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PhD Student Profiles

Paul Behringer

Paul Behringer

Fields
Diplomatic History, Russia, Japan
Dissertation
The US and Japanese Interventions in the Russian Far East Faculty
Advisors
Max Paul Friedman, Eric Lohr, Justin Jacobs
Education
BA in history and East Asian studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, MA in international relations, University of Chicago.
Research Interests
Connecting US Diplomatic history to the history of Russia and Japan, particularly in Northeast Asia, through transnational, borderlands, imperial, and international relations theory approaches.
Email
pb1169a@student.american.edu
Aaron T. Bell

Aaron T. Bell, ABD

Fields
Diplomatic History, Russia, Japan
Dissertation
The US and Japanese Interventions in the Russian Far East Faculty
Advisors
Max Paul Friedman, Eric Lohr, Justin Jacobs
Education
BA in history and East Asian studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, MA in international relations, University of Chicago.
Research Interests
Connecting US Diplomatic history to the history of Russia and Japan, particularly in Northeast Asia, through transnational, borderlands, imperial, and international relations theory approaches.
Email
pb1169a@student.american.edu
Rebecca Brenner

Rebecca Brenner

Field:
Early U.S., Recent U.S., and Public History
Faculty Advisors:
Gautham Rao, Kate Haulman, Dan Kerr
Education:
BA history and philosophy '15, Mount Holyoke College
Research Interests:
 U.S. intellectual, religious, political, federal, and oral history
Email:
rb5078a@student.american.edu

Andrew Chatfield

Fields:
US Diplomatic History
Faculty Advisor:
Max Friedman
Education:
BA, University of Colorado; MA, Boston University
Research Interests:
War of 1898/Spanish-American War, Progressivism, World War I, Wilsonianism, Colonial Independence Movements and National Self-Determination.
Email Address:
ac5668a@student.american.edu
Jayne Cosson

Jayne Cosson

Field:
European, Ottoman, World History
Dissertation:
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: The Origins of Think Tank Influence in US Foreign Policy
Faculty Advisor:
Eric Lohr
Education:
BA international studies, Ohio State University. MEd secondary social studies, Georgia State University. MA history, American University. ABD history, American University.
Research Interests:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, US foreign policy, the international peace movement 1890-1920, World War I, the League of Nations.
Email:
jc2013a@student.american.edu
 

Daniel Cipriani

Fields:
Modern American History, African American History, American music history, and Jewish American and Israeli history
Dissertation:
will be on Jews in Hip Hop as well as a survey of Jewish American and African American cooperation in the realm of popular American music.
Advisor:
Alan Kraut
Education:
BA, MA, CUNY at Brooklyn College
Research interests:
I'm focusing on a scholarly approach to Hip Hop history while focusing on the interactions between African Americans and Jewish Americans. I'll argue that Jews have been a part, first by the means of production, advertising and distribution, of Hip Hop culture from the very start. I will then show how this evolved over the decades and addressing the issue of white help versus white theft when it comes to specific said "black" genres of popular music, and in this case it will be Hip Hop.
Email:
danielbcipriani@gmail.com
Lauren Duval

Lauren Duval

Fields: 
Early American History, Atlantic World, Public History
Dissertation:
Landscapes of Allegiance: Space, Gender, and Military Occupation in the American Revolution
Faculty Advisors
: Kate Haulman
Education:
BA history '09, Colby College
Research Interests:
Women’s and Gender History, Colonial and Revolutionary America, Atlantic World.
Email: 
lauren.duval@student.american.edu
Ryan Englekirk

Ryan Englekirk

Fields:
Sports History, Baseball History, Oral History, Public History, US History
Dissertation:
The Dark Knights: The Major League Baseball Umpire-- Guardians and Protectors of Traditional American Values
Dissertation Committee:
Peter Kuznick (advisor), Eric Lohr, Daniel Kerr
Education:
BA '09, American University; MA '12, American University
Email:
ryan.englekirk@gmail.com
Ruth Gabor

