PhD Student Profiles
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.
- pb1169a@student.american.edu
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.
- pb1169a@student.american.edu
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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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, 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 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
- 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 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
- 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 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
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, 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
- 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, 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, 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, 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 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
- 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 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
- 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
- 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