Current Graduate Students
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Jackson Andress
PhD Student - email
Education: BA in History, BA in International Studies from the University of Central Arkansas (2018), MA in History from the University of Arkansas (2023)
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Early Modern Europe, Renaissance and Early Modern Venice, Mediterranean Cultural History, Frontiers and Borderlands, Interfaith Studies, Naval History, History of Magic, Art History
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
Luke Betzner
PhD Student - email
Education: B.S. Interdisciplinary Studies Maranatha Baptist University M.A. Theology/History Wayland Baptist University Ph.D. (IP) Late Antique/Early Medieval Pagan/Christian Identities
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Late Antique/Early Medieval, Latin, Old Norse, Early German Ecclesiology, Early Christian Studies, Early Monasticism, Greek Patrology, Eastern Christianity, Western Christianity, Early Martyrology, Gothic, Gothic People, Early Arian Christianity, Early Church Heresies, Early Colonial Massachusetts (17th century), and Post-WWII US Occupied Germany
Selah Cantwell
MA Student - email
Education: BA, University of New Mexico, Political Science and History (summa cum laude), Honors Designation
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S./U.S. West, 18th-19th century Europe, Public Health and Medical History, Reproductive History, History of Religion, Intersection of Religion and Politics
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; gender; Cold War. My dissertation looks at the development of beauty salons in Chile between 1959 and 1998 – the women who owned them, the women who worked there, and the women they served – in order to explore the ways in which changes in political and economic structures affected small businesses, female labor, and the national economy. Estudio los salones de belleza en Chile entre los años 1959 y 1998 – las dueñas, las trabajadoras, y las clientas – para explorar cómo los cambios económicos y políticos afectaron a las pequeñas empresas, el trabajo de las mujeres y la economía nacional.
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
Lauren Coghlan
MA Student - email
Education: History B.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Medieval European History, the Apocalypse, death, and religion in the Middle Ages. My bachelor's thesis, "Judgement and Doom: Apocalyptic Anxiety and Rhetoric in Anglo-Saxon England," examines the rhetorical and theological expressions of apocalyptic concern in Anglo-Saxon writing from the ninth century into the tenth and eleventh. It can be accessed at the University of Southern Mississippi's institutional repository: Click here to access..
Eli DeBurger
MA Student - email
Education: Education: B.A. in History & Political science from Indiana University Southeast (2023)
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: 20th century Latin America, Revolutionary and Postrevolutionary Mexico, transnational radical rightism and fascism, Social history of rightist movements.
Katie Despeaux
PhD Student - email
Education: Education: BA French and BA Psychology, Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland; MS Clinical Psychology, Loyola University Maryland; MA French and Francophone Studies, University of New Mexico; MA History, University of New Mexico
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Medieval Europe, particularly France and the western Mediterranean; Histories of Reproduction, Gender, and Rulership; Dissertation research focuses on elite women’s embodiment of pregnancies as a form of power
Mitchell Freedman
PhD 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), MA in History, University of New Mexico (2026)
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.
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: Late-medieval European history, the Black Death, and greater themes of historical trauma, societal crisis, death and dying, religion, saints and their relics, art history, and culture.
Nicholas Hillard
MA Student - email
Education: BA, University of New Mexico, 2026
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: US West
Eric Hobart
PhD Student
Education: BA (History and Political Science) - University of New Mexico MA (History) - Indiana University
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Eric's research interests are varied, but primarily center around 20th century United States history with a focus on foreign relations and American imperialism. His research on the Reagan administration's war on drugs in Bolivia during the 1980s formed the basis for his thesis, titled "Miami Vice to Law 1008: America's War on Drugs Extends to Bolivia." His future research will be centered on America's foreign policy/relations that led to the American Empire in both the 19th and 20th centuries - with a focus on South East Asia and Latin America. Other areas of research interest include legal history - primarily the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), including the administrative functions of the court; immigration from Asia to the United States; emigration from America to SE Asia; the rise of Conservatism/Neoliberalism.
Alexis Hobart
MA Student - email
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: 19th-20th century America, queer studies and how that reflects public reactions through methods such as language and legal documents
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
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.
Ron MacNeil
PhD Student - email
Education: BAFA University of New Mexico magna cum laude, MEd Saint Michael’s College, MA University of Vermont.
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S. History, Russian/Soviet History, World War II, Military Psychiatry, Art History.
Madeline Mallindine
MA Student - email
Education: B.S. in History (summa cum laude), Black Hills State University, 2025
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Modern Latin America, Health and Medicine, Madness and Mental Illness, Intellectual History My undergraduate research analyzed the development of psychiatry in Argentina in the early 20th century. It was published by Cornell University's Ezra's Archives. You can find the article here: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/items/1e3ae075-29de-4651-a897-4066a5ff294c
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.
Edrea Mendoza Quintero
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A. Louisiana State University, History, B.A. University of Denver, History
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Dissertation Title: Planificar es cuestión de querer": Federal Family Planning in Mexico, 1970s–1980s" Latin America; 20th Century Latin America; Cold War; Mexico; State Making; Reproductive Choice; Family Planning; Sex Education
Carlos Moya-Rubio
MA Student - email
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.
