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