Professor M. Houston Johnson V has served as the head of the Department of History since 2020. He specializes in the history of the 20th century United States, with an emphasis on aviation history and the New Deal era. Johnson teaches the two semester U.S. History survey as well as advanced courses in 20^th century American history. He came to VMI in 2012 after receiving degrees from Roanoke College and the University of Tennessee.

His book, Taking Flight: The Foundations of American Commercial Aviation, 1918-1938, explores the federal government’s role in promoting the development of commercial aviation between the world wars. He has published articles and book chapters on aviation infrastructure and the air war in the European theater of World War II and served as the Associate Editor of the Sage Encyclopedia of Military Science.

At VMI, his activities include serving as a program director for the Olmsted Foundation Study Abroad program and as a Title IX hearing officer. Johnson has also directed more than 10 undergraduate honors thesis and research projects.

Courses Taught at VMI

• The Great Depression and the New Deal
• History Capstone
• History of the United States I and II
• The Progressive Era
• S. Constitutional History
• The Vietnam War
• War and Society in 20th Century United States History
• World War II

Publications:

Books

• Taking Flight: The Foundations of American Commercial Aviation, 1918-1938. Texas A&M University Press, 2019.
• Associate Editor, Encyclopedia of Military Science. Edited by G. Kurt Piehler and M. Houston Johnson V. SAGE Publications, 2013.

Articles

• “Corps Commander: General Leonard T. Gerow’s Contributions to the Normandy Campaign,” Global War Studies (forthcoming, spring 2025).
• “The Air War: Germany and Italy.” In The Oxford Handbook on World War II, edited by G. Kurt Piehler. Oxford University Press, 2023.
• "Laying Foundations: New Deal Public Works and Aviation Infrastructure." Journal of Policy History 30, no. 4 (Fall 2018): 695-726.
• “‘A Honey of a Field:’ The Development of McGhee Tyson Airport, 1927-1937.” Journal of East Tennessee History 89 (2017): 23-47.

Awards

• VMI Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr. ’26 Research Award, 2017 and 2019
• VMI Jackson-Hope Prize for Excellence in Published Scholarly Work, 2020
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Fellowship
• University of Tennessee History Department Charles O. Jackson Fellowship

Associate professor Jochen S. Arndt teaches courses in African and World history. He joined VMI in 2016 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. VMI recognized Arndt’s teaching excellence with the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award and the Wilbur S. Hinman Jr. ’26 Award (2020).

Arndt published his first book, Divided by the Word: Colonial Encounters and the Remaking of Zulu and Xhosa Identities with the University of Virginia Press and Wits University Press in 2022. He has also published a range of articles in leading journals, one of which received the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Writing Award (2012). Most recently, he conducted research in the Military, Diplomatic, and Stasi archives in Germany for his new book project on the Cold War in Angola.

His research has led to invited talks at prestigious institutions such as Wits University, the University of Cape Town, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Japan Association for African Studies. Arndt also serves an Honorary Research Scholar at the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town. VMI has recognized his excellence in scholarship with the Jackson-Hope Prize for Excellence in Published Scholarly Work and the Dr. D. Rae Carpenter Award (2023, 2017).

Arndt also 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.

Courses Taught at VMI:

• Conflict in Modern Africa
• Cold War in Africa
• History of South Africa
• Africa in Modern Times
• Africa in Premodern Times
• World History I and II

Publications

Books

• Divided by the Word: Colonial Encounters and the Re-Making of Zulu and Xhosa Identities. The University of Virginia Press, 2022; Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2022.

Articles

• “Engineered Zuluness: Language, Education, and Ethnic Identity in South Africa, 1835-1990,” Journal of the Middle East and Africa 10, no. 3 (Sept., 2019): 211-235.
• “Struggles of Land, Language and Identity in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Case of the Hlubi,” Journal of the Middle East and Africa 9, no. 1 (July, 2018): 1-26.
• “What’s in a Word: Historicizing the Word ‘Caffre’ in European Discourses about Southern Africa, 1500-1800,” Journal of Southern African Studies 44, no. 1 (2018): 59-75.
• “The True Napoleon of the West: General Winfield Scott’s Mexico City Campaign and the Origins of the U.S. Army’s Combined-Arms Combat Division,” The Journal of Military History 76, no. 3 (July 2012): 649-671.
• “Treacherous Savages & Merciless Barbarians: Knowledge, Discourse, and Violence during the Cape Frontier Wars, 1834 -1853,” The Journal of Military History 74, no. 3 (July 2010): 709-735.
• “The Highly Effective First Mississippi Volunteer Regiment in the Mexican War, 1846-1848,” The Journal of Mississippi History 69, no. 1 (June 2007): 63-78.

