Jochen S. Arndt is an Associate Professor who teaches advanced courses in African history and a two-semester freshmen course in World history. His research is geographically anchored in Africa, particularly Southern Africa, and explores global themes such as the encounters between Africans and non-Africans through colonialism and armed conflict.

With support from the Social Sciences Research Council and the American Historical Association, Arndt published his first book, Divided by the Word: Colonial Encounters and the Remaking of Zulu and Xhosa Identities (University of Virginia Press 2022; Wits University Press 2022). He has also published award-winning articles on topics including the Cape frontier wars, Zulu history, and the Mexican-American War in the Journal of Southern African Studies, the Journal of the Middle East and Africa, and the Journal of Military History. One of these publications received the Distinguished Writing Award from the Army Historical Foundation (2012). Most recently, he conducted research in the Military, Diplomatic, and Stasi archives in Germany for a project on the Cold War in Angola.

His research has led to invited talks at institutions such as the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wits University), the African Historical & African Languages Seminar (University of Cape Town), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Hosei University), and the Japan Association for African Studies (Konan University). Arndt is also an Honorary Research Scholar at the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Arndt joined VMI in 2016 after receiving degrees from Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Virginia Military Institute has recognized his teaching with the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award and the Wilbur S. Hinman Jr. ’26 Award (both in 2020), and his scholarship with the Jackson-Hope Prize for Excellence in Published Scholarly Work and the Dr. D. Rae Carpenter Award (2023, 2017).

In addition to his teaching and research, Arndt serves as Senior Program Director for the VMI Olmsted Study Abroad Program, Deputy Director of the John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History & Strategic Analysis, and Faculty Advisor to the Class of 2026.

Christopher M. Blunda teaches advanced courses on the history of the ancient Mediterranean and the two-semester World History course. Before joining the History Department at VMI, he received a bachelor’s degree in Classics from Cornell University, a master’s degree in the History of Christianity from Harvard Divinity School, and a doctorate in History from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the cultural and intellectual history of the late Roman Empire, particularly asceticism in southern Gaul during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries A.D. He is the coeditor, with Susanna Elm, of The Late (Wild) Augustine (Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag/Brill, 2021).

Assistant Professor
History

Professor Mark Boonshoft received his B.A. from SUNY-Buffalo and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. His first book, Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic, was published in 2020 by the University of North Carolina Press and was a finalist for the 2021 George Washington Book Prize. Boonshoft is currently working on a book about violence, slavery, and the origins of constitutional democracy in revolutionary America, using New York State as a case study. He has also published a number of articles and essays, including “From Property to Education: Public Schooling, Race, and the Transformation of Suffrage in the Early National North,” which appeared in the Journal of the Early Republic and was awarded the 2022 History of Education Society Prize for “the most distinguished scholarly essay in educational history—broadly defined to cover a wide range of educational and cultural institutions inside and outside the United States— … published in any journal over the previous two-year period.” Most recently, he was co-editor of American Revolutions in the Digital Age (Cornell University Press).  

Before joining the VMI history department, Boonshoft was a post-doctoral fellow at the New York Public Library, taught American history at Norwich University and SUNY-New Paltz, and was Executive Director of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. As the Conrad M. Hall ’65 Chair in American Constitutional History, he directs VMI’s constitutional history program and teaches HI 300: American Constitutional History, as well as advanced courses in American political history, early U.S. history, and the history of race and civil rights.  

Lt. Col. Joel C. Christenson is Associate Professor and Director of the John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis. Prior to joining the VMI faculty he served as Senior Historian in the Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), where he worked on the Secretaries of Defense Historical Series and coordinated long-term historical research and publishing. Before joining OSD he worked in the Policy Studies Division of the Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. He holds a Ph.D. in American history from West Virginia University, where his research examined the origins of U.S. naval and military advising in Latin America. Prior to his doctoral work, Joel worked as a Senior Defense Analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Defense Analyses. He is a distinguished graduate of VMI (Class of 1999) and holds master’s degrees from the University of Kentucky and George Mason University, as well as a Command and Staff Diploma from the U.S. Naval War College. 

Zachary W. Deibel is a historian of Early America and the American Revolution. He earned his bachelor's degree in history at American University, after which he taught high school history and social studies from 2013 to 2020. While teaching, he earned his master's degree in history at Arkansas State University, supported by a fellowship from the James Madison Memorial Foundation, where his thesis project explored radical political and social ideologies in the era of the American Revolution. Deibel earned his doctorate from Binghamton University in 2024, and his dissertation and current research projects investigate how debates over learning, knowledge, and education became key frontiers of colonial and revolutionary politics throughout the eighteenth century in New York and throughout North America. 

