Current History Graduate Students
adrianaJordan Bergstrom
PhD candidate
jordan.bergstrom@wsu.edu
Kenzie Deppe is a second-year MA student working under Dr. L Heidenreich. Their research focuses on the policing of gender expression and non-conformity in the 20th century American Midwest. They are from Indiana and received their BA in History from the University of Indianapolis in 2022. When not working or researching, they enjoy reading, writing, caring for their house plants, and playing video games.
Samantha Edgerton is a second-year doctoral student working with Dr. Laurie Mercier. Her primary research fields are women and gender, race and ethnicity, social movements, and popular culture in the 20th century United States. She received her bachelor’s degree in History and a minor in Women’s Studies, then an MA in History in 2019. Her PhD thesis is “Every City Has a Story to Tell: Chicana Activism, Intimate Partner Violence, and the City of Los Angeles.”
Alison Fellman is a first-year MA student studying under Dr. Robert Bauman. Her areas of interest include public history and religious groups and movements as social, political, and cultural forces, mainly in the United States. She received her BA degree in the social sciences at WSU Tri-Cities in 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys getting coffee, shopping, and catching up on her favorite tv shows.
Sam Fleischer is a doctoral candidate working under Dr. Matthew Sutton. His primary research fields are gender, politics, race, and sports in twentieth-century America, examining the intersection of women’s athletics and the Olympic Games during the Cold War era. Sam has been teaching English and journalism at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA, since 2002; additionally, he spent 20 years in educational administration and multidisciplinary course instruction as the Special Assistant to the Office of the President Emeritus at Michigan State University (1998-2018). Sam has earned graduate degrees in education, English, and history; he also taught history and humanities courses at Spokane Falls Community College in Pullman both in person and online.
My current research interests focus on relational experiences amongst agricultural workers during the twentieth century and residual effects of U.S. social programs marked partly through civil rights, war on poverty, and community action initiatives. At the University of Washington, I studied history, political science, and labor as an undergraduate student and cultural studies as an MA student. Over the past ten years (2023), I had opportunities to work various roles in food and hospitality, social service settings, health administration, and higher education. I have involved myself with heritage and advocacy projects pertaining to Latinx, farm working, and rural communities in the Pacific Northwest.
Ryan Hollister is a doctoral student under the direction Dr. Peter Boag. Born in Washington, he grew up near Nashville, Tennessee. He attained his Bachelor’s in History, with a minor in Social and Cultural Anthropology, at Brigham Young University in Utah. While an undergraduate he spent his summers near Little Rock Arkansas. He then attained a Master’s degree in Social and Cultural History at the University of Leeds in England. His research is focused on queerness, sexuality and gender, the US, and the UK. Outside of academia Ryan enjoys traveling, walking, and learning.
Erin Hvizdak is Master of Arts candidate with a focus on Women’s and Gender History, and a Humanities Librarian at WSU. Under the direction of Dr. Sue Peabody, Erin’s research examines three women of African descent in the 18th- and 19th-century Atlantic World that have achieved legendary or celebrity status despite scant historical sources speaking to their lived experiences. Rather, their stories have been translated into popular representations (films, novels, statues) that mirror the historical moments contemporary to their creation. Erin examines how representations of each woman’s power and status are utilized and evolve over time to make particular claims about the society in which each woman lived. Erin also holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MA in Women’s and Gender Studies from Loyola University Chicago. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, cooking, attending sporting events, traveling, playing cribbage, attending events related to craft beer, and hanging out with her cat.
Pamela Hsinhsuan Lee is a Ph.D. student in economic and medical history at Washington State University and works with Dr. Ashley Wright. Her research interests include the social, economic and public health networks connecting Asia and the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and imperial and colonial policy.
Ray Matsumoto is a Master of Arts student working under Dr. W. Puck Brecher. His primary research fields are Japanese imperialism, postwar Japanese history, and war memory. He was born and raised in Japan and attended international schools. He received his B.A. in Philosophy and History of Mathematics and Science at St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. When he is not working, Ray enjoys playing and watching soccer, basketball, and volleyball.
Jennifer Moran is a Chicana Feminist Ph.D. student with the Department of History. She has presented work at the National Council on Public History in 2018 discussing education and the archives. Her public writing can be found on the Spokane Historical website, the WSU History department’s Digging Up the Past, and Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. Her current work focuses on Chicana reproductive justice activism in the twentieth century. She is active within the WSU graduate student community as the PhD Representative for HGSA, Communications Chair for the Graduate Women of Color Alliance, and as co-chair of Camaradas, the Chicanx, Latinx professional and graduate student association. Most recently, she has been working as a fellow with Latinos in Heritage Conservation collecting oral histories and working to raise awareness and preserve historic Latinx heritage sites.
Sreya Mukherjee is a first-year doctoral student working under Dr. Ashley Wright. Sreya was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She has completed her B.A. and M.A. degrees in History from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Before moving to the United States, Sreya interned with the National Museum, New Delhi, and DakshinaChitra, Tamil Nadu. She was a Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellow in 2017. Her research interest caters to the subcontinent’s social history with a focus on the consumption of inebriants and gender dynamics in late 19th century and early 20th century India. When not working, Sreya likes to travel, sing, and play the ukulele.
Camilla Nisco is a first year MA student studying under Dr. Brecher. Her primary area of research is in Japan during the postwar era after WWII. She received her bachelor’s in Asian Studies from Washington State University in 2021, where she discovered her passion for study of East Asia and the Japanese language. When not working, she enjoys drawing, listening to music, and playing French horn.
Mina Park is a first-year doctoral student working under Dr. Noriko Kawamura. Mina was born and raised in Changwon, South Korea. Before she came to Pullman, she studied U.S. food aid to South Korea and the change of South Koreans’ dietary culture after WWII to complete the second MA in history from Miami University of Ohio. She earned the first MA in history from the Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea; the research focus was on Charles H. Haskins’s historical view which is based on the theory of the twelfth-century renaissance, who was an American historian of the early 20th century. Her current interests are mainly in the U.S.’s 20th century foreign relations with Asia regarding agricultural policy, capitalism, and popular culture. When not working on her studies, she enjoys listening to music, doing exercise, and travelling.
James Schroeder is a doctoral candidate working with Dr. Noriko Kawamura. His research focuses on twentieth century United States military and foreign relations history. His dissertation examines the United States government’s recruitment of foreign nationals for military research and intelligence programs in Central and Eastern Europe during the early Cold War. James also enjoys traveling, reading, and drinking coffee.
My research interests are in studying women in forms of resistance during World War II and the Holocaust, and how they impacted the lives of others and the outcome of the war. I aspire to receive my PhD and become a professor so I can influence the lives of students and bring recognition to and awareness of the Holocaust to those with lesser knowledge of the event, and how women brought about great change.
Drew Theriot is a Master of Arts student working under Dr. Noriko Kawamura. He was born and raised in rural Louisiana. In 2021, he earned his bachelor’s degree in History with minors in Sociology and Government from Nicholls State University. His current research focuses on the foreign relationship between the US and Japan during the Cold War era.