Awards:

• VMI Jackson-Hope Prize for Excellence in Published Scholarly Work, 2023
• VMI Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, 2020
• VMI Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr. ‘26 Research Award, 2020
• VMI Dr. D. Rae Carpenter Award, 2017
• Social Sciences Research Council, International Dissertation Research Fellowship
• American Historical Association, Bernadotte E. Schmitt Research Grant
• Army Historical Foundation, Distinguished Writing Award
• Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, Best Conference Paper Award
• Association for the Study of the Middle East Africa, Research Grants                      

Select Links:

• Arndt, “Divided by the Word,” With Good Reason (Mar. 31, 2023) https://withgoodreasonradio.org/episode/dividing-lines/

• Arndt, “Divided by the Word,” Weekend Breakfast with Gugs Mhlungu (May 20, 2023) https://fyyd.de/episode/10322650

Assistant professor Christopher M. Blunda specializes in the intellectual and cultural history of the late Roman Empire (A.D. 200-600). Before coming to VMI in 2020, he received a B.A. in Classics from Cornell University, an M.T.S. in The History of Christianity from Harvard Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley.

The collection he co-edited with Susanna Elm, The Late (Wild) Augustine, focuses on the last decade of Augustine’s life (420-430), underscoring the themes and concerns that led Augustine to articulate several of his central theological notions in the most radical fashion. Blunda’s book project, tentatively titled Dislodging Augustine: Text, Authority, and the Contours of the Christian Past in Gennadius of Marseilles, investigates the contested origins of the western theological tradition during the Semipelagian Controversy.

At VMI, he is the Gates Cambridge Scholarship coordinator, the assistant coach of the rock-climbing team, and has advised several honors theses. He is the recipient of the Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr. ’26 Research Award (2025), which recognizes superior achievement of a cadet in research at VMI, and the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award (2024).

Courses Taught at VMI:

• Ancient Greek History
• History Capstone
• Introduction to Historical Methods
• The New Testament in Context
• The Roman Republic
• The Roman Empire
• The Third Century Crisis
• World History I and II

Publications:

Books

• Elm, Susanna, and Christopher M. Blunda (eds.), The Late (Wild) Augustine. Brill/Ferdinand Schöningh, 2021.

Book Chapters

• “Responding to Retractationes: The Reception of De ciuitate Dei in Gennadius of Marseilles’s De uiris illustribus” In Magnum Opus et Arduum: Content and Reception of Augustine’s De Civitate Dei, edited by Marina Giani, Anthony Dupont, and Gert Partoens. Augustinus – Werk und Wirkung. Brill/Ferdinand Schöningh, forthcoming 2026.
• “Salvian the Homilist: A Fifth-Century Gallic Magister and his Audience.” In Vox Praedicatoris: Latin Patristic Sermons, Their Transmission, and Their Reception (4th–15th Centuries), edited by Nicolas de Maeyer, Gert Partoens, Shari Boodts, and Anthony Dupont, 615-637. Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia Brepols, 2025.
• “Rewilding the Late Augustine in Fifth-Century Gaul: Gennadius of Marseilles’s De uiris illustribus.” In The Late (Wild) Augustine, edited by Susanna Elm and Christopher M. Blunda, 181-211. Augustinus – Werk und Wirkung Brill/Ferdinand Schöningh, 2021.

Awards:

• VMI Wilbur S. Hinman Jr., '26 Research Award – Arts & Humanities, 2025
• VMI Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, 2024
• Doris G. Quinn Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 2019-2020

Associate professor Mark Boonshoft holds the Conrad M. Hall ’65 Chair in American Constitutional History and directs the Institute’s Constitutional history program. Boonshoft specializes in the American Revolution, early American political history, and the history of the Constitution. Before coming to VMI in 2022, Boonshoft received a B.A. from University at Buffalo-SUNY and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University, was a postdoctoral fellow at the New York Public Library, and taught at Norwich University and Duquesne University.

His first book, Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic, examines founding-era debates over education as they related to the establishment of a democratic political system. The book was a finalist for the 2021 George Washington Book Prize. Boonshoft's second book, The Violent Origins of Constitutional Democracy in Revolutionary New York, is under contract with Yale University Press. He also serves as associate editor of the Journal of the Early Republic, the leading journal of U.S. history before the Civil War.

At VMI, Boonshoft organizes the annual Constitution Day program, as well as other co-curricular programs focused on the Constitution and civics. He has directed several honors theses and received the Wilbur S. Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr. ’26 Research Award in 2024, which recognizes superior achievement of a cadet in research at VMI.

Courses Taught at VMI

• The Founding of the U.S.
• The History of Voting in America
• Honors Seminar: The Civil War Amendments
• Jacksonian America
• Political Violence in the United States
• Slavery and Abolition in the United States
• U.S. Constitutional History

Publications:

Books

• Co-editor, American Revolutions in the Digital Age. Cornell University Press, 2024.
• Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic. University of North Carolina Press, 2020.

