GAADDACE BCDDE=C BDCCEBB · Fellofbhipb & Gaancb } Pg. 14 Meec GAC } Pg. 3. Thib hab been an dndbdallh difficdlc bemebcea. We haee all leaaned nef fahb co calk, co ceach, co faice,

G R A D U A T E S T U D E N T S U C C E S S

M A Y 2 0 2 0 • S P R I N G I S S U E

Grad Student Spotlight • Pg. 4

Spring Awards • Pg. 5

G R E E T I N G S F R O M T H EH I S T O R Y G R A D U A T EA F F A I R S C O M M I T T E EThis academic year has been quite the ride forour graduate students. The year started outwith new graduate initiatives like GraduateStudent Research Luncheons, T-Talks, andFood Truck Fridays to a quick transition online due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Evenwith all of these new challenges, our graduatestudents have stood strong and excelledacademically. Even though we are apart, theHistory Graduate Affairs Committee has puttogether this newsletter to share all of ourgraduate students' success throughout thespring semester. Please join us in recognizingand celebrating our hard-working graduatestudents!

Surviving a Socially DistantSemester • Pg. 2

Spring 2020 Graduates • Pg. 19

Defenses & Comps • Pg. 10

Fellowships & Grants • Pg. 14

Meet GAC • Pg. 3

This has been an unusually difficult semester. We haveall learned new ways to talk, to teach, to write, and todefend dissertations. As a result, I am glad to have thismoment at the end of the semester to remembereverything that we have accomplished this year. We cancelebrate the individual accomplishments as outlined inthis newsletter: dissertations, theses, fellowships,articles, awards, comps, and classes. On top of these, wehave also grown as a community. We had our first everFood Truck Friday, graduate student researchluncheons, and T-talk. We built a formal committee todiscuss the opportunities and concerns facing graduatestudents. As we finish a tumultuous semester, I hopeyou will all join me in thanking the Graduate AffairsCommittee for their tireless work to help our students,to build community, and to celebrate our successes. Wecertainly have more to do, but we have made anincredible start and, importantly, we will move forwardtogether as a team. By far, the best part of this year hasbeen hearing about the vibrant research projects—thesuccesses, the plans, the challenges, the proposals, andeven the in-between “hey, I read yet another book”moments. I have learned about the transfer of culturalconcepts from China, agricultural programs in India,and the reinterpretations of ancient themes in Crusadersources. Thank you for sharing your work with me.Next year, I hope to continue these conversations.Preferably in person. With burgers and ice cream.

THE GRAD BUZZ • SPRING ISSUE

S U R V I V I N G A S O C I A L L Y D I S T A N T S E M E S T E R A N O T E F R O M T H E D I R E C T O R O F G R A D U A T E S T U D I E S

DISTANCE

STRONGER

DISTANCE

STRONGER

- Dr. Alison Vacca, Director of Graduate Studies

MAY 2020 PAGE | 02

Jordan served as aMedievalist representativeand headed the formationof new reading groups inthe department, worked onevents, and the fellowshipand grant list this year.

Alyssa helped form GAC inthe fall and served as aEuropeanist representativeand the committee chair.She led and worked on allGAC initiatives.

Alli served as aEuropeanist representative,she worked on variousGAC events including: T-Talks, research luncheonsand our Food Truck Fridaythis year.

J O R D A NA M S P A C H E R

A L Y S S A C U L P

A L L I S O NJ O H N S O N

Kelsey helped form GAC inthe fall and served as thecommittee co-chair andMedievalist representative.She worked on and helpedlead all GAC initiatives.

K E L S E YB L A K E


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A special thank you to ourDGS, Dr. Vacca, who helpedform GAC in the fall andserved as the History facultyrepresentative on thecommittee this academic year.

D R . A L I S O NV A C C A

Kaitlin served as anAmericanist representativeand worked on the springnewsletter, our facebookpage, and on various GACevents including our T-Talksand research luncheons.