Ruth Gabor

Field:
Russia, Modern Europe
Faculty Advisor: 
Eric Lohr
Education:
BA international relations and Russian '13, Bucknell University
Research Interests:
Late Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, cultural diplomacy, fashion history
Email:
rg2829a@student.american.edu
 
Jordan Grant

Jordan Grant, ABD

Fields:
Nineteenth-Century US History, Public History, Digital History
Dissertation:
Forthcoming
Faculty Advisors:
Peter Kuznick and Kathleen Franz
Education:
BA '09, St. Mary's College of Maryland; MA '11, American University
Email Address:
jg7138a@student.american.edu
Brian Haesleer

Brian D’Haesleer, ABD

Fields:
US-Latin American Relations; US Foreign Relations
Dissertation:
The US Intervention in El Salvador, 1979-1992
Faculty Advisor:
Max Paul Friedman
Education:
BA history and international affairs, Florida State University; MA European history, University College London.
Research Interests:
20th Century US foreign relations; insurgency; revolution; empire.
Email Address:
bd1100a@student.american.edu
Mary -Allison- Jobe

Mary "Allison" Jobe

Field:
US History since Reconstruction
Faculty Advisor:
Peter Kuznick
Education:
MA history '12, American University, BA history '09, Appalachian State University
Research Interests:
US Radical Movements
Email:
mj5318a@student.american.edu
Anna Kaplan

Anna F. Kaplan

Fields:
African American History, 19th-Century US History, Memory and Oral History, Public History
Faculty Advisor:
Daniel Kerr
Education:
BA anthropology '07, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; MA anthropology '09, Columbia University; MA, oral history '10, Columbia University
Research Interests:
I am interested in the idea of post-memory and how one generation passes its memories to the next, looking specifically at how that transfer changes the history being told. My focus is on the retelling of personally traumatic or deeply unsettling experiences in the South during the Civil Rights Era and how those individuals deal with that past in their present lives.
Email:
ak9747a@student.american.edu
Amy Langford

Amy Langford

Field:
Modern US History, Early American History, Public History
Faculty Advisors:
Peter J. Kuznik, Kate Haulman, Gautham Rao
Education:
BA history '09, University of the Pacific
Research Interests:
19th- and 20th-century Gender and Sexuality, American borders and nation-building, Borderlands, (Im)migration, Citizenship, Marriage, and Polygamy.
Email:
al7735a@student.american.edu
Jacob Levin

Jacob R. Levin

Fields:
20th Century US, Race, Jewish History, Public History
Faculty Advisor:
Peter Kuznick
Education:
BA education/history '06, University of Maryland, College Park; MA historical studies '11, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Research Interests:
Baltimore, MD history; Black-Jewish relations; Civil Rights Movement; History of the Left
Contact:
jl2461a@student.american.edu
Jeff Levin

Jeffrey Levin

Fields:
Modern Middle East, British Empire
Faculty Advisors:
Michael Brenner and Max Friedman
Education:
BA English, University of Florida; MSc, international history, London School of Economics
Research Interests:
The economic history of Palestine and modern Israel.
Email Address:
jl5117a@student.american.edu
John Little

John Little, ABD

Fields:
Disability History, Russian History, Modern European History, International Relations
Dissertation:
Disability in the Early Soviet Union
Faculty Advisor:
Eric Lohr
Education:
BA international studies and political science '99, University of Richmond; MA international relations '01, University of East Anglia
Research Interests:
My dissertation focuses on the concept of disability in the early Soviet Union. I examine the evolution of the structures associated with disability and the disabled population's acceptance or resistance to Soviet programs. More broadly, I study cultural and social issues, including disability, gender, race, and class. I continue to have a deep interest in diplomatic history, from 18th- and 19th-century Ottoman-Russian relations to the space race.
Email Address:
jl3245a@student.american.edu