Articles and Book Chapters

• Co-author of introduction and co-editor with Carolyn Eastman, Nora Slonimsky, and Ben Wright of “Information Wars: Communicating Trust and Suspicion in the Early Republic,” special issue (25,000 words) of Journal of the Early Republic, forthcoming, 2026.
• Co-author, with Nora Slonimsky and Ben Wright. “Introduction: North America, the United States, and Multiple Revolutions.” In American Revolutions in the Digital Age, edited by Slonimsky, Boonshoft, and Wright, 1–14. Cornell University Press, 2024.
• “Histories of Nineteenth-Century Education and the Civil War Era.” Journal of the Civil War Era 11, no. 2 (June 2022): 234–61.
• “From Property to Education: Public Schooling, Race, and the Transformation of Suffrage in the Early National North.” Journal of the Early Republic 41, no. 3 (Fall 2021): 435–69.
• “The Great Awakening, Presbyterian Education, and the Mobilization of Power in the Revolutionary Mid-Atlantic.” In The American Revolution Reborn, edited by Michael Zuckerman and Patrick Spero, 168–83. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
• “The Litchfield Network: Education, Social Capital, and the Rise and Fall of a Political Dynasty, 1784–1833.” Journal of the Early Republic 34, no. 4 (Winter 2014): 561–595.
• “Doughfaces at the Founding: Federalists, Anti-Federalists, Slavery, and the Ratification of the Constitution in New York.” New York History 93, no. 3 (Summer 2012): 187–218.

Awards

• History of Education Society Prize for “the most distinguished scholarly essay in educational history” published in the previous two years, 2022
• Finalist, George Washington Book Prize, 2021
• VMI Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr. ’26 Research Award, 2024
• Research Fellowships awarded by: David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society; William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan; George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon; Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati; American Antiquarian Society; Library Company of Philadelphia; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Virginia Historical Society

Associate professor Joel Christenson is the director of the John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis. Prior to joining the VMI faculty, he served as the 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, Christenson 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. 

Courses Taught at VMI 

• U.S. Military History to 1919
• U.S. Military History Since 1919

Publications:

Books

• Co-Author, The Decline of Detente: Elliot Richardson, James Schlesinger, and Donald Rumsfeld, 1973-1977. Office of the Secretary of Defense, forthcoming.

Articles and Book Chapters

• “A Question of Sovereignty: The U.S. Naval Mission in Peru, 1920-1939.” In Naval Advising and Assistance, edited by Donald Stoker and Michael T. McMaster. Helion & Company, 2017.
• Expanding the Secretary’s Role in Foreign Affairs: Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, 1963—1968. Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2015.
• The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (ISA): A Brief History. Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2015.
• “U.S. Naval Diplomacy in Peru in the Interwar Period.” In Derroteros de la Mar del Sur, the Journal of the Asociación de Historia Marítima y Naval Iberoamericana (Lima, Peru), 18 & 19 (July, 2012): 37-54.

Assistant professor Zachary W. Deibel specializes in early American history. At VMI, he teaches the two semester US History survey and courses on Colonial America, the American Revolution, the Atlantic World, and the Age of Revolutions. Deibel earned his bachelor’s degree from American University before teaching high school social studies for seven years, during which time he earned his master’s degree from Arkansas State University. He subsequently received his doctoral degree from Binghamton University. 

Deibel’s research explores the histories of learning and politics in early America. He has published articles, essays, and blog posts about the politicization of education in early America, and his current book manuscript investigates how conflicts over learning about politics and society caused and sustained the American Revolution. He is also an active participant in the History of Education Society and the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

At VMI, Deibel serves as the co-advisor of the Virginia History Society and is currently directing undergraduate honors theses on topics related to the American Revolution and the Atlantic World.

Courses Taught at VMI

• The Age of Revolutions
• The American Revolution
• The Atlantic World
• Colonial America
• The History of the United States I and II

 Publications:

Articles

• “‘Let Us Avoid that Infernal Wisdom’: Learning and State Formation in Eighteenth-Century New York.” New York History 105, no. 2 (2025): 1-26.
• “Engaging with the New York State Regents Exam’s Civic Engagement Essay,” A “Teach New York” Featured Article, New York History, 103, no. 2 (2022): 381-388.

