Recent Ph.D.s and Placements
Summer 2024
Grace Song
Dissertation: Representing U.S.-Korea Relations, 1871-1923
Placement: Notre Dame 5+1 postdoctoral fellow
Hüsamettin Şimşir
Dissertation: Mechanisms of Ottoman Conquest and Expansion in the Balkan Peninsula/Greece in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Placement: Abdul Aziz al-Mutawa Visiting Fellow, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Oxford, England
Spring 2024
Chester David Carlson
Dissertation: The Transformation of the Slave Trade in Virginia, 1770-1830
Placement: Notre Dame 5+1 postdoctoral fellow
Melissa Coles
Dissertation: Dirt, Water, and the Search for Healing: The Contested Histories of Indigenous-Catholic Holy Sites in the North American West, 1810-2022
Placement: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame
Sarah Crane (Peace Studies and History)
Dissertation: Between Genocide and Justice: Postwar Trials and the Construction of the Holocaust, 1945-1998
Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Judaic Studies, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH
Lauren Hamblen
Dissertation: Missionary-Citizenship: Neighbor, Nation, and Globe in American Protestant Childhood from the Great War to the Cold War
Heather Lane
Dissertation: Policing America: Patrolling the Streets and Controlling the Public, 1832-1916
Julie Mullican
Dissertation: Thank You for Your Kindness: Conservatorships and the Transformation of Legal Disability in Cook County, 1905-1945
Placement: Notre Dame 5+1 postdoctoral fellow
Hannah Peckham
Dissertation: American Outposts: Rethinking U.S. Higher Education Abroad, 1908-1972
Placement: Pre-Award Program Manager, Notre Dame Research, University of Notre Dame
Khan Shairani (Peace Studies and History)
Dissertation: Reviving Muslim Knowledge Traditions: Shāh Walī Allāh Dihlawī and 18th century Trans-national Knowledge Networks, 1703-1762
Placement: Peace Corps volunteer, Indonesia
Erica Snader
Dissertation: Patronage, Reform, and Prayer: Female Religious Communities in Late Medieval and Early Modern Munich
Placement: Registration and Curriculum Assistant, School of Information, University of Michigan
Edward Trofimov
Dissertation: Priests, Confessors, and Flock in the Middle Byzantine Period (8th-12th centuries): Social Regulation and Daily Life in the Mirror of Provincial Penitentials and Apocalyptic Sermons
Summer 2023
Anthony Gaspar
Dissertation: “Prey of All Nations”: Diplomacy and Empire During the Reign of Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259–1282)
Placement: Adjunct Instructor, College of Charleston, Charleston SC
Jorge Puma Crespo
Dissertation: “The Only Correct Line”: A Transnational History of French Maoism in Catholic Mexico During the Late Sixties
Placement: Assistant Professor of History, Hope College, Holland MI
Ana Sánchez Ramírez
Dissertation: Violentology: Expert Knowledge and Government Peacebuilding in Late 20th Century Colombia
Placement: Docente de Cátedra, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
Emily Smith
Dissertation: Sanctifying Pregnancy: Motherhood and American Catholicism, 1930–1981
Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor, Albion College, Albion MI
Tomás Valle
Dissertation: Socratic Learning in Lutheran Germany: Philosophy, Religion, and Politics in the Life of Johannes Caselius (1533–1613)
Placement: Postdoctoral scholar, University of Hamburg, Germany
Spring 2023
Janice Gunther Martin
Dissertation: Unburdening the Beasts: The Equine Doctors of Early Modern Castile
Noe Pliego Campos
Dissertation: Crises, Rights, and Futurity: Youth in 1980s Mexico City
Placement: Assistant Professor of History, Wabash College, Crawfordsville IN
Istvan Szepesi
Dissertation: Unspoken Accommodations: A Century of Religious Coexistence in CatholicCologne, 1517–1617
Placement: Postdoctoral fellow, Institute for European History, Mainz, Germany
Summer 2022
Susanna De Stradis
Dissertation: Making Democracy Safe for Religion: The Catholic Argument for the “Nation Under God” (1939–1965)
Placement: Assistant Professor of History, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State MS
Ian Van Dyke
Dissertation: Evangelical Multiculturalism in the Age of Fracture: U.S. Missionaries and Evangelicals’ Search for Diversity and Social Justice, 1974–2010
Placement: Visiting Professor of History, Grand Valley State University, Allendale MI
James P. Breen
