History Graduate Student Success

Both M.A. and Ph.D. graduates from the History Department have achieved considerable professional success after earning their degrees.

Ph.D. Placement and Employment
M.A. Placement and Employment
Books by �� Ph.D. Alumni

Ph.D. Placement and Employment

The department's Ph.D. graduates have been highly successful at securing professional employment. Many have found academic positions at such institutions as the University of Virginia, Kenyon College, McNeese State University, Beloit College, Clayton State University, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the University of Calgary, Gonzaga University, the University of Tennessee at Martin, Finlandia University, the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Arkansas Tech University, Hiram College, Belmont University, Gannon University, Grove City College, the University of Wisconsin, Washington County, Lakeland College, the University of Wisconsin, Richland, and several campuses of ��. Others have found professional employment at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the U.S. Command and General Staff College, the Harry S. Truman Library, and other U.S. government agencies. Of the 42 Ph.D. graduates in the past decade for whom the department has placement information, 41 have secured professional employment in either continuing or term positions.

Ph.D.s since 2012

2012

Kevin Grimm, “Symbol of Modernity: Ghana, African Americans, and the Eisenhower Administration,” Director: Chester Pach

Associate Professor, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA

2013

Sony Karsono, "Indonesia's New Order, 1966-1998: Its Social and Intellectual Origins," Director: William Frederick

Associate Professor, Hankuk University, South Korea

Jeremy Robert Hatfield, "For God and Country: The Religious Right, the Reagan Administration and the Cold War," Director: Chester Pach

Stephen Todd Pfeffer, "Hostile Takeover: The New Right Insurgent Movement, Ronald Reagan, and the Republican Party, 1977-1984," Director: Chester Pach

Academic Analytics, Wake Forest, NC

David Prentice, "Getting out: Melvin Laird and the origins of Vietnamization," Director: Chester Pach

2014

Jared Bibler, "We live to struggle, we struggle to triumph: The Revolutionary Organization of the People in Arms and radical nationalism in Guatemala," Director: Patrick Barr-Melej

Gerald Goodwin, "Race in the crucible of war: African American soldiers and race relations in the 'Nam,'" Director: Chester Pach

Laura Seddelmeyer, "On the edge of Asia: Australian grand strategy and the English-speaking alliance, 1967-1980," Director: John Brobst

Associate Professor, Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA

2015

Matthew Jacobs, "A 'Psychological Offensive': United States Public Diplomacy, Revolutionary Cuba, and the Contest for Latin American Hearts and Minds during the 1960s," Director: Chester Pach

2016

Tyler Esno, "Trading with the Enemy: U.S. Economic Policies and the End of the Cold War," Director: Chester Pach

Assistant Director, Prospect Development, University of Pittsburgh

Sebasitan Hurtado-Torres, "The Gathering storm: The United States, Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty, and the Polarization of Chilean Politics, 1964-1970," Director: Patrick Barr-Melej

Associate Professor, Universidad San Sebastian, Chile

2017

Jasper Verschoor, "'More than Planners, Less than Utopians': 1960s Futurism and Post-Industrial Theory," Director: Kevin Mattson

Adjunct Faculty, North Seattle College

Steven Wills, "Replacing the Maritime Strategy: The Change in Naval Strategy from 1989 to 1994," Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

Center for Maritime Strategy, Washington, DC

Brad Eidahl, "Writing the Opposition: Power, Coercion, Legitimacy, and the Press in Pinochet's Chile," Director: Patrick Barr-Melej

2018

Seth Givens, "Cold War Capital: The United States, the European Allies, and the Fight for Berlin, 1945-1994," Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

Historian, Marine Corps History Division, Quantico, VA

Luke Griffin, “Green Cheese and the Moon: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and the Euromissiles”

Professor, New Mexico Junior College

Jack Marchbanks, "Pride and Protest in Letters and Song: Jazz Artists and Writers during the Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1965," Director: Kevin Mattson

Director, �� Department of Transportation, 2019-24

Lance Poston, Deconstructing Sodom and Gomorrah: a Historical Analysis of the Mythology of Black Homophobia,” Director: Katherine Jellison

Chief of Staff, School of Nursing, University of Virginia

2019

Adam Givens, “The Business of Airmobility: US Army aviation, the Helicopter Industry, and Innovation During the Cold War,” Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

RAND Corporation, Washington, DC

Phimmasone Rattanasengchanh, “Thai Hearts and Minds: the Public Diplomacy and Public Relations Programs of the United States Information Service and Thai Ministry of Interior”

Assistant Professor, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX

2020

Robert Venosa, “Freedom Will Win -- If Free Men Act!: Liberal Internationalism in an Illiberal Age, 1936-1956,” Director: John Brobst

Alexander Lovelace, “Total Coverage, How the Media Shaped Command Decisions during World War II,” Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

2020, Scholar in Residence, ��

Anne Allman Huddleston, “The Lost Legacy of Liberal Feminism,” Director: Katherine Jellison