Awards and Fellowships

• Research Fellowship, The David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society, 2025
• Library Research Fellowship, The American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, 2025
• Graduate Student Excellence Award for Teaching, Binghamton University Graduate School, 2023
• Lapidus Predoctoral Fellowship, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2022
• James Madison Fellowship, James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, 2014

Professor Timothy C. Dowling holds the Burgwyn Chair in Military History at VMI, where he has taught since 2001. Dowling earned his Ph.D. from Tulane University, where his doctoral dissertation examined the beginnings of socialist urban planning in the German Democratic Republic, focusing on the city of Eisenhüttenstadt. A specialist in the history of Germany and Russia in the twentieth century, he published The Brusilov Offensive (2008) and served as editor of the encyclopedia Russia at War (2014). In both his teaching and research, Dowling is known for his attention to the Eastern Front of World War I, Soviet–Russian and German military history, and the connections between military history, politics, and social processes. Dowling is also editor-in-chief of the The Journal of Military History.

At VMI, he has led multiple study abroad trips, regularly supervises cadet honors theses, and serves on numerous other honors thesis committees.

Teaching at VMI

• Europe in Renaissance & Reformation
• European Warfare 1650-1871
• Germany and Eastern Europe: From Bismarck to Brandt
• History Capstone
• History of the Cold War
• History of the Holocaust
• Modern Russian History
• World History I and II

Publications:

Books

• The Brusilov Offensive. Decisive Battles of the Twentieth-Century Series. Indiana University Press, 2008.
• Editor, Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond, 2 vols. ABC-CLIO, 2014.
• Editor, Personal Perspectives, World War I. ABC-CLIO, 2005.
• Editor, Personal Perspectives, World War II. ABC-CLIO, 2005.

Articles:

• “The Russian Army and the Brusilov Offensive of 1916,” in Handbook on Soviet and Russian Military History, ed. Alexander Hill, Toronto University Press, 2025.
• "The Eastern Front,” 1914-1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Sponsored by the Free University of Berlin, the Bavarian State Library, and the German Research Fund, 2013.
• "The Brusilov Offensive.” In Essays on World War I edited by Peter Pastor and Graydon Tunstall, 89-110. The Center for Hungarian Studies and Publications Series, Eastern European Monographs. Columbia University Press, 2012.

Awards

• SSRC Dissertation Fellowship, 1996
• Fulbright Award to Budapest, Hungary, 2017
• VMI Distinguished Teaching Award, 2025

Assistant professor Bryant Etheridge specializes in modern U.S. economic and political history, with a focus on federal economic policy in the mid-twentieth century.

Before coming to VMI in 2023, Etheridge received a B.A. from the College of William & Mary, an M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Clements Center at Southern Methodist University, and has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bridgewater State University and Plymouth State University.

At VMI, Etheridge serves as the advisor of cadet-led group study sessions for the U.S. Constitutional History course and has directed honors theses on topics related to 20^th Century U.S. politics. He is a native of the Tidewater area.

Courses Taught at VMI

• African American Civil Rights Movement
• American Capitalism
• U.S. Constitutional History
• U.S. Since 1945
• World War II

Publications:

Articles

• “The Fight for Fair Training: Fair Employment, Defense Worker Training, and the African American Civil Rights Movement in the South, 1940-45.” Journal of Southern History 88, no. 3 (August 2022): 501-538.
• “Contesting the Great Compression: The National Labor Relations Board and Skilled Workers’ Struggle to Control Wage Differentials, 1935-1955.” Journal of Policy History 32, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 183-213.

Awards

• Research funding awarded by: Cornell University, Lamar University, American Historical Association, Hagley Library, Harry S. Truman Library Institute, Wayne State University

Assistant professor Semih Gokatalay specializes in the history of the modern Middle East. Dr. Gokatalay teaches advanced courses in Middle Eastern history as well as the two-semester World History sequence. He came to VMI in 2025 after receiving his doctoral degree from the University of California, San Diego. 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.

At VMI, Gokatalay directs the Middle Eastern Studies minor.

Courses Taught at VMI

• History of the Middle East I
• History of the Middle East II
• World History I and II

Publications:

Books

• Fairs, Festivals, and State–Society Relations in the Ottoman Empire, 1876–1908. Bloomsbury, 2026.
• The Political Economy of Corporations in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic, 1908–1929. Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Başkanlığı, 2019.

Articles

• “The Izmir Fair and Public Education in Early Republican Turkey,” Paedagogica Historica
• “Greek Orthodox Communities, Religious Festivals, and National Identity in the Late Ottoman Empire,” Die Welt des Islams 65, no. 1 (2025): 33–58.

Awards

• The Dean’s Fellowship Award for Social Studies, University of California, San Diego, 2024
• Fein-Lapidus Fellowship, the American Jewish Historical Society, New York, 2024
• Hellenic Research Fellowship, the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection, California State University, Sacramento, 2024

Links:

            ‪Semih Gökatalay - ‪Google Scholar

Professor Geoffrey Jensen holds the John Biggs ’30 Cincinnati Chair in Military History at VMI, where he has taught since 2004. He specializes in European warfare, modern Spanish history, and Spain’s wars in North Africa. Before coming to VMI, he received a B.A from Indiana University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has taught at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the University of Southern Mississippi, Yale University, UCLA, and as an adjunct online instructor for graduate courses at the U.S. Air Command and Staff College and Norwich University.

