Visit this section often to keep up-to-date on all of the exciting things happening in the Department.

Student & Alumni News

Undergraduate Student Awards 2008-2009:

Thomas Cossentino ‘09, has been awarded the 2008 Procko Prize for the best paper written by an undergraduate student. Thomas’ paper is entitled "His Best Interest: the Historical Context of the Political Defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal," and was written for Dr. Adele Lindenmeyr's Thesis Seminar, Spring 2008.

George T. Radan Prize for Best Art History Paper in 2008 was awarded to Courtney Sexton ’08, for “Green Pieces: The Evolution of EchoArt”

Graduate Student Awards 2008-2009:

The Paper Prize Committee is pleased to announce the winner(s) of the 2008 Carroll Prize for the best paper written by a graduate student. We had a really strong group this year, so we are recognizing both a winner and an honorable mention:

• Carroll Winner: Dana Kellogg-Repash ’10, "A Monument to Human Creativity: Redefining the Historic House Musewn at the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site," written for Charlene Mires' Introduction to Public History, Fall 2008.
• Carroll Honorable Mention: Robert Elias, "Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution: A Historiography of Significant Works on Lincoln and Civil Liberties," written for Judy Giesberg's Lincoln's America, Fall 2008.

The Richard L. Bates Memorial Award for Outstanding Service to History 2008-2009, was awarded to David Heayn ’09.

The Graduate Forum Prize was given to Kaelyn Considine ’09.

Outstanding Undergraduate News:

Timothy Johnson, '09, who received a bachelor's degree is history, wrote his senior paper on “The British in Philadelphia: The Mid-Eighteenth Century Colonial Experience.” His opinion piece, "Unaltered beauty tells story best," appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on July 8. Johnson currently is a graduate student in the University of Pennsylvania's History Department.

Allison Nolan ‘09,  has obtained a job as a paralegal at Seeger Weiss LLP.  Seeger Weiss is a relatively small firm that handles mostly mass tort cases against pharmaceutical companies.  She is happily learning a lot about the legal field. 

Jeffrey S. Addis ’08, is teaching history at the Woodhall School, a small boarding school located in western Connecticut. This academic year he is teaching ninth-grade global history, eleventh-grade American history, and a senior elective on the Cold War.

After spending part of the summer in England and Scotland with a Villanova Summer Research Grant, James Dudley '08, presented his paper, "Brittania Ruled the Waves: The Royal Navy and the War Against Napoleon," at the 2008 Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference at Ursinus College on April 5, 2008, and at the 22nd National Conference on Undergraduate Research at Salisbury University on April 10-12, 2008. In May, James graduated from Villanova with a double major in history and political science and a minor in naval science, and he was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy.

Eric Webber, '07 is a sales planner for CBS College Sports.

Susan Brandt ’03, a nurse by training and profession, returned to Villanova in 2001 as an undergraduate to take credits she lacked in history to prepare for graduate school. In her first spring semester here, she began work on the African American women who worked as nurses under Richard Allen during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic. Her further work on this project awarded her the Procko prize for best undergraduate paper that year.  With her last child going off to college in the fall, Susan is now headed for fulltime Ph.D. work at Temple University, where she has received a Presidential Fellowship and will pursue her doctorate working with Susan Klepp, an expert in early America, gender, and medicine and health. The fellowship brings full tuition funding, a stipend for four years, and two years of teaching opportunities. Susan was also waitlisted at Penn, a remarkable achievement in itself, given the 500 applications for 17 positions. Congratulations, Susan!

George Phillips, '98, who earned a bachelor's degree in history, has launched a bid for a U.S. Congressional seat in Binghamton, N.Y.   In his senior year at Villanova, George won the Procko Prize for his outstanding work researching Civil Rights legislation in the 1960’s.  See his credentials here: http://mypoliticalsite.com/phillips/about/

Liz Barszczewski, '95,  recently returned to the National Constitution Center to help plan and promote the April 16 Democrat Candidate Presidential Debate. Liz served as Public Relations Director for the National Constitution Center from 2001-2004 and spearheaded its PR and media relations campaign leading up to and including the Center's grand opening on July 4, 2003.

Steven Runk, '85, who received a bachelor's degree in art history, was named the new executive director of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The Council selected him as its new executive director at a special meeting in Trenton in January. Runk has served as interim executive director of the state agency since September, when former head David Miller retired.  Steve joined the arts council in 1991 as assistant director of information services. In his 16 years on staff, he rose through the ranks, serving as grants coordinator and program coordinator before becoming director of programs and services, a position he has held since 1996. A graduate of Villanova University, Runk resides in Langhorne, Pa.  Herbert said the search committee began with 40 candidates. Eight were interviewed and three finalists were selected to interview a second time.

