The Annual Best Senior Seminar Paper Prize Contenders 2023-2024
Students in the SUNY New Paltz History Department produce fine historical research and compelling scholarly arguments. We celebrate their hard work and dedication to the historian’s craft with an annual prize. Each professor in the department who teaches the seminar in an academic year nominates one paper. The remaining History Department faculty evaluate the nominees and choose the best of the lot. The recipient of the Best Senior Seminar Prize wins both accolades and a cash prize. The Department presents the full text of all the papers nominated.
This year, the Department’s judges were once again impressed by the range of topics, our students' strong research and writing skills, and their creative approaches to their subjects. We hope you enjoy the top senior seminar papers from history majors in the 2023-2024 academic year. Congratulations to our winner and to all the nominees!
Helen Ehmann - Best Paper Winner
"Teaching Students in New York about China: An Educational History of the Recent Past"
Isabella Cremo - Paper
"Carrying Class Cues? Contradictions in Eighteenth Century Class Consciousness, as Shown Through Necessaire"
Kimberly Mahler - Paper
"Marriage Conflict in Colonial Latin America"
Abi Rosenthal - Paper
"Johnson’s Dictionary and Future Progress Vs. Preservation"
The Annual Best Senior Seminar Paper Prize Contenders 2022-2023
Gabrielle DiMura - Best Paper Winner
"A Cultural Love Affair: The Impact of Philhellenism on Nero’s Lasting Legacy"
Jessica Jones - Paper
"Changes in society's perception of corporal punishment:The turn of the 20th century"
Nick Peterle - Paper
"The Nazi Curriculum Educating the Youth in Nazi Germany in the 1930s"
The Annual Best Senior Seminar Paper Prize Contenders 2021-2022
Violet Cochrane - Best Paper Winner
"I Feel Like Letting “Le Freak” Flag Fly:Psychedelic Rock and Disco’s Unspoken Similarities"
Ranald Adams - Paper
"The Red Prince: Norodom Sihanouk, China, and the Worst Buddy-Cop Movie Pitch of 2021"
Gabby Ricciardi - Paper
"Beethoven and the Deafinition of the Sublime: The Relationship Between Ludwig van Beethoven and the Evolution of German Romanticism"
Clara Zonis - Paper
"Mythmaking, Madoc, and Movement: Manifestations of Welsh Patriotism in the Long Eighteenth Century"
The Annual Best Senior Seminar Paper Prize Contenders 2020-2021
Kristen Thompson - Best Paper Winner
"Pour One Out For the Perisan King: Greek Magic and Depictions of Barbarian Witch Queens in Athenian Tragedy"
Kathryn Barr - Paper
"The Contradictory Actions of the United States Concerning Asylum"
Nikki Donahue - Paper
"The Magdalen Laundries: Accountability and the Value of Fallen Women"
Sean Loughran - Paper
"The Phantom in the Flask: How Poisoned Alcohol Killed Thousands During Prohibition in the United States"
The Annual Best Senior Seminar Paper Prize Contenders 2019-2020
Madison Haydon - Best Paper Winner
"My Body, My Choice: Abortion Rights and the Influence of the Catholic Church in Postcommunist Poland"
Erin Freeman - Paper
"Harlem’s Negro God” and “White Girls”: Stereotypes and Interracial Intrigue in Father Divine’s Struggle with his Orthodox Adversaries"
Catherine Incledon - Paper
"No Pint-Sized Prejudice: A Study of Anti-Immigrant and Anti-Catholic Sentiment in Relation to Restrictive Alcohol Legislation in Orange County, New York"
Skyler Jones - Paper
"The Push and Pull of Power: Organized Sports in Industrialized Britain"
Edward Moran - Paper
"The Path to Revolutionary Violence within the Weather Underground and Provisional IRA"
The Annual Best Senior Seminar Paper Prize Contenders 2018-2019
Introduction from the Chair - Best Paper Contenders 2018-2019
Conor O'Riordan - best paper winner
“Arminius the Turbulator: Depicting Germanness and Combating Foreigners in German Collective Memory"
Nikki Donofrio - paper
"A Re-evaluation on Racism: How a Strong U.S. Tradition of Anti-Mexican Sentiment was Responsible for the 1930s Mexican Repatriation Crisis"
Jessica Minieri - paper
"Anne Stuart Reexamined: Reconsidering Female Rule in the 'Long' Seventeeth Century, 1558-1714"
Jade Mitchell - paper
"Chairman Mao's Morning Sunlight: Children in the Cultural Revolution"
The Annual Best Senior Seminar Paper Prize Contenders 2017-2018
Introduction from the Chair - Best Paper Contenders 2017-2018
Dan Hulseapple - best paper winner
“Structure, Ideology, Traditions: Defining the Akkadian State"
Marissa Alperin - paper
"Constructing Jewish Bodies in Germany through Physical Culture and Racial Pseudo-Science"
Scout Mercer - paper
"Far Too Radical, Then and Now: An Examination of Women’s Body Autonomy Through
the Work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Margaret Sanger"
Julia Morini - paper
"Gendered Artistry and Inequitable Fame in 19th Century America:
The Legacies of Julia McEntee Dillon and Jervis McEntee"
Jessica Sommerfeldt - paper
"Who’s Afraid of Gerald Ford? How a Forgotten Presidency Taught a Wounded Nation How to Forgive"
