commercial Concessions: Race, Nation, and Popular Culture in Cuban New York City and Miami 1940–1960
• Chris Finley Decolonizing Sexualized Cultural Images: Bringing "Sexy Back" to Native Studies
• Tayana Hardin Rituals of Return in African American Women's Twentieth Century Literature and Performance
• Sharon Lee The (Geo) Politics of Beauty: Race, Transnatinalism, and Neoliberalism in South Korean Beauty Culture
• Rachel Quinn Dominican Women's Transnational Identitied in Santo Domingo
• Lani Teves We're All Hawaiians Now: Kanaka Maoli Performance and the Politics of Aloha
• Lee Ann Wang Ethnographies of Legal Inclusion: Protection, Punishment and Legal Fictions of Asian Immigrant Women

2011

• Brian Chung Exceptional Visions: Chineseness, Citizenship, and the Architectures of Community in Silicon Valley
• Margot Finn Aspirational Eating: Class Anxiety and The Rise of Food in Popular Culture
• Charles Gentry The Othello Effect: The Performance of Black Masculinity in Mid-Century Cinema
• Laura Hymson The Company that Taught the World to Sing: Coca-Cola, Globalization, and the Cultural Politics of Branding in the Twentieth Century
• Lisa Suhair Majaj Transformative Acts: Arab American Writing/Writing Arab America
• Luis Vazquez Go and Make Disciples: Evangelization, Conversion Narratives and Salvation in Puerto Rican Protestant Evangelical Salsa Music
• Kelly Sisson Lessens Master of Millions: King Corn in American Culture
• Kiara Vigil Stories in Red and Write: Indian Intellectuals and the American Imagination, 1880–1930

2010

• Jason Chang Liberal Imperialism: The Rise and Fall of Liberal Internationalism in US China Relations and the Origins of the Cold War, 1898–1945
• Tyler Cornelius A River Imaginary: Nature and Narrative in the Columbia River Gorge
• Sarah Gould Toys Make a Nation: A History of Ethnic Toys in America
• Afia Ofori-Mensa Beauty, Bodies, and Boundaries: Pageants, Race, and U.S. National Identity
• Matthew Stiffler Authentic Arabs, Authentic Christians: Antiochian Orthodox and the Mobilization of Cultural Identity
• Shanesha Brooks Tatum Poetics with a Promise: Performance of Faith and Gender in Christian Hip-Hop
• Wilson Valentin Bodega Surrealism: The Emergence of Latin@ Artivists in New York City 1976–Present

2009

• Maritza Cardenas “Third Word Subjects: The Politics and Production of Central American-American Culture.”
• Sam Erman “US Citizenship and Puerto Rico: Struggles around Status in the Imperial United States, 1898–1917.”
• Sally Howell “Inventing the American Mosque: Early Muslims and Their Institutions in Detroit, 1910–1980.”
• Dean Saranillio “Seeing Conquest: Colliding Histories and the Cultural Politics of Hawai`i Statehood.”
• Ryan Snyder “Spectra of Singularity: Episodes of Improvisational Lyricism from Hiphop to Pragmatism.”
• Matthew Wittmann “Empire of Culture: U.S. Entertainers and the Making of the Pacific Circuit, 1850–1890.”

2008

• Jan Bernabe “Improbable Visions: Filipino Bodies, U.S. Empire and the Visual Archives.”
• Lloyd Buss “Religion and Culture: Detroit’s Open Housing Movement.”
• Lorgia Garcia Pena “Dominicanidad in Contra (Diction): Marginality, Migration, and the Narration of a Dominican National Identity.”
• David Julyk “The Trouble With Machines Is People. The Computer as Icon in Post-War American 1946–1970.”
• Justine Pas “Finding Home in Babel: Transnationalism, Translation, and Languages of Identity.
• Rachel Peterson “Adapting Left Culture to the Cold War: Theodore Ward, Ann Petry and Correspondence.”
• Deidre Wheaton “Seeking Salvation: Black Messiahs, Racial Formation, and Christian Thought in Late 20^th Century Black Cultural Texts.”

