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PhD Student Profiles

Marga Andersen, ABD

Fields:
Britain, Modern European and Public History, History.
Dissertation:
Like Lions After Slumber: Challenges to Britishness by Jewish and Irish Immigrants in Late-Victorian London. 
Faculty Advisors
Laura Beers, Andrew Demshuk, Lisa Leff
Email Address:
ma3204a@american.edu
Laura Auketayeva

Laura Auketayeva

Laura Auketayeva (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at American University, Washington, DC. She received her BA in International Relations and History from Boston University, as well as an MA in History from the State University of New York, Albany. Her dissertation focuses on European Jewish refugees in the Soviet Union during the Holocaust. By incorporating social network analysis, her work tackles the cultural and local dimensions of this transnational story. Laura also argues that exploring the items that crossed numerous borders can provide us with further clues about the life of these refugees in the Soviet Union during WWII. European Jews found something bordering on safety in the Soviet Union, even though that also meant they needed to figure out how to navigate the Soviet system and continue moving across its internal borders to increase their chance of survival in the harsh haven. Despite the rising number of monographs on Jews and the Soviet Union, the topic of Jewish refugees in the USSR requires further research. Her study hopes to be a small part of that effort.
Fields:
European History, Soviet History, Jewish History
Advisors:
Michael Brenner with Lisa Leff, and Eric Lohr (committee)
Dissertation:
Between Hostility and Hospitality: European Jewish Refugees in the Interior of the Soviet Union during the Holocaust
Email:
la7457a@american.edu
Michael Barry

Michael T. Barry, Jr. 

Fields:
Modern American, African American, Modern Middle East, Digital and Oral History
Faculty Advisor:
Ibram X. Kendi
Education
BA in History and Africana Studies, College of the Holy Cross, 2014; MA in American and Middle Eastern History, Providence College, 2016.
Research Interests
Islam in American, History of Racism and Islamophobia, African American and Muslim American Intellectual History, Civil Rights and Social Justice, Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam, the Moorish Science Temple of America, Popular Culture and Film, Veterans' Affairs.
Email
mb6368a@american.edu

Donelle Boose

Faculty Advisor:
Theresa Runstedtler
Faculty Committee:
Theresa Runstedtler, Mary Ellen-Curtin and Daniel Kerr
Dissertation Title:
Black Power and the Organizing Tradition: Working Women of Washington, DC, 1965-1990.
Fields:
U.S. History, African American History, Public History
Email Address:
db7136a@student.american.edu

Valerie Sallis

Valerie Sallis is a first year PhD student studying early American history. Originally from Arkansas, she earned a BA in History from the University of Arkansas in 2006. A library enthusiast, Valerie obtained a MS in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University in 2008 and worked as an archivist for institutions in D.C. and Arkansas before returning to graduate study and completing an MA in History in 2022. Her research interests include British/Atlantic history, history of the book/manuscript, material culture, women’s history, and public history. In her free time, Valerie enjoys leisurely bike rides, board games, and greyhound rescue.
Field:
Early American history, British/Atlantic history, Public History
Faculty Advisors:
Kate Haulman, Gautham Rao
Education:
MA History, University of Arkansas 2022, MS Library and Information Science, Syracuse University 2008, BA History University of Arkansas 2006
Research Interests:
British/Atlantic history, History of the Book/Manuscript, Material Culture, History of Leisure, Women’s History
Email:
vs5997a@student.american.edu
Jonah Estess

Jonah Estess

A Brooklyn native, Jonah Estess received his BA (history) from CUNY Brooklyn College. His dissertation, “Bank and State: Money, Law, and Moral Economy in the United States, 1775-1896,” explores the politicization of coinage and paper currency and institutional consolidation of monetary sovereignty. His diverse research interests are grounded in early America, the modern U.S., American Jewish history, political economy, and legal history. These also extend into contemporary public policy and economic governance. Dr. Gautham Rao is his faculty advisor. When not steeped in work, Jonah enjoys time with his partner and friends in DC, playing tennis, and collecting coins.
Email:
je4529a@student.american.edu

