Biographies of Current Graduate Students
Graduate students in the Department of History are pursuing path-breaking research, winning regional and national awards, and attending the most prestigious conferences in their fields. [If you are interesting in adding your name to our growing list of graduate student bios, please contact HGS president, Christian Pinnen.]
Clayton R. Baird
University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg-Current PhD Student
Texas A&M University, College Station-Master’s in Diplomatic History (2004) and Bush School Certificate in International Affairs (2004)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville-Bachelor’s in History (1998) and Bachelor’s w/honors in Political Science (2001)
Areas of Interest: Military and Naval History, Diplomatic History, International Relations, Security Studies
Clayton Baird has a wide field of interest ranging from the naval arms race that precipitated the First World War through the Second World War and also includes modern defense policy issues and issues of crisis management. His master’s thesis, Style Versus Substance, incorporated the latter by focusing on how President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s style of governance affected America’s response to the crises that led to World War Two. His current research focuses on War Plan Black and the U.S. Navy’s plans to fight Germany in both world wars. An avid collector of military artifacts, Mr. Baird’s studies also include looking at how technology affected the ordinary American soldier during the Second World War.
Earl W. Bell
Mr. Bell is a native of Mississippi and hails from a small rural community called Strong Hope. Earl graduated with honors from the University of Southern Mississippi with an undergraduate degree in History in December 2007 and is currently enrolled in the War and Society Program. He will graduate with his Masters degree in December 2009. Earl was the 2007 Marshall Scholarship Nominee for the university and is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. His particular area of research is how warfare influences religion. Earl is currently writing his Thesis, entitled Sword of Reform, Sword of Evangelism: The Forging of an Evangelical Military, which explores the origins of the union that the evangelical community (specifically Southern Baptists) and the American military enjoys today.
Chad Boykin
Chad Boykin is a native of Mobile, Alabama and received his Bachelor’s Degree in both History and Theology, with a minor in Philosophy, from Spring Hill College in May of 2009. During his undergraduate tenure, Chad received both the Howard Smith and the Ron Drago Awards for excellence in the field of History. He is a first year Master’s student with a research emphasis on the relationship between the church and society in medieval England. More specifically, Chad’s research focuses on the influence of penitential literature (e.g., penitential handbooks, poetry, and homilies) in late Anglo-Saxon society.
Ted Butler
Butler research and teaching interests include Southern history, African-American history, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age. He is currently writing his dissertation, "Other Southerners: A Collective Biography of Mississippi Scalawags" under the direction of Dr. William Scarborough. He has published encyclopedia articles on the scalawags and Upton Sinclair. Ted has received numerous academic awards and research grants including the USM History Department's Phi Alpha Theta Award (2006) and the history department's Jay Washam Dissertation Award (2007).
Denise M. Carlisle
Denise is a first year M.A. student focusing on Medieval European History with a secondary concentration in War and Society. She received her B.A. in History, with a double minor in Spanish and World Politics, from Lycoming College. Her research interests include Medieval Spain during the 12th and 13th centuries, specifically Christian legal codes and their usage in rulership over the Jewish and Muslim populations that occupied the Peninsula.
Joseph Cates
Joseph Cates (joseph.cates@usm.edu) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History focusing on cultural and intellectual U.S. history with a transnational prospective, minoring in European history and women’s history. He received his B.A. in history from Auburn University-Montgomery in 2000 and his M.A. in history from USM in December 2002, with a major field of study in U.S. military history and a minor field in European history. As a graduate assistant at USM, he has served as a teaching assistant and as an instructor for both World History I and II and has also taught US History since 1877. He received the Graduate Teaching Award for the History Department for the 2007-08 academic year and a department travel grant in 2006 to travel to Italy to conduct research for his dissertation. His dissertation, American Society in Italy: Nineteenth Century American Visitors and the Society They Established in Italy, analyzes the community of Americans in Italy during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The dissertation examines the reasons for American travelers going to Italy, and particularly how the unique social structure of Americans in Italy, especially with American expatriates living there, made Italy a cultural tourist destination for Americans abroad.
