April 20, 2023
History Students at 2023 CUA Research Day

The Department of History had strong representation at Catholic University’s 2023 Research Day, the seventh annual installment of the University-wide event spotlighting research projects by undergraduate and graduate students and faculty, held this year on Tuesday 18 April.

“‘She has butter on everything, even toast!’ Britishness, Femininity, and Self-Sacrifice during the Second World War”, by Abigail Baxter (senior History major) with Dr. Laura Mayhall as advisor, won the award for best poster presentation by an undergraduate.

“Comrade Puka Inti: The Personality Cult of Abimael Guzmán”, by Daniel Formella (senior History major) with Dr. Julia Young as advisor, was a finalist in the category of best oral presentation by an undergraduate.

Other History undergraduates who made presentations at this year’s Research Day were:

Poster Presentations

Liesl Ament, “The Cost of Resistance: Two Memoirs of Desertion during the Vietnam War”, with Dr. Thomas Cohen as advisor

Brady Baylis, “Castlereagh, an Embodiment of his Age: Realpolitik and Legacy in Napoleonic-Era Britain and Ireland”, with Dr. Caroline Sherman as advisor

Alexander Crawford, “Rum and Romanism: Anti-Catholicism in the 1928 Presidential Election”, with Dr. Thomas Cohen as advisor

Jenna Drummond, “‘O God, What a Protagonist you have in this Man!’: The Complex Political Legacy of Fulton J. Sheen”, with Dr. Thomas Cohen as advisor

Justus Decelles-Zwerneman, “Frank Capra, Entertainment, and Ideals in ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’”, with Dr. Thomas Cohen as advisor

Oral Presentations

Michael Salmon, “Iberian Regionalism: How the Northern Christian Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula were Shaped by Regionalism during Medieval Spanish Society” with Dr. Lev Weitz as advisor

Matilda Jingwen Zhao, “Fallen Ashes: Writers in Exile and their Historical Deracination”, with Dr. Julia Young as advisor