Before beginning his professorship at VMI, Dr. Deibel taught courses on early American history and social studies teaching methodologies at Binghamton University. He also served as the History of Education Society's Graduate Student Council Chairperson from 2022 to 2024, worked as a Graduate Student Associate for the New York State Museum, and earned research fellowships from the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Binghamton University's Harpur College of Arts and Sciences. He has published reviews and essays in History of Education, New York History, and the History of Education Society Blog, and his article "'Let Us Avoid that Infernal Wisdom: Learning and State Formation in Eighteenth-Century New York" will be published in the 2024 edition of New York History. 

Timothy Dowling has been teaching history at the Virginia Military Institute since August 2001.  Since that time, he has authored a book on the Brusilov Offensive of 1916, edited a two-volume set entitled Russia at War as well as two volumes of Personal Perspectives on the world wars, contributed numerous articles to encyclopedias, and published book reviews in the Journal of Military History, the Canadian Journal of History, Mars & Clio, Global War Studies, and for the H-German electronic network.  He is currently working on a second book concerning the Battle of Mukden during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

Before moving to Lexington, Dr. Dowling taught at the Vienna International School in Austria and served as an adjunct assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He earned his doctoral degree from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1999, writing a dissertation on the planned city of Eisenhüttenstadt as a model for constructing socialism in the German Democratic Republic.  From 1989 to 1993, he worked at the American Embassy in Moscow, Russia, and traveled extensively through the former Soviet Union.  Dr. Dowling has lived for extended periods in Tokyo, Vienna, Berlin, and Munich.  He frequently leads VMI study abroad programs to Budapest, Hungary, and he recently completed a semester as a visiting Fulbright Scholar at the National University of Public Service there.  He also serves as the book review editor for the Journal of Military History.

Professor

History

 

 

MAJ Bryant Etheridge teaches courses on United States constitutional history, the history of American capitalism, modern U.S. politics, and the African American civil rights movement. His research focuses on the history of the U.S. in the mid-twentieth century, especially the role of federal social policy in addressing economic inequality. Much of his work uses the city of Houston as a case study in order to examine the local impacts of federal policies. His scholarship has been published in the Journal of Policy History and the Journal of Southern History.  

Before joining the VMI History Department, MAJ Etheridge taught at Plymouth State University, Bridgewater State University and MIT. In 2015-16, he was the Clements Fellow for the Study of Southwestern America at Southern Methodist University. A native of Hickory, Virginia, he holds degrees from the College of William & Mary, the University of Texas at Austin, and Harvard University. 

Dr. Semih Gokatalay teaches advanced courses in Middle Eastern history and a two-semester freshmen course in world history. His research focuses on economic history, nationalism, capitalism, diplomacy, gender, children, and state-society relations in the modern Middle East. He has published scholarly books, articles, and chapters on the region’s history.

As the holder of the John Biggs ´30 Chair in Military History, Professor Jensen teaches courses on modern Europe, modern Spain, European warfare, and the history of insurgency.  He is the author of Irrational Triumph: Cultural Despair, Military Nationalism, and the Ideological Origin of Franco's Spain (2002), Franco (2005), Cultura militar española (2014), and various articles and book chapters.  He also edited Warfare in Europe, 1919-1939 (2008) and co-edited (with Andrew Wiest) War in the Age of Technology: Myriad Faces of Modern Armed Conflict (2001).  He is working on a book tentatively titled Spanish Ways of War and Occupation:  Conquest, Culture, and the Guerrilla Myth in Spain and Morocco, 1912-1956.

Professor
Holder of the John Biggs '30 Cincinnati Chair in Military History

Professor M. Houston Johnson V specializes in the history of the 20th century United States, with an emphasis on aviation history and the New Deal era. He teaches courses including The Progressive Era, The New Deal, War and Society in 20th Century United States History, The Vietnam War, and Historical Methodology; he also offers capstone seminars on the New Deal Era and World War II. His book, Taking Flight: The Foundations of American Commercial Aviation, 1918-1938 (Texas A&M University Press, 2019), explores the federal government’s role in promoting the development of commercial aviation between the world wars. He has published articles on aviation infrastructure in the Journal of Policy History and the Journal of East Tennessee History; essays on the air war in the European theater of World War II and Lieutenant General Leonard Gerow’s role in the Normandy campaign are forthcoming with Oxford University Press and Global War Studies, respectively. Johnson also served as the Associate Editor of the Sage Encyclopedia of Military Science.

Johnson came to VMI in 2012 after receiving degrees from Roanoke College and the University of Tennessee. The Virginia Military Institute has recognized his teaching with the Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr. ’26 Research Award (2017; 2019), and his scholarship with the Jackson-Hope Prize for Excellence in Published Scholarly Work (2020). Johnson has served as the Head of the Department of History since 2020; his other activities include service as a Program Director for the Olmsted Foundation study abroad program.

