Welcome from
the Chair
Department of
History
As I look out from my office
window in Bowman Hall I’m
reminded of a scene from
Cormac McCarthy’s The
Crossing, where, happening
upon an old man in a
burned out church, the main
character is reminded how
the passing of time is like
tracing a line in the sand—
you know where it began
but the future remains
undetermined.
Sounds like a simple lesson,
but the point is that the
finger drawing the line is
in fact in control as to the
direction of the future and
that it is not fate or anything
else that determines where
we end up, but the sum total
of the choices we make up
to the point at which the
finger is placed in the sand.
This is the lesson we teach
to our students each
semester, that the history
they are studying and
trying to understand (and
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
relate back us their level
of understanding) is the
sum total of decisions and
actions made by people at
all levels within a historical
time frame.
History teaches us
that we choose our
place in the sand.
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Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
Department of
History
The history department has been
implementing a variety of changes over
the last several years to better direct
the future of historical studies at Kent
State University. Significant changes
have been made and will continue
to be made to our undergraduate
program, including modifying the
Historian’s Craft course to focus more
on methodology, and requiring a
capstone Senior Seminar course where
the students utilize the skills learned in
their studies to write a primary source
seminar quality research paper.
Other changes are afoot
which will allow the
department to be more
nimble in its course
offerings and open to
students outside the major,
while at the same time
providing more intensive
studies for our majors.
Curricular changes will
mean adding new courses
and removing those that we
no longer have the faculty to
support to streamline and
modernize our program.
Changes will continue as
well with the graduate
program in an effort to train
and graduate more highly
skilled and employable
Master’s students and
PhDs. As a department we
are committed to assisting
our PhD students with
completing their studies
by providing time off while
on appointment and
supplementing that time
with a generous research
stipend. The hope is to
reduce time to degree
and with the practical
experience of teaching their
own survey courses and
even working to develop
online courses, allow them
to enter the workplace
sooner and better trained.
Other changes are in the
works as we continue to
modify specific areas of the
program to better recruit,
train, and direct graduate
students.
2
The faculty also
continues to direct their
futures with impressive
research and teaching
agendas. With all the
news about the decline
of the humanities and
the increasing (it seems)
irrelevance of historical
studies, the faculty
work hard to make
their research speak
not only about the past,
but also to the present
and even the future.
And, looking through
teaching evaluations and
exit survey responses
by our graduates,
through their teaching,
mentoring, and advising
our faculty, including our
outstanding adjuncts,
are directing the future
of historical study here
at KSU. As you read
through this newsletter
to catch up on what your
favorite faculty member
is up to, also take note
of the various activities
our graduates are up
to, giving credence to
the validity of studying
the humanities and the
increasing relevance of
history.
The KSU history
department finger in
the sand is in full control
of where it is going,
ensuring its continued
growth and success.
Ken Bindas
Professor & Chair
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
3
Department of
History
Table of Contents
1
4
Welcome from the Chair
Awards & Scholarships
(Undergraduate)
5
8
10
New Faculty Members
12
The Printed World:
13
Department Celebrates 100 Years
14
18
21
22
27
Faculty News
NATO Center Activities
Professor Returns to Zimbabwe
(Dr. Timothy Scarnecchia)
A Showcase of Rare Books
2013 Homecoming Reunion
Graduate Student News
Completed Theses & Dissertations
Alumni News
Contact Information
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
4
Awards &
Scholarships
Henry N. Whitney Scholarship
Each spring, the Department of History awards the Henry
N. Whitney Scholarship, which honors a long-standing
former chair of the department. The scholarship
recognizes an outstanding junior history major and
provides a scholarship to be used for the student’s senior
year. Matthew Turkalj was the 2014 winner.
Andrew Ohl, inaugural recipient of Thomas H. Smith Scholarship
Gold Pen Award
The department also offers a Gold Pen Award for
Excellence in Writing in History each spring to recognize
the author of the most distinguished history paper
written during the preceding calendar year. The winner
receives a gold pen, suitably engraved. The 2014 winner
was Philip Shackelford, whose winning essay, written in
the Senior Seminar, was titled “Signals Intelligence and
the Balance of Power.”
Reid Fleeson, inaugural recipient of Thomas H. Smith Scholarship
Department of
History
Thomas H. Smith Scholarship
In Fall 2014, the department awarded the first two
Thomas H. Smith Scholarships, honoring the first Kent
State UniversityHistory Ph.D. History majors in good
academic standing are eligible.
The inaugural recipients of the scholarship
were Reid Fleeson and Andrew Ohl.
Congratulations to Reid and Andrew!
Upcoming Awards
Several awards are also in the works. In Spring 2015,
we will be awarding the inaugural Richard G. Hollow
Scholarship to a history major in good academic
standing with an interest in the economic history of the
United States or in the intersection of economics and
American history. Finally, travel scholarships to help
offset the cost of participation in KSU’s study abroad
program in Florence, Italy, or Würzburg, Germany, are
also available.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
5
New Faculty
Members
Welcome, Mindy Farmer!
Dr. Mindy Farmer, Director, May 4 Visitor’s Center
A native of Kentucky, Mindy currently
lives in Akron. Although she says she’s
enjoying the chance to get acclimated
to northeastern Ohio, we know that
as winter approaches, she’s bound to
think longingly of the weather in Long
Beach, where she lived while on staff at
the Nixon Library.
The Department of History is delighted to welcome Dr.
Mindy Farmer, director of the May 4 Visitors Center, to
campus. In addition to her duties at the Visitors Center,
Mindy will also teach one history course per year, helping
to augment our current public history offerings. Mindy
comes to Kent State from the Richard Nixon Presidential
Library and Museum, where she served for five years
as the institution’s founding education specialist. Even
before arriving on campus, Mindy pushed the Nixon
Library to pursue a nonpartisan historical version of
May 4 by reworking its exhibit panel on Kent State to
unequivocally assign blame for the shootings to the
National Guard.
Mindy, who holds a bachelor’s degree in history and
social studies and a Master’s in history from Western
Kentucky University and a doctorate from The Ohio
State University, was attracted to the directorship of the
May 4 Visitors Center because of the opportunity the
job provided to work in both the public history realm
and the classroom, in her mind the best possible career
combination. A firm believer that “museums matter,”
Mindy is determined to ensure that the May 4 Visitors
Center takes the lead in shaping both public memory
of May 4 and an understanding of its larger meaning
for American society. In using the events of May 4 as a
teaching tool, Mindy plans to pursue a variety of activities,
including partnering with other archives and museums to
host conferences and virtual lectures, creating a studentsoldier oral history program to better understand the
experience of young veterans on campus; and working
with local school districts to create teacher workshops
and increase the number of students who visit the center.
