Abbi Smithmyer
Major Field
Nineteenth-Century U.S. History
Minor Fields
Public History, U.S. Foreign Relations, Modern European History
Advisor
Research Interests
Ms. Smithmyer’s research interests focus on the social and cultural history of the Civil War era. She plans to write her dissertation on the early destruction and vandalizing of Civil War monuments and how their existence as pieces of material culture were used to understand their conflicting and changing meaning for the United States and Confederate soldiers and civilians.
Courses Taught
- HIST 152: Growth of the American Nation to 1865
Publications
“New York Sons of Erin: Nativism, Identity, and the Importance of Irish Ethnicity in the Civil War Era.” Master’s thesis. West Virginia University, 2020.