Affiliates

Caitlin Hartweave (she/her) is a PhD candidate in American history, with a focus on gender and gender-non-conformity in the 18th century Atlantic world. She received her bachelor’s degree in History and International Relations from William & Mary and her master’s degree in History from George Mason University. She is especially interested in digital storytelling and pedagogy.

Gail Coleman is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in early American history. She is studying enslaved refugees to the United States from the Haitian Revolution, in the period 1791-1810. She anticipates that the chapter on runaways will include digital maps. She is a retired lawyer from the U.S. Department of Labor. In addition to her law degree from Boston University, she also has a master’s degree in medieval history from the Catholic University of America.

Anne Champlin is a PhD student in the history department at George Mason University. Anne’s research focus is on the trans-imperial Atlantic and Danish colonialism. She is exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a method to remove some of the silences from the archive. Anne earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the American University’s School of International Service. In addition, Anne earned a master’s in World History from George Mason.

Georgia Ferrell (she/her) is a PhD student and graduate affiliate with the RRCHNM. She earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Randolph-Macon College in 2015 and her master’s degree in history from George Mason University in 2018. Her research focuses on Native American history, settler-colonialism, race, and US imperialism.

John Peyton is a first-year PhD student in the History Department. His research focuses on central Great Lakes Indigenous communities and their strategies for maintaining sovereignty during the removal era. He holds a master’s degree in U.S. history from Indiana University—Bloomington and another master’s in public history from Indiana University—Indianapolis. He is excited to participate in projects through the RRCHNM.

Ashleigh Williams is a first-year PhD student and Graduate Affiliate at RRCHNM.

Cassandra Britt Farrell is a Ph.D. student in the history department at George Mason University and is an affiliate with the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Cassandra earned her B.A. in history from Bryan College and her M.A. in history from Old Dominion University. She has a particular interest in spatial history and digital storytelling and is planning and preparing for a future map exhibition at the Library of Virginia, where she is the Senior Map Archivist. She’s interested in early America, cartography, and the varied and sundry uses for maps.

Chapman “Chappy” Hall is a history PhD student at George Mason University. He graduated from the University of Maine with a B.A. in history in 2024. His research interests are centered on French colonialism and empire in the late 18th and the 19th centuries. He is also interested in how video games as a unique form of media can affect historical discourse and influence public understandings of history.

J. Clarke Bursley is a doctoral candidate in history and an affiliate at George Mason University’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. He received his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, an M.A. in National Security Affairs with a concentration in East Asia/Pacific regional studies at the Naval Postgraduate School, and graduated from Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies (U.S. National War College equivalent). Clarke focuses on the history of modern Japan in a global context. His other historical research interests include U.S. foreign relations and military history. Clarke’s dissertation proposes to examine the production and consumption of domestic Imperial Japanese Army public information (“propaganda”) in the interwar period – a project in which he hopes to employ digital history tools to support the analysis of messaging and to gauge its effectiveness.

David G. Armstrong is a doctoral candidate in history, a graduate lecturer, and a graduate research assistant for the Center for Mason Legacies. David received his M.A. in History from George Mason University. His dissertation focuses on the role of the family of George Mason IV (the university’s namesake) in expanding slavery and facilitating the imperial endeavors of the early United States.

Hannah is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the History and Art History Department. She holds an MA in Public History from Duquesne University, as well as a BA in History and BFA in Ballet Performance from the University of Oklahoma. Her research fields include United States women’s and gender history, public history, and environmental history. Hannah’s professional public history work includes roles at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the Girl Museum (online), and the Ballets Russes Archives and Special Collections at the University of Oklahoma.

Janet Hammond is a PhD student at George Mason University. She enjoys historical learning in the digital, museum, and collegiate realms. In the world of public history, her interests lie in how to make narratives more accessible for people with physical disabilities. At other times, she studies British Parliamentary divorce and how the state and gender influenced these laws and cases. She has a MA in History with a concentration in Museum Studies from UNC Greensboro and a BS in Applied and Public History with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies from Appalachian State University.

Janine Hubai is a PhD student in the History and Art History Department. She holds a MA degree in history from UMass Boston. Janine’s research areas of interest are military history and American race relations. She also studies digital humanities and public history, with particular interests in website content and design, and film production and editing. Current projects include the website Divided Union, a digital project about early colonial Virginia, and management of a digital archive of 3,000 WWII-era postal items. She also directs the creation of a digital archive of over 3,000 postal items from Holland during World War II. Her dissertation focuses on a diverse military community in the mid-20th century.

Jennifer Mills is a PhD Student in History at George Mason University, focusing on 19th-century U.S. History with a particular interest in the interactions between labor and the military during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. She received her M.A. and B.A from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where she researched the Hare Krishna Movement, Sikh Migration, and African American Labor organizing during Reconstruction. Her research interests examine the intersection of race, religion, military establishments, and the early labor movement. Her current research project examines the relationship between early African American labor organizing efforts and Confederate military networks employed to suppress them during the Reconstruction period.

Makayla Johnson is in the final year of the Master’s program in Applied History, with a certification in Digital Humanities. Makayla has a strong passion for historical preservation and, more recently, have developed an interest in exhibit design.

Rachel earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Brigham Young University and will complete a Master’s degree in History from George Mason University in 2024. Rachel is a Research Assistant and graduate affiliate. Her research focuses on nineteenth and twentieth century American religion, religious benevolence, and women’s history. Rachel has worked on the Religious Ecologies project, Arnhem Postal Project and is currently collaborating with the R2 Studios podcasts.