Theses

For those graduate students in public history who choose the thesis track, the thesis allows them to research public history topics of particular interest to them. A thesis may be coordinated with a student’s other coursework and career goals. Students work closely with their advisers in developing the thesis. This is a list of selected theses from recent years.

• Leigh Cutler, “On Common Ground:  A History of the Community Gardening Movement in Twentieth-Century Houston” (2006)
• Stephanie Fuglaar, “Right of Way: Streetcars and the Changing Environment of the Streets of Houston, Texas” (2007)
• Ramona Hopkins, “Was There a Southern Eugenics?  A Comparative Case Study of Eugenics in Texas and Virginia, 1900-1940” (2009)
• Jonathan Heath, “Strength in Numbers:  Houston’s Gay Community and the AIDS Crisis, 1977-1989” (2006)
• Daniel J. Kopfensteiner, Jr., “A Political History of the Houston Fire Department from 1895-1978” (2008)
• Sean Murphy, “Valero Energy Corporation: Capitalization, Merger and Acquisition” (2005)
• Vicki Myers, “Old Can Be New Again: Adaptive Reuse in the Historic Preservation of Downtown Houston” (2009)
• Tiffany Schrieber, “Got History? Why Litigation Works Better When Utilizing Expert Historian Witnesses” (2010)

Dissertations

Given the scholarly interests and strengths of CPH faculty members, they have guided a number of PhD students to successful dissertations in energy, environmental, policy, or urban history. This is a list of selected dissertations from recent years.

• Bruce Beaubouef, "The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security, Oil Politics, and Petroleum Reserves Policies in the Twentieth Century," 1997
• Elizabeth Blum, “Pink and Green: a Comparative Study of Black and White Women’s Environmental Activism in the Twentieth Century” (2000)
• Christopher Castaneda, “Regulated Enterprise: Natural Gas Pipelines and the Competition for Northeastern Markets, 1938-1954” (1990)
• Charles Closmann, “Nature Protection in Nazi Germany: the Search for National Identity in Nature” (1997)
• William Kellar, "Make Haste Slowly: A History of School Desegregation in Houston, Texas” (1994)
• David Raley, “Out of Gas: Tenneco in the Era of Natural Gas Regulation, 1938-1975” (2011)
• Jason Theriot, “Constructing America’s Energy Corridor: the Oil & Gas Industry and the Louisiana Wetlands” (2011)
• Robert Thompson, “Soil and Slaves: An Environmental History of Northeastern North Carolina, 1584-1860” (2008)
• Terry Tomkins-Walsh, “A Concrete River Had to be Wrong’: Environmental Action on Houston’s Bayous, 1935-1980” (2009)
• Kimberly Youngblood, “Fouling the Waters: an Environmental History of Galveston Bay” (2010)