Volume 11 (2025)

Letter from the Editors

On behalf of the MSU Undergraduate Historian, we are thrilled topresent our spring edition for the 2024-25 academic year. After a long hiatus brought on by various factors, we were proud to publish. Volume 10, our fall edition, in late January. The volume you hold today represents an even quicker turnaround. Our call-for-papers went out in February with a mid-March deadline, followed by our regular editing process and a second round of revisions from our wonderful authors.

We are deeply grateful for the level of interest we’ve received in the journal, especially as we transition off the editorial board for the upcoming school year. From writing to editing, and formatting to technical support, this is a collective effort and a testament to the expertise and dedication of the people in it—staff, faculty, and students alike.

With that said, we would like to thank our nine authors for taking a chance on us and on their own work, which we learn so much from editing and simply reading. The diversity of interests in this department is on full display in this issue, which runs the historical (and disciplinary) gamut. Many thanks to Allison O’Connor, Jonah Wiegand, Delaney Cram, Katharine Henige, Alex Reed, Luke Lassan, Kara (Ah Hyun) Hwang, Charlie Horne, and Britton Gustafson. We couldn’t do this without you, and we are so proud to showcase your scholarship on behalf of the department.

There are so many people who made this issue possible and who are yet unmentioned. Dr. Ethan Segal, our faculty advisor, was again instrumental to bring this to print. We thank him for his patience and precision in the editing process and for demonstrating what goes into historical scholarship and publication. We would also like to issue a blanket “thank you” to all faculty of the department for providing students with the know-how and the opportunity to do original research and write the sorts of papers that can be submitted to our journal (or others). We are committed to the craft of history even as confidence in the humanities and in organic writing seems to wane.

We were very happy to receive approval to publish this issue in print again, thanks to the generosity of the department and Chairperson Michael Stamm. We’d also like to express our appreciation to Julie Taylor, Publishing Services Coordinator in the MSU Libraries, for helping us format our PDF file for print and getting the print run done swiftly and seamlessly. There’s something special about holding a tangible product, even as we appreciate the accessibility and ease of digital publication.

On that note, we are also deeply indebted to Dr. Gillian MacDonald and Dr. Dean Rehberger in the LEADR Lab for helping us bring this issue not only to the internet, but to a permanent page on the department website. We hope that this will expand our reach and allow for continuity as we pass the torch to next year’s co-editors, Katherine Dyal and Cassia Bennett. We are confident that Katherine and Cassia will keep the journal flourishing and give aspiring undergraduate authors of historical research ample opportunities to submit, revise, revise again, and get published. It has been a joy and a privilege to edit the journal this term. We hope that you enjoy this special spring issue and that you consider submitting your work for a future edition.

With gratitude,

Trey Davis and Anna LePage

Michigan State Journal of History