Graduate Student Profiles
The Saint Louis University Department of History offers up to six years of funding for qualified Ph.D. students as graduate assistants (research and teaching) and as predoctoral teaching fellows. The department is very pleased to welcome both American and international applicants to our programs, and funding is open to both.
SLU's graduate program in history is nationally-ranked, featuring Ph.D. programs in medieval Europe, U.S. history and early modern Europe. The department also offers M.A. programs in these fields, along with Byzantine, late antique, modern Europe, and world history. Students with only a B.A. may apply to the joint M.A./Ph.D. track.
Our students have distinguished themselves by gaining valuable teaching experience, presenting papers at national and international conferences, publishing articles and essays, winning grants, and writing excellent dissertations in their fields. These accomplishments have enabled many of our students to land teaching jobs in colleges and universities as well as to take positions in a variety of academic and professional settings.
Graduate Students
Abner Chacon, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Abner Chacon is a Ph.D. student in medieval history. His research focuses on the ecclesiastical, institutional, and legal history of medieval Europe with special interest in the development of the medieval canon law. He completed his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Toronto where his M.A. thesis examined the influence of Roman law and the early church on the leges barbarorum. Abner is under the guidance of Atria Larson, Ph.D., and Steven Schoenig, S.J., and is investigating the intersection and melding of law and culture in the early Middle Ages (9th-11th centuries) in his dissertation. He has presented his research at the 2023 International Medieval Congress (Leeds) and the Seventeenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law (2024). He is a coeditor of the Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law (forthcoming) and a member of Iuris Canonici Medii Aevi Consociatio (ICMAC).
Emmaleigh Calhoun, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Emmaleigh Calhoun is an M.A./Ph.D. student in medieval European history. Under the guidance of Thomas Finan, Ph.D., she studies the intersection of ecclesiastical history and craftwork in 12th- and 13th-century Gaelic Ireland. She holds a B.A. in anthropology from Emory University and an M.Sc. in experimental archaeology from University College Dublin.
William G. Edmundson, Ph.D. Candidate, Medieval
William Edmundson is a Ph.D. candidate in medieval history. He is most interested in the high and later Middle Ages and specializes in the history of religion and religious dissent, the inquisition, and Occitan and Catalan society (daily and religious life, law, politics, economy and culture). In his dissertation, directed by Professor Damian J. Smith, he is investigating the intersection of heresy, inquisition and politics in Occitania and the Crown of Aragon from about 1290 to 1330. William holds a B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2022, he received the José M. Sanchez Distinguished Teaching Award from the SLU Department of History for outstanding undergraduate teaching.
Kay Hart Daly, M.A./Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Kay Hart Daly is a M.A./Ph.D. student with a focus on the intellectual and cultural history of the medieval Mediterranean. Their research centers around the reception of the mytho-histories of the classical past, and how that past was used to understand, contextualize, and justify in-group identity and cross-cultural contact. Kay holds a B.A. in English literature from Denison University. Prior to coming to SLU, they worked as a full-stack web developer. Their past in building data-driven, interactive websites has made them interested in the challenges and potential of translating historical knowledge into modern data forms.
Brent Gordon, S.J., Ph.D. Student, Early Modern
Brent works with Charles Parker, Ph.D. on European empires and their overseas missions during the early modern period. His research interests include the early Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the interplay of empires, Catholic missionary activities, and intellectual exchanges in the 16th and 17th centuries. His dissertation focuses on the development of temporal coadjutors (lay brothers) in the Jesuits and the roles they played in global missionary efforts. He has a B.A. in classics and religion and a M.A. in history of religion, both from Florida State University, as well as a BPhil from St. John's College Seminary. Brent is a vowed religious brother in the Society of Jesus.
Deirdre Klena, Ph.D. Student, Early Modern
Deirdre Klena is a first-year Ph.D. student specializing in early modern European history with a minor concentration in medieval Europe. Her research interests have included late 15th- and early 16th-century Catholic visual and material culture, particularly in relation to devotional practices and popular religion and spirituality. Her studies have been located predominantly in the western Mediterranean, however she took a foray into the Low Countries and the German-speaking lands of northeastern France for her first M.A. Deirdre graduated with a B.A. from UCLA in 2021, where she worked closely with Téofilo Ruiz, Ph.D., double majoring in history and French with a minor in classical studies. In 2022, she received an M.A. in history and literature from Columbia University, and a M.A. in history from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris) in 2024. For both, she worked under the direction of Professor Étienne Anheim of the EHESS, producing two theses titled, respectively, “That you also may bring yourselves to imitate him”: Affective Exemplarity in Hieronymus Bosch and Matthias Grünewald’s Sixteenth Century Artistic Depictions of the Temptation of Saint Anthony,” and “Louis Bréa : Une histoire culturelle à partir d’une œuvre artistique.”
