Student Directory

BANTON
Caree Banton is a 3rd year student currently working with Richard Blackett. She studies the abolitionist, anti-slavery and colonization movements of the 19th century. She is interested in the significance of these movements to the Caribbean, African Diaspora and the larger Atlantic World. Her dissertation explores the Liberian Colonization Movement. She can be contacted at caree.a.banton@vanderbilt.edu .

BISHOP
William (Will) is a fourth year graduate student interested in 20th century American diplomatic history. His major area of interest is the so-called special relationship between the US and UK in the post-1945 era. His dissertation (tentatively entitled: “Still ‘Special’? US-UK Relations and the Search for Zimbabwean Independence, 1976-1980”) focuses on the underappreciated role played by Washington and London in bringing majority rule (and Robert Mugabe) to Zimbabwe. Will is advised by Dr. Tom Schwartz. He can be reached at william.l.bishop@vanderbilt.edu.

BROWN
Marjorie Denise completed her B.A. in history from the University of Houston-- Honor’s College and received her Master’s in history from the University of Houston, where she wrote her master’s thesis on the commercialization of Texas, which dealt with the interstate slave trade between Galveston and New Orleans. Her research interests at Vanderbilt have dealt with the Tennessee Colonization Society, slavery in colonial New York, and gender. Her dissertation research focuses on the international slave trade in the Gulf Coast Region and is being directed by her advisor, Dr. Richard Blackett. Her email address is marjorie.d.brown@vanderbilt.edu.

BRUNO
Dean Bruno (BA, Cornell, 1986; MBA, Wake Forest, 1992; MA, North Carolina State, 2008) is a first year student in US history with a focus on native american and environmental history. Daniel Usner is his advisor. Dean can be reached at d.bruno@vanderbilt.edu

BURCH
burch Jessica Burch is a first year graduate student in the field of U.S. history, working with Dr. Sarah Igo. She is particularly interested in 20th century American consumer culture, urban history and business history. She received her B.A. in Organizational Studies from Pitzer College (2000) and M.A. in Social Sciences/History from the University of Chicago (2007). She can be reached at jessica.k.burch@vanderbilt.edu.

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Courtney J. Campbell is a second year graduate student in Latin American History, with a focus on Modern Brazil. Her current research focus is on Cultural Imperialism in Brazil, specifically on how United States cultural influence was perceived by Brazilian intellectuals during the Cold War. She is also interested in the conflict between British abolitionism and British enterprise acting in Brazil during the late nineteenth century, the construction of memory in Paraguay, and relations between the U.S., Northeastern Brazil and Cuba during the Cold War. Courtney has presented her work at “The Brazil Initiative and Nabuco and Madison: A Centennial Celebration” at the University of Wisconsin, “Crisis and Recovery in the Americas” through the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) in New Orleans, “A Colloquium on Contemporary Issues in EFL and Language Teaching” through Braz-Tesol and the Associação Brasil-América in Recife, “História: Cultura e Sociedade” through the Associação Nacional de História / ANPUH-PE at the Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco and at the “II Encontro Cultura, Modernidade e Memória” at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Courtney served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Paraguayan Chaco and completed her Master's degree in Education at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil, where her research centered on Linguistic Imperialism and the history of the teaching of English in the city of Recife. She has two B.A.s in French and in Spanish/International Studies from the University of Michigan-Flint. Her email is courtney.j.campbell.1@vanderbilt.edu .

DEGREGORY
A native of Freeport, Bahamas, Crystal A. deGregory is a student in the department of history and a fellow of the Center for Nashville Studies. While her interests include the roles of race and class in the decolonization of British colonies around the world as well as the inter-relationships of these movements to the modern civil rights movement of the American South, her graduate work focuses on the role of black college student activism in the Nashville Movement. A proud Fiskite, from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in May 2003 and was awarded a Master of Arts degree in history from Vanderbilt in May 2005. Her dissertation advisor is Dr. Dennis C. Dickerson and her email address is c.a.degregory@vanderbilt.edu.