2007

• Robert Hill 'As a man, I exist: as a woman—I live': Heterosexual Transvestism and the Contours of Gender and Sexuality in Postwar America.
• Kathy Jurado Alienated Citizens: "Hispanophobia" and the Mexican Im/migrant Body
• Shawn Kimmel "Freedom’s Police: The Constitution of the Liberal Police State in the Early Republic’s Theater of Civil Society."
• Anne Kustritz "Productive (Cyber) Public Space: Slash Fan Fiction’s Multiple Imaginary."
• Anastasia Pratt "Home: A 20^th Century American Construction."
• Ellen Scott "Race and the Struggle for Cinematic Meaning: Film Production, Censorship, and African American Reception, 1940–1960."

2006

• Dolores Ines Casillas: "Sounds of Belonging: A Cultural History of Spanish-language Radio in the United States, 1922–2004."
• Lisa Harris: "In Vitro Fertilization in the United States: A Clinical and Cultural History."
• Robin Li: "Being Good Chinese": Chinese Scholarly Elites and Immigration in Mid-Century America.
• Michele Morales "Persistent Pathologies: The Odd Coupling of Alcoholism and Homosexuality in the Discourses of Twentieth Century Science."
• Tracie Rubeck: "Racial Harmony Through Clenched Teeth: Remembering the Civil Rights Movement in Newsweek & the CBS Evening News, 1990–99."
• Carla Vecchiola: "Detroit's Rhythmic Resistance: Electronic Music and Community."

2005

• Paul Ching: “Work in the New Economy: Internet Business and a Revolutionary Status Quo, 1995–2000.”
• Catherine Daligga: “Claiming Legitimacy for Female Expertise in Motherhood: The Women of the Merrill-Palmer School in Detroit, 1918–1930.”
• Maria Teresa Pool: “Behind the Chair: The Experience and Meaning of Work in the Lives of Hairdressers.”
• Katrina Mann: "Ambassadors of Good Will:" American Race Relation s and Global Geopolitcs in Postwar Racial Problem Films.
• Jennifer Moon: "Cruising and Queer Counterpublics: Theories and Fictions."
• Shani Mott: “Masquerade Narratives: Writing Blackness and Imagining Democracy in American Literature, 1930–1955.”
• Nicholas Syrett: “The Company He Keeps: White College Fraternities, Masculinity, and Power, 1825–1975.”
• Jess Rigelhaupt: “Education for Action” The California Labor School, Radical Unionism, Civil Rights, and Progressive Coalition Building in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1934–1970
• Grace Wang: “Soundtracks of Asian American Identity: Music, Race, and National Belonging.”
• Shawan Worsley: “Cultural Misbehavior: Identity Politics and Contemporary Black Popular Culture.”

2004

• Libby Garland: "Through Closed Gates: Jew and Illegal Immigration to the United States.”
• Nhi Lieu: “Private Desires on Public Display: Vietnamese American Identities in Entertainment."
• Merida Rua: "Claims to “The City”: Puerto Rican Latinidad amid Labors of Identity, Community, and Belonging in Chicago.”
• Jennifer Tilton: "Dangerous and Endangered Children: Representations of Youth and Political struggles to Shape the State and City.”
• Cynthia Wu: “The Mystery of Their Union”: Cross-Cultural Legacies of the Original Siamese Twins”

2003

• Colin Johnson: “Columbia’s Orient: Gender, Geography Orient: Gender, Geography in Rural America.”
• Patricia Kim: "Watching from the Other Side: Latin American Telenovelas and Latina Audiences."
• Charlotte Pagni: "Hollywood Does Kinsey: Cinema, Sexology, and Cultural Regulations, 1948–1968."
• Rebecca Poyourow: "From Working Girl to Adolescent: The Detroit YWCA and the Transformation of Sociability Among Working-Class Young Women, 1900–1930."
• Alejandra Marchevsky: “Flexible Labor, Inflexible Citizenship: Latina Immigrants and the Politics of Welfare Reform.”
• Pablo Ramirez: “Borderlands Ethics: Visions of Incorporation in Chicana/o Fiction.”
• Angela Winand:"Weighed Upon a Scale: African American Women, Class and Consumer Culture."

