April 2015 Meeting
Our spring conference will be held April 18, 2015 at Worcester State University.
Mail-In Registration Form
Preliminary Conference Program (PDF)
Conference Details & Accommodations
CONFERENCE PROGRAM –
last updated 2/25/2015
All sessions will be held on the third floor of the Sullivan Academic Building (SAB)
(Note: all session rooms are equipped for internet and projection)
8:00-8:30 REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST: SAB 310 and 312
First Morning Sessions, 8:30-10:00
8:30 Session 1: Perspectives on European History (SAB 326)
Chair and Comment: Erika Briesacher, Worcester State University
“Eighteenth Century France: Women, the Enlightenment, and Public Spaceâ€*
Michelle Henault, Worcester State University
“German Empire-Building and Genocideâ€*
Breanna Barney, Worcester State University
“The Hitler Youth: Militarization or Indoctrinationâ€*
Matthew Epstein, Worcester State University
“Saving Venice: A History of Save Venice, Inc, 1966-2016â€
Megan Shea, U-Mass Lowell
8:30 Session 2: Perspectives on American History and Identity (SAB 320)
Chair and Comment: Robert W. Smith, Worcester State University
“The Impact of Colonial Beginnings on US Identity and Valuesâ€*
Katie Cameron, Worcester State University
“A New Jerusalem in the New World: The New Haven Colony Examinedâ€*
Matthew Sheehan, Albertus Magnus College
“Ballot Access as Part of the American Political System, 1880-2012â€*
Joshua Evans, Worcester State University
“The Ethnic Catholic Mark on Worcester, Massachusettsâ€*
Zach Washburn, Worcester State University
8:30 Session 3: Famous Travelers (and Others Who Made Travel Possible) (SAB 318)
Chair and Comment: Erik Jensen, Salem State University
“Striking Bold for Immortality: Jeremiah Reynolds, John Quincy Adams, and the Explorationist Visionâ€
Michael Verney, University of New Hampshire
“Ralph Waldo Emerson’s European Encounters: Meeting Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, and
Thomas Carlyle; and Experiencing Europeâ€
Lars Ekström, University of Turku (Finland)
“Photography, Chinese Workers, and the Construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, 1865-1869â€
Denise Khor, U-Mass, Boston
8:30 Session 4: Notable Statesmen from Massachusetts (SAB 314)
Chair and Comment: Clifford Putney, Bentley University
“Elihu Burritt and the Mechanics in Worcester, 1838-1848â€
Jun Kinoshita, Kokugakuin University (Japan)
“John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith: Beyond 1960â€
Patrick Lacroix, University of New Hampshire
“The Congressional Career of Edward P. Boland of Massachusettsâ€
Philip A. Grant, Jr., Pace University
8:30 Session 5: Helping the Young: Child Welfare, Traffic Safety and Home Economics (SAB 308)
Chair and Comment: Tona Hangen, Worcester State University
“Progressive Era ‘Child-Saving’: Institutions, Progressive Rhetoric, and ‘Broken’ Childrenâ€
Sarah Batterson, University of New Hampshire
“When Enforcement Means Something More: Teaching Citizens Traffic Safety in the 1950sâ€
Renée Blackburn, MIT
“’Not Foreigners, but Friends’: The Global Politics of Home Economics in the Twentieth Centuryâ€
Allison Horrocks, University of Connecticut
8:30 Session 6: War – Its Participants and Victims (SAB 307)
Chair and Comment: Martin Menke, Rivier College
“The Alexandrine Warâ€
Robert Holmes, Villanova University
“Trailblazing and Pioneering Mapmakers: A Case Study of Women Cartographers and Geographers during World War IIâ€
Mary DeLong, Northeastern University
“A Massacre in Jedwabne: A Psycho-Historical Analysis of the Events of July 10, 1941â€*
Ryan Blejewski, Eastern Connecticut State University
Break for Book Exhibit & Refreshments: 10:00 – 10:30 (SAB 310-312)
Second Morning Sessions, 10:30 – 12:00
10:30 Session 7: French Involvement in World Affairs (SAB 326)
Chair and Comment: Melanie Murphy, Emmanuel College
“Agincourt Aside: Towards an Expanded View of International Relations in the Early Fifteenth Centuryâ€
