Follow the Sources

Leanza Kopa is a master’s student at Arizona State University, where she studies Global History. While pursuing her degree, Leanza’s passion for cultural history emerged from a lifelong curiosity about the stories that shaped communities. After uncovering a petition signed by over two hundred students, sparking a deeper investigation into Scottish university societies—particularly the Dialectic Society—and their influence on political discourse and civic identity in nineteenth-century Scotland.

Ryan Huff is a master’s student at Arizona State University, where he studies early modern British and Scottish history. While earning his degree, Ryan developed a particular interest in the religious and political dynamics of late seventeenth-century Scotland. His research focuses on Bishop James Aitken of Galloway and the role of episcopal authority during the Restoration and Killing Times.

Michael Kelley is a master’s student at Arizona State University, where he studies North American History. While pursuing a bachelor’s degree in religion and the arts, Michael discovered the power of historical narratives to broaden cultural understanding and sow compassion for people in different places and times.

This post reflects on the author’s experience conducting research in Scottish archives, describing the surreal joy of working with centuries-old documents. It offers advice for graduate researchers, emphasizing the importance of taking breaks, recognizing when to shift focus and accepting the challenges of finding original sources.

John Cardoza is a retired attorney and 2023 online MA graduate. After an initial, unfinished foray into graduate history at UCSB in the late 1970s, he attended law school at UC Davis and was employed in Ventura County as a prosecutor and family law attorney.

This post by Glenn Summers delivers a tactile and analytical discussion of some sources on the 1913 strike at Leith Docks, a key event during the UK’s Great Labour Unrest. These sources were discovered during the Scotland Archives Experience in June 2024.

Blog post by Robin Keagle

“Kimberly in Red” from Artist Nayan Lafond, A Journal of the Plague Year Archive

Genocide, stolen lands, and broken promises. Indigenous Peoples have a long history of being silenced. Their voices are muted and are often missing from the archives.

Blog post by Kathryn Jue

Asian and Pacific Islanders are fighting two pandemics – COVID-19 and anti-Asian racism.[i] The rise of anti-Asian crimes is now a focal point in a pandemic year, but this is not something that came out of nowhere.[ii]

Blog post by Clinton P. Roberts

As the nightly news rattled off statistical numbers, my grandmother sat quietly in her house, mourning a loss, unable to see her husband’s grave. Her daily visits to the cemetery marked an otherwise unbroken routine for over five years.