Marc S. Raspanti, Esq., '79, founding partner of the Philadelphia law firm of Miller, Alfano & Raspanti, was appointed to the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing by Gov. Edward G. Rendell.

Graduate Directs Documentary:

Anthony Giacchino, a 1992 graduate of Villanova's History Department, has directed the documentary film, The Camden 28. Winner of jury and audience prizes for best documentary at the Philadelphia Film Festival, the film explores the arrest and trial of the Camden 28, a group of antiwar activists seized following their August 1971 attempt to destroy draft documents in the Camden, NJ federal building. For more information, please visit the Camden 28 website.
 

Update on Current MAs:

Beth Petitjean, a current graduate student in the history department, has had an abstract accepted for the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association. Her paper is entitled "Atlantis on our minds: Through the Stargate and Under the Sea to Find a Lost World," and the conference will be in Albuquerque, NM in February 2010. Congratulations, Beth.

Kelly Weber, a current M.A. student in history, served as a judge for National History Day in Philadelphia, March 2009,

News on our Former MAs:

Elliott Drago ’09, has been accepted to the Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminar at Gettysburg college.

John Gilbert '09, had his paper entitled "Jimmy Carter's Human Rights Policy and Iran: a Re-examination, 1976-1979" chosen to be published in the 2008 issue of Concept, the graduate student journal at Villanova.

While still in our undergraduate history program, David Heayn’s '09, independent research project, "Nessana: Early Religious Borders in a Lost Kingdom", was accepted for an oral presentation at the 21st National Conference on Undergraduate Research at Dominican University of California on April 12 - 14, 2007. David received a Villanova Undergraduate Student Research Award for the project in 2006, and joined our MA program during summer '07.  David has also been awarded scholarships from four Ph.D. institutions, including the double honor of a graduate assistantship and a scholarship award from the University of Connecticut. He attended and presented at several conferences in March and April this year, including the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Conference at Villanova University and the Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference at Millersville University.

Michael Chornesky’s '08, "Visceral History: Interpreting Independence National Historical Park," is being published in the Hindsight Graduate History Journal, by the history department of California State University-Fresno. The Journal is to be unveiled at a conference called "Discourse and History," which will feature a number of graduate student presentations along with a keynote address by a UCLA professor. Michael’s paper, which basically connects interpretations at the park to underlying historiographic trends, including Robert Bellah's concept of "Civil Religion" and the shift from "consensus" to "social" forms of American history will also be published in the 2008 Concept Journal at Villanova.

Abbie Gruseth ’08, has started teaching Western Civ part time at Augustana College in her hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Hillary Kativa ‘08 and Lance Eisenhower ’08, presented the results of work on the Eastern Penitentiary Catholic Chaplain's office at the Pennsylvania Historical Association annual meeting in Bethlehem, October 16-18, 2008. Their help restoring the Chaplain's office was part of the department's Public History Practicum in Spring 2007 conducted by Dr. Charlene Mires.

Peter Novick ’08 has just notified us that he was accepted into the Ph.D. program at FSU. He is still waiting to hear about possible financial support.

Christopher Day ’07,  returned to his undergraduate university, Hawai’i Pacific , in Honolulu following his Villanova graduation and was hired as the Leadership Development Coordinator in Student Life, which included managing over 70 student-run organizations. As of August 2008, Chris relocated to the Office of Athletics as the Campus Recreation Coordinator. His new responsibilities include management of all the athletic facilities and developing and implementing campus recreation activities and Intramural Sports. As of spring ‘09 Chris enrolled in HPU’s Global Leadership and Sustainable Development program in preparation for his doctoral studies in either history or philosophy.

Rachel Wineman ’07, was admitted to four Ph.D. programs – the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Maryland, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and UC San Diego. She has accepted the UC San Diego offer because of their excellent science studies program and the San Diego/Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship award. This award includes a five-year funding package that covers tuition and fees including a stipend for the first two years, a TA for the third and fourth year, and funding for her dissertation research year. Congratulations, Rachel!

Debra Ronca '07, presented "The Revolutionary Structure of the Lutheran Reformation" at the New Frontiers Conference in Toronto on February 14, 2007. This conference paper began as a term paper in Dr. McLaughlin's Reformation course.

Skye Lynch '07, has received a full Fellowship for Ph.D. studies at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Chris Parcels '07, has been accepted into the Ph.D. programs at UMASS Amherst (with full funding), the University of Maryland, College Park, Temple and Fordham.  Chris has decided on UMASS Amherst. 

David Goldberg '07 won the prize for the best paper presented at a graduate student conference he attended at Penn State University. David's paper is titled "Greetings from Jim Crow, New Jersey:  Contesting the Meaning and Abandonment of Reconstruction in the Public and Commercial Spaces of Asbury Park, 1880-1890." The conference, held on Feb. 9 at the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State, was on "New Perspectives on the Civil War Era: Beyond Fragmented History."

