Author Archives: Hist & Lit

Tell us about your thesis!  My thesis, “Narrative Activism: Interrogating, Subverting, and Reclaiming Stories of U.S. Migrant Detention,” is about the different narratives of U.S. migrants and migrant detention that are propagated by our everyday media and literary forms. The thesis explores how “narrative activism” can be employed to change the way in which migrantsContinue reading “Jeannie Regidor ’20”

The year 2020 marks 100 years since the passage of the 19th Amendment, which extended women’s suffrage across the country. My thesis, “‘Organize, Agitate, Educate’: Making Political Meaning of the American Women’s Suffrage Centennial,” explores the politicization of this anniversary. Curators, historians, government officials, and activists have dedicated a ton of time and resources toContinue reading “Una Corbett ’20”

Tell us about your thesis! My thesis, “‘One of the Laborers’: Girlhood, Work, and Media in the United States 1840-1860,” considers the intersection of idealized girlhood and popular print media in the mid-nineteenth. It draws upon existing scholarship on the history of American childhood by Steven Mintz and Renee Sentilles to consider the common conceptionsContinue reading “Sam Heavner ’20”

Tell us about your thesis!I wrote about the feminist campaign against men-only bars and restaurants in the late 60s and early 70s across America. Sex segregation at these establishments was surprisingly common — in 1970, 25% of liquor licenses in Boston belonged to bars that did not serve women. This fight, however, has often beenContinue reading “Kaylee Kim ’20”

I came to my thesis topic in a slightly unorthodox manner — I was absolutely certain of my subject in May of junior year, and spent the summer reading primary sources to prepare. The day after I submitted my proposal to Hist & Lit, however, I realized I was no longer inspired by any ofContinue reading “Jamie Halper ’20”

Tell us about your thesis! My thesis is primarily about a woman named Jean Wade Rindlaub who was an important figure in the advertising industry from the thirties through the sixties, but is rarely ever discussed in the literature on the industry or histories of women’s labor. She became a vice president at Batten, Barton, DurstineContinue reading “Lucy Devine ’20”

As corn became a dominant resource in U.S. industry, the crop was placed on display in festivals and museums across the country. In my thesis, titled “Corn Nationalism: Exhibiting Mythologies of America’s Crop, 1887-1918,” I study how corn exhibits reflect myths and metaphors of land and nation by interrogating Sioux City’s Corn Palace (1887), cornContinue reading “Alexandra Summa ’20”

My senior thesis delved into the intersection of two of my favorite passions: fitness and superheroes. How are these two linked? Well, it turns out when President Eisenhower created the President’s Council for Youth Fitness in 1956, it completely changed the way Americans viewed fitness in their daily lives. White male youth, in particular, becameContinue reading “Sophie Barry ’20”