Naomi Hanson’s thesis, “Undaunted She Stood: The Success and Power of Female Pirates,” analyzed four female pirates across centuries and around the world. Her thesis built upon her work as a Summer Scholar, as a Dana Intern, and a semester-long independent study.
An extensive analysis of letters, court documents, captivity narratives, execution sermons, contemporary histories, and trial records, enabled Hanson to re-evaluate the nature of crime, power, and gender. She came to understand these women as active members in the pirate community rather than as mere counterparts to male pirates. Hanson ultimately argued that by embracing the revolutionary ideologies of solidarity, individual freedom, and anti-authoritarianism, the sixteenth century Irish Granuaile O’Malley, the eighteenth-century Irish Anne Bonney and colonial American Mary Read, and the nineteenth century Chinese Cheng Shih assumed positions of power on their respective ships and defined their own worth as women and as pirates. Her defense took place in front of thesis adviser Vivian Bruce Conger and committee members Karin Breuer and Jason Freitag.
To earn a B.A. degree with "honors in history," a student must complete a significant year-long independent research project that illustrates an understanding of relevant historiography and demonstrates original analysis based on extensive research of secondary and primary sources.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20190414091554179