At the annual History Honors Symposium, the History Honors students gather with friends, family, and faculty advisors to commemorate a remarkable occasion: the completion of their theses. This year, we find ourselves online and socially distanced. We invite you to celebrate with us virtually on April 30, 2021, at 11:00 AM.
The History Honors Symposium is open to History Honors students, friends, family, and History faculty and staff. Please message elizabac@umich.edu for registration information.
Other History commencement links: 2021 History Undergraduate Commencement webpage, 2021 History PhD Ceremony webpage.
Symposium Program
Welcome and Congratulations
James W. Cook
History Department Chair
Professor of History and American Studies
Matthew Spooner
Honors Committee Chair
Assistant Professor of History
Thesis Presentations
Charlotte Abrams
Kicking up the Dust: How the Yom Kippur War Reshaped Israeli Nationalism
Advisor: Juan Cole
Katelyn Albrecht
Dissecting the Makhzen and Narrative Construction by the Moroccan Monarchy
Advisor: Joshua Cole
Basil Alsubee
From the Rebellion to the Naksa: Detroit’s “Third World” Coalition and the Politics of US Minority History-Telling
Advisor: Hakem Al-Rustom
Mikayla Bird
"Blessed are the Peacemakers": Radical Pacifism and the 1970 Flower City Conspiracy
Advisor: Stephen Berrey
Isabella Buzynski
Urban Spaces and Sacred Places: The Lived Religion of Polish Catholic Laity in Detroit, 1870-1939
Advisor: John Carson
Miranda Chambers
A Credulous Skeptic: Popular Medicine and Women's Medicine in Pliny the Elder's Natural Histories
Advisor: Ian Moyer
Haleigh Cotton
"She had cheated the father of his hopes": Abortion and Contraception in Ancient Greece and Rome
Advisor: Katherine French
Alexander Gavulic
Legacy: The Immigration Act of 1924 and Those Who Opposed Its Passage
Advisor: Ian Shin
Chase Glasser
For King and Country: Fighting the War on Terror in an Alien Environment
Advisor: Jonathan Marwil
Gabriela Glueck
Chernobyl and the German Democratic Republic: How the Structure of East German Environmentalism Came to Inform the Peaceful Protests
Advisor: Matthew Spooner
James Hutchins
Russian Tour Revisited: The University of Michigan’s Cold War Musical Diplomacy
Advisor: Kira Thurman
Izzie Kenhard
Boys Club: The Culture of Misogyny and Violence within the Detroit Police Department in the Post-Uprising Era
Advisor: Matthew Lassiter
Nisreen Khokhar
Gender, Power, and Memory: The Legacy of Yemen’s Little Queen of Sheba
Advisor: Kathryn Babayan
Silas Lee
The Old Men of the Lakes: How Great Lakes Ships and Sailors Transformed the Frontier
Advisor: Matthew Spooner
Maria LoCicero
Tale of the Taylors: An Exploration of Race and Family in the Atlantic World (~1760-1815)
Advisor: Matthew Spooner
Jillian Luciow
The Cass Corridor: The Harbinger of Detroit's Garage Rock Renaissance
Advisor: Howard Brick
Caroline Martin
The New Public Square: An Analysis of Historians' Activity on Twitter
Advisor: Ian Shin
Eliana Metni
Playing the Long Game—The Framework and Fortunes that Changed the Course of Campaign Finance Jurisprudence
Advisor: Gregory Dowd
Henry Newman
The Poor, The Profiteers, and the Precedent: The Rise of Slavery in 17th Century Virginia
Advisor: Gregory Dowd
Ananya Satyawadi
Kids Are Thugs: The Case of Youth Crime in Detroit During the War on Drugs
Advisor: Heather Ann Thompson
Julia Silverman
Painlessness in Childbirth: The Rise and Fall of Twilight Sleep in the United States
Advisor: Henry Cowles
Conor Smith
Dialectics of the Future: Historical Narrative and Political Imagination in Greece from the Axis Occupation to the Civil War
Advisor: Dario Gaggio
Rohit Soman
The Stories They Tell Themselves: Legal Narratives in the Supreme Court and Floyd v. New York about Stop-and-Frisk and Policing
Advisor: Emily Prifogle
Sofia Spencer
Blood and Parchment: Magic and Writing in Early Modern England
Advisor: Valerie Kivelson
Eric Wroldsen
Mercury and Mars: American Merchant Sentiment in the Buildup to and During the War of 1812
Advisor: David Hancock
Isabel Zuniga
De un pájaro las dos alas: Conversations with Cubans in Puerto Rico on Cuban Identity and Their Collective Narrative
Advisor: Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof
Announcement of Awards
Arthur Fondiler Award for Best Undergraduate Thesis
- Basil Alsubee (first)
- Gabriela Glueck (second)
John A. Williams History Award
- Isabella Buzynski
Stephen J. Tonsor History of Ideas Undergraduate Honors Award
- Mikayla Bird
- Conor Smith
Elizabeth Sargent Lee Medical History Prize
- Haleigh Cotton
James A. Knight Scholarships in History
- Izzie Kenhard
- Eliana Metni
Presented by Matthew Spooner
