History Graduate Students
Meet our department's gradaute students and learn more about their work.
The History Graduate Student Association (HGSA) is a vibrant graduate student community. Learn more about current HGSA officers and an annual graduate student conference in Student Association page.
JeMiah Baht Israel
Graduate Assistant, History
JeMiah Baht Israel is a first-year Doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of Cincinnati. She is a proud recipient of the John C. Court Archaeological Fellowship from 2020-2022 which contributed to the completion of a MA in Anthropology with a focus on the Archaeology of the African Diaspora/Plantation Archaeology.
The focus of her MA thesis (Critical Race Theory and Enslavement at the Dinsmore Plantation) is the enslavement of Africans and African Americans at the Dinsmore Plantation in Boone County, Kentucky. JeMiah’s research used archival records and archaeological methods to examine enslavement from the perspective of those who were enslaved. The purpose of this research is to give a voice to those who were enslaved on the Dinsmore plantation and to advocate for the importance of educating the community about the history and truth of what took place at this site.
Ultimately, JeMiah’s goal is become a tenured professor in African American History with a research focus on the period of the enslavement of African and African Americans. It is also her fervent hope to use doctorate education in History to help resolve contemporary problems that plague the African American community.
The focus of her MA thesis (Critical Race Theory and Enslavement at the Dinsmore Plantation) is the enslavement of Africans and African Americans at the Dinsmore Plantation in Boone County, Kentucky. JeMiah’s research used archival records and archaeological methods to examine enslavement from the perspective of those who were enslaved. The purpose of this research is to give a voice to those who were enslaved on the Dinsmore plantation and to advocate for the importance of educating the community about the history and truth of what took place at this site.
Ultimately, JeMiah’s goal is become a tenured professor in African American History with a research focus on the period of the enslavement of African and African Americans. It is also her fervent hope to use doctorate education in History to help resolve contemporary problems that plague the African American community.
Nicholas David Brown
History
Chris Dylan Ellingwood
Graduate Assistant, History
Ph.D. Student
Field: 19th Century US
Currently researching the development of mental institutions following the Civil War.
Field: 19th Century US
Currently researching the development of mental institutions following the Civil War.
Shepherd Aaron Aaron Ellis
Graduate Assistant, History
My name is Shepherd Aaron Ellis, and I am a history Ph.D. student at the University of Cincinnati. My research focuses on how the natural environment impacted early modern societies and how mutable the natural world was in the early modern period. I have published on the natural history of alchemy and unicorns and am currently researching sheep and peafowl in the seventeenth century.
As a public historian, I was interviewed by Lucy May of 97.1 WXVU Cincinnati’s NPR Station and by Eddie and Rocky of 700 WLW Cincinnati’s News Radio to provide historical context during Elizabeth II’s death and Charles III’s coronation, respectively. My CV contians links to each my interviews and to my publications.
As a public historian, I was interviewed by Lucy May of 97.1 WXVU Cincinnati’s NPR Station and by Eddie and Rocky of 700 WLW Cincinnati’s News Radio to provide historical context during Elizabeth II’s death and Charles III’s coronation, respectively. My CV contians links to each my interviews and to my publications.
Joseph Solomon Eskin
Graduate Assistant, History
Joseph Eskin is an M.A. student in History at the University of Cincinnati, focusing on the American Jewish experience and Jewish-Evangelical relations. He graduated with a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan, where he also studied Secondary History and Math Education. Before beginning graduate study, he worked as a high school teacher and grade dean in Deerfield, Illinois, and New York.
Andrew M Houghtaling
Graduate Assistant, History
Andrew is in his first year of the M.A. program in History. His research focuses on German-American involvement in the American Civil War, focusing on Cincinnati Germans. A 2004 graduate of the University of Cincinnati's program in German Literature, Andrew is the founding member of The Ninth Ohio: A Living History, a local cultural heritage program that explores the experiences of German-Americans in the Civil War era through living history and interpretation.
