Historians study the past in its variety and complexity. With such an analysis, students of history gain multiple perspectives on the present and an aptitude to plan intelligently for the future. Although the lessons to be learned from the past are rarely simple, solutions to present-day problems rest on comprehension of historical forces and events. History deepens our understanding of other peoples and cultures. All courses offered in the History Department seek to examine the issues of race, gender, class, and cultural diversity.
Modified from history.calpoly.edu
Senior Projects from 2021
The Free Arena of Literature: Science Fiction Films’ Critiques of Capitalism in the United States, John (Jack) Michael Bilello
A Battle Over 20th Century Textbooks: How the Civil War is Still Fought in American Classrooms, Katie Court
Nopal en la Frente: Racial Passing and the Hidden Indigeneity of the Los Altos Region of Jalisco, 1720-1950, Brandon Manuel Márquez
Trudging the Road of Happy Destiny: The Gift Economy in Early Alcoholics Anonymous History and the Creation of The Big Book, Timothy J. Parker
From Sidious to Nixon: The Parallels Between Star Wars and Vietnam, Brennan Simpson
Senior Projects from 2020
Phrenology, Physical Anthropology and Ethnology: Nineteenth-Century Race Science and the Foundations of Eurocentrism, McKenzie Jayne Leeds
The Sage Without a Country: The Political and Literary Life of Dr. Shih-Shun Liu (劉 師 舜) (1900-1996), Caleb Yung-Jen Liu
The Holocaust and Human Experimentation: The Nazi Approach to Medicine, Samantha Miller
"Obstinate, Impertinent, Ill-Conditioned": Child Labor, Exploitation and Xenophobia in the British Home Children Movement, Hannah Lauren Palma
The Midnight Ride of Sybil Ludington: A Forgotten Hero in the Shadow of Paul Revere, Jessica Kay Rebollo
Silence Over Their Tombs: A Microhistory of American Perceptions of Alcoholism in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries Using the Adams Family Papers, Lucy Rebecca Wickstrom
Senior Projects from 2019
Losing Our Minds to Madness: Paradigm Changes in Western European Perceptions of Mental Illness, James Michael Cecil
At the Intersection of Hope and Despair: Korea’s Uncertain Trajectory in the 1980s, Haley Noelle Cole
Post-Partition Sikh Immigrant Experiences in the United States, Athamjit Singh Dhaddey
The History of High School Ethnic Studies Courses in California: A Case Study of Santa Maria Joint Union High School District, Brian Gounod
難於登天 Harder Than Climbing to Heaven: Fighter Aviation in the Republic of China Air Force (1928-1994), Jordan Andy Li
Immigration, Incarceration, Deportation: Asian Americans in the Criminal Justice System, Agnes Mung
Town and Gown: How Poly Royal and the Riots Shaped the Relationship Between Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo, 1960-1993, Halie Jinae Swanson
Send Them Your Heart: USA for Africa, The Eritrea Shallow Wells Project, and a Song That Defined American Pop Culture, Charlie Williams
Senior Projects from 2018
The Taiko Connection: Reclaiming History, Activating Equality, Tamiko Cavey
President Jimmy Carter as an Activist?: Understanding President Carter’s Human Rights Policy in El Salvador during 1980 through a Social Justice Lens, Vanaaisha Das Pamnani
Old Belief and the Balance of Red and Blue: How Old Believers Managed Cultural Infringement, Joseph K. van den Berg
Senior Projects from 2017
Eighteenth Century Women and the Business of Making Glass Music, Kate M. Hepworth
Strange Women: The Evaluation and Comparison of Female Characters in Akira Kurosawa's Films, Alice Jiron Jang
The Nuremberg Trials as a Form of Transitional Justice, Nicholas A. Richey