History Graduate Student Profiles

Christopher Bishop

(MA, War and Society) BA, History and Religion, Huntingdon College, 2021.

Christopher is a native of Fairhope, Alabama and a combat engineer in the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve. He graduated cum laude from Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama where he earned a Bachelor's degree in history and religion. His senior capstone project focused on the School of Salamanca during the late middle ages and its contributions to the American conception of socio-economic liberty in the modern world. His current research interest focuses on the German experience on the eastern front during World War II.

Brittany Carey

(MA, U.S. History)  BA in History, magna cum laude, University of Southern Mississippi, 2019.

Brittany is a Master’s student specializing in 20th century American Labor history with an emphasis on women and minorities. She received the John E. Gonzales History Undergraduate Award Scholarship in 2018, and Keystone Scholar Award (2018-2019) while an undergraduate at USM. During her time as a graduate student she has conducted oral interviews for the Covid-19 Oral History Project, participated at the Gulf South History and Humanities Conference in 2020, and received her Public History Certificate. Brittany is working under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Tuuri on her thesis that focuses on domestic workers’ contributions to Civil Rights activism through Head Start, Voter Registration, and Bus Boycotts in the Deep South from 1950 to 1970.

Emily Cloys

(MA, War and Society) BA, History, Mississippi College, 2020.

Emily graduated summa cum laude from Mississippi College in the fall of 2020 with a BA in History and a double minor in English Literature and Psychology. She received the Edward L. McMillan Award for Excellence in History, awarded to an outstanding senior in the field. As an undergraduate, Emily completed a thesis exploring how the concept of national prestige helped catalyze the outbreak of World War I. She intends to further her study of World War I at USM, with particular emphasis on the nexus between ideology and action.  Emily is working under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest.

John DeLee

(MA, American History) BS of American History, United States Military Academy, 2012. 

John DeLee developed a fascination with history while growing up in south Mississippi, where he developed a passion for early American and frontier history focusing on the role of the U.S. Army in those theaters. He holds a BS of American History from the United States Military Academy, and is currently pursuing his master's degree in Early American History, focusing on the development and intersection of American Indian policy and foreign policy under the direction of Dr. Kyle Zelner.  After traveling around the country and the world with the military, John enjoys exposing his friends and family to local history, exploring the outdoors, and settling into his “permanent” home. He has had works published in Army Sustainment Online and the Journal of the American Revolution.

Michael Howell 

(MA, U.S. History)  MA in English, University of Southern Mississippi, 2011;  BA in Classics, University of Southern Mississippi, 2001;  BA in English, University of Southern Mississippi, 1997.

Michael is a Hattiesburg native and an honors graduate of Southern Miss and Ole Miss Universities. While a graduate student at Southern Miss, he was the recipient of the James Sims Award for his paper, “Prometheus Rebound: Shelley and the Language of the Dead.” A life-long student of history, he’s currently interested in studying Medieval History with particular emphasis on the lasting cultural and political impact of the Norman Conquest on the English-speaking world.

Joseph Jarrell

MA, War and Society) BA, History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2021.

Joseph graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in Spring of 2021 with a BA in History. His senior research project examined emerging ideas of southern nationalism during the Civil War. Joseph's current research interests lie in the medieval period where he plans to explore the relationship between a medieval king's popularity, personality, and effectiveness in war, particularly centered around Henry II of England. After graduate school, Joseph would like to work in a museum or researching position.

Brennan Kuehl

(MA, War and Society)  BA in History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2016.

Brennan graduated with honors from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2017 with a BA in history and a minor in English. He was awarded the John E. Wallace award for outstanding history major for the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park Campus in 2017. He is interested in the differential treatment of European and Japanese POWs held in the United States during World War II.  He is working under the direction of Dr. Douglas Bristol. 

Maeve Losen

(MA, U.S. History)  BA in History with a concentration in Public History, minor in Anthropology, summa cum laude, Longwood University, 2018.

Maeve is a Master’s student in the dual history and anthropology program and is also pursuing the Graduate Certificate in Public History. Her research interests include cultural history and anthropology, digital humanities, and public history. Her thesis project compares the emotional-cultures of Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees during the New Deal and U.S. Army enlistees during WWII to determine similarities and differences in how men expressed and viewed their emotions. The project utilizes an interdisciplinary approach through the application of emotions theories found in both anthropology and history. Maeve works under the direction of Drs. Kevin Greene and Bridget Hayden (anthropology).

Isabel Loya

(MA, U.S. History) BA in History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2021. 

