I’m pleased to have this opportunity to introduce myself to our readers as the new Director of Graduate Studies. My predecessor as DGS, Professor Sarah Shields, steered our graduate program through the unprecedented challenges imposed by the pandemic. I thank Professor Shields for her tremendous service in this role, and am grateful that the department can continue to benefit from her experience as she transitions to the role of chair of the Committee on Teaching.
As we all try to adjust to the “new normal” after the era of lockdowns and isolation, the life of the graduate program continues at full steam. This Fall, we welcomed a new cohort of new graduate students, whose research cuts across fields and time periods:
- Luca Azuma – Modern US intellectual and religious history
- Burak Bulkan – Global history
- Ahmet Tarik Caskurlu – Military history
- Jason Castro – Asian history
- Julia Fournier – Modern US history of women, gender, and sexuality
- Hannah Fuller – Modern US history
- David Marthy – Modern US military history
- Dana Mendes – Modern US military history
- Sebastián Quinones – Early US history
- Claire Roth – US history
- Alexandr Shtumpf – Russian history
- Mark Thomas-Patterson – Cold War history
- Xinong Wang – Asian history
These impressive scholars were selected from a large pool of qualified applicants, and they join the ranks of one of the top graduate history programs in the world. They were drawn to UNC because of our faculty expertise and departmental reputation, and despite the lower funding offered by our department compared to our peer institutions. There has been some recent good news about funding, however: a generous gift from an undergraduate alumnus, combined with a university-wide increase to the minimum graduate stipend, has increased funding for graduate students during the academic year and for summer research. The department continues to advocate strongly with the administration as well as alumni donors for more resources to support our graduate students. The support of our alumni is a crucial factor in ensuring that our department maintains its international reputation for training the next generation of cutting-edge historians.
Our graduate students continued to receive highly competitive grants and fellowships.
- Zora Piskačová received the Beth Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize for an outstanding essay by a graduate student in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies for her paper, “A ‘Common Enterprise’? The Role of Utility Infrastructures in the Divided City of Teschen, 1920-1938.”
- Ben Fortun, Maddie McGrady, and Patricia Dawson were selected for the Sallie Markham Michie Award Committee of the Orange County Daughters of the American Revolution and Magna Carta Society.
- Craig Gill received the Richard Brooke Scholarship by the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid.
- Kylie Broderick and Matt Gibson were named Maynard Adams Fellows, part of a select cohort of graduate students working to build relationships with the broader community.
- Zardas Lee received a Bringing Southeast Asia Home Award Dissertation Completion Award from the Carolina Asia Center.
As I write, the members of the department are completing their last bits of grading, and preparing to recharge over Winter Break. For the graduate program, however, the break won’t be all sledding (I’m joking!) and hot chocolate, as the deadline for applications to the doctoral program is around the corner. Over the rest of the month, faculty will be reviewing the files of an impressive pool of prospective students. I look forward to updating you on the results in the Spring edition of the newsletter, which will come out in May.
Eren Tasar
Director of Graduate Studies