Senior Seminar

#seniorseminar: Leonie Alderson & Actresses in Late Victorian England

In this interview, Leonie shares her experience researching and writing about the lives of women who were working in the public eye in Britain in the late 19th century.

Brooke Thompson & “Little Losses: An Analysis of Child Mortality and Grief in Nineteenth-Century Tallahassee”

Brooke devoted her senior seminar project to researching child burial practices at the Old City Cemetery in Tallahassee. She wanted to research something local and utilize local resources available at the State Archives of Florida.

#seniorseminar: Meredith Glahn & “Gender and British Convict Transportation in the 1830s”

When Dr. Upchurch introduced his students to different primary sources for their senior seminar project, Meredith was immediately drawn to working with the trial records available through the Old Bailey Online. She focused on people condemned to transportation.

#SeniorSeminar – Catherine Patillo and “We are Going to the Game: Building memories at Doak Campbell Stadium”

When Catherine Patillo decided to work on the history of Doak Campbell Stadium for her senior seminar paper, she quickly discovered that there was a lot of material available in FSU's Special Collection. In this interview, Patillo describes how she stayed on top of her primary sources and the writing of her research paper.

#seniorseminar - An interview with Wesley Grayson (FSU 2023)

Last fall, Wesley Grayson chose the senior seminar with the title "Crimes of the Powerful and Civil Resistance." In this interview, he explains the challenges of working on a topic that relies heavily on non-English language sources.

#Senior Seminar John Hight - Trailblazing Women on the Track and Road: The Impact of Interwar Racing and Driving on Traditional Gender Roles

John Hight researched how women's participation in car racing and driving in the interwar period (1918-1939) in Britain reflected changing gender roles and representations in society.

#seniorseminar: Alexandra Palmeri & “Bilingual Education and How it Impacted Latinx Identity in an English Dominant Society, 1964-2015”

History major Alexandra graduated from Florida State in Spring 2023. In this interview, she explains how she decided on her research topic, sets out the sources she used from newspaper articles to government records to art, and shares what helped her stay on track with her project.

#seniorseminar: Jillian Diaz & “Famine amid Total War in Greater Syria and Lebanon”

The senior seminar is History's capstone course in which History majors pursue research in a topic of their choice. Follow along with Jillian to see what it was like to research and write her senior seminar paper.

#Seniorseminar: Ryan Karcher & “The Kaiser-Sultan Bond”

History major Ryan completed his senior seminar with Dr. Nilay Özok-Gündoğan. He had always been interested in military history and the seminar on 'World War I and the Middle East' was a great fit. Ryan's advice: "Be passionate about the work you do – and you will do well. If you find something you love, it will not seem like work to you."

#SeniorSeminar: Elizabeth Richardson & “From Playing Indian to Playing Seminole: How Florida State University’s Usage of Native Imagery Changed from Appropriation to Representation”

Elizabeth Richardson took Dr. Andrew Frank's 'FSU and the Seminole Tribe' for her senior seminar class. The project she researched and wrote on provides an in-depth analysis of the Native American imagery utilized by Florida State from the time the university chose the Seminoles as its icon in 1947 to the symbolism employed by the university today. "Being raised a Gator, I knew only a little about Florida State’s traditions and nothing about FSU’s real connection to the Seminole tribe. This course provided me with mountains of information regarding FSU’s history, becoming my favorite undergrad course, ...".