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CLASS History 261: US History to the Civil War
TERM Winter 2015
DESCRIPTION This essay examines the role that Uncle Tom's Cabin played in allowing abolitionism to enter mainstream ideology in the antebellum era, and contrasts the novel's depiction of slavery to that of a lesser-known, pro-slavery novel, Aunt Phyllis' Cabin
Cabins of Bondage
The Khmer Rouge
DESCRIPTION This essay, one of the few I have written on a non-American topic, describes the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the 1975 and considers how the regime's impractical goals and destructive policies led to its decline from power shortly thereafter, in 1979
TERM Fall 2014
CLASS History 207: Southeast Asian Civilization
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My Love, The Past
Is history really inescapable? Does it really continue to haunt us, inform the decisions we make as we navigate the world? Well, when you're trying to get a degree in it, history sure does feel unavoidable.
My history coursework has demanded a great deal of writing on a wide variety of topics. But I shouldn't make this out as being some terrible burden I've been made to bear; learning about the past has allowed me to explore many places and times, to see what is wonderful and what is horrifying about humanity.
Below, I had included four term papers written in history courses I took during my sophomore and junior years. The pieces vary in quality—some are pretty astute, in my not so humble opinion, while others are... ok. I have ordered the papers beginning with the one I feel is the weakest and concluding with the one I feel is strongest, in hopes of evidencing my growth as a historical writer. Feel free to read them in order, or just pick one that sounds interesting to you—and make sure to check out the culmination of all my efforts as a young historian, my thesis.
A Place for Just a Few?
DESCRIPTION Running contrary to much of the existing scholarship on lesbian feminism, this essay considers the way in which music festivals transformed from the second to the third wave by becoming more exclusionary, particularly to both non-liberal and and transgender women
TERM Fall 2015
CLASS History 202: Doing History
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DESCRIPTION The piece that I re-purposed during the Gateway, this essay considers how female abolitionists used motherhood as a rhetorical strategy to enlist women to their cause, arguing that this was a means of extending the domestic sphere into public life
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Motherhood in the Liberty Bell
TERM Winter 2015
CLASS History 328: Gender History in the US