In addition to overseeing and expanding the work of the
May 4 Visitors Center, Mindy is also very excited to have
the chance to teach here at Kent State. In the spring
2015 semester she will be offering a course titled Public
History Battlegrounds that will explore contested sites
and episodes in both a physical and a metaphorical
sense. Future courses she might like to offer include
one on the Nixon Era that makes use of the constantly
expanding documentary record and another on Curating
Controversy that explores the public history presentation
of events from Kent State through Watergate.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
6
New Faculty
Members
Welcome, Shane Strate!
The following is an interview with new Assitant Professor,
Dr. Shane Strate.
How did you become interested in the history of
Southeast Asia, and Thailand, in particular?
When I was nineteen, I applied to become a missionary
for the Mormon Church and was assigned to Bangkok
Thailand. I spent the next two years learning to speak,
read and write Thai and developed a familiarity with
the people and culture. I didn’t have the time to study
history, but understood that Thais were very proud
that their country had ‘never been colonized.’ After
returning to college I learned that this grand narrative of
perpetual independence had been created to promote
the monarchy and disguise the legacy of western
intervention. This contradiction made Thailand even
more interesting to me. Here was a country that didn’t fit
within the binary model of ‘colonized’ vs. ‘independent’.
Department of
History
Dr. Shane Strate, Assistant Professor
At Wisconsin, you studied with Thongchai
Winichakul, an innovative scholar whose
interdisciplinary approaches to history include
analyzing geographical discourse and assessing
how nations cope with past traumas. In what
ways did his earlier scholarship shape your
conceptualization of the dissertation?
I first read Thongchai’s book, Siam Mapped, when I
was a MA candidate writing on the 1940 Franco-Thai
border conflict and trying to understand the anti-colonial
rhetoric embedded within Thai nationalism. It was my
first experience with post-colonial theory, and I was
fascinated by the idea that the true legacy of western
imperialism was the triumph of its intellectual tradition.
As Europeans pressed into Southeast Asia, their modern
geography replaced traditional conceptions of space
based on cosmology. The map became a new technology
used by the West to define territory, establish sovereignty,
and even determine ethnicity. After reading that book, I
began planning to finish my graduate work at Wisconsin.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
7
New Faculty
Members
My forthcoming monograph The Lost
Territories, is built on Thongchai’s
theory of the ‘geo-body’ as an imagined
construct that can sustain injury.
Twentieth century Thai nationalists
used modern maps to communicate
their discourse of National Humiliation.
They argued that Thailand lagged
behind the West because imperialists
had stolen the nation’s territory and
slowed its progress towards modernity.
Tell us a bit about your research experience in
Southeast Asia; did you have any outrageous or
amusing experiences along the way to completing
that dissertation research?
Research in Thailand is not like working at the Library
of Congress. I remember working in the Thai National
Assembly library, and requesting that the librarian make
copies for me. “Oh, we don’t have a photocopier here,”
she informed me. “Just take this book down the street to
the internet café. They’ll copy it for you.”
So I took this priceless volume of National Assembly
proceedings and walked out of the library. As I headed
toward the street to get a motorcycle taxi, I had to pass
through a military security checkpoint. I knew that they
would see the books in my hands and assume I was
trying to steal them. And, of course, as I passed through I
heard a voice shout out, ‘Stop! Wait right there!” I turned
around to see a soldier running towards me and began
practicing the Thai phrases that would help me explain
this misunderstanding. “If you’re leaving the library you
can’t take that with you,” the soldier barked. And ignoring
the books, he grabbed the plastic visitor’s badge clipped
to my shirt, turned around, and walked back to his station.
What courses—undergraduate and graduate—
would you like to develop here at Kent State in order
to expand our offerings in Asian history?
My hope is to provide our undergrads with a strong
background in Asian history by offering surveys on
Southeast Asia, India, China, and Japan. Since my real
interest is identity studies, I also plan to develop courses
on Gandhi and the Indian nationalist movement and a
graduate seminar on post-colonial theory.
One final question: any truth to the song lyric “One
night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble”?
I can only say that several months in Bangkok during the
1990s would give a person sinus infections. Thankfully,
the air quality has improved since then.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
8
NATO & EU Studies
Center Activities
2014 Model NATO Competition
Department of
History
The 2014 KSU Model NATO team outside the Hungarian Embassy
in Washington DC: (left to right) Ashley Markle, Sarah Zabic, James
Hock, Sebastian Roldan, Alexis Carson, Audra Parish, Andrew Ohl,
and Philip Shackelford
The NATO and EU Studies Center once again brought 8
undergraduate students to Washington DC February
13-17 for the national Model NATO competition. The
KSU team represented NATO member states Hungary
and Slovenia in 2014. The first day in DC is spent
visiting the Embassies for briefings by the political and
military officers in each Embassy. This year, however,
Washington, DC, woke to a foot of snow the morning of
the Embassy visits, so it looked as if we would not be
able to attend the briefings. Thanks to the generous
offer of the Hungarian political and military director at
the Hungarian Embassy, Mr. Ferenc Kalmar, and thanks
to Sarah Zabic’s quick organizing of transport in a city
where even the taxis were not available, the Kent State
team managed to meet with Mr. Kalmar. One of our team
members, Aubdulhameed Abdulaziz, who was already
living in DC as part of the political science department’s
WPNI program, did manage to make it on his own for a
personal consultation with the Political Counselor at the
Slovenian Embassy, Petra Langerholc. KSU will once
again represent Slovenia in the 2015 competition in midFebruary, so we will hopefully all be able to benefit from
Ms. Langerholc’s briefing as we have in the past.
History major Andrew Ohl, who participated on last year’s
team, had the following to say about his participation:
“Model NATO has been a great experience
for me. As a member of Model NATO
you receive the opportunity to meet so
many new people from around the country
(and the globe for that matter). … Being
in such a stimulating city for politics is
an opportunity I would recommend to
everyone. The entire venture expanded
both my confidence in myself and my
knowledge of the world around me.”
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
Philip Shackelford, who is now an MA
student in history, says that “it was
a good introduction to work at the
committee level using parliamentary
procedures, which has helped prepared
me to work with the KSU Graduate
Student Senate.”
Students interested in participating
in this year’s Model NATO national
competition, please contact Dr.