Emma N Hynes
Mx., History
Emma Hynes is a first year MA student in the University of Cincinnati's history department. For her undergraduate degree in history, she also attended the University of Cincinnati, graduating with distinguished honors.
Their undergraduate capstone, "Not Your Mother's Birth Control: A History of Vasectomy Services, Inc.," examined the success of Vasectomy Services, Inc., a small vasectomy clinic in Cincinnati open from 1970 to 1984, and what this single clinic could reveal about the history of birth control for all genders in Cincinnati. This research cemented Emma's focus in Cincinnati history, specifically how gender, sexuality, race, and class have impacted the city over time.
Emma currently works with the Ohio Lesbian Archive as a volunteer in many capacities. She finds this work extremely rewarding as it allows her to use her experience with historical research and archievs to help the message of the Ohio Lesbian Archives reach a larger audience. In the future, she hopes to continue her work with archives to perform research, public eduction, outreach, and more.
Their undergraduate capstone, "Not Your Mother's Birth Control: A History of Vasectomy Services, Inc.," examined the success of Vasectomy Services, Inc., a small vasectomy clinic in Cincinnati open from 1970 to 1984, and what this single clinic could reveal about the history of birth control for all genders in Cincinnati. This research cemented Emma's focus in Cincinnati history, specifically how gender, sexuality, race, and class have impacted the city over time.
Emma currently works with the Ohio Lesbian Archive as a volunteer in many capacities. She finds this work extremely rewarding as it allows her to use her experience with historical research and archievs to help the message of the Ohio Lesbian Archives reach a larger audience. In the future, she hopes to continue her work with archives to perform research, public eduction, outreach, and more.
Theodore Francis Jansen
Graduate Assistant, History
Theodore Jansen is a first-year master’s student in history at the University of Cincinnati focusing on American labor movements at the turn of the twentieth century. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 2022 with a bachelor’s in history, and during his undergraduate years worked as a research assistant to Dr. Theresa Leininger-Miller in the department of Art History studying depictions of fruits and vegetables on early twentieth century American sheet music. He is a teaching assistant for Dr. David Stradling’s course “Cities in American History” in the fall 2022 semester.
Michael Kilmore
Graduate Assistant, History
Michael Kilmore is a first year master student in History with a concentration in Public History at the University of Cincinnati. He received his BA in History graduating summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 2022. His research interest is the history of Cincinnati. He is the Teaching Assistant for Dr. David Stradling in the Environmental Activism class in the fall of 2022. Kilmore won the Lenore F. McGrane Prize for the most Promising Student U.S. History from the Department of History at U.C. in the spring of 2022.
David Harry Lawson
Graduate Assistant, History
David Lawson is a first year M.A. student in History at the University of Cincinnati with a concentration in World History. His research interests involve the history of European imperialism and the history of China, with a specialization in the Qing dynasty and the Late Imperial period. He graduated with a B.A. in History from Allegheny College. Upon graduating from Allegheny, he received the Harold Huntley Haine Prize in History in recognition of his academic career, as well as his undergraduate thesis titled Western Non-State Actors in the Taiping Civil War, 1860-1864.
Jonathan Gregory Manhardt
Graduate Assistant, History
Jonathan Manhardt is a second year master student in History at University of Cincinnati. He received his BA in History graduating summa cum laude from Thomas More University in 2021. His research interest is the history of the Spanish Empire. He is the Teaching Assistant for Dr. Wayne Durrill in the United States History I class in the fall of 2023. Jonathan earned the Sister Mary Philip Trauth SND Award-Most Outstanding Graduate in History and Outgoing Senior in Lambda Sigma Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta awards in spring 2021 and the Nancy Bruns Scholarship for Excellence in History in the spring of 2019 from the Department of History at Thomas More University.