Laura Gibson, ABD

Fields:
U.S. History, Media Studies, Digital History.
Dissertation:
"It's Love That Counts"; the History of Non-Nuclear Families in American Domestic Sitcoms.
Faculty Advisor:
Peter Kuznick
Dissertation Committee:
Mary Ellen Curtin, Theresa Runstedtler, Jeffrey Middents.
Education:
BA, American University, MA New York University.
Jordan Grant

Jordan Grant, ABD

A lifelong Marylander, Jordan Grant graduated from St. Mary's College of Maryland with a BA in History in 2009. As a PhD candidate in American University's History department, he completed his MA in US History in 2012. His dissertation, "Catchers and Kidnappers: Slave Hunting in Early America" is a history of reenslavement that explores how US law and governance was a battleground for fugitives from slavery and their pursuers in the decades before the Civil War. Outside of the academy, Jordan has interned at Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and worked as a consultant for the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum. He currently works as a digital experiences specialist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Reseach Interests/Fields:
US History, Legal History, African American History, Public History
Dissertation:
Catchers and Kidnappers: Slave Hunting in Early America
Faculty Advisor:
Gautham Rao
Education:

American University, Candidate for the PhD in Early American US History, with an outside field in Public History (Fall 2022). MA in U.S. History (December 2012)
Saint Mary's College of Maryland BA in History, minor in Religious Studies, Summa Cum Laude (May 2009)

Email Address:
jg7138a@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
Dissertation:
"We Remember Him for His Character": The Life of James W. Ford and the Communist Party USA.
Email:
mj5318a@student.american.edu
Linda Killian

Linda Killian

Linda Killian is a PhD candidate focusing on the founding period and political history. She is also a journalist and author of The Swing Vote: The Untapped Power of Independents and The Freshmen: What Happened to the Republican Revolution? She is a former editor of All Things Considered on National Public Radio and was a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She was the founding director of the Boston University Washington Journalism Center and a BU journalism professor. She has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Politico, USA Today, The Daily Beast, US News & World Report, Forbes and many other magazines, newspapers and websites. She has a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Fields:
Political History, The American Revolution, The Market Revolution, Voting Rights and Democracy, Populism and the Progressives, The Gilded Age.
Dissertation:
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine: The Shared Political Ideology at the Heart of American Democracy
Faculty Advisors:
Gautham Rao
Education:
BA in Political Science and BS in Journalism, Boston University, Master in Public Administration, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Research Interests
The founding period and revolutionary America; the development of American government and democracy.
Email:
lk0094a@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
Nathan Moore

Nathan Moore

Nathan Moore received his BA (2013) and MA (2015) in European History from George Mason University and is currently working on his dissertation which explores the history of anti-capitalist radicals in the courtroom. Nathan has taught History at Northern Virginia Community College for seven years and teaches everything from Ancient History to Modern American History. When he’s not being a student or a teacher, Nathan enjoys reading, making music, creative writing, and binge-watching horror movies.
Fields:
Modern Europe, Modern Britain
Faculty Advisor:
Laura Beers
Education:
BA (2013) and MA (2015) in European History from George Mason University
Research Interests:
Anti-capitalism, Communism, Radical Politics
Email Address:
nm5090a@student.american.edu
Mallory Needleman

Mallory Needleman

Field:
US Foreign Relations, Intelligence Studies, and Forced Migration
Dissertation:
Interpreting the Cold War through a Lithuanian Hot Zone
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Anton Fedyashin
Education:
MA, Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel; BA, History, International Studies at Flagler College in St. Augustine Florida
Research Interests:
Lithuania, Intelligence, Cold War, Holocaust, American Foreign Relations, Holocaust Memory, National Identity
Email:
mn7064a@student.american.edu
Maurizio Recorati

