M.A. Students
Carmen Avila-Marquez
Field of Study: Major - European History, Minor - Public History
Advisor: Dr. Michelle Tusan
Research Interest: British Medical History in the Nineteenth Century; Gender and Class dynamics in women volunteer groups in WWI & WWII
Gwendolyn Berardinelli
Field of Study: Major - American West, Minor - Public History
Advisor: Dr. Tessa Winkelmann
Research Interests: housing / houselessness, urban planning, Las Vegas history. Gwendolyn Berardinelli earned her Bachelor of Arts in History and Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she explored critical cartographic methods, the histories of social movements, and the politics of preservation. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in History with a minor in Public History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her research examines historical dwellings and human mobility in twentieth-century Las Vegas, centering the lives of people deemed transient and practices cast as “unmodern.”
Ava Cariño
Field of Study: American West with a minor in Public History
Advisor: Dr. Tessa Winkelmann
Research Interest: Culinary history of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in Las Vegas and the American West. She is looking into the Mexican influence on Filipino food and vice versa in 20th century America. One of her other interests is also how the United States Military, specifically the Army and Air Force bases, affected Asian American foodways post World War I in the Pacific theater. She aims to showcase the resilience, adaptability, and longevity of Filipino cuisine and cultural production through these influences.
Drewmel Darby
Field of Study: Major - American West, Minor - Public History
Research Interests: Drewmel earned his B.A. in History from UNLV and is pursuing an MA in History with a minor in Public History. Interested in the experiences of African Americans in the American west in the twentieth century, Drewmel's research examines the economic development of Las Vegas’ African American community in the Historic Westside. He is also interested in learning the methods of Public History, having now worked with Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, and UNLV's Special Collections and Archives.
Danielle Flores
Field of Study: Major – European History, Minor – North American History
Research Interests: British Studies, Queen Victoria's Life and Reign, and Female Slaveholders in the South
Xavier Fultz-Carter
Field of Study: Major - United States History, Minor - Public History
Advisor: Dr. Andy Kirk
Research Interests: Native American history, Indigenous material culture, and collaborative community curation
Nicole Honold
Field of Study: Major - European History, Minor - Public History
Research Interest: Early Modern English Women as household managers and leaders within the domestic private sphere
Sara Meraz
Field of Study: American Cultural and Intellectual History; American West
Research Interests: Myth Making of the American West; Dark Tourism and Ghost Towns; analyzing the way ghost stories about the American Frontier are developed over time and how "haunted histories" affect public history.
Eric O'Bayley
Field of Study: Major – European History, Minor – Public History
Research Interest: Russian Emigres in Exile and Asians in professional wrestling
Nick Pero
Field of Study: Major- U.S. History, Minor- World History
Research Interest: American Revolution, Early U.S. Republic, Civil War and Reconstruction
Benji Perrenoud
Field of Study: Major - European History, Minor - Public History
Research Interest: Experiences of Jewish Children during the Second World War, communism in the Soviet Union, and Nazi Propaganda.
Summer Sekula
Field of Study: Major - U.S. History, Minor - Public History
Research Interest: Asian American History and Transnational Adoption
Angelica Shenouda
Field of Study: Major - U.S. History, Minor - Public History
Advisor: Dr. Deirdre Clemente
Research Interests: Material Culture, Social History, and Feminist Fashion History
Ael Tulyre
Field of Study: Major - European History, Minor - U.S. History
Research Interest: Eurasian and Eastern European Studies, Narrative history, Longue Durée History, The Steppe and Frontiers/Borderlands as Gradient Systems.
Jessica Ayala Venegas
Field of Study: Major - World History, Minor - U.S. History
Research Interest: My interest is in Ancient World History with a focus on the Mediterranean world and Asia. I received my Bachelor’s Degree here at UNLV and am currently pursuing an M.A. My research is focused on ancient stories, folklore, and culture, though I also study politics in the ancient world. Though initially my study lied Ancient Mediterranean history, it has expanded here at UNLV to encapsulate a broader range of countries.
Quinn Winner
Field of Study: Major - U.S. History, Minor - Public History
Research Interest: Social History, community bonds, identity in urban environments and labor history
Ph.D. Students
Kathryn Barilla
Field of Interest: Major - North American West, Minor - Public History
Advisor: Dr. Andrew Kirk
Research Interest: She is interested in environmental and animal history, and is currently researching wild horses in the American West and their management as a cultural symbol in a changing environment.
Dakota Ciolkosz
Field of Study: European Culture and Society/Environmental History
Advisor: Dr. Gregory Brown
Research Interest: French eighteenth and nineteenth-century specifically the French Revolution, First French Empire, The Bourbon Restoration, as well as natural resource management in a historical context.