2002

• Estevan Rael Galvez: "Identifying and Capturing Identity: Narratives of American Indian Servitude, Colorado and New Mexico, 1750–1930."
• Anna Pegler-Gordon:"In Sight of America: Photography and U.S. Immigration Policy, 1880–1930."
• Alex Textor: "American Marriage in Modernity: Cultural Reproduction, Relationality, and Dissidence."

2001

• Anthony Macias: "From Pachuco Boogie to Latin Jazz"
• Daryl Maeda: "Forging Asian American Identity"
• Kate Masur: "Reconstructing the Nation's Capital"
• Jonathan Metzel: "The Freud of Prozac"
• L. Ariella Zeller: "Jewish Women Remembering their Bodies"

2000

• Leslie Paris: "Children's Nature: Summer Camps in New York State, 1919–1941"
• Rapeepanchanok Thongthiraj: "'To Be or Not To Be...Is the Question?' Race and Identity Transformations in Asian American Literature"
• Martha Umphrey: "Dementia America"

1999

• Joseph Moreau:"Schoolbook Nation"

1998

• Christine Bass: "'It was more like home than a Hospital': Women's Experiences as Patients at Peterson Hospital, Ann Arbor Michigan, 1902–1933"
• Elizabeth Brent: "Domestic Horrors: Family Values and the Intruder"
• Michael Epstein: Detectives, Therapists, Fathers, and Hired Guns: A Cross-Examination of Lawyer Images on American Television"
• Wallace Genser: "'A Rigid Government Over Ourselves': Transformations in Ethnic, Gender, and Race Consciousness on the Northern Borderlands-Michigan, 1805–1930"
• Karen Majewski: "Traitors and True Poles: Narrating a Polish-American Identity, 1865–1880"
• Joseph Moreau: "Schoolbook Nation Imagining the American Red Blooded Americans: Mulattoes and the Melting Pot in U.S. Racialist and Nationalist Discourse, 1890–1930"

1997

• Heidi Ardizzone: "Red Blooded Americans: Mulattoes and the Melting Pot in U.S. Racialist and Nationalist Discourse, 1890–1930."
• Reshela DuPuis: "Documenting Community: Activist Videography in Hawai'i."
• Duane Niatum: "Shamanism, Sacred Narratives, The Sea, and the Cedar in the Art of John Hoover, Aleut Sculptor."
• Eric Porter: "Out of the Blue: The Challenge of Black Creative Music, 1940–1995."
• Mark Rogers: "Beyond Bang! Pow! Zap!: Genre and the Evolution of the American Comic Industry"

1996

• Marsha Ackermann: "Cold Comfort: The Air Conditioning of America"
• Shi-Qui Cui: "Gender and Representation in Chinese New Cinema: A Cross-Cultural Analysis."
• Mary McGuire: "Disciplining the State: Organized Civil Servants, State Formation and Citizenship in the United States and Germany, 1880–1925."
• James Pringle Morris-Knower: "No Place Like Home: Discourses of Adolescent Identity and the Politics of Space in Contemporary American Coming of Age Narratives."
• Susanne Shavelson: "From Amerike to America: Language and Identity in the Yiddish and English Autobiography of Jewish Immigrant Women."
• Jeanne Theoharis: "This is Not a Human Interest Story: Black Teenagers, Urban Schools, Writing and the Politics of Representation."
• Joseph D. Won: "Yellowface Minstrelsy: Asian Martial Arts and the American Popular Imaginary."

1995

• Angela Dillard: "From the Reverend Charles A. Hill to the Reverend Albert B. Cleage, Jr.,: Change and Continuity in the Patterns of Civil Rights Mobilizations in Detroit, 1935–1967."
• Tom Fujita Rony: "'They Did Me A Great Wrong': History and Meanings of the Japanese American Exclusion and Incarceration."
• Michael W. Kline: " The Politics of Knowledge in a 'Post-Industrial' City: Intellectual Work and Political Struggle in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1945–1992."
• William Frank Mitchell: "Jungle Fever and Other Ethno-Racial Myths: Generation, Cultural Production and the Maintenance of Ethnicity."
• Richard Nation: "Home in the Hoosier Hills: Agriculture, Politics, and Religion in Southern Indiana, 1810–1870."

