Nicole Rae Batten

Neil Dodge

Field of Study: North American West - Indigenous People
Advisor: Dr. William Bauer
Dissertation Title: We are the Children of Changing Woman: From Kinship to Membership in the Navajo Nation 1846-1954.
Research interest: I am interested in the ways in which Indigenous people articulate their origins. Also, how they undergo their own process of reimagination into modern times.

Paige Figanbaum

Field of Study: North American West
Research Interest: Focusing on Nevada History and its relationship with popular media.

Christina M. Lamoureux

Field of Study: 19^th and 20th Century Race, Gender, and Sexuality
Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Nelson
Research Interest: I examine the relationship between prostitution and print culture in 19th and early 20th century American. Primarily I am concerned with understanding the role of media in representation of prostitutes and how that shapes their public identity.

Mary Ludwig

Field of Study: North American West/Public History
Advisor: Dr. William Bauer
Working Dissertation Title: Japanese-American Internment on Native Lands
Research Interest: At the point, I’m exploring this as a possible topic of study. I enjoy researching social and cultural relationships. I am open to ideas.

Brian Neely

Field of Study: American West
Advisor: Dr. William Bauer
Dissertation Title: Examining how 19th century Protestant missions movements served as a “progressive” tool of Manifest Destiny. Further attention will be given to Indigenous resistance to colonial mission efforts.

Kristen Phipps

Field of Study: American West
Research interest: Slavery in the American West and how it was spread through the military.

Debbie Rayner

Field of Study: 19th Century America
Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Nelson
Dissertation Title: For the Love of Church and Country: Charles Hodge and the Dilemma of Slavery
Research Interest: I examine the role of the Presbyterian Church and Princeton Seminary in relation to the definition of biblical slavery. The rhetoric surrounding slavery is more complex than a northern or southern disagreement.

Doris Morgan Rueda

Field of Study: Law, Juvenile Justice & the Border
Advisor: Dr. David Tanenhaus
Dissertation Title: "Saving The Bad Kids, Caging Los Chicos Malos: Racialized Surveillance and Juvenile Justice in The U.S. - Mexico Borderlands 1900-1970."
Research Interest: My research analyzes the intersection of juvenile justice and immigration enforcement and the impact on Latinx youth as a method of understanding the place of the borderlands in the origins of mass incarceration. I study the consequences of policing and legal policies on youth from marginalized communities, in particular Latinx and immigrant communities. These stories are often missing from the discussion of the origins of mass incarceration and circumscription of citizenship in the 20th century. My work argues that the unique political and regional circumstances of the borderlands such as rurality, the desert environment, and heightened fears about border crossings informed how community leaders and lawmakers understood juvenile delinquency.

Douglas Smith

Field of Study: North American Culture and Society
Research interest: Disability history and legal history

James Steele

Field of Study: American Popular Culture of the 20th Century
Advisor: Dr. Michael Green
Dissertation Title: “The Fire Over There”
Research Interest: The media frenzy surrounding the King beating and the subsequent civil unrest did not tell the whole story. This work explores the shortcomings of media coverage and the ways these events were described to the American people and the world.

Analiesa Delgado

Field of Study: North American West
Research Interest: I am interested in researching the links between Native and Latinx communities in Southern California.