DEWAAL
Jeremy DeWaal is a third year student studying Modern Germany under Dr. Helmut Walser Smith. His particular interests are in national and regional identities and Heimat in 19th- and 20th-century Germany. Jeremy received his BA in 2006 from the University of Utah in History and German. During 2006-2007 he did a Fulbright in Cologne, Germany, where he studied at the University of Cologne and taught English at the Berufskolleg Oberberg. During the 2008-2009 year, Jeremy will be doing his second year of coursework in an exchange at the Free University of Berlin. Jeremy can be reached at jeremy.j.dewaal@vanderbilt.edu

DICKERSON
Christina Marie Dickerson (B.A., History, Spelman College, 2004; M.A., History, Vanderbilt University, 2007) is currently a fifth year Ph.D.student. She works under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Usner. She studies Colonial American, Atlantic World, American Indian, and African American History. She is writing her dissertation on the Coulon de Villiers family in 18th century New France. Within this work, she will discuss this family’s interactions with American Indians through warfare, diplomacy, and slavery. In the summer of 2009, Christina participated in the inaugural session of the “Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies” at the Newberry Library in Chicago. In May 2009, she presented “From Outsiders to Kinsmen: The Experiences of American Indian Slaves in 18th Century New France” at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association conference in Minneapolis. In the summer of 2008, she spent two months in Providence, Rhode Island as the John Carter Brown Library Associate’s Fellow. She has also researched at The Library Company and The Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and at the Centre d'archives de Montreal in Montreal. Her e-mail address is christina.m.dickerson@vanderbilt.edu.

DIXON
Megyn is a first-year graduate student in the field of Atlantic history, working with Dr. Jane Landers. She is interested in seventeenth and eighteenth century Scottish involvement in the Atlantic, with a particular focus on maritime activity. She earned her MA in history from Penn State in 2009. Her email address is megyn.e.dixon@vanderbilt.edu .

DODD
Jenifer Dodd is a first year graduate student in twentieth century American history and is working with Dr. Sarah Igo. Her major areas of interest are the social sciences and medical history, and their intersection with popular culture. Previous research foci have included the popular and medical culture surrounding psychedelic drugs in America, as well as the influence of psychiatry on gender roles throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Jenifer received her B.A. in history from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009. She can be reached at jenifer.dodd@vanderbilt.edu.

DONALDSON
Rachel Donaldson is a doctoral candidate concentrating in twentieth-century American history, with minor fields in cultural history and labor history. She is currently in the research phase of her dissertation on the role the 1930s-1960s folk music revival played in shaping popular concepts of national identity. She has received the Kentucky Library and Museum Fellowship for 2008, and is a Smithsonian predoctoral fellow at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. She is working with Dr. Gary Gerstle. She can be reached at rachel.c.donaldson@vanderbilt.edu.

ELRICK

Joanna Elrick is a fourth year PhD student who works in late colonial Brazil and Cuba. Her present research focuses on the intersections of race, religion and power relations in slave societies. Joanna is especially interested in how these relationships fostered the development of Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Cuban syncretic religions. To date, Joanna has conducted preliminary archival research at the Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia, in Salvador, Brazil, and she has had papers accepted for presentation at the University of the West Indies Cultural Crossroads 2008 Conference and the 2008 CERLAC Graduate Student Research Conference on Latin America and the Caribbean at York University, Toronto, Canada. She works under the supervision of Dr. Jane G. Landers. Her email address is joanna.k.elrick@vanderbilt.edu.

GAJEWSKI
Paula Gajewski (BA, History and BS, Finance, Florida State University, 2000; MBA, Moore School, University of South Carolina, 2002; MA, History, Vanderbilt, 2005) studies the history of American business. Her dissertation, "Financial Regulation, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Transformation of Retirement in America," explores the connections between commission rate deregulation at the NYSE in 1975, an event known as "May Day," and the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). This unique historical moment helps reveal the increasingly important role of securities markets and institutional investing in the evolution of American retirement practices. Paula was awarded the Business History Conference's 2008 Kerr Prize and is currently a Helguera Fellow. Paula can be reached at paula.k.gajewski@vanderbilt.edu; her advisor is Dr. Gary Gerstle.

GANT
Amy Gant is interested in early modern England and religion, focusing on Puritan doctrine and practice as they relate to personal spiritual disciplines. She received a B.A. (2004) and M.A. (2007) in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; her M.A. thesis was entitled "'Beating a Path to Heaven': Nathanael Ranew and the Puritan Art of Divine Meditation in the Seventeenth Century." Amy is studying with Dr. Peter Lake, as well as Dr. Paul Lim. She can be reached at amy.s.gant@vanderbilt.edu.