Dissertation: Fighting the Roman Corporation: How the American Protective Association Combined Anti-Catholicism and Antimonopolism in Gilded Age America
Placement: Part-Time Lecturer, Social and Historical Studies, University of Washington, Tacoma WA
Spring 2022
Jessica Brockmole
Dissertation: Pink Cars and Pocketbooks: How American Women Bought Their Way into the Driver’s Seat
Placement: Independent Writer
Raymond Drause
Dissertation: “In Word and Deed”: Exiled Siberian Decembrists as Servants of the Russian Empire, 1826–1860
Placement: Visiting Researcher, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland
Fall 2021
Esteban Alfaro Salas
Dissertation: Making Portuguese Colonial Governance: Slavery, Forced Labor, and Racial Ideology in the Interior from Benguela, 1760-1860
Placement: Lecturer (equivalent to assistant professor) in African History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Anna Holdorf
Dissertation: A Harvest for Heaven and Earth: Agricultural Missionaries and the Religious Roots of U.S. International Development in Latin America
Placement: Rating Veterans Service Representative, U.S. Veterans Benefits Administration, Milwaukee WI
Nelia (Martsinkiv) McCaw
Dissertation: Unlikely Dissenters: Origins and Development of the Ukrainian Human Rights Movement from Khrushchev to Gorbachev
Summer 2021
Anna Fett
Dissertation: Peace Education for the World: People-to-People Programs, American Youth, & U.S. Power, 1939-1961
Placement: Assistant Professor of Peace Studies and Black Studies, University of Missouri, Columbia MO
Sejoo Kim
Dissertation: American Postcolony: Imperial Citizenship and the Rise of Garment Metropolis in the Pacific, 1944-1999
Placement: Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Studies Education, Gyeongin National University of Education, Incheon, South Korea
Spring 2021
Nicholas Roberts
Dissertation: A Sea of Wealth: Sayyid Saʿid bin Sultan, His Omani Empire, and the Making of an Oceanic Marketplace
Fall 2020
Bry Martin
Dissertation: Court Dusk, Country Dawn: The Ideological Formation of the First Earl of Shaftesbury
Placement: Attorney at law, Dover-Foxcroft ME
Chris Temple
Dissertation: Fostering Elite Science at an American Catholic University: The Rise of a Research Culture at the University of Notre Dame, 1842-1967
Placement: Academic Support Program Director, Center for University Advising, University of Notre Dame
Summer 2020
Andrea Castonguay
Dissertation: “Have You a Clear Authority?” Dynasties, Da’was, and the Rise of Islamic States in Medieval Morocco
Placement: Assistant Professor of Ancient History, Western New England University, Springfield MA
Ashley Foster
Dissertation: Scotland’s Age of Reckoning: British Union and Enlightenment on a Covenanted People
Placement: Program Manager, Honors College Dean's Office, University of Alabama, Birmingham AL
Spring 2020
Eve Wolynes
Dissertation: Migrant Mentalities: Reconstructing the Community Identity and World of Venetian Merchants in the Late Medieval Mediterranean
Placement: Special Collections Curator, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS
Philip Byers
Dissertation: How Firm the Foundation: The Lilly Endowment and American Christianity, 1937-1989
Placement: Halbrook Chair of Civic Engagement, Taylor University, Upland IN
Carla Villanueva
Dissertation: The Politics of Repressive Education Reform: The Institutional Relationship between the Secretaría de Educación Pública and Escuelas Normales Rurales in Mexico During the Cold War
Placement:Union Organizer, United Auto Workers
Anna Vincenzi
Dissertation: Imagining an Age of Revolution? Interpretations of the American Revolution in the Italian States, 1765-1799
Placement: Assistant Professor in Modern European History, Hillsdale College
John Nelson
Dissertation: The Geography to Command a Continent: Native Peoples, Europeans, and the Chicago Portage
Placement: Assistant Professor in Early American History, Texas Tech University
Nicholas Bonneau
Dissertation: Unspeakable Loss: New England's Invisible Throat Distemper Epidemics, 1735-1775
Placement: Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Health, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster PA
Fall 2019
Jillian Plummer
Dissertation: Saving Latin America: Catholic Sisters, Communism, and Liberation theology, 1946-1985
Placement: Assistant Professor of Catholic Studies, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield CT