Colin M. Colbourn
(Elkhart, Indiana) – M.A. in History (War and Society)
Colin received his B.A. in History from Ball State University in 2007 with a minor in Anthropology. In the summers of 2006 and 2007, Colin interned with the Chief Historian of the Marine Corps at the U.S. Marine Corps History Division in Quantico, VA. After updating the Marine Corps’s official publication database, he published three articles in Leatherneck Magazine, one of the Marine Corps’s institutional publications. At Southern Mississippi, Colin studies U.S. History and Military Culture. Colin’s thesis examines public relations and the United States Marine Corps. During his time at Southern Miss, Colin has traveled to Italy on a battlefield tour funded by the Cantigny First Division Foundation, and served as chair and co-organizer of the 2009 International Security and Internal Safety Conference. He hopes to continue his studies in the Ph.D. program at Southern Mississippi.
Publications:
"United Kingdom, Royal Marines." in The Encyclopedia of the Middle East Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History. Edited by Spencer C. Tucker. 5 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, forthcoming.
"British Royal Marines in the Gulf War: Middle East Wars." United States at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO. http://www.usatwar.abc-clio.com.
“Caught in the Crossfire: Marines in North China.” Leatherneck, April 2008.
“Treachery on the High Seas: The Untold Story of the Capture of the Tachibana Maru.” Leatherneck, August 2007.
“Far Off Northern Lands: Marines Ashore in Siberia.” Leatherneck, March 2007.
Dennis Conklin
Dennis Conklin (dennis.conklin@yahoo.com) is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in the colonial and antebellum south, with an emphasis on religious and political history. He is currently working on a dissertation that explores the role of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in exacerbating religious and political controversy between Catholics and Protestants in the colonial South that eventually resulted in armed confrontation, legal sanctions, and Protestant missionary work. He has publications in the Encyclopedia of North American Conflicts to 1775, and The United States at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. Dennis has served as Graduate Student Liaison to the Faculty, as a member of the Graduate Student Senate, and as a member of the Advisory Committee to Select the Dean of University Libraries. He also received the University of Southern Mississippi Department of History Graduate Teaching Award in 2006.
Andrew P. Davis
Andrew Davis began his USM career as an undergraduate in 2003, with a degree in Mass Communications and an emphasis in Video/Television Production. He is currently a second year Master’s degree student, and focuses on the study of military and cultural history, working towards a Master’s of Science in History. Some of his diverse research interests include the Philippine War, Gilded Age cultural studies, and civil-military relations. Davis presented“Creating a Spawn Point: Placing America’s Army in Historical Context” at the American Cultural Association Conference in April of 2008, along with co-writer, Michael Doidge. In lieu of a thesis, he is focusing his efforts towards education, with a Licensure Certification in Social Studies, in an effort to work in the community college educational system, where he hopes to instill in non-history majors a love and appreciation of the subject. Davis’s teaching philosophy entails showing students that the analytical thinking and research of history can be applied with great success to everyday life outside of academia. He also hopes to work as a videographer of historical documentaries. He can be contacted at ddavis22@gmail.com, or by mobile at 601.434.1609.
Michael Doidge
Michael Doidge is a PhD candidate currently researching his dissertation "An Army Worth Fighting For: Doctrinal, Strategic, and Bureaucratic Transformation in the U.S. Army from 1946 to 1963." The work argues that the Army's post-World War II relationship to national security policy was the primary driving force behind the sweeping transformations it underwent during the early Cold War. A 2008 fellow at the West Point Summer Seminar in Military History, Michael was also recently awarded travel grants to the Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy Presidential Libraries, a George Marshall/Baruch Fellowship from the George Marshall Foundation, The Harry J. Carman Fellowship, and the U. S. Army Center of Military History Dissertation Fellowship. In addition to working on his dissertation, Michael has just completed co-editing with Professor Andrew Wiest Triumph Revisited: Historians Battle for the Vietnam War, which examines the current state of Vietnam War historiography. Published by Routledge Press, the work is scheduled for release by the Spring of 2010. He may be contacted at doidge.michael@gmail.com.