Maurizio Recordati

Fields:
Modern European History; Russian History (19th-20th centuries); Theory of Grand Strategy.
Dissertation:
My dissertation delves into the concept of grand strategy from disparate perspectives as intellectual history, historiographical methods, ontology, epistemology, and pedagogy. It builds on an essay, “Towards an Epistemology of Grand Strategy”, which won The Strategy Bridge 2020 writing contest.
Faculty Advisors:
Eric Lohr, Anton Fedyashin and Max Friedman
Education:
BA in History (University of Milan); MA in Russian & Eurasian Studies (European University at St. Petersburg).
Research Interests:
In addition to studying modern European and Russian history, I take a particular interest in strategic history and theory of grand strategy. In my dissertation, I explore Russia's foreign and military policies from the era of "Recueillement" to the Congress of Berlin (1856-1878) and re-read them from a grand-strategic perspective.
Short Bio:
I received a BA in History at the U of Milan and an MA in Russian Studies at the European U at St. Petersburg, Russia. I specialize in the history of strategic thought and late imperial Russia. I am a 2022-23 Morgenthau fellow in grand strategy at the Notre Dame International Security Center. Previously, I worked as director of the MA program in Energy Politics in Eurasia at the European U in St. Petersburg and as a senior lecturer in oil & gas affairs. I also have two years of experience working in EU institutions where I was involved in energy policy and Russo-EU energy relations.
Languages:
Italian and French (native speaker); English, Russian, Spanish; Latin and Ancient Greek (with dictionary). 
Email:
mr5216a@student.american.edu
Andrew Sperling

Andrew Sperling

Field:
American Jewish history, US History Since 1865
Dissertation:
American Jews Against Antisemitism
Faculty Advisor:
Pamela S. Nadell
Education:
MA, History, North Carolina State University; BA, English, North Carolina State University
Research Interests:
American Jewish history, the history of antisemitism, extremist groups, Jewish politics, Jewish refugees in America
Email:
andrewdsperling@gmail.com
Alexandra Zaremba

Alexandra Zaremba

Alexandra is a doctoral candidate studying Public History, the Balkans, and Modern European History. She earned her BA in History (‘15) from the University of South Florida and her MA in Public History (‘17) from Duquesne University. Her dissertation reexamines the construction and negotiation of memory culture in Yugoslavia by studying its revolutionary museums and other elements of popular culture and daily life. Alexandra is keenly interested in wedding her expertise in traditional and Public History through public and academic scholarship and projects. She is a member of the International Federation of Public History and was a founding member of its Student and Early Career Working Group in 2020.
Field:
Modern European History, Balkan History, and Public History
Dissertation:
Constructing Yugoslav Memory Culture: Museums, Popular Culture, and Yugoslav Public Life from Liberation to Disintegration (tbd)
Faculty Advisors:
Dr. Andrew Demshuk, Dr. MJ Rymsza-Pawłowska 
Education:
MA Public History Duquesne University ’17, BA History University of South Florida ’15.
Research Interests:
Nationalism, Culture, Museums and Commemoration, Memory, the Holocaust, forced migration and mass violence, and the Balkans.
Email:
az3330a@american.edu
Mark Episkopos

Mark Episkopos

Field:
Russian History; Military History; Theory of International Relations.
Short Bio:
Mark Episkopos received his BA and MA from Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Affairs. He wrote his Master’s thesis on Imperial Russia’s Grand Strategy toward the Ottoman Empire from 1682 to 1796. His research interests cover Russian history, collective memory, and the theory and practice of foreign policy. Mark currently works as a national security reporter for The National Interest, a foreign affairs publication based in Washington, D.C. He is a fifth-year PhD candidate writing his dissertation on contemporary Russia’s historical memory of the Second World War.
Faculty Advisor:
Eric Lohr, Anton Fedyashin, and Marlene Laruelle.
Education:
MA in International Affairs at the Pardee School of Global Affairs, Boston University; BA in International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Affairs, Boston University.
Research Interests:
American Jewish history, the history of antisemitism, extremist groups, Jewish politics, Jewish refugees in America
Email:
ke5745a@student.american.edu
Henry Dickmeyer

