Editorial Board (2019-2020)
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Who we are:
The editorial board of the Vanderbilt Historical Review is composed of undergraduate students at Vanderbilt University who have a keen interest in history, writing, publishing, and digital humanities. In addition, our faculty advisors offer expertise and advice on the content of our journal. Interested Vanderbilt undergraduate students of any major are always welcome to join VHR and can email us at vanderbilt.historicalreview@gmail.com for more information.
Editor-in-Chief
Patrick Mills is a senior from Birmingham, Alabama. He is pursuing majors in Clarinet Performance and Political Science. His primary historical interest is the American Founding, particularly how constitutional ideals established during this period have shaped American history. On campus, Patrick also works as a consultant at the Writing Studio. In his free time, he enjoys free reading and drowning his sorrows in chocolate.
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Executive Editors
Ramchandra Reddy is a senior from Upland, CA majoring in History and minoring in Hindi. Some of his more politically charged historical interests include geopolitics, nationalist and ethnic conflicts, and the military in terms of foreign policy. His favorite era is the Cold War, especially the civil conflicts that erupted across the Middle East and Africa. Besides his interests in history, Ram is a member of the Vanderbilt Political Review as well as the Trapshooting Team.
Janet Stefanov is a sophomore from Lawrence, Kansas. She is pursuing a triple major in mathematics, economics, and Russian. Her primary historical interests include Eastern European history, and she is particularly interested in the role of public opinion barometers and game theory in politics. Outside of the historical review, Janet is heavily involved in the club swim team and water polo team. Janet enjoys exercising, brewing and drinking coffee, and watching TV news in her free time.
Mila Sicorsky is a junior from Buenos Aires, Argentina and Miami, Florida. She is majoring in Law, History, and Society, Medicine, Health, and Society, and English. Besides VUHR, she is involved in VUcept, Alternative Spring Break, the Outdoor Recreation Center, and Greek life. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, playing the piano, and exploring.
Lauren Bamonte is a junior from Tiverton, Rhode Island. She is majoring in History with a concentration in American history. In her free time, she enjoys playing on the Vanderbilt Club Field Hockey team, tutoring local youth in reading, and exploring Nashville.
Layout Editor
Skyler Froese is a junior from Columbia, MO. She is studying American history and German language. Besides being a staff member for the Vanderbilt Historical Review, she is the Creative Arts Coordinator of the McGill Project and recently participated in the Buchanan Fellowship program.
Website Editor
Jacob Schroeder is a History and Economics major with minors in Business and Spanish. He is from Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. An avid entrepreneur and creative thinker, he used his talents for twisting balloons to start his own entertainment company and became the youngest member of the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce. As a former journalist for Scholastic News Kids Press Corps, he got experience interviewing many important politicians including former President Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, and New Mexico State Governors Bill Richardson and Susana Martinez. He loves dabbling in many creative fields such as cartooning, graphic design, and film editing, and hopes to use these talents to make an impact on the community. Jacob is passionate about all fields of history but is particularly interested in America’s foreign diplomacy during the Cold War.
Staff Editors
Riley McCormick is a junior from Nashville, TN. Riley is a History major with a concentration in European History. He is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and produces content for VandyRadio.com in addition to the Vanderbilt Hustler sports section. In his free time, Riley enjoys playing Vanderbilt Club Baseball and listening to indie / jam bands.
Luis Martinez is a sophomore from Miami, Florida intending to major in Physics and Philosophy, possibly with minors in Chinese Language and either Latino/Latina Studies or History. He is interested in political philosophy and the history of single-party, authoritarian states, as well as nineteenth and twentieth-century imperialism and colonialism. In his free time, he likes to write, read, hang out with friends, and play the violin.
Thomas Villalobos is a senior who hails from Sacramento California. He is a Public Policy Studies major with a minor in Business. His historical interests are primarily the European theater of war during WWII, and the various Jacobite risings. When not slogging through Vanderbilt academics, Thomas enjoys fencing, attempting to master the Great Highland Bagpipe, and partaking in the occasional Knights of Columbus activity.
Elise Reimschisel is a junior from Brentwood TN double majoring in History and Secondary Education with endorsements in Economics and Second Language Studies. Her main historical interest is the United States historical narrative and how Labor and Ethnic Histories shape the way history is taught in schools. On campus, she is involved in EmBrace, Vanderbilt Prison Project, and Club Ultimate Frisbee.