Erena Nakashima
Graduate Assistant, History
Erena Nakashima is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in 20th-century US history and public history, focusing on the intersection of race, memory, and public space. Her dissertation examines the evolution of Black public history during the late twentieth century, examining the sustained efforts of Black Americans to collect, preserve, interpret, and highlight their historical experiences within public institutions.
Disha Ray
Graduate Assistant, History
Disha Ray was a Masters student in the Department of History at University of Cincinnati and graduated in 2024. Before joining to UC, she completed her Bachelors in History from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi in 2022. Her research interests lie in modern South Asian History, history of medicine, colonialism and social hierarchies. For her Master’s thesis, Disha worked on the history of pregnancy and childbirth practices in colonial South Asia with a focus on the issues of reproduction intersecting with medical science, caste, race and population politics. She intends to explore healthcare politics in the context of communalism, nationalism and colonialism and analyse how imperial legal and moral legacies impacted post-colonial policies and shaped people's reproductive destinies.
Mary C Redmond
History
Mary Redmond is a first-year history master's student at University of Cincinnati, with a concentration in public history. Her research focuses on the integration of museums and other public history sights with homeschool culture and curriculum. She is also interested in how pop culture media shapes public perception of historical events.
Anthony R. Russomanno
Graduate Assistant, History
Anthony is a Ph.D. candidate of American history and holds undergraduate degrees in history and political science, as well as an M.A. in American history. His research interests lie within the realm of U.S. immigration, race, and the politics of whiteness during the 19th and early-20th centuries. Currently, Anthony's research deals with the subject of anti-Italian violence in New Orleans as a lens for exploring the broader experiences Italian immigrants within the rigid racial structure of the American South between the 1870s and 1890s.
Brittney Lynn Smith
Graduate Assistant, History
7148 EDWARDS 1 Edwards Center
Michael F Stevens
Graduate Assistant, History
BA History, Indiana University
BA Film, and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
Summa Cum Laude
Graduate Certificate, Film, and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
Summa Cum Laude
Michael earned a BA in History from Indiana University, and a BA in Film and Media Studies from the University of Cincinnati, graduating in 2022 with Summa Cum Laude honors. He completed a Graduate Certificate in Film and Media Studies with Summa Cum Laude distinction in 2023, also from the University of Cincinnati. Michael's professional background encompasses roles as a journalist, photojournalist, and designer, complemented by a commitment to mentoring within the DAAP program. His research focuses on the confluence of African-American labor and media, with a particular emphasis on the Pullman Company Porters, their depiction in film, and their impact on Black Cinema.
BA Film, and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
Summa Cum Laude
Graduate Certificate, Film, and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
Summa Cum Laude
Michael earned a BA in History from Indiana University, and a BA in Film and Media Studies from the University of Cincinnati, graduating in 2022 with Summa Cum Laude honors. He completed a Graduate Certificate in Film and Media Studies with Summa Cum Laude distinction in 2023, also from the University of Cincinnati. Michael's professional background encompasses roles as a journalist, photojournalist, and designer, complemented by a commitment to mentoring within the DAAP program. His research focuses on the confluence of African-American labor and media, with a particular emphasis on the Pullman Company Porters, their depiction in film, and their impact on Black Cinema.
Megan Elizabeth Westermeyer
Graduate Assistant, History
Megan Westermeyer is a first year Masters student studying public history, and the intersection of pop culture and politics in American History. She graduated cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 2022 with a Batchelors in History. She also graduated with certificates in European Studies, Museum Studies, and Historic Preservation. She was one of the Spring 2022 recipients of the Hilda Smith Prize for the Best Essay/Paper in Women's History given by the UC History Department.
For her Masters thesis, she is looking at when collegiate marching bands in Ohio decided to admit women as members, in which roles women were allowed to serve in at which times, and how those decisions correspond with various social movements in 20th century American History.