Dillon R.F. Knackstedt, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Dillon R.F. Knackstedt is a Ph.D. candidate researching medieval legal and cultural history under Damian Smith. His dissertation is on the formative ideas and practices behind the parlement founded by King Louis IX and is tentatively titled “Founding the Fourth Estate: Law and Order According to St Louis’ Parlement.” He graduated from Western Michigan University with an M.A. in history in 2019 and from Franciscan University of Steubenville with a Bachelor of Arts in 2017. He’s received grants from the Newberry Library, the Knoedler Research Fund, the CUA Institute for Human Ecology, and Project Clear to support various projects and presentations.
Courtney Knight, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Courtney Knight studies medieval and early modern Spanish cultural, intellectual and gender history. Her research interests include popular belief, medicine and science, and cross-cultural and interfaith relations. Courtney received her B.A. from Loras College ('21), of Des Moines, Iowa, where she majored in history, Spanish and biology.
Nathan Van Aken, Ph.D. Student, Early Modern
My name is Nathan Van Aken. I’m a second-year Ph.D. student studying early modern Spain and Iberian inquisitions. I am primarily interested in questions related to displaced groups, movement, gender, and space. Previously, I wrote a master’s thesis titled "Heresy in the Home: Moriscas Women and the Spanish Inquisition," which investigated the ways in which several women interacted both positively and negatively with the Spanish inquisition. While I do not have a set topic for a dissertation, I plan to continue researching Iberian inquisitions on a global stage.
Mattheis Lorimor, Ph.D. Student, Late Antique and Medieval
Mattheis Lorimor is a M.A./Ph.D. student majoring in medieval European history and minoring in late antiquity in the West. Under the direction of Atria Larson, Ph.D., and Douglas Boin, Ph.D., Mattheis’ research focuses on ecclesiastical history from the mid-third to ninth centuries with a particular research interest in the various pastoral care methods utilized by religious leaders in Gaul to shape the beliefs and behaviors of those under their spiritual authority. As part of this research interest, Mattheis explores pastoral manuscripts, homiliaries, penitentials, liturgical history, the role of local clergy in diverse local communities, and the larger formation of the Christian intellectual tradition in the West. Mattheis holds a B.A. in history and theological studies from Elmhurst College and an M.Div. and M.A. in Christian education from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is also pursuing a graduate certificate in spoken Latin through the University of Kentucky.
Evan S. McAllister, Ph.D. Candidate, Medieval
Evan McAllister is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate working under the supervision of Professor Thomas Madden. Examining liturgical quotations in 12th-century crusade narratives, Evan’s dissertation is titled, “Reading William of Tyre Liturgically: Quotations of the Psalter in the Historia Ierosolimitana.” Based on his dissertation research, Evan was awarded the Military Order of the Crusade’s scholarship and will speak at the Fifth Quadrennial Symposium on Crusade Studies at SLU-Madrid in 2024.
David M. Olsen, Ph.D.
David is a third-year doctoral candidate of medieval history with a concentration on the Almohad Empire (1130-1269), working with Damian J. Smith, Ph.D., and Clair Gilbert, PhD. His dissertation, “The Almohad Economy: Change agents in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Commercial Revolution” is in process and he expects to present in fall 2025. David received his M.A. in history at Portland State University in 2020 in which his thesis, “The Almohad: The Rise and Fall of the Strangers” was completed under the supervision of the department chair, John Ott, Ph.D. David comes to Saint Louis University after a career in general management, marketing and sales, where his experience was evenly divided between Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups. David received his MBA from The American Graduate School of International Management, which helped prepare him for the 10 years of managing international businesses in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. His interest in history, Spain, and the Maghreb began as an undergraduate (Lewis and Clark College) when he spent six months in Seville, Spain.