K A I T L I NS I M P S O N

Emma served as anAmericanist representativeand worked on the GAClogo, spring newsletter, andon various GAC eventsincluding our T-Talks and research luncheons.

E M M A T H O M P S O N

MEET THE GRADUATEAFFAIRS COMMITTEE

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G R A D S T U D E N T R E S E A R C H S P O T L I G H T

As a graduate fellow at the UT Humanities Center for 2019-2020, I havebeen working on my dissertation, “A Fine Spray of Blood”: Martyrdom,Violence, and Sacred Landscapes in the Late Antique Mediterranean. Init, I explore historical processes of Christianization in the late-fourthand early-fifth-century Roman Mediterranean. My work focusesspecifically on intersections between memorialized violent martyrdomand cultural conceptions of sacred landscapes, studied primarily throughthe lens of late antique Christian poetry. Thanks to support from aThomas Fellowship, I traveled to Spain in October for dissertationresearch and plan to make a research trip to Italy in the upcoming year.

MINAMI NISHIOKA

My dissertation explores US-Japanese inter-imperial relations beforeWWII by examining how the religious landscape transformed inOkinawa, which was used to be an independent kingdom but forcefullyannexed to Japan in 1879. I am particularly interested in quotidianexchanges among American and Japanese Protestant missionaries and thelocal Okinawans. Since June 2019, I have been conducting archivalresearch in Japan while on the Social Science Research Council (SSRC)Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship. In January 2020,I moved to Okinawa and my research got more exciting as it gave meopportunities to talk to Okinawan Christians whose ancestors were one ofthe first Christians in Okinawa before WWII. They told me about theimportant role played by Okinawan female preachers in binding the localcommunity after 1879. Their stories are relatively unknown in thehistory of Okinawa so I am hoping to highlight them in my dissertation.

This 2019-2020 academic year, I conducted research for mydissertation on the German-Danish borderland of Schleswig-Holstein while on a Fulbright Fellowship in Germany. Myresearch explores the nationality conflict within this regionsurrounding the First World War, with a focus on the 1920Schleswig Plebiscite, a referendum to determine the borderbetween Germany and Denmark. I analyze the campaign toelucidate the arguments made by each side and theconnections to the pre-war debates and the diffusion of U.S.President Woodrow Wilson’s rhetoric to better understand the ideas of self-determination, popular sovereignty, andethnic-based nation-states in the post-war world.

RYAN GESME

LAURA ROESCH

Congratulations to Laura Roesch, the 2020 recipient of theClaude Robertson award for excellence in European History!Laura’s dissertation is a creative and interdisciplinary projectthat contributes to a wide variety of fields, from the transmissionof the Mediterranean’s Classical Latin heritage, to theChristianization of the western Mediterranean, to the study ofviolence in martyrs’ stories, to the use of landscape studies toreimagine history by making place a central agent in the story.She studies the ways in which Latin Christian authors in lateantiquity used stories of violence to heighten local congregants’engagement with their regional landscape and church, and to seethe land around them as indelibly imbued with the memories andblood of earlier Christians’ martyrial struggles.

S P R I N G A W A R D S

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C L A U D E R O B E R T S O N A W A R D F O R E X C E L L E N C E I N E U R O P E A N H I S T O R Y

L A U R A R O E S C H

W I L L I A M A N D E R S O N A W A R D F O R M I L I T A R Y H I S T O R Y

Congratulations to Michael Lynch, the 2020 recipient of the WilliamAnderson award for Military History! Michael’s dissertation explores therelationship between gender norms and military mobilization at the start ofthe American Revolution. He is particularly interested in eighteenth-century ideas about frontier manliness among the Southern colonies. Onefaculty member praised Michael for his work: “Michael maintains that rarecombination of high intelligence and strong work ethic that yieldsexceptional scholarship. He has full command of the literature on gender inearly America. He knows the work on the colonial frontier inside and out.And he can talk about the ins and outs of the military history of theAmerican Revolution. He also produces written work of exceptionalquality.” Another professor acknowledged Michael’s ability to convey hisresearch, explaining that he delivered the best guest lecture in anundergraduate survey class that he ever heard. In this photo, we see himpresenting his work on the Battle of King's Mountain at the AmericanRevolution Symposium at the East TN Historical Society two years ago.Congratulations, Michael!