GIBSON
Robert Gibson earned his B.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and this is his first year as a graduate student at Vanderbilt. Under the direction of Dr. Helmut Walser-Smith, Robert will be studying the history of Modern Europe, specifically that of 19th and 20th century Germany. As an undergraduate, he spent one semester at Freie Universität Berlin, and wrote his senior thesis on the indoctrination of soldiers in the British Army during the First World War. His
e-mail address is robertmichaelgibson@gmail.com.

GOMEZ
Pablo Gomez is a doctoral candidate at the Department of History at Vanderbilt University where he received his Master’s degree in History in 2006. Before coming to Vanderbilt, Pablo worked as a Postdoctoral fellow in Genetics and Oncology at the University of Iowa in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. He got his medical degree at the Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud in Medellin, Colombia, and his degree in Orthopedic Surgery at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. Pablo has been the recipient, amongst others, of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/American Council for Learned Societies-Dissertation Completion Fellowship, a British Library Major Research Grant, a John Carter Brown Library- Paul W. McQuillen Memorial Research Fellowship, the Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr. Prize for Best Graduate Paper of the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association, a research grant from the program for Cultural Cooperation between the Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States, and fellowships and grants from the Center for the Americas, the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture, and the Center for Latin-American and Iberian Studies, as well as from the College of Arts and Sciences at Vanderbilt University. His work has been published in the edited volume “Differenz und Herrschaft in den Amerikas: Repräsentationen des Anderen in Geschichte und Gegenwart,” the Encyclopedia of Plagues, Pestilence, and Epidemics and in several medical journals. His present research interests involve African and European healing and diseasing practices and ideas about bodies, health, disease and death in the early modern Caribbean, West Africa and Latin America, and more generally in the Iberian Atlantic. Pablo is the director of the British Library funded project "Creating a digital archive of Afro-Colombian history and culture: Black Ecclesiastical and Notarial records from the Choco, Colombia" also a member of the NEH funded project “Ecclesiastical Sources and Historical research on the African Diaspora in Brazil, Cuba and Colombia.” He has presented his work as a historian in meetings of the AHA, the Society for Historical Archaeology, the Southern Historical Association, the American Association for the History of Medicine, LASA, and in conferences in Toronto (Canada), Glasgow (Scotland), Manchester (UK), Berlin, Bogota, and at several universities in the United States including UCLA, The University of Chicago, The University of Texas at Austin, and The University of Connecticut. He is a member of LASA, the Conference on Latin America History, the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association, the Society for the Social History of Medicine and the American Association for the History of Medicine. Currently he is working, under the supervision of Prof. Jane Landers, on his dissertation project “Bodies of Encounter: Health, Illness and Death in the Early Modern African-Spanish Caribbean.” Pablo can be reached at pablo.f.gomez@vanderbilt.edu .

HANSEN
Jon Hansen is a fourth year Ph.D. student working under the direction of Dr. Dennis Dickerson. His focus is on 20th century United States with an emphasis on religious history. His most recent research has focused on the political sentiments of Protestant groups during the Vietnam War. Jon can be reached at jonathan.hansen@vanderbilt.edu .

HARDIN
William Fernandez Hardin is a fourth year student and a graduate of American University's Washington College of Law and a member of the Tennessee Bar. His present focus is colonial and antebellum legal history and its relation to slavery and race in Virginia. Mr. Hardin is originally from Newport News, Virginia and graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in English literature and Modern Studies. Dr. David L. Carlton is his faculty advisor. His email address is william.f.hardin@vanderbilt.edu .

HARRISON
Steve Harrison is a third year graduate student working with Dr. Tom Schwartz on Diplomatic History. He completed his MA from NC State University. His focus is on US-China relations during the 1960's and 70's. His email address is stephenharrison@hotmail.com.

HAYDEN
Erica Rhodes Hayden received her BA in History and Information Technology from Juniata College in 2007. She is a third year student studying nineteenth century American social history, with a special interest in social attitudes on criminal punishment during the antebellum era. Currently, she is researching female criminality and punishment in antebellum Pennsylvania. She has conducted research at the Pennsylvania State Archives, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia City Archives during the summers of 2008 and 2009. Her adviser is Dr. Richard Blackett. She can be reached at erica.m.rhodes@vanderbilt.edu.