James Woytek ‘07 was accepted into the doctoral program at the University of Delaware with full funding.

Articles by three history graduate students – Elizabeth Crowley, Alexandra Mancini, and David Goldberg -- were published in the Spring 2007 issue of Concept, whose editor was Dr. Marc Gallicchio, Professor of History.

Under the guidance of Dr. Charlene Mires, four Villanova University graduate students pursued year-long study in public history and produced major original research papers on two local historic sites: Valley Forge National Park, John Andrew Maynard, and Eastern State Penitentiary,  Michael Chornesky, Hillary Kativa, and Lance Eisenhower. The students presented their papers at special conferences at each site in May, 2007. The student research at Eastern State Penitentiary was devoted to reconstructing and interpreting the previously known history of the Catholic Chaplain’s Office and Catholic religious life at the prison.

Douglas Fowler ’06, recently accepted an AmeriCorps VISTA position working for Habitat for Humanity along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Doug is excited about this opportunity, as there is still much to be done in the region as they continue to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina. His main job will be with the "pre-construction" process, to get the land ready and permitted to be built upon. Then on the weekends Doug will be helping with the actual building. Congratulations to you, Doug.

Colleen Rafferty ‘06, has accepted an offer of full funding by the doctoral program at the University of Delaware. She had also been accepted by SUNY Albany with full funding.

David C. Smith ‘06, now an administrator at the University of Dallas, has been accepted into the doctoral program at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has been given four years of full support.

Alyson Barrett-Ryan ‘04, is currently working for the New-York Historical Society’s Gilder Lehrman Collection of American History. This collection houses roughly 70,000 original documents from all areas of American history, with special strengths in the Revolutionary and Founding Eras, slavery and abolition, and the Civil War. There are big-name documents in the collection -- Washington, Lincoln, etc.-- and virtually untouched sources of soldiers collections, diaries, and photographs from the Civil War. Many of the materials are digitized, and she can assist anyone who is interested with searching the collection and obtaining images, transcripts, and general research support. Alyson is also currently working toward a Master's degree in Library Science at the Pratt Institute.

Darin Lenz '03, is completing his Ph.D. at Kansas State University, with a dissertation on George Muller, a 19th century British evangelical who ran a very large orphanage in Bristol, England. The dissertation is titled “Strengthening the Faith of the Children of God”: Pietism, Print, and Prayer in the Making of a World Evangelical Hero, George Müller of Bristol (1805-1898).  Darin has recently published an article, “‘Visions on the Battlefields’: Alexander A. Boddy, Early British Pentecostalism, and the First World War, 1914-1918,” in the Journal of Religious History (32, no. 3) (September 2008): 281-302. He is currently Assistant Professor of History at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, where he teaches courses in his specialties -- the history of modern Christianity and modern Britain -- as well as Western Civilization.

Sean Brennan ’03, received the Nanovic Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Notre Dame.

Jennifer Riley '01, graduated from Temple University Beasley School of Law in May 2009.

Gavin Wilk ‘00, has been awarded a postgraduate scholarship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities & Social Sciences. He plans to attend the University of Limerick, where his Ph.D. research will cover Irish Republican Activism in the United States from 1922 to 1939.

Kevin Switaj ‘99, completed his PhD in British History from Indiana University in May 2009, with his dissertation titled "Power in Forgetting: Memory and the Slave Trade in Victorian Britain." He was married on April 25 to Allison Powell-Switaj, who received her Bachelor's in History from Villanova in 2002. Congratulations Kevin and Allison!

Maria T. Williams '99, is in the doctorate program at Lehigh University. Her dissertation topic is “Reverend James Bevel and the Children's Crusade.”

Robert F. Smith, Ph.D., '98, earned a Ph.D. in history from Lehigh University in September 2008. He recently was appointed Assistant Dean for Humanities and Social Sciences at Northampton Community College, and he and his wife welcomed their first child, Samuel, during the summer of 2009.

Congratulations to the new Dr. Shawn Lynch ’97, who successfully defended his dissertation in history at Boston College on November 28. His dissertation is entitled "'In Defense of True Americanism': The Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Radical Free Speech, 1915-1945."

Andrew Marcroft, '96, who earned a master's degree in history, has been named assistant director of admissions and coordinator of international students at Montgomery County Community College.

Fran Ryan ’95, currently teaching at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, was awarded the Lindback teaching award.

Brian Katulis ‘94, has co-authored his first book, The Prosperity Agenda: What the World Wants from America--and What We Need in Return, with former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nancy Soderberg.