Highlighted Research Experiences

The Department of History and Philosophy is home to a vibrant research community where faculty and students actively contribute to scholarly conversations across diverse topics and regions. This page highlights recent faculty publications, including books, chapters, and journal articles, as well as grants and research awards. Students can also explore opportunities for hands-on research experience through assistantships, presentations, and publications, supported by departmental initiatives and the Office of Undergraduate Research.

Covers of six academic books: 'Atone: Religion, Conflict, and Reconciliation' edited by Brandon D. Lundy, Akanmu G. Adebayo, and Sherrill W. Hayes; 'The Pennsylvania Railroad: Building an Empire, 1846–1917' by Albert J. Churella; 'The Information Revolution in Early Modern Europe' by Paul M. Dover; 'Enemies to Allies: Cold War Germany and American Memory' by Brian C. Etheridge; 'The Culture of Property: Race, Class, and Housing Landscapes in Atlanta, 1880–1950' by LeeAnn Lands; and 'The Philosophy of Creative Solitudes' edited by David Jones.

Student Research

  • Kaitlin Jean Kojali – published in The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for her paper “The Survival of Manuscripts: Resistance, Adoption, and Adaption to Gutenberg’s Printing Press in Early Modern Europe” - sponsored by Paul Dover (2023).
  • Madelyn Huerkamp - published in Stance: An International Undergraduate Philosophy Journal for her paper "Shapeshifting: How to Validate Your Own Reality" (2023)
  • Anna K. Poole – published in the Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for her paper “Reckoning Roanoke: A Historiographical Examination of the Lost Colony” – sponsored by Marianne Holdzkom (2023)
  • Mia K. Hardy – published in The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for her paper “Arianism Revised: The Re-emergence of an Infamous Heresy” – sponsored by Clint Johnson (2024)
  • Andrew J. Bramlett – published in The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for his paper “Thomas R. Marshall: Progressive Era Politics, a Presidential Hoax, and the 1920 Election” – sponsored by David Parker (2024)
  • Ingrid Baker – published in The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for her paper “The Introduction and Spread of Kudzu in Georgia” - sponsored by Albert Way (2024)
  • Anna K. Poole – published in The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for her paper “Honor, Violence, and Recovery: The Stripping of Female Agency During the Partition of India” – sponsored by Ryan Ronnenburg (2024)
  • Aidan R. McDonald – published in The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for his paper “Treasures of God: The Fur Trade as a Motivating Factor of the Swedish Crusades” – sponsored by Jamie McCandless (2025)
  • Thais Russo Goncalves – published in The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for his paper “Balancing Power and Influence: U.S. – Brazil Foreign Relations in the 20th Century” - sponsored by Silke Zoller (2025)
  • Andrew J. Bramlett – published in The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research for his paper “The Seduction of Journalism in Atlanta: William Randolph Hearst and the Atlanta Georgian” – sponsored by David Bennett (2025)
  • Alexandria Currier – published in Saber and Scroll for her paper, “Indeterminate Politics: US Interventionism within Nicaragua” (2025)
  • Andrew J. Bramlett - published in the Atlanta Studies journal for his paper "'Cobb Out Front in Bid for Stadium': Professional Baseball and the Rise of Suburbia, 1957 - 1962" (2025)
  • Jenna Boone – presented her paper “Captain’s Equation’: Quantifying Wellness in the Age of Sail” at the 35th annual meeting of the Southeast World History Association at College of Charleston (2023)
  • Duncan McLendon – presented poster, "Typhoon Encounters: How Politics Influences the Naval Response," 28th Annual Symposium of Student Scholars – sponsored by Masako Racel (2023)
  • Benjamin Malik – presented his poster “The Fall of the Galleanists and the Wall Street Bombing of 1920” at the Georgia Association of Historian’s Conference (2024)
  • John Neal – presented his poster “’They’re All Gone’: The 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre and the Usage of the Media by Palestinian Terror Groups’” at the Georgia Association of Historians Conference (2024)
  • Nathan Graves – presented his paper at Eastern Michigan University Undergraduate Conference which was titled “Essential Secrets: How Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Schlegel Found a New Home in the Postmodern Condition (2024)