HOOD
hood Sonya Hood is a first year graduate student studying medieval Jewish and Islamic intellectual history. Among her interests are the influence of Greek philosophical ideas upon Jewish and Islamic theology, scriptural exegesis and eschatology. Sonya received her B.A. in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from the College of William and Mary in 2009. She will be studying under Dr. David Wasserstein and Dr. Leor Halevi. She can be reached at sonya.l.hood@vanderbilt.edu.

HUDSON
Cheryl Hudson is an ABD student in US History. Cheryl's co-edited volume on Ronald Reagan has just been published, November 2008, by Palgrave Macmillan. The title is "Ronald Reagan and the 1980s: Perceptions, Policies, Legacies." She is in the final year of writing up her dissertation, entitled "Making Citizens: Political Culture in Chicago, 1890-1930." Her research examines the cultural and political context for the forging of a new urban, modern US citizenship at the turn of the twentieth century. Her central research interests are in Urban History, African American History and Intellectual History. She works with Dr. Don Doyle. Her email address is cheryl.a.hudson@vanderbilt.edu

INMAN
Natalie Inman specializes in Early American history and is advised by Dr. Dan Usner. Her dissertation entitled, “Networking and Negotiation on the Trans-Appalachian Frontier: A Comparative Study of Strategic Decision-Making in Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Anglo-American Communities, 1700-1840,” evaluates comparatively the ways members of each of these three societies used personal relationships to negotiate their social, economic, and political positions in the highly competitive colonial and early republic frontiers. Natalie is currently a fellow with Vanderbilt's Center for the Americas. You may view Natalie's cv here. Her email is natalie.r.inman@vanderbilt.edu.

JACKSON
Patrick Jackson is a sixth year student interested in the history of religion and politics, the working class, and social movements. He received a B.A. in history at the University of Kentucky before doing post-baccalaureate work in Heidelberg and Berlin. In 2008 he was awarded a College of Arts & Sciences Social Science Dissertation Fellowship, and in 2009 a Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities finishing fellowship. His primary adviser is Dr. Gary Gerstle. Patrick's email address is: patrick.d.jackson@vanderbilt.edu.

JOHNSON
Kurt Johnson is a sixth year Ph.D candidate studying Modern German History with a focus on cultural and intellectual history under the supervision of Dr. Helmut Walser Smith. He is currently working on his dissertation which is tentatively titled, "The Re-enchanted Body in fin de siècle German Culture." Kurt received a BA in History and Political Science from the University of Tennessee in 2001, an MA in History from Washington University in St. Louis in 2004 and an MA in History from Vanderbilt University in 2009. His e-mail address is: ryan.k.johnson@vanderbilt.edu

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KOLB
Frances is a second year graduate student. She received her BA in History from Texas A&M University. She is studying Early American history with a particular interest in Acadian immigration to 18th century colonial Louisiana. She is working with Dr. Daniel Usner. Her email address is frances.b.kolb@vanderbilt.edu.

LEFEVOR
David is currently completing his dissertation: “The Virile Sport and the Modern Man: National Identity, Masculinity, and Boxing in Cuba and Mexico: 1876-1930.” This transnational history draws on research in Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, the United States, Brazil, and Peru. It engages his interest in national identity, gender, modernity and transnational cultures in modern Latin America. David has been a recipient of numerous fellowships and research grants including the Fulbright Fellowship for Mexico; the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for research in Great Britain, Spain, Turkey, Russia, and Peru; the Center for Latin America and Iberian Studies Summer Research Grant; Binkley/Weaver Grant; and most recently the Leon Helguera Fellowship for dissertation writing. In addition to his work at Vanderbilt he has held academic affiliation with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico and the Universidad de La Habana. He has presented his research at conferences in Europe, Latin America, and the United States and has been a member of paleographical preservation teams in Cuba and Colombia. He will be submitting two articles for publication during academic year 2009-2010, and will defend his dissertation in May of 2010. His adviser is Dr. Marshall Eakin. He can be reached at david.c.lafevor@vanderbilt.edu .

back MARTIN Miriam Martin is a second year graduate student studying Late Colonial and Early Modern Guatemala with a focus on race, rebellion and revolution. Miriam received her BA from David Lipscomb University in Comparative Literature, and her MA from St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. Her research interests also include revolutionary Mexico and anticlericalism. She is studying under Dr. Jane Landers and can be reached at miriam.r.martin@vanderbilt.edu.

