Recent Dissertations
2023:
Chad Holmes, "Ingenious Entanglements: Sheriffs, Capitalism, and Civil Society in America, 1750-1850." (Brian Luskey, chair)
Tyler Krahe, "Ambush, Reprisal, Riot, Revolt, and Reform: The Transnational Evolution of British Colonial Policing in Ireland and the Palestine Mandate, 1918-1948." (Joseph Hodge, chair)
Cole Volman, "Losing my Religion: Contextualizing Continental Catholic Seminaries in the Elizabethan Reformation, 1558-1603." (Matthew Vester, chair)
2022:
Catherine Ferrari, "Enemies, Allies, and Opportunities: The Politics of Noblewomen’s Lawsuits in Early Modern Piedmont." (Matthew Vester, chair)
Elisabeth Moore, "The Vanishing Frontier: Economic and Social Change in Western North Carolina, 1945-1970." (Ken Fones-Wolf and Jessica Wilkerson, co-chairs)
2021:
Bright Alozie, "'Sir, We Have the Honour Most Respectfully to Submit Our Humble Petition': Voices in Ink and the Politics of Petitions in Colonial Igboland, Nigeria, 1892-1960.” (Joseph Hodge, chair)
Alex Burns, "'The Entire Army Says Hello': Common Soldiers' Experiences, Localism, and Army Reform in Britain and Prussia, 1739-1789." (Katherine Aaslestad and Matthew Vester, co-chairs)
Michael Hogan, "Remov[e] Us From the Bondage of South Africa:" Transnational Resistance Strategies and Subnational Concessions in Namibia's Police Zone, 1919-1962." (Robert Maxon, chair)
Muoki Mbunga, "Mau Mau’s Moral War: The Sacralization of Kenya’s Anticolonial Struggle, 1952-1956." (Robert Maxon, chair)
Scott Thompson, “‘The Negro had been run over long enough by white men, and it was time they defend themselves’: African-American Mutinies and the Long Emancipation, 1861-1974.” (Jason Phillips, chair)
2020:
Tamara Bailey, “A History of African-American Education in West Virginia, 1862-1965.” (Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, chair)
Zac Cowsert, “The Civil War in Indian Territory, 1861-1865.” (Jason Phillips, chair)
Francis Curran, “Dreams of Industrial Utopias: Leading Manufacturers of the Deep South and their Mill Town during the Civil War Era.” (Jason Phillips, chair)
Gift Kayira, “The State and War on Poverty: British Welfare Development and Its Legacies for Malawi, 1930s-1983.” (Joseph Hodge, chair)
Autumn Mayle, ““Respectable Women, Ambitious Men: Gender and Family Networks in Victorian Sheffield.” (Katherine Aaslestad, chair)
Zac Cowsert, “The Civil War in Indian Territory, 1861-1865.” (Jason Phillips, chair)
Francis Curran, “Dreams of Industrial Utopias: Leading Manufacturers of the Deep South and their Mill Town during the Civil War Era.” (Jason Phillips, chair)
Gift Kayira, “The State and War on Poverty: British Welfare Development and Its Legacies for Malawi, 1930s-1983.” (Joseph Hodge, chair)
Autumn Mayle, ““Respectable Women, Ambitious Men: Gender and Family Networks in Victorian Sheffield.” (Katherine Aaslestad, chair)
2019:
Paul Chiudza Banda, “State Counter-insurgency and Political Policing in Colonial and Post-colonial Malawi, 1891-1994.” (Joseph Hodge, chair)
Luke Gramith, “Liberation by Emigration: Italian Communists, the Cold War, and West-East Migration from Venezia Giulia, 1945-1949.” (Joshua Arthurs, chair)
Henry Himes, “"Bargaining for Security: The Rise of the Pension and Social Insurance Program of the United Steelworkers of America, 1941-1960." (Ken Fones-Wolf, chair)
Megan McGee, “Schmick's Frontier: Moravian and Native American Community Building in Pennsylvania, 1753-1765.” (Matthew Vester and Tyler Boulware, co-chairs)
Lindsey McNellis, “Vi et Armis: Londoners and Violent Trespass Before the Common Pleas in the Fifteenth Century.” (Kate Staples, chair)
Charles Welsko, “Breaking and Remaking the Mason-Dixon Line: Loyalty in Civil War America, 1850-1900.” (Jason Phillips, chair)
Nerissa Aksamit, “Training Friends and Overseas Relief: The Friends Ambulance Unit and the Friends Relief Service, 1939-1948.” (Katherine Aaslestad, chair)
2018:
Betsy Morgan-Cutright, "The Margins of Myddle: Poverty and Community in a Shropshire Parish, c. 1601-1800," (Kate Staples, chair)
Jennifer Miller, "Our Own Flesh and Blood?": Delaware Indians and Moravians in the Eighteenth-Century Ohio Country.”
