Student Biographies
History graduate students reflect a variety of backgrounds and interests. While many come directly from undergraduate institutions with history degrees, others come to the program after careers in an array of fields from acting to music to underwater archeology. All share a passion for, and a commitment to, historical scholarship. Profiles of some of our current students are available below.
The languages of learning: Jack Tannous
A native of Houston, Jack Tannous exudes remarkable academic energy. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a 4.0 GPA, with majors in philosophy, Arabic, Middle Eastern studies, and history. He received a Marshall Scholarship to attend Oxford University, where he received an M.Phil. in Eastern Christian studies with distinction in 2004. From there, it was off to Princeton to study late antique history. “I wanted to be trained as an historian and I felt like if I came here I’d be challenged to do that. ‘Make new friends but keep the old,' as they say." read more...
Open horizons: Bill Bulman
For Bill Bulman, being in the graduate history program at Princeton means being able to pursue his interest in seventeenth-century British history, while at the same pursuing an interest in social theory and social science that he believes will help him understand history. “Right now I am studying quantitative and formal methods that aren’t part of historians’ usual methodological repertoire. I’m curious about whether these methods might be useful for studying early modern European politics.” read more...
On land and on sea: Sarah Kampbell
Sarah Kampbell is one of the most adventurous people you’ll find in the graduate history program. She has worked on underwater archaeological digs all over the globe and now plans to bring her knowledge of nautical archeology to her study of Byzantine history. read more...
A Dramatic Turn: Mayhill C. Fowler
Graduate students in Princeton’s Department of History come from an amazing variety of backgrounds, but among them Mayhill C. Fowler’s career change is one of the most dramatic. That’s only fitting, as Fowler has transformed from actress to historian. read more...
A Change in Muses, Euterpe to Clio: Lo Faber
You probably wouldn’t expect to find a rock musician sitting backstage reading history, but that’s exactly what Lo Faber was doing while he was touring his band, God Street Wine, for most of the 1990s. read more...
Settling In: Leah Wright
Tracking down Leah Wright these days can be challenging. One week she’ll be following leads at the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential library, the next she’ll be poring over Gerald Ford’s papers in Ann Arbor. She’s tracking the course of black Republicans over the last 40 years, and making important contributions to U.S. political history and African American studies in the process. read more...
