Current Graduate Students
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Elena Backus Y Herrera
MA Student - email
Education: Bachelor of Arts in United States History from Whittier College, Whittier, California.
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: American West History, Museum Studies
Carter Barnwell
PhD Student - email
Education: BA-The City College of the City University of New York (C.U.N.Y.), Political Science; MA-C.U.N.Y., Modern European History
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Modern Europe; The Spanish Second Republic and Civil War; Intellectual and Cultural History Notable Awards: Fulbright Research Award, 2021-2022; Latin American and Iberian Institute (LAII) PhD Fellow, 2019-2020; LAII PhD Fellow, 2022-2023
Gina Benavidez
PhD Student - email
Education: MA-Georgia Southern University, History MAT-Armstrong State University, Secondary History BA-University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, History and Humanities
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Modern Europe, Spanish Civil War-Interwar Period, Gender and Sexuality, Politics and Antifascism
Rachael Cassidy
PhD Student - email
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Rachael Cassidy is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History where she specializes in Indigenous history and methodologies, urban Native history, memory studies, oral history, and public history. She was the first Native person to serve as the Managing Editor of the New Mexico Historical Review during the journal’s 95-year publication history. Her dissertation explores the social history of Native residents of Washington, D.C., including Indigenous diplomats and their relatives, activists, federal employees, and local tribal nations. Rachael’s background in filmmaking will contribute to an interactive website that will share her research and primary sources with wider audiences. This public history style digital space will include short, edited videos that feature individuals, organizations, and locations. Rachael’s decade of public history experience includes initial educational program development at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington D.C., and living history interpretation at the Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Meghann Chavez
PhD Student - email
Education: : M.A. Florida International University, Public History. B.A. University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, History and Economics
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Modern Latin America, politics and economy. 20th Century Chile; female entrepreneurship; women’s labor; business regulations; gender and beauty standards; women’s political activism.
Jessica Cochran
PhD Student - email
Education: B.A. German and Japanese with minor in Professional Writing, Elizabethtown College/ M.A. German, University of Wisconsin-Madison/ M.A. History, University of New Mexico
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Medieval Europe, Paleography and Codicology, Manuscript Studies, Material Culture, the Animal Turn, Frontiers and Borderlands, Intersections of Magic and Faith, Indigenous History, History Pedagogy, Museum Studies
Janet Coen
MA Student - email
Education: B.A. English Studies University of New Mexico, B.A. History University of New Mexico
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: American West, race relations
Katie Despeaux
PhD Student - email
Education: BA in French and Psychology from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland; MS in Clinical Psychology from Loyola University Maryland; currently dual-enrolled in the French and Francophone Studies MA program at UNM, MA in History at UNM 2023
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Late medieval Europe, especially the Mediterranean and the role royal women played in politics, cross-cultural interactions, and responses to trauma; obedience to sovereignty between the late medieval and early modern periods transition; uprisings and societal changes in these time periods; and the role of art in demonstrating cross-cultural interactions, political upheavals, and responses to trauma
Mitchell Freedman
MA Student - email
Education: BA in Political Science and History at Rutgers University, NJ (1979). JD from California Western School of Law in San Diego, CA (1982)
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: US History/US West, 19th and 20th Century with an interest in the politics, economics, and literature of those centuries.
Stella Gontijo
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A. Social History at Federal University Fluminense (Brazil); bachelors degree in History at Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). Coursing concentrate studies in Southern Epistemologies at Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO - Argentina).
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Fulbright Visting Colleague at UNM History Department, PhD student at Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). Latin America History; Gender Studies; Decolonial / Subaltern Studies; Oral History; Intellectual History; Feminist Studies. Now working on Margaret Randall's Papers Collection at UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections.
Zonnie M. Gorman
PhD Student - email
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Native American/U.S. West, Native Masculinity and War, 20th Century U.S. Military History, WWII
Adam Hamlin
MA Student - email
Education: Bachelors in Secondary Education with Concentration in History from UNM
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: United States History, History in K-12 Education, Influence of Politics on Historical Record and Education
Emily Heimerman
PhD Student - email
Education: Villanova University - M.A. in History (Concentration: Medieval Europe); University of St. Thomas – B.A. in History with a minor in Theology
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Medieval European history (14th century), the Black Death, and greater themes of crisis, trauma, death and dying, religion, material culture, art history, and society.
Louis Huning
MA Student - email
Education: B.A. History University of New Mexico
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S. West
Brett Janos
PhD Student - email
Education: B.A. - History - University of West Florida M.A. - History - University of Texas at Austin J.D. - Litigation - Western Michigan University Cooley Law School
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S. History, U.S. Immigration History, Race and Ethnicity, Immigration Law. Working Dissertation Title: “Americans Face Migration: A Comparative Study of State Immigration Policy by Region, 1865-1925.” Dissertation Adviser: Dr. David Prior
Barbara Korbal
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A. Purdue University, American Studies; B.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison, English and Theatre (Double Major)
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S. History; Gender, Sexuality, Race and Class Formation and Social Protest in the U.S.; Feminist Studies; Archive Theory and Practice
Steven R. Kostelecky
PhD Student - email
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Modern U.S. History: Radio, Politics, and Culture
Ryan Kulcak
MA Student - email
Education: Bachelor of Arts in History from Texas A&M University
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Colonial Latin America/New Spain, race and ethnicity, syncretic African religious practices.
