Current War & Society Graduate Students

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For a listing of former Dale Center graduate students and their current placement, see our graduate placement page.

	Matthew Bruck (MA, War and Society) BS, History, Southern Oregon University, 2024. Email Matthew is a native of California who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Southern Oregon University. He received the Merit Award for High Achievement in Historical Studies from the university faculty in recognition for outstanding academic performance. For his senior capstone project, Matthew analyzed the psychology of combat veterans on the Western Front during the First World War. He utilized memoirs and diaries of survivors from both sides of the conflict to understand the mental resilience and adaptation of soldiers in harsh combat environments. During his time at Southern Miss, Matthew intends to work with Dr. Andrew Wiest to expand his undergraduate research beyond the confines of the trenches, exploring the impact of war not only on soldiers but also the caretakers who worked to heal their wounds and reintegrate them into civilian society.
	Derek Burk (Ph.D., U.S. History) MA, History, University of Indianapolis, 2025; BA, History and AYA Education, Wilmington College, 2019. Email Derek is a veteran native to Ohio. His primary interests center around U.S. military history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Derek’s previous graduate research focused on the Civil War era, including studies of a Union soldier’s individual experience in the broader context of the Civil War's Atlanta Campaign and the development of Catholic Education in the United States.
	Luke Bynum (M.A. & Ph.D. Military History) MA, Public Service Administration, Texas A&M University, 2018; BA, Political Science, Texas A&M University, 2018. Email Luke is a PhD student with a focus on U.S. Army history, with a special research interest in past models of conscription and mobilization. His prior graduate research focused on emerging criminal threat trends in the Houston region. Luke is a Texan native hailing from Houston Texas. Since graduating from Texas A&M University in 2018 he has served on active duty in the U.S. Army, including four years in the Field Artillery and the Adjutant General Corps with assignments at Fort Riley, Fort Jackson, Fort Cavazos, and rotational deployments to South Korea and Poland. Upon completion of his degree at Southern Miss, Luke will be an Academic Instructor in the History Department at The United States Military Academy at West Point.
	Gaines Cleveland Jr. (M.A., History) B.A., History, University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park, 2022. Email Gaines is a master's student from Gulfport, Mississippi, and is focusing on nineteenth- and twentieth-century military history, particularly the development of tactics and doctrine. His prior research has examined the command decisions, doctrine, and organization that have shaped the conduct of wars involving the United States, Britain, and other English-speaking nations. At USM, he is working under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest, with Dr. Heather Stur and Dr. Kyle F. Zelner serving on his committee. His thesis topic is currently under consideration. Upon completing his degree, Gaines hopes to continue his study of human conflict, with doctoral work among his aspirations.
	Daniel Driss (Ph.D., U.S. History) MS, Organizational Leadership, Columbus State University, 2019; BA in History, Northern Arizona University, 2012. Email Daniel is a PhD candidate focusing on US Army history, specifically army cavalry and armor formations. At USM, he is working under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest. 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. Daniel is currently serving as an academic instructor in the History Department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, teaching the Superintendent’s Capstone Course on Officership.
	Daniel Fratini (Ph.D., Military History) MS, History, Texas A&M – Texarkana, 2024, BS, Criminal Justice, Westfield State University, 2001. Email A student of military history, Daniel is entering his first year in the PhD program at Southern Miss. Daniel intends to focus on U.S. Army intelligence gathering, successes, and failures under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest. Daniel worked as an adjunct instructor of History at Texas A&M–Texarkana. While there he received 2nd place in the PLACE (Program for Learning and Community Engagement) graduate paper awards for his paper, “A Collapse of Arms: Mexican Military Failure During the Mexican War,” and 2nd place in the Bennie Walthall Graduate History Paper Contest for his paper, “The Crusades and Western European Naval Ascendancy.” Daniel was also a recipient of the Summer 2025 Faculty Seminar at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Daniel has published a book review for De Rei Militari, the Society for Medieval Military History.
