Fellows

Christopher Herde, George L. Mosse Teaching Fellow (2025-2026)

Christopher Herde is a PhD candidate in UW Madison's History Department researching cultures of play and competition around the medieval Mediterranean. His dissertation explores the role of equestrian sports in the construction of relationships and hierarchies among the Mamluk elite. He previously completed master's degrees in History and Medieval Studies from the Universities of Louisville and York respectively. In addition to the social and political importance of play in the Middle Ages, Chris is fascinated by the design and potential of modern games to engage, inform and shape our understanding of the medieval past. He will be combining both interests in the Spring of 2026 to help students explore the complex and evolving relationship between play and violence in the Middle Ages.

Isobel Bloom, George L. Mosse LGBTQ+ History Fellow

Isobel Bloom is a Ph.D. History candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before moving to the US from the UK, she earned an M.Phil. in American History from the University of Cambridge and a B.A. in History from the University of Bristol. She is currently embarking on research for her doctoral dissertation regarding pro-life movement organizing in the 1980s and 1990s United States.

Deep Acharya, George L. Mosse European Cultural History Fellow

Deep Acharya is a first-year PhD student in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Deep completed his M.A. in History at Miami University in 2025, where he wrote his thesis, From ‘Hug’ to ‘Heil’: The Masculinity Dilemma in Das Schwarze Korps of the Nazi Schutzstaffeln (1939–42)—a study of SS propaganda that unearthed surprising degrees of domestic sensitivity between bouts of ideological rigor. His doctoral research at Madison will trace the evolution of fatherhood across twentieth-century Germany—from the authoritarian structures of the Kaiserreich, through the ideological recalibrations of the Nazi regime, to the fractured paternal imaginaries of the postwar era. Moving beyond ideological typologies of the Nazi man, Deep intends to explore how fatherhood functioned as a contested site of socio-cultural negotiation, at the juncture of private life and state power. Originally from Bhadreswar, a small town near Kolkata, India, he remains committed to the historical analysis of masculinity, family, and authoritarianism—and to the slightly masochistic task of interpreting why even the most brutal regimes took parenting so seriously.

Ethell Gershengorin, George L. Mosse Modern Jewish History Fellow

Mosse Graduate Exchange, 2023-2025

Ethell Gershengorin is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received an M.A. in History while at UW-Madison (2021) and her B.A. in International Relations at Boston University (2017). Her dissertation explores transformative Jewish medical projects in interwar Eastern Europe. Focusing on an understudied organization of doctors called the Society for the Preservation of the Health of the Jewish Population (OZE), Ethell examines the importance of healthy women (mothers) and children to creating a strong Jewish race and rebuilding a Jewish community almost destroyed by World War I and the Russian Civil War. As a Mosse Fellow, Ethell will access archival documents only available in Jerusalem (due to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine) to analyze the role of women and children’s health to the establishment of the OZE in Imperial Russia in 1912.

August Brereton, George L. Mosse European Cultural History Fellow

August Brereton is a PhD student in the department of History, focusing on Modern Russian/Eastern European History as well as a secondary Program in Gender and Women’s History. August completed a MA in History at the University of Oregon in 2022, where she wrote her thesis, “From Russia With Love: A Transnational History of Post-Soviet Wives and their American Husbands” which focused on mixed Russian-American marriages in the 1990s and 2000s. Her dissertation research explores intersections between gender, emigration, and economics in late and post-Soviet history. She is also very interested in Russian-Ukrainian relations. August is a passionate advocate for oral history and ethical representation of underserved populations in academic research.

Christopher T. Lough, George L. Mosse European Cultural History Fellow

Christopher T. Lough is a doctoral student in History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he studies religious and intellectual history in transnational perspective. He specializes in modern France and its empire, with particular attention to colonialism in East and Southeast Asia. His dissertation will examine the role of Catholic missionaries and other religious actors in French Indochina, especially under Vietnam's shared Japanese-Vichyist occupation during the Second World War. Alongside a B.A. in History and French from Gettysburg College, he has also received support from the University of British Columbia through Fulbright Canada’s Globalink research exchange program. Christopher’s work can be found in Monumenta Nipponica, Christianity & Literature, and other publications.