MATHEUSZIK
Deanna Matheuszik studies the history of modern Britain, with a focus on gender and religion in the nineteenth century. She is currently writing her dissertation, tentatively titled "The Angel Syndrome: Elizabeth Fry and the Role of Gender, Religion and Class in Negotiating Public and Private Spheres," which examines how intersections of gender and religion could attenuate separate sphere ideology—the notion that the public sphere of politics, work, and association was the province of men while women were to be the "angels of the home"—by opening up spaces in the public sphere in which women could be active, and carve out a vocation for themselves. Her research for this analysis centers on Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845), a Quaker minister and prison reform activist who came to be known as the "angel of the prisons." Deanna’s dissertation is directed by Dr. James Epstein; her other dissertation committee members are Professors Michael Bess, Carolyn Dever, Helmut Smith, and Arleen Tuchman. She can be reached at deanna.matheuszik@vanderbilt.edu .

MAZURSKA
Joanna Mazurska is a third year graduate student. Her current research focus is on Eastern- European writers working in exile, and contemporary Russian intelligentsia. She has earned two M.A. degrees: in International Relations from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland (2002), and in History from Vanderbilt (2009). Joanna has conducted her research at the Beinecke Library (Yale) and the Archive of the Polish Emigration (Poland). Joanna has presented her work at several conferences: “The Image of the Outsider” through the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, “History Conference on Power and Struggle” at the University of Alabama, “Fifth International and Interdisciplinary Conference Alexander von Humboldt: Travels Between Europe and the Americas” at Freie Universität. She will present “Conference Transnationalism and Visual Culture in Britain: Émigrés and Migrants 1933 to 1956” at Northumbria University, September 2009. She is studying under Dr. Michael Bess. Joanna can be reached at: joanna.m.mazurska@vanderbilt.edu

MOSHER
Shawn Mosher is a fifth year student concentrating on American slavery, abolition, black emigration, slave narratives, and sociohistorical constructions of race. A graduate of Bryan College, Baylor University, and Dallas Theological Seminary, he studies under the supervision of Dr. Richard Blackett. He can be reached at s.mosher@vanderbilt.edu .

OVERDEER
Douglas G. Overdeer is a second-year graduate student (first year full-time) pursuing his degree in U.S. diplomatic/political history and the role of the military. He is a retired military officer and recently left the Department of Officer Education at Vanderbilt where he taught leadership and military history. Doug is also an adjunct faculty member at the Joint Special Operations University and the School of Advanced Military Studies. His is working with Professor Tom Schwartz and can be reached at douglas.overdeer@vanderbilt.edu.

OWEN

owen Matt Owen received his B.A. in history and political science from Wake Forest University in 2007. He is a second year graduate student studying American political history in the 20th century. His special interests include Constitutional Law and the direction of civil rights after World War II. He also has a secondary interest in the separation of powers and foreign policy in the Cold War era. He will be working with Dr. Gary Gerstle. He can be reached at matthew.d.owen@vanderbilt.edu.

POUPART
Clay Andrew Poupart is a third year PhD student with a focus on 20th Century American political history. He is advised by Dr. Gary Gerstle. He received his B.A.(Honours) and M.A. from the University of Saskatchewan, the latter under the supervision of Dr. Martha Smith-Norris. He has presented at several student conferences and received the Idus A. Newby Prize in Historiography from the Hawai'i state conference of Phi Alpha Theta for the paper "Sponsors vs. Broadcasters: The Struggle for Power to1970." His M.A. thesis ""When will my turn come?: The Civil Service Purges and the Construction of a Gay Security Risk in the Cold War United States, 1945-1955" was nominated for Thesis of the Year in 2005. His email is clay.a.poupart@vanderbilt.edu .

PRABHU
Jaideep A. Prabhu is a graduate student in the Department of History at Vanderbilt University. He is broadly interested in international political theory, diplomacy, and memory. Although Jaideep’s geographic area of expertise is the modern Near East and South Asia, he is academically proficient in modern European history, Islamic history and philosophy, the history of technology, and American foreign policy.

