Below are theses and dissertations completed by graduates of the University of Nevada Las Vegas History Department.
For the entire collection of UNLV theses and dissertations, visit UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
Theses/Dissertations from 2023
Getting Hitched and Unhitched: The History of Marriage and Divorce in Las Vegas, 1931-1965, Angela Christine Moor
Theses/Dissertations from 2022
Exodus Arena: Cashman Field and the (Re)Development of Sports and Recreation in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, Ryan Browar
“Who Says Lowriders Are Only For Men?”: Lowriders In Las Vegas, Nevada, Alejandra Herrera
Policing Sin City: The Creation and Impact of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, 1973-1985, Richard Kim
Saving the Bad Kids, Caging Los Chicos Malos: Racialized Juvenile Justice and Latinx Youth in the U.S-Mexico Borderlands, 1900-1970, Doris S. Morgan Rueda
Promoting Paradise: The Recruitment of Volga German Immigrants to the American Midwest, 1870-1900, Kassidy N. Whetstone
Scientific Collaboration and the Cold War: 1945-1970, Autumn Wyland
Theses/Dissertations from 2021
The Frontier of the Labor Movement: Latinas and the Longest Strike in Twentieth-Century Las Vegas, Maribel Estrada Calderón
Theses/Dissertations from 2020
The Fabric of Civil War Society: The Effect of Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1861 to 1939, Shae Cox
Changing Paradigms: Creating an Apache Borderland Cattle Economy, 1730-1799, Jenni Tifft-Ochoa
Theses/Dissertations from 2019
Eyes on the Street: Los Angeles Police Department Surveillance, Policing, and Crime in Black South Central from William Parker to Rodney King, Stephen Bohigian
“On the Altar of Sectarianism”: Orson Murray’s Anti-Biblical Thought and the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833-1863, James Carson Howard
Beyond Suffrage: Intermarriage, Land, and Meanings of Citizenship and Marital Naturalization/Expatriation in the United States, Shiori Yamamoto
Theses/Dissertations from 2018
“Need We Mention Our Fashions? “The Educational, Entertaining, and Nostalgic Uses of Godey’s Lady’s Book Fashion Plates, 1830 To 1940, Maggie Bukowski
Mixing the Business of Pleasure: How Mixing Shaped the Labor and Narratives of Female Entertainers in Mid-Twentieth Century America, Evan Maryl Casey
To Remain Near the "Water Ditch," Paiute Sovereignty and United States Settler Colonialism, Owens Valley, California, 1870-1937, Lee Murray Hanover
"The Only People Who Can Get AIDS-Are People": The AIDS Crisis in Mainstream Crisis, 1981-1995, Franklin Howard
Power and Authority of Royal Queen Mothers: Juxtaposing the French Queen Regent and the Ottoman Validé Sultan During the Early Modern Period, Reneé N. Langlois
Outer Space in a Western Place: How Environmental Perceptions of the American West Shaped the Space Race, William Marino
Cultivating Children: Continuity and Change in African-American Child Labor During the Reconstruction Era, 1863-1877, Alan Mattay
Case Study: Armenian and Cuban Ethnic Interest Groups in American Foreign Policy, Harry H. Terzian
Theses/Dissertations from 2017
A Historical Case Study of Title IX in Nevada: An Excellent Investment in Our Youth, Jason Clark
Reaching across Land and Ocean: Daughters of Bilitis, Minorities Research Group, and Resistance Formation in the International Lesbian Network, Linsey Scriven
The Transformation of American Federalism, 1848-1912, Lance Sorenson
Theses/Dissertations from 2016
Family, Housing, and the Political Geography of Gay Liberation in Los Angeles County, 1960-1986, Ian M. Baldwin
Homeland, Homestead, and Haven: The Changing Perspectives of Zion National Park, 1700-1930, Sara Black
“The Ground You Walk on Belongs to My People": Lakota Community Building, Activism, and Red Power in Western Nebraska, 1917-2000, David Christensen
Nindanishinaabewimin: Ojibwe Peoplehood in the North American West, 1854-1954, Margaret Huettl
From Access to Excess: Agribusiness, Federal Water Programs, and the Historical Roots of the California Water Crisis, Tracy Marie Neblina
Theses/Dissertations from 2015
Nevada Legal Services: The Legal Services Corporation Restrictions and the Diminishing Capacity of Access to Justice for the Poor, William Todd Ashmore
Alaska Natives And The Power Of Perseverance: The Fight For Sovereignty And Land Claims In Southeast Alaska, 1912-1947, Bridget Lee Baumgarte
Creating the Black California Dream: Virna Canson and the Black Freedom Struggle in the Golden State’s Capital, 1940-1988, Kendra M. Gage
Regulating the Dead: Rights for the Corpse and the Removal of San Francisco's Cemeteries, Lance Muckey
Reviving a Spirit of Controversy: Roman Catholics and the Pursuit of Religious Freedom in Early America, Nicholas Pellegrino
The Will of the Master: Testamentary Manumission in Virginia, 1800-1858, Catherine Wisnosky
Theses/Dissertations from 2014
No Prejudice Here: Racism, Resistance, and the Struggle for Equality in Denver, 1947-1994, Summer Marie Cherland
Las Vegas in an Era of Limits: Urban Water Politics in the Colorado River Basin, Christian S. Harrison