Ludwig Decke, George L. Mosse Modern Jewish History Fellow

Ludwig is interested in the intersection of Jewish, (post-)colonial, and modern European history. His research investigates the paradoxes of liberalism as a force of both emancipation and domination. He is currently working on his dissertation project “Antiracism after Hitler: Jews, the State, and the Fight against Racial Discrimination in Western Europe, 1945-1992,” which intertwines two stories that are usually considered in separate terms: Jewish responses to antisemitism and the antiracist struggle of other racialized populations. Before he began his Ph.D. in the Midwest, Ludwig studied history, philosophy, and sociology at the University of Leipzig, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a Fulbright Fellow at UW-Madison in 2018-2019.

Ri J. Turner, George L. Mosse Modern Jewish History Fellow

Ri J. Turner is a PhD candidate in the department of History. Her research focuses on the role of the American Yiddish press as a semi-private space for "internal" conversation among Eastern European Jewish immigrants at the turn of the last century. She holds an MA in Yiddish from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an MA in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts, as well as a BA in Anthropology from Cornell University. Apart from research, she is passionate about Yiddish language pedagogy, the curation and translation of little-known Yiddish texts, setting Yiddish poetry to music, and reading literary and journalistic texts in Hebrew, Polish, French, and Spanish.

Yuval Asher, HUJI MA student (2025-2027)

Graduate Exchange: 2026-2027

Yuval Asher is interested in the connections between modern revolutions, urbanization, and visual culture, with a particular focus on post-Revolutionary France and nineteenth-century Paris. Her M.A. thesis examines how the social and political transformations of the July Monarchy were reflected and contested within the urban environment through mediums of urban visual protest, including caricatures, posters, and especially graffiti. Her research analyzes graffiti as a form of interaction between city residents and governing authorities, emphasizing how unauthorized interventions in public spaces allowed citizens to protest by reclaiming and redefining the urban landscape. Through this lens, she seeks to illuminate the visual appropriation of urban spaces during modern urban revolutions, as well as the complex relationships embodied within them.

Uria Gilad-Taharlev, HUJI PhD student (2024-2028)

Graduate Exchange: 2026-2027

Uria Gilad-Taharlev is a Doctoral Candidate in the History Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Uria’s doctoral research will explore the relationship between playfulness and science in Western Europe from the 12th to the 14th centuries. His research interests focus on the cultural history of the Middle Ages, particularly on the various ways scientific knowledge took playful forms in board games, tales, rhymed poetry, and visual arts. Through analyzing these sources, he aims to shed light on how this construction of knowledge influenced thought and science during this period.

Gaya Nemet, HUJI MA student (2025-2027)

Graduate Exchange: 2026-2027

Gaya Nemet is interested in exploring the connection between the scientific attempt to "understand nature" and the visual culture of the modern era. Focusing on the environmental history of the Russian Empire during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, her M.A. thesis will investigate how transformations in scientific fields like "natural history" influenced early environmental thought and how these changes are reflected in and influenced by modern landscape painting.

Yotam Ben Horin, HUJI PhD student (2022-2026)

Graduate Exchange: 2024-2025

Yotam Ben Horin is a PhD student at the Department of History and the Advanced School for Environmental Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed a BA in the History Honors Program and MA in History and Urban and Regional Planning. His primary areas of interest are climate history and historiography. His dissertation, under the supervision of Dr. Amit Tubi (Geography) and Dr. Lee Mordechai (History), concerns conceptual and methodological challenges embodied in the multidisciplinary research on historical climate-society interactions. Yotam is interested in knowledge formation and the influence of climate change science epistemologies on contemporary historical research. He focuses on the development of the Little Ice Age as a multidisciplinary conceptual framework, and on “lessons from the past” that scholars have drawn from different histories within that period.

Elitzur Gluck, HUJI MA student (2023-2025)

Graduate Exchange: 2024-2025

Elitzur is currently completing his B.A. in history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is interested in the intellectual history of Germany and Austria in the 20th century, particularly from an anthropological-historical perspective. In his M.A. thesis, he intends to explore how political experience—both real and imaginary—shaped the way intellectuals and intellectual groups conceptualized the natural and human sciences in the German-speaking regions between the wars.

Ohad Fine Azoulay, HUJI PhD student (2025-2029)

Graduate Exchange: 2027-2028

Ohad Fine Azoulay is a doctoral student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a B.A. in Talmud and German Literature and an M.A. in Jewish History, both from the Hebrew University. His master’s dissertation, supervised by Professor Ofer Ashkenazi, explored the figure of the “New Woman” in rabbinic writings from the Weimar Republic.

