2021 Northern Great Plains History Conference

  • All sessions will take place at the Lismore Hotel *

The Registration Desk will be open:

7:30am – 4:00pm Thursday and Friday

7:30am – 9:30am Saturday

Each session room will have both a projector and a computer. Presenters utilizing the projector should bring their file on a flash drive. If the software is not common in academic contexts, bringing your own computer would be a good precaution. Wi-fi access in the Lismore is generally strong, but unless it's essential to go online, bringing the file with you is safer. Those of you presenting virtually or chairing a session with a virtual presenter will receive relevant access information by email.

Session Schedule

Thursday Morning, Sept. 23

Thursday, 8:00am to 9:30am, Room: Wilson A

Classic Military History

Chair and Commenter: Joshua Nudell, Truman State University

  • Avery Sage, “Chaotic Endeavors: Gallienus’ Efforts in Saving Rome from the Crisis of the Third Century”

  • Dan Powers, “Xanthippos the Spartan Trained Mercenary at Carthage”

  • Graham Wrightson, “No Title (Why Pyrrhus Lost)”

Thursday, 8:00am to 9:30am, Room: Wilson F

Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Political History

Chair and Commenter: Oscar Chamberlain, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire

  • Anita Gaul, “The (Not So) Invisible Empire: the KKK in Southwest Minnesota in the 1920s”

  • Thomas Tandy Lewis, “The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dialectic on Affirmative Action: from Griggs v. Duke Power Company Until SFFA v. Harvard

  • Bernard Lemelin, “The National Review and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1955-1975”

Thursday, 10:00am to 11:30am, Room: Wilson A

Presidential History

Chair and Commenter: Steve Sheehan, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh-Fox Cities

  • Sue Patrick, “Presidential Elections of 1932 and 1936 from Northwestern Wisconsin”

  • Philip Grant, “Northern Great Plains Press Reaction to the Death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt”

  • Jonathan Hedeen, “Hollywood and the Continuity of Government: Historical Depictions of Presidential Succession in Media and Pop Culture”

  • Thomas Saylor, “Minnesota Residents and the 2020 Presidential Election”

Thursday, 10:00am to 11:30am, Room: Wilson F

Agriculture, Land Use, Economy, and Labor

Chair and Commenter: Elizabeth Jozwiak, University of Wisconsin Whitewater-Rock County

  • Ryan Moore, “Analysis of the Living History Farm (LHF) and the Living History Farm Movement through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s”

  • Mark Myrdal, “‘The Third Power’: James A Everitt and the American Society of Equity”

  • Scott Randolph, “The Question of Value: Railway Valuation Theory and Practice in a “Banner Progressive State”

Thursday, 10:00am to 11:30am, Room: Wilson CD

Public Service: Writing History for a General Audience

Chair: Lori Lahlum, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Comment: Audience

  • Rachael Hanel, Minnesota State University, Mankato

  • Amy Mattson Lauters, Minnesota State University, Mankato

  • Linda LeGarde Grover, University of Minnesota-Duluth

  • Thomas D. Isern, North Dakota State University

Lunch: 11:30 am-1:30 pm

(The Society for Military History Luncheon will be held in Wilson B)

Thursday Afternoon, Sept. 23

Thursday, 1:30pm to 3:00pm, Room: Wilson A

Treatises, Spying, and Training Through the Centuries (SMH Session)

Chair and Commenter: George Eaton, United States Army, Rock Island Arsenal

  • John J. Riggs, “The Use and Influence of Military Treatises during the Medieval Period”

  • Adrian Manning, “The Lost Meeting of George Washington and Israel Putnam”

  • Adam Petty, “The Nauvoo Legion in Perilous Times”

  • Jeff Schultz, “Blunting the Bo Doi Blitz: Godley’s Clandestine Coalition and the Defeat of Campaign 74B, 1971”

Thursday, 1:30pm to 3:00pm, Room: Wilson F

Religion and Ethnicity in the Northern Great Plains

Chair and Commenter: Jameel Haque, Minnesota State University, Mankato

  • Elizabeth Foss, “Mikdash Me’at in the American West: Judaism Religious Practice and Innovation”

