Dale Center Graduate Fellowships

Fellowship Recipients:

 

2020-2021

Hayley Michael Hasik (PhD candidate, U.S. History) MA, Public History, 2017, Stephen F. Austin State University; BS, History and English with a minor in Astronomy, 2014, Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Hayley is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi whose interests include 20th century U.S. history with an emphasis on war and memory, the Vietnam War, veterans' experiences, and cultural history. Hayley’s current research focuses on examining the legacy of the “Helicopter War” in Vietnam. Her project seeks to uncover how and why helicopters became such an integral part of Vietnam War history and memory. Hayley has extensive oral history experience and co-founded the East Texas War and Memory Project in 2012. Her previous scholarly research focused on the American POW experience during WWII and the Vietnam helicopter experience using the life history of a Warrant Officer as a case study. Hayley has presented at numerous academic conferences and has published several articles in the Sound Historian and War, Literature, and the Arts. Hayley is also a recipient of the 2019 Russell Weigley Travel Grant from the Society for Military History. Hayley is working under the direction of Dr. Heather Stur.

 

2018–2019, 2019-2020

Lucas Somers (PhD candidate, U.S. History); MA, History, 2015 Western Kentucky University; BA, History, 2013 Western Kentucky University.

Lucas is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi focusing on the era of the American Civil War and Reconstruction. His previous graduate research focused on scrutinizing significant aspects of Abraham Lincoln’s personal worldview by analyzing the president’s reported dreams, visions, and ‘night terrors.’ Working under the supervision of Dr. Susannah J. Ural, Lucas is interested in examining ways communities in the South dealt with the trauma and suffering of the Civil War. A current project looks at a violent disturbance that occurred in downtown Franklin, Tennessee in July 1867 between former Confederates and a local Union League chapter on the eve of the first statewide election in which former enslaved men could vote. Lucas is working on a major field in U.S. History while perusing minor fields in War and Society, and race and ethnicity. He is also currently in the Graduate Certificate Program for Public History at USM. Lucas received the Colonel W. Wayde Benson Fellowship for the 2016-2017 academic year, which allowed him conduct preliminary research for a dissertation project. 

 

2017–2018

Lindsey R. Peterson (PhD candidate, U.S. History); MA, History, 2015 University of South Dakota; BA, History and Political Science, 2013 Buena Vista University.

A native of Alta, Iowa, Lindsey is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi working under the supervision of Dr. Susannah J. Ural. Her dissertation examines how Unionists in the trans-Mississippi West commemorated the American Civil War. Analyzing the Grand Army of the Republic, Woman’s Relief Corps, Daughters of Union Veterans, and Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, Lindsey’s research analyzes how gendered and regional Civil War memory developed in areas that served as frontiers during the war rather than battle fronts. Lindsey is the recipient of the Dale Center Graduate Fellowship 2017–2018, Lamar Powell History Graduate Fellowship 2017–2018, USM Phi Alpha Theta Award 2017, Kathanne W. Greene Graduate Paper Award 2017, Margaret Boone Dale Fellowship 2015, and Russell F. Weigley Graduate Student Travel Grant Award 2015 from The Society for Military History. Her article, “’Iowa Excelled Them All’: Iowa Local Ladies’ Aid Societies Relief on the Civil War Frontier, 1861–1865” appeared in the September 2016 issue of The Middle West Review.

 

2016–2017

Tracy L. Barnett MA student, U.S. History, 2015 University of Southern Mississippi; BA, History, 2014 Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

While at Southern Miss, Tracy studied under Dr. Susannah J. Ural. Her thesis, “Maligned “Milish:” Mississippi Militiamen in the Civil War” argues that Mississippi militiamen developed a unique conception of military service based on their pre-war position within southern society.  The Mississippi government, which oversaw the state’s militia defense system, proved unable to reconcile official policy with men’s localized perception of service.  Instead, the Mississippi government created a centrally organized military system that undermined the militia’s efficiency. She is the recipient of the Dale Center Graduate Fellowship 2016-2017, Lamar Powell History Graduate Scholarship 2015-2016, Colonel W. Wayde Benson Fellowship 2015-2016, Phi Alpha Theta’s Thomas S. Morgan Memorial Scholarship 2015-2016. She is currently a first-year PhD student at the University of Georgia studying under Dr. Stephen Berry.