Scarnecchia (tscarnec@kent.edu) for
more information and meeting times.
9
NATO & EU Studies
Center Activities
Conference with Dr. Gregory Moore
The NATO and EU Studies Center also co-hosted a
conference with History Department Alumni Dr. Gregory
Moore, who is the Chair of the History Department
and Director of the Intelligence Studies program at
Notre Dame College. The conference centered around
Dr. Moore’s recent collaborative project “The Human
Aspects of the Operational Environment.” Other topics
included a discussion of Ukraine, featuring Chris Quillen
of Advance Technical Intelligence Center in Beavercreek,
Ohio, and Sean Kay, from Ohio Wesleyan University.
We also had an interesting panel on lessons learned (or
not learned) from Iraq and Afghanistan, featuring Sadat
Mir of the National Defense Intelligence College and KSU
recent Ph.D from the Political Science Department, Dr.
Asegul Keskin Zeren. Professors Andrew Barnes, Steve
Hook, and Joshua Statcher from the political science
department, and John Hatzadony from Notre Dame
College served as moderators and commentators. The
NATO Center’s founder, emeritus university professor Dr.
Larry Kaplan, gave the closing remarks.
Dr. Scarnecchia also participated on a working
group of academics covering Sub-Saharan Africa
for a conference titled “Flexible Frameworks, Beyond
Borders: Understanding Regional Dynamics to Enhance
Cooperative Security,” 15-17 May 2014 in Bertinoro, Italy.
The KSU Model NATO team after three days of intensive
competition: (left to right) front row- Aubdulhameed
Abdulaziz, James Hock; second row- Philip Shackelford,
Audra Parish, Alexis Carson, Ashley Markle; third rowAndrew Ohl, Sebastian Roldan, Michael Marefka, and Dr.
Scarnecchia, faculty advisor (not pictured- Jessica Miller)
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
10
Professor Returns to
Harare, Zimbabwe
Dr. Timothy Scarnecchia
Dr. Scarnecchia lectures to third-year economic history students
in a University of Zimbabwe class room
In October-November 2013, Associate Professor Timothy
Scarnecchia had the opportunity to spend a month in
Harare, Zimbabwe, thanks to the support of a College
of Arts and Sciences Innovative Research Seed Grant,
which provides three years of funding to carryout a
new research project. In Tim’s case, he was returning to
Harare to revisit the one hundred or so households and
individuals he interviewed during the research for his
dissertation some twenty years ago.
Department of
History
Many Zimbabweans have been through some very tough
times in the intervening years, so the chance to go back
and work on survey and urban history project with new
and old colleagues at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ)
has been a real honor for Tim and also one that presents
some interesting methodological challenges. He plans to
return in May 2015 for the second phase of the project.
While in Harare, Tim had a chance to lecture on
Zimbabwean history to University of Zimbabwe secondand third-year economic history students. The students
seemed to enjoy listening to someone with an American
English accent lecture on Zimbabwean history (or else
they were being really polite about it) and Tim thoroughly
enjoyed the chance to lecture on his research in front of
Zimbabwean students.
Tim also met with first-year university students as
part of a project to link them with first-year students
in the Destination Kent course he taught at KSU with
the assistance of Jamie Oriti of the CAS advising staff.
They set up a Facebook page where the two groups of
students could interact about their first-year experiences,
and find out that even though they live some eightyone hundred miles apart, their experiences are pretty
universal. After one of their meetings on the UZ campus,
they posed for a group photo in the courtyard of the
Social Science Faculty buildings.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
11
Professor Returns to
Harare, Zimbabwe
Tim meets with first year University of Zimbabwe students
Group photo in courtyard of the Social Science Faculty buildings
Even with the political and economic crises Zimbabwe
has experienced since 2000, the capital city continues to
move forward. As in so many African cities, the individual
and collective drive to survive and prosper, and to carve
out a better life for future generations, creates solutions
to urban problems that on paper—or from an American
civil society perspective—often seem insurmountable.
That type of ethos and drive is not easy to capture in
academic work, but it is certainly one of the consistent
forces of urban life and history that needs emphasized.
Tim’s hope is that by returning to the households and
individuals interviewed twenty years ago, we can find
ways to relate these qualitative experiences within a
larger urban history. He feels very fortunate to have the
continued support of KSU’s College of Arts and Sciences
and the Department of History for this new research.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
12
The Printed World
A Showcase of Rare Books
From the late fifteenth century to early nineteenth
century, Europeans sent expeditions oversea and
overland to the four corners of the globe. The end results
of these expeditions varied. Some gave rise to new
patterns of trade. Others resulted in European conquest
and colonization, while other expeditions were failures.
(left to right): Amy Vartenuk, John Potwora, Professor Crawford,
Paul Boyle, Traci Hoffman
Department of
History
“Subduction Zones: The Clash of Civilizations in the South Pacific”
by John Potwora
How did Europeans describe and make sense of their
explorations and encounters in Africa, Asia and the
Americas in printed travel accounts? What role did travel
writing play in facilitating or justifying European efforts to
explore and exploit peoples and places in distance lands?
Last Spring semester, four undergraduate majors in
the Department of History set out to explore these
questions by studying the printed travel accounts from
early modern Europe in the Special Collections Library
at Kent State University. Under the direction of Assistant
Professor Matthew Crawford and Cara Gilgenbach,
the Director of the Special Collections Library, Paul
Boyle, Traci Hoffman, John Potwora, and Amy Vartenuk
designed and developed a showcase of a selection of
early modern European travel accounts from the Special
Collections Library. The showcase took place on May
9, 2014. In addition to a one-time exhibit of the books,
the undergraduate curators each gave a presentation
on their subsection of the showcase to an audience of
nearly fifty people.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
13
Department of
History
Celebrates 100 Years!
2013 Homecoming Reunion
On October 4, 2013, members of the Department of
History – past and present – gathered in Bowman Hall
to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Department.
Attendees included alumni and emeriti faculty as well
as current students and faculty. The keynote speaker of
the event was Dr. Leonne Hudson, Associate Professor
in the Department of History, who gave a stimulating
lecture entitled “The Reaction of Black Americans to
Lincoln’s Death.” After this lecture, a panel of current
undergraduate and graduate students – Jill Winters,
history major and President of the History Club,
Jonathan Lower, M.A. candidate, and Denise Jenison,
Ph.D. candidate – spoke about their reasons for studying
history and their experiences with the Department.