His first book, Irrational Triumph: Cultural Despair, Military Nationalism, and the Ideological Origins of Franco’s Spain, explores how military figures turned to philosophical and cultural ideas about leadership, nationalism, and military intervention abroad, with significant consequences for Spain and other countries. He expanded on these themes in Cultura militar española: modernistas, tradicionalistas y liberales. His publications also include a biography of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, two edited books, and over two dozen scholarly articles and book chapters. In addition, he has published on US policy in West Central Africa during the Cold War. He is currently working on a new book with the tentative title Spanish Ways of War and Occupation: Colonial Violence, the Rif War, and Hispano-Muslim Identities in Modern Morocco.

At VMI, Jensen teaches courses on military history, the history of Spain, and Europe between the two world wars. He regularly supervises cadet honors theses, serves on numerous other honors thesis committees, and leads independent directed studies.

Courses Taught at VMI

• Europe, 1919 – 1939
• History of European Warfare since 1871
• History Capstone
• Insurgency and Terrorism in History
• Modern Spain: Civil War and Colonial Conflict
• War and Memory in Spain

Publications:

Books

• Cultura militar española: modernistas, tradicionalistas y liberales. Biblioteca Nueva, 2014.
• War and Insurgency in the Western Sahara. Strategic Studies Institute and US Army War College, 2013.
• Editor, Warfare in Europe, 1919-1938. Ashgate, 2008.
• Franco: Soldier, Commander, Dictator. Potomac, 2005.
• Irrational Triumph: Cultural Despair, Military Nationalism, and the Ideological Origins of Franco’s Spain. University of Nevada Press, 2002.
• Co-editor with Andrew A. Wiest, War in the Age of Technology: Myriad Faces of Modern Armed Conflict. New York University Press, 2001.

Articles and Book Chapters (selection)

• “Mística militar y realidades incómodas: la independencia de Marruecos en el imaginario africanista-militar franquista.” In Proceso y legado de la descolonización española en África, edited by G. Álvarez Chillida and J. I. Castien, 79-108. Bellaterra, 202
• “The Central African-Iberian Crossroads: Equatorial Guinea and Spain in US Policy during the 1970s.” Cold War History (Sept 2023): 1-24.
• "Tyranny, Communism, and U.S. Policy in Equatorial Guinea, 1968-1979." Diplomatic History43, no. 4 (Sept 2019): 699-728.
• “Military Consequences of Cultural Perceptions: The Spanish Army in Morocco, 1912-1927.” Journal of the Middle East and Africa8, no. 2 (April-June 2017): 135-150.
• “Recepción literaria y cultura bélica: la Generación del 98, Ricardo Burguete, y el nacionalismo militar en España.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies LXXXIV, no. 7 (2007): 871-888.
• “The Peculiarities of ‘Spanish Morocco’: Imperial Ideology and Economic Development.” Mediterranean Historical Review20, no. 1 (2005): 80-101.
• “Military Nationalism and the State: The Case of Fin-de-Siècle Spain,” Nations and Nationalism6, no. 2 (April 2000): 257-274.

Awards (selection)

• VMI Jackson-Hope/VMIRL Matthew Fontaine Maury Prize for Excellence in Research, 2025
• American Philosophical Society, Franklin Research Grant, 2022
• Fulbright “Flex” Award, for the summers of 2020 and 2021 (postponed to 2021 and 2022 due to Covid-19 pandemic)
• Moroccan-American Cultural Center/ASMEA Research Grant, 2016
• VMI Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr. ’26 Research Award, 2013

Jensen C.V.

Assistant professor Patrick J. (PJ) Klinger teaches the two-semester World History course as well as upper-division courses in environmental history, climate history, and maritime history. He is a graduate of Marshall University, East Carolina University, and the University of Kansas. 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.

At VMI, Klinger organizes the World History group study sessions and leads the department’s honors program.

Courses Taught at VMI:

• Climate & Human History
• Conflict & Environment
• Environmental History of Latin America
• Humanity's War on Nature
• Piracy: Atlantic World
• World History I and II

Publications:

Articles

• “Weather and the Jacobite Rebellion of 1719.” Environment and History 23, no. 2 (2017): 197-216.
• “Herring Politics: The Decline of the Northern Scottish Herring Fishing Industry c. 1660-1707.” International Journal of Maritime History 31, no. 4 (2019).
• “The Cold Pulse of the 1690s and the Consequences of Scotland's Failure to Cope.” Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 389 (2020).