2021

Aaron Brown, “Building a Barrier: the 1970s and the Making of the Modern U.S.-Mexico Border” Director: Patrick Barr-Melej

2022

Kyle Balzer, “The Revivalists: James R. Schlesinger, the Nuclear Warfighting Strategists, and Competitive Strategies for Great-Power Competition,” Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

Jeanne Kirkpatrick Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC

Fred Coventry, “The Origins of Anglo-American 'Escape and Evasion': MI9, MIS-X, and the Evolution of Escape and Evasion Training during World War II and the Early Cold War,” Director: John Brobst

Lecturer, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN

2023

Cameron Dunbar, “The Chance of New Greatness: Ted Heath and Britain's Entry Into the European Communities,” Director: John Brobst

Program Coordinator, Contemporary History Institute, ��

Andrew Howard, “Fixing the "Happy Valley": British Sentimentality and Their Intervention in Kashmir, 1885-1925,” Director: John Brobst

Lecturer, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Mike Fitzpatrick, “Planning World War Three: How the German Army Shaped American Doctrine After the Vietnam War,” Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

DPAA Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

2024

Michelle Mayhew-Shears, “The Promise of Food: the U.S. Government, the Voluntary Agencies, and Food for Peace in the Andes, 1954-1974,” Director: Chester Pach

2025

Sana Saidykhan, “‘The Only Good Crocodile Is a Dead One’: Contradictions in Conservation Policies and Agricultural Activities in the Gambia, 1938 -1965,” Director: Assan Sarr

Visiting Assistant Professor, Boston College

Harrison Fender, “The Maritime Strategy Ashore: Amphibious Operations, Intelligence, and the Security of NATO’s Littoral,” Director: John Brobst

Post-Doctoral Fellow, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD

Shalon Van Tine, “Gen X: A Cultural History of America's Other Lost Generation,” Director: Kevin Mattson

M.A. Placement and Employment

Many of the department's M.A. graduates enter Ph.D. programs in history. Some stay at ��; others have secured admission to excellent institutions, including Brandeis University, the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Delaware, Harvard University, the University of Maryland, College Park, Michigan State University, �� State University, the University of Akron, Temple University, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Yale University.

Some students use their academic training to gain professional employment in a variety of nonacademic settings. During the past decade, our M.A. graduates have found employment at the American Bar Association, the American Enterprise Institute, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives.

M.A.s since 2012 (not including those who joined our Ph.D. program)

2012

Benjamin Wollet, “Switching Tracks: the Place of Railroads in an Era of Economic and Environmental Reform, 1966-80,” Director: Paul Milazzo

Ph.D. program, University of Delaware

Brittany Pangburn, “4-H and Civic Engagement: the Evolution of 4-H in the United States, 1980-Present,” Director: Katherine Jellison

Katherine Smyser, “To Serve the Interests of the Empire?: British Experiences with Zionism, 1917-1925,” Director: John Brobst

Ph.D. program, University at Buffalo

Lindsay Kittle, “Gentle Warriors: U.S. Marines and Humanitarian Action During the Vietnam War,” Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

2013

Jessica Blissit, “The Amalgamation of the Personal and the Political: Frederick Douglass and the Debate over Interracial Marriage,” Director: Kevin Mattson

Andrew Koperski, “Breaking with Tradition: Jerome, the Virgin Mary, and the Troublesome ‘Brethren’ of Jesus,” Director: Jaclyn Maxwell

Rebecca Perry, “Britain in Iraq During the 1950s: Imperial Retrenchment and Informal Empire,” Director: John Brobst

Director, Center for Social Concerns, Gannon University

Erin Todd, “Ballots Against the Backlash: Second-Wave Feminism, the Conservative Backlash Against It, and the 1992 Election,” Director: Katherine Jellison

Joseph Zielinski, “Dreams Won and Lost: Fait Accompli and the Creation of Modern Poland, 1918-1923,” Director: David Curp

Associate Director, Student Services, Johnson School of Management, Cornell University

Paul Rellstab, “The Pueblo Reforms: Spanish Imperial Strategies & Negotiating Control in New Mexico,” Director: Mariana Dantas

Eryn Kane, “The Guardians of Civilization: Neo-Republican Motherhood in Post-World War II America,” Director: Katherine Jellison

Benjamin Wallace, “Fighting Back Against the Cold War: the American Committee on East-West Accord and the Retreat from Détente,” Director: Chester Pach

Philip Wight, “From Citizens to Consumers: the Countercultural Roots of Green Consumerism,” Director: Kevin Mattson

Ph.D. program, Brandeis University; Assistant Professor, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

2014

Gabrielle Guillen, “Daughters of the Alcaldes: Women of Privilege in Medieval Burgos,” Director: Miriam Shadis

Caleb Greene, “Harrison County in the Secession Crisis and Civil War,” Director: Brian Schoen

2015

Guy Aldridge, “Forgotten and Unfulfilled: German Transitions in the French Occupation Zone, 1945-1949,” Director: Myrna Zakic

