Student Paper Section

Over the years, the editors of this report and people on this website’s Speakers Bureau have assisted scores of students in secondary schools, colleges and universities, and graduate programs in their research into different aspects of Peoples Temple history. Below are some of the papers which have come out of that research.

• College and graduate school
  1. Five Examinations of Tim Carter’s Essay (2017)
     1. A Lost Narrative: The Reception of the Jonestown Tragedy in the Modern Psyche, by Ian Chen
     2. Outside the Ring: Humanity in Tragedy, by Brad Davis
     3. Identity’s Savior, by Cameron Fachman
     4. A Capitalist America, by Jasmine Hia Sin Che
     5. In the Wrong Hands, by Deakon McCurdy
  2. Jim Jones and His Peoples Temple: Dual Racial Identities, Dual Results, by Brooke Agee (2008)
  3. The Legacy of Peoples Temple: A Movement Created and Destroyed by Jim Jones, by Ellie A. DeIanni (2018)
  4. State of Mind, by Ruth Engler (2008)
  5. Religion and Violence: The Consequence of Bad Leadership by Helen Gerety (2011)
     1. A Researcher’s Adventure: Writing a Senior Thesis
  6. The Impact of Journalism on Jim Jones and Peoples Temple: Examining New West’s investigative report, by Gabrielle Greenfield (2015)
     1. Jonestown and the Media: My Research Journey
  7. Deconstructing Catastrophic Millennialism: Reconstructing Jonestown through the lens of Religion as-lived, by Adam Keane (2016)
  8. Media Analysis: Jonestown, by Lina Kern (2012)
  9. Armed And Dangerous/Suicidal Tendencies: The Jonestown Massacre, by Ethan James (2015)
  10. Drinking the Kool-Aid: Reasons Behind the Jonestown Massacre, by Jacquelyn Lofstad (2018)
  11. The Black Preacher From Indiana: The Reverend Jim Jones and the Rise and Fall of Peoples Temple, by Nicholas Mullins (2017)
  12. 1. Bringing Socialism into Religious Teachings: The Origin of a Paper
  13. Obey Your Father: Jim Jones’ Rhetoric of Deadly Persuasion, by Jacob Neighbors (2012)
  14. Intentional Community Project: A Utopian Analysis of Jonestown, by Alan Parnell (2017)
  15. Leadership Styles: Martin Luther King vs. Jim Jones, by Tina Parrish (2008)
  16. Discourse Community Ethnography – Jonestown, by Suriah Ramnarain (2018)
  17. “We Win When We Go Down”: Making Sense of the Jonestown Suicides Using Rational Argumentation Theory by Stephen C. Robinson (2007)
  18. Culture, Charisma and Peoples Temple by Devin Ross (2007)
  19. The Push and Pull of Jonestown, by Kassidy Scott (2020)
  20. Living in a “Socialist Paradise” by Logan Silva (2007)
      1. The Civil Rights Movement in Mendocino County, California
  21. White Nights In Guyana by Ann Kristin Svendsen (2007)
  22. Jonestown As a Reflection of American Society by Nora Woods (2011)
      1. Shaping Religious Identity And Expression

• Secondary school
  1. How did Jim Jones manage to gain such control over his followers? by Tim Brooks (2007)
  2. A Comparison of the Methods of Recruitment and Retention of Malevolent and Benevolent Cults, by Ashton Brower (2010)
  3. The Rainbow Family: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, by Rachel Brown, Julia Conway, and Sarah Kleinschmidt (2015)
  4. History Day Project on Jonestown Has Lessons for Teenagers of Today, by Hillary Contreras (2009)
  5. Diplomatic Intervention of the Jonestown Conspiracy, by Riley de Leon (2013)
  6. Pulling Meaning From Rough Drafts: Jonestown in American History, by Molly Doris-Pierce (2010)
     1. Documenting the Peoples Temple Story
  7. Jonestown: Today and Yesterday, by Rose Dunton (2015)
  8. Student Documentary Tackles Difficult Subject of Jonestown, by Grace Dougherty and Nico Dangla (2016)
  9. Jonestown Massacre, by Daysha Edfors (2017)
  10. Cults and their Leaders: An Introduction, by Oliver Everhard (2009)
      1. Cults and their Leaders: An Exposition
      2. An Interview with Don Beck
      3. A Listing of Cults in America
  11. Documentary Demonstrates Power of Jim Jones Over His People, by Nina Figley (2015)
  12. Success in the Peoples Temple Cult, by Caley Follmer (2010)
      1. Why Peoples Temple?
  13. The Jonestown Massacre: An Analysis of An Infamous Cult, by Hannah C. Frasure (2016)
  14. Leadership & Legacy: Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre, by Erica Guthrie (2015)
  15. The Jonestown Project, by Abbey Gunderson & Jessica Spiro (2008)
  16. The Jonestown Massacre, by MacKenzie Hanson (2014)
  17. Jonestown Victims Died of Murder, by Jakob Harrison (2017)
  18. The Jonestown Massacre and Its Effect on Media Coverage of Future National Tragedies, by Carter Haskins (2019)
  19. The Leadership and Legacy of Jim Jones, by Kelsey Kerrigan (2015)
  20. My Journey to Jonestown by Richard Klatt (2006)
      1. For The People: The Story of the Peoples Temple (2006)
  21. The Tragedy of 1978 by Raul Kohl (2006)
  22. Was It Suicide or Murder? by Abi K. Kosmas (2009)
  23. The Jonestown Tragedy, by Rachel Lynch (2018)
  24. The Jonestown Massacre, by Isabel Machorro (2016)
  25. The Brainwashing of Peoples Temple by Kyle McCloy (2011)
  26. To what degree can a cult leader influence their followers? by Jade MacDonald (2018)
  27. Behind the Conspiracy Theories of Jonestown by Nicole Mekler (2007)
      1. Why do conspiracy theories surround the evidence of the Jonestown massacre?
      2. Methodology
  28. Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid, by Nancy Munoz & Clara Jekel (2014)
      1. Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid: A Process Paper
  29. Jim Jones and the History of Peoples Temple by Antoinette Pick-Jones (2007)
      1. Escape to Nowhere
  30. Jonestown Suicide, by Razzerpie (2010)
  31. The Media and the Jonestown Suicides, by Cressida Rigney (2011)
      1. Media Standing in the Way of History
  32. Learning About Jonestown by Rachel Steele (2007)
      1. Tragedy Of 1978: Massacre At Jonestown
      2. Bibliography
  33. Jonestown Project Finishes Third in Florida Competition by Kaitlin Thornburg and Nina Barron (2007)
  34. Peoples Temple: A Reading on a Legacy in Leadership, by Logan W. (2015)
  35. 1. Ethereal Exodus: The Migration and Massacre of Peoples Temple
  36. The Jonestown Massacre, by Matt Williams (2008)
  37. Forgotten Souls by Laura Woods (2005)
  38. The psychological massacre: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Rose Wunrow (2011)
      1. The birth of an investigation
  39. Tapes Reveal Jones as Murderer, by Sheila Yohnk (2004)