Loyola University Chicago

Department of History

Doctoral Outcomes

Each year, Loyola bestows PhD degrees on candidates who go on to enter a variety of career fields in the academic departments, public history avenues, among many other fields.  From 2000 through August 2022, 94 students received Loyola doctoral degrees in History. Of the 94 recipients, 28 currently hold tenure-track appointments, 31 others hold full-time teaching or administrative appointments in educational institutions, and 35 others hold full-time positions in public history or cultural institutions or in a variety of employment settings.

2023
Assistant Professor of History, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont, NC
Dissertation: Enshrining Memory
Director: Patricia Mooney-Melvin
Assistant Professor of Public History, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN
Dissertation: "Looking Forward, Looking Back: Depression-Era World’s Fairs, Imagined Pasts, and Hopeful Futures"
Advisor: Dr. Benjamin Johnson
Katie Macica
Postdoctoral Fellow in Public History, Department of History, University of Oregon, 2023-2024
Dissertation: Environments of War: The Pacific Northwest and the Waging of World War II
Advisor: Patricia Mooney-Melvin
2022
Matthew Amyx
Adjunct Instructor, History Department and Arrupe College, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL
Dissertation: "Detrimental Influences”: The Home Owners Loan Corporation and Racial Residential Segregation in Chicago
Advisor: Timothy Gilfoyle

 
Nathan Ellstrand
Postdoctoral DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) Research Partner Fellow, History Department, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
Dissertation: Reclaiming the Patria: Sinarquismo in the United States, 1937-1946
Advisor: Benjamin Johnson
 
Sean Jacobson
Assistant Professor of Public History and American Indian History, University of North Alabama, Florence, AL
Dissertation: A Past Not Present: Memory, Christianity, and Indian Removal Mission Sites in the Great Lakes and the South
Advisor: Theodore Karamanski
 

Ella Wagner
Historian, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education, National Parks Service, Washington, D.C.
Dissertation: “The Saloon is their Palace”: Race and Politics in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, 1874-1920
Advisor: Michelle Nickerson

2021
 
Jenny Clay
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, North Park University, Chicago, IL
Dissertation:“Peace Bodies: Women, Encampments, and the Struggle against Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War”
Advisor: Michelle Nickerson
Kelly Schmidt
Postdoctoral Fellow in African and African American Studies, Washington University Slavery Project, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Dissertation: "We heard sometimes their earnest desire to be free in a free country": Enslaved People, Jesuit Masters, and Negotiations for Freedom on American Borderlands, 1823-1930
Advisors: Kyle Roberts and Theodore Karamanski
 
Sebastian Wuepper
Collections Consultant, DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, Chicago, IL;
Visiting Scholar, Loyola University Chicago, Department of Theology, Chicago, IL
Dissertation: Reams, Revolutionaries and Radicals - The German American Milieu in Chicago, 1847-1890
Advisor: Timothy Gilfoyle
2020
Chelsea Denault
Michigan Digital Preservation Network Coordinator, Midwest Collaborative for Library Sciences, Lansing, MI
Dissertation: “An Environmental Sleight of Hand:" Trash, Activism, and Urban Finance in Detroit, 1970-1990
Advisor: Elliott Gorn
Ruby Oram
Assistant Professor of Practice in Local and Community History, Texas State University - San Marcos Campus, San Marcos, TX
Dissertation: Useful for Life: Women, Girls, and Vocational School Reform in Chicago, 1880-1930
Advisor: Timothy Gilfoyle
 
Hope Shannon
Marketing and Engagement Manager, American Historical Association, Washington, DC
Dissertation: Mobilizing the Past: Local History and Community Action in Modern Metropolitan Chicago
Advisor: Patricia Mooney-Melvin
2019
Curator, Winnetka Historical Society, Winnetka, IL;
Contract Researcher at U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association
Dissertation: Exhibiting Sovereignty: Tribal Museums in the Great Lakes Region, 1969-2010
Advisor: Theodore Karamanski
 
Nicole Perez
Accreditation Services Associate, Higher Learning Commission, Chicago, IL
Dissertation: 'The Audacity to Dream': Black Suburbanization in Metropolitan Detroit, 1920-90
Advisor: Michelle Nickerson
Freelance Public Historian and Web Designer
Dissertation: All and More That Was Owed: American Indians and Settler Capitalism on the Upper Mississippi, 1805-1890
Advisor: Theodore Karamanski
2018
Nathan Jérémie-Brink
The L. Russell Feakes Assistant Professor of the History of Global Christianity, New Brunswick Theological Seminary,  New Brunswick, NJ
Dissertation: “Gratuitous Distribution”: Distributing African American Antislavery Texts, 1773-1845
Advisor: Kyle Roberts
2017
Rachel Boyle
Public Historian and Co-Founder, Omnia History
Board of Directors of the National Council on Public History (2020-2022)
Dissertation: "She Shot Him Dead: The Criminalization of Women and the Struggle over Social Order in Chicago, 1871-1919"
Advisor: Timothy Gilfoyle
  Amy Oberlin
Senior Associate of Investigations and Disputes, Kroll Associates, Inc., New York, NY
Dissertation: "Love and Loyal Actions: Ritual Affect and Royal Authority, 1688-1760"
Advisor: Robert Bucholz
Noah Phelps
Director of Information Management, Sigma Chi Foundation, Evanston, IL
Dissertation: "Transport for Early Modern London: London's Transportation Environment and the Experience of Movement, 1500–1800"
Advisor: Robert Bucholz
  O. Eliot Pope
Upper School History Teacher, Francis W. Parker School, Chicago, IL
Dissertation: "Forgotten Soldiers from a Forgotten War: Oral History Testimonies of African American Korean War Veterans"
Advisor: Christopher Manning
Chris Ramsey
Team Manager, Hudson Legal, New York, NY
Dissertation: "Forgetting How to Hate: The Evolution of White Responses to Racial Integration in Chicago, 1946-1987"
Advisor: Timothy Gilfoyle
  Marisol Rivera
Assistant Professor of History/Political Science, Elgin Community College, Elgin, IL
Dissertation: "Survival Under Oppression: The Puerto Rican and Allied Struggle for Representation in Chicago, 1950-1983"
Advisor: Christopher Manning
  Gregory Ruth
Social Studies Department Co-Chair, Asia Pacific International School, Seoul, South Korea
Dissertation: "Pancho Gonzales' Racket: Citizenship and Celebrity in the Creation of Modern Tennis"
Advisor: Timothy Gilfoyle 
  Amelia Serafine
Instructor (Tenure Track), History, San Antonio College, Alamo Colleges, San Antonio, TX
Dissertation: "Let's Get Together and Chew the FAT: Women, Size, and Community in Modern America"
Advisor: Michelle Nickerson
 


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