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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Department of History

Graduate Program News

Program Placements

  • Davis Elordi (M.A., 2024) is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan.
  • Ronan Hart (M.A., 2024) is now a project coordinator for the Underground Railroad Project at UF’s Samuel Proctor Oral History Project.
  • Robert Lierse (Ph.D., 2024) was appointed assistant professor at Ashford University.
  • Lance Maulsby (M.A., 2024) teaches at Jesuit High School of Tampa.
  • Brianna Wiggins (M.A., 2024) is now a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Mississippi.
  • Licinio Miranda (Ph.D., Dec. 2024) was appointed instructor of history at Louisiana State University, Alexandria.
  • Rachel Laue (Ph.D., 2025) was appointed adjunct instructor at Santa Fe College.
  • Ethan Williamson (Ph.D., 2025) accepted a position as a postdoctoral associate at the UF Writing Center.
  • Marcus Chatfield (Ph.D., 2025) was appointed adjunct instructor at the University of Florida.
  • Tyler Cline (Ph.D., 2025) was appointed adjunct instructor at the University of Florida.

Defenses

  • Licinio Miranda defended his dissertation “Land of Light: Slavery, Freed People, and Abolitionism in Ceara, Brazil, 1845-1888” under the supervision of Professor Jeffrey D. Needell.
  • Rachel Laue defended her dissertation “Good Lady Missionaries: Presbyterian Women in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools, 1885-1925” under the supervision of Associate Professor Jessica Harland-Jacobs.
  • Ethan Williamson completed his dissertation “Roman Popes, Byzantine Saints: History, Heresiology, and Hierotopy in East Roman Liturgical Life (10th-12th Centuries) under the supervision of Professor Florin Curta.
  • Marcus Chatfield finished his dissertation “Guided Group Interaction and the Historical Foundations of the Troubled Teen Industry in the United States, 1942-1974” under the supervision of Professor Joseph Spillane.
  • Tyler Cline defended his dissertation “To Slake the Thirst of Liberty: Transnational Anglo-Saxonism and the Age of Retrenchment, 1830-1890” under the supervision of Associate Professor Jessica Harland-Jacobs.

Admission

The department welcomes 15 new graduate students in the 2025-26 academic year:

  1. Kai Blades will pursue a Ph.D. in Modern Central America under the supervision of Associate Professor Heather Vrana.
  2. Ozioma Ukamaka Ikeanyi will begin a Ph.D. on Comparative West African migration with Assistant Professor Philip Janzen.
  3. Emma Jacobs joins the program as a Ph.D. student of Enlightenment philosophy with Associate Professor Anton Matytsin.
  4. Alexander McNeff will work with Professor Florin Curta on Late Medieval Germany and Russia.
  5. Yonatan Ravid will begin a Ph.D. on sports history in the modern Middle East with Professor Raanan Rein.
  6. Emma Riquet will pursue a Ph.D. on White supremacy after the end of the Civil Rights Movement with Professor David Silkenat.
  7. Debora Santana joins the program as a Ph.D. student of Colonial Panama under the supervision of Assistant Professor Fernanda Bretones Lane.
  8. Suzanne Skinner will work on Judaism in Colonial Mexico with Associate Professor Max Deardorff.
  9. Incoming master’s student Robert Apple will study Modern Germany with Professor Norman Goda.
  10. Jerald Cheesborough will pursue a master’s degree in American history with Associate Professor Paige Glotzer.
  11. Kristopher Foreman will study medieval Byzantine history with Professor Florin Curta at the master’s level.
  12. Syndney Herman joins the M.A. Program to study gender in Colonial Latin America with Associate Professor Max Deardorff.
  13. Bonnie Price will begin work on 20th century U.S. history with Professor Jack Davis.
  14. Arjun Anand was accepted into the B.A./M.A. 4+1 Program for work on the Silk Road with Professor Florin Curta.
  15. Lindsay Wilson will work on a master’s thesis on 19th century revolutions in Western Europe with Assistant Instructional Professor Christopher Goodwin.