	Nicholas Gadimoh (PhD, African History) MA, History, Nigerian Defense Academy, 2021; BA, History and International Studies, Ambrose Alli University (Nigeria), 2016. Email Nicholas is an international student from Nigeria pursuing a PhD in African History. His research focuses on African military history, particularly military training institutions and the Nigerian Civil War. Before joining Southern Miss, Nicholas contributed to a major research initiative on the Nigerian Civil War in the Department of History and War Studies at the Nigerian Defence Academy, where he conducted oral history interviews with Civil War veterans as part of the conflict's fiftieth anniversary commemoration. He is working under the direction of Dr. Bafumiki Mocheregwa. In 2026, Nicholas received an ASMEA Research Grant for his co-authored paper, "Expanding the Battlefield: Cross-Boundary Military Operations in the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970," which he will present at the Nineteenth Annual ASMEA Conference in Washington, D.C..
	Makenzie Gibson (MA, History) BA, History Education, University of Jamestown, 2026. Email Makenzie is a master’s student from Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Jamestown in May 2026, where she majored in history and education. Makenzie’s primary research interest is on the Vietnam War. Her undergraduate senior research paper, “Service and Honor: Air Force Veterans and Airpower in the Vietnam War,” examined the significance of airpower during the war and the perceptions of the use of air power by U.S. Air Force veterans.
	Cole Givens (MA, History) BA, History Secondary Education, University of Southern Mississippi, 2025. Email Cole Givens is a master’s student from Franklin County, Mississippi. He completed a BA in History (Social Studies Education) at the University of Southern Mississippi in the fall semester of 2025 and did his student teaching at Franklin County Middle and High School that fall. Cole is planning to research the lead-up to the American Civil War with Dr. Laura Mammina, with a focus on plantation owners in the state of Mississippi.
	Alexandria Heitz (MA, History) BA, History, Georgia Southern University, 2025. Email Alexandria Heitz is a Master's student from Atlanta, Georgia, who graduated from Georgia Southern University in May of 2025. At GSU, she majored in history and minored in anthropology. She assisted in the research, curation, and production of the exhibit, "More than a Name: Commemorating Bulloch County’s African American Fallen Soldiers of the First World War." Her senior research project explored the John Paul Jones Papers in GSU's Special Collections to delve into the lives of soldiers from Georgia and the role Georgia played in the Spanish-American War. Her main area of interest is the Vietnam War. In her paper titled "Resounding Dissent: Women’s Dissent on the Homefront for the American War in Vietnam,” she pursued research regarding women’s dissent on the homefront and the profound impact their protest had on United States policy and future movements led by women.
	Sarah Anne Hogue (PhD, U.S. History) MA in U.S. 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. Email Sarah is a PhD candidate at USM, whose interests focus 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 the effect that 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. From 2023 to 2026, Sarah was the Pat and Jean Welsh Dale Center Graduate Fellow. She is also the Project Director of the Dale Center's 103rd Infantry Division Digital Humanities Project.
	Riley Houston (MA, History) BA, History, Millsaps College, 2022. Email Riley Houston is an Master’s student from Madison, Mississippi, who graduated magna cum laude from Millsaps College, where she majored in history with a minor in anthropology. Her undergraduate honors project, “Civil War Nurses and the Cult of True Womanhood,” examined female nurses during the American Civil War and the ways in which they inverted Antebellum gender ideology. For her Master's thesis, Riley plans to examine the ways in which the backlash to women's antiwar movements in America have contributed to women's rights being restricted in the post-war era. Riley is working under the direction of Dr. Laura Mammina.
	Jala Johnson (MA, History) BA, History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2026. Email Jala is a first-year master's student from Philadelphia, Mississippi. She graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she majored in history (social studies licensure) with a minor in political science. Jala’s undergraduate Honors Thesis, “The Kennedy Image: How Film and Media Reconstruct Historical Legacies,” examined how historical legacies evolved or were reinterpreted over time. Her thesis evaluated how the media created the legacy of President John F. Kennedy and his nuclear family during his presidency from 1960 to 1963, and how contemporary on-screen adaptations have reshaped that legacy to fit modern-day cultural contexts. Her main area of interest is presidential history with an emphasis on presidential leadership and decision-making during the Cold War.