Jason C. Engle
M.A. Military History, 2008
Norwich University – Northfield, VT
B.S. Business Administration, 1997
Union College – Barbourville, KY
Jason (Columbus, OH) is a PhD student specializing Modern European History with an emphasis in War and Society as well as minor field in U.S. History (particularly Revolutionary America). His current research interests include the Austro-Hungarian political and military conduct of the First World War, Austrian National Socialism, Nazi Germany, and non-German perpetrators of the Holocaust. When not reading books, writing papers, or grading, Jason enjoys spending time with his wife and son, brewing beer, oil painting, traveling and watching football. He may be contacted at: jasonengle@hotmail.com
Publications:
“Titus, Calvin P.”, “Mize, Ola L.”, “Norris, Thomas.” in America’s Heroes: Medal of Honor Recipients from the Civil War to Iraq. Edited by James H. Willbanks. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, forthcoming.
John Donellan Fitzmorris III
John Donellan Fitzmorris III is a Doctoral candidate and Graduate Assistant in the War and Society Program. A native of New Orleans, Fitzmorris graduated in 1989 from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Religious Studies. He then earned a Masters Degree in Religious Studies in 1992 from Loyola University. After seventeen years as a high school teacher and middle school principal, he returned to school and earned a Masters in History from the University of New Orleans. His graduate thesis, “We Had Lost Our Humanity: Combat Soldiers and Their Experiences in the Second World War” won the George F. Windell Prize for Outstanding Thesis in 2003.
Mr. Fitzmorris still lives in New Orleans with his daughter Madeleine and continues to aid in that city’s recovery. He currently serves as an Adjunct Instructor of History at Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans and is the Division Historian for the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Archbishop Philip M. Hannan Division. His tentative plans for his dissertation include a study of the Society of Jesus in the Chaplain Corps from the Second World War through Vietnam.
Shane Hand
MA; History, and Library & Information Science
Shane has BA from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa and an AS from Jefferson State Community College, Birmingham, AL. His research interests include: Late 19th and early 20th century U.S. History, including the history of capitalism and the socio-economic impacts of a "free market."
Timothy C. Hemmis
BA History, 2006, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
MA Social Sciences-History, 2008, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
Thesis: Obstacle to Progress: The Legacy of Pontiac’s Rebellion
Timothy Hemmis (Timothy.hemmis@usm.edu) is a PhD candidate studying Early American frontier history, especially focusing on colonial urban development. He is examining the relationship between the military and urban planning of the frontier settlements of Pittsburgh and Detroit. He is working under the direction of Dr. Kyle Zelner (William & Mary, 2003 PhD). Mr. Hemmis has presented at several academic conferences including the Society for Military History and the Missouri Valley History Conference. Additionally he is an avid sports fan following the NFL, NHL, and MLB.
Wesley Joyner
Wesley Joyner is a proud native of Hopewell, Virginia. Several years after receiving his B.A. in History in 2002 from the University of Virginia, he decided to pursue a career in teaching and writing history. In 2007, Wesley earned his M.A. in History from Virginia Commonwealth University. While at VCU, his Master’s Thesis focused on Peter Francisco, a famous, yet oft-forgotten Revolutionary War hero whose unique life experiences as a slave, soldier, and citizen reflected on both the limits of early American republicanism and the popular memory of Revolutionary War veterans. Wesley is currently finishing his second year of Ph.D. study at the University of Southern Mississippi where he specializes in the Era of the American Revolution. Upon completing comprehensive exams in the fall, Wesley plans to begin researching and writing a doctoral dissertation concerning the experiences of American Loyalists who chose to remain in the United States after the American Revolution. When Wesley is not reading history books or writing papers, he can often be found rooting for his beloved Wahoos, complaining about the general public’s lack of historical knowledge, espousing the superiority of his home state, or simply thinking, the latter of which is his self proclaimed favorite hobby.
