The PhD Program in History has approximately 100 students currently enrolled, including:

 

 

 

 

Rashmi

Major Field: Modern South Asia and Modern Europe

Minor Field: Oral History, Public History, Digital History

Degrees Conferred: B.A. (Hons.) History, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi; MA History, University of Delhi; M.Phil History, University of Delhi; M.Phil History, Graduate Center, CUNY

Research Interests: Social and political history of 19th and 20th-century South Asia; British Empire; women’s labor, gender, race, and sexuality; caste and social exclusion.

Contact Information: rrashmi@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

                                                                     

 

Alexander Gray 

Bio: I am a first-year History PhD student at the Graduate Center, studying 20th-century American history. I plan on exploring the religious history of New York City, specifically the growth of multi-racial Buddhist communities and the internment of the city’s Buddhist priests during World War II. I received a BA with Highest Honors in History from Oberlin College in 2024.

Contact Information: agray1@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

Firat Koklu

Major Field: Middle Eastern History

Degrees Conferred: B.A. in History, Bogazici University, Istanbul; M.A. in History, Sabanci University, Istanbul

Research Interests: I am a second year PhD student working on late nineteenth and early twentieth century Ottoman history, mainly focusing on social and economic change. My research looks at labor, migration, industrial development, and how the Ottoman state dealt with new economic pressures in this period. I focus especially on the Zonguldak coalfields as a place where foreign workers, new labor regimes, consular protections, and state authority all came together in complicated ways. I am interested in questions of mobility, extraterritoriality, and labor, and how workers experienced these transformations in their daily lives.

Contact Information: fkoklu@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

Name: Sesil Artuc
Major Field: Middle Eastern History
Minor Field: History of Capitalism
Degrees Conferred: M.A. in Sociology, Bogazici University; B.A. in Sociology, Bogazici University
Research Interests: History of capitalism, political economy, labor history, gender history, Armenian history, genocide studies
Contact Information: sartuc@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

                                                       T. Walter Heiser

Bio: As a Ph.D History candidate my primary focus will be the Integralism Movement in Early 20th Century Brazil and Portugal with a secondary focus on European Authoritarian Political Thought.  My professional background is 30+ years as a project development and finance attorney in SE Asia, Brazil and Argentina—electric power, transmission lines and railways.  My academic background:  AB Columbia (History and Economics); JD New York Univ.; MBA Columbia;  LLM Columbia (International Law).

Contact Information: theiser@gradcenter.cuny.edu;  (646)247-7058

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rina Rossi

Bio: I study Latin American history, examining the use of abortifacients and infanticide among enslaved African women in the Caribbean, between the 17th and 19th centuries, as a history of medicine and reproductive autonomy. I earned my MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from New York University and BA from UC Berkeley. I am also a journalist who has been published in The Nation, Harvard Kennedy School Review, and Madison Historical Review, among others, and served as the web editor at North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA).

Contact Information: rrossi@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

 

Naomi Fischer

Major Field: U.S History, Public History

Minor Field: Women and Gender History

Degrees Conferred: BA Barnard College, 2018; en-route MA in History, CUNY Graduate Center, 2024

Research Interests: colonial memory, settler colonialism, collecting, violence

Contact Information: nfischer@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Marybeth Tamborra

Major Field: European and American History

Minor Field: Intellectual History

Degrees Conferred: MA in History, CUNY Graduate Center, AB with honors University of Chicago

Research Interests: My research examines theories of fascism in the Black Radical Tradition during the moment of emergent fascism and particularly the 1935 Invasion of Ethiopia. This transnational intellectual history weaves the interconnected protests in the West Indies with the demonstrations in Harlem, and the use of history and political theory for radical political change. My research interests include the Fascist built environment and public housing from the outskirts of Rome to the Libyan farmsteads, and the political deployment of the home as a means to attain labor, gender and political controls of the regime.

Contact info: mtamborra@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Phoenix Storm Paz

Major Field: Latin American History

Minor Field: History of Science, Technology, and Environment

Degrees Conferred: En Route MA, History, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2025; Magister, Conflicto y Paz, Universidad de Medellin, 2021; MS, Migration Studies, University of Oxford, Saint Anthoy’s College, 2013; BA History and Spanish, Cornell University, 2012. 

Research Interests: Alcohol production and consumption, mining, trade and transport infrastructures, political economy, Atlantic trade, Nueva Granada (Colombia), state formation, illicit trade (smuggling and contraband), Bourbon reforms

Contact Information: ppaz@gradcenter.cuny.edu 

 

 

 

Arkaprava Sarkar

Bio: I am a PhD student in the Department of History at the Graduate Center (CUNY), working on colonial South Asia. I am also interested in studies of gender, sexuality, and medicine. I have received my first degrees (BA ad MA) in History from Presidency University (Formerly Presidency College), Kolkata, India. I did my MPhil in History from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.