Grace Leishman
PhD Student - email
Education: BA International Studies (Conflict, Peace, & Diplomacy; Europe; Spanish), magna cum laude, minor in History from UNM; MA History, with distinction from UNM
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: United States, twentieth century, the Long and Global 1960s, Black Power, the modern Civil Rights Movement, rock music studies; Race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality.
Richard Maska
PhD Student - email
Education: MA, the University of Chicago (2018) BA, Lewis University (2017) AA, Joliet Junior Collect (2014)
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: North American Borderlands, U.S. and Canadian West, Indigenous History, Gender, Military History, Space and Movement, Capitalism.
John Matthews
MA Student - email
Education: Education: Bachelor of Arts in History, University of New Mexico 2021
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Modern Europe, United States, and Nationalism. Currently researching the teaching of trauma and difficult subjects in the context of modern Irish history.
Dylan Maynard
PhD Student - email
Education: B.A. Monmouth University; M.A. New York University
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Argentina and Central America; Cold War Militaries; International Counterinsurgency Networks; and Gender & Sexuality.
Chase H. McCarter
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A. University of Alabama, History; B.A. University of Alabama, History
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Confederate Expatriation Movement; Nineteenth Century U.S. South; U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction; Transnational History; Affective History U.S. to 1877/Race and Ethnicity
Kathy McCully
MA Student - email
Education: AA in Liberal Arts, AA in Pre-Management, BA in History and Anthropology, BA in Spanish and Chicano Studies.
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U. S. West History, New Mexico History Finishing up my Master's Thesis on 20th Century Abiquiu, New Mexico. It is a oral history work on this small NM town.
Edrea Mendoza
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A. Louisiana State University, History, B.A. University of Denver, History
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Latin America; 20th Century Latin America; Cold War; Mexico; State Making; Reproductive Choice; Family Planning; Sex Education; Dissertation Title: “'Planificar es cuestión de querer': Sex Education, Family Planning, and Women’s Reproductive Health in Cold War Mexico"
Todd Morrison
PhD Student - email
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Historical archaeology, Late Antiquity, Celtic and Germanic peoples, the Early Middle Ages, Medieval and Early Modern Britain, and Eurasian nomads
Ethan Ortega
PhD Student - email
Education: B.S. in Anthropology from Eastern New Mexico University; M.S. in Museum Studies from the University of New Mexico
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S. West; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Communities; Gender and Sexuality; Identity; Cultural History; Oral History; Interdisciplinary Research.
Erin Ostlund
MA Student - email
Education: M. Ed. The College of St. Scholastica; B.S. Spanish Education, B.S. Social Studies Education with emphasis in History, B.A. Latin American Studies, Minor in Political Science, St. Cloud State University
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Modern Latin America, Cold War Latin America, United States and Latin American Relations, Race, Class, and Gender in the United States, Immigration and Migration in the United States
Marcellina Padilla
MA Student - email
Education: BA University of New Mexico Double major in History and Chicano/a Studies
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: 20th century U.S history. Focused primarily on the intersections of social movements, race, ethnicity, and major U.S. involved military conflicts of the 20th century. My area of interest also encompasses modern military history, veterans' lives and experiences, war and society, Mexican-Americans in the U.S. West and Southwest
Zachary Perez
MA Student - email
Education: BA - University of New Mexico (2021) Double Major in History and Political Science, Minor in Classics, with a focus on Latin
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Roman Republic, Early Roman Empire, Anglo-Saxon England, Early Middle Ages in Western Europe, with an interest in Paleography and translating Latin
Marisa Pickett
MA Student - email
Education: B.A. German with a minor in Microbiology, Texas State University, 2018 M.A. German, University of New Mexico, 2021
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Europe 1815-present. Post-1945 history, cultural history, social history, African Diaspora studies, Black history, decolonial studies, gender and sexuality studies, political activism, and forms of resistance. My area of study is the historical presence of Black/People of Color (PoC) in Central Europe, specifically in German-speaking countries. I also study the evolving perceptions of Blackness over time in the greater European context, from colonialism to the present. My thesis for German Studies (2021) unveiled anti-Black rhetoric in the German concept of ‘Heimat’ through investigating the documentary film Roots Germania, historical literature, and scholarly texts. My current thesis is a trans-cultural inspection of Black Art and Activism in Britain and Germany in the 1980s. I hope to utilize this research to combat the antithetical perceptions of European, specifically German, "culture" and question traditional concepts of "belonging" as Black/PoC in a traditionally white space.