  • Duncan McLendon – presented his poster, "Assimilation Policy or Military Development: Conflicting Methods in the Japanese Occupation of Guam," National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) – sponsored by Masako Racel (2025)
  • Alexandria Currier - presented her poster, "Indeterminate Politics: US Interventionism within Nicaragua," National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) - sponsored by Lauren Thompson (2025) 
  • Students in Adina Langer’s Museum Exhibition’s course created a traveling exhibit entitled “Juneteenth: The Fight for Freedom and Recognition.” (2025)
  • Kaitlin Jean Kojali – winner of the 2022-2023 KSU Libraries' Undergraduate Research Award for her paper “The Survival of Manuscripts: Resistance, Adoption, and Adaptation to Gutenberg's Printing Press in Early Modern Europe.”
  • Sierra McHugh-Bryan, Sevyn Rosa, and Fletcher Morris - HIED students won the BCOE Global Lesson Plan Award
  • Anna Poole - runner up for the 2022-2023 KSU Libraries' Undergraduate Research Award for her paper "Reckoning Roanoke: A Historiographical Examination of the Lost Colony"
  • Sergio Trejo - won the 2022-2023 BCOE Outstanding Student Teacher Award
  • Chris Wynn – won the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council’s Undergraduate Award
  • Ingrid Baker – runner up for the 2023-2024 KSU Libraries' Undergraduate Research Award for her paper “The Introduction and Spread of Kudzu in Georgia.”
  • Andrew J. Bramlett - runner up for the 2023-2024 KSU Libraries' Undergraduate Research Award for his paper “Thomas R. Marshall: Progressive Era Politics, a Presidential Hoax, and the 1920 Election”
  • Anna Poole – winner of the 2023-2024 KSU Libraries' Undergraduate Research Award for her paper “Honor, Violence, and Recovery: The Stripping of Female Agency During the Partition of India"
  • Students in Jennifer Dickey's HIST 3326 course (Historic Preservation) prepared a preliminary National Register eligibility application for two historic African American
    cemeteries on the Berry College campus. Positive feedback from the State Historic Preservation Division helped Berry College obtain a $50,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to further study, document and develop a preservation plan for the cemeteries (2024)
  • Thais Russo Goncalves – runner up for the 2024-2025 KSU Libraries' Undergraduate Research Award for his paper “Balancing Power and Influence: U.S. – Brazil Foreign Relations in the 20th Century.”
  • The Fight for Civil Rights: Traveling Exhibit – students in Jennifer Dickey’s HIST 3325 course (Introduction to Public History) curated an exhibit to highlight the Civil Rights movement. This exhibit won the 2025 GHRAC Award for Excellence in Student Archives-Centered Work in a Public Institution 
  • Andrew J. Bramlett – winner of the 2024-2025 KSU Libraries' Undergraduate Research Award for his paper “The Seduction of Journalism in Atlanta: William Randolph Hearst and the Atlanta Georgian.”
  • Andrew J. Bramlett - accepted into the Gilder Lehrman Undergraduate Advisory Council (2025)
  • Madie Houser – selected to be one of four in-person presenters for the Symposium of Student Scholars. Her talk was entitled “Oh Destructive Gin! Oh Infatuated Human Kind!: Gin Reformers’ Battle for Virtue in 18th Century London.”
  • Students in Jennifer Dickey’s HIST 3326 course (Historic Preservation) surveyed 81 historic resources in the City of Kennesaw to support the city's Certified Local Government requirements. (2025)
  • Students in Jennifer Dickey’s HIST 4426 course (Documentation and Interpretation) conducted a conditions assessment to develop a Historic Structure Report of the 1867 Deckner House, which will guide Atlanta Technical College’s development plans for the building (2025)
  • Kameryn Dixon - research proposal “The Ignored Physiological Roots of Black Women’s Mental Illness” was accepted into the Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) (2025)
     

     

Student Research Resources

  • Students often publish in the , however, they publish in many different journals, as well! 

    Students often present their research at:

    • History: Each year the department offers the Ann W. Ellis Pullen Award to an undergraduate history student with the best research paper. The winner is chosen by department faculty.
    • Philosophy: Each year the department offers the Outstanding Senior Seminar Paper to an undergraduate philosophy student with the best research paper. The winner is chosen by department faculty.