Contact Information: asarkar@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

Melanie Rush

Major Field: U.S. History

Minor Field: Women and Gender / Black Women’s History

Degrees Conferred: B.A. in History and Politics, Brandeis University

Research Interests: My research focuses on the intersections of race, gender, and law during New York’s era of gradual emancipation.

Publications: “’As though their father were dead’: Gender and Indenture in New York’s Legal Regime of Gradual Emancipation,” Journal of the Early Republic 45, Winter 2025. 

Contact Information: mrush1@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Maggie Schreiner

Major Field: U.S. History

Minor Field: Gender and sexuality

Degrees Conferred: BA, Central and Eastern European Studies (McGill University), MA Archives and Public History (New York University)

Research Interests: My dissertation looks at queer and trans activism for affordable housing in New York City in the late 20th century. I am also interested in public history, memory, and critical archival studies.

Contact Information: mschreiner@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

Keith Rosenthal

Major Field: U.S.

Minor Field: Disability

Degrees Conferred: MA in Disability Studies, MPhil in History

Research Interests: Marxism, Working Class, Capitalism, Socialism, Imperialism, Revolution, Disablement, Social Movements

Contact Information: krosenthal1@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Gloria Caminha

Major Field: U.S. history

Minor Field: Latin American history

Degrees Conferred: BA and Advanced Certificate in Business (UNIFIEO), BA in History (PUC-SP), MA in History (Brooklyn College).

Research Interests: United States foreign policy in Latin America, political economy, energy issues, and women’s history.

Contact info: gcaminha@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Marta Milla

Major Field: Modern European History

Minor Field: Southern African History

Degrees Conferred: M.Phil/M.A. History, CUNY Graduate Center; Master of International Affairs, Pennsylvania State University; B.A. with honors in History, B.A. German, B.A. International Politics, Pennsylvania State University

Research Interests: Germany, Namibia and southern Africa, (post-)colonialism, public history and memory, international education.

Publications:

“”Facing a “Difficult Heritage”: Decolonizing Baden-Württemberg’s Relationship with Namibia through Research, Restitution, and Repatriation,” German Politics and Society, March 2024.

Conference Report: “From Contested Ownership to (In)Voluntary Returns: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Postcolonial Fight for Restitution and Repatriation,” H-Soz-Kult, January 2025.

“A Protectorate Divided: The Otjimbingue Petition and Settler Contestations of Railway Construction in German Southwest Africa, 1897–1902,” German History [Special Volume forthcoming in December 2025].

Contact Information: mmillar@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

Yuliya Barycheuskaya

Major Field: Modern European History

Minor Field: Modern American History; certified in Gender Studies

Degrees Conferred: B.A. and M.A. in History; M.A. in Liberal Arts

Research Interests: My dissertation examines the themes of love, gender, and sexuality in Russian popular culture during the East European transition, from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. My broader research interests include Soviet and post-Soviet history, class, cultural, and social history, film and media studies, the history of emotions, and the history of gender and sexuality. I am especially passionate about female culture and understanding of womanhood and women’s roles in society, both historically and in contemporary contexts.

Contact Information: ybarycheuskaya@gradcenter.cuny.edu

Publications: Barycheuskaya, Yuliya. “The Sexy Voice of Perestroika: The Intersection of Rock Music, Politics, and Sexuality in the Songs of Nautilus Pompilius.” Betekintő 18, no. 4 (Special issue: Popular Music in the Soviet Bloc, 2024): 81–102. https://betekinto.hu/sites/default/files/betekinto-szamok/2024_04_barycheuskaya.pdf

 

 

Elisabeth Champion

Major Field: Modern European History

Minor Field: Women and Gender

Degrees Conferred: B.A. in History, Smith College, 2021; M.A. in History, University of Vermont, 2023.

Research Interests: twentieth-century Germany, Nazi Germany, the Hitler Youth, sexual politics, women, gender, and sexuality.

Contact Information: echampion@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

R.B. (Rachel) Tiven

Major Field: U.S. History

Minor Field: Women & Gender

Degrees conferred: A.B., Comparative Religion, Harvard University; J.D., Columbia Law School; M.A./M.Phil, CUNY Grad Center

Research interests: My dissertation is a political history of the Nineteenth Amendment, locating women’s suffrage at the center of the ongoing fight for one person, one vote. 