For her Masters thesis, she is looking at when collegiate marching bands in Ohio decided to admit women as members, in which roles women were allowed to serve in at which times, and how those decisions correspond with various social movements in 20th century American History.
JeMiah Baht Israel
Graduate Assistant, History
JeMiah Baht Israel is a first-year Doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of Cincinnati. She is a proud recipient of the John C. Court Archaeological Fellowship from 2020-2022 which contributed to the completion of a MA in Anthropology with a focus on the Archaeology of the African Diaspora/Plantation Archaeology.
The focus of her MA thesis (Critical Race Theory and Enslavement at the Dinsmore Plantation) is the enslavement of Africans and African Americans at the Dinsmore Plantation in Boone County, Kentucky. JeMiah’s research used archival records and archaeological methods to examine enslavement from the perspective of those who were enslaved. The purpose of this research is to give a voice to those who were enslaved on the Dinsmore plantation and to advocate for the importance of educating the community about the history and truth of what took place at this site.
Ultimately, JeMiah’s goal is become a tenured professor in African American History with a research focus on the period of the enslavement of African and African Americans. It is also her fervent hope to use doctorate education in History to help resolve contemporary problems that plague the African American community.
The focus of her MA thesis (Critical Race Theory and Enslavement at the Dinsmore Plantation) is the enslavement of Africans and African Americans at the Dinsmore Plantation in Boone County, Kentucky. JeMiah’s research used archival records and archaeological methods to examine enslavement from the perspective of those who were enslaved. The purpose of this research is to give a voice to those who were enslaved on the Dinsmore plantation and to advocate for the importance of educating the community about the history and truth of what took place at this site.
Ultimately, JeMiah’s goal is become a tenured professor in African American History with a research focus on the period of the enslavement of African and African Americans. It is also her fervent hope to use doctorate education in History to help resolve contemporary problems that plague the African American community.
Nicholas David Brown
History
Chris Dylan Ellingwood
Graduate Assistant, History
Ph.D. Student
Field: 19th Century US
Currently researching the development of mental institutions following the Civil War.
Field: 19th Century US
Currently researching the development of mental institutions following the Civil War.
Shepherd Aaron Aaron Ellis
Graduate Assistant, History
My name is Shepherd Aaron Ellis, and I am a history Ph.D. student at the University of Cincinnati. My research focuses on how the natural environment impacted early modern societies and how mutable the natural world was in the early modern period. I have published on the natural history of alchemy and unicorns and am currently researching sheep and peafowl in the seventeenth century.
As a public historian, I was interviewed by Lucy May of 97.1 WXVU Cincinnati’s NPR Station and by Eddie and Rocky of 700 WLW Cincinnati’s News Radio to provide historical context during Elizabeth II’s death and Charles III’s coronation, respectively. My CV contians links to each my interviews and to my publications.
As a public historian, I was interviewed by Lucy May of 97.1 WXVU Cincinnati’s NPR Station and by Eddie and Rocky of 700 WLW Cincinnati’s News Radio to provide historical context during Elizabeth II’s death and Charles III’s coronation, respectively. My CV contians links to each my interviews and to my publications.
Joseph Solomon Eskin
Graduate Assistant, History
Joseph Eskin is an M.A. student in History at the University of Cincinnati, focusing on the American Jewish experience and Jewish-Evangelical relations. He graduated with a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan, where he also studied Secondary History and Math Education. Before beginning graduate study, he worked as a high school teacher and grade dean in Deerfield, Illinois, and New York.
Andrew M Houghtaling
Graduate Assistant, History
Andrew is in his first year of the M.A. program in History. His research focuses on German-American involvement in the American Civil War, focusing on Cincinnati Germans. A 2004 graduate of the University of Cincinnati's program in German Literature, Andrew is the founding member of The Ninth Ohio: A Living History, a local cultural heritage program that explores the experiences of German-Americans in the Civil War era through living history and interpretation.