  • Adam Peterson, “‘Let My People Go’: Catholic Responses to the Minneapolis Plymouth Disturbance”

  • Dave Grettler, “Rev. Moses N. Adams and Grant’s Peace Policy in the Early Sisseton Wahpeton Reservation”

  • Stephen Cusulos, ““Assimilation as a Fundamentally Flawed Concept: What History Teaches Us”

Thursday, 1:30pm to 3:00pm, Room: Wilson CD

Teaching the History and Literature of the Holocaust: A Roundtable Discussion of an Interdisciplinary Approach to Holocaust Studies

Chair: Mark Karau, University of Wisconsin Green Bay; Comment: Audience

  • Mark Karau, Professor of History and Humanities, University of Wisconsin Green Bay

  • Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier, Associate Professor of English and Humanities, University of Wisconsin Green Bay

  • Tabatha Zwicky, Undergraduate Student, University of Wisconsin Green Bay

  • Charles Kriescher, Undergraduate Student, University of Wisconsin Green Bay

Thursday, 3:30pm to 5:00pm, Room: Wilson A

American Experiences in World War I (SMH Session)

Chair and Commenter: Jonathan Epstein, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

  • Johannes Allert, “‘I’m as restless as a lion’: Ruth Cutler’s Precarious Adventure in the American Red Cross”

  • Terrence J. Lindell, “Letters from France: World War I Soldiers Write Home to Bremer County, Iowa”

  • Matthew Jay Savage, “The Battle of Cantigny, Field Order 18, and the Evolution of American Infantry Doctrine in World War I”

Thursday, 3:30pm to 5:00pm, Room: Wilson F

Classical Cultural History

Chair and Commenter: Charles Reid, University of St. Thomas

  • Kaia Brose, “Athena Parthenos: Athenian Cultural Imperialism and the Patriarchy”

  • Victoria Gyori, “Leadership Through Numismatics: The Coins of Nero and Benito Mussolini”

  • Joshua Nudell, “Remembering Proskynesis: Reconsidering an Episode of Cultural Conflict in the Reign of Alexander the Great”

  • Zach Boettcher, “Backwards, Turned Around, and Upside Down: the Curious Case of Tomasso Poracchi’s Map of Menorca”

Thursday, 3:30pm to 5:00pm, Room: Wilson CD

Immigration, Refugees, and the Midwest

Chair and Commenter: Cheryl Jimenez-Frei; Audience

  • Sabrina Escalante, “The Bracero Program: An Introduction of Mexican Immigrants in South Dakota during World War II”

  • Alexis Polencheck, Breida Torres Berumen, and Wendy Villalva, “Rural Voices/Voces del Campo: COVID-19 Oral Histories, Public Health, and Latinx Immigrant Farmworkers in Rural Wisconsin”

  • Dakotah Willems, “Nebraskan Attitudes Toward World War II Jewish Refugees”

  • Grace Ward, “Syrian-Lebanese Immigration to North Dakota, 1885-1930”

Thursday 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

reception

room: wilson b

Friday Morning, Sept. 24

Friday, 8:00am to 9:30am, Room: Wilson A

Waldemar Ager and Progressive-Era Eau Claire

Chair: Robert J. Gough, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire; Commenter: Robert Zeidel, University of Wisconsin – Stout

  • Brian L. Blakely, Texas Tech University, “Waldemar Ager and the Progressive-Era Norwegian Immigrant Community in Eau Claire”

  • Gregory Kocken, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, “Waldemar Ager and Women’s Suffrage”

Friday, 8:00am to 9:30am, Room: Wilson F

New Applications of Historiographical Approaches to Indigenous History

Chair: Chad McCutchen, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Comment: Audience

  • Brianna DeValk, Minnesota State University, Mankato

  • Ikwe Mennen, Minnesota State University, Mankato

  • Abigail Fer, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Friday, 8:00am to 9:30am, Room: Wilson C

The United States Prepares for the Second World War (SMH Session)

Chair and Commenter: Thomas Hanson, United States Army Command and General Staff College

