On the evening of Friday, May 3, seven students completing their doctoral studies gathered with friends, family, and faculty to celebrate in the Koessler Room of the Michigan League.
Director of Graduate Studies Sueann Caulfield served as emcee for the event, and gave opening remarks. She then awarded Salem Elzway the 2024 Arthur Fondiler Dissertation Prize.
Individual PhD graduates were then recognized by members of their dissertation committee, and had the opportunity to speak about their own development as scholars. Students recognized at the ceremony were:
Andy Rafael Aguilera (History)
In the Shadow of Mexico: Mexican and Mexican American Conservatives During the Eras of U.S. Conquest and the Mexican Revolution, 1848-1940
Committee: Anthony P. Mora (chair), Stephen A. Berrey, Victoria Langland,Alexandra Minna Stern, William Calvo-Quirós (cognate)
Haley E. Bowen (History)
Breaching the Cloister: Laywomen, Convents, and the State in the Early Modern French Empire
Committee: Dena Goodman (co-chair), Helmut Puff (co-chair), Kenneth Mills,George Hoffman (cognate)
Salem Elzway (History)
Arms of the State: A History of the Industrial Robot in Postwar America
Committee: Matthew Lassiter (chair), John Carson, Paul N. Edwards, Joy Rohde (cognate)
David Helps (History)
Securing the World City: Policing, Migration, and the Struggle for Global Los Angeles, 1973-1994
Committee: Matthew Lassiter (chair), Matthew Countryman, Heather Ann Thompson, Melissa Borja, Melissa Burch (cognate)
Alexander J. McConnell (History)
A Humanism of Hatred, a Humanism of the Heart: Political Language, Public Morality, and Socialist Personhood in the Soviet Union
Committee: Ronald J. Suny (chair), Geoff Eley, Valerie A. Kivelson, Douglas Northrop, Olga Maiorova (cognate)
Nicole Navarro (History)
The Forgotten Latino Community: Racial Formation and the Struggle for Political Representation in Washington, D.C., 1970-1993
Committee: Matthew Lassiter (chair), Matthew Countryman, Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, Heather Ann Thompson, William D. Lopez (cognate)
Shai Zamir (History)
Friendship and Alternative Kinship in the Early Modern Iberian World
Committee: Helmut Puff (co-chair), Ryan Szpiech (co-chair), Katherine French, Kenneth Mills, Enrique García Santo-Tomás (cognate)
View the 2024 PhD Commencement Program (PDF). Selected photos are available below.