	Caleb Lead (PhD, History) MA, World History, SUNY College at Brockport, 2022; BA, History, Saint John Fischer College, 2019. Email Caleb is a PhD student from East Palmyra, New York. His research focuses on British Special Operations Executive agents deployed to the Balkans during World War II. Caleb is interested in drawing connections between this type of military service and the uniquely pro-colonial political afterlives common among special forces veterans. Caleb is working under the direction of Dr. Katya Maslakowski.
	Andrew Leib (PhD in Military History)  MA in History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2026; BA in International Studies, Virginia Military Institute, 2016 Email Andrew is PhD candidate currently completing his dissertation while assigned as a History and War Studies Department instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Andrew's dissertation centers on the comparative study of US corps-level formations highlighting US doctrine and command in the First World War. He works under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest. Captain Leib is a native of Pennsylvania and a 2016 Distinguished Military Graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. He is an active-duty US Army military intelligence officer with previous assignments in South Korea,  Fort Stewart, Georgia;  Fort Jackson, South Carolina; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and Fort Polk, Louisiana.
	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. Email 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. In 2022-2023, Justin completed a historical research fellowship with the U.S. Army's Center for Military History in Washington, DC.
	Allen McQuade (PhD, US History) MA, History, Central Washington University, 2026; BA, Liberal Studies, Viterbo University, 2002. Email Allen is a Wisconsin native and a first-year PhD student studying under the direction of Dr. Andrew Weist. While at Central Washington University, Allen wrote a thesis titled “Mission and Tactics of the 416th Air Combat Group,” which won the department prize for “Thesis of the Year.” This work analyzed the contribution of tactical bombers in the advance of Allied ground forces in northwest Europe during WWII. As a doctoral student, Allen plans to study the relationship between the development of US Army Air Corps air strategy and innovations in the private sector and how it influenced aircraft development in the Interwar years.
	John Nall (PhD, History); MA, History, Florida Atlantic University, 2023; BA, History, Florida Atlantic University, 2019 Email John is a native Floridian and PhD student with a research focus on 20th century global military history, especially World War II, through the cultural perspective of combatants and non-combatants. His MA thesis, “Flying with Wings of Determination: British, Soviet and American Women Pilots during World War II,” analyzed Allied forces’ women pilots and argued that they flew in specialized, and sometimes militarized, female aviation groups during World War II. At Southern Miss, he plans to focus on the cultural implications of the decline of the British Empire on British soldiers during World War II. He is working under the direction of Dr. Katya Maslakowski. In June 2025, John was a fellow of the National World War II Museum’s Faculty Seminar in World War II History.
	Ella Rodriguez (MA, History) BA Political Science with History Minor, University of Southern Mississippi, 2025. Email Ella Rodriguez is a Master’s student from Chesterton, Indiana, who graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in December of 2025. At USM, she majored in Political Science and minored in History. Her senior research paper on foreign aid used Joseph Nye’s definition of soft power to help support her argument that foreign aid is an indispensable aspect of soft power and cannot be forgotten in foreign policy doctrine. For her Master’s thesis, Ella plans to study the history of executive foreign policy from the end of the Truman administration through the Nixon administration. Ella is working under the direction of Dr. Heather Stur.
	Christian Singletary PhD (U.S. History); MA, War and Society, University of Southern Mississippi, 2025. BA, History, minor in Political Science, Louisiana State University of Alexandria, 2023. Email Christian graduated with a major in history and a minor in political science from Louisiana State University of Alexandria in 2023 and an MA in War and Society from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2025. His MA thesis, “Riders on the Storm: American Exceptionalism, Masculinity, and Frontierism in the 28th Division “Over There,” 1917-18,” examined American ideologies in practice through the training and combat experiences of the Pennsylvania National Guard in World War I. As a doctoral student, Christian plans to continue researching the experiences, ideologies, and memory of citizen soldiers in the Great War under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest.
