History graduate students at Texas A&M University are on the move. The Department of History ensures student scholars are prepared for success. From the Center of Military History, to museum work and Fullbright teaching, Aggie historians are influencing the world of humanities and gaining diverse academic and professional experiences.
John Lewis, a current Ph.D. candidate, has returned to Texas A&M after a two-year-long fellowship with the Center of Military History (CMH) in Washington D.C. With his initial position as a Graduate Research Assistant in 2022, John supported the CMH’s Force Structure and Unit History (FPO) branch with their unit awards and campaign participation credit case work. In 2023, John’s position transitioned under the Charles Young Fellowship, and became an academic fellow until 2024.
As a Charles Young fellow, John took a leading role on the Bosnia-Herzegovina Campaign Participation Credit case and researched a list of units recommended for credit over 600 units long. He explains that while he conducted assigned work for the CMH, his role included enough flexibility and time to pursue his own research interests. John wrote a chapter about the depictions of African American soldiers in World War I video games, and this essay will be in an edited volume about popular media depictions of Black soldiers.
“My time at CMH was an amazing professional development experience and a grand historian’s adventure,” John states. “I was paid well and received excellent historical training. I learned a great deal about what it meant to be a historian for the Army and what work means to the army and to the public … Aggie historians have a long tradition of serving the Republic’s armed forces and I am proud to have taken part in that tradition.”
Sarah Vegerano, Ph.D. student, is currently working at a Historian Consultant and pending a Historian position with the Department of the Airforce. She stated, “I pursued this position to gain skills and apply my education in a new field. This role enabled me to understand better and apply the skills I acquired from my Master’s program to real-world projects. … I like using my skills as a historian in real-world scenarios.”
“For those wishing to pursue a similar career, I suggest diversifying and looking at a certificate from TAMU in the historic preservation field and public history courses.”
Ph.D. candidate Tristan Krause has secured a Glasscock Residential Fellowship to complete his dissertation. As a residential fellow, Krause receives office space and funding to write his dissertation during the Spring 2025 semester. He explained this is useful because, “I am both a scholar and practitioner of U.S. remains recovery operations. Every summer, I work in Western Europe on archaeology excavations with the Cranfield Recovery and Identification of Conflict Casualties program in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to recover the remains of U.S. military personnel listed as missing in action. Texas A&M University celebrates this multidisciplinary approach, so this fellowship from the Glasscock Center provides the rare and much-needed opportunity to concentrate solely on writing my dissertation.”
“I am honored to have the Glasscock Center support my academic work that will, in turn, advance modern recovery efforts. This is humanities in action: research that helps honor past sacrifice and bring closure to family members and friends still waiting at home for answers.”
2024 graduates are succeeding in and outside of the United States as well.
Darby Cheek, 2024 Master’s graduate, is now the Youth and Engagement Coordinator for the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas. As a public-facing educator, Darby brings history to public schools in and outside of Texas, as well as designs outreach events with an emphasis on historical artifacts. Currently, Darby is developing a program in which students and volunteers learn how comic books were influenced by and influenced World War II, as well as making their own comics based on veterans’ oral histories.
While pursuing his master’s degree at TAMU, recruiters visited undergraduate and graduate history students to promote internship opportunities at the museum. Darby first received a summer internship, and this position transitioned into a full-time position. “I was really good at programming, and I worked well with the staff, so they hired me after the internship ended. Definitely giving full credit to TAMU for that one!”
After serving as a Graduate Research Assistant at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Dr. Meghan Ashley Vance, 2024 Ph.D. graduate, is now the Colonel Charles Young Postdoctoral Fellow.
“Receiving a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University helped me prepare for a career in the federal government because it provided a rich foundation of military history expertise… The History Department’s efforts to provide students with resources and education on non-academic careers was also invaluable, as I was able to network with professionals in different fields and participate in an established internship program with the U.S. Army, which, alongside many other former students, has turned into a permanent position in Washington D.C.”
Sophia Rouse, 2024 Master’s graduate, is now implementing the teaching, language, and research skills she developed at TAMU abroad. As an English Teaching Assistant with the German-American Fullbright Commission, Sophia teaches bilingual English-language and German-language German history courses. She explained, “I lead students in discussions of U.S. culture, history, and politics,” and “Through the Meet U.S. Program with the United States Embassies and Consulates in Germany, I also travel to schools across Germany to deliver presentations on and facilitate discussions about life and politics in the United States.”
Sophia’s experiences as a Graduate Teaching Assistant with history professor Dr. Kevin McGlone prepared her for teaching in Germany. She stated, “Working with Dr. McGlone as a teaching assistant for two semesters helped prepare me to take on more of a leadership role in my classrooms in Germany. Dr. McGlone helped me develop my classroom management and teaching skills as well as taught me how to manage students across various classes and lessons.”