M I C H A E L L Y N C H

Through this project, Laura not only intervenes in scholarship on the history of Christianization in theLatin West, but she specifically demonstrates the significant role that stories of violence played in thatprocess of making the empire’s places and people more firmly Christian. One faculty member explainedthat “Laura is an excellent scholar – a careful reader, a creative thinker, and a beautiful writer. She isfirmly grounded both in the historical period of her study and in productive methodological discussionsaround violence, literature, and landscapes.” Congratulations, Laura!

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B R Y O N - G R O C E A W A R D F O R P U B L I C H I S T O R Y

Congratulations to Jason Stubblefield for winning the 2020 Bryon-Groceaward for Public History! A graduate of UT History's honor's program,Jason spent much of his senior year familiarizing himself with the theologyof St. Anselm. After time spent at Duke, where he earned an M.Div., andwork in the ministry, he decided to return to Knoxville to pursue a Ph.D.with a focus on liturgy in the Middle Ages. For Jason, this was not a forayinto abstruse intellectual history for its own sake. Rather, he wanted tobetter understand how the experience of ritual in the Middle Ages couldshape religious sensibilities within and far beyond church precincts. Thatis, he wanted to draw connections between the academy and the world. It'snot entirely surprising then, in what sounds like a scene from one of thestrangest film noirs ever made, that when Jason had a chance to acquire abrown paper bag with sheepskin inside it, he thought about how he couldtake advantage of this opportunity to recreate the nitty-grittiest ofexperiences of medieval intellectual life—the creation of parchment onwhich ideas and liturgies were inscribed.

J A S O N S T U B B L E F I E L D

Congratulations to Claire Mayo for winning the 2020 Susan Beckeraward for Excellence in Teaching! Claire's dissertation explores the Parisflood of 1910, assessing how this disaster impacted rural and suburbanareas outside the city. Her analysis of the French government's responseto this crisis is interdisciplinary in its approach, incorporating theoriesand methods developed by anthropologists. Claire is currently completinga research certificate in the Disasters, Displacements, and Human Rightsprogram to help her develop this interdisciplinary approach. In theclassroom, faculty supervisors have praised Claire’s attention to detailand communication.

S U S A N B E C K E R A W A R D F O R E X C E L L E N C E I N T E A C H I N G

C L A I R E M A Y O

One professor noted: “My favorite thing about Claire is her absolute reliability. If she and I agree on sometask, I know without a doubt it will be done and done well by the time we agree on. Claire is alsointellectually adventurous and willing to learn new things--including completely new things. She's a perfectTA.” Another faculty member praised Claire for her pro-active approach. Claire discovered potentialproblems in the classroom and communicated with the students to make sure things ran smoothly: “Claireparticularly impressed me with her prompt responses to students and her willingness to go the extra mile.”Congratultions Claire!

Together with English Lit graduate student Karen Norwood, he devoted time this summer toward thisproject and then sought out ways to communicate what he'd learned to a wider public. A professor whoworks with Jason noted that “Jason is an incredibly generous scholar who has shown remarkable dedicationto the field. It has been a pleasure to observe his intellectual interests unfold as he treads a unique path forhimself in medieval studies.” Congratulations, Jason!