Kelly Karlinski
Before attending the University of Southern Mississippi in 2007, Kelly Karlinski received her undergraduate degree in history from Clemson University. A second year master’s student, she is currently studying under Dr. William Scarborough. Kelly’s area of interest is the antebellum South, specifically focusing on why Mississippi citizens decided to remain in the Union in 1850. Following graduation, she hopes to find a job as either a museum curator or a civilian historian for a military base.
Kaci Lazenby
Kaci is pursuing a master’s degree in American History with a secondary concentration in the study of War and Society. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in History from the University of Southern Mississippi and also received a minor in English Literature. Her research interests include U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, specifically focusing on how the Carter Administration’s foreign policy to the Middle East affected pan-Arabism and reshaped American diplomacy with Israel, Egypt, and other Arab nations.
Randi Leigh
Randi Leigh Green (MA, US History) has a BA from Belhaven College, Jackson, MS. Research interests include, but are not limited to, gender studies, primarily feminity in the US.
David B. Miller
David B. Miller is a part-time student in the department’s Ph.D. program in United States history, with an emphasis on Southern history since 1877 and minor fields in geography and war and society. David will sit for comprehensive exams in the fall of 2009 before commencing work on his proposed dissertation on race, flood hazards, and changing perceptions of property rights in twentieth century Hattiesburg. David earned his undergraduate degree in history and religious studies from the University of Virginia in 1995 and his law degree from the Yale Law School in 1999. David currently serves as Board Attorney for the Forrest County Board of Supervisors and resides in Hattiesburg’s historic neighborhood with his wife Sara and son John Derek.
Matthew Monroe
My name is Matthew Monroe (MA US History) and I received my BA in History (Summa Cum Laude, 4.0 GPA) from Mississippi State University. I also became the institution's first graduate with a minor in African American Studies. I have recently received the 2009 Phi Alpha Theta Martha Swain Award of Excellence and the Best Undergraduate Paper Award from the 2009 Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference for my work entitled "Our American Brew: How American Beer Consumers Spurred the Modernization of the U.S. Brewing Industry during the 19th Century." My primary research interests include the American South, African American History, and U.S. Miliary history. I hope to find a research topic from between Antebellum America through the establishment of Jim Crow South and the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement.
Gregory W. Morgan
Gregory W. Morgan joined the University of Southern Mississippi’s Department of History in August 2004 as a graduate student. Raised in Kiln, Miss., he received his bachelor’s degree at William Carey University, located in Hattiesburg, Miss. In August 2006, Morgan received his Master of Arts degree in European history from Southern Miss. He is currently finishing up coursework at Southern Miss in an effort to try to attain his doctorate. Morgan’s focus is nineteenth and twentieth-century European imperialism, focusing on the British Empire. His master’s thesis is titled, "The British Labour Party and Palestine, 1917-1948: A Shift from Idealism to Pragmatism." His current study focuses on the British Empire’s brief role in Iraq before World War II. Morgan is also working on a minor in pre-Civil War American history, focusing closely on the era of the American Revolution.
Christian Pinnen
Christian Pinnen (Christian.Pinnen@usm.edu) was born and raised near Cologne, Germany. He is a Ph.D. Student specializing in 18th and 19th century social history of the United States with research interest in southern borderlands, southern slavery, and southern colonial/ early national history. He is currently finishing his class work at USM and will take comprehensive exams in February 2010. His Dissertation project has the working title: “Slavery and Empire: The Development of Slavery in the Natchez District, 1720-1820.” The dissertation will trace the history of Natchez and its cultural and social heritage through the rule of France, Great Britain, Spain, and the United States. Pinnen has publications in The Southern Quarterly and The Southern Historian and forthcoming publications in The Journal of Mississippi History and in The Encyclopedia of African American History. He was awarded a scholarship from the University of Bonn, Germany to study at the University of Southern Mississippi in 2005 and he won the Phi Alpha Theta Graduate Student of the Year Award in 2008. He received the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History 2009-2010 William and Madeline Welder Smith Research Travel Award at the University of Texas at Austin and the Louisiana History Research Fellowship of the Special Collections Division of the Louisiana State University Libraries in 2009. The expected completion date for his doctoral degree is December 2011.