Slavery, Sacred Texts, and the Antebellum Confrontation with History, Jordan Tuttle Watkins
Theses/Dissertations from 2013
Dressing Indian: Appropriation, Identity, and American Design, 1940-1968, Alison Rose Bazylinski
Actresses Redefining Theater and Femininity in Eighteenth-Century France, Rebecca Anne Bolen
Claiming Citizenship: Las Vegas' Conventional Women's Organizations Establishing Citizenship Through Civic Engagement, Cynthia Cicero
From Daimon to Demon: The Evolution of the Demon from Antiquity to Early Christianity, Hailey Marie Fuller
The Quebec Act and the Demise of Greater Britain, Trevor Michael Henson
Our Turn: Working Women In The Las Vegas Valley, 1940-1980, Irene B. Scholl Rostine
Theses/Dissertations from 2012
Captivity, Adoption, Marriage and Identity: Native American Children in Mormon Homes, 1847-1900., Michael Kay Bennion
New Deal Cowboy: Gene Autry and Public Diplomacy, Michael Dean Duchemin
American Propaganda, Popular Media, and the Fall of Jacobo Arbenz, Zachary Carl Fisher
Creating a Nation in Adversity: Advent of Egyptian Nationalism in British Occupation, Kathryn Louise James
Reclaimed from a Contracting Zion: The Evolving Significance of St. Thomas, Nevada, Aaron James Mcarthur
"So Much for Fond Five-Dollar Memories": Prostitution in Las Vegas, 1905-1955, Marie Katherine Rowley
To Set the World Right: Religious Pluralism and the Progressive Era, Lance Sorenson
Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Germany. A Transnational History., Julia Simone Stetler
Die Deutschen in Kalifornien: Germans in Urban California, 1850-1860, Carole Cosgrove Terry
Theses/Dissertations from 2011
The Size of the risk: An environmental history of the nuclear Great Basin, Leisl Ann Carr Childers
From khaki to brown: Community formation, homeownership, and mobility in Santa Ana, California, 1950-2000, Stefani Jan Evans
1983: The most dangerous year, Andrew R. Garland
Newe country: Environmental degradation, resource war, irrigation and the transformation of culture on Idaho's Snake River plain, 1805--1927, Sterling Ross Johnson
For the benefit of others: Harriet Martineau: feminist, abolitionist and travel writer, Laura J. Labovitz
Taming the waters that taketh from the devil’s playground: A history of flood control in Clark County, Nevada, 1955-2010, Jarvis Marlow
Jackpot! A legal history of Indian gaming in California, Aaron Peardon
Gambling with lives: A history of occupational health in southern Nevada, 1905--2010, Michelle Ann Turk
The Whiter lotus: Asian religions and reform movements in America, 1836-1933, Edgar A. Weir Jr.
On the back of the army: A comparative study of Romanization in Britain and Egypt, Renee Wiseman
Theses/Dissertations from 2010
From ‘baggage’ to not ‘non-persons’: Levy v. Louisiana and the struggle for equal rights for ‘illegitimate’ children, Sherrie Anne Bakelar
Fire on the mountain: Growth and conflict in Colorado ski country, Michael W. Childers
Saints in Sin City: Religion and community building in twentieth century Las Vegas, Matthew R. Davis
The Gendering of Nevada politics: The ERA ratification campaign, 1973-1981, Caryll Batt Dziedziak
Multiform segregation in the context of the urban crises in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, 1930 - 1980, Colin M. FitzGerald
Weapons labs and city growth: Livermore and Albuquerque, 1945-1975, Layne Rochelle Karafantis
Building DuPont: Capitalism, manufactures, and place in early America, 1800-1820, Christopher Manning
Preserving the past and planning the future in Pasadena, Riverside and San Bernardino, Charles Conway Palmer
Atomic governance: Militarism, secrecy, and science in post-war America, 1945-1958, Mary D. Wammack
Transforming space into place: Development, rock climbing, and interpretation in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, 1960-2010, Megan Sharp Weatherly
Theses/Dissertations from 2009
'So manie gallant gentlemen': Imperial humanists and Tudor imperial identity, Karin Alana Amundsen
Governor James G. Scrugham and the search for economic prosperity for Nevada, 1923--1927, Paul Robert Bruno
Chinese transnationalism and the creation of a liberal public sphere, Lanelle Elizabeth Christman
Stigma Cities: Dystopian Urban Identities In The United States West And South In The Twentieth Century, Jonathan Lavon Foster
"The Varied carols I hear": The music of the New Deal in the West, Peter L. Gough
Water use and natural limits in the Las Vegas Valley: A history of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Christian Harrison
Gray Zones of modern genocide, Megan Dale Lee
The plunge into secession: The Presbyterian schism of the Reverends. Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell and Benjamin Morgan Palmer, Deborah Jane Rayner
"The latent enmity of Georgia": Sherman's March and its effects on the social division of Georgia, Michael Jason Spurr
Mining wars: Corporate expansion and labor violence in the Western desert, 1876-1920, Kenneth Dale Underwood
Shuttle to serenity: The history and impact of Zion National Park's transportation system, Reuben Edward Wadsworth