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A W A R D F O R E X C E L L E N C E I N G E N D E R S T U D I E S

Congratulations to Alex Garnhart-Bushakra for winning the 2020 Awardfor Excellence in Gender Studies! Few students have worked as diligentlyand with as much determination as Alex on her dissertation. To take onlyone example, her dream summer sojourn in Paris through Marco's Van HookFellowship was at first delayed by bureaucratic hurdles and then face amore intractable foe still when, upon her arrival in France, the Yellow Vestmovement took over the streets of the capital. Nonetheless, Alex adapted.She chose for her topic the memory of the First Crusade and focused inparticular on the most nightmarish aspect of that nightmarish movement—the experience and celebratory memorialization of violence. Her decision tohighlight issues of gender within that topic was a remarkably brave one. One professor praised Alex’s work across the board: “A careful reader oftexts, an engaged theoretical scholar, a generous colleague, a committedteacher, and a true friend to everyone in her program, it is impossible toimagine a researcher more deserving of departmental recognition.” Anotherfaculty member attested: “My experiences teaching and mentoring Alexhave been nothing short of enriching and rewarding… Alex embracedphenomenological approaches to reading medieval violence and gender thatnot only yielded an outstanding seminar paper, but also have subsequentlyenabled her to develop a ground-breaking dissertation project on theCrusades.” Congratulations, Alex!

A L E X G A R N H A R T - B U S H A K R A

Congratulations to Minami Nishioka for winning the 2020 CharlesJackson award for American History. Minami’s dissertation analyzes thelabors of American and Japanese Protestant missionaries in Okinawaand the role of these missionaries in facilitating imperialism. However,Nishioka is not simply writing a top-down story of imperial relations.Nishioka also deeply explores the work of Okinawa Christiansthemselves—and thereby resists facile assumptions about relationshipsbetween the colonized and their colonizers. Nishioka has a deep recordof professional accomplishment, and is the first doctoral candidate inthe history of the University of Tennessee to earn the prestigious SocialScience Research Council’s Mellon International Dissertation ResearchFellowship, which is supporting her ongoing work in Japanese archives.

C H A R L E S J A C K S O N A W A R D F O R A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y

M I N A M I N I S H I O K A

One faculty member explained that “Minami incorporates American, Japanese, and Okinawan sources,eschewing unidirectional and even binary approaches and summoning a plurality of voices in a project thatgreatly enriches the field of new imperial history. Indeed, her research will speak not only to historians ofthe U.S. and Japan, but also to scholars of international relations, religion, empire, colonial and postcolonialstudies, and Okinawan studies.” Another professor who works with Minami also attested that “Herdissertation represents some of the most cutting-edge work in transnational/imperial/religious history, andpromises to make a significant impact on multiple scholarly conversations.” Congratulations, Minami!

MAY 2020 PAGE | 08


C O M M I T M E N T T O C O M M U N I T Y A W A R D

Congratulations to Alyssa Culp for winning the 2020 Commitment toCommunity award! Alyssa’s dissertation, a study of nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-century regional morgues in Bavaria, promises to make a valuablecontribution to German cultural history and to the history of medicine. Themodern morgue first appeared in the nineteenth century, and the advent ofthese novel institutions in the large cities of Europe has already attractedsignificant attention from historians. The smaller, regional morgues thatAlyssa is studying appeared later than the large, urban institutions thathave received the most scholarly attention so far, and Alyssa's researchexplores how they introduced dramatic changes into ordinary life,substantively altering the rituals surrounding death. Alyssa has been thedriving force in planning events for graduate students in the departmentthis year, including Food Truck Friday, research luncheons, and T-talks.She is a founding member and leader of the Graduate Affairs Committee.She has also been running the UTK History Grad Student Facebook page.

A L Y S S A C U L P

Congratulations to Michael Lovell for winning the 2020 Thomas &Kathryn Shelton Award! Michael’s project asks fundamentally newquestions about how early medieval rationality influenced thedevelopment of European Christianity, while also identifying how earlymedieval Christians regarded those who rejected what they saw as trueand correct religion as irrational, insane sinners. His research has thepotential to transform our understanding of the history of the MiddleAges—not least because it will lay to rest the long-held misunderstandingthat it was only in the later, scholastic period of Thomas Aquinas, forinstance, that reason and logic shaped Latin Christendom. One professordescribed the significance of Michael’s work: “I foresee Michael’sresearch forcing historians at large to rethink their most basicassumptions about Christianity’s intellectual and cultural traditions,putting the first half of the Middle Ages into the spotlight.” Anotherfaculty member attested that “Michael's work and methodology is notonly inherently interesting, but developed in such a way that non-specialists can interact with it. His approach to his medieval topic is donein a way that the conclusions have broader implications for thinkingabout state power in a much broader historical and chronological sense.”Congratulations, Michael!