Ph.D. program, University of Maryland

Jeff Mills, “No Path to Victory: MACV in Vietnam 1964-1968,” Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

2016

Andrea Howard, “The Foreign Men of ʹ175: the Persecution of Homosexual Foreign Men in Nazi Germany, 1937-1945,” Director: Myrna Zakic

Ian Van Dyke, “Rapture and Realignment: the New Christian Right and American Conservative Views of Israel,” Director: Kevin Mattson

2017

Jeff Shane, “The Russian Revolution in the Eyes of a Thai Royal,” Director: William Fredrick

Southeast Asia Subject Librarian, ��

2018

Joseph Ross, "Landed Republick": Squatters, Speculators, and the Early American West,” Director: Brian Schoen

Ph.D. program, University of Missouri

2020

Rukhsana Aziz, “A Historical Reflection on the Egyptian Women's Movement, 1919-1952,” Director: Assan Sarr

James Bowman, “Anglo-French Relations in Syria: from Entente Cordiale to Sykes-Picot,” Director: John Brobst

Portfolio Manager, Stand Together, Washington, D.C.

Theodore Theopolos, “The Neglected Element: Prestige and British Decision-Making in the Age of Decolonization,” Director: John Brobst

2021

Fatou Janneh, “Kafoolu and Kompins: Women's Grassroots Movements in Post-Colonial Gambi,” Director: Assan Sarr

Nathan Godfrey, “Learn to Tread: Soviet and American Wartime Experience and its Effect on Armor Doctrine,” Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

Michelle Becker, “Programs of the Highest Type: University Radio and Gender Ideals in the Midwest in Postwar America,” Director: Katherine Jellison

2022

Ethan Hull, “Burden-Sharing in NATO: a Continuing Dilemma for the United States,” Director: Ingo Trauschweizer

Caleb Fouts, “The Failure of Fascist Propaganda,” Director: Myrna Zakic

Ph.D. program, Syracuse University

Conor Fogarty, “Island of Peace in Dangerous Waters: Taiwan's Occupation of Itu Aba,” Director: Joshua Hill

Program Manager, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.

2023

Matt Butler, “Blood, Laughs, and Baths: Status in Roman Entertainment,” Director: Jaclyn Maxwell

Peter Roy, “Conferences, Crises, and Treaties: Canadian Foreign Policy and the British Imperial System in the 1920s” Director: John Brobst

Ph.D. program, Syracuse University

Oliver Hanson, “Something Wicked This Way Comes: an Examination of William Perkins and the Significance of his Treatise on Witchcraft in Elizabethan England,” Director: Michele Clouse

2024

Benjamin Phillips, “Renouare Dolorem: Coming to Terms With Catastrophe in Fifth-Century Gaul,” Director: Jaclyn Maxwell

Dean of Academics/Latin Teacher, Southeast �� Classical Academy

Omar Sarr, “Transformations in Rural Farming Communities: Ox-Plows, Mixed Farming Centers and Agricultural Production in The Gambia, c. 1960s-1970s,” Director: Assan Sarr

Ph.D. program, Michigan State University

Monica Forsthoefel, “An Episcopal Anomaly: Archbishop John Baptist Purcell and the Development of American Catholic Antislavery Thought,” Director: Brian Schoen

Books by �� Ph.D. Alumni

During the past 10 years, Ph.D. graduates have been extremely productive scholars, publishing 35 books. Many of these books are revised versions of Ph.D. dissertations; others are second, third, or even fourth books. These publications have attracted considerable scholarly attention. Here is a sample of some recent books by �� Ph.D. alumni in History:

James Waite, The End of the First Indochina War: A Global History (Routledge, 2012)

Matthew J. Flynn, Contesting History: The Bush Counterinsurgency Legacy in Iraq (Praeger, 2010)

Thomas Bruscino, A Nation Forged in War: How World War II Taught Americans to Get Along (University of Tennessee Press, 2010)

Philippe Girard, Haiti: The Tumultuous History: From Pearl of the Caribbean to Broken Nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)

Robert T. Davis, U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security: Chronology and Index for the 20th Century (Praeger, 2010)

Scott Beekman, NASCAR Nation: A History of Stock Car Racing in the United States (Praeger, 2010)

Marc J. Selverstone, Constructing the Monolith: The United States, Great Britain, and International Communism, 1945-1950 (Harvard University Press, 2009) Winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for the best first book in the history of international relations

Derek Charles Catsam, Freedom's Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides (University Press of Kentucky, 2009)

Kimberly K. Little, You Must Be From the North: Southern White Women in the Memphis Civil Rights Movement (University Press of Mississippi, 2009)

Stephen R. Taaffe, Commanding Lincoln's Navy: Union Naval Leadership during the Civil War (Naval Institute Press, 2009)

Scott Kaufman, Plans Unraveled: The Foreign Policy of the Carter Administration (Northern Illinois University Press, 2008)

��������