Faculty Research

  • HISTORY

    SOCIAL & CULTURAL

    • Diaspora Studies
      • Yoshina Hurgobin
      • Seneca Vaught
      • Bryan McGovern
    • Women & Gender
      • Lauren Thompson
    • Music
      • Jonathan Gentry
      • Amy Dunagin
    • Folk Tradition
      • Hakki Gurkas
    • Urban
      • LeeAnn Lands
    • Media
      • Jonathan Gentry

    POLITICAL

    • Nationalism
      • Jonathan Gentry
      • Bryan McGovern
    • Legal/Public Policy
      • Lauren Thompson
      • Albert Churella

    ECONOMIC

    • Economics & Business
      • Albert Churella
      • Randy Patton
    • Labor
      • Alice Pate
      • Randy Patton
      • Yoshina Hurgobin

    DIPLOMATIC

    • Foreign Relations
      • Paul Dover
      • Brian Etheridge
      • Silke Zoller
    • Terrorism
      • Silke Zoller
    • International Conflict Analysis & Management
      • Seneca Vaught
      • Silke Zoller

    INTELLECTUAL

    • Memory
      • Jennifer Dickey
      • Marianne Holdzkom
    • Information
      • Paul Dover
      • Jonathan Gentry
      • David Parker

    SCIENCE & MEDICINE

    • Lauren Thompson

    AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT, & RURAL

    • Tom Okie
    • Albert Way
    • Jiayan Zhang

    PUBLIC HISTORY & PRESERVATION

    • Jennifer Dickey
    • Catherine Lewis

    EDUCATION

    • Caroline Conner
    • Sean Corrigan
    • Nefertari Yancie

    PHILOSOPHY

    ASIAN, FEMINIST, and EPISTEMOLOGY

    • Amy Donahue
  • U.S. HISTORY

    • Albert Churella
      • Transportation History and Policy
    • Caroline Conner
      • Social Studies Education, History of American Education
    • Sean Corrigan
      • Social Studies Education, Comparative History, Multicultural Education
    • Jennifer Dickey
      • Public History, Historical Preservation
    • Kris DuRocher
      • History of Identity and Culture
    • Brian Etheridge
      • History of American Foreign Relations
    • Marianne Holdzkom
      • Colonial/Revolutionary US History, History of Memory
    • LeeAnn Lands
      • 20th Century US Urban History
    • Catherine Lewis
      • Public History, Museum Studies, WWII and the Holocaust, Women's History
    • Bryan McGovern
      • 19th Century Irish and Irish American History
    • Tom Okie
      • American Agricultural and Environmental History, Georgia History
    • David Parker
      • History of the American South, Georgia History
    • Randy Patton
      • Business History, Georgia History
    • Lauren Thompson
      • History of Reproductive Health and Women's Rights
    • Seneca Vaught
      • History of Race, Culture, and Policy in Black Studies
    • Albert Way
      • Environmental and Agricultural History of the American South, Georgia History
    • Nefertari Yancie
      • Social Studies Education
    • Silke Zoller
      • History of Terrorism and Political Violence

    WORLD HISTORY

    EUROPE

    • Paul Dover
      • Medieval Europe, Diplomacy and Internation Politics in Renaissance, History of Information
    • Amy Dunagin
      • 17th/18th Century Great Britian
    • Jonathan Gentry
      • Modern German Music and Culture
    • Brian Swain
      • History of Greek and Roman Antiquity
    • Alice Pate
      • Russian Labor and Intellectual History
    • Katya Vladimirov
      • Russian and Soviet Intellectual History

    ASIA

    • Hakki Gurkas
      • History of Islamic Folk and Festival Tradition in the Middle East and Central Asia
    • Yoshina Hurgobin
      • Migration in Modern South Asia and the Indian Ocean
    • Masako Racel
      • Intellectual History of Japan
    • Jiayan Zhang
      • Chinese Agrarian and Environmental History

    AFRICA

    • Ryan Ronnenberg
      • African History
    • Seneca Vaught
      • History of Race, Culture, and Policy in Black Studies

Faculty Publication News

  • Churella, A. J. (2023). The Pennsylvania Railroad. Indiana University Press.

    ‌Dover, P. M. (2023). Engaging with the Past and Present. Taylor & Francis.