T H O M A S & K A T H R Y N S H E L T O N A W A R D

M I C H A E L L O V E L L

One faculty member noted that “Alyssa consistently amplifies the work of other students even as she excelsin her own project. She listens to her colleagues and puts significant work into improving communicationwithin the department.” Another professor explained that Alyssa “has been wonderfully creative, constantlyreliable and superb in organization, and has made great contributions to teaching and to public programs.She embodies the term ‘proactive’--by some amazing quality, she anticipates in advance what needs to bedone and accomplishes it!” Congratulations, Alyssa! We appreciate all of your hard work!

Congratulations to Tess Evans for winning the Lee Verstandig award inAmerican history! Tess Evans’ dissertation, “From Native Ground toUnderground: Rival Cultural Landscapes in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Arkansas,” is an excellent example of how to write a new syntheticstory of the North American Southeast. Inspired by her master's thesis onswamps as areas of refuge for African-Americans in the late 19th century, Dr.Evans went back to the 17th century to understand the traces of Europeanexploration and colonization in Native spaces of authority. As people ofEuropean descent gained the upper hand economically, “Native Ground toUnderground” looks from the perspective of archivally-marginalized groups totrace the geographic and experiential effects of multiple transformations on theland--from the rumblings of Atlantic Revolutions, to the expansion of slaveryin the Arkansas Territory, to the waves of migration of American Indians (andsometimes runaway slaves) along the Trail of Tears. Dr. Evans skillfully reimagined the world surrounding the Arkansas Post. Attentive to both the promise andperils of this frontier region, Dr. Evans used a diverse and impressive set of manuscripts, newspapers,fugitive slave advertisements, and maps to argue that American Indians, free people of color, and fugitivesfrom slavery created a radical counter-geography created from below over the course of two centuries. Oneprofessor has praised the vision for her project: “Creatively conceived, archivally grounded, and, deeplyempathetic, Dr. Evans has offered a fresh and provocative interpretation of the Arkansas Post, theMississippi River Valley, and the greater Atlantic world.” Congratulations, Tess!

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L E E V E R S T A N D I G A W A R D I N A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y

T E S S E V A N S

Dr. Julian, who received herM.A. with us in 2010, hasaccepted a new position ofassistant professor of Historyat Westminster College in SaltLake City.

Congratulations to UTK Historyalum Dr. Bradley Nichols, whohas accepted a tenure trackassistant professor position inHistory at the University ofMissouri.

Congratulations to UTK Historyalumna Dr. Katie Kleinkopf, whohas accepted a tenure trackassistant professor position inReligious Studies at theUniversity of Louisville.

D R . K A T H R Y NC A M P B E L L J U L I A N

D R . B R A D L E YN I C H O L S

D R . K A T I EK L E I N K O P F

JOB MARKET SUCCESS

Congratulations to Dr. BradleyPhillis, who has has acceptedan assistant professor positionin History at the University ofSouthern Mississippi, where hewill also coordinate theundergraduate program inSocial Studies Licensure.

D R . B R A D L E YP H I L L I S

D E F E N S E S & C O M P S

MAY 2020 PAGE | 10


DOCTORAL DEFENSES

Congratulations to Dr. Brittany Poe, whosuccessfully defended her dissertation! Brittany'sdissertation, "Teacher and Preacher: Alan of Lilleand Scholastic Theology in Paris," explores thedevelopment of scholastic theology in the schoolsof Paris and their relationship to themulticonfessional environment of southern Francethrough the career of 12th-century theologianAlan of Lille.

