Current Ph.D. Students
This page is intended to give a sense of the range and focus of graduate student research in our department. Current dissertation
titles for Ph.D. students are provisional. You may write to current students via email or care of the Department of History, Herter Hall,
University of Massachusetts, 161 Presidents Drive, Amherst, MA 01003-9312.
Jump to a page:
Current Ph.D. Students |
Current M.A. Students |
Recent Ph.D. Recipients |
Current Public History Students
Yveline Alexis:
Maria Abunnasr:
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Fields: 19th C Middle Eastern History, 19th C U.S. History, American Missionary Movement
Advisors: Mary Wilson, Joyce Berkman,
and David Glassberg
Education: B.A., Political Science, Drew University (1988), M.A., Art History, American University (1991)
Interests: My interests are Middle East and American history - more specifically the interactions between
the two in the 19th Century by way of the American Missionary Movement and especially the various roles that American
women played there. I am also very interested in Public History and the role it plays in making history more meaningful
and engaging to the wider world. In terms of personal interests, I am passionate about travelling, exploring,
discovering, and experiencing what the world has to offer.
Email: maabunnasr@acs.edu.lb
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Carrie Barske-Saussy (ABD):
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Fields: Early American, U.S. Women, and British Women
Advisors: Joyce Berkman, Marla Miller,
and Margaret Hunt
Education: B.A., History and Women’s Studies, University of the South (2002), M.A., History/Public History, Northeastern University (2003).
Interests: Historic Preservation, Courtship and Marriage, Rural History, hiking, kayaking, traveling.
Ambitions: To work in the fields of Historic Preservation and higher education.
Email: cbarske@yahoo.com
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Beth Behn (ABD):
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Fields: U.S. Labor History, U.S. Women’s History, Ancient Rome
Advisors: Bruce Laurie, Joyce
Berkman and Carlin Barton
Education: B.S., International and Strategic History, United States Military Academy (1994),
M.A., U.S. History, University of Massacchusetts Amherst (2004)
Interests and Ambitions: I am an active-duty Army officer currently teaching in the History
Department at the United States Military Academy, but scheduled to attend Command and General Staff College at
Fort Leavenworth, KS beginning in August 2007. My doctoral research focuses on Woodrow Wilson and the Woman
Suffrage Movement.
Email: Beth.Behn@usma.edu
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Christopher Benning:
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Fields: Public History, Global/Diplomatic History, Modern U.S. History
Advisors: David Glassberg
Education: B.A., Amherst College, M.A., The Johns Hopkins University
Interests: The history of the museum (museum as artifact), the built environment,
monuments and memorials; war and public memory; the Spanish-American War/War of 1898.
Ambitions: Teaching, research and writing history, and museum work.
Email: christopher_wb@hotmail.com
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Brian Bixby (ABD):
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Fields: 19th C. & 20th C. U.S. Cultural, Latin America post-independence
Advisors: David Glassberg, Heather Cox Richardson,
Mario De Pillis (emeritus), and H. Martin Wobst (Anthropology)
Thesis Title: "Seeking Shakers: Two Centuries of Visitors to Shaker Villages"
Education: A.B., Philosophy, Harvard University (1980), M.A., Historical Studies and Sociology, New School for Social Research (1998)
Tourism and historical commemoration; the philosophy of history and its relation to the social sciences; perforce the sociology of academia.
Ambitions: Make a scholarly contribution to our knowledge of history, help the public become better at reasoning historically,
write a good book "for all times"
Email: bixby@history.umass.edu
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Andrew Dausch:
Babette Faehmel (ABD):
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Fields: History of American Gender and Sexuality; Modern American History, Social, Political; Modern Central Europe, Social, Political
Advisors: Kathy Peiss (now at U Penn), Daniel Horowitz (Smith College)
Thesis Title: "Beyond the Bell Jar: College Women, Sexuality and Identity, 1940-1965"
Education: B.A., University of Hamburg (1998), M.A., University of Cinncinnati (2000).
Email: bfaehmel@history.umass.edu
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Harry Franqui-Rivera (ABD):
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Fields: History of the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, Latin America (National Period), U.S Foreign Policy Twentieth Century
Advisors: John Higginson, and Guillermo Irizarry
Education: B.A., History, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (1999), M.A., American Military/Diplomatic History, Temple University (2002)
Interests: I am looking at various and different attempts by the U.S. at nation-building in the circumcaribean since 1898.
Email: hfranqui@hotmail.com
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Gary Garrison:
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Fields: U.S. Colonial, Founding, and Early Republic
Advisors: Daniel Gordon
Education: B.A., Economics, The Ohio State University (1984), J.D., Capital University Law School (1987),
LL.M., Capital University Law School (1991), M.A., History, Miami University (2005)
Interests: Early American political, intellectual, legal and constitutional history. I am particularly
interested in the problems of "excess" democracy and protection of minority and fundamental rights within democratic systems.
Ambitions: Write and teach (law school and/or university level)
Email: gar1318@aol.com
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Amanda Geno:
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Fields: Public History
Advisors: Laura Lovett
Education: B.A., Smith (2003), M.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst (2006)
Interests: I am fascinated by the complex intersections of race, class, gender, and
the state and wish to study the history of American health care delivery and policy.