Awards

• IAHI-NACBS Fellowship, 2025
• European Society for Environmental History Research Grant, 2018
• Strathmartine Trust Award, 2017
• Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Grant, 2016 

Assistant professor Dr. Qiong Liu teaches the two-semester World History sequence as well as upper-division courses on the Chinese Communist Revolution, Imperial China, 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.

While at VMI, Liu serves as the advisor of the Martial Arts club, where she sweats with them, and is overwhelmed by punches, kicks, and kimura locks. 

Courses Taught at VMI:

• Communist era since 1949
• History of Imperial China
• History of Chinese Martial Arts
• Sexuality and Revolution in China
• World History I and II

Publications:

Books

• Sullied Bodies, Revolutionary Fields: Sexuality, Class, and Gendered Violence in Chinese Land Reform (1945-1952), in progress.

Articles

• “Doing Research on Pre-1949 Land Reform in China.” Special Issue for PRC History Review, September 2021
• “Zhongzu yu xingbie zhi shang: Meiguo yayi nüxing ruhe lunwei shouhaizhe” (种族与性别之殇：美国亚裔女性如何沦为受害者, “The Traumatic Conjunction of Race and Gender: How do Asian American women become victims.” Hong Kong 01, March 29, 2021, com/週報/606591/種族與性別之殤-美國亞裔女性如何淪為受害者

Awards

• VMI Jackson-Hope Faculty Travel Funds

Associate professor Eric W. Osborne received a B.A. from North Carolina State University, an M.A. from the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. from Texas Christian University.

The relationship between diplomacy and naval policy, and the study of naval strategy are key points of emphasis in his research. Osborne has published five books, including Britain’s Economic Blockade of Germany, 1914-1919 and The Battle of Heligoland Bight. The former was reprinted for a second edition. His latest book length work on the 1918 Battle of Megiddo was published through Helion Publishing in 2023. He also recently published a journal article on the impact of international law on Britain’s World War I naval blockade of Germany in the work World War I and the Fragmentation of the Modern World.

At VMI, Osborne directs the World History program. He has conducted twelve independent studies and honors theses and served as a reader on several additional thesis committees.     

Courses Taught at VMI

• English/British History: 1688 to the Present
• History Capstone
• History of the Indian Sub-Continent
• Sea Power: 1588-1905
• Sea Power: 1905 to the Present
• World War I: A Global Perspective
• World History I and II

Publications:

Books

• The Battle of Megiddo, Palestine 1918: Combined Arms and the Last Great Cavalry Charge. Helion Publishing, 2023.
• The Battle of Heligoland Bight. Indiana University Press, 2006.
• Destroyers. ABC-CLIO, 2005.
• Britain’s Economic Blockade of Germany, 1914-1919. Frank Cass, 2004, reprinted in 2014.
• Cruisers and Battle Cruisers. ABC-CLIO, 2004.

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Great Britain’s World War I Naval Blockade of Germany: International Law Versus the Trident of Neptune.” In New Perspectives on the First World War: Beyond No Man’s Land, edited by Mandy Link and Matthew Stith, 55 – 70. Palgrave, Macmillan, 2024.
• “The Ulcer of the Mughal Empire: Mughals and Marathas, 1680-1707.”  Small Wars and Insurgencies 31, no. 5 (July 2020): 988-1009.
• “Clear Victories and Messy Conclusions: Reflections on the British Victory at Megiddo (1918) and It’s Consequences for the Post-War World.” Historian 80, no. 3 (Fall 2018): 497-508.
• “The Naval War of World War One.” 1914-1918online.com. Published August 2014.
• Five essays on topics in Indian History for the World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Worldatwar.abc-clio.com
• “People Come First: Admiral Harry Felt.” In 19 Gun Salute: Case Studies of Operational, Strategic, Diplomatic, and Naval Leadership During the Twentieth and Early Twenty First Centuries, edited by John B. Hattendorf and Bruce A. Elleman, 133-44. Naval War College, 2010.
• “International Law versus Military Expediency: Great Britain’s World War I Economic Blockade of Germany.” Appeared in Proceedings of the American Historical Association,

Awards

• VMI Faculty Mentor Award, 2004, 2007, 2008

Osborne C.V.

Assistant professor Alex Paul specializes in modern U.S. History, war and society, and race and ethnicity. 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 survey. 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.

At VMI, Paul is a co-faculty advisor for the Virginia History Society.

Courses Taught at VMI

• History of the United States I and II
• Marshall and the American Century
• The Progressive Era
• World War I and American Society

Publications:

Books

• Unwilling Doughboys: The U.S. Army’s Foreign-born Conscripts in World War I, forthcoming with University of Virginia Press.

Articles/Book Chapters

• “A Reappraisal of Immigrants’ ‘Willingness’ to Comply with American Conscription during World War I.” Home Front Studies, forthcoming, spring 2026.