Henry Dickmeyer

Henry Dickmeyer is from Seattle, Washington. After receiving his B.A. in Economics from Occidental College in Los Angeles, Henry taught middle and high school U.S. History in New York City for five years. His experience teaching primary documents to students and attending workshops inspired him to undertake research with a passion for exploring how identity, citizenship, and the state have informed one another over time. In the future, Henry hopes to translate his research into education or advocacy work. When not stuck in the archives, Henry can be found reading baseball statistics, riding his bike, or eating the best sandwich in whatever city he finds himself in.
Field:
19th Century U.S. History, Modern U.S. History, Critical Race Studies
Faculty Advisor:
Gautham Rao
Education:
BA Economics from Occidental College; M.A. Teaching of Social Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University
Research Interests:
Whiteness Studies, Citizenship, Legal History, Slavery and Abolition, Migration Studies
Email:
henry.dickmeyer@gmail.com
Reza H. Akbari

Reza H. Akbari

Reza is a PhD candidate studying the modern Middle East, modern Iran, and critical theory. His research focuses on Iran’s political parties and their role amid the country’s evolving state-society relations since 1906. Reza is a Program Manager at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, and has previously served as a Research Associate at the Middle East Institute and a Research Assistant at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His master’s thesis explores the potential for political reconciliation in Bahrain. Reza has also written for a number of publications such as Foreign Policy, the Guardian, and Jadaliyya.
Field:
Modern Middle East History, Modern Iran, Critical Theory
Dissertation:
Process of Political Party Formation, Participation, and Survival in Modern Iran
Faculty Advisor:
Pedram Partovi, Elizabeth F. Thompson, Gautham Rao
Education:
MA, Middle East Studies, The George Washington University; BA, Political Science and International Studies, State University of New York at Fredonia
Research Interests:
State-society relations, state formation, social movements, colonialism, nationalism, political parties, American foreign policy toward the Middle East
Email:
ra4670a@american.edu
Ben Holt

Ben Holt

Ben Holt is from Houston, Texas. He received a BA in History with a specialization in European History from the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario. Furthermore, he completed a collaborative MA in European History and Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto’s Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and the Department of History. His thesis focused on the participation and contribution of Jewish youth to the French Resistance from 1940 to 1944. Outside of the classroom, Ben enjoys traveling, reading, exploring, hiking, going to the gym, and visiting museums.
Field:
Holocaust Studies, Modern Jewish History, French History, Youth History, European History.
Faculty Advisor:
Lisa Leff
Education:
BA ’20 History, University of Toronto. MA ’21 European History and Jewish Studies, University of Toronto
Research Interests:
French Jewry, Jewish Youth, the French Resistance, the Second World War, Communism and Gaullism, Antisemitism, National Identity and Citizenship, Memory
Email:
bh4788a@student.american.edu
Rachael Davis

Rachael Davis

Field:
American Jewish History, Modern American History, African American History
Faculty Advisor:
Pamela S. Nadell
Education:
BA, History and Political Science, North Carolina State University '21
Research Interests:
Women's and Gender History, Civil Rights and Social Justice, Black-Jewish Relations, Southern Jewish Women, Jewish Female Attorneys, Jewish Identity
Email:
rd7845a@student.american.edu
Ava Griswold

Ava Griswold

Ava is a first-year history M.A. student from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She graduated from St. Catherine University in December 2021 and earned her B.A. in History and French. Ava has been involved with a variety of research topics including racial housing discrimination, women’s suffrage, and 19th century religious movements. She is also interested in working on global topics that will allow her to utilize her fluency in French. Ava looks forward to exploring new research topics and producing quality scholarship in her time at American.
 