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Lynch, who defendedhis dissertation, "'Back Water Men': Gender and theFate of a Revolutionary Coalition on a SouthernFrontier," this semester. Michael’s dissertationexplores the relationship between gender norms andmilitary mobilization at the start of the AmericanRevolution. With his degree, Dr. Lynch will direct theLincoln Museum and work full time as an AssistantProfessor of History at Lincoln Memorial University.

DR. TESS EVANS

Congratulations to Dr. Tess Evans, who defendedher dissertation this semester! Her dissertation,“From Native Ground to Underground: CulturalLandscapes at the Arkansas Post, 1686-1850,”analyzes how diverse groups of people—NativeAmericans, Europeans, and African Americans—carved out spaces for themselves in a small,highly disputed part of early America.

DR. MICHAEL LYNCH

DR. BRITTANY POE

MAY 2020 PAGE | 11


MASTERS DEFENSES

A L L I S O NJ O H N S O N , M . A .

Congratulations to Allison W. Johnson, whosuccessfully defended her Master's Thesis! Herthesis, “Media Representation of Prostitutes in theBritish Empire,” looks at media representations ofprostitutes in the British Empire through theanalysis of photographs, art, and literature.

Congratulations to Susana Kenyon, whosuccessfully defended her Master's Thesis! Herthesis, "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing:Dissimulation in sixteenth-century Castile'sluterano community," explores the role doublelives played in Spanish evangelicals' evasion ofand eventual annihilation by the SpanishInquisition.

S U S A N A K E N Y O N , M . A .

Congratulations to Kaitlin Simpson, who defended herMaster’s Thesis, “Appalachia Abroad: The Universityof Tennessee and Cold War Rural DevelopmentPrograms in India, 1954-1972.” Kaitlin's thesisexamines the work of UTK’s Colleges of HomeEconomics and Agriculture to establish and aid fellowschools of agriculture and home economics in India aspart of U.S. Cold War foreign policy. By analyzing thecultural, political, and gendered connections betweenAppalachia and India, her research helps to blur the

K A I T L I NS I M P S O N , M . A .

divide between the “developed” and the “developing” world in the post-World War IIera. Kaitlin is looking forward to continuing on in the PhD program at UT next Fall.

Congratulations to Emma Grace Thompson whosuccessfully defended her Master's Thesis, 'City of IllRepute: Labor and Sex Work in Knoxville, Tennessee,1890-1914.' Emma's thesis examines sex work asinformal labor during a period of time in which muchof Knoxville's public debate surrounding sex workoccurred. Thompson argues that a public laborawareness engendered by the nearby Coal Creek Warin the early 1890s led to public discussions by locallawmakers, media, and moral reformers thatpositioned sex work as either a regulated industry oras a prohibited crime. These perspectives explore how

E M M A G R A C ET H O M P S O N , M . A .

Congratulations to Alexander Spanjer whoreceived his Master's Degree this semester.During his time at UTK, Alex's research hasfocused on early medieval folklore and beliefsin the supernatural, particularly with regard tobeliefs in supernatural beings such as elves anddemons.

A L E X A N D E RS P A N J E R , M . A .

MAY 2020 PAGE | 12


the informal labor of women in particular can factor into studies of the AppalachianNew South.

M A T TS M I T H , M . A .

Congratulations to Matt Smith, who received hisMaster's Degree this semester. Matt is a second yearPhD student who came to UT with a Masters inTheological Studies from Lee University and aMaster of Theology in Modern Religious Historyfrom Princeton Theological Seminary. Mattspecializes in U.S. History and his dissertationresearch focuses on American religion, particularlythe relationship between religion and politics in20th-century America.

MAY 2020 PAGE | 13


COMPS

A D A M A A R O N , A B D

Congratulations to Adam Aaron, who passed hiscomprehensive exams and is now ABD status!Adam is a third year PhD candidate whospecializes in crusader states and the medievalMediterranean.