Other attendees experienced a personalized tour of the
new May 4th Visitors center led by two graduate students
in the Department of History’s Public History Program,
Bill Casale and Stephanie Vincent. The afternoon’s
activities concluded with an “open mic” session in
which alumni and emeriti faculty shared their stories
and reminiscences of their time in the Department of
History. Overall, the event was a success and wonderful
experience for all those that attended. In addition, we are
proud to report that among the various departments
celebrating their anniversaries last Fall, the Department
of History had the best attendance by alumni! It was
great to have everyone back in Bowman Hall again and
we hope to see you again soon!
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
14
Faculty News
Kevin Adams
Mary Ann Heiss
Dr. Adams has spent much of the past year working
on Civil War History and chipping away at the
research for his second book project. He presented
early versions of his current research at the annual
meeting of the Western History Association in Tucson,
and at an invited talk at the University of Montana.
Next year will see him share more of his research at
the Society for Military History’s annual meeting, lead
a plenary session on Reconstruction at the Southern
Historical Association annual meeting, and enjoy the
publication of a historiographical essay he completed
on Presidential Reconstruction
Dr. Heiss presented “Swimming against the Tide: British
and American Imperial Thinking and UN Support for
Decolonization, 1945-1963” at the Annual Meeting of the
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations,
in Lexington, KY, in June 2014, a paper drawn from
her ongoing second monograph project, provisionally
titled From Interest to Involvement: The United States,
Great Britain, and the UN Role in Non-Self-Governing
Territories, 1945-1963. She continues to serve on the
Board of Directors of the Harry S. Truman Library
Institute and on the Institute’s Committee on Research,
Scholarship, and Education, whose Grants Subcommittee
she chairs, and to edit the series “New Studies in U.S.
Foreign Relations” for the Kent State University Press.
Her term as president of the Ohio Academy of History
concluded in April.
Kenneth J. Bindas
Dr. Bindas’s manuscript, A Secular Awakening: The
Apotheosis of Modernity, 1929-1941, was completed
during his sabbatical last spring and is currently
under review. His work with David Hassler on the
documentary May 4th Voices, which aired on Western
Reserve Media 45/49 PBS, was awarded the Oral
History Association’s 2014 prize for the best Oral
History in a Nonprint Format.
Leslie Heaphy
Dr. Heaphy published “Baseball Before 1920” in A
Companion to American Sport History, Steven Reiss,
editor; an essay on teaching genocide with Lee
Fox in Peace Psychology; and a book review in the
Journal of Southern History. She delivered public
presentations at a variety of locales, including the
MLB All Star Fanfest in Minneapolis, MN; the Chester
Public Library, Chester, NJ; and numerous venues
throughout northeast Ohio. In October 2013, she
received the Kent State University Alumni Association
Distinguished Teaching Award; in July 2014, she
received the Bob Davids Award from the Society of
American Baseball Research.
Leonne M. Hudson
Dr. Hudson delivered invited lectures at Walsh University,
Kent State University, and Lourdes University during the
2013-2014 academic year. His term on the editorial board
of the Kent State University Press ended in 2013. In
April 2014, he received the College of Arts and Sciences
Distinguished Teacher Award. He published three book
reviews and continues to work on his monograph on
Abraham Lincoln.
John Jameson
Dr. Jameson continues to explore collaborations with
the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the National Park
Service, the latter celebrating its centennial in 2016.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
15
Faculty News
Hongshan Li
Julio Pino
In the past year, Dr. Li published a book chapter,
“A Cultural Gateway: Macao on the Map of SinoAmerican Relations,” in To the Orient, Zhang
Shuguang, editor; and two book reviews, one in
History: Reviews of New Books and the other in the
Journal of American History. He received a number
of internal and external grants to support his research
in China. Through competition, he won the ShortTerm Expert Research Grant, $1,200, from the East
China Normal University, Shanghai, China, to cover
all his expenses while researching in Shanghai in
summer 2014. As an invited international scholar,
he was a recipient of the Special Research Project
Grant, $2,500, from the Macao University of Science
and Technology, Macao, China, 2014. The grant was
provided for him to conduct research on the role
played by Macao in the making of U.S.-China cultural
relations. His research project, “Building A Black
Bridge: China’s Interaction with African-American
Activists in the Cold War,” was awarded a Research
Travel Grant, $2,500, by the University Research
Council, Kent State University to support research
in Hong Kong, Wuhan, and Beijing in summer 2014.
As a result of this support, he was able to present
three research papers at national and international
conferences and deliver an invited lecture. “Bridging
the Cultures in the Cold War: African-American
Activists and U.S.-China Cultural Relations,” was
read at the American Historical Association Annual
Conference, Washington, D.C., in January 2014.
“A Cultural Gateway: Macao on the Map of SinoAmerican Relations,” was given at the Symposium:
Macao on the World Map held at the Macao University
of Science and Technology, Macao, China, May
2014. “Building a Black Bridge: China’s Interactions
with Afro-American Activists in the Cold War,” was
presented at the Symposium on Chinese History in
a Global World held in East China Normal University,
Shanghai, China, in June 2014. Finally, the invited
lecture “The Hidden Helping Hand: The U.S. State
Department’s Assistance to Students Returning to
China, 1949-1955,” was delivered at the Department
of History, East China Normal University, Shanghai,
China, in June 2014.
Dr. Pino’s article, “A Day in the Mind of the Malê: Ecopoesy
of Muslim Slaves and Free Persons in Nineteenth-Century
Salvador, Brazil,” has been accepted for publication by the
Journal of Islamic History and Civilization.
Rebecca Pulju
Dr. Pulju finished an article and a book chapter last
year. The book chapter will appear in a collection
on international marriage crises, and the article, on
empowering and disciplining women consumers, in
the French journal Le Mouvement Social. She was also
happy to have the chance to comment on a panel at
French Historical Studies, which was held in Montréal
in April. The Bibliothèque Nationale de Québec is right
near campus, so she was able to do some research while
there for the conference and returned again in August for
a subsequent research trip.