Education:
MA, History
Email:
ag9239a@student.american.edu
Mary Cooper

Mary Cooper

Mary Cooper is from Sanford, North Carolina. After obtaining her Associates, she transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill (Go Tarheels!). She continued her education by getting her Master’s degree at UNC-Wilmington. There she also worked at the Burgwin-Wright House as a historical interpreter. During the Summer of 2019 she had the amazing opportunity to intern at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. After teaching at a community college for a year, she decided to return to academia and obtain her PhD. She is one of nine children and loves having a big family. She is also a proud pet parent of two cats and a bird. When not hanging out with her pets, she can often be found crafting, playing D&D, or enjoying the beach.
Field:
Colonial and Early America, Public History, and Material Culture
Dissertation:
“The Devil’s in the Details: How Salem Became the Witch City”
Faculty Advisor:
Kate Haulman and Malgorzata Rymsza-Pawlowska
Education:
Central Carolina Community College (Associates, 2014); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA in History and Archaeology, 2016); University of North Carolina at Wilmington (MA in Public History, 2019)
Research Interests:
Public memory, dark tourism, colonial New England, Native American and European colonial interactions, gender and women’s history, the American Revolution.
Email:
mc6922a@student.american.edu
Gavin Frome

Gavin Frome

Field:
US Foreign Relations, American Protestantism, History of Viet Nam
Dissertation:
American Protestant Service Workers in Viet Nam, 1954-1975
Faculty Advisor:
Peter Kuznick
Dissertation Committee:
Peter Kuznick, Justin Jacobs, David Vine
Education:
BA, Boston College; MA, American University
Email:
gf0851a@student.american.edu
Nathan Pavalko

Nathan Pavalko

Nathan Pavalko is from Youngstown, Ohio. He graduated from Youngstown State University with his BA (2007) and MA (2009) in history.

For the past decade he taught at community colleges in both Indiana and Tennessee.

At AU his focus is on discrimination in the National School Lunch Program. His core question is whether segregated black schools were fed different food. He will also look at how communities of color compensated for lack of funding and food. Nathan also enjoys reading, painting, cooking, and spending time with his wife and daughter.

Email:
np0108a@student.american.edu
Lauren Huber

Lauren Huber

Lauren is a first-year history graduate student. A native of Reading, Pennsylvania, she graduated from Albright College where she co-majored in History and Spanish and minored in Anthropology. While in undergrad, she worked to create a women’s history walking tour of Lancaster, PA, researched and wrote a thesis on topics relating to women’s roles and life in the early years of the Republic, and since graduating, has been working with Partners for Sacred Places to survey and preserve historic churches in Reading. Her research interests include Early American history and women and gender studies. In her free time, Lauren loves thrifting, sewing, and going to concerts.
Email:
lh6449a@student.american.edu
Carmen Bold

Carmen Bolt

Carmen Bolt is a doctoral student at American University focusing on Environmental Justice and Public History. She comes to AU from William & Mary where she served as Oral Historian. Her research and Public History praxis are rooted in an ethics of care that centers the embodied experiences of those most vulnerable to environmental injustice. Her dissertation, titled “The Routine and the Extreme: A Critical Environmental History of Water in Washington, DC,” considers how water, conceived broadly, has shaped the history of Washington, DC’s communities of color over the course of the 20th and into the 21st century. In particular, she plans to explore the ways in which water (and access to it) has manifested as compounding environmental injustices during this period.
Field:
Critical Environmental History and Environmental Justice; Modern U.S. History with an emphasis on Social History “From Below”; Public History/Oral History.
Faculty Advisor:
Theresa Runstedtler
Education:
BA '14 History/Political Science, Virginia Tech. MA '16 History/Public History, Virginia Tech.
Research Interests:
The urban environment and urban “hazardscapes”; Washington D.C. history; the built environment; environmental justice; disaster history; how race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, citizenship, etc. shape the material realities and lived experience of persons in urban space.
Email:
cb7367a@american.edu

Erin Russell

Field:
Early America, Atlantic World, Gender, Material Culture, Archival Culture
Faculty Advisor:
Kate Haulman
Email:
er3580a@student.american.edu