Congratulations to Thomas Maurer, who passed hiscomprehensive exams and is now ABD! Thomas is amedieval Italianist whose research focuses onJoachite prophecy of Italian communes in thethirteenth century.

Congratulations to Jason Stubblefield, who passed hiscomprehensive exams and is now ABD! Jason's researchfocuses on the place of religion in the historical thoughtof twelfth-century England. He is particularly interestedin how sacred conceptions of the past, ever present inliturgy and the reading of the Bible, influenced a monkwho was also a prolific historian--William ofMalmesbury.

J A S O N S T U B B L E F I E L D , A B D

T H O M A S M A U R E R , A B D

Congratulations to Jake Nelson, who passed hiscomprehensive exams and is now ABD! Jake is athird year PhD candidate who specializes innineteenth- and twentieth-century Americanreligious history. His research focuses on theintersection of evangelical religion with culture,economics, race, and politics during the GildedAge and Progressive Era.

J A K E N E L S O N , A B D

MAY 2020 PAGE | 14


F E L L O W S H I P S & G R A N T S

UTHC FELLOWS

Congratulations to Jordan Amspacher, who wasawarded the UT Humanities Center DissertationCompletion Fellowship for the 2020-2021academic year. Jordan's research focuses ontwelfth-century conceptions of sacred and saec-ular history and the ways in which historicalideologies affected the progress andmemorialization of the Fourth Crusade.Ultimately, this reinterpretation of the FourthCrusade within the context of contemporaryintellectual thought will demonstrate themalleability of crusading ideology, as well as itsbroader medieval appeal as a tool for therealization of communal identity.

Congratulations to Lorraine Herbon, who wasawarded the UT Humanities Center DissertationCompletion Fellowship for the 2020-2021academic year. Lorraine's research focuses onthe life of Jessie Benton Frémont (1824-1902)and the ways in which she performed the role ofa “public wife” during and after her marriage toJohn C. Frémont. This re-examination of awoman immensely popular in the nineteenthcentury will offer a new way of thinking aboutthe wives of famous men and the steps they tookto both participate in, and direct the narrativeof, American history.

JORDAN AMSPACHER

LORRAINE HERBON

MARCO PUBLIC HUMANITIES FELLOWSHIP

MAY 2020 PAGE | 15


Congratulations to Jason Stubblefield, who wasawarded the Marco Institute for Medieval andRenaissance Studies 2020-2021 Jimmy & DeeHaslam Fellowship in the Public Humanities.During this fellowship, Jason will work in theMarco Institute’s research, teaching, outreach,and educational programming for the public.Jason's dissertation focuses on the place ofreligion in the historical thought of William ofMalmesbury--a twelfth-century English monk-historian. He is particularly interested in howsacred conceptions of time, embodied in liturgyand the reading scripture, influence William'sunderstanding of the past.

JASON STUBBLEFIELD

MARCO HASLAM DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIP

Congratulations to Kelsey Blake, who is therecipient of the Marco Institute for Medieval andRenaissance Studies 2020-2021 HaslamDissertation Fellowship. In her dissertation, "TheExperience of Illness, Healing, and the Body inthe Carolingian World," she argues thatexaminations of historical medicine mustconsider medicine from a historical perspectiverather than a modern perspective. She asks whatit meant to have a body in the Carolingian world,what it meant for that body to become ill, tosuffer, and to die. By challenging the traditionalboundaries of the defined scholarly category ofmedicine, Kelsey's dissertation seeks toilluminate the experience of healthcare and thebody in the Carolingian world.