Lorraine Attreed, College of the Holy Cross
“Imperial Petite Politique on Lake Ontario: Francois Picquet and John Lindesay, 1748-1754â€
Greg Rogers, University of Maine
“The Taylorization of the French Revolution: The French Army, History, and the Experience of Industrial Warfare, 1918-1939â€
Sharmishtha Roy Chowdhury, Emerson College
10:30 Session 8: Native Americans in Colonial New England (SAB 320)
Chair and Comment: Dane Morrison, Salem State University
“Enslaving the Heathen, Enslaving the Christian: The Connections between American Indian and
African Slavery in Seventeenth-Century New Englandâ€
Nathan Braccio, University of Connecticut
“Albany’s Commissioners for Indian Affairs, the Iroquois, and New England Indian Politics in a
Larger Borderlands Context, 1691-1755â€
Andrew T. Stahlhut, Lehigh University
“’We Do Judge the Cause of Her Death’: Algonquian Women’s Bodies and New England Courts, 1700-1754â€
Julia James, Syracuse University
10:30 Session 9: War and Culture in America: Identity and Anxiety during the Revolutionary, Mexican and Vietnam Wars (SAB 318)
Chair and Comment: Conrad Edick Wright, Massachusetts Historical Society
“Thomas Johnson: Patriot, Gentleman, Americanâ€
Angela Grove, University of Vermont
“Mormons, Manifest Destiny, and the Mexican-American Warâ€
Natalie Coffman, University of Vermont
“The American Heroin Panic and the War in Vietnam: Cold War Hysteria and the Crisis of Nationhoodâ€
Ashlee Payne, University of Vermont
10:30 Session 10: Women Who Acted ‘Outside the Box’: A Doctor, an Alleged Murderer, and Gravediggers (SAB 314)
Chair and Comment: Patricia Farless, University of Central Florida
“Harriot Kezia Hunt: Battling Harvard Medical School and Campaigning for Women’s Rights in
Antebellum Americaâ€
Myra C. Glenn, Elmira College
“Lizzie Borden: Innocent or Guiltyâ€
Michael Carter, Wentworth Institute of Technology
“Eighteenth-Century Gender Identity and the London Women Who Buried the Deadâ€
Wanda S. Henry, Brown University
10:30 Session 11: Memento Mori: Remembrance of Death and its Ramifications in Nineteenth Century America (SAB 309)
Chair: Bruce Cohen, Worcester State University
Comment: Thomas E. Conroy, Worcester State University
“Childhood in Miniature: Posthumous Portraits as Memories in 19th Century Americaâ€*
Kaitlyn Benoit, Worcester State University
“Spiritualism, Stoners, and the Rose Covered Cottage: The Writings of Harriet Newell Greeneâ€
Linda Hixon, Worcester State University
“’The Scum of Connecticut’: How Murder and Scandal Led to the Fall of the Seventh Connecticut
Volunteer Infantryâ€
Michael Baker, Worcester State University
10:30 Session 12: Sports and Recreation (SAB 308)
Chair and Comment: Elizabeth De Wolfe, University of New England
“Safe at Home?: The Ironic but Inspiring Victories of the Chinese Educational Mission Baseball Teamâ€
Benjamin Railton, Fitchburg State University
“’A Matter of State’: Revere Beach, Commercial Amusements, and the Evolution of Massachusetts’ Sunday Lawsâ€
Mark Herlihy, Endicott College
“’To Show the Way for the Diplomats’: The International Olympic Committee and the Cold Warâ€
Erin Redihan, Clark University
10:30 Session 13: Creative Amusements: Horatio Greenough (Sculptor), Nat “King” Cole (Musician), and August Wilson (Playwright) (SAB 307)
Chair and Comment: Candace Kanes, Maine Historical Society
“America’s Cincinnatus, America’s Zeus: Horatio Greenough’s Washingtonâ€
Joseph Delaney, Johnson and Wales University
“Always a Jazzman at Heart: Nat ‘King’ Cole’s Turn and Returnâ€
Philip Mosley, Penn State University
“’The Emancipated Century’: Remapping History, Reclaiming Memory in August Wilson’s
Dramatic Landscapes of the 20th Centuryâ€
Joyce Hope Scott, Wheelock College
12:15 – 1:25 LUNCHEON (Blue Lounge, Student Center 1st Floor)
Elections for NEHA Posts will be conducted after lunch
Afternoon Sessions, 1:45 – 3:15
