the ascendant historian

Editor's Note

Alec Lazenby — 2022-06-16

Chair's Message

Jason Colby — 2022-06-16

Functioning and Alteration in Scottish Highland Farms during the First Phase of Clearance (c. 1775 - c. 1815)

Stefano Buckley — 2022-06-16

During the latter half of the 18th century and the early decades of the 19th, the traditional lifeways of farms in rural Highland Scotland underwent a drastic alteration. Hitherto operating in a community-focussed manner that had lasted for centuries, one bound up in notions of hereditary duty to clans and neighbours, this system became subject to a myriad of burgeoning changes both ideological and economic. Throughout the course of this paper, I will examine how these external influences reshaped the cultural and physical landscape of the Highlands, transforming a place that had once been directed towards self-sufficiency into one now dictated by the demands of an emerging capitalist marketplace.

Disease, Vermin, and Anti-Semitism: The Significance of Epidemic Typhus in Eastern Europe, 1916-1942

Jonah Burkart — 2022-06-16

Typhus has long been a stigmatized disease, associated with dirt and poverty due to its mode of transmission through body lice. The disease claimed the lives of millions in Eastern Europe during the early 20th century, exacerbated by conflict, refugee movements, government policies, and racial violence. This paper examines the toll that typhus took on both sides of the Russian Civil War and the hygiene policies put in place to reduce the spread of lice. It also explores the shifts in Soviet hygiene programs and their effects on the epidemic, as well as how the gulag system intensified the spread of the disease. Lastly, it investigates the connections between epidemic typhus and the Holocaust and discusses how fear of the disease helped to shape Nazi ‘sanitization’ policies and contributed to the mass murder of millions.

How Gaelic Irish Women Exercised Agency in Early Modern Ireland, 1400-1700

Charlotte Clar — 2022-06-16

With the increasing presence of the English government in Ireland during the Early Modern Period, the history of Gaelic Irish women is often left untold. These women were a part of everyday life and yet their narratives have often been framed to contextualize the stories of men, if they are indeed mentioned at all. This paper explores how Gaelic Irish women were able to exert agency in various aspects of their lives including marriage, labour, and leadership. From dowries and property rights to brief mentions of women stepping into leadership roles outside traditional gender norms, this paper aims to examine important junctures of Gaelic Irish women’s lives and whether or not it can be said that they were true agents of their situations, or simply conforming to the patriarchal societal expectations. As many saw the Gaelic Irish culture vanishing, these women left their mark on history with deeds not documented yet crucial to the fabric of society.

Warping Narrative: Historical Representation at the War Museum

Rebecca Hartley

Museums shape and augment the cultural memories and historical experiences of their visitors. They are institutions charged with authority and emotion, and because of this, have the power to influence the formation of national identities. This paper examines a specific type of museal institution, the war museum, to understand how historical narratives are presented and why they are especially effective institutions for provoking historical consciousness. Objects, displays, and dioramas within two example institutions (the Imperial War Museum in London and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa) serve to represent soldiers' and civilians' wartime experiences. The Imperial War Museum has traditionally emphasized a narrative of national sacrifice rather than military glory, while the Canadian War Museum has used its galleries to create a narrative describing Canada as a distinct nation forged "in the fire of battle." However, these narratives are not immutable. Without adapting to the changing expectations of their visitors, war museums risk losing their status as 'sites of transformation' to instead become sites of stagnation.

The Resilience of Russian Women in Revolutionary Russia

Caitlin Kyle — 2022-06-16

During a small window after the Bolshevik Revolution, from 1917 to the mid 1920’s, women in Russia experienced greater freedoms and gender equality than many other women in the Western World. This essay explores the variety of female roles in Russia leading up to the Revolution and throughout the interwar period to evaluate what influences they had over their newfound freedoms. It also highlights the achievements of Alexandra Kollontai, the Marxist theoretician who worked with Vladimir Lenin to improve legislation for female autonomy in domestic, social, and political life. I argue that women – particularly working-class women – were instrumental in the revolution, but that women’s rights and advocacy differed along class lines.

Mapping the Conversation: Tracing Incommensurability and Solidarity in Theories of Indigenous and Diasporic Liberation.

Joey Mauro — 2022-06-16

This paper traces incommensurability and solidarity in theories of Indigenous and Diasporic liberation. The author takes the position that Indigenous and diasporic forms of liberation are both deeply related and sharply divided. While these groups share histories of displacement and oppression––usually through settler-colonial, capitalist expropriation of lands, resources, and the exploitation of labour––their differences are equally prominent in their distinct formulation of liberation. While these groups both want to build a new world, the worlds they want to build are not the same. By mapping out the tensions between Indigenous and diasporic conceptions of liberation as they are addressed in theory and scholarship, we can glimpse a deeper understanding of the respective ontological ideals and stark differences in the worlds both groups aspire to build. Historically, however, people organizing have found ways to go beyond incommensurability in praxis where joint resistance becomes the only option for realizing liberation.

Pearl Harbour and the Unification of Japan: a New Perspective on the Attack of Pearl Harbour through a Japanese Pan-Asianist Lens

Sakiko Noda — 2022-06-16

On December 7th (8th in Japan) 1941, Japan, without provocation, bombed Hawai'i's Pearl Harbour, effectively imposing war on the United States. Since this event, much of the world at large has questioned why Japan would wage war with such a powerful nation without any chance of victory. This paper offers an alternative perspective on the popular history of the events of Pearl Harbour by examining former relations between Japan and the U.S., and how those relations impacted Japan's motives behind the attack. Japan's strike on the West was fueled by the objective of Pan-Asianism, an ideology which was paramount in Japan's ongoing search for identity and its feelings of obligation in protecting other Asian countries from the perceived harm of the West. With this understanding, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour, however misguided, may be regarded as an attempt to attain a sense of identity and unity.

A History of Asexuality: From Medical Problem to a Recognized Sexual Orientation

Emily Stremel — 2022-06-16