KELSEY BLAKE

MALCOLM YIYUN HUANG

Congratulations to Malcolm Yiyun Huang, whowas awarded four prestigious fellowships and anAHA research grant! Malcom's dissertation onglobal cultural transfer will root American beliefsabout the health benefits of tea drinking inChinese culture. Malcolm is the recipient of theKate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship, whichwill support a month of research at the AmericanAntiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.Malcolm also received the prestigious OmohundroInstitute Lapidus Predoctoral Short-termFellowship, which supports travel for researchrelated to early American and transatlantic printculture. He also won the Michael Kraus ResearchGrant in American Colonial History from theAmerican Historical Association. Malcolm alsoreceived the Winterthur Museum Fellowship in

GRANTS & AWARDS


MAY 2020 PAGE | 16

Congratulations to Adam Aaron, who was awarded theForeign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship bythe Islamic Studies Program of Indiana University.Adam studies crusader states and the medievalMediterranean and will spend the summer studyingArabic with Indiana University-Bloomington.

ADAM AARON

Delaware and the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Massachusetts Historical Societyin Boston. While at the Massachusetts Historical Society, he will consult colonial NewEngland physicians' accounts to explore the discourse over tea's medicinal usage.During his residency at the Winterthur Museum, Malcolm will use its material culturecollections to study the "social life" of Chinese tea utensils in the American colonies.

Congratulations to Alyssa Culp, who was awardedthe 2020-2021 Fulbright Research Award toGermany and two prestigious grants from theGerman Academic Exchange Service (the DAAD) tosupport her research: a DAAD Short-termResearch Grant and a DAAD German StudiesResearch Grant. Alyssa’s dissertation investigateshow nineteenth-century Bavarians’ cultural andsocial understandings of death, burial, and thecorpse changed with the establishment of themodern morgue. During her time in Germany, shewill visit various state libraries and archives, theGerman Museum for the History of Medicine, andsurviving nineteenth-century morgues to explorethe impact of medical and state intervention onGerman culture and identity.

ALYSSA CULP

MAY 2020 PAGE | 17


GRANTS & AWARDS

Congratulations to Jordan Amspacher, who wasawarded the Marco Institute for Medieval andRenaissance Studies Anne Marie Van HookMemorial Travel Fellowship and the MaryJaharis Center Dissertation Grant. Jordan willuse these grants to conduct research in Munichand Colmar for his dissertation, "Troya Victa:Empire, Identity, and Apocalypse in FrankishChronicles of the Fourth Crusade." Jordan willbe investigating the three extant manuscripts ofGunther of Pairis' Hystoria Constantinopolitanain order to examine contemporary responses toand understandings of the Latin conquest ofConstantinople.

JORDAN AMSPACHER

MAY 2020 PAGE | 18


GRANTS & AWARDS

Congratulations to Jeffrey Saba, who wasawarded the Foreign Language Area Studies(FLAS) Fellowship by the Russian and EastEuropean Institute at Indiana University. Jeffwill spend the summer studying Russian withIndiana University-Bloomington. Currently,Jeff is researching the daily life interactionsbetween East German civilians and Sovietsoldiers during the Cold War. He aims to usethis fellowship to master his readingknowledge of Russian to help with his futuredissertation research on Modern Germany.

JEFFREY SABA

Congratulations to Claire Mayo for receiving theOscar Roy Ashley fellowship from the GraduateSchool. Claire’s research bridges disciplinary divideseffectively and in interesting ways. Recognizing thathistorians have not adequately accounted for some ofthe details pertaining to the Great Flood of Paris in1910, Claire completed coursework to receive acertificate from the Disasters, Displacements, andHuman Rights (DDHR) program in the Anthropologydepartment. This has opened up her analyticalhorizons, allowing her to apply the tools of ananthropologist to the source base of historians. Thisfellowship acknowledges Claire’s exemplary workthus far, whether in her research, in seminars, inthe classroom, and in service to the department. Shehas produced excellent scholarship, builtinterdisciplinary connections, and demonstratedextraordinary leadership skills.

CLAIRE MAYO


Tess Evans, Ph.D.Michael Lynch, Ph.D.Brittany Poe, Ph.D.

Allison Johnson, M.A.Susana Kenyon, M.A.Kaitlin Simpson, M.A.

Matt Smith, M.A.Alexander Spanjer, M.A.

Emma Grace Thompson, M.A.

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