Building on this foundation, his doctoral research investigates discussions of gender and sexuality in rabbinic responsa of the Weimar period. Treating responsa not merely as legal rulings but as cultural texts, his work examines the interplay between Jewish tradition and the broader intellectual and social transformations of interwar Germany. In addition to his academic work, Ohad translates German literature and philosophy, with publications including translations of Heinrich Heine and Georg Simmel.

Taili Hardiman, HUJI Mosse Coordinator

Graduate Exchange: Summer 2023

Taili Hardiman is currently completing her M.A. in History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and serves as the HUJI Mosse Program Coordinator.
She is interested in the intellectual and cultural histories of social science in nineteenth-century Britain as well as scientific metaphors in the construction of social theory. Her M.A. thesis, “Observing in Depth: Harriet Martineau’s Science of Society,” focuses on models of "depth" - geological and physiognomic - in Martineau’s thought and how these models can illuminate tensions within the historiography of social science.
She was the co-editor of "Hayo Haya: Student Journal for History" and an archival assistant for the "Einstein Papers Project."

Ofer Ashkenazi, George L. Mosse UW-Madison - Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty Exchange Fellow(2025-2026)

Ofer Ashkenazi is a Professor of History and the Director of the Koebner-Minerva Center for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He currently serves as the Vice Dean for Teaching Affairs in the Humanities. He is the author of four monographs that explore Jewish contribution to German “national culture” throughout the twentieth century. They include Weimar Film and Modern Jewish Identity (2012); Anti-Heimat Cinema: The Jewish Invention of the German Landscape (2020); and (co-authored) Still Lives: Jewish Photography in Nazi Germany (2025).

Kara E. Dempsey, Mosse-Friends of UW Libraries Fellow (2025-2026)

Kara E. Dempsey is Associate Professor of Geography at UNC-Appalachian State University. She studies international forced displacement, ethnonational conflicts, consolidation of state and regional power, and peace-building processes. She is the author of The Geopolitics of Conflict, Nationalism, and Reconciliation in Ireland (2022), co-editor of Making and Unmaking Refugees (2023), and co-editor of Making Geographies of Peace and Conflict (2024). She is president emeritus of the Political Geography Organization of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), a member of the AAG’s Honor Committee, and a board member of journal Geographical Review. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she will research significant changes in migration legislation that the European Union and its member-states implemented in response to increased international immigration (since 2015), along with the resultant impacts on asylum seekers in the region.

Sophie Cornfield, 2025-2026 George L. Mosse Program Project Assistant

Sophie Cornfield is a doctoral candidate in History and Education Policy Studies. Prior to arriving at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sophie completed a B.A. in history at Tulane University and a M.S.Ed in Education, Culture and Society from the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout her career, Sophie has moved between classroom teaching and historical research to interrogate how policymaking of the past continues to inform early childhood education. Her doctoral research focuses on the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) and its influence on “young family policy” in the United States from 1964 to 2000. Focusing on three key areas— childcare, anti-abuse advocacy and home visiting—the study explores how NCJW, as a civic volunteer organization, navigated and shaped the landscape of social policy in the face of the neoliberal realignment of social welfare policy.

Emily Tran, 2023-2024 George L. Mosse History Graduate Program Project Assistant

Emily Tran is a Ph.D. candidate in History and Educational Policy Studies. Broadly, her work centers on Americans' collective memories—or popular recollections—of the nation's racist past, and on the role of historical understanding in challenging or facilitating racial injustice. Her dissertation traces the history of racial reckonings in the late twentieth century, when Americans made renewed yet fleeting attempts to learn about and come to terms with the history and contemporary persistence of racism.

Ludwig Decke, 2025-2026 Mosse-UW Press Project Assistant

Ludwig is interested in the intersection of Jewish, (post-)colonial, and modern European history. His research investigates the paradoxes of liberalism as a force of both emancipation and domination. He is currently working on his dissertation project “Antiracism after Hitler: Jews, the State, and the Fight against Racial Discrimination in Western Europe, 1945-1992,” which intertwines two stories that are usually considered in separate terms: Jewish responses to antisemitism and the antiracist struggle of other racialized populations. Before he began his Ph.D. in the Midwest, Ludwig studied history, philosophy, and sociology at the University of Leipzig, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a Fulbright Fellow at UW-Madison in 2018-2019.

