News Research

April 8, 2015 at 12:31 pm

History Department Students Win Awards and Fellowships

The Department of History is pleased to announce that a number of its undergraduate and graduate students have been selected for a variety of awards, fellowships, and other honors. Committed to academic rigor, professional development, and community engagement, the department takes great pride as advisers and as faculty members in the accomplishments of these and all of its students.

Bentley AnnexTwo undergraduate students received Fulbright awards. Nick Koehling ’15, an undergraduate double major in History and German, received a 2015-16 Fulbright English Teaching Award to Germany. Hannah Abrahamson ’15, an Honors Tutorial College undergraduate major in Spanish and minor in History, received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Research Award to Spain. The award was based on research she conducted under the supervision of Dr. Mariana Dantas.

Two undergraduate students received admission into graduate programs. Abrahamson was accepted into the Ph.D. programs in Colonial Latin American history at both the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Emory University. James Gresock, an undergraduate major in History, was accepted into the M.A. program in history at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Gresock is an advisee of Dr. Miriam Shadis.

Guy Aldridge, M.A. candidate (Class of 2015), received a 2015 Summer Research Assistantship for Graduate Students from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He will be assisting in a variety of the museum’s research projects and conducting his own research. Aldridge successfully wrote and defended his M.A. thesis under the supervision of Dr. Mirna Zakic. Titled, “Forgotten and Unfulfilled: German Transitions in the French Occupation Zone, 1945-1949,” Aldridge’s thesis explores print media, Catholicism, and coming to terms with the Nazi past in the French-occupied zone in Germany immediately after the end of World War II.

Tyler Esno, Ph.D. candidate in U.S. foreign relations history, won the Baker Peace Fellowship for work on his dissertation. Provisionally titled, “Trading with the Enemy: The Reagan Administration and the Economic Cold War,” Esno’s dissertation project is under the the supervision of Dr. Chester Pach.

Adam Givens, Ph.D. candidate in U.S. military history, received a Dissertation Fellowship from the U.S. Army Center of Military History. In addition, he received a Student Enhancement Award from the Ohio University Council for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity. Givens will utilize these awards to conduct further research for his dissertation, which he is working on under the supervision of Dr. Ingo Trauschwiezer. Provisionally titled, “On the Wing: Army Aviation from the Cold War to the Present Day,” Givens’ dissertation explores military innovation in war and peacetime, tracing the interplay of technology and doctrine in the evolution of Army aviation. His project also considers civil-military relations in the permanently mobilized national security state and its military-industrial complex.

Luke Griffith, Ph.D. candidate in U.S. history, received a Student Enhancement Award from the Ohio University Council for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity.

Andrea Howard, M.A. candidate (Class of 2016) in the social, cultural, and gender history of modern Germany, received a Student Enhancement Award from the Ohio University Council for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity. She will be utilizing this award to fund her research at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and subsequently present her findings at a conference. Howard’s thesis project, which is under the supervision of Dr. Zakic, examines court records to narrate and analyze the history of foreign, gay men from Eastern and Western Europe whom the Nazi regime prosecuted for homosexual activity.

Matt Johnson, Ph.D. student in U.S. and modern military history, was selected to join the RAND Corporation as a research associate for a 12-week program this summer. Studying under the supervision of Dr. Trauschwiezer, Johnson’s research interests focus on adjustments and applications in tactical airpower (U.S. Air Force) in the era of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In addition, Johnson won a 2014-15 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the College of Arts & Sciences.

Lance Poston, Ph.D. candidate in U.S. LGBT and women’s history, received one of two annual research grants from the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. The grant will enable him to be in residence at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA, during May 2015. Poston also received the Ohio University Doctoral Student Leader of the Year Award, an honor bestowed by a committee made up of OHIO faculty and staff, which selects the awardee from a pool of doctoral students nominated by the OHIO community. Poston’s dissertation project is supervised by Dr. Katherine Jellison and explores the intersection of race, religion, and sexuality in the United States from the 1890s to the 2010s. He currently serves as a fellow in Ohio University’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.

Heather Salazar, Ph.D. student in modern U.S. and American military history, won the Mark Grimsley Fellowship in Social Media from the Society for Military History. The fellowship includes a stipend and involvement in the society’s social media outreach team.

Steven Wills, Ph.D. candidate in U.S. military history, won first prize an essay contest organized by the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) in Washington. As part of his award, Wills was invited to present his paper on February 26, 2015, as part of the CIMSC’s Forum for Authors and Readers. Wills is an advisee of Dr. Trauschwiezer. His dissertation project explores U.S. maritime strategy at the end of the Cold War and the transition into the post-Cold War world.

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