News

Nov 30, 2011

Tragic Pragmatism: Liberia and the United States, 1971-1985

Casper, Clifford. “Tragic Pragmatism: Liberia and the United States, 1971-1985.” (Under the direction of Dr. Nancy Mitchell.) The thesis focuses on the US-Liberian relationship from 1971-1985, a time when the cold war entered Africa. In 1975, Cuban troops poured into Angola, and in 1977 more Cubans entered Ethiopia. These events affected US relations with Liberia,…

Nov 4, 2011

The Polish Desk: Radio Free Europe, Zbigniew Brzezinksi, and Jimmy Carter’s Polish Policy 1976-1977

Trenor, Brian. “The Polish Desk: Radio Free Europe, Zbigniew Brzezinksi, and Jimmy Carter’s Polish Policy 1976-1977.” (Under the direction of Dr. Nancy Mitchell.) This thesis focuses on Jimmy Carter’s US-Polish policy as developed in the 1976 presidential campaign and employed in 1977. The policy was two-pronged: it sought to encourage both the Polish dissidents and…

Oct 13, 2011

Historian Explores the Consequences of Silver Mining

History lecturer Nicholas Robins, an expert on the environmental history of South America, exposes modern day consequences of silver-mining practices used by 16th century Spanish conquistadors in his guest blog series on NC State’s Abstract. In “Spanish Colonialism’s Environmental Legacy,” Robins reviews the history of mining in South America and its transformation into a modern…

Oct 6, 2011

NC State, UNC, Duke launch Japanese Studies Center

Three universities have launched a Triangle Center for Japanese Studies  that will support fellowships, research, seminars, travel, guest speakers, and library development. North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Duke University will cooperate in the center, founded by a $270,000 grant from the Japan Foundation in Tokyo. NC State’s…

Sep 14, 2011

History Professor’s Award-Winning Book Explores Kentucky’s Frontiers

If you’ve been looking for some critically-acclaimed reading material on the darker side of Kentucky’s history, look no further than Professor Craig Thompson Friend’s award-winning book Kentucke’s Frontiers. Friend recently won the 2011 Kentucky Governor’s Award for Kentucke’s Frontiers. The prize is given once every four years for that state’s best book related to Kentucky…

Aug 5, 2011

Jessica Gillespie – CHASS Thesis Award

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences selected Jessica Gillespie’s “Loved to stayed on like it once was’: Southern Appalachian People’s Responses to Socio-Economic Change–the New Deal, the War on Poverty, and the Rise of Tourism,” written under the direction of Professor Craig Friend, for the 2010 CHASS Thesis Award. Jessica graduated with her M.A.…

May 11, 2011

Reynoldstown: Race, Blight, Disease, Highway Construction and the Transformation of Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Cruise, Shane. “Reynoldstown: Race, Blight, Disease, Highway Construction and the Transformation of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.” (Under the direction of Dr. Blair Lynne Kelley.) Reynoldstown: Race, Blight, Disease, Highway Construction and the Transformation of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, contributes to the historiography of the urban South by exploring the transformation of Winston-Salem between 1948 and 1962. In…

Apr 28, 2011

An Ever Closer Union? European Integration in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Popowycz, Jennifer. “An Ever Closer Union? European Integration in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century.” (Under the direction of Dr. Thomas Ort.) In the 1970s three countries from Southern Europe applied to become members of the European Economic Community (EEC), which is now the European Union (EU). Greece, Portugal, and Spain all had newly…

Apr 27, 2011

Vindicating the Confederacy: Confederate Female Spies and their Memoirs 1863-1876

Matthews, Melissa. “Vindicating the Confederacy: Confederate Female Spies and their Memoirs 1863-1876.” (Under the direction of Dr. Susanna Lee.) Belle Boyd, Rose O‟Neal Greenhow and Loreta Velazquez were all Confederate female spies that risked their lives to support the Confederacy. Their memoirs completed either during or after the Civil War are pieces of Confederate propaganda…

Apr 7, 2011

The Twelfth Century Renaissance and the Religion of Intent: Interiority and the Emergence of Selfhood Across Religious Boundaries

Elliot, Serena. “The Twelfth Century Renaissance and the Religion of Intent: Interiority and the Emergence of Selfhood Across Religious Boundaries.” (Under the direction of Dr. Julie Mell.) This thesis explores the emergence of faith statements in both Jewish and Christian culture in the long twelfth century (c. 1050-1200). Such faith statements, found in both cultures…