Recent Graduates
Ph.D. Graduates – Class of 2013
Ian Stacy
Dissertation Title: "The Last Conservationist: Floyd Dominy and Federal Reclamation Policy in the American West"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair); Tobin Shearer; Kyle G. Volk; Sara Dant (Weber State University); Nancy Cook (English)
Placement: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Department of History, Whatcom Community College (Bellingham, WA)
M.A. Graduates – Class of 2013
Michael Dax
Thesis Title: "Grizzly West: The Story of the Failed Attempt to Reintroduce Grizzly Bears to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair); Jeff Wiltse; Michael Patterson (Forestry)
Sydney R. Gwinn
Thesis Title: Conspicuous Consumption: Germs and Climate Cures in Denver, CO, 1882-1915
Committee: Dan Flores (chair); Kyle G. Volk; Kelly Dixon (Anthropology)
Dylan Huisken
Thesis Title: "'We Have Found the Native Tongue Indispensable': Missionary Interactions with the Dakota Language, 1834-1893"
Committee: Jeff Wiltse (chair); Dan Flores; David Beck (NAS)
Placement: Teaching Secondary Education
Ph.D. Graduates – Class of 2012
David J. Brooks
Dissertation Title:"Restoring the 'Shining Waters:' Milltown, Montana and the History of Superfund Implementation"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair); Jeff Wiltse; Jody Pavilack; Tobin Shearer; Nancy Cook (English)
Placement: Executive Vice President, Heritage Research Center (Missoula, MT)
M.A. Graduates – Class of 2012
Cody D. Ewert
Thesis Title:"Lessons in Loyalty: American Patriotism and Education in the Progressive Era"
Committee: Kyle G. Volk (chair); Anya Jabour; Jeff Wiltse; Tracy Steffes (Education & History, Brown University)
Placement: New York University, Doctoral Program in History
Heather A. Mulliner
Thesis Title:"Between The Lines: Friendship, Love, and Marriage in the Progressive-Era Correspondence of Robert Line and Louise Chapman"
Committee: Anya Jabour (chair); Jeff Wiltse; Jill Bergman (English)
Placement: New York University, Masters Program in Archives & Public History
Bennett G. Sherry
Thesis Title:"King of Kings: Human Rights Rhetoric and Regional Security in the Shah’s Iran, 1968-1978"
Committee: Tobin Shearer (chair); Robert H. Greene; Richard Drake; Mehrdad Kia (Anthropology)
Placement: University of Pittsburg, Doctoral Program in History
Virginia L. Summey
Thesis Title:"Gender, Justice, and Jim Crow: North Carolina Judge Elreta Alexander in the Long Civil Rights Era"
Committee: Anya Jabour (chair); Tobin Shearer; Eduardo Capulong (Law School)
Placement: University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Doctoral Program in History
Nicholas R. Van Hole
Thesis Title:"Shared Consciousness: A Social History of Tourette Syndrome and its Treatment"
Committee: Jeff Wiltse (chair); Richard Drake; Sarah Certel (DBS)
Randall Williams
Professional Paper Titles:" ‘Prime Mover’: The Boone and Crockett Club and the Bear-Cattle Wars of Kodiak Island";
"The Sportsmen’s Press and the Politics of Anti-Sovereignty"
Advisor: Dan Flores
Placement: University of Montana, Doctoral Program in History
Ph.D. Graduates – Class of 2011
Molly Varley
Dissertation Title: "Strange Vicissitudes: The Memory of Uses of Indian Captivity in the Progressive Era"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair); Anya Jabour; Jeff Wiltse; Angelica Lawson (NAS); Nancy Cook (English)
Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History & Political Science, Meredith College (Raleigh, NC)
M.A. Graduates – Class of 2011
Aaron Hyams
Thesis Title: "Fifty Years on the Fringe: Murray Bookchin and the American Revolutionary Traditions, 1921-1971"
Committee: Michael Mayer (chair); Dan Flores; Ramona Grey (Political Science)
Placement: Marquette University, Doctoral Program in History
Ahnie Litecky
Thesis Title: "Dwellers Between: Yup'ik Shamans and Cultural Change in Western Alaska"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair); Michael Mayer; Anna Prentiss (Anthropology)
Elizabeth Ryan
Thesis Title: "We Thought We Should Do Something Ourselves': Citizen Participation and the Denver Model Cities Program"
Committee: Michael Mayer (chair); Kyle G. Volk; Jon Tompkins (Political Science)
Zoe Ann Stoltz
Thesis Title: "Camping to Permanence: Montana's History of Mobile and Manufactured Home Use"
Committee: Jeff Wiltse (chair); Dan Flores; Jon Axline
Placement: Montana Historical Society, Reference Historian
Ph.D. Graduates – Class of 2010
Greg Gordon
Dissertation Title: "Money Does Grow on Trees: A. B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), David Emmons, Jeff Wiltse, Richard Drake, Jill Belsky (Society & Conservation)