Aynsley Saucier
A. Aaron Saucier is a second year history MA candidate specializing in Medieval Europe. He received his BA in both history and religion at William Carey University in 2008, where his senior thesis: “Bohemund of Taranto’s Motivations in Joining the First Crusade,” explored the religious, political, and cultural motivations of the First Crusade’s most visible Norman participant. His MA thesis, tentatively titled: “Faith and Adventure: Norman Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Eleventh Century,” addresses aspects of the Norman Diaspora as they relate to the institution of Jerusalem Pilgrimage prior to the First Crusade. He seeks to show that, unlike pilgrims from other parts of Europe, Norman pilgrims fast learned to integrate pilgrimage with military opportunism, a combination with vastly important implications for the Idea of Crusade. Beyond his perhaps obvious preoccupation with Norman history, Mr. Saucier is interested in various aspects of medieval history including popular religion, chivalry, and the forging of European identity. In addition, he is a member of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society, the American Historical Association, the Southeastern Medieval Association, and the Medieval Academy of America. Mr. Saucier hopes to continue his academic career, teach, and one day write a biography of Bohemund of Taranto. He is also the proud father of a one year old baby girl who seems already to have him well under her thumb.
Jonathan Thomas
Jonathan Thomas is a second-year history MA candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi. Thomas’s degree specialty is in European history, with a minor emphasis in Latin America. Thomas first attended the University of Southern Mississippi as an undergraduate in the Fall of 2004. After earning his BA in the Fall of 2006, Thomas was subsequently accepted into the University of Southern Mississippi history graduate program in the Fall of 2007. After working as a teaching assistant for the 2007-2008 academic year, Thomas was appointed to oversee the USM History Writing Lab, in which capacity he currently serves. Jonathan may be contacted via email at: jonathan.thomas@usm.edu.
Robert J. Thompson
Robert J. Thompson (robert.john.thompson@gmail.com) is a PhD student
from Alexandria, Virginia. He obtained a B.A in History from Virginia
Wesleyan College (Norfolk, Virginia) in 2006, and his M.A. in History
from Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario) in 2007. For the
past two years Robert taught both American and World History
introductory courses as an adjunct instructor at Virginia Wesleyan
College. While living in Ontario, Robert developed an appreciation for
not only Canadian Great War studies, but the First World War as a
whole. Now at Southern Miss., he hopes to expand his M.A. thesis on
the role of the U.S. Coast Artillery Corps on the Western Front during
the First World War. He would like to see how the CAC performed in
battles such as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Ultimately the physical
display of power by nations is what draws Robert towards the study of
history. In addition to his teaching experiences, Robert has spent
time working as a web developer. Besides studying history, Robert
enjoys hockey, traveling and blogging.
Pat Rayner
BS in Foreign Area Studies (Europe), U.S. Air Force Academy 2000
I am a first year MA student. My interests include 20th century American history, the American South, and race relations. I am particularly interested in the relationship between race and religion in the South. Currently I am researching Hattiesburg Presbyterians during the civil rights movement in 1964. In addition to being a history graduate student I am also a Captain in the US Air Force. I am a native of Laurel, Mississippi but have spent the last six years as a C-17 pilot stationed at Charleston AFB, South Carolina. My wife and I were married four years ago this February and recently celebrated the first birthday of our daughter, Laurel.
Meghan Waldow
Meghan Waldow is a first year Master’s student in European History with a concentration in War and Society. Her thesis revolves around discerning the controversial legacies of the three most prominent Polish Judenrat leaders during the Second World War: Adam Czerniakow, Jacob Gens, and Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. When not kicking herself for not speaking Polish, German, or Hebrew, she also enjoys the research and study of the psychology of warfare and genocide. Originally hailing from New Jersey, Meghan has found that she can now understand southern drawls without a translator, and encourages any potential graduate students from the North to come on down!!!
Department of History
http://www.usm.edu/history
601.266.4333 • history@usm.edu