Carlyn N. Pinkins
PhD Student - email
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S. since 1877, Race and Ethnicity, 20th Century American Indian History, African -Americans in the Southwest
Andrej Radic
PhD Student - email
Education: B.S. University of California, Chemistry; M.A. San Diego State University, History
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Politics and Economy, War and Society, Race and Ethnicity
Sierra Ramirez
PhD Student - email
Education: MA in History, University of Texas at San Antonio; BA in History, University of Texas at San Antonio
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Western United States; Twentieth-century Indigenous sovereignty, land tenure, borderlands, & resistance; gender; environmental history; decolonial and critical Indigenous methodologies
Mari Rochelle
MA Student - email
Education: University of New Mexico - BA in History and Political Science, National Security and Strategic Analysis Certificate; Community College of the Air Force - AAS in Communications; IC-CAE - Critical Technologies Studies Certificate.
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Drawing on her military experience and undergraduate studies in the history and politics of Cold War and post-Cold War Europe and Russia, including the Impact of NATO expansion on Russia’s relations with the West, Mari's graduate-level focus is Europe’s post-Cold War geopolitical and cultural aftermath into the 21st century; the history of Intelligence Collection and organizations; Aerospace History and Policy (including the gender divide and role of the American West). Mari is concurrently working on a Professional Master of Science in Global and National Security, examining the national security and policy implications of space-based weapons developments, as well as the continued impacts of the Post-Cold War era on political, military, and economic stability in Europe. Mari is an active scholar in UNM’s IC CAE National Security and Critical Technologies Studies Program (NSSP/CTSP).
Gavin Rogers
PhD Student - email
Education: MA History - University of Colorado, Colorado Springs May 2023; Bachelor of Arts History - University of Colorado, Colorado Spring, CO
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Migration and Identity throughout Europe. Prior Managing Editor, The Springs, UCCS Graduate History Journal (2022) Research Assistant, Immersive Global Middle Ages Institute (NEH grant) The Medieval Institute, 2023 Tashjian Travel Award for participation in the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University
Mateus Santos
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A. Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil); B.A. Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil)
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Public history, digital humanities and Latin America. YouTube link to Mateus's channel:youtube.com/MateusMeloHistoria
Jonathan Seyfried
MA Student - email
Education: B.A. in English and Sociology from the University of Michigan; M.A. in Education (Secondary, History) from Stanford University
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Queer History, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Medieval European Cultural History, Late Medieval Iberia, Late Medieval Financial History, Medieval and Early Modern Intellectual History, History of Magic, History of Medicine, Disability Studies, Paleography and Codicology
Angela Stevenson
PhD Student - email
Education: MA History, New Mexico State University; Master's of Secondary Education (M.Ed.), Eastern New Mexico University; BA History, BA Anthropology with a minor in Religious Studies from New Mexico State University
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S. History, Gender. Memory of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.
Benedict Talley
MA Student - email
Education: B.A. in History and East Asian Studies (Japanese Concentration), UNM 2019
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Meiji Era Japan, Late 19th and Early 20th century America, Intellectual History, Transnational History
Jacquelyn Truitt
MA Student - email
Education: Currently dual-enrolled in History and Museum Studies MA programs; BA History and Archaeology, Museum Studies Minor, UNM; AA Anthropology, CNM
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: The Viking Age, medieval Scandinavian and Nordic history, food culture, feasting and ritual, material culture, archaeology, public history, interpretation, collections management, provenance research, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Joseph Ukockis
PhD Student
Education: M.A. Northern Arizona University; B.A. University of Arizona
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Nineteenth century U.S. Southwest and Borderlands; New Mexico history; Native history; colonialism, land, and resistance; bordertowns and policing; interdependence and relationality.
Marie von Haas
PhD Student - email
Education: MA University of Colorado, Denver, Global History, American West BA University of Colorado, Denver , International Studies
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Research interests are focused on the Japanese within broader matrices of the American West and the United States. She also studies U.S. History, World War I & II, Japan’s history, and Immigration. Her M.A thesis drew from the experiences of her mother, a “Japanese War Bride” and herself, an “Occupation Baby” post-WWII.
Taren-Layne Warfield
MA Student - email
Education: BA in History, University of New Mexico, AA in Liberal Arts, University of New Mexico
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: US History, US West. My area of study focuses on the history of people with disabilities in pop culture along with the history of activism for those with disabilities within the United States.
Allison Wheeler
MA Student - email
Education: BA in Spanish and History from Centre College
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Latin America, Immigration and asylum seeking, Andean history, Gender and sexuality
Ariel Wiebe
PhD Student - email
Education: B.A. in history, North Greenville University, M.A. in history, Liberty University
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Twentieth-century U.S. history, with an emphasis on race, ethnicity, citizenship, and the interaction between Western and non-Western cultures.
Kory Williams
PhD Student - email
Education: B.S. Eastern New Mexico University. History major, English minor M.A. Midwestern State University. Concentration: Ancient and Medieval Europe
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Europe in the Early and High Middle Ages; prostitution, human trafficking, cross-cultural and interreligious connections/relationships, gender and sexuality, power, Beyond Exceptionalism.
Cassidy Zachary
PhD Student - email
Education: BFA in Design and Technology, University of New Mexico, MA in Fashion and Textile Studies, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Fashion, Race, Gender, and Embodied Identity; North American Borderlands, U.S. West