Emma N Hynes
Mx., History
Emma Hynes is a first year MA student in the University of Cincinnati's history department. For her undergraduate degree in history, she also attended the University of Cincinnati, graduating with distinguished honors.
Their undergraduate capstone, "Not Your Mother's Birth Control: A History of Vasectomy Services, Inc.," examined the success of Vasectomy Services, Inc., a small vasectomy clinic in Cincinnati open from 1970 to 1984, and what this single clinic could reveal about the history of birth control for all genders in Cincinnati. This research cemented Emma's focus in Cincinnati history, specifically how gender, sexuality, race, and class have impacted the city over time.
Emma currently works with the Ohio Lesbian Archive as a volunteer in many capacities. She finds this work extremely rewarding as it allows her to use her experience with historical research and archievs to help the message of the Ohio Lesbian Archives reach a larger audience. In the future, she hopes to continue her work with archives to perform research, public eduction, outreach, and more.
Their undergraduate capstone, "Not Your Mother's Birth Control: A History of Vasectomy Services, Inc.," examined the success of Vasectomy Services, Inc., a small vasectomy clinic in Cincinnati open from 1970 to 1984, and what this single clinic could reveal about the history of birth control for all genders in Cincinnati. This research cemented Emma's focus in Cincinnati history, specifically how gender, sexuality, race, and class have impacted the city over time.
Emma currently works with the Ohio Lesbian Archive as a volunteer in many capacities. She finds this work extremely rewarding as it allows her to use her experience with historical research and archievs to help the message of the Ohio Lesbian Archives reach a larger audience. In the future, she hopes to continue her work with archives to perform research, public eduction, outreach, and more.
Theodore Francis Jansen
Graduate Assistant, History
Theodore Jansen is a first-year master’s student in history at the University of Cincinnati focusing on American labor movements at the turn of the twentieth century. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 2022 with a bachelor’s in history, and during his undergraduate years worked as a research assistant to Dr. Theresa Leininger-Miller in the department of Art History studying depictions of fruits and vegetables on early twentieth century American sheet music. He is a teaching assistant for Dr. David Stradling’s course “Cities in American History” in the fall 2022 semester.
Michael Kilmore
Graduate Assistant, History
Michael Kilmore is a first year master student in History with a concentration in Public History at the University of Cincinnati. He received his BA in History graduating summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 2022. His research interest is the history of Cincinnati. He is the Teaching Assistant for Dr. David Stradling in the Environmental Activism class in the fall of 2022. Kilmore won the Lenore F. McGrane Prize for the most Promising Student U.S. History from the Department of History at U.C. in the spring of 2022.
David Harry Lawson
Graduate Assistant, History
David Lawson is a first year M.A. student in History at the University of Cincinnati with a concentration in World History. His research interests involve the history of European imperialism and the history of China, with a specialization in the Qing dynasty and the Late Imperial period. He graduated with a B.A. in History from Allegheny College. Upon graduating from Allegheny, he received the Harold Huntley Haine Prize in History in recognition of his academic career, as well as his undergraduate thesis titled Western Non-State Actors in the Taiping Civil War, 1860-1864.
Jonathan Gregory Manhardt
Graduate Assistant, History
Jonathan Manhardt is a second year master student in History at University of Cincinnati. He received his BA in History graduating summa cum laude from Thomas More University in 2021. His research interest is the history of the Spanish Empire. He is the Teaching Assistant for Dr. Wayne Durrill in the United States History I class in the fall of 2023. Jonathan earned the Sister Mary Philip Trauth SND Award-Most Outstanding Graduate in History and Outgoing Senior in Lambda Sigma Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta awards in spring 2021 and the Nancy Bruns Scholarship for Excellence in History in the spring of 2019 from the Department of History at Thomas More University.
Erena Nakashima
Graduate Assistant, History
Erena Nakashima is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in 20th-century US history and public history, focusing on the intersection of race, memory, and public space. Her dissertation examines the evolution of Black public history during the late twentieth century, examining the sustained efforts of Black Americans to collect, preserve, interpret, and highlight their historical experiences within public institutions.
