University of Southern Mississippi

Graduate Student, History

Graduate Assistant

College of Arts and Letters

About

Ph.D. European History, in progress
University of Southern Mississippi
Dissertation Title: TBD
Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Jeff Bowersox

M.A. Military History, 2008
Norwich University – Northfield, VT
Thesis: The Fall of Classical Sparta: Reassessing the Collapse of Spartan Military and Poltical Hegemony
Thesis Adviser: Dr. Jim Tucci

B.S. Business Administration, 1997
Minors: Economics, Computer Information Systems
Union College – Barbourville, KY
Academic Adviser: Dr. Ella Hensley

I am a third-year PhD student specializing Modern European History with emphasis on Social History and War and Society.  I have recently completed my PhD examinations and am currently working on my dissertation prospectus.

My dissertation will tentatively examine the ‘trench culture’ of Austro-Hungarian soldiers during the First World War.  A comparative wealth of scholarship exists on experience the British “Tommy,” the French “poilu,” the American “Dough Boy,” and more recently, the experience of German troops on the Western Front.  Much of that literature reveals their attitudes toward the war, their motivations, and the ways they coped with the daily drudgery and horrors of war, as well as how they related to their comrades-in-arms, and their perceptions of the enemy.  By contrast, scholars have paid comparatively little attention to Austria-Hungary as a belligerent in the Great War, much less to the minutia of the day-to-day lives of its soldiers.  My dissertation will, in this way, contribute to filling this gap in First World War scholarship, answering questions centered around how the soldiers of this multi-national, multi-lingual army interacted with one another.  Did the politics of nationalism permeate and affect attitudes toward their comrades-in-arms? What was the impact of this hyper-diversity on the development of camaraderie and unit cohesion?

When not reading, writing, grading, or teaching, I enjoy spending time with my wife, Jodie, and son, Wilhem.  I also enjoy watching football, travelling, plein air oil painting, and brewing beer.

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