Isabel Loya is from the Jackson area. Her thesis research focuses on Hispanic immigration into Mississippi during the 20th century. She is working under the direction of Dr. Matthew Casey. 

Meridian McDaniel

(MA, U.S. History) BA, History with a minor in Political Science, 2020, The University of Southern Mississippi.

Meridian is a MA student at USM whose interest include 20th century U.S. history with an emphasis on race and gender, specifically Mississippi women in the Civil Rights Movement. Meridian’s current research centers around local Hattiesburg-native Victoria Gray Adams, exploring her life, leadership, and legacy on the local, state, and national levels of the Civil Rights Movement. Meridian is working under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Tuuri.

Jerra Boatner Runnels

(MA, War and Society) MS, Criminal Justice, University of Southern Mississippi, 1997; BA, Criminal Justice, minor in Political Science, University of Southern Mississippi, 1995.

Jerra, a native of Collinsville, Mississippi, recently retired from the State of Mississippi after a career as a court administrator for the 12th Circuit Court in Hattiesburg. Jerra is pursuing her MA in War and Society with an interest in race, sexuality, gender, and women’s issues during wartime, under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Tuuri.  Jerra research focuses on the role of Black women in Hattiesburg during the remobilization of Camp Shelby in World War II.  Jerra serves on the Board of Directors for the Domestic Abuse Family Shelter and volunteers with the Shafer Center for Crisis Intervention. Jerra is married to James Runnels, and they have four children and one grandson.

Ethan Sakon

(MA, European History) BS in History, Minor in Music, magna cum laude, Mississippi College, 2021.  

Ethan is a first-year MA student who is seeking to specialize in Elizabethan England with an emphasis on the religious aspects of Elizabeth’s persona and how it united the people. While an undergraduate at Mississippi College, Ethan pursued a music minor along with his major in History and specifically enjoyed how history and music enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. In addition to researching the religious themes in the imagery of Elizabeth, Ethan also conducted research in how John Dee, Elizabeth’s philosopher, attempted to convince Elizabeth through Tudor invented tradition and myth that she was inheritrix of a massive British Empire.

Michael Singleton

(MA, U.S. History) BA, History, Virginia Military Institute, 2013.

Michael is an MA student from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Michael graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 2013 with a BA in History. As a part of VMI’s Honors Program, Michael conducted research concerning the early Tennessee settlement of Watauga and its involvement in the King’s Mountain Campaign of the American Revolution. Following graduation from VMI, Michael received a commission into the U.S. Army and served on active duty as an infantry officer from 2013-2020. Michael’s research interests center on the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, principally the origins and growth of the secession movement in the state of Tennessee.  He is working under the direction of Dr. Susannah Ural. 

Brian Washam

(MA, War and Society) BA, History, University of Oklahoma, 2019.

Brian is from Vinita, Oklahoma and studied History at the University of Oklahoma. There, Brian’s research focused on war, memory, and modern Europe. Brian’s senior capstone project was on the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 and focused on how the occupation of post-World War One Turkey by the Greeks and the Entente powers led to the creation of the modern nation of Turkey. As an undergraduate, Brian worked at the Oklahoma Historical Society as an intern in the manuscripts department, and was also the recipient of the 2019 Stephanie Dahlem-Pounds Award for outstanding History major at the University of Oklahoma. Brian is working with Dr. Andrew Wiest on a thesis examining the motivations for Vietnam veterans returning to Vietnam as tourists. Brian’s research interests are the Vietnam War, war memory, and Vietnam battlefield tourism.

James Berry

(PhD, U.S. History)  MA in Military History, Norwich University, 2016; MEd in Education, Anderson University, 2011; BA in History, Pensacola Christian College, 2008.

James is a PhD student focusing on US Army history, specifically Army logistics between the Spanish American War and the First World War. He is working under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest.  James' previous graduate research focused on the military history of South Carolina. His MA thesis was entitled “The Surrender of Charleston in 1780” and examined the American defense during the siege of Charleston and effect of the surrender on the outcome of the American War for Independence. He is a native of South Carolina and an active duty U.S. Army logistics officer with previous assignments in Fort Stewart, Fort Lee, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq.  James has traveled extensively through Europe and speaks French proficiently. Following his graduate coursework at USM, James will serve as an academic instructor in the History Department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Prior to joining the U.S. Army, James was a high school history and geography teacher.

Sean Buckelew 

(PhD, U.S. History) MA in History, San Diego State University, 2015; BA in Theater, University of Southern Mississippi, 2013.