Lorna Loring, ABD

Fields:
Early Modern Britain, Modern Europe, Modern Britain
Faculty Advisor:
April Shelford
Education:
BA English, University of London; MA history, Kansas State University; MLIS, Catholic University of America
Research Interests:
Britain and Empire, History of Science
Email Address:
lmloring@gmail.com
Lindsay MacNeill

Lindsay MacNeill

Fields: Modern
Modern Europe, Modern Germany, Central Europe
Faculty Advisor:
Richard Breitman
Education:
MA history '13, American University; BA history and Spanish '09, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests:
Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, interwar Austria, Nazi Austria, the history of policing, international police cooperation.
Email Address:
lm1164a@student.american.edu

Lisa Maguire, ABD

Fields:
Modern Europe, late 19th/early 20th France, Colonialism
Dissertation:
Colonial Governance in the Mediterranean: French Bureaucratic Practices in the Protectorates and Mandate, 1919-1939
Faculty Advisor:
Lisa Leff
Education:
BA, Austin College; MLA, University of St. Thomas
Research Interests:
I'm interested in exploring the relationship between the French state and its empire; how colonial administration served as one site in which French, imperial and local interests interacted; and looking at broader regional ties between colonial administrations around the Mediterranean.

Louie Milojevic, ABD

Fields:
US Foreign Relations, National Security and Popular Culture Studies, Immigration History
Dissertation:
"Building Tito-Land: US Foreign Aid and the Yugoslav Fantasy, 1948-1963"
Faculty Advisors
Max Paul Friedman, Peter Kuznic, Eric Lohr
Education:
BA, Toronto (2004); MA, Hawaii Pacific (2006)
Research Interests:
Louie Milojevic specializes in the history of American grand strategy and foreign policy, with a focus on the role of transnational state and non-state actors, domestic politics, political culture, and ethnic lobbies. Drawing on multi-archival research in the United States and former Yugoslav republics, his dissertation, "Building Tito-Land: US Foreign Aid and the Yugoslav Fantasy, 1948-1963," argues that America's aid commitment to Tito's Yugoslavia was as much a complex public phenomenon, shaped, contested, and sustained in the printed media and citizen town halls, as it was a Cold War strategic exercise conceived and directed in official policy circles.
Email Address:
lm5322a@american.edu

Alon Milwicki

Fields:
Modern America, American Extremism, particularly right wing extremist groups, white supremacists, and Neo-Nazis
Faculty Advisor:
Allan Lichtman
Education:
BA history, Boston University; MA Seton Hall University
Research Interests:
Post WWII America, Extremist groups, Racism, and Hate Studies.
Email Address:
am1537a@student.american.edu
Johanna Neuman

Johanna Neuman, ABD

Fields:
History of Women, Progressive Era, Twentieth Century and political histories.
Dissertation:
Society in Suffrage: An Inquiry Into Whether New York's Elite Socialites Made Voting Fashionable
Faculty Advisor:
Alan Kraut
Committee:
Alan Kraut (chair), Kate Haulman, Katharina Vester (American University), Dr. Robyn Muncy (University of Maryland, College Park).
Education:
BA, Communications & Public Policy, UC Berkeley; MA, Journalism, University of Southern California
Research Interests:
Women's suffrage movement, World War II
Email Address:
johanna.neuman@me.com
Nguyet Nguyen

Nguyet Nguyen, ABD

Fields:
History of US Foreign Relations; US history since 1865
Dissertation:
(Tentative) Vietnamese Activism against US Involvement in the Second Indochina War - a Transatlantic Study
Advisor:
Max Paul Friedman
Education:
BA international relations and journalism; MA communication
Research Interests:
US foreign relations, Franco-US relations, the Vietnam War in the Cold War.
Email:
nn9606a@student.american.edu

Susan Perlman, ABD

Fields:
Modern US History, Early American History, French Diplomacy
Dissertation:
(Provisional) Coming in from the Cold: Harry Truman, American Intelligence, and Cold War France
Faculty Advisor:
Max Paul Friedman
Education:
BA international affairs and French, Florida State University; MA international affairs, Florida State University
Research Interests:
US Foreign Relations, Intelligence History (general); Franco-American relations, Cold War United States and Europe
Email:
sp7625a@american.edu
Allen Pietrobon