Marc Sanko, “Britishers in Two Worlds: Maltese Immigrants in Detroit and Toronto, 1919-1960.” (Ken Fones-Wolf, chair)
Joseph Snyder, "The Fabianization of the British Empire: Postwar Colonial Summer Conferences and Community Development in Kenya and Uganda, 1948-1956." (Joseph Hodge, chair)
2017:
Karina Esposito, "Naval Diplomacy and the Making of an Unwritten Alliance: United States-Brazilian Naval Relations, 1893-1930." (James Siekmeier, chair)
Kiva Makhete Fall, “Early Political Discord in Kenya: European Settlers’ Political Struggles in East Africa Protectorate, 1902-1912,” (Robert Maxon, chair)
Kenneth Kolander, “Walking out of Step: U. S.-Israeli Relations and the Peace Process, 1963-1975,” (James Siekmeier, chair)
Gregory Michna, “A Communion of Churches: Indian Christians, English Ministers, and Congregations in New England, 1600-1775,” (Tyler Boulware, chair)
Nilanjana Paul, “Muslim Education and Communal Conflict in Colonial Bengal: British Policies and Muslim Responses from 1854 to 1947,” (Joseph Hodge and Mark Tauger, co-chairs)
Alec Upward, “Ordinary Sailors: The French Navy, Vichy, and the Second World War,” (Robert Blobaum, chair)
Adam Zucconi, “Bound Together: Slavery and Democracy in Antebellum Northwestern Virginia,” (Jason Phillips, chair)
2015:
Isaac Emrick, “Maopewa iati bi: Takai Toñqyayuñ Monyton: ‘To abandon so beautiful a Dwelling,’: Indians in the Kanawha-New River Valley, 1500-1755,” (Tyler Boulware, chair)
Joshua Esposito, “Institutional Decolonization: The Internationalization of the Conflict over Organized Labor in British Guiana, 1948-1961,” (James Siekmeier, chair)
William Feeney, “Manifestations of the Maimed: The Perception of Wounded Soldiers in the Civil War North,” (Jason Phillips, chair)
Jordan Lieser, “Ethnic Diplomacy: Race, the United States, and Mexico during World War II,” (James Siekmeier, chair)
Joseph Rizzo, “What Shadows We Pursue: Death, Democracy, and Disunion in Antebellum America,” (Brian Luskey, chair)
James Smith, “Cultivating Intelligent Consumption: The United States Food Administration and Food Control during World War I,” (Elizabeth Fones-Wolf and James Siekmeier, co-chairs)
Brandon Williams, “The Cold Culture Wars: The Fight for Democratic Education in Postwar New York,” (Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, chair)
Jacob Ivey, “The Making of Natal: Defensive Institutions and State Formation in Nineteenth Century Southern Africa,” (Joseph Hodge, chair).
Richard Hulver, “Remains Contested: The Diplomacy of American Military Bodies in France” (Joshua Arthurs and James Siekmeier, co-chairs).
2014:
Fabio Capano, “Between the Local and the National: The Free Territory of Trieste, ‘Italianità,’ and the Politics of Identityy from the Second World War to the Osimo Treaty (Joshua Arthurs and Robert Blobaum, co-chairs)
Nicholas Githuku, “Mau Mau Crucible of War: Statehood, National Identity, and Politics in Postcolonial Kenya,” (Robert Maxon, chair)
William Hal Gorby, “Saints, Sinners, and Socialists on the Southside: Catholic Immigrant Workers, Politics, and Culture in Wheeling, West Virginia, 1890-1930,” (Ken Fones-Wolf, chair)
Ashley Whitehead Luskey, “‘A Debt of Honor’: Elite Women’s Rituals of Cultural Authority in the Confederate Capital,” (Jason Phillips, chair)
James Blake Perkins, “Dynamics of Defiance: Government Power and Rural Resistance in the Arkansas Ozarks,” (Ken Fones-Wolf, chair)
Jason Roberts, “The Anti-Imperialist Empire: Soviet Nationality Policies under Brezhnev,” (Mark Tauger, chair)
Benjamin Scharff, “‘Busy Mischievious Ffellows’: Imperialist Agency in Pennsylvania during the Seven Years’ War,” (Tyler Boulware, chair)
Joseph Super, “The Rail and the Cross in West Virginia Timber Country: Rethinking Religion in the Appalachian Mountains,” (Ken Fones-Wolf, chair)
Bekeh Utietiang, “Planning Development: International Experts, Agricultural Policy, and the Modernization of Nigeria, 1945-1967,” (Joseph Hodge and Robert Maxon, co-chairs)