1:45 Session 14: Social and Cultural Interactions in World History (SAB 326)
Chair and Comment: Martin Fromm, Worcester State University
“Looking at Diplomacy between the United States and Sub-Saharan Africaâ€*
Benjamin Gerhardt, Worcester State University
“Moving toward a Solution: Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Strategies, and Opinions on Rebuilding the Iraqi Nationâ€*
Jonathan Rizzo, Worcester State University
“Detroit and American Empire in the Postwar Periodâ€*
Dan Makela, Worcester State University
“How . . . Romantic? Courtship in Heian Japanâ€*
Marc Speroni, Worcester State University
1:45 Session 15: Latin American History (SAB 320)
Chair and Comment: Sean Perrone, Saint Anselm College
“In Search of Froylán Turcios: The Life and Times of Armando Méndez Fuentes, 1925-2003â€
DarÃo A. Euraque, Trinity College
“Life in the Caribbean during the 1942 German U-Boat Blockadeâ€
Ligia T. Domenech, Northern Essex Community College
“The Dispute between the US and Mexico over Rising Salinity in the Colorado River, 1969-1972â€
Shaine Scarminach, University of Connecticut
1:45 Session 16: The American Revolution and its Aftermath (SAB 318)
Chair and Comment: Robert Imholt, Albertus Magnus College
“’A number of the most respectable gentlemen’: Prisoners of War and Social Status in
Revolutionary South Carolina, 1779-1782â€
Richard T. Tomczak, Stony Brook University
“The Pension Widow: Defining the Criteria for Women in the Revolutionary War Pension Processâ€*
Melissa Zablonski, Eastern Connecticut State University
“Foreign Affairs and the Ratification of the Constitution in Rhode Islandâ€
Robert W. Smith, Worcester State University
“The Yorktown ‘Victory’ Monument: The Politics of Reunion and Empireâ€
Sarah M. Goldberger, Community College of Rhode Island
1:45 Session 17: Blacks in America, from the Colonial Period to Reconstruction (SAB 314)
Chair and Comment: John Zaborney, University of Maine at Presque Isle
“Colonial Sermons Written as Commentary on the Execution of Criminals of African Descentâ€
Tanya Mears, Worcester State University
“For Cotton, Constitution, and Country: Investigating the Cotton Whig Advocacy of the
Peculiar Institutionâ€
Jonathan A. Hanna, Claremont Graduate University
“Welcoming Ruin: The Civil Rights Act of 1875â€
Richard Allan Gerber, Southern Connecticut State University
1:45 Session 18: American Women in the Nineteenth Century (SAB 309)
Chair and Comment: Kristen A. Petersen, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
“‘There is a Sex of Brain’: Reading Minds and Bodies in the Early American Republicâ€
Rachel Walker, University of Maryland
“The Bloomer Campaign: Dress Reform and Citizenship in an Emerging Gender Conciousnessâ€
Patricia L. Farless, University of Central Florida
“What’s in a Name: Madeleine Pollard and Self-Fashioned Identity in the Gilded Ageâ€
Elizabeth De Wolfe, University of New England
1:45 Session 19: Milestones in the History of Maine (SAB 308)
Chair and Comment: Lisa Wilson, Connecticut College
“From Slavery to Maine: O.O. Howard, Refugees, and Home and Farm Helpâ€
Candace Kanes, Maine Historical Society
“As Maine Goes . . .The Defeat of Maine’s 1917 Equal Suffrage Referendumâ€
Anne Gass, Independent Scholar
“Pioneer Territory: Roy Wilkins, Dow Air Force Base, and the NAACP in Maineâ€
Christopher Tucker, Clark University
1:45 Session 20: Women and Men and Religion: Three Scholars, Three Papers and Two Religions (SAB 307)
Chair and Comment: Cheryl Boots, Boston University
“A Passionate Catholic Revolutionary: Jean-Antoine Maudru, Constitutional Bishop from the Vosgesâ€
Annette Chapman-Adisho, Salem State University
“Connolly vs. Connelly: A Marriage, a Catholic Priest, a Catholic Nun, and Domesticityâ€
Gayle V. Fischer, Salem State University
“Daniel Alexander Payne: Education Advocate and Reformerâ€
Shannon Butler-Mokoro, Salem State University
* Denotes undergraduate paper