Sean's research interests include popular culture and sporting culture in late twentieth-century America as well as left-wing theater movements in interwar America. He is studying under the direction of Dr. Andrew P. Haley. Sean is currently working on preliminary research into race and gender dynamics in southern professional wrestling. Sean is also interested in museum design. His previous experience includes participation in the design of the 2014 Sunshine and Superheroes exhibition for the Oakland Museum of California.

Oscar Coles

(PhD, U.S. History) MSc American History, University of Edinburgh (UK), 2018 ; BA Hons, Contemporary Military and International History, University of Salford (UK), 2015. 

Oscar is an international student from the United Kingdom. His research interests span numerous themes of 20th century military history. His previous research focused on military psychiatry and the psychological experience of combat during the Second World War. His other research interests include the Vietnam War, conflicts in East Asia and contemporary U.S. military culture.  He is working under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest.  Oscar has a fascination with travel and recently spent two years in China teaching English.

Dennis Cowles

(PhD, Early American History)  MA in History, University of New Orleans, 2006; BA in French, University of New Orleans, 2002.

Dennis’s research interests center on the intersections of imperial history and social history, specifically during eras of regime change. Other interests include colonial Latin America, comparative colonial history, ethnohistory, and the Atlantic world. Dennis worked for several years as an adjunct instructor of history in New Orleans and in the Boston area. He also has nearly 20 years' experience working in museums and non-profit organizations, including running a planetarium and working at the Paul Revere House. His dissertation project, “Neither Subjects nor Rebels: Responses to Imperial Centralization in Salem and Ipswich, 1660 – 1715,” is directed by Dr. Kyle F. Zelner. 

Bearington Curtis

(PhD, U.S. History) MA, History, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, 2020; BA, History, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, 2013.

Bear is a PhD student whose primary interest in history is the U.S. Army, with a focus on how the Army has historically prepared for future conflicts. His MA thesis, "A Sisyphean Task: Reevaluating Reconstruction in Texas," examined the U.S. Army's role in Texas during Reconstruction. Bearington is currently interested in the development and changes made to the National Guard and Army Reserve in the period between the World Wars.  He is working under the direction of Drs. Kevin Greene and Andrew Wiest. 

Daniel Driss

(PhD, U.S. History) MS, Organizational Leadership, Columbus State University, 2019; BA in History, Northern Arizona University, 2012.

Daniel is a PhD student focusing on US Army history, specifically army cavalry and armor formations. His previous graduate research focused on the practical application of Servant Leadership while serving as a Commanding Officer in a Combat Arms formation. He is a native of Arizona and an active-duty U.S. Army armor officer with previous assignments at Fort Stewart, Fort Riley, Fort Benning, Fort Irwin, the Republic of Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Daniel served as an enlisted infantryman for ten years, including three combat tours; while serving he pursued his undergraduate degree and was admitted to Officer Candidate School, where he was commissioned as an armor officer and subsequently assigned to a series of tank units. Following his graduate coursework at USM, Daniel will serve as an academic instructor in the History Department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Kevin Grubbs 

(PhD, U.S. History)  MA in History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2014 ; BA in History, cum laude, University of Texas-Arlington, 2010.

Kevin is a PhD student focusing on American History, as well as examining Latin American history as a minor area of concentration.  His dissertation, which is directed by Dr. Max Grivno, explores the relationship between the Gulf South and the Caribbean as promoted by sailors and stevedores on trading ships during the nineteenth century.  His work has appeared in the Journal of Mississippi History.  Other interests include class and power in the American South during the Early Republic.

Shane Hand

(PhD, U.S. History) MA in History and MLIS in Library Science, University of Southern Mississippi, 2011; BA in History, University of Alabama, 2009.

Shane is a PhD candidate at USM who is writing his dissertation, "Curious George's Imperial Adventure: An Intellectual Biography of a Fictional Monkey's Translation from German into American Imperialism," under the direction of Andrew Haley. Examining the intersection of race, children, and Cold War culture, his dissertation will demonstrate the European influence on the imperial culture of everyday Americans. Other research interests include the history of children's librarianship, race, and literacy. Shane's work has appeared in The Journal of Mississippi History, the Progressive Librarian, and The World of Jim Crow America: A Daily Life Encyclopedia.

Hayley Michael Hasik

(PhD, U.S. History)  MA in Public History, Stephen F. Austin State University, 2017; BS in History and English, Texas A&M University-Commerce, 2014.

Hayley is a PhD candidate at USM 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. She is the Dale Center Graduate Fellow for 2021-2022. Hayley is working under the direction of Dr. Heather Stur.

Sarah Anne Hogue

(PhD, U.S. History) MA in History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2021; BA in History, BA in English Writing, minor in Public History, summa cum laude with honors, Mississippi College, 2019. 