Contact info: rtiven@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Soheil Asefi

Major Field: Modern European and U.S. History

Minor Field: Public and Oral History; Politics of Memory, Diaspora and Transnational History

Degrees Conferred: M.A. in Political Science, The New School for Social Research (NSSR), 2017; B.A. in Film Studies, Tehran Art Soore University (SU), 2008

Research Interests: Modern US and German History and Sexuality; New York City’s history; Transnational and Transatlantic History; Public, urban, and oral history; Marxism and Historical Materialism; Iranian leftist movements; The Politics of Memory, Belonging, and Trauma; Revolutionary politic and Global South/the Third World; The Cold War and Imperialism; The Commodification of Public Spheres; The geography of sexuality; Political Agency in Exile; Queer Diaspora; Queer people of color (QPoC); “Guest workers” in Germany; Refugees and migration; Radical queer history; Diaspora politics

Contact Info: sasefi@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

Chris Harding

Major Field: Middle Eastern History

Minor Field: The History of Capital and Capitalism

Degrees Conferred: BA, History and Politics, The University of Sussex. MPhil, World History, The University of Cambridge.

Research Interests: Chris works on economic and agricultural development during the British Mandate of Palestine (1922-1948). He is interested in mapping flows of capital into the region and examining the impact it had. He also works on the history of class and the agrarian question under the Mandate.

Contact Information: chrisjonharding@gmail.com

 

 

 

Laureencia Morice

Major Field: European history

Minor Field: Jewish history 

Degrees Conferred: BA History and BA Political Sciences – Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne; MA History – École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris)

Research Interests: Early modern Caribbean, Sephardic diaspora, Atlantic history, Jewish religious practices in colonial environment, Jewish-slave relationships 

Contact Information: lmorice@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Bryan Guichardo 

Major Field: Modern (Afro) Latin American and Caribbean History

Minor Field: Modern African American History

Degrees Conferred: B.A. in Anthropology and Black Studies with honors (City College of New York – CUNY, 2019)

Research Interests:

• Race, Nation, and Ideology; Black Intellectual and Political Thought; Nationalism and Transnationalism; Black Social Movements; Afro-Latin American Exile Communities, Print Culture, and Political Dissent; Afro-Latin American Intellectual and Cultural History; 19th and 20th Spanish Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic)

Contact Information: bguichardo@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Maricarmen Canales-Moreno

Major Field: Modern Latin American History

Minor Field: Cold War and Social Movements

Degrees Conferred: BA in History, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, The City College of New York, CUNY; MA in History, The City College of New York, CUNY

Research Interests: US Policy since the 1960s, to 1980s; US interventions in Latin America, state terrorism (emphasis on Operation Condor), counterinsurgency, resistance movements, Latin American left

Contact Information: mcanalesmoreno@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Ian Gregory

Major Field: 19^th Century France

Minor Field: Antisemitism

Degrees Conferred: MA in History – University of Chicago; BA in History, English – Pennsylvania State University

Research Interests: French popular culture in the fin-de-siècle, particularly occultism, spiritism and psychical research and their relationship with politics, antisemitism, and the Dreyfus Affair.

Contact info: igregory@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Sato Moughalian

Major Field: Modern European History

Minor Field: Middle East Studies, Armenian Studies

Degrees Conferred: MA in Liberal Studies, CUNY Graduate Center

Research Interests: Armenian history, art history, mass violence, world history, material culture, exhibition studies, mobility, diaspora studies

 Recent Publications:

Editor of bilingual publication Armenian Book Art of the “Charents Era”: 1928-1935 (Yerevan: Antares, 2024) [exhibition catalog]

Feast of Ashes: The Life and Art of David Ohannessian (Redwood-Stanford University Press, 2019).

Contact Information: smoughalian@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Bret Windhauser

Major Field: Middle Eastern History

Minor Field: African History

Degrees Conferred: BA in International and Global Studies and French, The University of the South; MA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, The University of Washington

Research Interests: History of Iraq, medicine, smuggling and illegality, death and burial, biopolitics, gender and bodies

Contact Information: bret.windhauser29@gc.cuny.edu

Publications: Windhauser, Bret. 2022. “Walled In, Out of Sight: The Contested Urban Environment of Baghdad”. Journal of Illicit Economies and Development 4 (3): 370–381.DOI: https://doi.org/10.31389/jied.127

 

 

Demetrio Iannone

Major Field: Modern European History

Minor Field: U.S. History

Degrees Conferred: B.A. (magna cum laude) in History and International Affairs, John Cabot University (2021).