Placement: Lecturer, Environmental Studies Program, Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA)
Rodolfo Villarreal-Rios
Dissertation Title: "Independent Internationalism in Practice: Diplomatic Relations Between the United States and Mexico from 1919 to 1929"
Committee: Michael S. Mayer (chair), Jody Pavilack, Maria Jose Bustos Fernandez (MCLL), David Aronofsky
Placement: Columnist and Adjunct College Teaching
Nicholas C. P. Vrooman
Dissertation Title: "Infinity Nation: The Métis in North American History"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Bill Farr, Jody Pavilack, Harry Fritz, Jeff Gritzner (Geography)
Placement: Independent Writer
MA Graduates – Class of 2010
Leif Frederickson
Thesis Title: "Still Blue: An Environmental History of Flathead Lake"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Jeff Wiltse, Martin Nie (Society & Conservation)
Placement: University of Virginia, Doctoral Program in History
David Keightley
Thesis Title: "A New Life in Montana: The Laotian Hmong–their History, Culture, and American Journey"
Committee: Michael Mayer (chair), Harry Fritz, Steve Levine (Mansfield Center)
Erica Stukel Probst
Thesis Title: "Joseph Dixon and the Bull Moose Campaign of 1912"
Committee: Michael Mayer (chair), Harry Fritz, Jon Tompkins (Political Science)
Placement: Teaching Secondary Education
Ian Smith
Thesis Title: "From Subsistence to Dependence: The Legacy of Reclamation and Allotment on Quechan Indian Lands, 1700-1940"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Jeff Wiltse, David Beck (Native American Studies)
Placement: Research Historian, Historical Research Associates (HRA), Missoula, MT
Rueben Swindall
Thesis Title: "Fierce Flames and the Golden Lotus: Case Studies on the Madness and Creativity Connection"
Committee: Richard Drake (chair), Robert H. Greene, Marton Marko (MCLL)
Placement: Teaching Secondary Education
Melissa Thomasma
Thesis Title: "The Lawmen Faced the Outlaws, No Badge Upon a Breast: Historical Memory and the Legacy of Henry Plummer and the Montana Vigilantes"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Ken Lockridge, Louis Hayes (Political Science)
MA Graduates – Class of 2009
Anna Amundson
Thesis Title: "Sentimental Journey?: The Immigrant Experience of World War II – Era War Brides in Montana"
Committee: Mike Mayer (chair), Jeff Wiltse, Janet Finn (Social Work)
Placement: Florida State University, Doctoral Program in History
Shawn Bailey
Thesis Title: "Colonization of the Crown: Hunting, Class, and the Creation of Glacier National Park, 1885–1915"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Jeff Wiltse, Jeffrey Gritzner (Geography)
Placement: University of Montana, Doctoral Program in History
Milena Oganesyan
Thesis Title: "James A. Baker III and Eduard Shevardnadze: The Story of the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991"
Committee: Michael Mayer (chair), Paul G. Lauren, Mark Johnson (Mansfield Center)
Leslie Weidow
Thesis Title: "Montana Zion: American Communalism in a Mormon Fundamentalist Community"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Kyle G. Volk, David L. Moore (English)
MA Graduates – Class of 2008
Peter Aagaard
Thesis Title: "The Rewilding of New York´s North Country: Beavers, Moose, Canines, and the Adirondacks"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Jeff Wiltse, Paul Krausman (Wildlife Biology)
Doris Swann Avery
Thesis Title: "Into the Den of Evils: The Genizaros in Colonial New Mexico"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Jody Pavilack, David Beck (Native American Studies)
Margaret Caldwell
Thesis Title: "Antonio Fogazzaro and the Development of Liberal Catholicism in Modern Italy"
Committee: Richard Drake (chair), Robert H. Greene, Paul Dietrich (Liberal Studies)
Andrew Endorf
Thesis Title: "British Foreign Policy Under Canning"
Committee: John Eglin (chair), Linda Frey, Louis Hayes (Political Science)
Katie Green
Thesis Title: "The Mirror of Nature: Chesapeake Perceptions of Wilderness, 1650–1787"
Committee: Dan Flores (chair), Kyle G. Volk, Phil Condon (Environmental Studies)
Peter Olsen
Thesis Title: "Mistaken in the Man: The Life, Death, and Estate Trial of John McClellan"
Committee: Harry Fritz (chair), Dan Flores, Jeff Greene (Political Science)
Rodolfo Villarreal-Rios
Thesis Title: "Independent Internationalism and Nationalistic Pragmatism: The United States and Mexico Relations During the 1920s"
Committee: Michael S. Mayer (chair), Jody Pavilack, Maria Jose Bustos Fernandez (MCLL)