Nathan Guzman is a junior from Atlanta, GA. Nathan is an American Studies major with a minor in Economics. His historical interests primarily include contemporary American society, culture, and politics. Outside of VHR, Nathan volunteers with the AMIGOS club, works for the Vanderbilt Athletic Department as a Game Operations Assistant, and enjoys playing intramural soccer.
Ashley Zhu is a sophomore from Chongqing, China. She is pursuing a double major in economics and political science. Her primary historical interest is in the modern history of China, especially the economic development history of China after 1949. Besides VHR, she works with the Vanderbilt Political Review and Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society.
Isabelle Krieger is a sophomore from Manassas, VA triple majoring in French, Political Science, and English Literature. She is interested in the relationship between the US and USSR during the twentieth century and the history of insurgency in Latin America. In her free time, Isabelle enjoys playing clarinet in the Spirit of Gold Marching Band and too much Settlers of Catan to avoid her responsibilities.
Teresa Xu is a freshman from Vancouver, Canada. She is planning to major and minor in disciplines within the humanities and social sciences. Her primary historical interests are 20th Century Europe, the impacts of colonialism, and the ethical dimensions of history. In addition to the Vanderbilt Historical Review, she is part of the Vanderbilt University Concert Choir, Narrative 4, the Arete Fellowship, and SPEAR. In her free time, she enjoys singing, writing poetry, traveling, and laughing with friends.
Sarah Green is a senior from Libertyville, Illinois double majoring in History and Medicine, Health, & Society. Her historical interests include the early American republic and America in the 1960s. Outside of VHR, she enjoys being involved with the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, learning languages including Chinese and Sanskrit, and playing jazz piano.
Geronimo Owen is a junior from Asheville, North Carolina majoring in history, with a focus on South Asian intellectual history and religions. His current research project is an honors thesis on BR Ambedkar, an Indian lawyer, activist, and intellectual who fought for an end to the caste system. In addition to history, Geronimo likes staring up at ceilings while listening to music.
Faculty Advisers
Edward Wright-Rios is Chair of the Department of History at Vanderbilt University. A cultural historian specializing in modern Mexico, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on colonial and modern Latin America, reform and revolution, popular culture, the social and cultural impact of the drug trade, and religious change. His first book Revolutions in Mexican Catholicism: Reform and Revelation in Oaxaca, 1887-1934 (Duke University Press, 2009), winner of the 2010 Murdo J. MacLeod Prize from the Southern Historical Association, examines religious reformism in the Catholic Church and popular religious movements in southern Mexico. Professor Wright-Rios’ second book, Searching for La Madre Matiana: Prophecy and Popular Culture in Modern Mexico (University of New Mexico Press, 2014), scrutinizes the historical legacy of a legendary popular prophetess and her visions concerning Mexico’s tumultuous history. He recently completed a Guggenheim Fellowship (2018-2019), during which he researched a book on pilgrimage in southern Mexico – currently titled Devotion in Motion: Pilgrimage in Modern Mexico.
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Thomas Schwartz is a Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. He is a historian of the foreign relations of the United States, with related interests in Modern European history and the history of international relations. He is the author of America’s Germany: John J. McCloy and the Federal Republic of Germany (Harvard University Press, 1991), which was translated into German, Die Atlantik Brücke (Ullstein, 1992). This book received the Stuart Bernath Book Prize of the Society of American Foreign Relations, and the Harry S. Truman Book Award, given by the Truman Presidential Library. Dr. Schwartz has served as President of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations. He served on the United States Department of State’s Historical Advisory Committee as the representative of the Organization of American Historians from 2005-2008.
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Lauren Clay is an Associate Professor of History and serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for History at Vanderbilt University. She is a historian of Old Regime and revolutionary France and its empire, with particular interests in urban cultural and civic life and the emergence of a commercially oriented society. Her book Stagestruck: The Business of Theater in Eighteenth-Century France and Its Colonies (Cornell University Press, 2013) examines the establishment of professional public theaters in cities throughout France and the French empire during the pre-revolutionary era. Stagestruck was awarded Honorable Mention for the 2014 Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History, given by the American Society for Theatre Research and was a named finalist for the 2013 George Freedley Memorial Award, for exceptional scholarship examining live theatre or performance, awarded by the Theatre Library Association.