WKU History Graduate Program

---

Success Stories

 

Wendy Rhondell Benningfield (MA, 1999, Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 2004) completed a dissertation at the University of Kentucky entitled, "Appeal of the Sisterhood: The Shakers and the Woman's Rights Movement."

 

Jonathan Chilcote (MA, 2009) is an instructor in History and Political Science at Florida College. He completed a thesis analyzing the political background of the 1973 oil embargo crisis.

 

Rebecca Eggers (MA, 1992) is Lecturer in History at Kentucky Wesleyan.

 

Mindy Farmer (MA, 2003) received a full scholarship to study at The Ohio State University, and began working on her Ph.D. in American History. Ms. Farmer's dissertation research focuses on women's voting trends in Georgia since the 1960s. Recently, she was awarded an Alumni Grant for Graduate Research and Scholarship, and a Coca-Cola Critical Difference for Women Grant to support her research.

 

Gary Ferguson (MA, 2007) is a Ranger/Historian at Mammoth Cave National Park and the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Park.

 

Louis Hatchett (MA, 1996) is the author of several books, including Duncan Hines: The Man Behind the Cake Mix (Mercer University Press, 2001).

 

 

 

 

Walter Hixon (MA, 1981) received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. Dr. Hixon's first book, George F. Kennan, Cold War Iconoclast (Columbia University Press, 1989) won the Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He is professor of history at the University of Akron.

 

 

 

Judy C. LeForge (MA, 1981, Ph.D., University of Memphis, 2002) is associate professor of History at Union University. She has published in scholarly articles on race and constitutional history in Tennessee.

 

Hugh Ridenour (MA, 1996) is the author of The Greens of Falls of Rough: A Kentucky Family Biography 1795-1965 (Treetops Enterprises, 1997).

 

David Serafini (MA, 1997) works as an instructor in history and in the University Experience program at WKU. He is the coauthor of a children's book, Once Upon Another Time, Another Place.

 

 

 

 

Melinda Senters (MA, 1998) is Assistant Professor of History at Lindsey Wilson College.

 

Phillip Shaw (MA, 2006) received a full scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in medieval European history at Johns Hopkins University.

 

Asa Swan (MA, 2000) is a full-time instructor at Lindsey Wilson College.

 

Paula Trafton (MA, 1997) holds a dual appointment as a full-time instructor in the WKU History Department and the WKU University Experience program.

 

 

 

 

Neil Varble (MA, 2007) Neil Varble's thesis analyzes letters home written by German soldiers on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in Vienna during the 2007-08 academic year.