James Seelye
Dr. Seelye’s edited primary source collection The
Great American Mosaic: An Exploration of Diversity in
Primary Documents – American Indian Volume was
published by Greenwood Publishing Group/ABC-CLIO
in September 2014 and his article “Baptist Missionary
Activities in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: Rev. Abel
Bingham,” is scheduled to appear in the Baptist History
and Heritage Journal this fall. He presented three
papers during the fall 2014 semester: “Native American
Lessons from Jamestown: Was It Genocide?” at the
1619: The Making of America Conference, in Norfolk, VA,
in September; “Missionary Ethnographers: The Example
of Bishop Frederic Baraga in the Nineteenth Century
Great Lakes,” at the American Society for Ethnohistory
60th Annual Conference, in Indianapolis, IN, in October;
and “American Indian Lessons from Jamestown: Was
it Genocide?” at the 40th Annual Great Lakes History
Conference, in Grand Rapids, MI, also in October.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
16
Faculty News
Elizabeth Smith-Pryor
Lindsay Starkey
Dr. Smith-Pryor is researching and writing an article
related to the Civil Rights/Black Power Era tentatively
titled “‘Equal Opportunity is Not Enough’: The Urban
League’s New Thrust, Black Power, White Foundations,
and the Cleveland Street Academy Program, 19681975.” Her project explores how the Urban League,
an African American social service agency and
civil rights organization, tried to remain relevant in
the urban North in the immediate post-Civil Rights
era through its street academy program (SAP). In
Cleveland, three local foundations as well as the
federal government funded the SAP. Over the course
of 2014, she has conducted research in the papers
of the Cleveland branch of the Urban League at the
Western Reserve Historical Society. She has also
received special permission from the foundations to
examine the pertinent files in the Western Reserve
Historical Society. She continues to serve as a
scholarly advisor to the Brooklyn Historical Society’s
project “Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations:
Mixed-Heritage Families in Brooklyn.” In June 2014,
she attended an advisory committee meeting at the
BHS and agreed to write a short article for inclusion
in their educational materials. This project is a public
programming series and oral history project, which
examines mixed-heritage people and families, cultural
hybridity, race, ethnicity, and identity. Currently in
the planning phase, Crossing Borders, Bridging
Generations has received funding from the National
Endowment for the Humanities and the New York
State Council for the Humanities. The project will
result in a multi-faceted interpretive website expected
to be completed in 2015. For more information on the
project check out: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/
exhibitions/crossing_borders.html#pf.
During the past year, Dr. Starkey presented three papers
at professional conferences: “Gangrene or Cancer? The
Decay of the Body of the Church in John Calvin’s Exegesis
of 2 Timothy 2:17” at the Sixteenth Century Society
Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in October 2013;
“Sixteenth-Century European Conceptions of Water:
Sea Voyages and the Disordering of the Universe” at
The Renaissance Society of America Meeting, in New
York, in March 2014; and “Characterizations of Water’s
Failure to Flood the Earth in Sixteenth-Century Natural
Philosophical Texts” at the Sixteenth Century Society
Conference in New Orleans, in October 2014.
Richard Steigmann-Gall
Richard Steigmann-Gall took a break from his
“Germany Study Abroad” class last Spring, but is happy
to be resuming it again this May, during the Summer
Intersession. He’ll be taking a class of undergraduates
to Frankfurt, Erfurt, Dresden and Berlin, to talk about the
country’s contentious and dramatic past, as well as the
challenges it faces today. Steigmann-Gall expanded his
study abroad teaching last September by giving an invited
lecture to the Kent State University Florence Program.
Some sixty students - some of them from other study
abroad programs in Florence - game to hear him give a
lecture on his book, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of
Christianity. His visit, hosted by program director Fabrizio
Ricciardelli, gave him a chance to discuss the Italian
language edition of the book as well. On the publication
front, Steigmann-Gall’s contribution to Jane Caplan’s
volume, The Short Oxford History of Nazi Germany, was
translated into Turkish as Hitler Almanyası by the Istanbul
publishing house, İnkılap Kitabevi.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
Faculty News
Isolde Thyrêt
Two research trips to Russia highlighted Dr. Thyrêt’s
professional activities during the last academic year.
In September 2013 and in June 2014, she conducted
research in Russian archives and libraries in Moscow
and Tver, a provincial capital about one hundred miles
to the northwest of Moscow. During the September
trip she also presented a paper in Moscow at a
conference sponsored by the Russian Academy of
Sciences. The high point of Dr. Thyrêt’s June trip
was a visit to the Nilovo-Stolobenskaia Hermitage in
western Russia, the site of the shrine of an important
early modern Russian Orthodox saint, who is the
subject of her present book project. There, as the
first American scholar invited to visit the hermitage,
she examined local architecture, icons, and historical
artifacts and consulted with the abbot and other
monks about the cult of their patron saint. Dr. Thyrêt
also published two articles last year. Her first article
examines the interaction between paganism and
Christianity in medieval Russia and was published in
German in a collection of articles on the conversion
of northern Europe in the Middle Ages. The second
article analyzes the rivalry between two early modern
Russian towns as revealed in a comparison of the
hagiography of each town’s patron saint and the
respective chronicle literature. This article was
published in an international collection of essays
centered on the theme of medieval saints and local
identity.
17
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
18
Graduate
Student News
Mathew Brundage
Mathew is nearing completion of his dissertation,
“‘Where We Would Extend the Moral Power of Our
Civilization’: American Cultural and Political Foreign
Relations with China, 1842-1856.”
Jobadiah Christiansen
Jobadiah is writing a thesis titled “Crucifix of Memory:
Community and Identity in Greenville, Pennsylvania.”
He participated in an archaeological field season in
June, 2014 at Umm el-Jimal in Jordan with Calvin
College and delivered “Lime Kilns in the Prehistoric
through Byzantine Levant: Developing a Research
Program of Ancient Lime Connections” at the Annual
ASOR (American Schools of Oriental Research)
Meeting in November 2014
Michele Curran Cornell
After passing her doctoral candidacy exams in
October 2013 and her dissertation prospectus
defense in April 2014, Michele has spent the past
months developing and teaching her first courses:
U.S. Formative Period (online) and U.S. Modern. This
spring she will be teaching Modern World History.
She reviewed Leslie C. Bell, Hard to Get: 20-Something
Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom, for
the Oral History Journal and has another review
forthcoming. She has conducted dissertation
research at Gettysburg College, the Military History
Institute at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education
Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Bowling Green
State University. Her research has been supported
by the General and Mrs. Matthew Ridgway Military
History Grant.
New Fall 2014 Doctoral Students: (left to right)
Stephanie Jannenga, Dan Farrell, Stephanie Vincent, Nick Mays,
and Jacob House
Denise Jenison
Denise presented papers drawn from her dissertation
work at three different conferences: the Phi Alpha Theta
Regional Conference in March 2014, where she won the
Best Panel Presentation prize; the Reference Cultures
and Imagined Empires in Western History conference
held at Utrecht University, Netherlands, in July 2014; and
the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting in
Washington, DC, in November 2014.