Sarah is a first-year PhD student at USM. Her interests are on 17th- and 18th-century colonial American history with a specific focus on gender. Her research examines how and to what extent the legal doctrine of coverture—a legal classification that severely limited married women’s legal rights to own property—functioned in the colonial period in New England. She is working under the direction of Dr. Kyle Zelner to expand on the research in her Master’s thesis, “Women Under Colonial Coverture: Divorce, Property Rights, and Inheritance in Early Massachusetts, 1630-1690.” Specifically, Sarah wants to examine effect that the various colonial wars had on coverture, women’s property rights, and the availability of divorce. In 2020, Sarah won an American History Education Award from the Mississippi Chapter of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America for her work on colonial American history. 

Melissa (“Missy”) Janczewski Jones

(PhD, U.S. History)  MS in History and Political Science, Mississippi College, 2014; BS in History and Paralegal Studies, Mississippi College, 1992.

Since the fall of 2015, Missy has served as Visiting Instructor in the Department of History and Political Science at Mississippi College.  Between 2014 and 2018, she served as the editor of Mississippi History Now, an online publication of the Mississippi Historical Society.  Missy’s area of historical focus includes Reconstruction and Historical Memory, especially the Clinton Mississippi Riot of 1875.  In 2015, Missy worked with the City of Clinton, local churches, and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation in hosting several public events to bring attention and awareness to this tragic event on its 140th anniversary.   In September of 2015, her article, "Thawing Frozen History: The Clinton Riot of 1875" was published by the Mississippi Historical Society.

In 2016, Missy was named the Distinguished Alumna of the Year by her colleagues at MC.  She is a member of the Civil Rights Education Committee of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. Her work has been highlighted by Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Teaching for Change, the Jackson Free Press, the Clarion-Ledger, the Clinton Courier, and the Mississippi College Collegian. 

Justin Major

(PhD, U.S. History) MA, U.S. History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2020; BA, History and Film and Media Arts, magna cum laude, Louisiana State University, 2017.

At LSU, Justin won the McCormick Prize for the best undergraduate paper in military history at the 2018 Missouri Valley History Conference. His research focuses on the Vietnam War, particularly the history of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in the early 1960s. For his MA at USM, he examined the effectiveness of ARVN combat operations from 1962-1963, arguing that ARVN was more successful than previously believed. For his PhD, he will continue his research into ARVN under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest.

Olivia Moore

(PhD, U.S History)  MA in History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2016; BA in History and Politics, University of Exeter, United Kingdom, 2014.

Olivia Moore is a PhD candidate who studies the Hattiesburg civil rights movement, with other research interests that include race, gender, oral history, and memory. Her dissertation, “Fractured Activism: Competing Visions of the Civil Rights Movement in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 1966-80,” interrogates the foundation of serious fractures that developed among local civil rights leaders toward the end of the 1960s, and beyond. It considers this complex web of conflict in relation to the changing nature of the civil right movement, the breakdown of social movements, and the rise of conservatism in the United States. Olivia is working under the direction of Dr. Kevin Greene.

Olivia has additional experience interviewing for the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage (COHCH), and she has curated exhibits at McCain Library and Archives. She was awarded a Graduate Certificate in Public History in the Spring of 2020, and was the 2019-2020 recipient of the Baird Fellowship. Olivia has recently been working on a collaborative project with L.J. Rowan High School’s Class of 1968. The group just published the book, The Class of 1968: A Thread Through Time, which includes a preface written by Olivia. 

Sean O’Farrell

(PhD, U.S. History) MA in U.S. History, Marquette University, 2019; BA in History, Flagler College, 2016.

Sean is a PhD student in U.S. History at Southern Miss and his research centers on exploring the intersections of race, music, and youth culture in the Mississippi Delta during the twentieth century. While at Marquette University, his research explored Milwaukee’s punk rock scene, as well as Milwaukee’s religiously motivated social activists of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Aderian K. Partain

(PhD, U.S. History)  MA in War and Society, University of Southern Mississippi, 2018; BA in History, summa cum laude, Mississippi State University, 2016.

Aderian is a native of Sebastopol, Mississippi and a PhD student at USM. His major interests lie in the history of naval warfare. Aderian’s MA thesis research, under the direction of Dr. Susannah J. Ural, explored the officer partnerships between the Union Navy and Army during combined riverine operations in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. He plans to further his research of inland waterway naval operations into the Vietnam War under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest.