Awards

• Larry J. Hackman Research Residency, New York State Archives Trust, Albany, New York

Assistant professor Madeleine Forrest Ramsey specializes in the American Civil War, 19^th century social and military history, and the history of the U.S. South. Before coming to VMI in 2020, Ramsey received a B.A. from Randolph-Macon College, an M.A. from Clemson University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas.

Ramsey teaches the two-semester U.S. History survey 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 a local level. Ramsey 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. Ramsey also serves as the deputy editor of the Journal of Military History, the leading journal in its field.

At VMI, Ramsey is the co-advisor to Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society and has directed several honors projects examining enslaved and free workers at VMI in the 19^th century.

Courses Taught at VMI

• Civil War & Reconstruction
• History Capstone
• History of Everyday Life in the 19^th Century
• History of the South from 1865
• History of the United States I and II
• Jacksonian America
• U.S. Constitutional History
• Virginia History

Publications:

Book Chapters

• “Occupiers in a Strange Land: A Virginia Community’s Wartime Experiences in 1862.” In Hundreds of Little Wars: Community, Conflict, and the Real Civil War, edited by Matthew M. Stith and G. David Schieffler, 45-62. LSU Press, 2025.

Awards

• Research Fellowships, the Virginia Historical Society, 2016 and 2025
• Society of Military History’s Summer Seminar, 2024
• Doctoral Academy Fellowship, University of Arkansas

Links:

Maj. Ramsey's Website

Assistant professor Liz Elizondo Schroepfer specializes in the history of Colonial Latin America and the U.S—Mexico Borderlands. Before coming to VMI in 2019, she received a B.S. in Business Information Systems and a B.A. in Latin American History from California State University, Chico, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from San Diego State University, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Texas at Austin. Her forthcoming book, Forbidden Affairs: Sexual Deviance in the Spanish Texas-Coahuila Borderlands examines the social dynamics of race, gender, and sexuality at the northern margins of the Spanish Empire.

At VMI, Schroepfer is the co-advisor to Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. She also serves on the Phi Alpha Theta National Council.

Courses Taught at VMI

• The Atlantic World
• Colonial Latin America
• History Capstone
• Latin American History Through Film
• Modern Latin America
• Race, Gender & Sexuality in Colonial Latin America
• U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
• World History I and II

Publications

Books

• Forbidden Affairs: Sexual Deviance in the Spanish Texas-Coahuila Borderlands. Global Borderlands Series. Texas Tech University Press, in press.

Articles

• “Love, Infidelity, and Correspondence in Spanish Texas, 1734-1737.” Journal of Women’s History 35, no. 2 (2023): 73-96.

Awards

• Ford Foundation, the Southwest Seminar on Latin American History, the University of Texas at Austin
• D. Farmer International Fellowship, the University of Texas at Austin

Assistant professor Mattie Webb is a historian 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. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, supported by a Fulbright fellowship, and also holds an M.A. in Global Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in History (summa cum laude) from North Carolina State University.

Webb’s current research examines the history of the anti-apartheid movement by exploring the impact of U.S. business reform on South African workers, particularly those employed by U.S. multinational corporations. Her first book, Shopfloor Statecraft: South African Workers & U.S. Multinational Companies During Apartheid, is under contract with Columbia University Press. 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.

At VMI, Dr. Webb teaches courses on the history of U.S. foreign relations, U.S. constitutional history, and the global movement against apartheid. Outside of the classroom, she is an avid marathon and ultramarathon runner.

Courses Taught at VMI

• U.S. Constitutional History
• U.S. Foreign Relations to 1919
• U.S. Foreign Relations since 1919

Publications:

Books

• Shopfloor Statecraft: South African Workers & U.S. Multinational Companies During Apartheid, Columbia University Press, under contract.

Articles

• Co-author, “30 Years of Democracy: 1994-2024 Roundtable,” South African Historical Journal (2025): 1–36.
• “U.S. Worker Movements and Direct Links Against Apartheid,” Black Perspectives, April 26, 2024.
• “‘An Exercise in the Art of the Possible’: Waging a Battle Against Apartheid in the South African Workplace.” Enterprise & Society 25, no. 2 (2024): 329–
• “Research Note: Mayibuye Archives & the Cold War in Southern Africa.” Cold War History 22, no. 3 (2022): 369–
• “Companies have long brandished socially responsible images while busting unions,” The Washington Post, March 4, 2022.
• “People Before Profit? Ford, General Motors & the Spirit of the Sullivan Principles in Apartheid South Africa (1976–84).” Ethnic Studies Review 44, no. 3 (2021): 64–85.