  • Victoria Bryant Stewart, “Service Demanded and Service Given: U.S. Conscription before World War II”

  • Robert F. Williams, “‘Good landing, good fight, and good luck’: Proving the Efficacy of Large-Scale Airborne Operations during Operation Husky, July 1943”

  • Jerry Martin, “Training in the Heartland: Nebraska and Force Training for World War II”

Friday, 8:00am to 9:30am, Room: Wilson D

Me Too in the Archive: The Politics of Writing the History of Sexual Assault (WHIG Session)

Chair and Commenter: Kristin Mapel Bloomberg; Audience

  • Nikki Berg Burin, University of North Dakota

  • Kristin Mapel Bloomberg, Hamline University

  • Lori Ann Lahlam, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Friday, 10:00am to 11:30am, Room: Wilson A

Popular Participation and the Political Tradition in the Upper Midwest: Spearfishing to Sturgis

Chair and Commenter: Paisley Harris, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh--Fond du Lac

  • Catherine McNicol Stock, Connecticut College, "Legendary: The Politics and Culture of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally"

  • Cory Haala, University of Houston, "'The League was there for the Indians, so the Indians were there for the League': Promises and Pitfalls of White-Native Populism in the 1980s Midwest"

  • Michael Jacobs, “Challenging the Assumption of Klan Initiated Violence: The Case of Wisconsin”

  • Daryl Webb, “‘Milwaukee … Will Be Governed by the Social Democrat’: Mayor Emil Seidel and the Birth of Sewer Socialism”

Friday, 10:00am to 11:30am, Room: Wilson F

Social Memory and Indigenous Historical Narratives

Chair: Chad McCutchen, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Comment: Audience

  • Sara Tosteson, Minnesota State University, Mankato

  • Kassandra Mackenthun, Minnesota State University, Mankato

  • Paul Spyhalski, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Friday, 10:00am to 11:30am, Room: Wilson C

Connecting Past and Present: Contextualizing Pandemics, Gender, and Race from Contemporary Times into the Past

Chair: Robert W. Galler, Jr., St Cloud State University

  • Marissa Hendrickson, St. Cloud State University, “Women’s Basketball at St. Cloud State University: A Century of Change”

  • Renee Goerdt, St. Cloud State University, “The Trajectory of Racial Equality in Early Minnesota”

  • Jennifer Sonterre, St.Cloud State University, “Enduring Disenfranchisement: Retaining Voting Rights”

Lunch: 11:30 am-1:30 pm

(The Women’s History Interest Group Luncheon will be held in Wilson B)

Friday Afternoon, Sept. 24

Friday, 1:30pm to 3:00pm, Room: Wilson A

Military History

Chair and Commenter: Mark Karau

  • Wylie Caras, “Sleight of Hand, Hidden Hammer: the Soviet Summer Offensives of 1944 and Their Origins”

  • Tauri Madziise, “The Unsung Soldiers: Analyze the Welfare of War Collaborators in the Second Chimurenga, 1980-2016 (Zimbabwe)”

  • Brett Barker, “‘The Great Era of the Age Has Come’: A Wisconsin Civilian’s Remarkable Civil War”

Friday, 1:30pm to 3:00pm, Room: Wilson F

Women’s Political Activism in the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century (WHIG Session)

Chair and Commenter: Kristin Mapel Bloomberg, Hamline University

  • Kelly Kirk, Black Hills State University, “Next Causes: Women’s Activism After the Vote”

  • Bethany Andreasen, Minot State University, “‘Let us all understand the big issues:’ The Nonpartisan Leader and “The Farm Women’s Page”

  • Lisa Payne Ossian, Emerita Professor of History, Des Moines Area Community College, “The ‘I Too’ Temperance Movement: A Re-Evaluation of Midwestern Women’s Political Action at the Turn of the Last Century”

Friday, 1:30pm to 3:00pm, Room: Wilson C

Women, Political Agency, and Power

Chair and Commenter: Roxanne K. Muldoon, Independent Scholar

  • Kathryn Hicks, “‘Power to the Wives’: How Anne Boleyn and Katharine Parr Gained and Used their Power during their Time as Queen” (undergrad)