Lindsey R. Peterson

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

Lindsey R. Peterson is a Ph.D. Candidate working under the supervision of Dr. Susannah J. Ural in the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society at Southern Miss. Her dissertation project examines how Unionists remembered and celebrated the American Civil War west of the Mississippi River. In their Civil War commemorations, she argues, western veterans and their families celebrated white expansion and supremacy and constructed a narrative of the Civil War that bolstered Anglo-American hegemony in the West.

She currently serves as the Senior Editor of the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi Project and on the Graduate Student Connection Committee for the Society of Civil War Historians. She also teaches the U.S. History sequence and upper-level history courses as an instructor at the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. To learn more visit lindseyraepeterson.com.

Ted Racicot

(PhD, European History) MA, History, Worcester State, 2019; BA, History, Worcester State, 2017.

Ted grew up in a military family and, despite moving around most of his childhood, he considers Monument, Colorado to be his hometown. He attended Worcester State University, where he earned both his BA and MA in History.  He is interested in the intersections between popular culture and warfare. For his master’s thesis, he explored popular songs produced in Great Britain during World War I and how they fit into Britain's larger propaganda apparatus.  As a doctoral student at USM, he plans to continue with this topic, looking beyond the songs themselves and focusing on British music halls as a location where British citizens of all backgrounds could hear about the war and understand their place within the war effort.

Lucas R. Somers

(Ph.D., U.S. History)  MA in History, Western Kentucky University, 2015; BA in History, Western Kentucky University, 2013.

Lucas is a PhD Candidate focusing on the era of the American Civil War and Reconstruction. His research examines emancipation in the Upper South by focusing on the education of formerly enslaved African Americans and assessing the inherent obstacles to racial equality which limited Black communities’ ability to define freedom on their own terms. Lucas is writing a dissertation entitled "Embattled Learning: Education and Emancipation in the Post-Civil War Upper South," under the direction of Dr. Susannah J. Ural. This project is particularly focused on advancing a subfield of Reconstruction scholarship which interprets emancipation not as a single moment in history but as an imperfect and often very painful process for the newly freed population. He completed the Graduate Certificate in Public History at USM in May 2020 and has worked as a graduate researcher for digital history projects including the Civil War Governors of Kentucky and the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi. He also served as the Dale Graduate Fellow in the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society from 2018 to 2020.

Brian Valimont

(PhD, U.S. History) MA, History, 2018, Salem State University; MA, Anthropology, 2002, The University of Alabama; BA, Anthropology, 1997, West Georgia University; Certificate in Law Enforcement, 2013, Northern Essex Community College.

Brian was an active field archaeologist for over two decades. His specialization is the archaeology of North America, especially that in the southeast, northeast and central plains states. His work included surveying to locate and conducting archaeological excavations on archaeological sites, analyzing artifacts, researching and writing reports of investigations. His research spanned a variety of subjects and time periods. Areas of special interest include Native American coastal adaptation, as well as 19th Century New England farmsteads. For four and a half years, Brian taught introductory anthropology and archaeology at Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He also worked for three seasons as a Park Ranger in both Minute Man National Historic Park and Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Brian is intrigued by the historical interrelationship between war and home fronts. He is presently focusing on a series of riots that occurred in the Union as a result of the military draft during the U.S. Civil War.

E. Gabrielle Walker

(PhD, U.S. History)  MA in History, University of New Orleans, 2009; BA in History, Judson College, 2005.

Gabrielle is a PhD candidate at Southern Miss. Her interest in post-Reconstruction Southern women led to research on elite white women in the Southern Baptist church. Gabrielle's dissertation, “‘If These Walls Could Speak’: Judson College and the New Baptist Woman, 1890-1930,” explores the ways in which Progressive Era ideology made a lasting impact on Southern Baptist white women attending a Southern Baptist college in the Deep South. For some, their collegiate experiences led to their questioning traditional Southern Baptist thought-patterns and expansively interpreting religion to fit a modern, scientific worldview. These “new” Baptist women then used conservative Southern religious institutions as a means to reinterpret their position in church and society.

Gabrielle has presented at several academic conferences, was the recipient of the 2017 History Department travel award, and is the 2021-22 Center for the Study of the Gulf South's Baird Fellow at USM. Gabrielle works under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Tuuri.

Daniel Ward

(PhD, U.S. History) MA, History, SUNY University, 2019; BA, History and Political Science, SUNY Fredonia, 2015.

Daniel is a PhD student from Buffalo, New York. His area of study is war and society in the 20th Century United States. Daniel's current research examines marriages between American GIs and Vietnamese women throughout the Vietnam War. His project concentrates on the development and implementation of marital policy in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Daniel is working under the direction of Dr. Heather Stur.