Each history graduate student's research culminates in the masters thesis: a 90-150 page document which must then be defended in front of a thesis committee of three faculty members. Once a student successfully defends their thesis before the thesis committee, they finally earn their Masters Degree.
Because the thesis requires a great deal of work, students usually take a minimum of one year (and sometimes more) to write their thesis. Each thesis consists of original work from the student, presenting primary resources they've found in various archives in order to argue for a specific historical interpretation or narrative. Completing a graduate thesis is an enormous accomplishment and demonstrates the student's academic and research skills they've developed and accumulated over the course of their stay here at Western.
The following is a table of recent graduate theses. Every graduate thesis written by a Western student can be found in the Western Washington University libraries.
| Student | Thesis Title | Year Completed |
|---|---|---|
| Abigail Russell | A Malleable Strength: The Formation of Jewish Identity in Response to Imperialism in Antiquity | 2017 |
| Brent Gaspaire | Rethinking the "Ghetto Synthesis": Problems and Prospects in the Black Metropolis | 2017 |
| Kim M. Davidson | More Than Faith: Latter-day Saint Women as Politically Aware and Active Americans, 1830-1860 | 2017 |
| Aron Miller | Scandinavian Origins through Christian Eyes: A Comparative Study of the History of the Normans and the Russian Primary Chronicle | 2016 |
| Adam Y. Chang | Toward Sovereignty: Zhang Zhidong's Military Strengthening of China, 1884-1901 | 2016 |
| Christopher Anderson | Three Languages, One Nation: Trilingualism and National Identity in England, from the Mid-Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Century | 2015 |
| Jacob T. Sager | Keeper of the Flame: Antifascist Feature Films and the Hollywood Popular Front, 1934-1941 | 2015 |
| Kaden M. Jelsing | "We Pay for Your Land and Stay Amongst You Folks": Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Power in Southwest Washington Territory | 2014 |
| Claire E. Huntley | Archives and K-12 Education: Opportunities for Collaboration | 2013 |
| Jessica L. Peters | A Nation of Those without a State: A Case Study of Nationalism Regarding Piracy in the Atlantic Before and After the Golden Age | 2013 |
| Alyssa J. Vis | Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Growing Up Japanese in Burlington, WA 1920-1942 | 2013 |
| Alexandra J. Kattar | In the Shadow of the Population Bomb: The Campaign for Abortion Reform in Seattle, 1962-1970 | 2012 |
| Joshua M. Roberts | Rome's Vestal Virgins: Public Spectacle and Society | 2012 |
| Elizabeth Badger | The World's Fare: Food and Culture at American World Fairs from 1893-1939 | 2012 |
| Kate J. Fuhrman | A "Natural" History of Land in Cold War Guatemala, 1951-1985 | 2012 |
| Ramy K. Khalil | Harvey Milk and California Proposition 6: How the Gay Liberation Movement Won Two Early Victories | 2012 |
| Lily A. Fox | Re-Envisioning Society: The Radicalization of the Student Youth Movement in Mexico during the 1960s | 2012 |
| Christopher J. Nofziger | Reign of Heretics: Arianism and Political Power in the Vandal and Ostrogothic Kingdoms | 2012 |
| Chris J. Green | Class Struggle Rather than Cooperation: Class, Gender, Sexuality and the Congressional Investigation of the National Labor Relations Board, 1939-1941 | 2011 |
| Devin Smart | Narrating Colonial Realities: Discourse, Difference, and the East African Standard in Colonial Kenya, 1922-1954 | 2011 |
| Karl Poechlauer | Governmentality and the Population Crisis: Bio-Political Interpretations of American International Population Control | 2011 |
| Christopher A Chalek | Transnational Carnivals: West Indian Immigration to New York During the Twentieth Century | 2011 |
| Derek Lee Nelson | "Let's Make a Harbor into a Harbor": An Environmental History of Bellingham Bay | 2010 |
| Stephanie Stillo | Refashioning the Past, Reforming the Present: Visual Culture and Civic Life in Early Modern Seville | 2010 |
| Jeffrey J. Cunningham | The Role of Learning Institutions in Ptolemaic Alexandria | 2010 |