The NEHA Spring 2018 Conference was held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire on Saturday, April 14, 2018

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Final Conference Program (as of 4/14/18)

Program Chair: NEHA Vice President Erik Jensen

All sessions held at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics

8:00-8:30 REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST: Auditorium

First Morning Sessions, 8:30-10:00

8:30 Session 1: Creating the Early American Republic (Room 4004)
Chair/Comment: Jacqueline Carr, University of Vermont

“English Common Law Origins of the Rights of Americans: Puttin’ on the Writs”
Richard Gerber, Southern Connecticut State University
“A Pragmatic Revolutionary: The Independence of William Gilliland”
Susan Ouellette, Saint Michael’s College
“Foreign Affairs and the Ratification of the Constitution in New Hampshire”
Robert W. Smith, Worcester State University

8:30 Session 2: The Changing Face of Labor (Room 4006)
Chair/Comment: Sharmishtha Roy Chowdhury, University of Connecticut

“Surgeon or Shellback: The Whaling Journal of Theodore Lewis, M.D.”
Evan Banks: Missouri Western State University*
“’It Will Require all the Energy of which Man is Capable’: The Entangled Energy Regime of the Panama
Railroad 1849-1855”
Jordan Coulombe, University of New Hampshire
“The Resources of the Race: The Deintellectualization of Skill in Antebellum America”
Christopher Stokum, Boston University

8:30 Session 3: The Faith of a Nation: Turning Points in American History and Religion (Room 4007)
Chair/Comment: Robert Chiles, University of Maryland

“The Religious Conversion of Boston”
Michael Varuolo, University of New Hampshire
“Churches of the Air: Mormonism and Early Religious Broadcasting, 1922-1930”
Kate Benoit, University of Utah
“JFK’s New Frontier and the Catholic Church: An Uneasy Partnership”
Thomas Carty, Springfield College

8:30 Session 4: Teaching with Primary Source Sets from the Digital Public Library of America (Workshop) (Room 4001)
Discussants:
Tona Hangen, Worcester State University
Ella Howard, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Break for Book Exhibit & Refreshments: 10:00 – 10:30

Second Morning Sessions, 10:30-12:00

10:30 Session 5: War and Diplomacy in Colonial America (Room 4004)
Chair/Comment: Richard Gerber, Southern Connecticut State University

“’A Daingerous Liberty’: Dutch-Mohawk Relations and the Colonial Gunpowder Trade”
Shaun Sayres, University of New Hampshire
“Pirates, Politics, and Private Navies: Early South Carolina’s Homegrown Naval Forces, 1700-1719”
Benjamin Schaffer, University of New Hampshire
“’They readily acknowledged their breach of Covenant’: Violence and Diplomacy in the Abenakia-Maine
Borderlands, 1723-1754”
Eric Trautman-Mosher, University of New Hampshire

10:30 Session 6: Land and Landscape in the Legacy of Imperialism (Room 4007)
Chair/Comment: Sean Bloch, Dartmouth College

“Reinterpreting the Karum System of the Early Old Assyrian Period”
Tyler Tumblety, Plymouth State University*
“’Not for them the pomp and circumstances of the battlefield’: Reimagining India during the
Mesopotamian Campaign, 1914-1917”
Sharmishtha Roy Chowdhury, University of Connecticut
“’The people had done it themselves’: Assigning Blame for the Repercussions of Pesticide-Use in
Francophone Africa”
Sarah Hardin, St. Anselm College

10:30 Session 7: Social Challenges in Nineteenth-Century America (Room 4006)
Chair/Comment: Beth Salerno, St. Anselm College

“The Ridge/Northrup and Boudinot/Gold Marriages and the Signing of the Treaty of Echota”
Christian Gonzales, University of Rhode Island
“A Beacon of Liberalism? A Comparison of the Portrayal of the 1854 Trial of Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns
Through Two Massachusetts Newspapers”
Laura Ellyn Smith, University of Mississippi
“’The Tramp of Cowhide Boots’: Worth More than the Paper It’s Printed On: Greenbackism in Maine”
Aaron Chin, University of New Hampshire
“Patterns, Power and Priorities: What Quantitative Analysis Reveals about Nineteenth-Century Orphan
Asylums”
Sarah Mulhall Adelman, Framingham State University

10:30 Session 8: Teaching Civics Today – Challenges and Opportunities (Roundtable) (West Wing)
Chair: Troy Paddock, Southern Connecticut State University

Discussants:
David Alcox, Milford High School
Aaron Blais, Exeter High School
Christopher Herr, Concord High School
Rebecca Tancrede, Concord High School

10:30 Session 9: Personal Histories: The Individual in Teaching and Writing (Room 4001)
Chair/Comment: Bruce Cohen, Worcester State University

“Learning Right from Wrongs: Benefiting from the History Student’s Errors”
Dominic DeBrincat, Missouri Western State University
“The Historian’s I: Convention and Practice”
Lila Teeters, University of New Hampshire

12:15 – 1:35 Lunch and Business Meeting: Auditorium

Afternoon Sessions, 1:45 – 3:15

1:45 Session 10: Identities in Conflict in Early America (Room 4004)
Chair/Comment: Susan Ouellette, Saint Michael’s College

“Salem Witchcraft: The Evolution of Theories Past and Present”
Molly Hildebrandt, Plymouth State University*
“Selling and Saving Spirits: Regulating Strong Drink in Colonial New England”
Dominic DeBrincat, Missouri Western State University
“Through Their Eyes: The Changing Nature of Indian Captivity in Northeastern America, 1689-1763”
Michael Anderson, University of New Hampshire

1:45 Session 11: War, Race and Remembrance (Room 4006)
Chair/Comment: Thomas Carty, Springfield College

“Traveling Backward: African Americans and Worcester’s War Memorial”
Linda Hixon, Worcester State University
“Race and Command in the Union Army: The Debate Over Commissioning Black Officers”
Ian Delahunty, Springfield College
“White Officers, Black Troops: Lessons Not Learned”
Chuck Arning, Blackstone River Valley NHP / National Park Service

1:45 Session 12: Making Modern America (Room 4007)
Chair/Comment: Philip Mosley, Penn State University

“A Debate for the Gilded Age: McKinley v. Campbell and the Draw that Still Splits America””
Robert Klotz, University of Southern Maine
“’The Ghost of Sputnik’: The Cold War Origins of the California Master Plan for Higher Education”
Andrew Higgins, Curry College
“Icons in American Popular Culture: Moriss Taylor, Country Music, and Western Regional Media, 1949-2015”
Brian Peterson, Shasta College

1:45 Session 13: New England Regional Chairs’ Meeting (West Wing)
Moderator: Troy Paddock, Southern Connecticut State University

* Denotes undergraduate presenter