Lindsay Ehrisman, 2023-2024 George L. Mosse History Graduate Program Project Assistant

Lindsay Ehrisman is a PhD Candidate in African History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She specializes in the early histories of the Great Lakes Region of Central East Africa, with a focus on the topics of intimacy, affect, and well-being. Her dissertation, “Therapeutic Intimacy, Affective Medicine: Forging Bonds of Affection, Knowledge, and Power in Uganda’s Distant Past, 500-1900 CE,” centers around the first (West Nyanza) Bantu-speaking communities to settle along the western shores of Lake Victoria during the middle of the first millennium CE. Using comparative historical linguistic evidence, she traces the emergence of new forms of intimacy specifically designed to ensure the personal health and emotional well-being of ordinary actors during a period of profound political change and increasing socio-economic insecurity. She argues that the innovation of “therapeutic intimacy” not only improved the daily lives, opportunities, and well-being of ordinary individuals during this early period, but also went on to form the underlying logic of the region’s most powerful political and economic institutions in the centuries leading up to European colonial interventions.

Olivia Kelly, George L. Mosse Program Undergraduate Intern (2024-2026)

Olivia Kelly is a junior at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Majoring in History with a certificate in Professional Chinese Communication, she enjoys studying Irish history, Medieval Europe, mythology, obscure wars, and Western relations with East Asian countries. Aspiring to become an archivist, she believes that history is most impactful when it can be studied with a hands-on approach. In her downtime, she likes collecting foreign coins, cross-stitching, reading, and working on a loom. In working at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, she hopes to aid in public education about World War I, as well as advance her knowledge on the shift from Napoleonic to modern warfare.

Rachel Reichard, George L. Mosse Program Undergraduate Intern (2025-2026)

Rachel Reichard is a senior studying Art History with a certificate in Theatre & Drama. She is primarily interested in post-impressionism, pointilism, and realism with an emphasis on the role of female artists during these movements. She is also passionate about the role of museums in our modern age and the ways to make art museums more accessible. After she graduates, she is planning on pursuing a masters degree in either museum studies or art history.

Theodore Xing, George L. Mosse Program Researcher (2025-2026)

Theodore (Teddy) Xing is a first year UW-Madison History graduate student. His interests include United States political history, the World Wars and Cold War, and Chinese history. Beyond the George L. Mosse Research Assistantship, Teddy also serves in multiple honors societies, working as Retention Officer of Arnold Air Society and a member of Scabbard and Blade. Teddy is excited to work towards preserving veterans’ stories and experiences through the Mosse Research Assistantship and believes that understanding history is the best way to contextualize modern events.

Celeste Deale, George L. Mosse Peer Advisor (2024-2025)

Celeste Deale (she/her/hers) is a junior at UW-Madison studying History and French. Her academic interests include American anti-intellectualism, the relationship between history and literature, and the late Tudor era of England. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, re-watching Community and Psych, and playing with her cat (aptly named Lady Jane Grey). After graduation, she plans on attending law school and eventually practicing intellectual and entertainment law.

Nate Donovan, George L. Mosse Peer Advisor (2025-2026)

Nate Donovan (He/Him/His) is a Junior majoring in History, Economics, and Educational Policy Studies. His interests include academic advising, the history of education as well as creating avenues of change for everyday individuals. Nate is also the Student Organization Fair Intern, a front desk assistant through the Center for Leadership and Involvement (CfLI) as well as a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity Beta-Epsilon chapter. Outside of classes and work, Nate likes to watch reality game shows as well as spend time with roommates and friends on campus.

Lauren Kelly, George L. Mosse Peer Advisor (2024-2025)

Lauren Kelly (she/her/hers) is a junior at UW-Madison double majoring in History and Biology and is interested in using both to pursue the History of Science. Her areas of interest include history of the body, LGBTQ+ history, medical history, and the history of nonviolence. Lauren is also the Marketing Chair for the History honors society, Phi Alpha Theta, a Writing Fellow for the English Department, and a Student Coordinator for UW-Madison’s Nonviolence Project. In her free time, she enjoys hot yoga, reading, re-watching The Sopranos, and car karaoke.