Natalie Sargent
Dissertation: Peculiar Positions of Power: Laywomen as "Good Americans" and "Good Catholics," 1854-1907
Placement: Faculty Award Program Director, Provost Office, University of Notre Dame
Summer 2019
Suzanna Krivulskaya
Dissertation: Disgraced: How Sex Scandals Transformed American Protestantism, 1832-1988
Placement: Assistant Professor of History, California State University San Marcos
Danae Jacobson
Dissertation: Spiritual Geographies: How Nuns Changed the U.S. West
Placement: Assistant Professor of History, Colby College, Waterville ME
Taras Karaulshchikov
Dissertation: A History of Georgian Scientific Intelligentsia: The Case of the Nikoladze Family 1860-1981
Christopher (Chris) Flanagan
Dissertation: Empire Remade: Refining Empire in the American Revolution, 1774-1795
Placement: Research Facilitator, Faculty of Humanities Administration, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Dylan LeBlanc
Dissertation: The Empire in Chains: British ‘Government Men’ in the Atlantic Slave Trade
Placement: Social Science teacher, Oak Lawn Community High School, Oak Lawn IL
Andrew Mach
Dissertation: Claiming America: Irish Catholic Memory and the Nation, 1865-1925
Placement: Associate Director for Advising Operations, Newnan Academic Advising Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Spring 2019
Jonathan Riddle
Dissertation: Prospering Body and Soul: Health Reform, Religion, and Capitalism in Antebellum America
Placement: Assistant Professor of History, Seaver College, Pepperdine University, Malibu CA
Heather Stanfiel
Dissertation: Imperial Heritage: Empire and Commemoration in Pre-Independence Ireland
Aurelio Valarezo-Dueñas
Dissertation: Para el bien universal y quietud de esta república y provincia: Political Culture, Representation and Policy Making in Seventeenth-Century Northern Andes
Fall 2018
Elizabeth Baker
Dissertation: “More Romance than Reality”: Mary Carpenter, 'Native Gentlemen,' and Female Education Reform in India
Placement: Assistant Professor of Modern European History, Grove City College, Grove City PA
Jessica Fisher
Dissertation: The Rise and Fall of the Ribbonmen: Ribbonism in Ireland and Abroad, c. 1810-1858
Garrett Fontenot
Dissertation: Voluntarism and Imperial Supremacy: Politics and the Military Establishment in the Expansion of the British Empire in French North America, 1760-1775
Placement: Director of Scholarship Programs, Clemson University Honors College, Clemson SC
Yin Liu
Dissertation: Teaching the Secunda Lex: Deuteronomy and Church Reform at Lyon in the Age of Charlemagne
Placement: Associate Professor, School of History, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
John Shanley
Dissertation: Catholic Freedom, Protestant Slavery? Reconsidering Anti-Catholicism in Maryland, 1688-1776
Kathryn Vidrine
Dissertation: Belief in Power: Building a National Church of Ireland, 1660-1689
Placement: Assistant Director of Doctoral Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Summer 2018
Maria Cecilia Ulrickson
Dissertation: “Esclavos que fueron” in Santo Domingo, 1768-1844
Placement: Assistant Professor of American Church History, Catholic University of America, Washington DC
Spring 2018
Jairo Campuzano Hoyos
Dissertation: The Quest for Material Progress in Global Perspective: Colombia 1840s-1900s
Placement: Profesor Titular, Eafit University, Medellin, Colombia
Bethany Montagano
Dissertation: Sites of Slavery: Gender, Race and Tourism in the Construction of America's Slavery Memory
Placement: Director of University of Southern California Museums, Los Angeles CA
Felicia Moralez
Dissertation: From Immigrants to Citizens: Mexicans and Settlement Houses in Gary, Indiana, 1919-1965
David Morris
Dissertation: Apocalypse Now or Later: The Manuscript Tradition of the Super Prophetas (Super Essaiam) of Pseudo-Joachim of Fiore
Placement: Director of the Souvay Memorial Library at Kenrick Glennon Seminary, St. Louis MO
James Strasburg
Dissertation: God's Marshall Plan: American Protestantism and the Democratization of Germany, 1910-1963
Placement: Associate Professor of History, Hillsdale College MI
Alexander Wimberly
Dissertation: Present Witness: The Confession of 1967 and the Travails of Presbyterians in American Society
Placement: Leader of the Corrymeela Community (Northern Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organization), Belfast, Northern Ireland