2019-2020 Senior Honors Theses
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/6786
This collection contains theses produced by Class of 2020 Honors students
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Browsing 2019-2020 Senior Honors Theses by Department "History, Department of"
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Item Finding Home in the Sunbelt: A Study Of Salvadoran Activism In Houston 1980-1999.(2020-05) Martinez Alvarenga, ManuelThe decade of the 1980s witnessed an unprecedented migration wave from Central America to the United States. Migrants from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala made their way north, seeking to escape the worsening living conditions in their war-torn countries and settled in cities like Houston creating far-reaching demographic changes. This Honors Thesis centers the activism of the Salvadoran migrant community in Houston during the decades of the 1980s and 1990s to explore the deep connection shared between Houston based religious groups and Central American migrant activists. By analyzing Oral histories from Salvadoran migrants that lived in Houston in the 1980s, media portrayals of migrant groups and organizations in Houston, and archived documents from the Rothko Chapel, I highlight the narratives surrounding the unlikely cooperation between Houston based religious organizations and Dominque de Menil with Central American aid groups and individuals that were connected to leftist guerrillas in El Salvador. In so doing, this work presents a new perspective regarding Houston’s history of migrant communal and political activism, along with the formation of the sanctuary movement and the larger Central American diaspora in the United States.Item Identity in the Writings of Lucian of Samosata(2020-05) Loos, Stefan T.The second-century CE Greek sophist, rhetorician, and satirist Lucian of Samosata (c. 120-185 CE) presents a complex figure in his writings. A native of the province of Syria who wrote in Greek under the Roman Empire, Lucian’s identity and perspective on the world around him seems complex and often self-contradictory in his works. In light of Lucian’s complexity, readers and later scholars have sometimes tried to pigeonhole his identity into simple terms of “Greek,” “Syrian,” or “Roman.” This thesis offers an alternative view, applying the postcolonial lens of “discrepant identities” to Lucian’s literary personae in his writings. Lucian’s self-portrayal shifted between his works due to a variety of factors stemming from Roman imperial rule. Through a series of case studies of Lucian’s works (De Dea Syria, Heracles, De Mercede Conductis, Apologia, and Patriae Encomium) this thesis shows the malleability of Lucian’s self-presentation within his literary corpus due to his evolving circumstances, the broader context of the Roman Empire, and the pressures of unfavorable stereotypes. Finally, as a figure with a sizable literary record, Lucian offers an excellent model of how the identities of other provincials may have shifted as a response to the necessities of life in the heterogeneous Roman Empire.Item Propaganda in Literature: A Study of the Encomium Emmae Reginae and the Writings of Robert of Torigni As Propaganda for Emma of Normandy and the Empress Matilda(2019-12) Abbasi, LailaThis thesis is a study of the use of propaganda in contemporary histories written about Emma of Normandy and the Empress Matilda. The first source that is studied in depth as propaganda is the Encomium Emmae Reginae, written in the 11th century during the brief reign of Harthacnut in England (1040-1042). The second source that is examined is the writings of Robert of Torigni in the Gesta Normannorum Ducum (GND), written in the 12th century during a period of struggle in England between the Empress Matilda (the daughter of the previous English king, Henry I) and her cousin Stephen of Blois, known as ‘The Anarchy’. The Encomium displays multiple instances of romanticization of the Viking heritage of Emma’s husband, Cnut, and son, Harthacnut, with the intention of solidifying Emma’s control through the rule of her son. Similarly, the writings of Robert of Torigni are suggestive of the intent to create a reputation for the Empress Matilda of a wise and devout woman qualified to affect church matters in England. With both these women the issue of reputation and control, during periods of turmoil and uncertainty, can be seen. This leads to an understanding of the role that propaganda played in the 11th and 12th centuries, which further illuminates the understanding of propaganda today.