	Jenny Traweek (PhD, U.S. History) MA in American History and Government, Ashland University, 2020; MEd in Education, Northwestern State, 2014;  BA in History, Louisiana State University, 2007. Email Jenny is a PhD student focusing on early American history and the Civil War. Her MEd thesis focused on teaching the Federalist Papers at the middle school level. She was born and raised in Northern Louisiana. She was a 2016 James Madison Fellow representing the state of Louisiana. Jenny has been a history teacher for nineteen years and is currently teaching US History, World Geography, Dual Enrollment Western Civilization, and AP Human Geography at St. Martin High School in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. She plans to write her dissertation on the Civil War period, focusing on the South.
	Abel Ugwu PhD (African History) MA, War & Society, University of Southern Mississippi, 2025; BA, History, University of Nigeria Nsukka, 2021. Email Abel is from Enugu, Nigeria. He earned his BA in History and International Studies from the University of Nigeria Nsukka in 2021 and his MA in War and Society from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2025. His MA thesis, "Colonial Policing in Nigeria: British Tactics of Economic Control and the Hypocrisy of Order, 1900–1930," examined how British colonial authorities used policing as a coercive instrument to consolidate imperial rule and facilitate economic exploitation in Nigeria. As a PhD student in African History under Dr. Bafumiki Mocheregwa, his research continues to examine policing as a critical institution of state power, with a particular focus on the Nigerian Civil War and the intersections of policing, war, science, and technology.
	Brian Washam (PhD, U.S. History) MA, History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2022; BA, History, University of Oklahoma, 2019. Email Brian is from Vinita, Oklahoma and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi. He received his BA in History from the University of Oklahoma and his M.A. in history from the University of Southern Mississippi. Brian's Master's thesis examined at the motivation of Vietnam veterans to return to Vietnam as tourists and their experiences during their trips. As a Ph.D. student, Brian is interested in exploring the ways that Vietnam veterans may have fostered improvements in international relations between the US and Vietnam in the aftermath of the conflict by returning to Vietnam on good-will missions. He is working under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest.
	Jeremy Westbrook (MA, History) BA History and Anthropology, University of Southern Mississippi, 2025 Jeremy is a first-year master's student from Puckett, Mississippi. He attended the University of Southern Mississippi as an undergraduate, where he graduated Cum Laude with majors in history and anthropology, and a minor in religion. As a graduate student at USM, he plans to focus on the history of the Vietnam War and Vietnamese relations with the west, working under the direction of Dr. Heather Stur.
	Dallas Williamson (MA, History) BA, History and English, University of Southern Mississippi 2023. Email Dallas is a Master’s student focusing on British and American War and Society from 1870 – 1950. Her current research focus is centered on the active role of American and British women in World War I, both on the home front and abroad. She is working under the direction of Dr. Andrew Wiest. Dallas’s senior undergraduate capstone project at USM concerned the impact of WWII on the community of Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as how its home front experience differed from that of the continental United States.
	James Witkoski (PhD, U.S. History) MA, History, Rowan University, 2022; Certificate of Graduate Studies in Holocaust and Genocide Education, 2022; BA, History, Rowan University, 2017. Email James is a PhD candidate from Marlton, NJ. He attended Rowan University where he earned both his BA and MA in History, as well as a Certificate of Graduate Studies in Holocaust and Genocide Education. Most of his early research has focused on Polish-Jewish relations during World War II. As a doctoral student, James is researching the disconnect in the chain of command in the U.S. Army from a bottom-up perspective during the Vietnam War, and how after-action reports and other intelligence was altered as it went up the chain of command (preferably from the company level upwards). Based on this flawed intelligence, James hopes his research will make clear if divisional and other military commanders were hindered in their ability to adequately plan and respond to what was happening at the tactical level. James is studying under the direction of Drs. Heather Stur and Andrew Wiest.