Disha Ray
Graduate Assistant, History
Disha Ray was a Masters student in the Department of History at University of Cincinnati and graduated in 2024. Before joining to UC, she completed her Bachelors in History from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi in 2022. Her research interests lie in modern South Asian History, history of medicine, colonialism and social hierarchies. For her Master’s thesis, Disha worked on the history of pregnancy and childbirth practices in colonial South Asia with a focus on the issues of reproduction intersecting with medical science, caste, race and population politics. She intends to explore healthcare politics in the context of communalism, nationalism and colonialism and analyse how imperial legal and moral legacies impacted post-colonial policies and shaped people's reproductive destinies.
Mary C Redmond
History
Mary Redmond is a first-year history master's student at University of Cincinnati, with a concentration in public history. Her research focuses on the integration of museums and other public history sights with homeschool culture and curriculum. She is also interested in how pop culture media shapes public perception of historical events.
Anthony R. Russomanno
Graduate Assistant, History
Anthony is a Ph.D. candidate of American history and holds undergraduate degrees in history and political science, as well as an M.A. in American history. His research interests lie within the realm of U.S. immigration, race, and the politics of whiteness during the 19th and early-20th centuries. Currently, Anthony's research deals with the subject of anti-Italian violence in New Orleans as a lens for exploring the broader experiences Italian immigrants within the rigid racial structure of the American South between the 1870s and 1890s.
Brittney Lynn Smith
Graduate Assistant, History
7148 EDWARDS 1 Edwards Center
Michael F Stevens
Graduate Assistant, History
BA History, Indiana University
BA Film, and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
Summa Cum Laude
Graduate Certificate, Film, and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
Summa Cum Laude
Michael earned a BA in History from Indiana University, and a BA in Film and Media Studies from the University of Cincinnati, graduating in 2022 with Summa Cum Laude honors. He completed a Graduate Certificate in Film and Media Studies with Summa Cum Laude distinction in 2023, also from the University of Cincinnati. Michael's professional background encompasses roles as a journalist, photojournalist, and designer, complemented by a commitment to mentoring within the DAAP program. His research focuses on the confluence of African-American labor and media, with a particular emphasis on the Pullman Company Porters, their depiction in film, and their impact on Black Cinema.
BA Film, and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
Summa Cum Laude
Graduate Certificate, Film, and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
Summa Cum Laude
Michael earned a BA in History from Indiana University, and a BA in Film and Media Studies from the University of Cincinnati, graduating in 2022 with Summa Cum Laude honors. He completed a Graduate Certificate in Film and Media Studies with Summa Cum Laude distinction in 2023, also from the University of Cincinnati. Michael's professional background encompasses roles as a journalist, photojournalist, and designer, complemented by a commitment to mentoring within the DAAP program. His research focuses on the confluence of African-American labor and media, with a particular emphasis on the Pullman Company Porters, their depiction in film, and their impact on Black Cinema.
Megan Elizabeth Westermeyer
Graduate Assistant, History
Megan Westermeyer is a first year Masters student studying public history, and the intersection of pop culture and politics in American History. She graduated cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 2022 with a Batchelors in History. She also graduated with certificates in European Studies, Museum Studies, and Historic Preservation. She was one of the Spring 2022 recipients of the Hilda Smith Prize for the Best Essay/Paper in Women's History given by the UC History Department.
For her Masters thesis, she is looking at when collegiate marching bands in Ohio decided to admit women as members, in which roles women were allowed to serve in at which times, and how those decisions correspond with various social movements in 20th century American History.
For her Masters thesis, she is looking at when collegiate marching bands in Ohio decided to admit women as members, in which roles women were allowed to serve in at which times, and how those decisions correspond with various social movements in 20th century American History.