    Gleason, C. M. (2023). American Poly. Oxford University Press.

    ‌Gorshkov, B. B. (2023). The Dark Side of Early Soviet Childhood, 1917-1941. Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Holdzkom, M. (2023). Remembering John Adams. McFarland.

    Lands, L. B. (2023). Poor Atlanta. University of Georgia Press.

    ‌Lee Rhyant and Catherine Lewis. (2022). Soaring: Eleven Principles on the Road from Segregation to Success .UGA Press. 

    Walker, D., Lyons, L. M., Vaught, S. D. (2022). Wandering Where We Belong: Historically Underrepresented Faculty in Education Abroad. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Adebayo, A. G., Misako, F. A. (2022). King Leopold’s Legacies: Colonialism and Conflict in the Congo. In S. M. Ghazanfar and Robert Eddy (Ed.), From Columbus to Churchill: Heroes, Villains and Confronting Racism.

    Adebayo, A. G. (2022). The Historical Pirates of the Caribbean: Heroes or Villains? In S. M. Ghazanfar and Robert Eddy (Ed.), From Columbus to Churchill: Heroes, Villains and Confronting Racism.

    Churella, A. J. (2022). Putting a Station in its Place: 30th Street Station and its Relationship to Philadelphia’s Urban Fabric. Ralf Roth and Paul Van Hesvelde, eds., The City and the Railway in the World: 19th to 21st Centuries. Taylor & Francis / Routledge.

    Dickey, J. W. (2023). "Seven Weeks of Heaven: Teaching an Undergraduate Introduction to Public History Course in Half a Semester". Teaching Public History.

    Dover, P. M. (2022). The impacts of paper’s abundance, 1450-1650: an episode in coevolution. In Silvia Hufnagel, Davíð Ólafsson, and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (Ed.), Paper Stories: Paper and Book History in Post-Medieval Europe. Berlin: De Gruyter.

    Dover, P. M. (2022). Written Records and Information in Renaissance Italy. In Kristen Poole (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of the Renaissance World, gen ed. Kristen Poole, subject ed. Suzanne Sutherland. London: Routledge.

    Parker, D. B. (2022). Homely Philosophy and the Lost Cause: Bill Arp and “Old Gwinnett”. Gwinnett County, Georgia, and the Transformation of the American South. University of Georgia Press

    Racel, M. N. (2022). Kokumin Dotoku for Women: Shimoda Utako in the Taisho Era. In Shaun O’Dwyer (Ed.), Handbook of Confucianism in Modern Japan (pp. 77-92). Japan Documents Publishing.

    Vladimirov, K. (2022). "The Bureaucracy of Russian Poland, 1870-1905: A profile". In eds. Vlad Popovici , Alice Velková and Martin Klečacký (Ed.), Climbing up the Social Ladder? Social Mobility of Elites in East-Central Europe in the Long 19th Century v. 25 series Elitenwandel in der Moderne / Elites and Modernity

    Way, A. G., Hersey, M. (2022). Agricultural History's Agroecological Turn. A Companion to American Agricultural History: Wiley.

    Yancie, N. & Bidwell, R.M. (2023). The Notorious R.B.G.: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Her Fight for Equality. In N.Keefer & J. Clabough Thematic Teaching of Women’s Rights Issues with Social Studies Trade Books.

    ‌Zeller, N. R. (2022). “Return to Armed Revolution: The Pathet Lao and the Chinese Communist Party on Paths to National Liberation.” In Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia, edited by Matthew Galway and Marc H. Opper. Canberra:  Australian National University Press.

  • Carroll, F. (2022). "The Completely True Story of the Fraudulent Ethiopian Princess: Racial Stereotypes and Journalistic Conventions in the Framing of a Media Hoax". American Journalism, 39(1/Winter 2022), 51-71.

    Conner, C. J. & Graham, T. C. (2022). Using an instructional model of historical empathy to teach the Holocaust. The Social Studies.

    Conner, C., & Miskewicz, A. (2023). ATTACKING ANTISEMITISM: Investigating How Museum-Led Professional Development Affects Preservice Teachers' Preparedness to Teach the Holocaust. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 25(1-2), 115+. 