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
Jéssica Pereira
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A. in Latin American Studies (with distinction), University of New Mexico. M.Sc. in Materials Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. B.Sc. in Physics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: My research explores topics including the political mechanisms that contributed to the social construction of domestic work as a “feminine” occupation predominantly assigned to poor and nonwhite women in 20th-century Latin America. Additionally, I examine the ways in which domestic workers have resisted these structures by organizing collectively via unions and fighting for labor rights—on par with those of other professions—especially during authoritarian regimes in 20th-century Brazil. I am also interested in the historical contributions of African and Afro-Brazilian peoples to Brazilian political, economic, religious, social, and cultural life, particularly in 19th- and 20th-century Rio de Janeiro and Bahia. I also have other interests, which include gender roles in independence movements and in 20th-century Latin American states; women’s biographies; Catholic and Afro-Catholic brotherhoods from colonial to republican Brazil; Liberation Theology; social movements in 20th-century Latin America; the history of science and medicine; Indigenous and Afro cosmology in the Americas; feminist theories; decolonial and participatory research methods; and oral history.
Marisa Pickett
PhD Student - email
Education: B.A. German with a minor in Microbiology, Texas State University, 2018 M.A. German, University of New Mexico, 2021, M.A. History University of New Mexico 2024
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
Adam Polk
PhD Student - email
Education: : BA in History, Western Michigan University (2010), MA in Geography, Western Michigan University (2012), Graduate Certificate Program In Geographic Information Science (2012), Western Michigan University
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Early Modern Europe, Early Modern France, Politics and Economy, Geography
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: (Mashgaléńde) U.S./U.S. West. My primary research examines the intersections of Indigenous identity formation, gender, kinship, and community formation by students in U.S. federal Indian boarding schools during the early 20th century. Other research interests include historical research and pedagogical methodologies informed by Critical Indigenous and Native American Studies, education and curriculum history of the United States, student print culture, and student resistance.
Teresa Rodriguez Sotelo
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A Latin American Studies, CSULA; B.A Spanish Studies and Latin American Studies, UCSC; AA Spanish Literature, ELAC.
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: My interests are the implications of human rights violations throughout Latin America, emphasizing Mexico. Including the visualization and exposure of the underlying systemic and human factors that have led to the use of violence as a form of terror and repression in social movements in Mexico since the 1960s. Other interests: Cold War, Cristero War, Military Intervention, Disappearances, Social Justice, U.S. intervention in Latin America, Women in Student Movements.
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
Simon Ruybalid
MA Student - email
Education: Bachelor of Arts, UNM 2024
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Latin America
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
Hadas Segal
PhD Student - email
Education: M.A. Tel Aviv University, History; B.A. Tel Aviv University, History and Literature.
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Disabilities Studies; Labor History; Queer History; History of Medicine; Social and Cultural History; Intellectual History. I am interested in all the ways in which unequal and social relations, for which gender was a major signifier, were updated and remodeled to shape the needs of the state, the economy, and the social order and thus made possible, or impossible, women's mobilization of across the political spectrum during the 19th and 20th centuries in Latin America. I am especially drawn to pioneering women in Latin American history and their narratives, as I seek to answer how they inserted themselves into the public discourse. Currently, I focus on the three Uruguayan Luisi sisters, Paulina, Clotilde, and Luisa, who became pioneers in fields previously barred to members of their gender at the beginning of the 20th century.
Jonathan Seyfried
PhD 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, Public History, Emerging Technologies in Public History, History Education, Historiography, Late Medieval Iberia, History of Domestic Cats, History of the 1947 Roswell Incident.
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.
Abigail Swanson
PhD Student - email
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Abigail Swanson is a Ph.D. candidate in the History department, a Center for Regional Studies Fellow, and the associate editor at the New Mexico Historical Review. Her studies focus on nineteenth and twentieth-century reproduction and gender in the American Southwest. Abigail was a GA for one year in the History department. She is currently working on research for her dissertation. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington, Abigail wrote encyclopedic entries for BlackPast.org. After graduating with a BA in History from the University of Washington in 2013, Abigail took over a decade off of school and participated in community activism, community event planning, and artistic endeavors including performance art, music, and writing poetry. She also started a small vintage clothing company focused on circular fashion and sustainability. She has two wonderful chihuahuas named Ripley and Wayne.
Ryan Swardson
MA Student - email
Education: Bachelor of Arts in United States History, University of New Mexico
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: My academic interests focus on the evolution of U.S. military history across key eras and their impact on political and global dynamics. This includes the formative conflicts of early America, such as the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Mexican-American War, which shaped the nation's foundational military identity. I am also deeply engaged in the study of modern U.S. military and political history, particularly the Cold War era and its influence on global military strategy and political alliances. Additionally, I explore U.S. involvement in Latin American revolutions and contemporary political and military interactions in the region, examining how these engagements reflect and shape broader geopolitical trends.
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
Leilani Torres
MA Student - email
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education, Concentration in Social Studies - University of New Mexico
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: U.S. West & Borderlands Women’s History, Indigenous Peoples of Latin America including Taino people of the Carribean, Latin American Political Systems (Modern & Historical), Religion in Latin America (Espiritismo, Santeria, Curanderismo, Brujería, and Mexican Folk Religion), History of Obstetrics , Mental Health, and reproductive health in the U.S.
Camilla Torres
MA Student - email
Education: BA, University of New Mexico, 2026
Area and Thematic Fields/Interests: Hello! My research interests are in political analysis through a historical lens, with a focus on the medieval world to 1500. I enjoy looking at how historical memory influences political trends and identities across cultures. My main thematic interests are Europe to 1500, Middle Eastern History, Economic and Political Analysis, Prophecy, as well as Paleography and Codicology. I especially enjoy analyzing how prophetic discourses shape political realities and perceptions of power. In my time away from research and teaching, I enjoy writing fantasy works, helping my fiancé run our medieval-themed bakery business, and reading science fiction.
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.