1994

• Corey Dolgon: "Innovators and Gravediggers: Capital Restructuring and Class Formation in Ann Arbor, Michigan."
• Kristin Hass: "The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and American Memory: Remaking the Nation with Purple Hearts and Fishing Lures." (1994)
• Michelle Johnson: "Juju Leaves in the Center of a Whirlwind: African American Nature/Culture Mediation." (1994)
• Timothy Shuker-Haines: "Home is the Hunter: Representations of Returning World War II Veterans and the Reconstruction of Masculinity, 1944–1951." (1994)

1993

• Patrick LeBeau: "The Codical Warrior: The Codification of American Indian Warrior Experience in American Culture."
• David Mitchell: "Conjured Communities: The Multiperspectival Novels of Amy Tan, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Julia Alvarez and Cristina Garcia."

1992

• Margarita De la Vega Hurtado: "A Foreigner's Gaze: The American Films of Louis Malle."
• Jane Holzka: "The Limits of Dissent: Liberal State Building and Political Repression in New York, 1917–1929."
• Peggy A. Kusnerz: "Picturing the Past: Photographs at the Library of Congress, 1865–1950."
• Barbara Scott Winkler: "A Comparative History of Four Women's Studies Programs, 1970–1985."
• Laura Wendorff: "Race, Ethnicity, and the Voice of the 'Poetess' in the Lives and Works of Four Late-Nineteenth-Century American Women Poets: Frances E.W. Harper, Emma Lazarus, Louise Guiney, and Ella Wheeler Wilcox."

1991

• Brian Lloyd: "A Miserable Fit of the Blues: Pragmatism, Exceptionalism, and the Failure of American Marxism, 1900–1922."
• Catharine O'Connell: "Chastening the Rod: Sentimental Strategies in Three Antebellum Women's Novels."
• Stacy L. Spencer: "The Geography of Gender: Women Writers and the Literary Journey, 1820–1860."

1990

• Paul Bernard: "The Making of the Marginal Mind: Academic Economic Thought in the United States, 1860–1910."
• Neil F. Foley: "The New South in the Southwest: Anglos, Blacks, and Mexicans in Central Texas, 1880–1930."
• Shannon Richards-Slaughter: "The Blossoms of Jazz: A Fictive Treatment of Black Female Entertainers of the 1930s and 1940s."
• William Shea: "The Role and Function of Technology in American Popular Music: 1945–1964."
• E. Jeffrey Vaughn: "America's Pop Collector: Robert C. Scull—Contemporary Art at Auction."
• Wayne Wilke: "Changing Understanding of the Church-State Relationship: The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, 1914–1969."