Allen Pietrobon, ABD

Fields:
American History post-1880, Cold War Diplomacy, Nuclear Weapons.
Dissertation:
Norman Cousins: Public Intellectual, Anti-Nuclear Activist, Citizen Diplomat
Faculty Advisors:
Peter Kuznick, Max Paul Friedman
Education:
BA history '07, University of Waterloo; MA history '09, Wilfrid Laurier University
Research Interests:
My general research focuses on Cold War diplomacy and American social history post-1880. My dissertation attempts to blend a number of different approaches, combining foreign policy, social activism, and intellectual history in order to explore the impact that prominent journalist and leading anti-nuclear activist, Norman Cousins, had on American public discourse and foreign policy during the Cold War.
Email:
ap0755a@student.american.edu
Terumi Rafferty-Osaki

Terumi A. Rafferty-Osaki, ABD

Fields:
20th Century American History
Dissertation:
’Strictly Masculine:’ Reforming and Performing Manhood at Tule Lake, 1942-1946
Faculty Advisors:
Max Paul Friedman
Education:
BA Boston College; MA, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey 
Research Interests:
Asian-American, Diplomatic, and Sports History
Email Address:
tr7118a@american.edu

Anne Rothfeld, ABD

Fields:
19th/20th Century European and German, culture, looted artworks and art provenance, intelligence.
Dissertation:
Unscrupulous Opportunists: Second-rate German Art Dealers as Nazi Functionaries during World War Two
Faculty Advisors:
Richard Breitman (chair), Lisa Moses Leff, Max Paul Friedman
Education:
MA historical studies '02, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; MA Thesis: "Project ORION: An Administrative History of the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU): An Overlooked Page in Intelligence Gathering."); MSLS '97, The Catholic University of America; BA history '88, University of Maryland, College Park
Email:
ar3946a@american.edu

Elizabeth Sheptyck, ABD

Field:
19th and 20th century US History  
Advisors:
Alan Kraut, Max Paul Friedman, Jenna Weissman Joselit (GW).  
Education:
BA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; MAT, Boston University; MA history, American University  
Research Interests:
Migration, marriage, and gender in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries.
Nathan Sowry

Nathan Sowry

Field:
Early American History, Atlantic World, Early Modern Europe
Faculty Advisors:
Kate Haulman, Gautham Rao, April Shelford
Education:
BA anthropology and religious studies '01, University of Pittsburgh; MA history '11, Washington State University; MLIS archives and records administration '13, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Research Interests:
Colonialism/Imperialism; Native American Studies; Acculturation, Resistance, and Identity Formation in 18th-century Great Lakes/Ohio Valley region.
Email:
ns8804a@student.american.edu
Scott Vehstedt

Scott T. Vehstedt

Fields:
Modern US history, political history
Advisor:
Allan J. Lichtman
Education:
MA American history, Brooklyn College; BA American history and political science, Stony Brook University
Research Interests:
American conservatism
Email:
sv8991a@student.american.edu
Jason Weixelbaum

Jason Weixelbaum

Field:
Business history, 19th and 20th US History, Modern Germany, Holocaust
Dissertation:
Lawyers, Spies, and Industry: The Dulles Brothers and Transnational Business in Nazi Germany
Faculty Advisors:
Peter Kuznick (chair) Allan Lichtman, Richard Breitman, Heather Elms (Kogod)
Education:
BA history, SUNY Buffalo State College; MA modern European history, Boston College
Research Interests:
Transnational corporate development, US History, War & Genocide, Nazi Germany
Email:
jason.weixelbaum@gmail.com
Adam Whitehurst

Adam Whitehurst

Field:
US History
Faculty Advisor:
Theresa Runstedtler
Education:
BA history, Trinity College, Hartford, CT
Research Interests:
20th Century American culture, music, cultural diplomacy
Email:
aw3318a@student.american.edu