Paul Smith, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Paul Smith is a third-year Ph.D. student with an emphasis in medieval history. Under the direction of Thomas Finan, Ph.D., his main area of research focuses on castles and lordly landscapes in the medieval British Isles. Paul belongs to the Château Gaillard Castle Studies Colloque, and his first article is set for publication in the next volume of the 2022 conference's proceedings. Paul graduated from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (’22), with a double B.A. in history and medieval and Byzantine studies.
Father John Mayo, (Archdiocese of Saint Louis) Ph.D. Student, American
Father John Mayo is interested in mid-20th-century American Catholic church history. He works with Silvana Siddali to research Archbishop Joseph Ritter, former archbishop of St. Louis. Prior to beginning graduate studies at Saint Louis University, Father John served as a parish priest in the Archdiocese of St. Louis for 14 years.
Benjamin Wand, Ph.D. Candidate, Medieval
Ben is ABD for his Ph.D. in medieval European history. His dissertation focuses on how archbishops used an under-studied collection of canons and penitentials from Austria to administer their territory, conduct pastoral care, and how it represented their authority as religious and political figures in the early Middle Ages. His research interests include examining how canon law and the use of knowledge was used in the European Middle Ages as a tool for political or religious authority, as a driver for cultural narratives, and how it shaped social norms. His previous research explored the use of violence as a political tool, and how cultural contexts shaped how it was viewed. Ben’s general interests include unpacking the relationships between people, beliefs, institutions, and technology from the Middle Ages through the early modern period.
Jamilah Whiteside, Ph.D. Student, American
Jamilah Whiteside is a Ph.D. student with an emphasis in American history. An educator with 24 years of teaching experience, Jamilah is an active researcher in the topics of slavery in Missouri and American feminism. Her graduate work is centered around the topic of American women and their invisible contributions to early Black studies and history
Glauber Santos Wisniewski, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Glauber Santos Wisniewski is a Ph.D. student specializing in medieval European history. Particularly interested on the history of the religious and military orders in the Iberian Peninsula, he works with Professors Damian Smith and Sam Conedera on this topic. Glauber holds a B.A. in Psychology and earned his M.A. in Medieval Studies from University of Porto (Portugal) in 2024, with a dissertation titled "Abuse and Conflict in the Portuguese Lands of the Order of Santiago (1337-1507)".
Kailen Kinsey, Ph.D. Candidate, Medieval
Kailen is a Ph.D. candidate with an emphasis in medieval history. Her research with Thomas Finan, Ph.D., is focused on the role of queens in the complex and interconnected worlds of Irish, Viking and English royalties in the 11th century.
Thomas Barrows, Ph.D. Candidate, Medieval
Tommy is a Ph.D. candidate in history with an emphasis in medieval. His research explores the ways in which Anglo-Norman lords constructed motte and bailery fortifications in northern Ireland, and how view-scapes and the landscape impacted the selection of construction sites. Barrows is a member of the Chateau Gaillard Castle Studies Colloque, and has published several articles related to the castles and fortifications on the Isle of Man and in Ireland.
Brian Merlo, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Born in Australia, Brian Merlo formerly taught high school English and literature. He worked in corporate events before moving to St. Louis and being accepted into the medieval history program in 2015. Since then, Merlo has attained his M.A., defending a paper on “Pope John X and the End of the Formosan Dispute.” He currently researches early 10th-century Rome.
Thomas Morin, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Tom Morin is an M.A./Ph.D. student focusing on crusader states. He studies legal history, institutional development, and cross-cultural interactions between Latins, Byzantines, Muslims, Syriac Christians and Jews. Morin works in the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He is a former U.S. Army officer.
Alaric Powell, Ph.D. Student, Medieval
Alaric Powell studies crusader states in the 12th and 13th centuries, specifically the socio-political relationships fostered between the various sects of Eastern and Western Christians and the indigenous Muslims within them. Powell also researches attempts at ecumenical dialogue between Latin, Eastern, and Oriental Churches across the high Middle Ages. Their preferred pronouns are they/them.
Rebekah Sheldon, Ph.D. Candidate, Medieval and Byzantine
Rebekah Sheldon studies missions and reform preaching, attitudes towards sexuality and violence, ideas of honor or heroism, and the development of Christian monogamy during the early middle ages. She also studies parallel issues in medieval Islamic societies. Her dissertation focuses on two Byzantine penitentials and their relationship with western penitentials.