14th Annual History Graduate Student Conference, March 22-23

The History Graduate Student Association hosts the 14th Annual History Graduate Student Conference at Ohio University on March 22-23.

The program combines a keynote lecture with a series of panel presentations that showcase some of the cutting-edge, in-progress historical work of graduate students in a variety of discipline from multiple universities. The events are free and open to the public.

Keynote Address
Friday, March 22, 7 p.m., Baker Theater

Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics

Dr. Ilana Feldman gives the keynote lecture, titled, “Humanitarian Predicaments & Palestinian Refugee Politics,” on Friday, March 22, at 7 p.m. at the Baker Theater. Feldman, Professor of Anthropology, History, and International Affairs at George Washington University, will give the keynote lecture at the 2019 Ohio University History Graduate Conference. She is the author of Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, Authority, and the Work of Rule, 1917-67 (Duke University Press, 2008), Police Encounters: Security and Surveillance in Gaza under Egyptian Rule (Stanford University Press, 2015), and Life Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics (University of California Press, 2018), among several other works.

Panel Presentations
Saturday, March 23, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Bentley Hall

Five sessions, each featuring two concurrent thematic panels, will highlight graduate student research across various disciplines and from multiple schools.

Session I: 8:30 to 10 a.m.

Panel 1: Contemporary Asian History (Bentley 124)

• Ashley Kafton (Ohio University)
  “The Impact of International Migrants on Thailand’s Economy”
• Kelvin Yudianto (Ohio University)
  “The Different Nature of Indonesian Military Operations in East Timor and Aceh”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. Victoria Lee
• Chair: P. Mike Rattanasengchanh

Panel 2: Rural America & Political Engagement (Bentley 136)

• Ben Ekelman (Ohio University): “The Debates at the Federal Convention: Gerrymandering and Representation”
• Brenden Embry (Ohio University): “Combating the Opioid Crisis in the United States”
• Christopher Tomlinson (West Virginia University): “‘Progressive Spirit’: Stonega Coke & Coal Company Towns in the Early 20th Century”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. Paul Milazzo
• Chair: Robert Venosa

Session II: 10:10 to 11:40 a.m.

Panel 1: International Relations & Development (Bentley 129)

• Margaret Gatonye (Ohio University): “New Dimensions of Colonialism: An Analysis of Africa and China Relations”
• Hassan Nash (Ohio University): “Imagination in the Social Sciences: Science, Normativity, and Empowering Futures”
• Bruna Pereira (Ohio University): “Brazil’s Role Conception in South America: A Regional Leadership Perspective”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. James Mosher
• Chair: Sarah Strinka

Panel 2: Women’s History in Europe & the Americas (Bentley 132)

• Michelle Becker (Ohio University): “Lessons in Homemaking: Examining Homemaker’s Half-Hour’s Role in Shaping Iowan Lives”
• Katie Conlon (Ohio University): “‘Neither Men nor Completely Women’: Irish Republican and Feminist Reactions to the Armagh Dirty Protest”
• Hayley McGuirk (Ohio University): “Multiple Modernities and Nineteenth Century Gender Dynamics: The Evolution of the ‘Modern Woman’ in the Works of Mary Cassatt and Sir Edwin Landseer”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. Katherine Jellison
• Chair: Caitlin Bentley

Session III: 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Panel 1: Global Literature & Languages (Bentley 124)

• Rosa Armstrong (Ohio University): “Disconnection as a Pervading Motif in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon”
• Lassane Ouedraogo & Keith Phetlhe (Ohio University): “Demystifying Aspects of Orality in Mediated African Literary Arts”
• Regina Yoong (Ohio University): “‘The Asiatic and African are Hand in Hand, The European and American are Hand in Hand’: 19th-Century Immigration Debates and Walt Whitman’s Nationhood”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. Arthur Hughes
• Chair: Sana Saidykhan

Panel 2: Identity & Globalization  (Bentley 136)

• Musa Dampha (Ohio University): “The Impact of Social Media on Religious Participation”
• Zamzam A. Jama (Ohio University): “The African Child’s Body: The New Form of Child-Relief Pornography”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. JW Smith
• Chair: Alex Lovelace

Session IV: 2:40 to 4:10 p.m.

Panel 1: Women’s History in Africa & Asia (Bentley 129)

• Namrata Jain (Ohio University): “History of ‘Fashion’: Women’s Clothing in India Under the British Raj (1857-1947)”
• Gaone Manatong (Ohio University): “Exploring the Impact of a Non-Profit Organization, SKY Girls BW, to Address the Issues of Girl Empowerment: A Qualitative Study in Botswana”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. Mariana Dantas
• Chair: Feven Berhe

Panel 2: Society for Military  History Panel: World War Two & Its Aftermath (Bentley 132)

• Jayson Altieri (Air University): “Cobras, Hawks, and WASPs: A History of Napier Field, Alabama, 1941-1945”
• Maicol Lynch (Ohio University): “The Denazification of East Germany”
• Tristin Williams (West Virginia University): “United States Civil Defense: A Transition from Patriotism to Human Preservation and Where African-Americans Fit In”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. Mirna Zakić
• Chair: Heather Salazar

Session V: 4:20 to 5:50 p.m.

Panel 1: Violence & Memory (Bentley 124)

• Ishmael Konney (Ohio University): “Visitor from the Past (Exploitation of Colonial and Postcolonial Africa)”
• Jessy A. Saffell (University of St. Thomas): “Tell Me, Where Was God?: Sites of Remembrance Within the Holocaust”
• Jordan Zdinak (Ohio University): “The Christopher Davis Lynching: How Marginalization Leads to Increased Risk of Violence”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. Miriam Shadis
• Chair: James Bohland

Panel 2: Globalized Popular Culture (Bentley 136)

• Dennis Moot (Ohio University): “The Contemporary African Art(ist): Aesthetic Analysis of Hassan Musa’s Who Needs a Banana? and Self Portrait with Black Ideas”
• Shalon Van Tine (Ohio University): “Explaining the Seventies Malaise Through F is for Family”
• Faculty Commentator: Dr. Akil Houston
• Chair: Harrison Fender

The 14th Annual History Graduate Student Conference is co-sponsored by the History Graduate Student Association (HGSA), History Department, Contemporary History Institute, Center for International Studies, War & Peace Theme, African Studies the Middle East and North Africa Studies Certificate, African Student Union, and Society for Military History.