Twenty-Eighth Annual Student History Conference
February 21, 2025
L.A. Pittenger Student Center

All conference events are free and open to the public.
This conference is organized by the Ball State Department of History. 

8:40-8:50 a.m.
Music Lounge

Welcome, Opening Remarks, and Refreshments
Maureen McCarthy, Dean, College of Sciences and Humanities, & Bruce Geelhoed, Chairperson of History


First Panel Session
9:00-10:15 

Cardinal Hall A

Poster Session: Local History and the Global Stage: The Frankton History Club’s Historical Marker for Hoosier and World War I Nurse May Berry

Kevin Cline, Frankton High School, Faculty Advisor

Frankton High School History Club Members: Thaiden Alexander, Larkin Betz, Zach Browning, Hadlee Eppards, Emma Hardebeck, Sloane Harrison, Kaylynn Hoover, Payge Kendall, Taryn McCartney, Chelsea Newton, Campbell Quire, Eva Sprister, Sophia Thomas, and Emerson Troutman

 

Cardinal Hall B

Social Revolutions in the American Context
Nicole Etcheson, Department of History, Chair & Comment

Dillon Jackson (Ball State), The Power and Food Dynamic: Pre- and Post-American Revolution

Amelia Dorsey (Ball State), The Unknown Impact Native Americans had on the Revolutionary War

Cooper Archer (Ball State), Unions to Socialism: How Eugene V. Debs Became a Leader of an Era

Forum Room

Chicago 1880s-1890s: The Perils and Possibilities of Urban America
Scott Stephan, Department of History, Chair
Jim Connolly, Department of History, Comment

Sally Kissner (Ball State), Albert Parsons: The Martyr of American Ideals

Mae Powers (Ball State), Remember the Haymarket

Melaina Smith (Ball State), “A Glow of Benevolence”: Pullman, Paternalism, and Idealism

 

Second Panel Session 
10:30-11:45

Cardinal Hall A

Producing Culture
Abel Alves, Department of History, Chair and Comment

Daniel Peters (Millikin University), The Presence and Effect of Female Brewers, Barmaids, and Beer across Sumeria

Theodore Kauffmann (Millikin University), Painting like a Sculptor: Examining the Paintings and Frescos of Michelangelo

Brenna Large (Ball State), Weaving the Fabric of Society: Indigenous Women, Textiles, and Colonization in Colonial New Spain

 

Cardinal Hall B

Public History Internship Showcase
Wendy Soltz, Department of History, Chair; Nicholas Miller, Department of History, Moderator

Amelia Dorsey (Ball State), David Owsley Museum of Art

Halle Presser (Ball State), Smithsonian American Art Museum and the David Owsley Museum of Art

Isaiah Martin (Ball State), National Park Service

 

Forum Room

Global Perspectives on European Imperialism
Amy Bosworth, Department of History, Chair and Comment

Jackson Hughes (Millikin), Hoarding Honey: Settler Colonialism and Extraction in the Eastern Baltic Sea

Alexis Brock (Ball State), The Spanish Did Not Do It Alone

David McDowell (Ball State), Literature, Legends, and Loyalty: Medievalism in Popular Media to Promote Nationalism in Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain


12:00-1:00
Lunch Break

Keynote Address
1:00-2:00
Student Center Ballroom

Dr. Hilary Buxton, Assistant Professor of History, Kenyon College

Rehabilitating the Empire: Care and Colonial Servicemen in First World War Britain
Introduced by Carolyn Malone, Department of History


Third Panel Session
2:15-3:30
Cardinal Hall A

Experiencing World War II in Britain
Carolyn Malone, Department of History, Chair and Comment

Katherine Huddleston (Ball State), Wartime Diary: The Story of a Female Cryptographer at Bletchley Park in World War II

Barry Ramage (Ball State), World War II Diary: Tiana Graves

Brenna Large (Ball State), A Call to Service: The Imagined Wartime Diary of a Midwife in Training

 

Cardinal Hall B

Protests, Possibilities, and Panics in American Popular Culture
Ed Krzemienski, Department of History, Chair and Comment

Emma Donnelly (University of Dayton), Hedy Lamarr: The Real Hero of Hollywood

Nah’Shon Williams (Purdue), Echoes of Resilience: The Evolution of Soul and R&B as Social Consciousness during the Civil Rights and Black Power Eras

Zachary Long (Ball State), Satan and His Best Friend Pikachu: Online Evangelical Responses to Pokémon at the Turn of the Millennium

 

Forum Room

Beyond the Classroom: Navigating the Public History Field: A Roundtable Discussion

Emily McGuire, Research Coordinator & Staff Historian, Indiana Historical Bureau

AJ Chrapliwy, Oral Historian, Indiana Historical Bureau

Kelsey Green, Public Outreach Coordinator & Staff Historian, Indiana Historical Bureau

 

Fourth Panel Session 
3:45-5:00

Cardinal Hall A

Social Change over the Long Durée
Rachael Smith, Department of History and Women and Gender Studies, Chair and Comment

Maggie Hibbetts (Ball State), First Impressions: A Fashion History of Presidencies

Abigail Smolnicky (Hanover), The Revolving Restoration of Liberalism

Kasper Sturtz (Millikin), Labeling Historical Figures: A Question of Queer Identity

 

Cardinal Hall B

Beyond the Battlefield
Bruce Geelhoed, Department of History, Chair and Comment

Connor Dull (Ball State), “War is a Matter of Law:” A Defense of the Decision to Try the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators by Military Commission

Brooklyn Morgan (Ball State), Japan’s Role in the Nanjing Massacre

Kyah Sturm (Purdue), A Highlighted History of Israeli Protest Art in the 20th Century

 

Forum Room

Environmental Catastrophe and Public Policy
Robert Hall, Department of History, Chair and Comment

Elise Miller (Ball State), The Great Chicago Fire in the Context of the Great Boston Fire and late 19th Century Urban Life

Andy Hopkins (Ball State), Trouble in Wonderland: Conflict in Early Yellowstone

Lucas Wallen (Millikin), Displacement, Indigeneity, and Industry Within the Treatment of Moths in America


Cardinal Hall A
5:10-5:30

Reception and Awards Ceremony
Bruce Geelhoed, Jessica Reuther, Scott Stephan, and Chris Thompson