Research Interests: Totalitarian regimes, Fascism, Fascists abroad and Italian-americans, the Italian and international communist movement, the USSR, cinema and biographic history.

Publications: “Misiano e la Mezhrabpom-Film: fine di una storia” in Francesco Misiano Cinema e Rivoluzione: Opere letterarie, Avventure di Celluloide edited by Eugenio Attanasio, published by Cineteca della Calabria. (January, 2023)

Contact Information: diannone@gradcenter.cuny.edu 

 

 

 

 

Tyler Brady

Major Field: American History

Minor Field: Disability History

Degrees Conferred: New York University, BA in Individualized Study, 2020; Columbia University, MA in Oral History, 2022.

Research Interests: Oral History, Disability Studies, Disabled Veterans, The History of Social Movements, Sports and Activism

Contact Information: tbrady@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

                                                         

Chris Del Santo

Major Field: United States History

Minor Field: Atlantic World

Degrees Conferred: B.A. in History, Political Science, American Studies (Providence College); M.A. in History (Villanova University)

Research Interests: Early U.S., the Atlantic World, politics, material culture, social and cultural history of capitalism, print culture

Contact Information: cdelsanto@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Rafael Davis Portela
Major Field: Latin American History
Minor Field: History of Capitalism
Degrees Conferred: M.Phil in History, The Graduate Center; M.A. in Social History, Universidade Federal da Bahia; B.A. in History, Universidade Federal da Bahia.
Research Interests: History of Capitalism; Transnational History; History of Transportation; Riots and Rebellions in Latin America.
Recent publications: “O Caso da Canoa Incendiada: Perfis e Relações de Pescadores em Salvador (1853-1880)”, Revista Mundos do Trabalho Vol 7 Num 14 (2015).
Contact info: rdavisportela@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Mohamad Nour Hodeib
Major Field: Middle East History
Minor Field: Intellectual History
Degrees Conferred: M.A. Middle East Studies, Graduate Center (CUNY); B.A., Political Science/International Affairs, Lebanese American University
Research Interests: Power, intellectuals, ideology, political culture, cultural history, revolutionary politics, counter-culture, poetry, music, song, civil war, the Arab Levant, Lebanon, Palestine
Contact Info: mhodeib@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Rebecca Irvine

Major Field: Modern Middle East

Minor Field: History of medicine

Degrees Conferred: BA History, University of Sheffield; MA Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University

Research Interests: public health, gender, colonialism, history of Iraq

Contact info: rirvine@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

 

Hamilton Craig

Major Field: Modern U.S. history

Research Interests: Farmers’ movements, capitalism and anti-capitalism, conservatism, migration

Degrees conferred: B.A. in History, Berea College (2021)

Publications: “Close Community: Rural Working-Class Culture in the 1910 Hudson River Mill Strike,” in Tufts Historical Review, vol. 13  (Spring 2021)

Contact Information: hcraig@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Robert M. Cleary

Major Field: U.S. History

Minor Field: undecided

Degrees Conferred: M.A. in Liberal Studies, CUNY Graduate Center (2021); B.A. in American Studies, CUNY BA Program, at Hunter College (2020).

Research Interests: History of ideas, social history, queer history.

Contact info: rcleary1@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jessica Georges

Major Field: US (Early Republic)

Minor Field: African Diaspora (comparative slavery)

Degrees Conferred: MPhil CUNY Graduate Center

Research Interests: New York, Early Republic, African American, and Gender histories

Contact info: jgeorges1@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Duangkamol Tantirungkij

Major Field: US History

Minor Field: History of Capitalism

Degrees Conferred:  BA in Economics (Chulalongkorn University, 2012), M.Phil in History (CUNY Graduate Center, 2020)

Research Interests: settler colonialism, Antebellum national politics, slavery and the law

Dissertation Title: “An Act of Congress: Freedom Suits and the Emancipatory Consequences of the Northwest Ordinance”

Contact Information: dtantirungkij@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Blake Mcgready

Major Field: U.S. History

Minor Field: undecided

Degrees Conferred: B.A. in History, SUNY New Paltz (2013); M.A. in History, Villanova University (2017)

Research Interests:  early U.S. history, environmental history

Contact info: bmcgready@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Adam Kocurek
Major Field: American History
Minor Field: Gender History/Feminist Studies
Research Interests: Labor history, LGBT history, History of Sexuality, History of Gender.
Contact info: akocurek@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

Richard A. Naclerio

Major Field: American History

Minor Field: Middle Eastern History

Degrees Conferred: BA, MA, MPhil

Research Interests: My area of interest is United States Financial and Economic History. I am presently working on my dissertation, which covers the recent growth of Credit Rating Agencies and their role in the Crash of 2008.