Max Monegan
Max is a social studies teacher at Bio-Med Science
Academy in Rootstown as well as coach for the Literacy
Design Collaborative. In November, he presented
“Increasing Motivation in Social Media and Historical
Empathy” at the National Council for the Social Studies
Annual Meeting in Boston.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
19
Graduate
Student News
Cyrus Moore
Heather Scarlett
Since starting the graduate program here at KSU,
Cyrus has studied the Ohio National Guard from the
Civil War up to the Spanish-American War, which will
be the subject of his Master’s thesis. His research
has included many original documents including Ohio
Adjutant General’s Reports and soldiers’ memoirs.
Heather’s thesis research focuses on Civil War
reenactors and how they are thought of in regards
to education within the framework of public history
and museums. It is unique in the fact that it will be a
partially filmed documentary to go along with the written
chapters. She is a member of the board of trustees for
the Portage County Historical Society where she helps
with multi-media content on the website and with various
other projects.
Mallory Neal
Mallory attended the New York State Association of
European Historians (NYSAEH) conference during the
fall semester. In her capacity as editorial assistant
on Civil War History this semester, she attended
the Southern Historical Association conference
in November, acting as social media manager
(tweeting the panels, attending the reception, etc.).
Her dissertation research explores the relationship
between motherhood, loyalty, and citizenship during
World War II in France.
Leon Perkowski
Leon is working full-time as the head of Air War
College Distance Learning, which provides Air War
College’s senior developmental education in an
online format to more than 7,000 rising DoD leaders
worldwide, and also serves as a member of the Air
University’s faculty senate. Leon is working on the
final two chapters of his dissertation and will present
a paper drawn from his research, “Military Resistance
to Nixon’s Troop Reduction in South Korea, 1969-1971,”
at the Society for Military History conference in April.
He and his wife miss autumn in Kent.
Philip Shackelford
After receiving his B.A. in history from Kent State in
May 2014, Philip commenced graduate study in the
department. His Senior Seminar paper, “Signals
Intelligence and a Balance of Power: The Argument
for Electronic Espionage during the Early Cold War,”
received an Honorable Mention from the Annual Cold
War Essay Contest sponsored by the John A. Adams ’71
Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis at the
Virginia Military Institute and the Kent State University
History Department’s Gold Pen Award. In March, he was
awarded “Best Paper” for his presentation of his Senior
Seminar paper at the 2014 Ohio Regional Phi Alpha
Theta Conference at Ohio Northern University. During
the summer of 2013, Philip completed an internship with
the Rock & Roll Hall Library & Archives. He is serving as
president of Kent State’s chapter of Phi Alpha Theta for
the 2014-2015 academic year.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
20
Graduate
Student News
Robert W. Sidwell
Stephanie Vincent
Robert’s dissertation work is well under way. Over
the summer he conducted research at the Virginia
Historical Society (from which he received a Mellon
Fellowship) and the University of Virginia. In addition
to publishing a book review on H-CivWar , he
presented a number of papers: “On-the-Job Training:
General Robert E. Lee’s Personal Staff, 1861-1862,” at
the Phi Alpha Theta History Research Symposium
at Kent State University in March 2014; “Forging an
Effective Team: General Robert E. Lee’s Selection of
His Personal Staff,” at the Ohio Academy of History
Conference at The Ohio State University in April 2014;
and “The Battle of Cheat Mountain,” at the Zanesville
Civil War Round Table, Zanesville, Ohio, in September
2014. He also has a future speaking engagement at
the Cuyahoga Falls Civil War Round Table this coming
June.
Since successfully defending her dissertation prospectus,
Stephanie has conducted research in Syracuse, NY,
Columbus, OH, and Newell, WV. She has published book
reviews in Pennsylvania History and the Oral History
Review, served as a manuscript referee for Enterprise
and Society, and presented at the From Burned Over
to Rusted Out regional conference at the University of
Rochester. In addition to serving as a guest lecturer on
May 4th for a summer 2014 Gilder-Lehrman Institute for
teachers, she was selected as winner of a 2014-2015 Kent
State University Fellowship.
Whitney Stalnaker
Whitney began her Master’s work in August with a
concentration in public history. She plans to focus
her research on the Holocaust, with particular
emphasis on the representation of Anne Frank’s
diary. While pursuing her B.A. work at Glenville State
College in West Virginia, she coordinated the Anne
Frank Project, an educational program for secondary
students aimed at enriching their knowledge of the
Holocaust and Anne Frank’s story through museum
exhibits, music, and theatrical production. Currently,
she is pursuing participation in the study abroad
exchange program to Wurzburg, Germany, for the fall
2015 semester.
Stephanie Vincent, Recipient of University Fellowship, 2014: (left to
right) President Beverly Warren, Stephanie Vincent, Provost Todd
Diacon
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
21
M.A. Theses
Completed, 2013-2014
Ph.D. Dissertations
Completed, 2013-2014
Lauren Cengel
Kim Carey
“Making Meaning and Connections: A Study of the
Interpretation and Education Practices for the
Medieval Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art”
“Straddling the Color Line: Social and Political Power of
African American Elites in Charleston, New Orleans, and
Cleveland, 1880-1920”
Jesse Curtis
Gregory Jones
“Awakening the Nation: Mississippi Senator John C.
Stennis, the White Countermovement, and the Rise of
Colorblind Conservatism, 1947-1964”
“They Fought the War Together: Southeastern Ohio’s
Soldiers and Their Families During the Civil War”
Patrick Finnen
Melissa Steinmetz
“Strange Times: The Language of Illness and Malaise
in Interwar France”
“National Insecurity in the Nuclear Age: Cold War
Manhood and the Gendered Discourse of U.S. Survival,
1945-1960”
Michael Goodnough
Timothy Wintour
“The Campus at Carnival: The Students for a
Democratic Society’s Heteroglossic Challenge of
Unitary Language Authority at Three Ohio Universities,
1967-1970”
“The Buck Starts Here: The Federal Reserve and
Monetary Politics from World War to Cold War, 1941-1951”
Edward Koltonski
“Written in Blood: Negotiating Public Reaction and
Professional Objectivity in the Media to the Wayside
Murder in Youngstown, Ohio, 1876-1877”
Jonathan Lower
“The Romance of Lead Belly: Race, Identity, and
Authenticity in American Blues Music”
Nicholas Mays
“Northern Redemption: Martin Luther King, the United
Pastors Association, and the Civil Rights Struggle in
Cleveland, Ohio”
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
22
Alumni News
Robert Barbato (B.A. 2013)
Lauren (Cengel) Casale (M.A. 2014)
Robert has been employed as a sales specialist
at Lowe’s since graduation while learning Italian,
studying up on Medieval Italy, and saving money to
eventually further his educational career.