    Churella, A. J. (2022). "Public Policies and Private Agendas. The Contested Development of USA High-Speed Passenger Rail Transport (1960s-1970s)". Journal of Transport History, 43(1),

    Duncan, C., Etheridge, B., Jeremy, M. (2022). Serious Analog Game Development Across Disciplines. Analog Game Studies, 9(2).

    Dunagin, A. (2023). Liberty or Death: Patrick Henry, Theatrical Song, and Transatlantic Patriot Politics. Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 21(3), 491-505.

    Gentry, J. (2022). “Unveiling Musical Production: Strauss, Mahler and Commodity Fetishism in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Nineteenth-Century Music Review (19)3. 459–80. 

    McGovern, B. P. (2022). Richard O'Gorman and Young Ireland on Race, Class, and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Irish America. New Hibernian Review, 26(2), 112-131.                                         

    Reidy, J. (2022). "The Works of Gelasius of Caesarea: A Potential Source of Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History?". Journal of Early Christian Studies, 30(Winter 2022 (30.4)), 269-292.

    Thompson, L. M., O'Donnell, K. (2022). Allies, not authorities: Historical and bioethical considerations for a post-Roe world. Bioethics, Wiley, 36(8), 819-820.

    Thompson, L. M. (2022). Roe v Wade and Feminism: The Limits of Public Memory. The Docket - Law and History Review.

    Thompson, L. M. (2022). Contemporary Comstockery: Legal Restrictions on Medication Abortion. Journal of General Internal Medicine.

    Traille, Kay. (2023). "Common Sense" and Issues of Social Justice in History Education. The History Teacher. 56. 319-341. 

    Acharya, T., Dhungana, G. K., Traille, K., & Dhakal, H. (2023). Senior Citizens in Nepal: Policy Gaps and Recommendations. Gerontology & geriatric medicine, 9, 23337214231179902. 

    Way, A. G. (2023). The Grass Problem: Agrostology, Agriculture, and Environmental Transformation in the New South. Environmental History.

    Zoller, S. (2023). Terrorist Extradition through the Ages. Terrorism Through the Ages. (19)6, 338-351.

  • Conner, C. J. (Principal), Bohan, C. H. (Co-Principal), Badger, J. (Supporting), Grant, "Supporting Holocaust Education for Atlanta Area Preservice Teachers through Collaborative Research, Resources, and Partnerships", Sponsored by Atlanta Global Research and Education Collaborative (AGREC), Local, $6,000.00, Funded. (2021 - 2022).

    Dover, Paul, Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Research Grant ($5,000).

    Durocher, K., Grant, "Let's Talk About It: Women's Suffrage Grant", Sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and American Library Association, Federal, $1,000.00, Currently Under Review. (2021 - Present).

    Vaught, S. D., Keleher, M., Purcell, J. W., Bohannon, J. L., Skaggs, C. T., Durocher, K., Grant, "Journeys in Justice: Retracing Freedom Summer through the Classics and Humanities", Sponsored by Teagle Foundation, $25,000.00, Funded. (December 2022 - 2023).

    Gentry, J., Grant, "RCHSS Research/Scholarship Support Grant", Sponsored by RCHSS at ÁńÁ«»ĆĘÓƵ, $3,583.00. (October 2021 - August 2022

    Okie, W. T. "The Natural History of the American East in Five Wayside Plants," National Endowment of the Humanities Summer Stipend, $6,000, funded (2022-2023).

    Silva, E. P. (Co-Principal), Vaught, S. D. (Co-Principal), Gutierrez, R. (Supporting), Grant, "IDEAS Initiative Workshop Proposal", Sponsored by U.S. Department of State, ÁńÁ«»ĆĘÓƵ, $14,081.00, Currently Under Review. (September 2022 - Present)

    Scott, H. I., Jackson, R. O., Vaught, S. D., Grant, "Global Learning for a Lifetime: Supporting Black Students at Home and Abroad", Sponsored by Atlanta Global Research and Education Collaborative (AGREC), Other, $12,500.00, Funded. (October 15, 2021 - Present)

    McClatchey, I. S., Nandan, M., Porter, K. J., Vaught, S. D., Grant, "Community Engagement for Better Behavioral Health", Sponsored by HRSA, ÁńÁ«»ĆĘÓƵ, $943,958.00, Funded. (August 2021 - Present)