Awards

• Herman E. Krooss Dissertation Prize Finalist, Business History Conference (BHC), 2025.
• William Appleman Williams Emerging Scholar Grant, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), 2024.
• Henry Kissinger Postdoctoral Fellowship, Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy, Yale University, 2023-25.
• Honorable Mention: Marilyn Blatt Young Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2022.
• Dick Cook Memorial Fellowship for Outstanding Service (UCSB), 2022.
• Deconde-Burns Award for Excellence in Cold War History (UCSB), 2022.
• Research Funding: Fulbright Fellowship (IIE); National Security Education Program David L. Boren Fellowship; Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Grant; Sam Fishman Travel Grant; Emory University Rose Library African American Short Term Research Fellowship; Elings-Wells Dissertation Completion Fellowship (UCSB); Mendell Graduate Fellowship in Cultural Literacy; University of Virginia Jefferson Scholars Foundation National Pre-Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (declined).

Personal Website

Maj. Webb's Website

Instructor Kelly Minor joined the Department of History in 2017.  She specializes in offering core courses required for most cadets: the World History and the US History surveys. Armed with an M.A. from the University of West Florida and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida, Dr. Minor conducted research in 20^th century American rural reform, completed a graduate minor in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, and oversees a diverse teaching roster for eight very different colleges. She also offers upper-division courses in both US and World history.  Surveys remain her favorite courses, offering an unparalleled opportunity to explore history’s diverse nooks and crannies, and the always unexpected dark corners found when a curious student asks a curious question.  After all, she reminds her students, the questions are more important than the answers.

Her research interests are equally diverse: a dissertation and book chapters on reform by and for rural women, agrarian ideologies and practices in the early modern west, and food preservation as empowerment. Her current research focus is almost entirely about new avenues to enrich her teaching. 

Courses Taught at VMI

• History of the United States I and II
• The Medieval West
• US 1900-1945
• World History I and II

Publications:

Books

• Power in the Land: The Character of Rural Women’s Reform, in progress.

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Preservation, Progress, and Power: Food Preservation as the Apex of Rural Reform.” In Progress.
• “‘Justifiable Pride’: Negotiation and Collaboration in Florida African American Extension.” In Beyond Forty Acres and a Mule: African American Landowning Families since Reconstruction, edited by Debra A. Reid and Evan P. Bennett. University Press of Florida, 2012.
• “‘Consumed with a Ghastly Wasting’: Home Demonstration Confronts Disease in Rural Florida, 1920-1940.” In Entering the Fray: Gender, Culture, and Politics in the New South, edited by Jonathan Daniel Wells and Sheila R. Phipps. University Press of Missouri, 2010.
• “The Price of Longevity: Home Demonstration and Rural Reform in Modern Florida.” In Migration and the Transformation of the Southern Workplace, edited by Robert Cassanello and Colin J. Davis. University Press of Florida, 2009.
• “The ‘principall and only means to ripen the fruit of new hopes’: Husbandry Manuals and Parliamentary Enclosure in Early Modern England.” Alpata 1 (Spring 2004): 97-126.

Awards

• National Endowment for the Humanities “Bridging Cultures” Grant, Santa Fe College, 2014
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Research Grant, University of Florida, 2004
• Linda Vance Award in Women’s History, University of Florida, 2003
• Alumni Fellowship, University of Florida, 2002
• Proctor Award for Excellence in Scholarship in Florida History, University of Florida, 2000
• Proctor Fellowship; Grinter Fellowship, University of Florida, 2000
• Scholarly and Creative Activity Grants, University of West Florida, 1999, 1998
• Outstanding Graduate Student in History, University of West Florida, 1997-1998

Minor C.V.

Instructor Jonathan Shipe, a historian specializing in the social and cultural history of the British army in the 19th and early 20th centuries, joined the Department of History in 2020. His research examines the role of warfare in developing modern welfare systems in Britain, particularly pensions and institutions for soldiers’ wives and children from the Napoleonic era to World War I. Dr. Shipe received his B.A. and M.A. in History from Lynchburg College before receiving his Ph.D. in Modern European History from Florida State University.  He has additional teaching fields in Modern Russian, Modern Latin America, and an interdisciplinary focus on gender/sexuality.

At VMI, he teaches the two-semester world and U.S. history surveys, as well as upper-division courses in Modern European history. Shipe also serves as a junior manuscript editor for the Journal of Military History.

Courses Taught at VMI

• British Imperialism 1500 to the present
• Europe 1919-1939
• French Revolution and Napoleon
• World History I and II
• U.S. History I and II

Publications:

Articles

• “A Great Patriotic Duty: The Royal Patriotic Fund and the State’s Responsibility to Care for Soldiers’ Children, 1854-1890,” British Military History Journal, forthcoming.
• Articles on the “British Army” and “Latin America” in the Encyclopedia of the British Empire (abc-clio)