Contact info: rnaclerio@gradcenter.cuny.edu

Publications:  Book: The Federal Reserve and It’s Founders: Money, Politics and Power, Agenda Publishing / Columbia University Press

Op-Ed: “Wall Street’s Grand Design: The Federal Reserve” Columbia University Press Blog

Text Book Contribution: “Progressive Era” section of The American Yawp, Stanford University Press

Article: “The Panic of 1907: How J.P. Morgan Took Over Wall Street” The Gotham Center for New York City History Blog

 

 

 

 

Arinn Amer

Major Field: American History

Minor Field: Theory and History of Violence

Degrees Conferred: BA, American Studies, Columbia University (2011); MA, MPhil American History, CUNY Graduate Center (2016, 2018)

Research interests: Early American material and print culture, tarring and feathering
Contact info: aamer2@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Kate Kelley

Major Field: Modern Europe

Minor Field: Intellectual History

Degrees Conferred: B.A. in History and German, Hunter College; M.A. in History, CUNY Graduate Center

Research Interests: Cold War, Soviet bloc, East Germany, communism, socialism, art & culture, performance, politics, the state, nationality, memory, race, gender & sexuality

Dissertation Working Title: “How Cinderella became a Communist: The Politics of Classical Ballet in East Germany”

Contact info: kkelley@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

Jack Devine

Major Field: US History

Minor Field: Undecided

Degrees Conferred: B.A. History & Screen, Arts, and Cultures (University of Michigan, 2014); M.A. Liberal Studies (CUNY Graduate Center, 2020)

Research Interests: The American Civil War and Reconstruction, Capitalism and Slavery, Abolition Democracy, Marxism, Socialism and the American Labor Movement

Contact info: jdevine@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

Micki Kaufman

Major Field: US History (20th C)

Minor Field: World / International History

Degrees Conferred: B.A., U.S. History with Highest Honors, Columbia University. A.A., Simon’s Rock of Bard College

Research Interests: My research focuses on computational research in U.S. diplomatic and international history, most recently an analysis of the tenure of Henry Kissinger as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State using a large collection of the DNSA’s declassified U.S. government archives dated 1968-1977. I am co-author of an article on Cold War wargaming and technology forecasting in the December 2012 American Historical Review titled “General, I Have Fought Just as Many Nuclear Wars As You Have,” and I received a 2012-2013 Provost’s Digital Innovation Grant to expand my research to include additional databases including the ‘Foreign Policy Files’ of the US State Department (NARA Secret Record Group 59). I have taught undergraduate history at Hunter College and have served as the Technology Coordinator for the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative’s 2011 “Summer Fever” and 2010 “Nuclear Summer” research programs.

 

David Pultz

Major Field: U.S. History

Minor Field: History of Human Rights

Degrees Conferred: M.A. American History, The City College of New York (2018). BFA Media Studies, Emerson College (1976).

Research Interests: Slavery and abolition, religious antislavery, intersection of antislavery and human rights, antebellum New York City, reconstruction.

Contact: dpultz@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Kikuko Tanaka

Major Field: Modern European History

Minor Field: Intellectual History

Degree Conferred: M.A in History (CUNY Graduate Center, NY), B.S in Environmental Cultural History (Chiba University, Japan)

Research Interests: Global cross-pollination of philosophy, religion, and ideology; Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment philosophical traditions; Orientalism; politics of history-writing; philosophy of history and historiographic methods

Dissertation Topic: My dissertation probes into the political implications of Japanese philosopher Kuki Shūzō’s aesthetic and formal philosophy. Contrary to the preceding historiography that condemned Kuki as a fascist, my dissertation argues that Kuki’s philosophy contained potentiality for anti-totalitarianism.

Contact info: ktanaka@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

Deena Ecker

Major Field: U.S. History

Minor Field: Women and Sexuality

Degrees Conferred: B.A., History, Brandeis University

Research Interests:  Prostitution, history of sexuality, history of gender, women’s history, urban history, New York City history

.Contact info:  decker@gradcenter.cuny.edu

 

 

 

 

Cathy Cabrera-Figueroa

Major Field: Latin American History

Minor Field: US and Latino History

Degrees Conferred: MA in History, The Graduate Center, City University of New York. MA in Liberal Studies, Lehman College. BS in Psychology, Fordham University.

Research Interests: Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican diaspora, early 20th century Latin America, Migration, Labor, Gender and Sexuality,

Contact info: ccabrerafi@gradcenter.cuny.edu