Katie Cordell
Field of Study: Early 20th Century Diplomacy
Advisor: Dr. Michelle Tusan
Research Interest: Katie's primary research focus is the shifting balance of world power in the aftermath of the First World War, especially focusing on the complex triangular relationship between Britain, Japan, and the United States. As Japan and the US rose as imperial powers, British influence declined, leaving British diplomats increasingly unsure of their own place in the new international order. In an era marked by internationalism and the creation of the League of Nations, each power had contradictory aims: proclaiming the supremacy of international cooperation while still attempting to position themselves at the top of the perceived hierarchy.
Beth Lauck
Field of Study: Major: North American Culture & Society, Minor: Public History
Advisor: Deirdre Clemente
Research Interests: The intersections of empire, material culture, and capitalism, with particular attention to fashion and consumer culture. Through studies of brands, material objects, and commercial spaces, she explores how practices of production, circulation, and consumption construct spatial and temporal imaginaries, shape historical consciousness, and reproduce or contest imperial relations
Kristina Lewis
Field of Study: European Culture and Society, World History/Global Britain
Advisor: Dr. Michelle Tusan
Dissertation Title: "Regulating Belief: Witchcraft, Anxiety and Empire"
Research Interest: Witchcraft and the British Empire in the 19th and 20th Centuries. My project will evaluate the extent to which the suppression of beliefs labeled by the British as “witchcraft” was integral to the imperial project from 1880-1940. It will examine this connection through the evaluation of anti-witchcraft related discourses in a series of legal, literary, social, and cultural historical contexts.
Yujiro Maeda
Field of Study: Men's Fashion History, Fashion History, and 20th-Century American Cultural History
Advisor: Dr. Deirdre Clemente
Research Interest: My research examines the relationship between fashion and social and cultural identity in postwar America through the Ivy League style/Ivy Look, which also became associated with "preppy" in the 1980s. I am interested in the dynamics of fashion and how the same clothing acquired different cultural meanings across racial, class, gender, and national boundaries. My research explores the adoption and reinterpretation of the Ivy Style among Ivy League students, African American jazz musicians and intellectuals, women at the Seven Sisters colleges, communities on the American West Coast and in the American West, and Japanese youth in the 1960s. Through these case studies, my dissertation will investigate the diverse and multilayered nature of American culture in the 1950s and its broader international influence.
Mariah Mena
Field of Study: 19th Century U.S. West, Mining History, Nevada History
Dissertation Title: La frontera de plata: Nevada’s silver cities and reliance of Latinos 1850-1900
Research Interest: Mariah focuses on the presence and influence of Latin Americans in mining communities in the U.S. West and the transfer of labor and technology from Latin America to California and Nevada.
Aaron O’Halloran
Field of Study: Irish Diaspora and 19th Century America
Advisor: Dr. Cian T. McMahon
Research Interest: I examine the role of Irish Americans in westward expansion and their relationship to Indigenous peoples, the land, and the concept of indigeneity.
Terry Pohl
Field of Study: 20th Century American Popular Culture - Public History
Research Interest: Terry Pohl is studying American culture in comic books. Her research goal is to explore the topics of propaganda, the military-industrial complex, and attitudes towards minorities as reflected and demonstrated in American comic books. Terry received her MA in Public History from St Mary’s University in San Antonio where she worked with the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum to help connect their content to the surrounding community. Prior to that she received her BA from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where she archived with the Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site.
Fabian Rebolledo
Field of Study: North American West
Advisor: Dr. María Raquel Casas
Co-Advisor: Dr. Susan Lee Johnson
Dissertation Working Title: Charro Citizens: How Charrería Formed Mexicanidad Across Borders
Research Interest: Fabian Rebolledo is a non-traditional, first-generation student from Las Vegas, Nevada. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His concentration lies in the North American West, focusing specifically on the Southwest Borderlands, Mexican equestrian culture, and Mexican and Mexican American Identity. His research interests are grounded in identifying and interpreting the cultural traditions rooted in vaquero culture in Mexico and throughout the United States West. He aims to showcase the adaptations and incorporations of charrería in popular American culture.
Christopher Robbins
Field of Study: Late 19th-Early 20th Century Mourning Practices
Advisor: Dr. Gregory Brown
Research Interests: As a historian of late-modern death culture, my research investigates Anglo-American mourning practices, Spiritualism, and cemetery architectural changes from the late 19th through early 20th centuries. I analyze how grassroots responses to mass mortality (mainly resulting from the First World War) reshaped both physical spaces of remembrance and the metaphysics of national grief.
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.
Grace Valentino
Field of Study: Major - American West, Minor - Public History
Advisor: Dr. Andrew Kirk
Research Interests: Cold War United States, nuclear weapons doctrine in domestic politics, the technoscientific-military-industrial complex, and anti-bomb activism
Connor Young
Field of Study: Indigenous History/ North American Culture and Society & Public History
Advisor: Dr. William Bauer
Research Interest: Northern Plains history specifically Oceti Sakowin, Metis, and French-Canadian society and culture from the 17th to 20th century. Alongside my historical research I am also interested in digital public history.