Professor and Department Head
History

Patrick J. (PJ) Klinger teaches the two-semester World History course as well as upper-division courses in environmental history and climate history. He is a graduate of Marshall University, East Carolina University, and the University of Kansas. Major Klinger's interdisciplinary research examines the role that weather and climate has on the interconnections between humans and the natural world. His current research projects explore how environmental and climatic changes influenced trade, political decisions, thought processes, human subsistence, adaptability, and ideas of resiliency from the early modern period to the present, while simultaneously inspiring new ways of perceiving, interpreting, and representing nature and provoking changes in the sea and land.

Dr. Qiong Liu teaches the two-semester World History courses as well as upper-division courses on the Chinese Communist Revolution, gender and sexuality, and the cultural history of Martial Arts. She came to VMI in 2022 after receiving degrees from Nanjing University and the University at Buffalo. Her current research projects focus on gendered violence in the Chinese Communist Revolution. She is working on a book tentatively titled "Sullied Women, Unruly Revolutionaries: Class, Sexuality, and Gendered Violence in Chinese Land Reform, 1946-1953." She has served as the advisor of the Martial Arts Club, sweats with them, and is overwhelmed by punches, kicks, and Kimura Locks. 

Lieutenant Colonel Osborne teaches a two-semester freshmen course on World history as well as advanced courses on British history, European History, World War I, the Indian sub-continent, and sea power. The latter topic comprises two classes being 1588-1905 and 1905 to the present. 

Lieutenant Colonel Osborne’s research focuses primarily on the impact of sea power in war and peace, particularly in the twentieth century. He has published five books, among them being Great Britain’s Economic Blockade of Germany in World War I, 1914-1918 and The Battle of Heligoland Bight that were published in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Most recently he has authored a work on the 1918 Battle of Megiddo published through Helion Publishing in 2023. He has also appeared in eleven encyclopedias, writing on topics in naval warfare, imperialism, and diplomacy. Additionally, he has authored several articles. Currently, Lieutenant Colonel Osborne is working on a book concerning blockade running during the 1861-1865 American Civil War. 

Associate Professor
History

Alex Paul is a historian of American history who specializes in the study of war and society. He teaches courses including the Progressive Era, World War I and American Society, Marshall and the American Century, and the two-semester U.S. History course. Before joining the History Department at VMI, Paul served as an infantry soldier in the British Army and received a doctorate in history from the University of Houston.

His current book project, which the University of Virginia Press plans to publish in its “Democratic Ideals in Global Perspective” series, reveals how immigrants in the United States responded to conscription during World War I.

Madeleine Forrest Ramsey teaches the two-semester U.S. History course and American Constitutional History as well as upper-division classes on Antebellum America, the Civil War and the U.S. South. Her research focuses on the American Civil War in Virginia, studying how the war affected the lives of southerners on the local level. She also examines questions of citizenship during and after the Civil War and the ways in which ex-Confederates fought to regain power and control during Reconstruction. Her chapter, “Occupiers in a Strange Land: A Virginia Community’s Wartime Experiences in 1862,” is part of an edited collection entitled Hundreds of Little Wars: Community, Conflict, and the Real Civil War (LSU Press, 2025). She holds degrees from Randolph-Macon College, Clemson University, and the University of Arkansas. 

I teach advanced courses on the U.S.—Mexico Borderlands and Latin America. My scholarly work primarily focuses on the interplay between race, gender, and sexuality on the northern region of the Spanish Empire, present-day Texas and Northern Mexico. My current book project, Forbidden Affairs: Sexual Deviance in the Spanish Texas-Coahuila Borderlands (under contract with Texas Tech University Press) investigates the multitude of ways colonial officials and community members responded to “illicit” sexual matters.

Mattie Webb is a scholar of 20^th century U.S. foreign relations and international history. Before joining VMI, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs and is currently affiliated with the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit at Rhodes University in South Africa. At VMI, Dr. Webb teaches courses on the history of U.S. foreign relations, U.S. constitutional history, and the global movement against apartheid.

Her current research explores the history of the anti-apartheid movement by examining the impact of U.S. business reform on South African workers, particularly those employed by U.S. multinationals. Her first book, Shopfloor Statecraft: South African Workers & U.S. Multinational Companies During Apartheid, is forthcoming with Columbia University Press.

Dr. Webb’s scholarship has appeared in Enterprise & Society, Cold War History, and the South African Historical Journal. She also engages public audiences, with work featured in Black Perspectives, The Washington Post, and NPR’s Marketplace. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, supported by a Fulbright fellowship, and she also holds an M.A. in Global Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Outside of the classroom, she is an avid marathon and ultramarathon runner.