1980s

• Joanne Bock: "Ethnic Vision: A Romanian-American Inheritance." (1986)
• Ruth Bradley: "The Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1963–1982: A History Illustrating the Genres of American Avant-Garde Cinema." (1985)
• Howard Brick: "The Crisis of Evolutionary Socialism: Daniel Bell and the Rise of Modernist Sociology." (1983)
• Martin Burke: "The Conundrum of Class: Public Discourse on the Social Order in America." (1987)
• John R. Chavez: "The Lost Land: The Chicano Image of the Southwest." (1980)
• Amy Cherry: "Crowded Lives: A Bakhtinian Analysis of the Novels of Hurston, Arnow, Morrison, and Kingston." (1986)
• Jeffrey P. Chown: "The Auteur in Hollywood: Francis Ford Coppola." (1982)
• Nancy R. Davison: "E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era." (1980)
• Earleen DeLaPerriere: "Afro-American Indirection: Issues in the Signifyin' Monkey and the Art of Coping." (1987)
• Thomas F. Flynn: "John Dos Passos: Fixed Moral Principles in a Changing World." (1982)
• Howard A. Good: "Acquainted with the Night: The Journalist in American Fiction, 1890–1930." (1984)
• Rosemary Gooden: "The Language of Devotion: Gospel Affection and Gospel Union in the Writings of Shaker Sisters." (1987)
• Michael J. Graham: "Lord Baltimore's Pious Enterprise: Toleration and Community in Colonial Maryland, 1634–1724." (1983)
• Nancy J. Groce: "Musical Instrument Making in New York City during the 18th and 19th Centuries." (1982)
• Paul Harris: "The Missionary Experience: Self-Denial and Social Change in the Autobiographical Writings of American Protestants." (1985)
• LeRoy Harvey: "Days of Confidence: The Early Life of Henry Seidel Canby." (1984)
• Wen-ching Ho: "Miscegenation in William Faulkner: A Synecdoche for Slavery/Caste System." (1989)
• Gloria House: "Tower and Dungeon: A Study in American Spatial Politics." (1986)
• Elizabeth Jameson: "High-Grade and Fissures: A Working-Class History of the Cripple Creek, Colorado, Gold Mining District, 1890–1905." (1987)
• John M. Jordan: "Technic and Ideology: The Engineering Ideal and American Political Culture, 1892–1934." (1989)
• Jeremy Kilar: "The Lumbertowns: A Socioeconomic History of Michigan's Leading Lumber Centers—Saginaw, Bay City, and Muskegon, 1870–1905." (1987)
• Zaneta Kosiba-Vargas: "Harry Gamboa and ASCO: The Emergence and Development of a Chicano Art Group, 1971–1987." (1988)
• Rosemary A. Kowalski: "A Vision of One's Own: Four Women Film Directors." (1980)
• Helen F. Levy: "No Hiding Place on Earth: The Female Self in Eight Modern American Women Authors." (1982)
• Robbie Lieberman: "'My Song Is My Weapon': People's Songs and the Politics of Culture, 1946–49." (1985)
• Harry Luton: "Wainwright, Alaska: The Making of Inupiaq Cultural Community in a Time of Change." (1986)
• Lisa MacFarlane: "The Mild Apocalypse: Domestic Millennialism in the Novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe." (1987)
• Patricia J. McAskin: 'These Trifling Matters' — Letters of Mary Craig Cumming, 1811–1815." (1988)
• Richard A. Meckel: "The Awful Responsibility of Motherhood: American Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant and Child Mortality before 1913." (1980)
• G. Steve Moore: "Modes of Black Discourse in the Narrative and Structure of James Baldwin's Fiction." (1989)
• Marilyn F. Motz: "The True Sisterhood: Networks of Female Kin in Nineteenth-Century Michigan Families." (1981)
• Pauline Norton: "March Music in Nineteenth-Century America." (1983)
• Barney Pace: "An Experimental Novel About the Columbian Exposition of 1895: The Fame and Fortune of Jimmie Dawson." (1982)
• David Papke: "Framing the Criminal: Crime, Cultural Work and the Loss of Critical Perspective, 1830–1900." (1985)
• Mark A. Pittenger: "Science and the New Social Order: American Socialists and Evolutionary Thought, 1870–1918." (1984)
• Paula Rabinowitz: "Female Subjectivity in Women's Revolutionary Novels of the 1930's." (1986)
• John Reiff: "Human Dignity under Attack: The Political and Military Socialization of Vietnam Veterans." (1982)
• Jane E. Schultz: "Women at the Front: Gender and Genre in Literature of the American Civil War." (1988)
• Mary C. Sies: "American Country House Architecture in Context: The Suburban Ideal of Living in the East and Midwest, 1877–1917." (1987)
• Marcia Swenson-Davis: "From Sex Queen to Cultural Symbol: An Interpretation of the Image of 'Marilyn Monroe'." (1980)
• Satoko Tachiki: "Okakura Kakuzo (1862–1913) and Boston Brahmins." (1986)
• Lillian Trettin: "Traprock Workers: The Culture of Work and Risk at an Underground Copper Mine, 1900–1945." (1987)
• Jonathan Tyman: "Film in Science, Education, Propaganda: Examples of Its Use in America, 1940–1950." (1988)
• George Vargas: "Contemporary Latino Art in Michigan, the Midwest, and the Southwest." (1988)
• Zaragosa Vargas: "Mexican Auto Workers at Ford Motor Company, 1918–1933." (1984)