Current History Graduate Students

Jacey studies grassroots environmentalism in Latin American and the US West. Her broader interests include public history, oral history, transnational history, and the environment.

I study American and Environmental History. I am interested in how a history of missed opportunities between American environmentalists and people of color can provide key lessons for a modern environmental movement at a critical crossroads. What are the historical roots and genealogy of the split between white conservationists and current groups such as the far more diverse Sunrise Movement? What are the key events, decisions or laws that brought us to this modern moment with a national set of environmental groups struggling to be relevant and effective with a broader audience; a predicament that undermines their ability to tackle the challenges of a warming planet – and recognize that climate change is more than an environmental issue, it is at the intersection of socio-economic, racial, gender and cultural inequality issues as well. 

Carol has a background in fine arts and an Associate degree in environmental biology. She has experience working in various galleries, non-profit art organizations, and museums in Chicago. Her interests are rooted in cultural identities, indigenous identities, nature and biological studies, representation in public history, and accessibility of education. She is currently interested in 19th and 20th century American history.

Steve Petersen studies the American West with an emphasis on the intersection between religion and the environment. His current research looks at Mormon Trail re-enactments in context of the environment. 

Austin Schoenkopf is a Ph.D. student studying the environmental history of the American West. Having earned his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and M.A. from the University of Oklahoma, Austin is interested in the multiple histories of land use in the West’s most marginal lands. Austin’s dissertation, tentatively titled “Hot, High, and Dry: Government in the Arid West,” will draw lessons from the historical limits of federal control in arid spaces to explain the polarization of rural politics and to outline alternative visions of federal land management for a precarious future. A former national park ranger and field archaeologist, Austin attempts to bridge intellectual divides between the disciplines of history, public history, and archaeology.  

Through a research grant with the Ivan Doig Center, where he currently serves as program director, Austin was the backcountry historian at Yellowstone National Park during summer 2021. Austin is a Mellon Applied History Fellow at CU-Boulder’s Center of the American West, Researcher-in-Residence at the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association, and the president of MSU’s History Graduate Student Association. 

Matthew is conducting research at various archives including the Nebraska Historical Society – Lincoln, Montana Historical Society – Helena, the Coos County Historical Society – Coos Bay, Or., and the Oregon Historical Society – Portland, Or. The result of this research will show the various ways in which money, trust, and debt were non-material technologies used during the Gilded Age American West to create a system (that still exists today) that favored White Anglo men, while excluding the ‘Other.’ Using inter-disciplinary techniques, secondary source work includes psychology, economics, anthropology, and statistics. Matthew’s dissertation is a biography of a railroad, mining, fishing/cannery, and timber baron named Elijah ‘The Profit’ Smith. 

Joseph is interested in the intersection of  American environmental and intellectual history, as well as the history of mountains. He is researching the intellectual history and cultural meaning of the American mountain landscape. His M.A. Thesis, "Adams in the Garden: The Environmental Thought of John Adams," was a history of environmental thought in Early America and included a supplemental digital archive. His other interests include public history, geography, and the Catholic philosophy and theology of nature. In his free time he enjoys exploring the diverse landscapes of the American West as a mountaineer, peakbagger, hiker, and mountain biker.

Chris comes from a military background where he had the opportunity to travel across the globe. His interests lie in how society and the environment shape the use of the military force in American foreign policy.