Lauren has been working as a Museum Educator at the
Western Reserve Historical Society since April, where
she designs and implements educational programs
for elementary-school-age children and senior adults
onsite and at outreach locations. She also assists in
the implementation of public programming that the
WRHS offers. In October, she began working part time
at the new Cleveland office of Cowan’s Auctions, where
she assists in bringing in consignments, researching
and cataloging items, and preparing the showroom for
auctions.
Todd Bauknecht (B.A. 2012)
Todd is a German and history (freshman World
History) teacher at Norwalk Catholic Schools. He
recently returned from a trip to Germany with the
Friendship Connection.
Colleen Benoit (M.A. 2011)
Colleen worked for six months after graduation as
the History Associate for the American Civil Liberties
Union of Ohio. For the past three years, she was
worked as an Archivist for History Associates, Inc. in
Washington, D.C. There she managed several archival
processing contracts for the National Park Service
and is currently implementing an archival program
for a Fortune 500 company. In August, she passed
the Certified Archivist exam and was promoted to
a supervisory role. She also plays an active part
in coordinating History Associates’ professional
development activities.
Ilya Braverman (M.A. 2012)
Ilya spent a year in his hometown of Milwaukee, WI,
working for a community non-profit organization.
In December 2013, he relocated to Washington, DC,
having accepted a position at J Street, a political
advocacy organization that works to achieve a twostate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As
a member of the development operations team,
he supports multiple fundraising staff around the
country that raise money for direct-lobbying as well
as for J Street endorsed congressional and senatorial
candidates in an effort to change the conversation on
Israel and the conflict in the United States.
Jason Csehi (B.A. 2005, M.A. 2009)
Jason is working as an adjunct instructor at both KSU,
Ashtabula and Stark State College while continuing to
pursue a law degree at the Cleveland Marshall College
of Law, where he is the Legal Research and Writing
Grammar Tutor, a member of the Constitutional Law
Moot Court Team, and chapter president of the Federalist
Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. From time to
time, he gives presentations at conferences and hosts
workshops for students to improve their writing. He also
volunteers at the Kent Campus Writing Center.
Jesse Curtis (M.A. 2014)
Jesse has just begun doctoral study at Temple University.
He is also working on publishing part of his M.A. thesis.
Michael Deck (B.A. 2012)
Michael was commissioned as an officer in the United
States Air Force upon graduation. He attended
Undergraduate Pilot Training in Columbus, MS, for a
year and a half and graduated in October 2013 and then
attended Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE)
training at Fairchild AFB, Washington during the winter.
He earned his first choice assignment to fly the KC-10A
Extender at Travis AFB, CA (near San Francisco), where
he currently resides. Mike has been to many countries
all over the world, especially in the Pacific region, and is
currently a pilot deployed to SW Asia.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
23
Alumni News
Kurt Eberly (Ph.D. 2011)
Michelle Italia-Walker (B.A. 2012)
Kurt continues to teach at Tidewater Community
College in Virginia Beach, VA. His primary teaching
assignments are Western Civ. I and World Civ. I, with
an occasional U.S. to 1877 thrown in. He and his wife
have two boys who keep them very busy.
Michelle recently began the Master of Library and
Information Science program here at Kent State
University with a specialization in Museum Studies and
is currently a Student Employee in the Network and
Telecommunication Services group that is part of the
Information Services group. She has remained active in
the history field, currently consulting with the Mogadore
Historical Society on a complete makeover of its historic
house and train depot. Michelle is consulting with them
on preservation of their objects, as well as, installing new
exhibits. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees
at the Portage County Historical Society and Museum
as well as head of the Society’s archives. During her final
semester at KSU, she began working on a documentary
as a historical researcher with the School of Journalism.
Titled “Séances and Slot Machines: The Story of Brady
Lake Park,” it was released this summer to the Western
Reserve Public Media and has aired several times. Before
applying to the MLIS program, she spent a season
working at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. Michelle and
her husband have just finished building a new house in
Brimfield Twp. They are thrilled to be putting down roots
here in the Kent area. A transplant from Pittsburgh,
Michelle has fallen in love with Kent and enjoys being
a part of not only the KSU family but also the local
community.
Kristen Egan (B.A. 2013)
Kristen moved to Montana after graduation to attend
the University of Montana’s Master of Education
program. While establishing residency, she is working
at Profiles International, a logistics company, as an
Accounts Receivable Representative. She continues to
serve in the Army National Guard.
Patrick Finnen (M.A. 2014)
Patrick is currently teaching part time at the University
of Akron while researching doctoral programs.
Monika Flaschka (M.A. 2004, Ph.D. 2009)
Monika is in her second year as a visiting assistant
professor of history at Ohio University. Her History of
Women in Modern Europe won The Ohio University
History Association best class award for 2013-2014.
Steven Haynes (Ph.D. 2012)
Steven won the Ohio Academy of History’s 2014
Outstanding Dissertation Award for “Alternative
Vision: The United States, Latin America, and
the League of Nations during the Republican
Ascendancy.” He was recently awarded tenure at
Dodge City Community College.
Gregory Jones (Ph.D. 2013)
Gregory has been teaching in the History and Humanities
Department at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
24
Alumni News
Miriam Kahn (Ph.D. 2011)
Caitlin (Dillehay) McCallum (B.A. 2013)
Miriam in 2013 nominated a nineteen-building
farm for the National Register of Historic Places.
The research is complete and the nomination was
successful, placing the Bulen House and Farm on the
National Register of Historic Places in February 2014
as entry 14000028. Miriam’s second publication is
“Moving Types,” which is currently in press. This short
publication contains twelve vignettes on the history
of printing, printers, and printing companies in Ohio
from 1790 through the present. It will be available in
late December 2014. In October 2014, Miriam was
the keynote speaker for the Columbus Jewish Book
Fair One Book, One Community Project. Her lecture,
“Uncovering our Sacred Past—An Introduction to the
Cairo Genizah,” provided historical and archaeological
background for Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole’s book
Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo
Geniza.
Caitlin is in the third semester of the Master of Library
and Information Science Program here at Kent
State University. A Graduate Student Assistant at the
Special Collections and Archives in the Main Library,
she previously held a position as a Graduate Student
Assistant at the Architecture Library on campus.