Email: ageno@history.umass.edu
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Megan Kennedy:
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Fields: U.S. Cultural History, Victorian Britain, Fin de siècle America
Education: B.A., Interdisciplinary, Hampshire College (2002), M.A., U.S. History, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2004)
Advisors: Laura Lovett, Lise Sanders (Hampshire College)
Interests: Academic interests: Social change movements, intentional communities, food studies,
biography, self-identification and representation. Non-academic interests: Cooking, gardening, and hiking.
Email: mmkennedy@gmail.com
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Jeffrey D. Kovach:
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Fields: Early American religion, specifically focusing on Quaker communities in New England
Advisors: Barry Levy and Joyce Berkman
Education: B.A., History, Franklin & Marshall College, (1997), M.A., History, William Paterson University (2003)
Ambitions: I hope to continue research in Quaker communities, specifically Nantucket in early 18th century.
Email: jd_kovach75@yahoo.com
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Kathryn Lavely Merriam:
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Fields: U.S. History, Native American History (especially the Iroquois), History of Science, History of Anthropology
Advisors: Alice Nash, Sigrid Schmalzer, and Robert Cox
Education: B.A., Art History, Wellesley, M.A., History, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2006)
Interests: My research focuses on the History of Anthropology in the late 19th and early 20th century.
I am interested in the impact of ethnographic research on native people, and their unique contribution to developing
the science of anthropology. I also enjoy archival research and working with students; it is impossible to decide
which is most fulfilling.
Ambitions: My goal is to be both broad and deep in my academic expertise.
Email: kmerriam@acad.umass.edu
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Aimee E. Newell (ABD):
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Fields: 19th C U.S. History, Women's History 1700-1850, Material Culture
Advisors: Marla Miller
Thesis Title: "A Stitch in Time: Needlework and Feminine Aging in Antebellum America"
Education: B.A., American Studies, Amherst College, M.A., History, Northeastern University
Interests and Ambitions: My dissertation is in progress, and I also work full-time
as Curator of Collections at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA.
Email: aimee1@charter.net
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Jordan Reed (ABD):
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Fields: French Revolution, Slavery and Abolitionism, U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction, Comparative History
Advisors: Daniel Gordon, Manisha Sinha,
Heather Cox Richardson, and Bruce Laurie
Thesis Title: "American Jacobins: The Emergence of Revolutionary Radicalism in the Civil War Era"
Education: B.A., History, The University of Memphis (2000), M.A., History, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2003)
Interests: I am interested in the development and implications of radical ideologies (both left and right)
as they relate to democraticization and post-conflict reconstruction.
Ambitions: I am currently a civilian analyst with the U.S. Navy in Washington, DC.
Email: jlr@lemurs.net
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Michael Shapiro (ABD):
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Fields: U.S. Cultural history, Urban history, 20th C. Latin America
Advisors: David Glassberg, Max Page,
Heather Cox Richardson, and Ethan Carr(
Thesis Title: "New York's Union Square: A Landscape Shaped by Conflict"
Education: B.A., History, and B.S., Advertising, University of Texas Austin (1997), M.A., Public History, New York University (2003)
Interests: When not studying, I travel as much as possible. I am currently living in New York City to research my dissertation.
Living here is a hobby in itself. Trips to the gym and spending time with friends fill out my days.
Email: mshapiro@history.umass.edu
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Margo Shea:
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Fields: History & Memory, Urban history and Modern Ireland
Advisors: David Glassberg
Education: B.A., University of Pennsylvania (1994), M.A., History, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2004)
Interests: My dissertation, a history of community memory in the Bogside, Westmount and Creggan
neighborhoods in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland from 1950 to the present, traces the ways one community’s
memory changed as its physical boundaries and its political, cultural and socioeconomic concerns shifted before,
during and after the modern era of sectarian conflict known as ‘the Troubles.’
Email: mmshea@history.umass.edu
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Rick Taupier:
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Fields: Central Asia
Advisors: Audrey Altstadt
Education: B.A., Philosophy, M.S., Environmental Economics, Ph.D., Regional Environmental Planning
Interests: My primary historical interests are Central Asia and more
specifically Mongolian and Tibetan cultures and the interactions among Buddhist people throughout
Central Asia. I am a former Assistant Secretary of Environmental Affairs for the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1984 to 1994) and now work as the Associate Director of the
Environmental Institute here at UMass and as a member of the graduate faculty in Regional
Planning where I teach one course each semester. I am also the president of the Manjushri
Institute of Buddhist Studies and worked intensively in northwest Russia from 1994 to 2002.
Email: taupier@tei.umass.edu
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Jen Turner (ABD):
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Fields: Colonial U.S., poverty studies
Advisors: Barry Levy, Marla Miller
Thesis Title: "The Best Poor Man’s Country and the City Upon the Hill: Pennsylvania and Masssachusetts’ Reponses to the Poor"
Education: B.A., Bates College (1999), M.A., University of Connecticut (2001).
Interests: knitting, cooking, labor unions, 1950’s girls’ literature.
Ambitions: Finish my Phd, help other grad students unionize, teach college.
Email: jaturner@history.umass.edu
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