KELLEY THESIS PRESENTATIONS
Nov. 21, HANCE AUDITORIUM 4:30
HISTORY FORUM LECTURE
Chelsea Creta
Music of the American Revolutionary Era
I will analyze the music created by figures such as William Billings, John Dickinson, our founding fathers, and anonymous balladeers during the revolutionary era. My thesis will study the compositional and lyrical parodies occurring in music in the American colonies and music's significance to the independence movement. It will discuss the simultaneous American copying of British tunes and conventions with the rebellion against that same government from which the colonists modeled their tunes.
Sarah Gustafson
A Secular Saint, a Daughter of the People: Joan of Arc, Rebellious Youth, and French Political Culture in the Thalamas Affair of 1904
In the French Belle Epoque, the Right and Left competed to appropriate the legend of Joan of Arc; when a 1904 public school scandal, known as the Thalamas Affair, challenged her place in the Third Republic, it brought protests to the streets of Paris. It led to adolescent activism and student militancy which capitalized on existing discourses and representations of citizenship while invoking an ideal of the righteous and virtuous young French citizen in the style of Joan of Arc. My microhistory sheds light on the way youth and the youth was perceived in the pre-war French political culture.
Graham Whittington
Living through the Luftbrücke: Everyday Life and the Role of Identity in West Berlin during the Airlift
Life “on the ground” during the Berlin Airlift often involved finding ways to supplement the food and fuel rations the airlift provided. The boundary between East and West Berlin remained porous, and the search for means to survive—by using the black markets, scavenging, and crossing the border to trade—resulted in much interaction among West Berliners, their East Berlin neighbors, the occupiers, and other residents of the city. I wish to use these everyday activities and interactions to show a distanced relationship among the groups and reveal resulting formations of identity among West Berliners.