  • Jennifer Helton, “Esther Morris and Her Historians: A Suffrage Controversy”

  • Charles Barber, “Lydia Cady Langer (1850-1959): A Maverick in Her Own Right”

  • Paisley Harris, “‘Will the Real Ma Rainey Please Stand Up’: Narratives of the Life, Performances and Career of Ma Rainey”

Friday, 3:30pm to 5:00pm, Room: Wilson A

Native Americans and Education

Chair and Commenter: Andrew Sturtevant, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire; Audience

  • Steven Stofferahn, “Twilight at Dawn? Ambivalence and Anxiety in Dakota Benedictine Missions”

  • Eric Bennett, “The Damages Done: Colonization and Assimilation of Native Americans in the Boarding Schools”

  • Anna Peterson, “A Case Study of native American Experiences at Lutheran Colleges, 1940s to 1950s”

  • Abigail Fer, “Meriam’s Momentary Metamorphosis: Progressive Education and the Indian New Deal”

Friday, 3:30pm to 5:00pm, Room: Wilson F

Education: Representation, Erasure, and Memory

Chair and Commenter: Stanley Arnold, University of Northern Illinois

  • Brie Swenson-Arnold, “‘There is a great work going on here’: Daniel Coe and Higher Education in the Midwest and South during the Civil War”

  • Alexandria Gonclaves, “Long Twilight Struggles”

  • Mitchell Cozad, “How the High School Education System Has Affected the Image and Role of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X”

Friday, 3:30pm to 5:00pm, Room: Wilson C

The Wages of War

Chair: Timothy Shiell, University of Wisconsin – Stout

  • Robert J. Gough, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, “The Business of Doctoring During the Inter-War Years”

  • Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, “Lessons from the Deacons of Defense and Justice for Today’s Activists”

  • Gaius Stern, University of California – Berkeley, “Pyrrhus and the Roman POWs”

Friday, sept 24, 6:00pm to 7:00pm, ROOM: WILSON B

COCKTAIL HOUR

FRIDAY, SEPT 24, 7:00PM TO 8:30PM, ROOM: WILSON B

BANQUET

Saturday Morning, Sept. 25

Saturday, 8:00am to 9:30am, Room: Wilson A

Region, Environment, and Identity in the American West

Chair and Commenter: Michael J. Lansing, Professor of History, Augsburg University

  • Mark Harvey, “Bernard DeVoto and the Environmental History of the American West”

  • Molly P. Rozum, “Creating Place on North America’s Northern Grasslands”

  • Lori Ann Lahlum, ““A Wild Looking Place”: Creating Home on the Northern Great Plains”

Saturday, 8:00am to 9:30am, Room: Wilson F

Marriage, Agency, and the Family

Chair and Commenter: Joanne Jahnke-Wegner, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

  • Drew Folk, “Assault, Adultery, and Absence: Gender and the Struggle for Personal Autonomy in the Nebraska Sandhills During the Great Depression, 1929-1941”

  • Michael Mullin, “Sioux Falls and the Divorce Wars: from Frontier Community to a ‘Respectable’ Town”

Saturday, 10:00am to 11:30am, Room: Wilson A

The Long Arc of History: Applying Yesterday’s Lessons Learned (SMH Session)

Chair and Commenter: Christopher Johnson, United States Army Command and General Staff College; David Mills, United States Army Command and General Staff College

  • David Cotter, Director, Department of Military History, United States Army Command and General Staff College

  • Thomas Hanson, Professor, SAMS, Army University

  • Martin Clemis, Associate Professor, United States Army Command and General Staff College

Saturday, 10:00am to 11:30am, Room: Wilson F

University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire History Department Summer Research Scholarship Projects

Chairs: Cheryl Jimenez-Frei, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire; Joanne Jahnke-Wagner, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

  • Weston Weisensel and Adler Orr: "Crisis, Community, and Change: Public Health in Rural Wisconsin, 1900-Present"

  • Tiffany Goetz: “Re-examining Women’s Roles During the Civil War and Reconstruction”