Previously, Jaideep has worked as a Research Assistant at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. Jaideep holds an undergraduate degree in engineering from Vanderbilt University and received a Masters degree in History (Middle East, International Relations) from The George Washington University, where he worked with Dr. James Hershberg. His dissertation is a multi-perspectival study of Indian nuclear policy and tentatively titled, Nuclear Dharma: India's Path to the Military Atom, 1947-1978. Jaideep’s dissertation advisor is Dr. Thomas A. Schwartz.

In 2008, Jaideep was the recipient of the prestigious West Point Military Academy Summer Fellowship. Jaideep has also written a series of articles on weapons technology for the Encyclopaedia of International Relations, and serves on the Governing Council of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Jaideep can be reached at jaideep.prabhu@vanderbilt.edu

QUIROS
Ansley Quiros is a second year graduate student studying U.S. History particularly focusing on issues of immigration, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and identity with Dr. Gary Gerstle. Originally from Atlanta, GA, she graduated from Furman University in Greenville, SC in 2008 with a degree in history. She can be reached at ansley.l.quiros@vanderbilt.edu .

RIVERS
Larry O. Rivers is a sixth year Ph.D. candidate whose teaching and research interests include: Black Intellectual History, the Black Church, Black Civil Society, the Civil Rights Movement, Modern Media, Twentieth Century Florida, Legal History, and the History of Medicine. In 2004, he earned his B.S. in Public Relations from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University in his hometown of Tallahassee, Florida. During Spring 2006, he completed his M.A. thesis entitled: "Fred David Gray, Donald Lee Hollowell, and the Legal Profession as a Vehicle for Religious Witness in Black America, 1955-1968." Larry's article "'Leaning on the Everlasting Arms': Virgil Darnell Hawkins's Early Life and Entry into the Civil Rights Struggle" was published in The Florida Historical Quarterly (Winter 2008). His dissertation focuses the late Rev. Dr. James Hudson, a seminal figure in the intellectual history of Tallahassee's civil rights struggle. He is advised by Dr. Dennis C. Dickerson. Larry can be reached at: larry.o.rivers@vanderbilt.edu.

SANDERFER
Selena Sanderfer studies topics in American history, the Atlantic World and the African Diaspora from the late 18th to the early 20th century. Selena received her B. A. degree in history and sociology from Fisk University before earning her M. A. degree at Vanderbilt University. Her master's thesis, entitled, Education and Skin Tone: Policies affecting the American Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934, examines the system of education and race relations during the United States occupation of Haiti. Her dissertation, tentatively titled, They Speak for Themselves: Black Separatism in the South, 1782 – 1892, is a examines lower class black separatist movements from the South during the 19th century. Her adviser is Dr. Richard Blackett. She can be reached at selena.r.sanderfer@vanderbilt.edu .

SANDERSON
Mary Sanderson specializes in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain. Her interests include high and low political culture, religion, and empire. Her dissertation (still in progress) is entitled “‘Our Own Catholic Countrymen’: Loyalism, Religion, and Subjecthood in the British Empire, 1760-1829”. It examines the position of Roman Catholics in the British Empire between the Seven Years’ War and Catholic Emancipation in order to investigate how the connection between religion and national belonging evolved during this time period. She has presented several conference papers including: “‘No Common War’: British Catholics and the Conflict with Revolutionary France” (NECBS, 2008), “Catholic Loyalism and British National Identity in the Wake of the French Revolution” (WCBS, 2008), and “Religion and Subjecthood in the British Empire, 1760-1774: The Problem of Quebec” (NECBS, 2007). She also has interests in politics and visual culture, which she explored in her M.A. Thesis, “Excess and Ambiguity: James Gillray’s Cartoons of William Pitt and Charles James Fox, 1793-1795”. She is working with Dr. Jim Epstein. To contact her, please send an e-mail to: mary.l.sanderson@vanderbilt.edu.

SCHULTZ
Kara Schultz is a first year graduate student interested in transnational and comparative approaches to the cultural history of the United States. Her specific research interests include identity formation, transnational social and political movements, and the history of the American left. Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia, she received her B.A. in History from the University of Richmond in 2008. She is working with Professors Elizabeth Lunbeck and Katherine Crawford. Please send email to: kara.d.schultz@vanderbilt.edu.