Edward Koltonski (B.A. 2011, M.A. 2013)
Edward is enrolled in the School of Library and
Information Science where he is concentrating on
academic reference librarianship and instruction.
He currently works for Campus Libraries at Main
Reference and the Map Library. After graduating, he
hopes to find employment at a university library that
will, among all the other responsibilities of reference
work, allow him to work as a subject reference
librarian for history.
Chad Lower (Ph.D. 2009)
Chad began a full-time history instructor position at
Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, TX, in August
2014.
Jonathan Lower (B.A. 2012, M.A. 2014)
Jonathan is currently working on his doctorate at
Buffalo and teaching early U.S. history.
Lindsey (Calderwood) McLaughlin
(B.A. 2006, M.A. 2011)
Lindsey is currently employed as a full-time social
studies instructor at Bio-Med Science Academy in
Rootstown, Ohio, a highly ranked 4-year STEM+M High
School located on the camps of Northeast Ohio Medical
University. She is also an adjunct faculty member at
KSU, Stark, where she teaches a course in social studies
methods each spring, something she enjoys very much.
Drew Merchant (B.A. 2013)
Drew completed the Kent State Police Academy in May
2014 and is working full time at Kent Village Apartments
while pursuing his career in law enforcement.
So Mizoguchi (M.A. 2010)
So is currently a third-year doctoral student in history at
Michigan State University. After graduating from Kent
State University, he spent a year at Rikkyo University,
Tokyo, and from 2011-2012, Rikkyo University funded his
work as a visiting graduate researcher at University of
Maryland College Park. He has published two articles,
“Nixon-Kissinger Diplomacy and South Asia 1969-71:
Revisiting ‘Tilt Policy,’” in St. Paul’s Review of Law and
Politics and “Schooling for Democracy: Michigan
State University and Cold War Education in AmericanOccupied Okinawa in the 1950s,” in the Virginia Review of
Asian Studies.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
25
Alumni News
Caleb Myatt (B.A. 2013)
Matthew Phillips (M.A. 2005, Ph.D. 2011)
Caleb is in his first semester as a Master’s student in
history at George Mason University.
Matthew has been busy teaching here on campus and at
Notre Dame College since completing his dissertation.
In addition to teaching a variety of introductory level
courses, he has also developed such upper-division
courses as The 1910s: A World of War and Revolution and
The Imperial History of North America, 1400s-Present.
He has published a book review on H-Empire and three
entries in the forthcoming EUSI (Encyclopedia of U.S.
Intelligence), edited by Greg Moore: “Zimmermann Note,”
“Committee of Secret Correspondence,” and “Committee
of Foreign Affairs.” Currently, he’s in the thick of research
on an off-shoot from one of his dissertation chapters,
looking at the onset of the U.S. occupation of Haiti
from the perspective of varying worldviews, including
Woodrow Wilson’s; the rural, Vodou-based population;
and the Francophone Haitian elite, which was involved
in state activities including diplomacy at Versailles in
1919 and in the resulting League of Nations. Ultimately,
he hopes to use this as a case study illustrating the
assimilative imperialism of the ideals behind Versailles:
the nation-state system; financial capitalism; and other
key tenets of liberal internationalism.
Louie Myers (B.A. 2014)
Louie is attending the University of Idaho College of
Law.
John Norris (M.A. 2012)
John is in his fourteenth year teaching United States
History and AP American Government and Politics
at Walsh Jesuit High School, where he currently
serves as Social Studies Department Chair. He is also
entering his tenth year as the Head Varsity Basketball
Coach for the Men’s program at WJHS. He and his
wife, fellow KSU alum Teresa (Witherspoon), have
been married for three years and reside in Cuyahoga
Falls.
John Penca (B.A. 2013)
John has been continuously employed since
graduation, and for the last year has been with
Enterprise Rent a Car, where he is on track for his
first promotion in the coming months. He and his wife
bought their first home in March and are expecting
their first child in May.
Jordan Phillips (B.A. 2012)
Jordan is pursuing Master’s work in Kent State
University’s School of Public Health with a
concentration in environmental health sciences.
Dionna Richardson (LaRue)
(B.A. 2007, M.A. 2011)
Dionna is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Akron,
currently writing a dissertation on colonized women in
the British and French colonial Caribbean and planning
to graduate in the spring of 2016. She teaches world
history, humanities, the history of India, and Latin
American history at UA and at Notre Dame College
in South Euclid. She also co-founded an association
at UA for history graduate students (a sort of support
association), and finally, she created and will continue to
run a summer study abroad program in cooperation with
the history department at the Université du Maine in Le
Mans, France.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
26
Alumni News
John Walker (Ph.D. 2009)
Timothy Wintour (Ph.D. 2013)
John published Bracketing the Enemy: Forward
Observers in World War II in August 2013 with the
University of Oklahoma Press. He and his wife Alice
are enjoying their three grandchildren, including
two who arrived after he finished his degree. As he
reports, “Life is good!”
Timothy has continued to work as an adjunct instructor
here in the department. He recently attended the
conference The UN and the Post-War Global Order:
Bretton Woods in Perspective at the Roosevelt Study
Center in Middelburg in the Netherlands, where he
presented “‘New Lanes in Uncharted Seas’: The Federal
Reserve and the Political Economy of Bretton Woods” and
served as a discussant. Current plans are to produce
an edited conference volume with the aim of publishing
in time for December 2015, the seventieth anniversary
of the deadline for nations to adopt the Bretton Woods
Agreements. Tim is currently working on revising his
conference paper for that volume.
Emily Wicks (M.A. 2012)
Emily completed an MLIS degree at KSU specializing
in Museum Studies and Archival Management after
earning her history Master’s. She worked for several
months at the ACLU of Ohio as a History Associate
and since October 2013, has worked at the University
of Connecticut’s Ballard Institute and Museum of
Puppetry as Program Assistant.
Kent State University
Spring 2015 Newsletter
27
Department of
History
305 Bowman Hall, P.O. Box 5190, Kent State University
history@kent.edu, 330-672-2882
Visit the Department’s Webpage
http://www.kent.edu/cas/history
Our webpage has a great deal of helpful information.
Prospective students and current students can find
information on degree requirements and how to apply
to our graduate programs.
Profiles of our faculty and graduate students are also
available on the webpage.
To have your story featured in our next Departmental
Newsletter, please send us your updates and photos to
kbindas@kent.edu.
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Department of History at Kent State University