Emily Cook

Emily is a second year M.A. student in the history program (happily married to a super cute physicist).  Hailing from Princeton, West Virginia (located in southern West Virginia), Emily received a B.A. in English from West Virginia University before beginning her study at Virginia Tech.   She currently works at Special Collections at Newman Library as the graduate assistant processing new material and composing finding aids.  Currently writing her thesis on the Library Company of Philadelphia, Emily hopes to continue her work in libraries and eventually earn a masters degree in library science.

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Addison Dalton
Greetings. My name is Addison Dalton and I am a first-year student in the Latin American Studies graduate program. Presently, I do not have a concrete research focus, although issues of sustainability and development are of particular interest. I hail from Sycamore, Virginia, a place so small it doesn't have its own zip code (so we borrow Gretna's). My undergraduate days were spent at Ferrum College in Franklin County, Virginia; there I studied Spanish, Political Science, and Environmental Science. For several years after graduation, I taught Spanish in Patrick County, Virginia, before moving to Lynchburg to work with Legal Aid for a brief time. Then, despite having become an expert in poverty law (I kid myself), I decided to return to the world of teaching. But before doing so, I'm here at Tech to study a part of the world that holds much in the way of intrigue, excitement, conflict, beauty, and promise. Cheers!

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Jeremy Whitlock
Jeremy is a second-year graduate student in the History program at Virginia Tech. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina in History with a minor in Religious Studies.  His current projects include indexing the Macon Weekly Telegraph for Professor William C. Davis.  His current research interests include Alcohol in the American Civil War, and his Master's thesis examines Alcohol in the Confederacy.  He plans on pursuing an additional Master's degree in Education after his time at Virginia Tech.

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Marina Falasca
Marina is a first-year graduate student in the Area Studies program at Virginia Tech. She is originally from Argentina, where she got her degree in teaching English as a foreign language in 2004. She was a Fulbright foreign language teaching assistant at South Dakota State University during 2005-2006 and got her M.A.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction at SDSU in May 2007. Her current research interests include Latin America and critical pedagogy.

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Eric Vanover

Eric is a first year graduate student this year.  He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia at Wise in History.  At Wise, Eric minored English Literature.  His research interests include the American Civil War, 20th Century European History, and Colonial Africa.  Eric is looking to write his Master's thesis on Civil War Flags and corresponding narratives of nationalism.   After Graduate School at Virginia Tech Eric wants to pursue a Ph.D in History.
 

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Joseph A. Forte
Joseph A. Forte is pursuing a Spring 2010 defense of his Thesis project analyzing the cultural echo of the American mid-century shift from a New Deal economy and society to one dominated by the military industrial complex and the Cold War. This will be an analysis focused on pulp science fiction publications during and immediately following World War II, specifically those edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.--to whom credit is largely attributed for the creation of the modern genre of science fiction. Joe moved from New Jersey to Blacksburg last summer with his wife Heather and their 8 year old son Ulysses, who wants to be a "black-hole-ologist" when he grows up.

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Lindsey Newman

Lindsey Newman is a second-year student in the History program, and is currently the President of the History Graduate Student Association. She completed her undergraduate work at Christopher Newport University, which is located in the "land of milk and honey," aka Hampton Roads, Virginia. She is currently completing her thesis on witchcraft and religion in seventeenth-century Virginia. Lindsey loves the great commonwealth of Virginia, movies, traveling, and the beach! Feel free to contact her with any questions you may have about pursuing graduate work at Virginia Tech.

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Charles Evangelisti

Charles Evangelisti received his B.A in History from Virginia Tech in the spring of 2007.  He continued on with his studies and is currently finishing his master's in History.  He hopes to graduate in May 2009.  After having spent some time working as a canoe guide along the Minnesota/Ontario border, he became interested in the fur trade and British expansion within western Canada.  His thesis reflects his interest in British expansion within western Canada.

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Amy Coffman
 

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Emily Bibby
 

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Juan Carlos Sanchez-Sierra
Juan Carlos hails from Bogota, Colombia, and is currently a graduate student in the ASPECT program at Virginia Tech. He will receive a Master's in History in the spring of 2008.

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Ryan Updike
Ryan is currently a second-year graduate student in History.  He is in the process of completing a dual masters program at Virginia Tech in History and Education.  His masters thesis examines ideas  environmental awareness and forests during the American Civil War. Originally from Dover, Pennsylvania, Ryan's other research interests include American Military history and American Presidential elections.

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Sarah Hewitt
Sarah is a first-year graduate student from King George, Virginia. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 2008 with a degree in history and currently serves as the co-chair (with Joe Forte) of the 2009 Bertoti conference. Her research interests are based in the Atlantic world, particularly in the history of women, slavery, and American Indians, and she hopes to go on to a Ph.D program in Atlantic history once she graduates.