SUN
Lu Sun is a second-year graduate student studying the history of American foreign relations, the Cold War and US-China relations under the supervision of Professor Thomas Alan Schwartz. She is also interested in the interactions of war, media and propaganda. Before Vanderbilt, Lu earned a Masters degree in American History from Peking University, where her research focused on American images of China during the Korean War. Along with the Freeman Foundation Fellowship and Binkley & Weaver Grant, Lu also received the Vanderbilt Graduate School Summer Travel Grant, which funded her research trip to the National Archives of the United States and the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. Lu is a member of SHAFR (Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations), and recently attended the SHAFR 2009 annual conference and the Second US-China Doctoral Forum at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In her spare time, Lu enjoys traveling, attending concerts, and meeting interesting people. She can be reached at lu.sun@vanderbilt.edu.

SUTTON
Angela Sutton received her B.A. in History & Religious Studies from the University of Stirling, Scotland, and is currently a third year student in Atlantic History under the supervision of Dr. Jane Landers. She has worked as a research assistant for the Clyde Maritime Trust in Glasgow, and has completed a 17th-century Dutch language course with the Nederlandse Taalunie at Columbia University in 2009. Her current focus is on the Atlantic slave trade, and she uses 17th century Dutch, German and English-language sources to investigate piracy’s effects on the companies and people involved in the trade. Angela’s forthcoming article in Darkmatter Journal entitled “White Slaves in Barbary: The Early American Republic, Orientalism and the Barbary Pirates,” explores the Barbary pirates and their slave trade within an Atlantic context. She can be reached at angela.c.sutton@vanderbilt.edu.

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Kevin Vanzant is a fourth year student studying the British colonies in North America during the 17th century. His current focus is on the radical political ideology that surfaced during the English Civil Wars and its presence and importance in early colonial thinking and rebellion. His advisor is Dr. Daniel H. Usner. He can be reached at kevin.s.vanzant@vanderbilt.edu.

VILLANUEVA
Nicholas (Nick) Villanueva is a third year graduate student interested in 20th century United States history of race and nationalism. He received his B.A. in history from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 2006. His particular interests include Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigration. Nick is working with Dr. Gary Gerstle. He can be reached at nicholas.villanueva@vanderbilt.edu .

WILHIDE
Nicolette Wilhide is a third year graduate student in Latin American History, with a focus on Modern Brazil. Her current research centers on the Post-Emancipation period (late 19th and early 20th century). Specifically, she is interested in the ways in which former slaves and their descendants navigated their post-abolition role in society. Within this, she focuses on the development of modern Brazilian race relations, class and social mobility, as well as issues of education, professionalization and delinquency. Nicolette has presented work on Brazilian representations of race in print media at “Crisis and Recovery in the Americas” through the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) in New Orleans. She will be giving a paper at the Graduate Association of African American History (GAAAH) conference in Memphis based on research gathered during the summer of 2009 from the APERJ, the AN, AGCRJ and the Casa de Rui Barbosa in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Before becoming enamored with Brazil, Nicolette worked as a Spanish instructor at West Virginia University where she received her M.A. in Spanish, as well as her double B.A. in History and Spanish. Her advisor is Dr. Marshall Eakin and she can be reached at nicolette.m.wilhide@vanderbilt.edu.

WILSMAN
Adam Wilsman is a third year graduate student of Dr. Thomas Schwartz. He is studying twentieth century American diplomatic history with a concentration on U.S. and Latin American relations during the Cold War era. Adam received his B.A. in history from SUNY Binghamton in 2006. He can be reached at adam.r.wilsman@vanderbilt.edu.

WOODRUFF
Erin Woodruff is a second year graduate student focusing on indigenous/Spanish interactions on Colonial Borderlands in the sixteenth century. She spent the summer of 2009 in Sevilla, Spain working in the Archivo de Indias to further determine her dissertation topic while also continuing a project on the first slave revolt in the Americas that she hopes to turn into an article. She will also be presenting this research, for which she received the Tinker grant from the Center of Latin American Studies, at the Ethnohistory Conference in New Orleans this October. She will be working with Dr. Jane Landers.
She can be reached at erin.m.woodruff@vanderbilt.edu .

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Department of History
PMB 351802
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37235-1802

Department Location:
227 Benson Hall
Phone: (615) 322-2575
Fax: (615) 343-6002

E-mail: History@vanderbilt.edu

Office Hours:
Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. CST

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